America Is a Sinking Warship on a Melting Iceberg

W.J. Astore

More sweltering heat, wildfires, and other extreme weather and weather-related events remind us that global warming and climate change are here to stay. When I taught about global warming a decade ago, most scientists were predicting harsh events in 2030 or 2040. Yet here it is, the year 2021, and we’re already seeing the implacable face of Mother Nature, shaking her head at our naughtiness and thoughtlessness vis-a-vis her planet. She won’t be appeased by our excuse-making or our lying or our attempts to pass the buck. As we bicker, she acts.

Mother Nature: Implacable (Josh Addessi at Blogspot.com)

Climate change is here to stay with a take no prisoners vibe, notes Tom Engelhardt in his latest post at TomDispatch.com. Tom’s message is clear: we’re reaping or about to reap what our “leaders” and corporate elites have sown for us, a much hotter, much less hospitable, planet. As Tom puts it, we’re about to witness, and indeed are already witnessing, a climate Armageddon in slow motion. Check out his article for all the grim details.

Here’s the thing. A half-century ago, America’s wonderful fossil-fuel companies knew all about this threat. More than 40 years ago, President Jimmy Carter tried to persuade America to conserve fuel and live thriftier, more meaningful, lives. But America rejected Carter’s hard facts for Reagan’s sunny optimism (or, put bluntly, his lies) and so here we are.

After Carter, the Democrats swiftly moved to the right and embraced those same fossil-fuel companies. Democrats may have made fun of Sarah Palin and her “drill, baby, drill” message, but that is exactly what Presidents Obama and Biden decided to do: drill, baby, drill. A recent article puts it well from The Guardian: Joe Biden has approved two thousand (!) drilling and fracking permits. Not exactly a green new deal, is it?

President Obama was even worse, notes David Sirota at The Guardian. He loved to boast of how he made America the world’s number one oil producer. He even asked Americans to thank him for it! Remind me again how the Democrats are so much different on this issue than the big bad Republicans?

Here’s the kicker. Even as America’s leaders acted to accelerate fossil fuel production, despite all the warnings about climate change, they squandered $6 trillion on the Iraq and Afghan wars, money that would have made a dramatic difference in preparing America for climate change while also facilitating alternative energy sources, which also would have created millions of “green” jobs in America.

I think a key inflection point for America came in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago. If America had invested its peace dividend into creating a cleaner, safer, better world, perhaps by leading the way, as Carter had suggested, in solar energy and in efforts at conservation, we truly could have been a shining city on a hill, a beacon of sanity. But we chose more weapons and more war. We chose more fossil fuel consumption. Indeed, we chose more consumption (and more guns) in general.

And thus we are where we are today, caught on a sinking warship on a rapidly melting iceberg. OK, perhaps it’s not the most clever metaphor, but you try coming up with a better one when you’re typing in a room at 87 degrees with 73% humidity. Must keep that image of an iceberg in my head …

Must keep cool …

88 thoughts on “America Is a Sinking Warship on a Melting Iceberg”

  1. It’s like a wild Mad Max dystopian Hollywood Movie Bill.
    Extreme heat. 98F in Seattle today.
    Wild forest fire smoke enveloping the city.
    Streets of Portland and Seattle littered with homeless drug addicts.
    Police losing control.
    And a pandemic ripping through the community.
    People wearing face masks!

    Liked by 2 people

      1. Please stay hydrated…. that’s a dangerous environment. The cabin of the postal trucks would register those temperatures and heat stroke was a big problem in SWFLA.

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  2. In the Guardian today:
    “Pollutants in smoke billowing from huge wildfires in the west of America have probably caused an increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths across several US states, new research has found.

    The spread of these tiny particles, known as PM2.5, probably caused a spike in Covid cases and deaths in parts of the US west, the new paper has discovered. The smoke helped raise the coronavirus infection rate by nearly 20% in certain counties, with half of all Covid deaths in some places attributable to the pollution, according to the study.

    “In some counties the association was very strong indeed – on days with lots of wildfire smoke the Covid cases went up by a lot,” said Francesca Dominici, a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health who co-authored the research, which was led by Xiaodan Zhou, a researcher at Esri. “Combining wildfires with this pandemic can have a really disastrous effect. It’s disturbing.” “

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    1. I just saw a headline to the effect that the ongoing wildfires in Siberia make the conflagrations in our West look like marshmallow roasts.

      Makes me want to get one of those, “The End Is Near” signs.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Armageddon out of here…:/ :o) Good Movie a Sleeper possibly on the Effects of our wasteful ways. Tho I believe a storm is def. brewing. I just saw it too Denise– very Hitchcockian “Take Shelter”— “No worries” as Paul Hogan says! :/ :o)

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          1. “No worries” is a typical Australia/New Zealand saying Denise. Kinda nice. Much better than “everything will be OK”. It puts you at ease I think.
            Still zero Covid cases in New Zealand. Our borders are locked down tight. And, touch wood, no climate change disasters. ( I see in Seattle today they were warning you not to go outside and breath the forest fire smoke!)
            But Larry Page, the billionaire Google co-founder, has just been granted residency in New Zealand I see – he must know something eh!

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Oh, yes, Dennis, I know about, “No worries.” Since Hogan’s starring role, the phrase has gained in popularity here, as well.

              It seems you will be inundated by the Larry Pages of the world, and NOT to the benefit of NZ.

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            3. “‘No worries’ is a typical Australia/New Zealand saying … ”
              _______

              For dangerously too long, collective human existence has been analogous to a cafeteria lineup consisting of diversely societally represented people, all adamantly arguing over which identifiable person should be at the front and, conversely, at the back of the line. Many of them further fight over to whom amongst them should go the last piece of quality pie and how much they should have to pay for it — all the while the interstellar spaceship on which they’re all permanently confined, owned and operated by (besides the wealthiest passengers) the fossil fuel industry, is on fire and toxifying at locations not normally investigated.

              Meanwhile, stupid-sounding catchphrases are uttered and regurgitated, like “It’s the economy, stupid!” (whatever that line is supposed to mean).

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              1. eminently sensible, but only some of us are, like you FGSJR2015. others, not so much. to dash-off our precarious situation w/ a disdainful “no worries” may be psychologically ameliorating in the moment, but it is suicidal in the long term. given war is sanctioned murder and wars seem perdurable throughout our species history, perhaps we ARE suicidal. have you viewed fotos of the north pacific gyre recently, FGSJR2015? it is an island of plastic waste more extensive than texas and alaska combined. soon one will be able to hike on foot from the northeast coast of siberia to the northwest coast of alaska, just as our progenitors did during the last ice age. failing that, some entrepreneurial rail baron will construct a hi-speed railway across those mountains of plastic garbage.

