***** Understanding the fundamental roots of conflict and suffering: An interview with Rich Forer

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/understanding-the-fundamental-roots-of-conflict-and-suffering-an-interview-with-rich-forer/

St Patrick's day. My friend just enlightened me. ''It is strange that in my family the potato famine was talked about often. The deliberate starvation of the Irish people. I learned nothing about it in American school. But hey people in America think St. Pats day is a wonderful thing. Yet not to my family........ '''

It is strange that in my family the potato famine was talked about often. The deliberate starvation of the Irish people.
I learned nothing about it in American school. But hey people in America think St. Pats day is a wonderful thing. Yet not to my family... He was a horror. The snakes he drove from Ireland.... Non Christians.... Gypsy, Druid, and other religious and native culture people's.  When I was little the teacher told us to wear green to celebrate and I told my family I had to do it... Lol I was sent in black clothing with a note... We do not celebrate this day as it is the celebration of a man who  was evil itself.
Strange they don't teach about the real story in schools...

***** Regarding Bernie and me: despite that I find him a godsend, last chance for us all, I am aware that my nervous system has kept me on the sidelines.......

***** Regarding Bernie and me:  despite that I find him a godsend, last chance for us all, I am aware that my nervous system has kept me on the sidelines, just sending on favorable posts, but not diving in with what little resources I have or time to support the campaign. I think I have just understood why. A combination of feeling that the odds were too low that he would win the nomination, and not being drawn into efforts to win an election, that that was not promising enough. Now that it appears extremely unlikely that he will win the nomination I suspect I will begin working substantially , including limited funds, toward the campaigning. Odd, right? The reason is that now I feel that any efforts are less about getting him elected, not that that wouldn't be wonderful, but more about building, and advancing, sowing the seeds for, doing the education for.. a movement. I don't think I can resist participating in, working in furtherance of, that. And yes, this is contrary to what I had earlier said, that I would not work to advance anyone, that had not taken an unequivocal stand against the genocide of Palestine. But as I wrote last week I have undergone a substantial shift in that I seem to be finally finally finally metabolising that the disintegration of society and Humanity has begun but that there are still current and future survivors to protect and help, even in Palestine, and surely Bernie is the way Superior option in that regard for Palestine than are any of the other candidates.

***** drop-in centers. The best way to reach homeless kids is rarely used

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/the-best-way-to-reach-homeless-kids-is-rarely-used/2016/03/14/c6b168b6-e6e0-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html

LA sued over seizure of homeless people's belongings

http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/14/58542/la-sued-over-homeless-sweeps-law/

***** Witness. A one-in-a-million glimpse at what it is to be a human being. God bless his little soul.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BS2JIPOIhoM

***** People pushed absolutely to the wall can be the luckiest of us all because sometimes they find that they have nothing left but to act for pure morality, pure goodness, pure Justice itself, the ultimate aesthetic experience, the ultimate ecstasy. This is much what I experience in my life from moment to moment. And it is what I have always envied, always craved, without for the longest time knowing what it was.

***** People pushed absolutely to the wall can be the luckiest of us all because sometimes they find that they have nothing left but to act for pure morality, pure goodness, pure Justice itself, the ultimate aesthetic experience, the ultimate ecstasy. This is much what I experience in my life from moment to moment. And it is what I have always envied, always craved, without for the longest time knowing what it was.

***** Israeli soldier says it is his job to frighten 5-year-old Palestinians

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/israeli-soldier-says-it-is-his-job-to-frighten-5-year-old-palestinians/

Scientists can tell when your motives are truly altruistic, and when you’re secretly being selfish

http://qz.com/638021/scientists-can-tell-when-your-motives-are-truly-altruistic-and-when-youre-secretly-being-selfish/

Ontario to test guaranteed minimum income to ease poverty

http://globalnews.ca/news/2575120/ontario-to-test-guaranteed-minimum-income-to-ease-poverty/

***** WE PALESTINIANS WAKE UP EVERY DAY AND TEACH THE REST OF THE WORLD LIFE, SIR. The Palestinians are a breathtaking, impossibly, divinely Humane people. Maybe the most Humane people on Earth. Of course we are trying to exterminate them. They show the rest of us to be the Twisted cripples that we are.

