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NSA Is Out Of Control. Time To Rein It In.
James Clapper, the Obama Administration’s Director of National Intelligence has said NSA does not “wittingly” collect data on citizens. General Keith Alexander, NSA’s Director as well as his predecessor have testified that NSA is not spying on or collecting data on citizens. Even the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee has told the media that the American intelligence community is not intrusively monitoring the communications of our citizens without a warrant.
How Do We Get Outta Here? Ideas From Dylan Ratigan
Like many of you and a few visionaries around the country, I’m sure trying to figure out how we change the interlocked political and economic systems which brought us to this place none of us like. You know, Gridlock and Crisis City, exemplified by last weeks nightmare. These systems served us reasonably well early on in our nation, but clearly, in their present forms, they’ve outlived their usefulness.
Remember Dylan Ratigan? He delivered epic rants on the Bush bailout and the too big to fail fiasco on MSNBC and then abruptly left. He reemerged with a hydroponic farm venture in California. Quite a change from a really good career in finance journalism, including with Bloomberg, NBC and MSNBC. I loved his show and hated to see him go.
I regard him as one of the visionaries I want to listen to in search of solutions to the current wheel spinning we are doing. I don’t know if I really agree with him, or not. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around some of his concepts. I am particularly uncomfortable with his critique of the role our two main political parties play in getting us where we are right now. He thinks parties ought to go away, replaced by a sort of direct democracy model. While often critical of my Democrats, I still cling to the belief we offer the best way out of this bad dream.
But let me summarize some of his thinking for your perusal. If you want to go deeper, go to his web site. Just Google his name.
He sees an American Renaissance bubbling up from the grassroots.
Vet to Cruz: Keep Your Slimy Hands Off My Memorials
Ted Cruz, you dishonor your title, Senator. You do not deserve it. You dishonor all U.S. military veterans and the monuments built to honor us.
Let Me Count The Ways The Tea Party Loves Us
35 by my count. Maybe you can add to the list. Not satisfied that there are thousands of varieties of teas they can throw overboard, they have voiced at least 35 issues they want the President to “have a conversation” about to end the shutdown and/or the debt ceiling crisis.
Michael Lind Provides Understanding On The Crisis Makers
I don’t normally repost other’s content, but I want my fellow progressives to appreciate the insights offered by Michael Lind in this article which appears in Salon.com. Understanding the opposition empowers us progressives to counter with effective strategies to salvage what is left of our democracy. He writes:
Explaining the DC Crisis in Black and White Language
Tom Hayden has a brilliant analysis of the stakes in the upcoming elections for Democrats and Progressives. He says:
Will The Tea Party Burn The House Down ?
My former Texas Senator, John Cornyn, with whom I’ve never agreed, told Ted Cruz words to the effect that you don’t burn the house down to kill the rats. But I wonder. is Cruz crazy enough to try to do just that? I read he is now collaborating with House teabaggers to create a coup against their own elected leader, John Boehner to take the country to the brink of default on the debt ceiling issue.
I saw these people up close and personal in my Texas life and I can tell you that while they give lip service to the Constitution, they do not recognize the rules laid down therein. They do not recognize the results of democratic elections when they lose and in fact, do all kinds of nefarious things to break rules which do not serve their interests. These people are rabid revolutionaries. They are not incrementalists by any definition. Burning the house down for them is the easiest way they can achieve their white bread theocracy. They are smart enough to understand that they have to first inhabit the house in order to get to the oven to light it and burn baby burn.
More on the Navy Yard Shooter And Our Failed Mental Health System
Many insightful issues and questions were included in your comments. I’ll try to deal with them concisely and welcome an idea exchange. I’ll address your issues with an abbreviated Q, followed by my response. Let me explain that my engagement on mental health services derives from more than 10 years as a day to day care giver for a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic son starting in around 1999 when he was 33 and I was close to starting my retirement. My experience involved very frequent involvement with psychiatrists, counselors, outpatient centers and psychiatric hospitals, primarily in Texas but also Mississippi and Florida. I have no experience with the Delaware psych community. I initiated four psychiatric hospital admissions for my son; he has had many more since those four.
How America’s Mental Health Establishment Empowered the Navy Yard Shooter
The security breaches are already being well covered in the public media on the tragic D.C. Navy Yard massacre. So is the absurd U.S. tolerance and obsession with violence. And, hopefully, the gun culture debate is firing up again. But what I’d like my readers to focus on is the total failure of our mental health system, if you can call it that. The dozen innocent victims of the shooter’s crazed act and their families can look to the numerous red flags apparent in his long history of schizophrenic behavior ignored or overlooked by mental health professionals and Aaron Alexis associates alike. And no, it was not within his capability to recognize the illness in his own behavior. The responsibility sits squarely with the so called professionals. They own it as do they own the stunning inadequacy of our country’s mental health care. Here’s what we must address as a society, holding these professionals accountable for joining we the people in fixing this travesty of a system.
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