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        2. Armageddon was derived from Har Megiddo located in Occupied Palestine 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the Land. Israel as a kingdom disappeared some 700 years earlier.

          Har Megiddo/Armageddon still exists as a physical place in temporal Nuclear armed Israel recreated from the Bible after an absence of some 2800 years.

          After all those Centuries, the Occupation of Palestine is still an unresolved open wound in the Middle East and this World.
          The secular MASS Media is reporting Israel wants to attack Iran with or without the US, preparing the way for the Biblical Armageddon.

          The Kansas City Times, September 13, 1976, ““He came to town for the Republican National Convention and will stay until the election in November TO DO GOD’S BIDDING: To tell the World, from Kansas City, this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered […] He gestured toward a gleaming church dome. “The gold dome is the symbol of BABYLON,” he said.” […] He wanted to bring to the Public’s attention an “idea being put out subtly and deceptively” by the government that we have to get prepared for a War with Russia.”

          That 1976 FUTURE is NOW with the Revelation of the details GENERALLY unfolding in the spirit of the letter.
          The World is waking up to see the US may hasten “its days are numbered” part of the 1976 Vision, and waits with bated breath.

          Most People would not recognize “this country has been found wanting and its days are numbered” as the 1st 2 parts of the 3 part WRITING ON THE WALL from Daniel 5 concerned with Economics.
          The 3rd part is Political and tells of the decline of Babylon, and the rise of Persia.

          Babylon is the Bible’s account of the 1st Nation to reach Military-Economic Superpower status, the US being the Latest, Greatest of them all.

          Ancient Babylon is now Iraq, and Persia is now Iran.
          The Tail struck the Head in 2003, as History repeats itself in OUR Times.

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  3. The secular, non-religious, MASS Media, are projecting and magnifying this Living Word from the Bible in other words,

    If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, (drought & wildfires) or if I command the locusts to devour the land, (already happening) or if I send pestilence among my people; (COVID)
    If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
    2Chronicles 7:13-14

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    1. I struggle with these biblical scriptures Ray. Help me please.
      From the website “Got Questions – Biblical Answers”
      “The problem with the modern-day, “Westernized” interpretation of 2Chronicles 7:13-14 is that the United States does not have the same covenant relationship with God that ancient Israel enjoyed. The covenant with Israel was unique and exclusive. The terms that applied to Israel simply did not apply to any other nation, and it is improper for these terms to be co-opted and applied to a different nation.

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      1. Except Dennis, the US has always considered itself to be God’s exceptional Nation and the most Christian of all the Nations.
        The Earth is the Lords and everything in it!

        In my view, the whole World still lives by the terms and conditions of the Old Testament, with only a small minority adhering to the terms of the New Testament.

        Christ Jesus of the New Testament revealed the Covenant Jews no longer had an exclusive relationship with God, but a relationship with the God of the Jews is now open to all Peoples, Nations and Tongues.

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        1. Ray, that the whole World still lives by the terms and conditions of the Old Testament is an extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. But anyway, lets leave the theological debates for another forum. Take care.

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          1. just so, dennis! give me the vedic hymns, buddhist ‘ohms’, and the upanishads over the nescience, savagery, jealousies, violence, tortures, brutality, child-terrifying tales, and de-haut-en-bas of the judaeo/xian biblical balderdash, both the old and the ‘new’ [please, in what way ‘new’?] testaments.

            Liked by 2 people

          2. Jeanie, yes, the Bible does describe the nescience, savagery, jealousies, violence, tortures, & brutality of People in the OT, and such horrific behaviour People still do Today in their nescience.

            Mike didn’t reply to my reply to him in another article, and obviously you missed it too.
            In the OT, circumcision of the penis is to set Jews apart from the rest of Humanity.

            In the NT, circumcision is at a different level entirely.
            For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
            But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
            Romans 2:25-26

            God will not force People to love God and each other as themselves, and Humanity will reap the consequences as we see developing in this World Today.

            The Christ of God sees People have not changed much Spiritually from what he saw and said 2000 years ago, as money and Materialism has taken over every aspect of the Human condition.
            You hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
            This people draws close to me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
            In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
            Matthew 15:7-9

            Those words are not addressed to atheist unbelievers like you, but to those who claim to believe.

            I follow this site because I agree with the thrust of Bill’s anti-War beliefs, reinforced by these Biblical ideas,
            ‘Not by military force and not by physical strength, but by My spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts.
            Obviously most Christian America, the BIGGEST Arms Merchant this World ever produced, dismisses that line in their Bibles that would lead to this happening in this World,
            And he shall judge between the nations and reprove many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

            Bill and all the regulars here are looking for the way to do just what those Scriptures record.

            I didn’t think of God or make room in my Life since I left the Church at 12, until I was unexpectedly touched by God February 1, 1975, and nothing you or anyone else with their nescience, can change or discount my experience of the Spirit in all those years.
            Peace!

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        2. I like Leviticus 25, where the Jubilee appears and where we are told the land belongs to God. After all, it’s right there on the Liberty Bell!

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        3. Hello Ray,
          Charles Eastman was a Lakota Sioux taken from his nation/family to be educated as a white in the mid 19th century.
          At one time he thought a bridge between the 2 cultures was possible, but saw by his later years any bridge would be only for one-way traffic.
          He wrote The Soul of an Indian.
          In it he has a chapter on religion…as understood by the Lakota, and Christianity. From it is this approximate quote.
          “……I have concluded that Civilization and Christianity are opposed and irreconcilable ”
          IOW,

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Wornsmooth, there is no denying many horrific things have been done in the name of Christ, the residential schools in CanaDa being just the latest example.
            I cannot deny American & Canadian nominal Christians perpetrated a Genocide against the Indigenous People, but Christ didn’t do it!
            The European Christian colonization of the World was not to bring God’s Love to distant People, but to exploit their material resources.
            All of that is unfortunately True, but it is too easy to blame Christ and not the People perverting his teachings.

            I watch TruNews every weekday. They claim to be a Christian site of the Republican Sect, and I do not hesitate to call out their hate filled, self-righteousness judgmental-ism in too many comments. They hate me there too for my interpretation of Christ.

            I never heard of Charles Eastman and his opinion having concluded that Civilization and Christianity are opposed and irreconcilable. I reject that opinion.
            Many sincere devoted believers in the Christ of God were instrumental in improving the lives of so many people and bringing about a more Civilized Society.

            Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.
            Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in YOUR name? and in YOUR name have cast out devils? and in YOUR name done many wonderful works?
            Then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
            Matthew 7

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            1. On the other hand, people who follow the teachings of Christ, as presented in the NT, are far and away not the only people who work for the good of others. Put another way, Christian—or indeed, any deist tenets—have never been the only source of light and compassion in the world. Jean-Paul Sartre, for one, did an excellent job of explaining each individual’s unspoken contract with society, sans any religious context.

              Liked by 1 person

            2. why ray do you insist on a male manifestation of your god? why not ‘mother in heaven’ [wherever that is] or ‘she’, as in a femme- christ designation? does your god trot about w/ male genitalia? if your bible claims we are ‘made in HIS image’ then we femmes who constitute 51% of the planet’s population are excluded from that faStuous [haughty] designation.

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            3. I, myself, believe that Christ was/is intended in large part to show humankind what Messiah ought to and needs to be; to prove to people that there really was/is hope for the many — especially for young people living in today’s physical, mental and spiritual turmoil — perceiving hopelessness in an otherwise fire-and-brimstone angry-God-condemnation creator. Fundamentally, of course, that definitely includes resurrection.

              I feel that too many have, unfortunately, created God’s nature in their own angry and vengeful image, especially the part insisting that God hates this or that. Often being the most vocal, they make very bad examples of Christ’s true message, especially to the young and impressionable. A believer in Christ, I can imagine many even finding inconvenient or annoying trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s Creator. (Really, why couldn’t Jesus have been one who’d enjoy a belly-shaking laugh over a good joke with his disciples, now and then?)

              I sometimes wonder whether the general human need for retributive justice can be intrinsically linked to the same terribly flawed aspect of humankind that enables the most horrible acts of violent cruelty to readily occur on this planet, perhaps not all of which we learn about. Meanwhile, when a public person openly fantasizes about world peace, a guaranteed minimum income and/or a clean, pristinely green global environment, many ‘Christians’ reactively presume he/she must therefore be Godless thus evil or, far worse, a socialist. This, despite Christ’s own teachings epitomizing the primary component of socialism — do not hoard morbidly superfluous wealth when so very many people have little or nothing.

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          2. Denise, you’ll get no argument from me, there are atheist unbelievers who work for the good of others!

            As a matter of fact, with the Judgment at the End of the Age described n Matthew 31-46, it’s not being a Jew, Christian or Muslim that gets anyone in this place, “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”
            Matthew 25:31-46

            It’s the recognition of our Common Humanity, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself and acting accordingly.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. i beg to differ, ray; one’s neighbour and his/her ken must be loved MORE than oneself… in the agape context of that otherwise fleeting, evanescent word. agape love is not effortless; it is hard work, and that is its fundamental strength.

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        1. I left out the part of the quote that says, roughly, “there is no such thing as a Christian Civilization”
          His observations were that what he saw of white civilization and what was presented as Christianity were “irreconcilable ”
          Mankind faces a polycrisis, with global warming being one of many.
          As it worsens many other problems will worsen as well. Efforts to mitigate one problem lead to more of another.(example: lessening the wealth gap by economic growth accelerates resource depletion and increases carbon in atmosphere…just one simple relationship)
          How globalwarming manifests itself in other ways than climate change has system dynamics too complex to predict. I do know it won’t be pretty, and we will be guided much more, as Dennis wrote, the Old Testament than the New.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. I agree with his statement ‘there is no such thing as a Christian Civilization’ just as there is no such thing as a truly Democratic Nation or Civilization as defined by the dictionary,

            The Book defines “Democracy” by these words, ideas and images.
            1. A THEORY of governance which, in it’s purest form, holds that the State should be controlled by ALL THE PEOPLE, each sharing EQUALLY in PRIVILEGES, DUTIES and RESPONSIBILITIES, and EACH PARTICIPATING in PERSON in the government, as in the
            CITY-STATES of ancient Greece.
            IN practice, CONTROL is vested in elective officers as Representatives who may be upheld or removed by THE PEOPLE.
            MASS of the people.
            3. POLITICAL, LEGAL, or SOCIAL EQUALITY

            WE have none of that in reality, as the people are slowly waking up from a deep sleep to understand we have a Plutocracy/Oligarchy, and only an delusional, pseudo Democracy in the false American Dream.

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          3. Denise, the sheeple still send money to the so called Spiritual Leaders living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, with the latest status symbol of luxury private jets so they don’t even have to mingle with the sheeple paying for their extravagant lifestyles, living in their mansions on earth.

            They can’t wait on Jesus who said, ‘In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
            They want it now.

            The part of Christ’s oft teaching about selling all that you have and give to the poor to follow him, doesn’t apply to them anymore.

            There’s a line in the Bible telling of a Day coming to this Earth, when NO ONE will have to talk about God because everyone would KNOW God. I wish Today was that Day!

            All the Evangelists, Rabbis, Mullahs, Priests, Pastors and Ministers would have to find a new line of work, and start speaking themselves out of any preeminence among the people!

            Liked by 1 person

  4. We need look no further than our closest Planet to see what a runaway Green House effect is possible of doing.., and no our closest Planet isn’t Mars it’s Venus. The Planet that comes closest to Earth. Our Sister Planet Venus is approx. the same size as Earth, and named after the goddess of love and beauty. That is about where the Planets similarity with Earth ends. Venus beauty is only skin deep its clouds rain down a form of sulfuric acid, and the whole surface is trapped beneath them. The atmospheric pressure is 90 X’s. that of Earths, and the surface temperature is a furnace like 900 degrees F. Atmosphere mostly CO2 Carbon Dioxide. And, as I said Cloud droplets of hydrochloric & sulfuric acid. Nice huh? Weather WX patterns are observable only in UV light and are approaching speeds of more than 700 Kilometers per hr. Aliens LV-426 seems more welcoming in comparison!!!

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  6. The Seattle Times today:
    The unwelcome arrival of wildfire smoke during a heat wave and in the thick of a resurgent respiratory pandemic created complicated choices Friday for Seattle-area residents, particularly those without access to air conditioning or air filtering, experts said.

    “It’s kind of the perfect storm, if you’ll pardon the phrase,” said Graeme Carvlin, an air resources specialist with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. “It’s challenging to protect yourself against everything.”

    Temperatures cracked 90 degrees Friday and air quality reached unhealthy levels in some parts of the Puget Sound region. Meanwhile, the delta variant of the coronavirus continued its surge, with cases in Washington reaching levels not seen since last fall and winter at the virus’s peak.

    Stay inside and secure the windows to keep out the smoke? Draw in outdoor air to beat the heat?

