Power to the People...

The Best of the Best...
The 1980s... The anti-Vietnam protesters were everywhere in the U.S. and in Europe... The Kent University was student protest center... where a student protester was a victim to state sponsored violence... The student was killed by a police bullet... The 1980's brought out into the streets the best of the best... The student-worker protests in Paris... The Czech Spring  in 1968... People were on the march from Berkeley to Los Angeles to New York and to Paris and to Prague...
The youth, the best of the best... were in the streets for freedom and for liberty from the unbridled greed of the ruling 1% in Western Liberal Democracies... and also from the ossified and rotting Soviet bureaucracies of the East...
The youth were out and it was time for hope and time for a new rainbow appearing on the horizon...
Decades have gone by... the system absorbed the grievances of the youth... and renewed itself... and now that renewal is in danger... The greed of the 1% and the fascistic tendencies of the rulers from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Poland and Russia and to the liberal democracies of Europe and North America... is stifling all the hope for the future...
The environment is being polluted and the ruling 1% does not much care... People are loosing their homes and the ruling 1% does not even care... The refugees are invading Europe and the Americas... the only response from the ruling 1% is to come up with bans and barriers to prevent the refugees...
Today in my morning walk I counted five homeless people on the pavements... and I imagined the refugees... the globalized homeless of the globe...
The G20... is meeting in Hamburg... and the people in their tens of thousands have gathered to protest... the inhumanity of the 1% and their unbridled greed...
I sort of comprehend people working hard for their first million, but I always wonder what they will do with the five-six seven- millions... I always wondered why people want to have more and more in the banks...
I have told my students that the monies in the banks are just colourful paper... once those colourful papers come out of the bank vaults and are spread around... they will have a USE value... 
Money sitting in the bank is just coloured paper... but once the monies are  taken out of the banks and spread around... they will be meaningful and will make people happy...
Hamburg... was divided into two camps... the rulers and the representatives of the 1% and the rest... the people... the 99%... 

Here a young man has climbed on top of an armoured car... and the protectors of the 1% are attempting to bring him down...
Protests bring the best out of the youth and the people...

In order to usher in the new... people are shedding the illusions of the old... on the streets of Hamburg... People against the water canons of the 1%...

Pepper spray and water canons are directed against the protesters... The greed of the 1% needs the protection of the system to be successful...

The Greens and environmentalist the vanguard of the best...  the protectors of the green spaces and the oceans and the future are protesting against the greed of the 1% and against their polluted system... 

 

People fighting for teir rights and for the future...

Indeed "Power to the People..."

People's protest in Hamburg against the G20 and the 1% 
and the chant is still valid... "Power to the people..."

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The G20 has has all kinds of rulers... 

Bureaucratic-oligarchs like Putin... Putin's Russia has no room for dissent and freedom of though and speech... where all opposition leaders are dispensable...

Absolute monarchs like Saudi Arabia... where women are not "persons' and they have to take permission from their male "guardians"... Where Islamic-Sharia Law is supreme... and opposition is not tolerated... even bloggers are punished and lashed and whipped in the public square...

There are the Western Democrats... the guardians of the 1%... like Trump and May and Marcon and Merkel...

...and then there are authocratic tendencies like in Poland... where the rule of law is okay as long as it agrees with the government... 

Turkey is a special case... where the rulers want to take the country back decades and establish an Islamic society and Sharia Law... where minorities, like Kurds and Armenians,  have no rights... where the denial of the Armenian Genocide is a nationalist duty...

Here also people are resisting... like they are resisting in hamburg...

In Turkey... Tens of thousands of people have been arrested or dismissed from their jobs in the civil service, military, judiciary, academia and media, in a broad crackdown on people opposed to the regime and government of the Erdogan… who is trampling the rule of law and democracy and civil society… The islamist government wants to introduce Islamic law and religion… The purge has gone beyond the alleged perpetrators of a coup d’etat and encompasses dissidents of all stripes, including senior opposition lawmakers, judges and civil servants and reporters...

People in Turkey, Turks and Kurds and Armenians and other minorities... are demonstrating... There is a long march from Ankara to Istanbul... 
Tens of thousands are marching for freedom and liberty... they want to live in freedom and pursue happiness as they desire...
Those who want to abide by Islamic-Sharia law... let them do so... But those who want freedom of religion and live according to their beliefs... let them also do so...

