TRUMP - Some people think......... How do you feel?

[Ritafee]

There are reasonable people on both sides. There are people who hold bizarre views on both sides

I tend to see the sides as 'poor' class and 'rich' class within the 'picking-a-side' political class landscape.

When one of the dudes holding all the money says the system is rigged, folks in power get nervous.

Morris Pearl, a proud “traitor to his class:” an uber-wealthy millionaire left a wildly lucrative investment career because ...

to put it simply, he was making way too much money.

As Pearl tells it in his new book, How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, he was having lunch with bank executives at the top of a swanky bank building in Athens, Greece when he looked out the window to see a half-protest, half-riot forming outside.

Pearl had a moment of clarity: the power and money concentrated in that room could have changed the lives of everyone gathering in the streets below, with plenty left over.

He left investment banking and never looked back, choosing instead to be a full-time advocate for an unusual crusade:

Pay regular people much more, and start taxing the rich again.

Morris Pearl is part of a group called Patriotic Millionaires, a group of some of the nation’s wealthiest people ...

Fed up with the way their fellow rich people are re-writing our laws to screw over everyone who isn’t them.

They’re becoming a major thorn in the side of billionaires and lawmakers.

Every time a Paul Ryan pops up with some line about job creators, the Patriotic Millionaires are there to call bulls**t.

Pearl’s book is a rare look at tax code from the other side of the curtain ...

He knows exactly where the lies are, because the lies were written for him.

The Rich Can’t Get Richer Forever, Can They?

Inequality comes in waves. The question is when this one will break.

www.newyorker.com

 

[Luce NDs]

Face it folks ... the world as secular is crazy as Alice told the Mad Hatter ... could have been the heavy crimson pigment!

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

@Kimmio Laughterlove you've responded to my comments with a blast of "educative" posts about history and the dangers of right-wing politics. Would you please explain what made you think I need this education. Please explain succinctly.

Perhaps I need to clarify. I am alarmed at the polarization of our world today. We are in our camps or tribes and rarely speak to the "other side". We demonize the other side, and blame all the evils of the world on them. Both sides do that. It is not healthy. This type of polarization is very dangerous and creates space for the types of things you warn about.

I've been in discussions with people online who call themselves conservative and I have been subjected to a variation of the communication I see here. Most notably, assumptions have been made about my beliefs based on minimal information. Of course the assumptions were wrong. I've been called stupid, emotional and a snowflake. All these tactics only serve to shut down discussion. It's sad really. The people with whom I've interacted only want what's best and I believe we could actually agree on a few things if we could discuss. I did have one notable discussion with someone about having a gun for protection where we each could understand the other's perspective, and could respect it.

There are reasonable people on both sides. There are people who hold bizarre views on both sides. The extreme of each side is dangerous. Both sides have ways of shutting down discourse which is dangerous.

Let me remind you that I started (many posts ago) by saying there are reasonable people on the conservative "side" who are just as alarmed about the way things are heading. We need to work together with those people and to hear their views. This is even when we disagree. Perhaps it is even more important to have discourse when we disagree.

Racism does seem to be increasing. It is increasing because of the fear of "The Other". The only way to deal with this fear is to face it.

I’m not trying to “teach” you as if you don’t know anything. I realize you are smart and I am talking to you about what I learned. You mentioned grass roots conservatism, and it reminded me of the far right groups that have really come about through various grassroots “activism”, or appeared to be, yet they are being steered by the powers that be in the far right. I was giving examples because i don’t want to be accused of paranoia and just making s**t up. I find it interesting but disconcerting that one of the folks who was a supposed victim of “anti-free speech universities” - she was a p/t professor/ instructor...is now in a romantic relationship with a far right media manipulator (had a baby with him in fact), and is writing racist articles herself...blatantly (that have tones of neonazi ideology in them)...after crying about how she was so censored but claimed that she “wasn’t” pushing a far right narrative (which is what she was reprimanded for) . Turns out she wasn’t being honest, but she got a ton of attention to herself and to JP...who has gone on to collaborate with Charlie Kirk, and Trump Jr. at the far right wing youth organization called Turning Points USA, funded by the Kochs. So, that’s where the “grassroots activism” took her... and I was pointing out what has gone on in Italy should absolutely not escape our notice if we believe in “never again”. I just don’t understand how people who believe that can say we need to tolerate this stuff..it makes no sense because it’s so insidious and deliberate how it seeps in. I’m confronting it with speech and I feel like others are making excuses or trying to shift blame...which is what they want people to do. I guess, in that case, it makes perfect sense. It just upsets me.