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      1. Thomas Jefferson, a deist had this to say about Revelations:

        ‘It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.’

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        1. That was his opinion, not mine, as I posted it 9 years ago.

          Science and the MASS Media project the same vision with their secular, non-religious propaganda growing in intensity these days.

          The Revelation is when you can see it unfolding in REAL TIME in this Material World.
          REVELATION: GLOBAL WARMING – FACT OR FICTION? TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES?

          I see you’re relatively new to the discussions on Bill’s site, Denis. Most people know if I post something controversial or questionable, if there is no reply or challenge, I’ll drop it.
          But I will back up my opinions with more Facts in any exchange.

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        2. A deist sits in the pews of the mental faculty practicing a belief in the existence of a God on the evidence of reason and nature only, with rejection of supernatural revelation. In the matters of The Supreme Being, Jefferson seems to be trafficking in ignorance. He appears to be one who was snared by the Maya of the material world. Snared by this illusion; he was able to ensnare the divine nature that existed in
          “his” slaves bodies and keep them from the precious freedom he so “proudly professed” to uphold. He was one of the originators of this mess we are in; and his beliefs in the false perspective of materialism over the mystical, cosmic nature of the Divine is a characteristic of the times the Vedic sages called the Kali Yuga.
          I was lied to in my youth about Jefferson and his band of founding fathers; and I believe the lies have just kept on coming from all the leaders and titans of government and industry. They knew and refused to tell us the truth; hence the devastation that we exist in today. They had no respect for the Creation that was so magnificently conceived and freely given. They are the densest expressions of humanity and are absolutely worthy of all the false praise that has been heaped upon them by the captured scribes of history and today’s media midgets. The fakers and phonies have been adorned in the garments of false praise and admire their appearance in their mirrored walls. Their false creation is a toxic legacy and I am quite sure nothing is left that hasn’t been spoiled by their destructive manipulations.
          The apostle John who wrote about his vision of the worst of times also penned some of the most soaring words about love of the divine aspects and his love for the One who captured his soul. For Jefferson to disparage his experience just destroys “Good Old Tommy Boys” own inflated vision of his false nature. In my humble opinion, he couldn’t stand in John’s presence without being sufficiently humbled. I wish we would straighten out the truth curve for this man Thomas; because I for one have my doubts about the veracity of his stature in our society. I don’t know about the mystically apocalyptic things that John saw; but it sure seems like the later days of my life could be characterized by a word such as “an apocalyptic reality.”
          America needs to demand honesty from anyone who has a hand on a lever that is connected to the wheels that controls our nations direction. Honesty is the best……..!

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          1. Most of what we know about John comes from the Bible itself, particularly the gospels. The Apostle John is mentioned by name in every gospel except the one named after him. According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) John was one of the first disciples Jesus called to follow him. Like many of Jesus’ disciples, he was a fisherman by trade. All this from the Bible – so the Bible vouches for itself eh? You can use the Bible to tell us what’s true in the Bible…OK!

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            1. a logical and arresting rejoinder, dennis. one must applaud your argute sentience and your disdain for sequacious inculcations, absorbed by “those who make extraordinary claims” which are not indurated by providing “extraordinary evidence” of such claims [appreciate your calling our attention to this sententious axiom].

              our dear mr. ray should haul his bible-based asseverations to a religious site, not wja’s anti-war site. presumably, all of us who resonate w/ wja’s blogs are anti-war, but we do not need the myths, fantasies, blatant balderdash, and apocryphal narratives of the judeo-xian bible to guide us. nor do we need the aforementioned to confirm and affirm our commitment to anti-war principles. one’s moral compass arises from his/her cranial-connected heart, not from imperious, declarative dictates chuntered by putative authoritarians, most of whom never existed in the first place… or did so in fog-bound fugues of monomaniacal ravings from our tenebrous past.

              buddha forbid that i should carry on raving about my personal relationship w/ poseidon!

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            2. Love is the fulfillment of every law. The verses from John about love still, to this or any future day, soar and that’s the point of my understanding and the foundation that I laid to help mount a critique of Mr. Jefferson and the problems of our generation. Jefferson was a materialist in my estimation, who was more interested in manipulating the physical world; rather than being informed about creation and his true nature from the Originator of all perspectives. “Whoever” strung the words together, that a book with a title called the Bible contains is not important to the general meaning of my post. Authorship is not the point, nor the source of the pages it was extracted from; I certainly did not intend to make a defense or accusation about the book source of words attributed to the friend and lover of Jesus. I love reading ANY document that contains a powerful source for spiritual enhancement of the human experience. It’s the essence, power, and life of the words that I’m most interested in; and those references were regarding the passages that touted love. They are worthy words to adjust one’s lifestyle with…. and, to strive to live up to the ideals of love’s nature that are described in the chapters attributed to John are the solutions to the apocalyptic nature of these modern times. The Vedic texts and at a later date on the timeline of spiritual understandings; even the entomological origins of the ancient Hebrew texts say that the heart is the center of where thought arrives. Then the mind or corporeal thinking faculty is informed. A man called John, in the book called the Bible, in the chapter called 1 John, so succinctly said “God is Love.”
              Anyone who enslaved another human being was not informed from the heart center. They were more interested in increasing their own material comforts at someone else’s expense. That’s the axe I wanted to grind upon the mythical Mr. Jefferson’s persona. He has been given a pass as some paragon of virtue in this society and there are some who believe that the colonial characteristics and genocidal nature’s of our founding fathers lit the match that set this nation on karmas fiery action packed adventure which the citizens of today are experiencing real time. Could this possibly be a foundational explanation for a lot of the circumstances we are trying to untangle ourselves from as these words are typed? Please don’t think I’m trying to thump you with the Bible. I’m trying to tear down Jefferson as a person who’s words should be trusted, especially on explanations that are of an esoteric nature. When I saw his explanation you included in the conversation; well you lit a match that “singed the long hairs on my head”! His character disqualified him a long time ago, and I just couldn’t give him a pass on his critique of that book we know speaks of an apocalypse. Simply put, I believe John was dealing from the deck and he was hold a handful of hearts when he wrote about God and Love.

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          2. Dennis, the last line in the Gospel of John the Apostle, ‘And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.’

            Why discriminate against the Bible? Where did your quote from Tomas Jefferson come from? A Book?
            Nuclear armed Israel is a creation of the Bible, and it’s very REAL in this Material World!

