Tannishblog

Am I the only one who doesn’t care about the imminent interment of Michael Jackson? I’ve been wondering this all week, followed closely by the observation that, in this brave, new century the News Media is utterly clueless about what people care about. They are anachronistic constructs of a by-gone era doomed to follow the Edsel. I will not miss them.

Micheal and Farrah aren’t the only ones that died this week. So, too, did the Old Media. Not a tear is shed.

I’ve been preoccupied in recent weeks with my Only Child’s imminent entrance to College Life. She will be fine, I’m sure, as she has more life skills in hand than anyone I ever knew at that age. What I’ve been pondering is the change in home life after she’s gone.

My marriage is strong, but I would be fooling myself to say we haven’t - by necessity - grown somewhat apart. How far apart remains to be known as we both reach toward the other across the gap. Will we have the reach? This concerns me.

Too, reaching fifty years is not a happy contemplative occasion. This also awaits me near the end of this year. The lengthening list of “Lasts” this small family is accruing adds solemnity to the celebrations of High School graduation: the last orchestra concert, the last jazz band show, the last piano recital, and - occurring this weekend - her last dance recital weekend. Forthcoming is her last art lesson, her last piano lesson and other, tinier closings of a previous life. These add to the “Getting Old” feeling I haven’t shrugged off lately.

So - a changing of gears, a new beginning for my daughter as well as for my marriage. We will persevere, but not without a healthy dose of trepidation. I am reminded of a quote:

“Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter;
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.”

–Zen master Wu-men

Six months is enough vacation. Time to start writing again…

What happens to a President-Flogging-End-Of-The-World_Is-Nigh kind of blog when a new administration begins? One that I helped elect?

It goes on vacation.

I’ve still been watching politics, waiting for the "A hah!" stroke of inspiration, but it hasn’t come. Unlike Cowboy politics, discourse and diplomacy takes time. Also, a reasoned approach to politics is lousy as a spectator sport. This is bad news for Mr Obama. His thoughtfulness and eloquence makes for few sound bites. Even the New York Times has trouble quoting the President in its Quote of the Day snippets.

I’ll give the Republicans one thing: They know how a little swagger and machismo can conquer the nightly news. Obama needs some of that.

Maybe he needs to open his shirt a bit for photo ops, or sometimes wear bling and a brim. Or maybe he can sign legislation in sweaty tees with a basketball tucked under one arm. Photos of him talking to heads of state with his feet on the desk would go a lot further if he wore vintage Air Jordons. Surely these tactics would propel his image as An Average Guy With Brains (as opposed to an effete intellectual, or some such.) This stuff is Sound Bite Heaven and is just as manly as clearing brush.

Then perhaps people will forget that half a year has gone by and not much has changed. Before Change You Can Believe in becomes Change You Have To Wait For.

I have a fascination with Society’s Decline. This is the central theme on Tannishblog, although I had no idea at inception. "Civilization is a fragile construct," I often say - only to meet silence and odd looks. These days we can see society tremor from unstable systems and practices reaching inevitable conclusions: Climate Change; Global Banking meltdown; A Housing Crisis in America; Unwarranted warfare; Political corruption, and hundreds of slayings of infinite variety. All occur as expressions of self-centeredness. Hatred, fear, greed, disinterest in our environment or in each other are cause of the above symptoms of civilization’s destruction.

Yet some voices of truth can still be heard:

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.

                   – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I can almost hear you scoff: "Yeah, right!" you say. Take a moment to think about it. We have not been taught, in the Western Society, to cherish these qualities. Your dismissal of such messages are a result of years of being told and sold the opposite message.

"What’s in it for me?"
"Show me the money."
"Looking out for Number One."
"Taking care of business."
"Me first!"

"Me First" is exactly what is killing us. Compassion and Empathy is what can reverse our course. People want that, Barack Obama’s appeal is that he exudes compassion, that he cares about others. Most just don’t know how to express this most basic human quality as he can.