Turks and Kurds and Armenians are marching from Ankara to Istanbul for freedom and for an open society... 

Power to the People... of Turkey... Turks and Kurds and Armenians...

Kill Dictatorship read the Art-banner in Hamburg...

Today is Friday and Happy Hour started early...
Today the Myth of Sisyphus was haunting me and the only way
to get rid of it was declaring Happy Hour... and so I did...
In Europe Trump has proclaimed that "Western civilization is in danger..."

President Trump said in Warsaw on Thursday that Western civilization was at risk of decline, and under threat from “radical Islamic terrorism” and “the creep of government bureaucracy.”

Indeed it is... but not from external enemies...

Radical Islam, the Jihadists, are just a catalyst for the decaying West... The government bureaucracies are there to serve and protect the 1%... Check the streets of Hamburg... The system is protecting the rulers of the world... The system is not distinguishing between "Western liberals" and "Western dictators..." They are protecting autocrats like Trukey's Erdogan and oligarchs like Putin... also they are protecting "democrats" like the Merkel-Macron axis...
Indeed,
Western civilization is threatened and is endangered because of the GREED of the 1%... 
Lies like "Weapons of Mass Destruction...," threats of Islamic-Jihadists and disruptions of Russian spying-hacking-trolling are just external stimulants speeding up the decay of "Western democracies..."
The main menace for the "Western Liberal Democracies" is the more and more unbridled, insatiable and rapacious greed of the 1% which is essentially based on the profit motive and exploitation of the people by the ruling 1% of each country...
***************************************** 

This is in Hamburg... Germany...

As the sign declares... Capitalist greed has become the religion of the 1%... The 1% and its staunch protectors... the G20 leaders... Of course some are more democratic that others... Of course... Erdogan's Trukey, Putin's Russia, and Saudi Arabia are oligarchic/monarchic dictatorships... and of course Trump is fascinated by their power... and of course global citizens are resisting... 

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Turkey protested officially to Germany on Tuesday that an artist had been allowed to set up an installation in central Berlin, apparently offering a car as a prize in exchange for killing dictatorship...

The installation was set up outside the offices of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday, comprising a Mercedes C-class car and banners with pictures of Erdogan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman.

"Do you want this car? Kill dictatorship!" said the slogan.

The "art-banner" reads... "Do you want this car? Kill dictatorship!" said the slogan... Notice that the slogan did not invite people to kill people... BUT TO KILL DICTATORSHIP... in Turkey... in Saudi Arabia... in Russia... and topple the dictatorship of the 1%...

*************************************

Turkey... arrests human rights advocates...

Turkish police have arrested eight leading human rights activists including Amnesty International's Turkey director Idil Eser in Istanbul...

Idil Eser was among those detained during a raid at a hotel on the Turkish island of Buyukada...

Yes Western Civilization is in peril... but because of the Greed of the 1%...
Greed is the basis for the devastation of the African economies... Greed is the cause for the wars in the Middle East... and the civil war in Syria...
Greed is the reason for the pillage and plunder of Africa and the Middle East... and therefor the greed of the 1% is the reason of the world refugee crisis... 
The refugee crisis which has overwhelmed Europe and North America... is the globalization of the homelessness and is caused by the greed of the 1% ..........

The greed of the 1%... The cost of dictatorship...

Thou Shall Not Kill... The Commandment without ANY QUALIFIERS...

The Ten Commandments is not monument to decorate our lawns or to satisfy our egos... The Ten Commandments is not a supposed to be an initiation to hate or to exclude people from society...                                                                               The Ten Commandments must be a way of life... and smashing of the erected monument is exposing human hypocrisy and bureaucratic stupidity and ruling class (the 1%) dictatorship... 

******************************************************

Ten Commandments Monument Lasted Less Than 24 Hours

The Ten Commandments have become 
political tools for Evangelical zealots and 
conservative politicians... Because of their 
majorities in the state parliaments... They 
are acting like fascist dictators...

Less than a day after a monument of the 
Ten Commandments was installed 
outside the Arkansas State Capitol in 
Little Rock, it was destroyed when a 
man smashed a car into the stone.