            I was sent to jail for the 1st Time in 1977 for breach of a Court ordered probation with only 1 condition typed in at the bottom of the form with these explicit words, “not to attend on the Sparks Street Mall or any other street in Ottawa for the purpose of SPEAKING or shouting”

            I went on a hunger fast the whole Time I was in jail. While there, I used to talk with Major Brightwell of the Salvation Army often. After one of our meetings, he laid these EXACT words on my ears, “I’ll pray God Blesses your Apostleship.”

            When President Ford won the nomination over Ronald Reagan in 1976, I was in the compressed crowd of Republicans in the Lobby of the Crown Center Hotel in Kansas City looking up to the Secret Service guarded Mezzanine having the Presidents podium set up as the President was expected to be standing there any minute.
            I was called out of that crowd for questioning. Instead of questioning me in an anteroom, the SS Agent led me to stand right at the President’s podium and questioned me in view of the crowd below and the 3 TV Networks broadcasting LIVE.

            I was surprised when Major Brightwell laid those words on my ears, but I was even more surprised when the Secret Service Agent, standing Face to Face with me, eventually asked, “Are you Jesus Christ?”
            Having no illusions about that THEN or NOW, in a nanosecond answered “NO!”
            The next question was, “Who are you then? A Prophet?” I could not answer that question then and there. I expect the Secret Service has a record of that incident in their Archive, just like the Vatican would have a record of me being invited to Lunch with the Apostolic Nuncio (Ambassador) to CanaDa, 2 weeks before making The Declaration on Remembrance Day, November 11, 1985.

            THE DECLARATION

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            1. That word will send me to the dictionary Ray. I Am! that bear of very little brains…
              I’ll get back to you when I figure out what that means…in the meantime…
              I want you to know I appreciate you Ray. I’ve seen and heard and lived with a lot of Christ’s followers; so I’m not so unfamiliar that I have no frame of reference. It is rare to find a follower who will call out the brethren for completely missing the mark and I commend you for your honesty. I hope you keep posting; because I have seen people fall in love with the Creator of One and All, the God that Christ and you profess. I believe it to be a beautiful transformative relationship that leads to the truth of being. You seem intent on helping to raise the believers to a higher calling; one that rings the bell of purity towards those words of Jesus. Back in the day I did a prison ministry and I saw the power of the gospel of peace and love transform people and help them stay out of repetitive patterns of troubling behavior. It is a living truth among many living truths that will produce an intimate experience with a beautiful mysteriously divine nature that is so completely ignored in the moment to moment journey towards self realization.
              I love the Beetle George’s words and so I will let him have a say here…” If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Christianity is as valid a path as any. It’s made a difference in your life, and from what I know so far; your heart is in the right place. Peace be with you as you traffic in these challenging times.

              Liked by 1 person

            2. OK. I looked that nescience word up…
              Lack of knowledge… ignorant…
              Hmmm… Jefferson probably knew a lot about a lot of things; so maybe he wasn’t so nescient in some regards; but he didn’t know much about self realization! His slave conundrums tell me so.

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          4. Jack, Thank you for your comments.
            I also like the Words in Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’

            And Jesus was a sailor
            When he walked upon the water
            And he spent a long time watching
            From his lonely wooden tower

            And when he knew for certain
            Only drowning men could see him

            He said “All men will be sailors then
            Until the sea shall free them”
            […] And you want to travel with him
            And you want to travel blind
            And you think maybe you’ll trust him
            For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind

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  8. Yeah Bill, I wish I could dispute your grim assessment above, but unfortunately it’s too entirely true. Sadly I’ve come to the conclusion that the few progressive impulses of 1960’s & 70’s were a brief outlier in US politics and that the current political state is more typical, the historical status quo. I used to think that it would take a dramatic event to change people’s politics, but I’ve come to even doubt that basic precept when I observe the sheer obstinacy of the anti-maskers/anti-vaxers crowd in the face of over 500,000 deaths (and I read that there were similar protests back in the 1918 pandemic).
    The future looks especially bleak when one looks at how the rising sea level will literally inundate some countries like Bangladesh (~165 million people) and Java (150+ million) and partially cover places like SE USA (Florida peninsula will be entirely covered), the east coast of the USA & China, among others. Where are all those people going to go?? And yet the US right-wing keeps pressuring the UN to be anti-abortion or even anti-birth control, while at the same time being vehemently anti-immigrant, so it’s the proverbial Catch-22 that will only increase the eventual suffering. China was criticized for a 1-child policy, but now presumably all those critics are happy since China is promoting MORE births to keep ‘growth’ happening.
    I’m not a cynic by nature, and I don’t depress most friends & family with these views (ie; none of us can visibly affect these problems anyway), but given the basics of animal evolution that we are subject-to, I don’t see a ‘soft landing’ ahead, to put it mildly.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. true, denise; it is never “an absolute good” to have children, not unless parents are committed to birthing bairns who will be ‘trained’ and inspired by those parents to embrace a sedulous commitment toward stewardship on behalf of all the life forms that planet earth has gifted us to share in ‘her’ complex web of resource users, particularly human resource users who will in their adult years, rein-in resource exploiters… adults who have a preternatural commitment toward the sustainable practices proselytized by our courageous, greta-inspired youth. they have so much to teach us, as do the constituent life forms endemic to planet earth’s complex matrices. the ‘racket-of-war’ is not an intelligent dynamic toward reaching that goal.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. You bring up a salient point, Jeanie. In the U.S., at least, we’re still stuck on the Victorian myth of the shiny, innocent, apple-cheeked darlings of children. The fact aside that many children are born to parents (or a parent) who can’t support them, the overwhelming majority of progeny are NOT raised to revere the Earth or to participate in altruistic causes. If they follow those paths, it’s by accident, in all but a handful of cases. Instead, young people in the 21st century seamlessly enter the consumerist, “get all we can” mindset.

          Liked by 1 person

          3. Bill, my concern when learning of AI at the start was considering if AI was controlled by the rich, eliminating even more jobs in the Economy as it’s erected, will all those extras be expendable like never before, in our potential dystopian Future?

            American Christianity refuses to consider their Bibles describe the 1st Century Christians living a God led Communist Lifestyle.
            It’s no wonder the 1% of those Times, the major Slave and Land owners, wanted to crush the new Jewish Sect called Christianity, from gaining any traction with the Masses.

            And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
            And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
            Acts 3:44-45

            And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
            Acts 4:32

            There has always been War between those 2 points of view and values to this very Day.
            Bill’s site is devoted to ending that ‘forever War!’