I mean, how is tolerating the views of JP and others like him working out so far, in these past couple of years? Well, for the far right it seems to me.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I tend to see the sides as 'poor' class and 'rich' class within the 'picking-a-side' political class landscape.

When one of the dudes holding all the money says the system is rigged, folks in power get nervous.

Morris Pearl, a proud “traitor to his class:” an uber-wealthy millionaire left a wildly lucrative investment career because ...

to put it simply, he was making way too much money.

As Pearl tells it in his new book, How to Think Like a Patriotic Millionaire: Taxes, he was having lunch with bank executives at the top of a swanky bank building in Athens, Greece when he looked out the window to see a half-protest, half-riot forming outside.

Pearl had a moment of clarity: the power and money concentrated in that room could have changed the lives of everyone gathering in the streets below, with plenty left over.

He left investment banking and never looked back, choosing instead to be a full-time advocate for an unusual crusade:

Pay regular people much more, and start taxing the rich again.

Morris Pearl is part of a group called Patriotic Millionaires, a group of some of the nation’s wealthiest people ...

Fed up with the way their fellow rich people are re-writing our laws to screw over everyone who isn’t them.

They’re becoming a major thorn in the side of billionaires and lawmakers.

Every time a Paul Ryan pops up with some line about job creators, the Patriotic Millionaires are there to call bulls**t.

Pearl’s book is a rare look at tax code from the other side of the curtain ...

He knows exactly where the lies are, because the lies were written for him.

The Rich Can’t Get Richer Forever, Can They?

Inequality comes in waves. The question is when this one will break.

www.newyorker.com

Ah, the old “I can tell you about how corrupt the rich guys are because I’m a rich guy”...Trump used that, didn’t he? Maybe he’s just got a more palatable version of the same message.


If he gives it all away, save for what he needs, then publishes a book...I might believe him.

 

[GeoFee]

the power and money concentrated in that room could have changed the lives of everyone gathering in the streets below, with plenty left over.

This is a key to opportunity, if those with the capacity will dare open the door. To reverse the notion that material wealth is the reward for human thought expressed as action. Rather, to embrace the notion of the common good, with each offering the best of their ability in caring service. I suspect this is the model Jesus established by his words and deeds. It also seems consistent with many indigenous cultures in many contexts. I remember reading about an indigenous people on the northern plains of America. A person's worth was not measured by how many ponies they owned. A person's worth was measured by how many ponies they shared with the people. Now I am thinking of a team of hunters bringing a slain creature to the village. A feast not only for the hunters. A feast for the people. In the context of story-telling, singing and dancing.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

Most of the time I meet people and it takes a long time to discover their politics because nobody wants to talk about it. I don’t like feeling horrified to learn that someone I know supports Bernier or Scheer, so I try to avoid politics with them...hoping a glimmer of insight will come from elsewhere because don’t get me started or I might walk away from a friendship. I have already done that and I don’t want to have a bunch of ex friends...no it doesn’t feel good, but neither does compromising my principles. It’s a quandry for me...and so, yes I do tolerate them (to the point where things are off limits for discussion)...but I think they are being deceived, big time.

 

[GeoFee]

There is an ancient Hebrew custom rooted in law. It is know as the Year of Jubilee. A year in which all accumulated wealth is redistributed. Jesus notices this when he tells a rich young ruler to sell all and feed the poor. Tough pill for the fellow to swallow. No doubt he pondered the choice for a good while. Then Pentecost occurs. It may be that the hesitant young ruler made his choice and became a member of the apostolic community. This community being the body of Christ practicing solidarity through the love of God and neighbour. A matter of dying to one way of being in the world and rising to express another. Deliverance from the addiction to power by which we are being ruined.