And that’s sad, isn’t it?

Thanks the gods the election is finally over. Thank them further for the only correct outcome. I confess, I wasn’t sure my countrymen had the faculties to make the right choice.

For that. America, I apologize. It may take many lumps on the head, but we eventually see the light.

As for our increased Democratic congress… Get To F-ing Work! I expect results without excuses. WE delivered, now its your turn. Lets start by amassing evidence against Bush & Cheney so we can try them as war criminals as citizens - before they both flee to nations without extradition treaties with the United States.

Other that that, a huge sigh of relief. I slept real well last night….

Increasingly over the past year, lyrics from an old Elvis Costello song arise, unbidden, from my sub conscience. The concept of the End of Days is becoming more real to me.

I’m no born-again evangelist - far from it; I don’t see a Christian Rapture in our future. I can’t help feeling, though, that people inclined to such concepts may be stacking the deck toward Armageddon just so they can stand in the ashes of civilization and scream "I told you so!"

Our teetering toward disaster coincides well with the rise in power of the Christian Right in America. Indeed, it is the policies and business interests of the God-fearing that brought us fiscal insolvency of banking institutions and corporate socialism, two un-winnable wars and a bankrupt nation. I am reminded of George Warmonger Bush in 2000 telling the press he answers to a higher father than his biological sire. I think he got his deities confused. Based upon the decisions made, our Despot-in-Chief may be chatting up the wrong dude.

Being the self-proclaimed "Decider," GWB has become the fall guy for failed policy, but he’s had plenty of help. Since November 2006, when the Democrats in congress became the majority again, I have painfully witnessed the duplicity of my Party-of-Choice. As exemplified by Nancy Pelosi’s treasonous refusal to hold our government accountable for demonstrable criminal tactics, I acknowledge the hard truth: We’re Doomed.

Even our media’s Favorite Son cannot deliver redemption to our broken civilization. Not without hard sacrifices by every American can we expect our nation to repair itself. Given the willful self-delusion of most of us, the self-absorption and greed, I can’t see that happening. no-one will sacrifice they’re lifestyle, if we can continue to pretend that lifestyle is not bourn upon the backs of the poorest nations on earth. As much as I like, and will vote for, Obama, redemption is not in his power.

I can hear the distant screams of the steeds of the four horsemen. You can too if you listen…

While the world and its media beasts are distracted by the Olympic spirit, complete with it’s altruistic dream of human coexistence, a joint fleet of US and British ships are on their way to form a blockade of Iran.

An Illegal blockade mean to provoke Iranian hostilities further:

The build up of naval forces in the Gulf will be one of the largest multi-national naval armadas since the First and Second Gulf Wars. The intent is to create a US/EU naval blockade (which is an Act of War under international law) around Iran (with supporting air and land elements) to prevent the shipment of benzene and certain other refined oil products headed to Iranian ports. Iran has limited domestic oil refining capacity and imports 40% of its benzene. Cutting off benzene and other key products would cripple the Iranian economy. The neo-cons are counting on such a blockade launching a war with Iran.

The "largest multi-national naval armada" is not hyperbole:

The US Naval forces being assembled include the following:

Carrier Strike Group Nine
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing Two
Destroyer Squadron Nine:
USS Mobile Bay (CG53) guided missile cruiser
USS Russell (DDG59) guided missile destroyer
USS Momsen (DDG92) guided missile destroyer
USS Shoup (DDG86) guided missile destroyer
USS Ford (FFG54) guided missile frigate
USS Ingraham (FFG61) guided missile frigate
USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG60) guided missile frigate
USS Curts (FFG38) guided missile frigate
Plus one or more nuclear hunter-killer submarines

Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group
USS Peleliu (LHA-5) a Tarawa-class amphibious assault carrier
USS Pearl Harbor (LSD52) assult ship
USS Dubuque (LPD8) assult ship/landing dock
USS Cape St. George (CG71) guided missile cruiser
USS Halsey (DDG97) guided missile destroyer
USS Benfold (DDG65) guided missile destroyer