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  9. Right around the breakup of the U.S.S.R. probably was the critical point, not just for the U.S. but for the world as a whole. That could have been a time to demilitarize, reduce hostility and tension, establish respectful, mutually beneficial relationships between nations and work together to make the world a better place. Unfortunately the other tack was taken. I’m not sure what could prove to have been a “point of no return” for the U.S. in particular. I used to think it was the election of Bush the Younger to a second term. I figured the citizens didn’t really elect him in the first place so that election I considered to be a referendum on his policies. I know not everything was out in the open yet at that time, for example the mass warrantless surveillance project which the NYT knew about but decided to hold off on in order because it “might influence the election” (excuse me if I’m missing something here just being an unsophisticated Canadian but isn’t the ostensible function of the press to tell us things the government is doing so we can make our voting choices accordingly? /s). Even so there was enough out there about the WMD lies, torture, violations of the Constitution and Bill Of Rights that I really hoped the electorate would be angry enough to overcome the obstacles to exercising real democratic control and toss him out, but that didn’t happen. I did allow myself to become optimistic about Obama in his first run though, only to have those hopes dashed to atoms. Sanders first primary campaign really had my hopes up but seeing what was done to keep him down and the visceral hatred he received from the “mainstream” (aka corporate) Democrats made me realize just how bad things really were in the party which I would have been strongly supportive of my whole life if I had been a U.S. citizen instead of a next door neighbor who can only watch politics that affect my life a great deal but not participate in them at all.

    I still do have hope after all this though. It’s kind of a “got to laugh – to prevent yourself from crying” hope, but hope nonetheless.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Now abides Faith, Hope, Love, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.

      That 1st Christmas Eve, the angels brought tidings of great Joy, Peace on Earth, Good Will to all men.

      Good Will is the 1st necessary step leading to Peace and then Joy!

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      1. I wil repaet fellow commentors Jeanie’s words Ray…..we do not need the myths, fantasies, blatant balderdash, and apocryphal narratives of the judeo-xian bible to guide us.

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        1. Actually Dennis, my comment was addressed to RMO, not you.
          You already made your position clear, and you’re entitled to your opinions.
          I find it sad your prejudice is so great, you can’ recognize the Spirit of the letter.

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          2. w/ certitude, ray, dennis DOES “recognize the spirit of the letter”, as you say, ray. however, dennis’ ineffable espials and perspicacity provenance from his soul-centered cortex, not from some prelapsarian or medieval text that xians and jews claim as their source of goodness and illumination. dennis’ Elucubrations are his own, sourced from his personal lucubrations, not the bible.

            thank you for embracing and using in the correct context the somewhat sesquipedalian word ‘nescience’ that i introduced to this blog-site a wee while ago. now others will likely find it useful. expanding the lexicon of any language expands and deepens understanding for those who have the conative demiurgics to incorporate neoteric vocabulary into their writing and speech… ostensibly in an effort to convey more scalpel-honed communication. i fail resoundingly in this effort.

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    2. My feelings track 100% with yours, RMO, except I never really believed in Obama, and completely soured on him as soon as he appointed Hillary to State.

      Yes, when Bush II won in 2004, I was devastated; I was sure that, after even some of his crimes came to light, he’d be rejected. But people who were interviewed said that, even though he’d be bad for the economy, they were sure he’d keep the country safe. Yeah, after 9/11 happened on his watch…. I think that election was the point of no return for the downward slide.

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      1. I didn’t expect, nor did I get a reply to this email sent to Obama in 2018.
        September 10, 2018.

        President Obama.

        As a Canadian, I was very happy when you were elected President. I saw that as a hopeful Sign for America and the World.

        You didn’t campaign to inherit the Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour that happened even before you were elected, in the last months of 8 years of Republicanomics of more to the rich, and fighting Foreign Wars on Credit. The Trump Republican Tax Bill they spin as ‘Reform’ is the continuation of those Bush Policies on steroids.

        Watching from CanaDa, the real danger I see, is if there is another Global Financial Collapse due to more US Economic War on more perceived enemies simultaneously than ever before in US history, complemented by more tariffs or US hidden Taxes on more US Allies than ever before Americans will have to pay for.
        Removing the few Regulations put in place after the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour to prevent a recurrence, the worst possible aspects I would expect you were briefed on at the Time, increases the likelihood what has already happened, could happen again?

        Watching these things, I have to wonder if there is a method to Trump’s madness?
        If there is a sudden, unexpected Global Financial Meltdown-Economic Pearl Harbour like the last one, in the face of the Social Chaos you were warned in 2008 would happen unless you signed onto TARP, it is President Trump who could invoke the use of the worst provisions in the 2012 NDAA you signed into Law.

        That would make Trump, with 2 years to go, the 1st to use the Legal Authority in that 2012 NDAA, to have his Bureaucracy/Military get rid of his ‘opposition’ in some Gitmo/Gulag, by accusing them of being vaguely associated with terrorism as determined by the Trump bureaucracy, in a Time of Social disorder.
        The right to challenge the government’s ‘suspicion’ in a Court of Law is removed.
        That’s a very real possibility with Trump’s temperament he has already displayed.

        I always admired the High Ideals in your speeches, hoping and praying Americans would take them to heart.
        But I also saw you didn’t always practice what you preached.
        On that score, the whole human Race without exception, is guilty.

        I appreciated your Grace in dealing with a Congress whose Republican Leaders Declared, even before you were sworn in, their sole goal was to destroy your Presidency, and I saw they did everything within their power to do that.
        I hate seeing the Republican hypocrisy/duplicity now that the Pendulum has swung to the other side.

        My deepest personal disappointment in you is, as a Constitutional Scholar, you did not VETO the 2012 NDAA even in the face of the overwhelming VETO-proof majorities in both Houses of Congress.

        At least, you would have started the Real Debate on American Democracy.
        Now that you have entered the Current Political debate, you can still redeem yourself, admitting you made a mistake signing the 2012 NDAA.

        Peace and God Bless you!

        RayJC

        END OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

        Liked by 2 people

        1. For me, Obama became disappointingly predictable, in the sense of capitulating to big money politics, like so many other neo-liberal presidents before him and likely after him. I recall watching him drink a glass of Flint, Michigan water, signifying that the water was safe to drink, which he must have known really was not.
          (My understanding is that the Flint water was then still not truly safe to drink, as its lead content was still above the ‘safe’ level. Yet, I’ve read/heard many experts state that no amount of lead is safe to ingest, since it accumulates in the body, particularly the brain, and remains within body tissue for life.)

          As a then-admirer of Obama, I muttered ‘Say it isn’t so’. I henceforth saw U.S. presidents, along with Canadian prime ministers, essentially as instruments of big corporate and power interests.