WE PALESTINIANS WAKE UP EVERY DAY AND TEACH THE REST OF THE WORLD  LIFE, SIR. The Palestinians are a breathtaking, impossibly, divinely Humane people. Maybe the most Humane people on Earth. Of course we are trying to exterminate them. They show the rest of us to be the Twisted cripples that we are.

Neither Obama or Trump have created this disease unbridled ignorant hatred that we see sweeping across the country.. Between them they have simply caused it to come into the open. Now.......

Neither Obama or Trump have created this disease unbridled ignorant hatred that we see sweeping across the country.. Between them they have simply caused it to come into the open. Now we get to see if the antibodies, the people of goodwill, are strong enough, numerous enough, good enough, able enough to go beyond their lip service good intentions, to deal with it before it kills the body.

***** To reformulate slightly something that I've seen and admired on Facebook recently, and to encapsulate everything that I know and believe, if you want to be joyful and have less suffering in your life, devote.......

***** To reformulate slightly something that I've seen and admired on Facebook recently, and to encapsulate everything that I know and believe, if you want to be joyful and have less suffering in your life, devote your life to helping the neediest be more joyful, and have less suffering in their lives. That's what I live for well over a decade now and having tried everything else that Society has to offer that Path is the Holy Grail.

Although it may well appear the opposite, joyful is how I would categorize my every breath. Agonized but joyful. I envy no one on earth or in history their quality of life.

Although it may well appear the opposite, joyful is how I would categorize my every breath. Agonized but joyful. I envy no one on earth or in history their quality of life.

To the Liberals constantly disparaging, attacking, belittling, taunting the uneducated, ignorant Americans, stop it!!! Do you taunt.......

To the Liberals constantly disparaging, attacking, belittling, taunting the uneducated, ignorant Americans, stop it!!! Do you taunt people who are physically crippled? Not in public you don't. And you attacked those who do. The white, uninformed, uneducated people that you constantly disparage have been systematically and deliberately crippled intellectually and informationally by the rulers. They are in revolt against you and you deserve it. Figure out how to help them, how to make up for your years of neglect and bigotry, and stop attacking them.

***** Sanders is no better an individual in my view, and less capable by far, then President Obama. We saw how much difference it makes who the president is, very very little, unless.....

***** Sanders is no better an individual in my view, and less capable by far, then President Obama. We saw how much difference it makes who the president is, very very little, unless the citizenry remains militantly and totally committed on the stage every day along side of that individual for as long as they are in office. And we totally completely 100% failed to do this as Citizens for all eight years that President Obama was in office. One of the things I love about Sanders, and I did about Obama too, is they are very explicit about this. We ignored Obama in this obvious truth. If we elect Sanders, and we continue to ignore this obvious truth, on my god do we deserve what we get.

I don't think it's the money with Hilary, I think it's being a member of the club, finally. She was born outside the club of the financial Elites. And her pitiful little ego, she will do anything to anybody to remain in that club now. I think that's entirely what she is about. Pleasing the Masters. Remaining a member of the club.

I don't think it's the money with Hilary, I think it's being a member of the club, finally. She was born outside the club of the financial Elites. And her pitiful little ego, she will do anything to anybody to remain in that club now. I think that's entirely what she is about. Pleasing the Masters. Remaining a member of the club.

***** I seem to be undergoing a sea change........

I seem to be undergoing a sea change.

Shame on any who saw the error of my ways, or the oversight, and did not tell me.

Beginning October last year I shifted from 100% focus on renewable energy, to 0% focus on renewable energy, stopping global warming, on the basis that fighting to save a civilization, a species, Humanity, that is so Savage that they sit by while a genocide in Palestine goes into the year 70, well, my loyalty to that species was gone and I was not going to fight to save it.