Carrier Strike Group Two
USS Theodore Roosevelt (DVN71) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing Eight
Destroyer Squadron 22
USS Monterey (CG61) guided missile cruiser
USS Mason (DDG87) guided missile destroyer
USS Nitze (DDG94) guided missile destroyer
USS Sullivans (DDG68) guided missile destroyer

USS Springfield (SSN761) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine

IWO ESG ~ Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group
USS Iwo Jima (LHD7) amphibious assault carrier
with its Amphibious Squadron Four
and with its 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
USS San Antonio (LPD17) assault ship
USS Velia Gulf (CG72) guided missile cruiser
USS Ramage (DDG61) guided missile destroyer
USS Carter Hall (LSD50) assault ship
USS Roosevelt (DDG80) guided missile destroyer

USS Hartfore (SSN768) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine

Carrier Strike Group Seven
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing 14
Destroyer Squadron 7
USS Chancellorsville (CG62) guided missile cruiser
USS Howard (DDG83) guided missile destroyer
USS Gridley (DDG101) guided missile destroyer
USS Decatur (DDG73) guided missile destroyer
USS Thach (FFG43) guided missile frigate
USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7) fast combat support ship

Also likely to join the battle armada:

UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal Carrier Strike Group with assorted guided missile destroyers and frigates, nuclear hunter-killer submarines and support ships

French Navy nuclear powered hunter-killer submarines (likely the Amethyste and perhaps others), plus French Naval Rafale fighter jets operating off of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the French Carrier Charles de Gaulle is in dry dock, and assorted surface warships

Various other US Navy warships and submarines and support ships. The following USN ships took part (as the "enemy" forces) in Operation Brimstone and several may join in:

USS San Jacinto (CG56) guided missile cruiser
USS Anzio (CG68) guided missile cruiser
USS Normandy (CG60) guided missile cruiser
USS Carney (DDG64) guided missile destroyer
USS Oscar Austin (DDG79) guided missile destroyer
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG81) guided missile destroyer
USS Carr (FFG52) guided missile frigate

This news is startling, to be sure, Even US friend and beneficiary, Kuwait is worried, issuing a "War Alert" in preparation for the hostilities.

And what are the NeoCon Christian Dominuists overlords calling this new escalation? Operation Brimstone. Now that the joint training in the Atlantic is finished, it’s time to start the fires of hell.

I feel a storm brewing. Like a silent building of the tsunami undercurrent in our society. Disparate energies of outrage and disbelief are pushing the currents to violent expression. Too often a complacent, distracted and comfortable populous remain willfully ignorant of illegal, and outrageous efforts to keep them so. Yet eventually, even the soundest of disbelievers and sleepwalkers must awaken.

So it begins. Everyday more evidence energizes the undercurrents:

The Whole 9/11 Discontinuity and the lingering concern that it was orchestrated from within; The death of Industrial Fishing; Lying us into War with no plans to win. The REAL reason Iran is so dangerous to the US; President Bush’s Attempt at Pardoning HIMSELF!!!; and Cheney Wanted Climate Report Edited

Snooping, Spying, Eavesdropping upon us by our trusted institutions. Bailing out predatory lenders and shifting the burden on the middle class.

Outsourcing Military functions to Private and Mercenary Corporations via no-bid and cost plus contracts. And the inevitable waste of tax payer dollars this creates. There are no cries of outrage when the American Vice President leverages his position to further the gains of the Corporation he left behind, and will surely return to.

A Supreme Court that favorers corporate interests over the people it is supposed to represent. Un-elected government officials Ignoring a government subpoena to testify before congress.

And Now, Wall Street Socialism.

I’ve had enough bad news, have you?

Thanks to Brasscheck TV:

Congressman Wexler interviews the “Attorney General” puppet of this Administration. You owe it to your family to see this, late though it may be.