***********************************

An encouraging News...

Sweden’s Radical Weapons Plan

Sweden is poised to take a radical step: imposing a “legislative ban on selling weapons to undemocratic regimes,” writes Leonid Bershidsky for Bloomberg View. Other countries wishing to score some soft power points should follow its lead. “Big Western arms exporters…may feel it would be unwise to subscribe to the kind of self-restrictions that Sweden is imposing and leave a large chunk of the global arms market to competitors such as Russia and China, which have no qualms about supplying any buyers as long as they’re not hostile to these countries,” Bershidsky says. “One could argue that weapons from these competitors are just as deadly, so repressive regimes’ military power would be undiminished and Western nations would merely lose revenue and jobs. Long-standing alliances would also be soured. Moral arguments are especially unpopular with the Trump administration.” “On the other hand, as the global center of soft power and moral leadership shifts to Europe, the leading European Union nations might like to make a point of only arming fellow democracies.” ***************************************************************** Let me just remind all... The Ten Commandments is not a stylish table erected in parks... If law makers, leaders, clergy, politicians... Presidents and Popes and all the people... of the world... should make it a living and breathing practice... Take just one of the commandments... "Thou shall NOT kill..." Very simple and straight forward... There are not qualifiers with it... which means: Thou shall not kill in wars... Thou shall not execute people for their crime... The mediocrity in leaders is a very dangerous phenomenon... half-educated people are extremely hazardous to the political norms and they generate half-truths which undermine our social norms and dislocate... disrupt the social mores... Erecting the Ten Commandments is generating hate... and rejecting the rest of society... making the rest of society as the dispensable others... The news above includes the phrase..." Western nations would merely lose revenue and jobs..." The commandment insists... Thou shall not kill... Not for revenue and not for providing jobs... In the Field of Dreams it says; "Build it and they will come..." and indeed if you manufacture weapons... you will use it... and when you use it, YOU WILL KILL... There are no good weapons that provide revenue and jobs... The revenue is BLOOD MONEY... and the jobs are just people washing their hands of our murderous culture and our the killing responsibilities...                  Christ before Pilate, Mihály Munkácsy, 1881... and eventually Pontius Pilate washed his hands... **************************************************************************************** Recently there was an arms deal with Saudi Arabia for over 100 billion dollars...  Saudi Arabia is a brutal monarchy... where human freedoms are trampled every day... where women have no rights as individuals... where people are stoned and bloggers are persecuted...  Saudi Arabia its allies have initiated the most extreme interpretation of Islam and have provided terrorists and monies for the Jihadist cause... They have attacked the U.S. and other "Western democracies..." Being their ally and selling weapons to them is immoral and inhuman... Saudi Arabia is as vicious as Iran... Saudi Arabia and Iran and Turkey are the propagators of Jihadist Islam... and are unreliable regimes... where human rights... and women's rights... and minority rights... and LGBTQ rights are suppressed... and denied... REVENUE and JOBS should not be immoral... inhuman... Greed and Profits should not dictate policies...  Human rights and human dignity must prevail... and we should not hide behind the fig leaves of Ten Commandment monuments... ****************************************************************************************

  Check the News Title...

China’s Navy Unveils Shiny New Toy China launched the first of a new generation of destroyers on Wednesday, which Reuters reports is “the most advanced and largest warship in Asia, the latest addition to the country’s rapidly expanding navy,” according to China's military.

Since when a killing machine is a "shiny... toy...?"

The immorality of the news media equals the greed of the 1%...  and the so called "free press" of the Western Democracies... is a tool for the 1% to lull the people and make them feel good...

Check below...

Pope Francis angered by the name of the bomb America's 'mother of all bombs' name

Pope Francis has criticised the naming of the US military's largest non-nuclear explosive ever used in combat as "the mother of all bombs". "I was ashamed when I heard the name," the pontiff told an audience of students at the Vatican. "A mother gives life and this one gives death, and we call this device a mother. What is going on?" he asked. Last month the US dropped such a bomb, which weighs 21,600lb (9,800kg), on Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.