More recently my admiration, my love, for Bernie Sanders, has probably been all too clear from my postings, but I've also been clear that I would not and could not vote for him unless and until he came out unequivocally against the genocide in Palestine.

Well, I seem to be undergoing a sea change. Here is what I mean. Since October of last year I have been fighting for the Palestinian part of my family to have basic human rights, despite the fact that I realized I was totally failing, that anyone fighting this is failing. All of the money and all the weapons in the world are on the side of the u.s. Israeli extermination land grab of Palestine. But I figured that my fighting was something I needed to do anyway, and I figured that in some way I might be slightly reducing the amount of suffering that these victims must endure.

The sea change is that I now see environmental work, and voting for Bernie Sanders in that same light. Yes, my loyalty to a species that perpetrates this Palestinian genocide is gone. But not my loyalty to the victims, that is not gone. My loyalty to the victims of our Criminal Savage Beastial use of fossil fuels is not gone. And the election of Bernie Sanders slows down the global warming machine and the other ways that the u.s. Empire corporate fascist machine tortures torments terrorizes and terminates the needy in this country, and Palestine, and around the world. Even any and all work if otherwise doomed to fail 2 attempt to get president Sanders elected has that benefit because it is education to the country and to the world of the type of world we should have.

Like I say, a sea change. Exactly how it will manifest I'm not sure but in my work, manifest, it will.

***** I have reached, and implemented, a final decision regarding my housing.Never in any way did.....

***** I have reached, and implemented, a final decision regarding my housing.

Never in any way did I attempt to drag out this process and it was to my total shock and amazement that day after day, week after week, month after month the housing system never was in a position to finalize the offer  they originally told me of back in November. Consequently, my decision to refuse the housing to stay in what I considered best lived solidarity with the least of these my sisters and brothers, I expected to be long executed and past in early December.

Only last week was the housing system in a position to do so at which point I stated my major outstanding question, could I liberally use this one bedroom apartment to help in particular my friend who has Ms? And by Wednesday of last week the answer came back, we regret to say, no that is not possible.

Well, that precipitated another couple of days of hemming and hawing on the part of my nervous system but within a couple of days I had, crystal clear, of course I will turn down the property so that every penny I have can continue to go to Palestine and other causes related to the abused poorest among us. Yes, my nervous system was clear, I have physical desires for a permanent place of my own, but those desires are just infinitely far down the list of my desires compared to my desires for A life of less horror and suffering for my children in Palestine and elsewhere.

But on Saturday I think it was in reviewing my second cause, beside Palestine, fighting against the war on the American poor, I was reviewing articles on gentrification and it hit me pretty hard that 1. Unless I accepted the property it could be fairly rapidly that I would be driven out of the city with the rest of the poor either through increased prices, criminalisation of the poor, and therefore imprisonment. If I thought this was the best way to serve I would do it in a heartbeat. But I think it is not the best way for me to serve, at least not at this point in time. The future could be different. 2. A second thought occurred to me for the first time, that this was not a lifetime decision, but a one year by one year venture. And finally, the clincher, 3. This would shift my vantage point and point of attack and that for a year that could be very useful to giving me new perspectives on my work and allowing me as a propertied resident of the city to work with various social, city, and civic organizations in ways that I am NOT allowed to as a homeless person. And after a year of getting my foot in the door as a propertied citizen, I been could return to homelessness but my foot is still in the door. Lol. This last one is a bit clandestine, which I rarely rarely allow myself, but in this case I am.

Yesterday I got the cashiers checks and secured the apartment, I'll take much of this week to transition out of the homeless shelter, but last night I slept on the floor of the apartment and now am doing laundry in the beautiful large laundry facility of this extremely nice building. A building, by the way, I'm happy to report, I am one of the only white faces. I wouldn't have it any other way.

This is in northeast DC in a rapidly gentrifying area, Brookland. I had not realized it was rapidly gentrifying but only this morning out for coffee it hit me in the face. Hugely, rapidly, gentrifying.     Today's vicious colonialism.