          I know that the lead-tainting was not his doing; however, what he did was a major shock to and disappointment for the lead-poisoned Flint folk, who’d expected far more/better from him. To a lot of people, he had behaved like some TV-promotion actor hired by an (in this case) seriously ethically/morally challenged corporation. Though I would expect it from a Republican president or even then-president Bill Clinton, I found it very disappointing of Obama (maybe because he is Black, as were many/most of the lead-water-ingesting Flint folk), regardless of the big business and/or political pressure he probably had on his head.

          Liked by 1 person

    3. Yes RMO, a number (an all-too small number, unfortunately) of us US citizens strongly agree with your above assessment about the lost golden opportunity when the USSR dissolved — the ‘peace dividend’ was brought-up only so that it could seemingly be discredited. Perhaps it was naive of us to expect the cultural and economic momentum of US militarism to casually subside as it somewhat did after WWII — by that point there was too much power and money involved to let it easily reduce to an appropriate level. Additionally, the ‘deal-with-the-devil’ of laissez-faire Reagan-nomics that too many people in the US had signed-onto in the 80’s, which eventually ‘harshened’ the whole economic situation for most US citizens to the point of distraction (ie; who cares about international politics when you’re ‘sweating the rent’?), made it easy for political leaders to ignore the few voices that did bring-up this idea.
      I feel exactly the same way about W Bush’s RE-election as you. I thought that when the revelations of NO WMD’s, the Downing Street memo, and reports that W blew-off advisors who tried to light a fire under him in Aug 2001 (ie; about rumors of an impending terrorist attack) were publicized that the electorate would rightly reject him. (Ideally he and Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al would’ve been turned over to the ICC for war crimes, but since we’re ‘the exceptional nation’, I knew that would never happen.) It was then that my limited hope for US politics turned to negative cynicism because I ‘emotionally realized’ that the majority of the US public virtually demand a demagogue for POTUS, which explains the candidates/presidents we have had.
      The only remote hope I have is that sometimes the US does a good thing that I would never have expected. One example that comes to mind is the widespread bans on cigarette smoking in public places that’s come about in my lifetime—I never thought the time would come when people couldn’t smoke in bars/pubs here in the US, but it happened. Admittedly it’s a far-cry from progressive international politics but it’s all I can grasp at nowadays.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. you skewered the bloodied bullseye, eddie s. after my 1st contract overseas in 1962, teaching at kokusai kirisutokuyo daigaku in mitakashi, japan, and hanging out at the atomic-bomb museum in hiroshima, i concluded… craven poltroon that i am… the country of my birthplace [north conway, new hampshire] would never be a country i could return to, not ever. so i married a canadian whom i met at cornell [yes, it was a love marriage, not a marriage of political convenience; we have 7 now-adult bantlings and no, we are not catholic] who was on my political, anti-war raster-scan. it became pellucidly clear that the USofArmamentaria would never desist in its tendentious war-mongering proclivities. when canadian politicians and corporate hacks in parliament proved to be equally complicit w/ the US’s MIC, big pharma, and petrochemical industries, we decided to pursue our environmental contract work across 3rd- and 4th-world ambits in africa, the middle east, the caribbean, south asia, and southeast asia. we have since retired to mindoro island in the philippines. apologies for the banausic personal details. i presume that many of you on wja’s blog-site have simulacra of narratives to convey.

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  10. When I think of religion, I think of the message of Christ because I was raised Catholic. I think of compassion, love, forgiveness, tolerance, empathy. Of loving thy neighbor, which is so easy to say, and so difficult to do. I think of forbearance, of sacrifice, of service. Of helping others. I think we can all agree these are admirable qualities.

    I never got too involved in the finer points of dogma. Of interpretation of opaque passages from the Book of Revelation, for example. So many people have tackled that book and others like them (Daniel), even Isaac Newton (!), but there is no one “right” answer since it’s all allegorical and indeterminate.

    I was always taken by the passage from Luke when Christ says: The kingdom of God is within you. Look within; strive to give back to others; strive to elevate others even as you deflect praise from yourself. Reject pride and hubris. We are all creatures of God, whatever your concept of God.

    Sadly, most of what passes for religion is ungodly. Just look at the prosperity gospel that says God showers riches on those He loves best, so pursue money as a sign of God’s favor. Talk about a false Gospel! The Good Book says we can’t serve God and Mammon both, yet America’s most favored think God and Mammon are identical. Truly that is American exceptionalism in a nutshell. We say we are Christian while nakedly pursuing money and power (for the good of others, naturally).

    And what can one say to this?

    Liked by 3 people

    1. thank you, wja. your magniloquence and humility suffuse my lungs w/ inhalations of un-maculated oxygen and massage my temples w/ edulcorating unctions.

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      1. my communication skills are the apotheosis of ineptitude, ray; i am neither a wja-induced ‘convert to faith in christ’ nor one who disparages yours. you, as well as everyone still breathing, are manumitted to beLIEve whatever you druther, as long as your faith-based beLIEfs transform you into a loving, caring, compassionate being. concomitantly, christ’s NT dictate that no one can enter the kingdom of your god-papa except through HIM strikes me as arrogant, narcissistic, and uncompromising… nor do i feel like cherry-picking through biblical texts for the exiguous passages that might inspire one to dedicate his/her energies on behalf of or for the beneficence of others, and that includes non-human life forms.

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        1. “our dear mr. ray should haul his bible-based asseverations to a religious site, not wja’s anti-war site. presumably, all of us who resonate w/ wja’s blogs are anti-war, but we do not need the myths, fantasies, blatant balderdash, and apocryphal narratives of the judeo-xian bible to guide us. nor do we need the aforementioned to confirm and affirm our commitment to anti-war principles.”

          In reply to wja on his perceptions of Christ,
          “thank you, wja. your magniloquence (speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner) and humility suffuse (fill) my lungs w/ inhalations of un-maculated (spotless, pure) oxygen and massage my temples w/ edulcorating (to free from harshness as of attitude : make pleasant) unctions (the act of anointing as a rite of consecration or healing).”

          Your choice of the word “magniloquence” cannot be a simple typo in the rest of your reply to Bill’s open mind toward the values of Christ!

          I would expect Bill, much more than you, appreciates these lines in his Bible as they apply to his anti-War site,
          ‘Not by military force and not by physical strength, but by My spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts.
          Zechariah 4:6

          If enough American Christians believed and embraced that 1 line in their Bibles including, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God’ and spoke up about it, it may well lead to the end result everyone here claims to want,
          ‘And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’
          Isaiah 2:4

          Jeanie, you are entitled to your opinions, but you have no idea what I have experienced in my personal Faith relationship with the Resurrected Christ these last 46 years. There’s too much for me to ever explain or turn back.