I will not defend the church... I believe that organised religion is evil... But the Pope has a point... naming the bomb as mother... is immoral... is inhuman...         Mothers do not kill... should not kill...        *********************************** Ban the wars... and instead of erecting monuments of the Ten Commandments... live by it... after all, Thou Shall Not Kill...

Human Hypocrisy

Human hypocrisy - the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform...
*********************************************************************
I woke up early... before 6:00 a.m. and I am debating within me... 
"Should I add a blog post or maybe not...?"
I am having an existential debate for the past few years... with myself...! 
"Why should I write...? Why should I be involved...? After all NOTHING essentially changes... The stones are replaced by sticks... sticks are replaced by whips and slings... and then we have metal knives and metal weapons... we have catapults... and flying machines... and arms of all kinds... more sophisticated... faster and more effective killings machines... and be have dynamite... bombs of all kinds... and than nuclear weapons and nuclear bombs..."
Evolution for humankind is the evolution of killing machines... and killing fields...
Armenian Genocide... and then Ukrainian Holodomor... Jewish Holocaust... and then Rwanda... Bosnia-Srebrenica... and Darfur and Sudan... 
Genocides... ALL the genocides... now they are called Ethnic cleansing... Very sanitary...!
The battlefields... ALL the battlefields... now battlefields are called theaters ... Theaters of operation...
Indeed the wise man wrote... All the world is a stage... and fools acted... Fools created... Hiroshima... Nagasaki... Middle East... and all the rest from Troy to Athens to Dresden... to Pearl Harbour... and Mosul and Rakka... and the rest...
Refugees... Globalization of homelessness...
All these crowded my mind... and I woke up early... 
I went through the morning rituals... Open the windows for fresher air... brewed coffee... and watched the birds...
I always wanted to live by myself... alone in a monastery... But it did not happen... I jumped from one metropolis to the other...
and now I am tired... and frustrated...
The Myth of Sisyphus... is weighing heavy on me... and I wonder... To be or not to be... to write a post or not to...

In the past year, San Francisco spent $275 million to fight  homelessness. 

Yet it’s as bad as ever...
Maybe money is not the problem... Maybe it's human norms and attitudes and greed and shooting for profit...
Maybe...

  

The royals... the 1% and the others... the refugees... and the hungry... and the dispossessed ... Frantz Fanon called them The Wretched of the Earth... Fascinating writer... good philosopher...

The refugees roaming... wandering... the homeless of San Francisco... and New York and Los Angeles and Toronto and London and Paris and the rest...
Refugees... the globalization of the homeless... No one wants them... The royals pity them... Let them eat cake, they say... the 1% does not want them... they introduce Travel Ban...
Humans have evolved... But nothing has changed... 
Maybe we are cursed by God and stuck with the Myth of Sisyphus... forever...
*********************************

Ten Commandments Monument Lasted Less Than 24 Hours

Less than a day after a monument of the Ten Commandments was installed outside the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock, it was destroyed when a man smashed a car into the stone.

Human Hypocrisy is Smashed... 

After all, moral values are NOT monuments erected in a park... they are not just talking points... People should act on them...

GOOD Deeds Are Contagious TOO...

My morning walks are not eventful…

I enjoy the peace of aloneness and begin my celebration of 

the day… in my own way...

I see people rushing... and I try to guess... to where...?

What has puzzled me most are the homeless people I 

encounter along the way... 

I everyday see three homeless men under a tree with the 

shopping carts besides them...full of empty plastic bottles...

They chat... and laugh... and relax... 

When I first noticed them...that was few years ago... I was 

struck by the "normal" way they socialized and interacted 

with each other... 

They collect plastic water bottles from the refuse bins on 

the streets... and now I take my empty plastic bottles to 

them... sometimes I offer them food too... I don't know why 

they will not accept money... but still once in a while I try...

I wonder why there are homeless in affluent countries like 

the U.S. or the U.K. or Canada...and the rest... I never get 

used to the idea of homelessness... and I wonder... how all 

of us go home and enjoy the day...? how the pastors and 

the congregation go home to their meals after the routine 

church service...? and how the politicians of of the left and 

the right go home to their families after a "heated" debate 

on health care and taxes...?

How come the God of the Christians and the Muslims and 

the Jews and the Buddhists and the Chinese-Confucians and 

all the rest... How come God has forsaken the people...