Already  my decision regarding the apartment is opening up a new perspective for me that there are a host of potential advantages to my being here this year, from accelerating my learning curve, to giving me a practical pragmatic foothold, in making some of my focus this particular community, maybe even this largely African American senior subsidized housing facility. Today, for example, for that reason, I may attend a meeting that I see for a community garden.

Or, I may skip that meeting for a1 o'clock meeting down at DC City Hall on Housing and gentrification.

I don't remember exactly but I think my apartment building, 635 Edgewood Street, 20017, apartment 525, it's about a two and a half three mile ride from the edge of the city itself, Union Station, on what appears to be a ridiculously safe, I rode it at 9 o'clock last night, bike path put in place exactly so that the previously lower middle class African American, undesirable, part of the city could be gentrified, colonized, taken over, by young white, elite, highly educated, over-privileged, urban professionals.

It will be interesting to see if I become just another white colonial over-privileged gentrifying cancer cell in the body of dc humanity, inhumanity, or if I become a healthy cell, an agent for a more humane process.

No, I expect to have virtually no impact, but it still will be true that I will be either a healthy cell, or, the only other option, a cancer cell. Of course, the only choice I see that has joy to it is to be of the type, healthy. But I live in the imperial city of hunger games, Dc, which is one massive temptation to become cancerous, self centered, self-serving, selfiish, detached, blissfully oblivious, to the needy that we trample through our selfishness. We don't intentionally trample the neediest. We choose selfishness and the result is the we trample the neediest, to depression, desperation, and death.

You know what occurred to me yesterday for the first time in my life? Probably 16/17 years ago as I was leaving the realm of being  intensive malignant colonial elitist cancer as an executive in high tech, in my intensive study I spent a lot of time studying Teresa of Calcutta because her books more than any other are filled with the word joy, literally, which I suspected, joy, was the true north of being a healthy human being. Everyday since, has proven that that was a correct perception. And further I was studying, and life every breath teaches me is correct, that joy is the fruit of loving,  and only the fruit of loving.

Well, it was in reading  a book written by Teresa of Calcutta that for the first time in my life I saw a word associated with a piece of Scripture that had always been sacred to me, ultimately sacred, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The word that I saw in the scripture for the very first time, in a book by Teresa, was the word all. Do unto others all, all, all, that you would have them do unto you. This was a lightning bolt to me. duh!!!! Do unto others all, all, all, all, all, all.....

So that was the translation of that scripture that I read in Teresa of Calcutta's book.

The revelation for me yesterday, after the last 17 years of studying and practicing militant Loving, what hit me for the very first time, lol, was that the definition of Loving is, do unto others all, all, ALL... that you would have them do unto you. Is there a more perfect, is there a definition as perfect, of Loving, than, do unto others all that you would have them do unto you?

Actually, I think there is. The quintessential definition of Loving requires inserting a gene slice from another part of Jesus DNA teaching, namely, least of these.

The perfect definition of Loving, as opposed to lusting which is near always what we mean by Loving, the perfect definition of Loving is: do unto the least of these all that you would have them do unto you. Hello! Am I the last one to make this connection??????

Friends, when people provide input on decisions I must make, such as my current Housing Choice, if I do not agree with or act in the direction of that input it.....

Friends, when people provide input on decisions I must make, such as my current Housing Choice, if I do not agree with or act in the direction of that input it does not mean I do not value it, or that I reject it, or that I dismiss it, or that I don't consider it. None of those virtually ever happens with me if someone gives thoughtful, honest input. If I do not comply or agree it is much more likely for reasons such as, I have embraced a value system that is totally contrary to the one that we have been carefully taught, for the best intended reasons, a value system that I embrace and that embraces me that is totally absolutely opposite and contrary to that which we university embrace in this now near dead rapidly dying culture, and a value system that is therefore all but incomprehensible to just about everyone but me. There could be other reasons but that's pretty much it.

If I accept the housing I think that....