 

[Northwind]

So @Kimmio Laughterlove you only seem to have read the first paragraph of my post. I said nothing about tolerating nor did I speak of JP or universities. Alas.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

So @Kimmio Laughterlove you only seem to have read the first paragraph of my post. I said nothing about tolerating nor did I speak of JP or universities. Alas.

I answered the way I answered. What exactly are you wanting me to say? You really frustrate me sometimes. You asked me why I thought you needed education, and why I posted those articles to you...I explained that I was discussing those with you because I saw them relevant to your point about grassroots conservatism. Universities (because they are grassroots incubators in general) and JP, are unfortunately part of that so called grassroots conservatism, because of him and Lindsay Shephard...they are connected to and influencers of the bigger picture of “grassroots conservatism” which has led right into the lap of the far right...so I mentioned them.

 

[Northwind]

Deliverance from the addiction to power by which we are being ruined

How do we counter the addiction to power?

 

[Northwind]

I answered the way I answered. What exactly are you wanting me to say?

I don't want you to answer any specific way. It just would have been nice if your answer reflected signs you had read and considered what was written. Instead, it was a continuance of your ideology and a form of lecture.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I don't want you to answer any specific way. It just would have been nice if your answer reflected signs you had read and considered what was written. Instead, it was a continuance of your ideology and a form of lecture.

It is what I think, is what it is.

 

[Northwind]

It is what I think, is what it is.

Okay. So actual discussion is not possible.

 

[GeoFee]

I gained insight watchin Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". Leaving an idyllic context to put an end to the domination of power. The formation of a community dedicated to the task. Each with a distinctive character and ability. The journey turning arduous as power seeks to thwart the guiding vision. The casting of power into the destroying flame. The return home.

Frodo's last moments seem much like the last moments of Jesus. A completion of a journey seeking the healing of creature and creation.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

Okay. So actual discussion is not possible.

Not true. I just don’t know what you want from me. I don’t agree we need to tolerate far right views ...I can’t compromise my principles and confront far right creep at the same time....unless we just stay silent. And what good is that?

 

[GeoFee]

Hi Kimmio,

I admire and appreciation you dedication to your own point of view regarding the possibility of revival and renewal. I am not so sure about your presentation of your perspective as the only possible perspective. We are diverse human being with diverse perspectives. We will not be united by the dominance of one perspective. We will be liberated and united in our embrace of difference and our determination to express our personal vocation as a contribution to the common good.

George

 

[Northwind]

I'll have to check that and watch or read it again @GeoFee

And yet @Kimmio Laughterlove I made reference to rational, not far-right views. I also made reference to polarization. When we see only in terms of the extreme, we are part of the problem.

 

[Northwind]

We are diverse human being with diverse perspectives.

Thank God for that.

We will be liberated and united in our embrace of difference and our determination to express our personal vocation as a contribution to the common good.

Amen. I don't want to live in a world where we all think the same. The movie "The Giver" explores what happens in such a world very well.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

I'll have to check that and watch or read it again @GeoFee

And yet @Kimmio Laughterlove I made reference to rational, not far-right views. I also made reference to polarization. When we see only in terms of the extreme, we are part of the problem.

I think we have to be very aware that the far right extreme is what is the danger right now. I don’t think I am extreme for pointing out the ways in which it has encroached into mainstream life.

 

[Kimmio Laughterlove]

Thank God for that.




Amen. I don't want to live in a world where we all think the same. The movie "The Giver" explores what happens in such a world very well.

I don’t believe we need to all think the same but neonaziism is something I think should not be included. And ideologies that lead to poverty, racism, and abject suffering of the marginalized should not be included if we strive for a just world, either. We’re responsible for each other as well as ourselves. Eat what you want, wear what you want, listen to what music you want, live in a shack or a house or a van, go where you want, go to a church or a temple or not, sleep when you want, get up when you want, take whatever drugs you want or not, sleep with whoever you’re mutually attracted to...just don’t do stuff that hurts other people. And the most vulnerable always get hurt the most.