I comprehend the 1% pursuing their greed... chasing the 

next million after the previous million... But I have hard 

time to understand God who has forsaken the people of the 

world in globalized need-despair... 

Maybe you have an answer... Maybe the pundits have a 

twisted rationalization... Maybe the priests and the rabbis 

and the mullahs and the shamans have a convoluted idea... 

a sermon of peace and patience... 

The globalized normal of misery and refugees and poverty 

and war and hunger... makes me think about how useless 

the God of organized religions is...

People think of replacing presidents and leaders... Maybe it 

is time to replace God... 

Maybe...

***

This happened the past week... few days ago...

A couple drove for about an hour to have dinner in a fancy 

Manchester-UK restaurant... and celebrate whatever...

But they were refused... because of dress code...

The weather was 

warm and the man 

was in sandals... Of 

course they were 

hungry and 

disappointed... 

They walked out...

Outside of the restaurant they saw a homeless man... 

John had new boots... a 

charity had distributed 

boots in that area few days 

ago...

The diner asked for John's 

shoe size... 13...The diner's was 9...

He asked if John will lend him the boots for few hours...

John agreed...

The couple dined... and were happy...

The homeless was happy too... He had helped the couple...

The couple in the restaurant... with the boots of the homeless John...

When the couple left the restaurant... the man offered 

money and thanked John... But John refused the money... 

Just like the homeless that I meet almost every day... 

Eventually, after the third, maybe fourth offer, John 

accepted a 10 pound bill...

A passerby witnessed the homeless with the couple and 

offered a 50 pound note... 

After all, GOOD things are contagious... too... 

One man's solution... Go to Disneyland

The world is in turmoil...
The US is in its longest war... Afghanistan...
The Middle East was once the cradle of civilization... but now 
is imploding... the absolute monarchies... Sheikdoms... on the 
one hand and reactionary religious regimes on the other are 
on collision course... and the Western world fanning the war 
winds... The West has always stirred the War Gods... for their 
profit... The profit motive is a powerful incentive for the 1% in
the "Western democracies..."
Russia craves a share of the pie too... The West denies them 
that... and Russia embarks on a disruptive course...
The poorer counties are getting poorer... Climate change is 
devastating their economies... The wars are murdering 
thousands... Sudan and Nigeria and Congo and Somalia and 
the Middle East... All of theses are creating a refugee crisis...
Refugees are everywhere... and refugees are resentful...
Reactionary religious groups are fomenting hatred in society...
The reactionary Islam in the Middle East...
Turkey will ban teaching of evolution in Turkish schools...
The Saudi monarchy wants to export its style of "Monarchic-
religious democracy..." Whatever that means... The 
reactionary Saudi regime desires hegemony of the Middle 
East... But the Saudis have encountered Iran... and Turkey too.
The Evangelist Christians want to abolish the social freedoms 
of the West and in the US... 
Organized religion is evil... Be it the Islamic-ISIS-Jihadists or 
the narrow minded Christian-Evangelicalism of the West...
Indeed,
The world is in turmoil...
Religion is of no refuge...
The politicians of both the left and the right are kissing the ass 
of the 1%...  The politicians of both the left and the right are 
acting like ass holes...

... and one man's solution...
***************************
Something to do...

It started in 2012…

He, Jeff Reitz,  was unemployed… His friend, Tonya Mickesh, was unemployed too…

They wanted to keep their spirits up… so they visited America’s amusement park… Disneyland… near Los Angeles…

In order to keep their spirits up and bubbling… they started visiting the amusement park every day…

Later in 2012 Jeff found a job... Tonya got a job too...

They went their own ways... But Jeff continued to visit the park everyday...

***

Now… It has been 2000 days… Jeff has visited the park for 2000 consecutive days… and he plans to continue… Every day... at least till January 2018... He has a pass till then...

He has become a mini-celebrity... 

Disney has rewarded him with free accommodation at their hotel... near the park...

***

Something to do... in his own way...

***

I had a friend... He would have said, "He is allowed..." 

Indeed Jeff is allowed...

But the contradiction is still unavoidable... 

The world is in turmoil... Let's go to Disneyland...