If I accept the housing I think that it will enable me to attack things from a different angle and that is an experiment that might be worthwhile for a year. More than an experiment it may help me learn more quickly from a different perspective and achieve things that can benefit my work in the future. I feel very drawn to advocacy for my homeless and poor and abused brothers and sisters here in DC. See, the social services provided in DC tends to be a closed club that you cannot access, that is, you cannot assist with if you are among the homeless. They simply won't let you help. Which is pretty appalling in itself. But that's how it is. If I have housing I think it is possible that I can get a foot in the door, learn the strengths and weaknesses of the different groups and agencies as I can not do as a homeless person, and then a year from now quite possibly move back into homelessness but retain the access, leverage, and understanding I have to help those organizations do a better job than they could otherwise.

***** Students say pro-Israel group spreads hate at Columbia University

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/students-say-pro-israel-group-spreads-hate-columbia-university

Gentrification in a Brooklyn Neighborhood Forces Residents to Move On

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/nyregion/gentrification-in-a-brooklyn-neighborhood-forces-residents-to-move-on.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&referer=

How Gentrification Is Forcing Californians Out Of Their Communities "The middle class is disappearing and it’s getting harder for the working poor to get by at all."

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/bay-area-gentrification_us_56cdec76e4b041136f191b93

An Atlanta Neighborhood Tries To Redefine Gentrification

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/23/435293852/an-atlanta-neighborhood-tries-to-redefine-gentrification?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150923The

How to Get Rid of Your Landlord and Socialize American Housing, in 3 Easy Steps Homelessness, unaffordable urban real estate, devastating gentrification, and the housing bubble are all rooted in privatized housing.

http://www.thenation.com/article/how-to-get-rid-of-your-landlord-and-socialize-american-housing-in-3-easy-steps/

If you are good with military corporate rule, fascism, vote Hillary. If you consider that the lost, the final loss, of everything decent in the world, vote Bernie or don't vote at all.

If you are good with military corporate rule, fascism, vote Hillary. If you consider that the lost, the final loss, of everything decent in the world, vote Bernie or don't vote at all.

***** I am next to certain that on Monday I will accept this apartment. Lol. Yesterday I was certain I would turn it down. One of the issues.........

I am next to certain that on Monday I will accept this apartment. Lol. Yesterday I was certain I would turn it down,  stay in the shelter for The months that it is expected to remain open this year, and then to move back onto the streets so that every penny of my meager retirement can continue to be donated to Palestine and related causes. I was informed earlier in the week after what I think was honest and fair consideration , by the managers of this subsidized housing unit that they regrettably cannot allow the liberal visitation by my friend, a vet with MS, who even several weeks a month does not want to be alone in her apartment up by Dupont Circle. So the one basis on which I wanted to accept the property, helping my friend and others, has been ruled out.

 One of the issues, the second and only issue that I have added alongside Palestine to my daily focus is justice for the poor. Gentrification is one of the areas of that focus. Articles I've reviewed this morning highlight to me the rampant pace at which gentrification is happening in major US cities driving out all but the wealthy. This particular property, of roughly 10 that could enable me to stay in DC if and when they become available, this particular property appears to be the lowest price and the only one that would provide secure parking for my vehicle. I have much more thinking to do this weekend but as it currently stands, to my shock, I am likely to accept the property. This has been a very very very very challenging decision. I want the property, for me, to address the personal fears that I have for my well being and safety. The wonderful clarity that had come to me yesterday was yes, I have that desire, I have that fear, it's just way down the list vs my fear for my children in Palestine, people in Syria, African Americans and Native Americans in this country, the poor in South America that we continue to victimize, plunder, rape, exploit.... What a gift it was to receive that clarity yesterday. That really took the apartment off of my radar. But the savage, brutal, cruel, inhuman, injust gentrification happening in the nation's cities brought the property back to me in a light I had never considered. This property may be my best chance of remaining to fight for justice in Washington DC if by chance I am given many years to do so. I had not thought of that. That may be the deciding factor.