          He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
          Judas said to him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not unto the world?
          Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
          John 14:21-23

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          1. ray, good soul, magniloquence is the word i meant. you are defining its bombastic cousin, grandiloquence. there is a difference, depending on which dictionary one consults. am reLIEved your religion works for you, as you seem a gentle, non-captious, and sympathetic fellow who cares deeply for others less fortunate than you.

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            1. Jeanie, it was not disparaging to refer to you as the resident expert in linguistics.
              With the uncommon words you habitually use, you’re speaking in tongues most people don’t know.

              Not wanting to split hairs, whether you intended to use magniloquence or not, the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines that word as: “the quality or state of being magniloquent,” and “magniloquent” is defined as “speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner”

              Definition of grandiloquence
              : a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language
              Synonyms: bluster, bombast, brag, braggadocio, bull [slang], cockalorum, fanfaronade, gas, gasconade, hot air, magniloquence, rant,

              I’m surprised you didn’t know they essentially mean the same thing!

              Peace!

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              1. tho; often listed as synonyms, magniloquence and grandiloquence do not carry precisely the same nuance of intent, depending on the context. the difference is subtle. most words manifest fungibility or pluripotence, particularly as they are employed over centuries of use by different groups… or are later commandeered for metaphoric use.

                if one dips his/her head back into the fog of latin annals, magni- is used as a prefix meaning great, as in magnificent, magnanimous, magnify, magnetism, magnitude, magniloquence, etc… if a language is not subject to transmutations as the culture it reflects transforms through time, it eventually loses its potency and transmogrifies into a corpse, as a plethora of languages have done so in the past. even re-introducing soi-disant ‘archaic’ vocabulary can refresh and revitalize a language.

                my advice is to resist relying on mister merriam or sir webster, specifically their online version of the english lexicon; tho’ not otiose, it is a puerile source. a variety of dictionaries at your disposable… even medical, geological, oceanographic, environmental, engineering, geographic, and [yikes! spirits forbid!] obtuse legal dictionaries… would offer a far broader range of lexical understanding and contextual word-use than m/w’s online inclusions. for a comprehensive reference, the 26-volume oxford dictionary is outstanding… altho’ i suspect the complete oxford lexicography volumes have expanded beyond 26 since my antediluvian uni-era.

                apologies for the tiresome tautologies, ray

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  11. “Democrats may have made fun of Sarah Palin and her “drill, baby, drill” message, but that is exactly what Presidents Obama and Biden decided to do: drill, baby, drill.”
    _________

    The same goes here, too, in Canada.

    Regardless of which political party, our federal governments consistently prop the already profitable fossil fuel industry. In 2019, Canada’s Liberal government gave the fossil fuel sector 12-fold the subsidization it allocated towards renewable energy innovation. Actually, such lopsided bad-cause subsidization greatly favoring Big Fossil Fuel occurs every budget year, more or less. This is on top of agreeing to triple the diluted bitumen pipeline-flow westward through B.C., which means increasing the oil freighter traffic seven-fold through pristine whale-bearing waters.

    It must have a solid foundation when even our mainstream print news-media formally support Canada’s industry. News conglomerate Postmedia is on record as being allied with not only the planet’s second most polluting forms of “energy” (i.e. fossil fuel), but also the most polluting/dirtiest of crude oils — bitumen. [Source: “Mair on Media’s ‘Unholiest of Alliances’ With Energy Industry”, Rafe Mair, Nov.14 2017, TheTyee.ca]
    Furthermore, in late May, Postmedia refused to run paid ads by Leadnow, a social and environmental justice organization, that expose RBC as the largest financer of fossil fuel extraction in Canada. …

    Big Fossil Fuel and our governments can tell when a very large portion of the electorate is too tired and worried about feeding/housing themselves or their family, and the devastation being left in COVID-19’s wake — all while on insufficient income — to criticize them for whatever environmental damage their policies cause/allow, particularly when not immediately observable. Without doubt, mass addiction to fossil fuel products helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest and still profitable polluter.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. indeed, FGSJR2015, even our soi-disant environmentalist-oriented canada is complicit in contaminating our fragile planet. we have no shame. we are too ‘laid-back’ [as US-ers describe us] to complain, never mind rise up in ‘che’ guevera-style revolution. thank you for your sobering scholium and reality-based reflections.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Quite correct. …

        Regarding Postmedia, should the promotion of massive fossil fuel extraction, even Canada’s own, be a partisan position for any newspaper giant to take, especially considering its immense role in global warming thus climate change? And, at least in this case, whatever happened to the honorable journalistic role of ‘afflicting the comfortable’ (which went along with ‘comforting the afflicted’), especially one of such environmental monstrosity?

        Regarding the individual’s responsibility, far too many consumers still recklessly behave as though throwing non-biodegradable garbage down a dark chute, or pollutants emitted out of exhaust and drainage pipes, or spewed from very tall smoke stacks and sky-high jet engines — or even the largest contamination events — can somehow be safely absorbed into the air, sea, and land (i.e. out of sight, out of mind). It’s like we’re inconsequentially dispensing that toxic waste into some black-hole singularity, where it’s safely compressed into nothing.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. w/ the exception of a few current manifestations of chris hedges, ramzy baroud, jeffrey st. claire, jonathan cook, chris hitchens, julian assange, john pilger, tom englehardt, william astore, and edward snowden, informative, responsible, and courageous journalism is as dead as chris hitchens.

          Liked by 2 people

  12. PS: i meant ‘disposal’ ray, not ‘disposable’. sorry. also, the ist word [i.e. tho’] should have been followed by a comma, not a semi-colon. my octogenarian vision is as feckly blurred as my brain. WOW, am kilometres off-topic here; apologies to wja and his consociate anti-war commenters.

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  13. I’m a Saganist and I’ll define it: Of course whatever works for you so be it. I’ll kindly worry about my Soul, and you can worry about yours OaK? Saganism: One who maintains an awestruck perspective of the vast Cosmos we inhabit so minutely and the wonder of billions of years of evolution that brought us to this moment. One who finds a source of complete satisfaction with the natural laws of the Universe. Emphasis is placed upon the duty of care for the planet. The folly of religion, nationalism, and war, but also for the need of compassion in the face of small-mindedness and zealotry…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. magnificently described and quoted, philip astore. you and your brother, wja, must have been nurtured by magnificent parents, teachers, guardians, and other cynosures. we in the sagan-zeitgeist miss that fine fellow. his time w/ us was dispiteously truncated.

      Liked by 1 person

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