***** ‘We wasted 40 years talking about nothing, doing nothing’ — Pappe demolishes the peace process

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/we-wasted-40-years-talking-about-nothing-doing-nothing-pappe-demolishes-the-peace-process/

***** Study: ‘NYT’ portrays Islam more negatively than alcohol, cancer, and cocaine

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/03/study-nyt-portrays-islam-more-negatively-than-alcohol-cancer-and-cocaine/

***** THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. This is what I've been living. This is what I've been trying to say. F***ing lipservice liberals. F***ing lip service Christians.

http://m.truthdig.com/report/item/the_revenge_of_the_lower_classes_and_the_rise_of_american_fascism_20160302

***** MONUMENTALLY IMPORTANT. ''Moral Foundations Theory was invented to compare different human cultures. But it can also explain our political landscape......'

http://www.vox.com/2016/2/5/10918164/donald-trump-morality

Regarding Bernie: you can't save people that don't desperately want to be saved. 'I could have saved thousands more if I could have convinced them they were slaves. Harriet Tubman.

Regarding Bernie: you can't save people that don't desperately want to be saved. 'I could have saved thousands more if I could have convinced them they were slaves. Harriet Tubman.

***** WATCH: Samantha Bee Brilliantly Goes After Democrats Whose Apathy Allowed the Rise of The Donald "You built that," the late night host says.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/watch-samantha-bee-brilliantly-goes-after-democrats-whose-apathy-allowed-rise-donald

Bernie will lose because there are infinitely too few people in America that have the courage or wisdom to face how dire the situation is. Indeed he tried to lead a revolution, but the revolution is not possible until people are living the total abject misery and instead we live our illusions, our denial.

Bernie will lose because there are infinitely too few people in America that have the courage or wisdom to face how dire the situation is. Indeed he tried to lead a revolution, but the revolution is not possible until people are living the total abject misery and instead we live our illusions, our denial.

***** You do understand the Trump mob, correct? For many years the white hate mob in Germany experienced themselves as winners. They had been........

***** You do understand the Trump mob, correct? For many years the white hate mob in Germany experienced themselves as winners. They had been starving for it and Hitler gave them that sense. What is it you don't understand about middle age and older white people in this country? Trump is telling them they are superior, winners, and that he will ring the game for them so that they will win materially as well.

***** Something that I've seen on Facebook several times recently. I'll paraphrase: 'If you want peace in your life, DEVOTE your life to TRYING to bring peace to others. Preferably, those in much more dire need than yourself.' But I have to survive! Lol. I beg......

***** Something that I've seen on Facebook several times recently. I'll paraphrase: 'If you want peace in your life, DEVOTE your life to TRYING to bring peace to others. Preferably, those in much more dire need than yourself.' But I have to survive! Lol. I beg to differ. We have to thrive. Survival is less important and probably will happen no matter what. If this is not correct, if this is not true, if this is not extremely likely to bring peace, then I know absolutely nothing, I have learned absolutely nothing from the wisest in history, & I have learned nothing from my own journey. And, of course, it is entirely possible that I have learned nothing. But it doesn't feel that way. I'm trying to share of the peace that surpasses all understanding.

The only times I am ever miserable are when I carelessly allow my focus to go from the least of these in the world, to myself. I used to be miserable almost always. Very rarely anymore.

The only times I am ever miserable are when I carelessly allow my focus to go from the least of these in the world, to myself. I used to be miserable almost always. Very rarely anymore.

***** ''You may recall that no less an authority than Martin Luther King Jr. himself said after being hit with a rock while marching for integration in Chicago, "I think the people from Mississippi ought to come to Chicago to learn how to hate." The choice of a young Bernie Sanders to align himself with CORE as a college student in early 1960s Chicago says an enormous amount about his character and courage, as well as his commitment to righting the wrongs of American society.''

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/why-i-joined-bernie-sande_b_9330496.html

***** ‘In every important way Israel has failed’– leading American Zionist says No mas

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/02/in-every-important-way-israel-has-failed-leading-american-zionist-says-no-mas/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=56d16d1204d3012a787260f9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook