A lot of strange things happened this year, many famous people passed away, but still I am surprised to hear former Pope Benedict passed away at age 95 today. I had not know much about Catholic church. But reports said former Pope Benedict was the one who jump start the process to discipline or defrock predator priests after a more lax attitude under John Paul II. Pope Francis said the Church and the world had lost a noble, gentle person.
With 2023 coming, with Ukraine war continued, anxiety about energy and food shortage, concerns about inflation and economic recessions, concerns about the need for basic necessity for survival just loom over the air. Many prediction talked about calamity coming for 2023. I do not know what to say, but I remember Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Our Appointment with Life: Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone, which is a short translation and commentary on the Bhaddekaratta (“an auspicious day”) Sutta—about the importance of living in the present moment—to encourage transformation which relieves suffering. The Sutra is the earliest teaching of the Buddha on living fully in the present moment. “To live alone” doesn’t mean to isolate oneself from society. It means to live in mindfulness: to let go of the past and the future, and to look deeply and discover the true nature of all that is taking place in the present moment. To fully realize this is to meet our appointment with life and to experience peace, joy, and happiness this realization brings, no matter what happens in life.
The Diamond Sutra has a famous verse, “Neither the past, the present nor the future mind can be found.”《金剛經》云：過去心不可得 現在心不可得 未來心不可得。過去心不可得 未來心不可得，让我们 把現的心投入在修行，投入在念佛，投入在拜佛，投入在听经闻法上。
Reciting Sutra can bring our on the work of the present, thus help us obtain tranquility and peace of mind. Reading Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra is especially beneficial in this tumultuous time. 末法時期.
I had talked about the many benefitsof recital Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra. This sutra is especially great in removing many bad karmas and purifu our soul. Diamond Sutra is another great sutra teaching us to see through the illusory nature of this world. Our mind can create certain magnetic field. When we tune in to Amituofo, or great Bodhisattvas like Earth Store and Avalokiteshvara, we will connect with pure auspicious energy to purity the negativities and retain our clarity and strength. Let’s keep praying !
Namo Amituofo ! Merry Christmas to you all! May the holiday season brings you peace and enlightenment! Christmas reminds people of blessings and happiness, we may be confronted with economic down turn, can we still lead a happy life despite of inflation and economic depression? What is the relationship of exterior wealth and inner wealth? Let’s dwell into some details.
Merry Christmas to You All !
David Guy Myers is a professor of psychology and the author of 17 books. His book The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plentyexplore the social development since 1960, while material affluence and human rights have surged, national civic health was falling. David’s overarching aim is to contribute to a new environmental movement—a social environmental movement—one seeking a social ecology that respects human rights while nurturing healthier individuals, families, and communities. With this end in mind he notes the social consequences of American materialism and individualism and points the way toward more positive values, economic policies, media influences, educational priorities, and faith communities. According to the on-going research since 1972 by University of Chicago on Americans’ outlook and emotional health trends in public opinion data from the General Social Survey (GSS), an ongoing project which NORC , American happiness is at a five-decade low. Despite modern technology has increased material wealth, emotional happiness is not something technology can help.
In Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, British economist Richard Layard asks: If we really wanted to be happier, what would we do differently? First we’d have to see clearly what conditions generate happiness and then bend all our efforts toward producing them. He went on to say that psychological problems and mental illness are amongst the biggest causes of misery. At a time when political action only seems to happen when we can attach a dollar cost and potential savings, he added that human suffering imposes severe burdens on the economy. At the same time we already have good evidence that the tools for dealing with all this psychological distress already exist. In his report he went on to propose that the United Kingdom needs 10,000 new cognitive behavioral therapists to make a major dent in all this suffering. What was different was that he went on to show that this expenditure made good economic sense.
Today, human beings tend to think of happiness as a natural right. But they haven’t always felt this way. For the ancient Greeks, happiness meant virtue. For the Romans, it implied prosperity and divine favor. For Christians, happiness was synonymous with God. Throughout history, happiness has been equated regularly with the highest human calling, the most perfect human state. Yet it’s only within the past two hundred years that human beings have begun to think of happiness as not just an earthly possibility but also as an earthly entitlement, even an obligation. In his book Happiness: A History, historian Darrin M. McMahon draws on a multitude of sources, including art and architecture, poetry and scripture, music and theology, and literature and myth, and argues that our modern belief in happiness is the product of a dramatic revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century.
An important concept in Buddhism and yogic philosophy teaches us that life in essence is Dukha, a Sanskrit and Pali word that can be translated to mean “suffering.” Included in Dukkha is all manner of unsatisfactoriness, from mild disappointment to the most extreme physical and emotional distress. Dukkha is something you must overcome in a lifetime to reach a higher stage in the next lifetime. The ultimate stage is called Nibbana (Nibbana (Pali), nirvana (Sanskrit)). Nibbana /Nirvana is ultimate peace and the goal of every Buddhist.
Below in a long series of seminars Professor Zeng Shiqiang illuminated to us the spiritual dimension of Wealth and how human can integrate it into their path of cultivation – Tao.
Chinese Wealth Culture
曾仕强—财神文化（一）身心之外还有道; 一般人说到财神就认为是宗教或迷信；人禽之分，天地造人就是要人能够作用帮助天地去运行； 天的颜色跟人有关系，天气跟人有关系，天地人三合感应；天有天理（空性，无为，西方文化只相信看得见的东西， 不相信看不见的，所以他们的文明现在走不下去了），地有地理（风水），人有人理（良心， 现代的人忙到不知道有良心） 西方的理（法理，A rolling stone gathers no moss ；）是固定的，中国人的理（情理）是灵活的； 用心就是凭良心； 现代人有一点空闲都慌张，因为害怕面对自己； 现代人谁都不怕，就怕自己，所以只好埋头划手机； 现代的专家如果凭良心，后面的财团不答应； 近百年来，中华文化发生了断层，很多人盲目学习西方；
In pursuit of happiness requires we to address issues self-denial such as drug abusing, alcoholism, gambling addictions etc bad habits which block us with in touch with our authentic true self. Full of excellent practical advice, insight, and some very useful exercises, Kevin Griffin’s One Breath at a Time – Buddhism and the Twelve Steps show us a good way to heal from the addictions. Unlike many of our best and most revered Buddhist teachers, Mr. Griffin hasn’t spent years living in Asia. He’s slogged through life in Western society, and has had to find his peace and insights while simultaneously dealing with the same day-to-day problems of career, love, marriage, parenthood, etc. as the rest of us. In a wise and honest way, Griffin presented the Buddhist instructions for meditation practice spoken in the idiom of Twelve Steps Recovery Program and empower the people with the hand-on possibility of freedom from addiction.
Surrender Steps:
First, a surrender to the truth of our disease and our inability to control it; then surrendering to a Higher Power, seeing that we will have to depend on something besides our own will and knowledge to stay sober and develop spiritually. As we enter the process, we often find that surrender is the battle itself – with drugs and alcohol, with the world, with ourselves – that has cripple us in many ways. in this case, surrender becomes preferable to going on fighting. Surrender is a traditional element of every spiritual journey. Before we can begin to realize our potential, we must break out of limiting concepts of who and what we are and what we think is possible. This may mean giving up long-held beliefs and comfortable behavior patterns. Cynicism， our fantasy, fear or control, anger or grief – many of us cling to these patterns and others. When we begin to surrender, we see that we will have to let go of these destructive habits of mind before we can move toward freedom. While many people tend to think of spirituality as looking up, toward the heights of perfection or saintliness, the Steps remind us that we must first look down, into the darkness of our souls, and see and accept our shadow before we attain an honest and authentic spiritual life.
Step One: admit we were powerless, but not helpless, over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable;
Step Two: Come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity; the self is an illusion made up of thoughts, emotions, memories that have no center, no abiding core. To rely on this illusory amalgam is to live in delusion, to mistake the movie of our minds for Truth. Have trust and confidence in the 3rd Noble Truth, reorient us toward a less self-centered life and open to new possibilities.
Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him (If we make certain choices, we get certain results). Commit to sobriety itself; then commit to the program and the Steps; commit more deeply to Buddhist practice. Take Refuge in the Buddha! Learn the middle-way to balance between faith(openheartness) and wisdom (discrimination).
How It honestly Works Steps:
These steps are linked to the meditative processes of examining the mind, of letting go of these blocks to clarity, and of healing ourselves and others. As we investigate and take responsibility for our past actions and our continuing habits of mind, the light of truth shine on the shadowed recesses of our lives, and a new freedom imbues us with confidence and joy, as shame is banished and we are no longer dogged by secrets and guilt.
Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. This is most difficult step – willingness to admit our failing and can be wrenching, awkward, agonizing. As the self-hatred that results in alcoholism can make this process difficult. Master Thick Nhat Hanh encourage us to also make an inventory of our positive qualities and actions, we must find joy in our lives here and now. Appreciate our positive strength and take pleasure in putting time and energy to adhere to 8-fold path in life.
Step Five: Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step Six: Get ready to have God remove all defects of character, letting go of many attachments: attachment to material things and sense pleasure; attachment to views and opinions; attachment to relationships; attachment to your body, your thoughts, your sense of identity.
Step Seven: once we build a strong foundation for sobriety, asking God to take away our defects of character so that we can be more useful in the world and do “God’s will.” It is a process, get vigilant to pitfalls of Perfectionism, Procrastination and Paralysis.
Step Eight: At a deeper level of honesty to consider and made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Do not confuse living alone and limiting human contact to do solitude for meditation practice as the most spiritual behavior. The willingness to face pain – internally and externally – awakens love and compassion.
Step Nine: Make direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Cleaning up our lives in this way is critical to the Buddhist path. Forgiving others, being forgiven, and forgiving ourselves.
Steps cultimnating of the spiritual path:
Here we try to thoroughly integrate the work we’ve done into our lives. We learn to maintain the honesty and responsibility we developed in the earlier Steps, to deepen our spiritual connection, and to serve others. Buddhism teaches that the real value of the spiritual life isn’t found in moments of great bliss but in the daily application of mindfulness and loving kindness. it’s our ongoing effort that is most important to our spiritual development. We can’t rest on yesterday’s clam and insight, we must renew our commitment and energy each day. These Steps are the cornerstones of maintenance. They are also the bridge to a life that is “happy, joyous and free.” Our spiritual awakening brings liberation, as we enter a new life, one free from the encumbrances of addition, and one guided by the principles of wisdom and compassion.
Step Ten: Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it. Recognize the opportunities for spiritual development that are in our lives right now, and acknowledging as well those qualities that aren’t growing at this time.
Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Buddhism is an orthopraxy: it adheres to a set of practices, through which you can come to your own understanding, not one imposed from the outside. Make conscious and explicit our highest aspirations.
Step Twelve: having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we try to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Retreat is NOT the only meaningful form of practice. Don’t just do these stuff at special times, do it all the time.
Namo Amituofo! Merry Christmas! To our happiness and enlightenment !
Western Medical ethics began with Hippocrates. He founded a medical school and required his students to take an Oath. The Hippocratic Oath requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. P ass on medicine only to those bound by the Oath. Practice medicine for the benefit of patients. In China, until recent decades with the market reform, historically Chinese medical field has always emphasized the virtue of doctor （医德）. Doctors responsibility has been 救死扶伤。 During crisis, many doctors perform their duty without even get any payment. The famous herbal king 李时珍 （1518年7月3日－1593年）was a great example. In order to make sure of the effectiveness of medicine, he even personally tested out the herb himself before giving it to the patients. Confucius said, people who are ethical conscious make a living by taking the righteous path. 君子爱财取之有道。 Chinese governments spent billions on public radio/TV stations to teach common medical knowledge to the people.
But since 1980s, under the ethos of market economy, Chinese doctors had heavily influenced by the western market driven mentality. All the focus is generating GDP for the economy. Such inhumane practices not only damage the reputation but also created bad karmas for the many medical profession. When the focus is on earning money, not on healing the patients, the greedy side of human nature easily tempted the doctors and pharmaceutical companies to practice unethical medicine.
The huge problem of substance abuse in America is mind blogging. According to 2019 data, 19.3 million adults suffered from SUD which is 7.7 percent of the national population. Of these nearly 20 million individuals, only 11 percent of them received substance abuse treatment. It also costs the country over $600 billion each year due to imprisonment. Not to mention other burdens and social cost to the society as a whole. And out of over 91,000 annual opioids overdose deaths, 68,630 of them were linked to natural or synthetic opioids. And 96 percent of opioid users were misusing prescription opioids.
But we are pleased to see some positive development on this end: Health care workers fired over vaccine mandate awarded $10 million in settlement. 12月8日2022，美國FDA緊急批准二價新冠疫苗，給6月大嬰孩接種。參議員約翰遜（Ron Johnson）主持歷史性會議，頂級醫學專家呼籲疫苗退出市場，並追究政府、疫苗製造商輝瑞和莫德納的責任。Senator Ron Johnson hosted a round table discussion, during which he said at Dec 8th panel: “I do want to point out the complexity of what we’re dealing with here. I think of many problems during the pandemic, one of the biggest casualties was just modesty in admitting how much we don’t know. I really want that sinking in, understand how much we don’t know about the body, about its response about, quite honestly, our marvelous natural immunity, and then how man’s interventions might just screw that up. I think we need to be honest, we need to admit that so I’m hoping we can talk about that complexity today.” Today more American parents are skeptical of vaccines and would oppose them if schools were to mandate them for in-person classes. Youngster as a group has strong immunity system they should rely on rather than the toxic vaccines.
Chinese Alternative Medicine had been practices over thousands of years. Its diagnosis and prescription are all based on the Yin Yang theory. That is the secrete behind success of ancient Chinese medicine. 陰陽五行對應人體 中醫陰陽診治的奧秘。人体拥有一套精密的防御体系来对抗绝大部分的入侵者，这就是被称为“人体防御部队”的免疫系统。我们通常谈到的免疫力就是指免疫系统的防御能力，尤其是对感染性疾病的抵抗力，那么神奇的免疫力是由什么组成的？它又是如何发挥作用的呢？CCTV 教你正确的医疗常识。 Human were borne with a strong complex defense system, if we do not abuse our body by bad habits (eating, sleeping, drug etc.) we can rely on. Herbal medicine is not only more effective in healing, it also had less side effects to the human body.
2022 is definitely a year people will remember for long. There are three times of Planet Pluto return to the U.S natal chart. What has decay, dysfunctional in this country need to be removed before we can get over the stagnation. Astrologist Pam Gregory said, this is a massive spiritual transformation for U.S, is a redefinition of the U.S, a restatement of its complete upturning of its values, its economy, its politics, its legal system, its Constitution, even its geography. What is the U.S going to be as we come out of this major transit. What is going to form versus what’s there before. Professor ZengShiQiang said currently only two types of person control United States: one type is graduates of Harvard law school; another type is graduates of Stanford law school. It is just that simple. 曾仕强：真正了解美国你就知道，美国社会完全是这两种人在控制！ But the karma law is reciprocal, if you keep on overthrown other country, you may very well be overthrown one day. 夜路走多了总会遇见鬼。
We start the year with Russia-Ukraine war. For several months I could hardly believe this is something for real. Being in isolation, I had a surreal feeling about the news I saw in the youtube programs. Then the strange magnetic wave surrounding my small manufacture house in the open field day after day in the spring time – I strongly suspect it was the star-link satellite radiation up in the skyline shooting onto my house, but I do not have actual proof.
Biden’s policies are the definition of radical
With so much crisis going on domestically, Biden Administration is inviting Zelensky to USA to further instigate violence. But more and more people had came out to speak of the truth despite western media’s one sided narratives.
Paul Craig Roberts hold the view that Putin should have acted more forcefully from the beginning in order to end the war quickly. Roberts had openly criticize the American military complex and hegemony aboard operation. When he took an objective position on Russian President Putin’s disavowal of US hegemony, he found himself being labeled a “Russian dupe/agent” on a website, “PropOrNot,” which may have been financed by the US Department of State, the National Endowment for Democracy, or the CIA itself, still harboring old resentments against Roberts for helping President Reagan end the Cold War, which had the potential of reducing the CIA’s budget and power.
As Roberts’ position can seem “unAmerican” to the indoctrinated and brainwashed many, those who watch CNN, listen to NPR, and read the New York Times, so he went out of his way to let people know his background: Roberts was involved in the 20th century Cold War in many ways: As a Wall Street Journal editor; as an appointee to an endowed chair in the Center for Strategic and International Studies, part of Georgetown University at the time of my appointment, where my colleagues were Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor, and James Schlesinger, a Secretary of Defense and CIA director who was one of my professors in graduate school at the University of Virginia; as a member of the Cold War Committee on the Present Danger; and as a member of a secret presidential committee with power to investigate the CIA’s opposition to President Reagan’s plan to end the Cold War.
Another public intellectuals who came out to speak of the truth was Professor Jeffery Sachs. He said, “we treat Democratic as the good, but the most violent country in the world in the 19th century by far was perhaps the most democratic or second most democratic , that was Britain. You can be Democratic at home and ruthlessly imperial abroad. The most violent country in the world since 1950 has been the United States. It is a semi-democratic, white dominated, hierarchical racist society that aims to preserve the privilege by the elites. That was how it was born in 1787, it was a slave owning, genocidal country, killing native Americans for a white culture. But amazingly it is still looks that way, although we are much more diverse now than we were. ….throughout the western tradition, Democracy was the last thing on Plato’s mind. He was for a philosopher king. ” (柏拉图在《理想国》一书里推崇的是哲学王统治。 ） Jeffrey Sachs: A Negotiated End to Fighting in Ukraine Is the Only Real Way to End the Bloodshed. 杰弗里·萨克斯：自1950年以来，全世界最残暴的国家是美国……
Even former Japanese PM came out to take a stand. Despite the deliberate propaganda, what Zelensky does is causing his people great suffering. It was NOT Putin’s fault. 日本前首相森喜朗10 月18日讲话：西方不該只批判普京，澤連斯基也犯了一個最大的錯誤， 就是造成乌克兰人民的苦难。 欧美媒体歪曲真相偏袒澤連斯基。Phoenix Finance commentator 何亮亮认为： 2016 是美国的博列日涅夫时代的开始。 American old man politics signals a similar period of former Russia Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev ruling.
中国式管理：曾仕强教授告诉你人生最重要的三件事 -人生只做三件事，揭开迷雾，透析人生真相，让很多人茅塞顿开，开悟人生管理之道。 。Every single one of us was born with his/her mission coming to the Earth Realm. Our life is not just a passing, where you were born, who your parents were, how you grew up, and how you finally died are all your own arrangements. We are our own life’s master, and there is no other master. Western man could not find himself, he found another master. Westerners say that God made man because he can’t find out where he came from. Then westerner said that people are animals evolved. But ancient Chinese do not believe in these things. Ancient Chinese say you have made yourself look like this. You have to take full responsibility for yourself, and that is the Chinese philosophy. So a wise person speaks from the standpoint of not speaking. 太多人读书读错了。中国人用“自作自受“ 四个字来总结生命过程的规律。由此孔子说，不怨天，不尤人。后来传承发展为“上不怨天，下不尤人”（《中庸》）以及“自知者不怨人，知命者不怨天”（《荀子·荣辱》）的价值观念。 Professor ZenShiQiang: Chinese Way of Management: All we do in life is three things: （1），（2）， （3） are highly recommended by many audiences of Professor Zen’s seminars. Once we got the framework, people will not get lost in so many other trivials. 听众反应，曾教授让我家人和孩子的人生翻了几个层次，以前会怕头怕尾 ，杞人忧天，三年之内 听完 蔡礼旭老师的 幸福人生讲座，陈大惠的论坛，净空法师的大乘佛法，周泳杉老师的 祭祖的意义 ，最后有缘分听到 曾教授的易经全集 ，夫妻相处之道 。。等等。。，恍然大悟，生活变得轻松自在，度量变大了，之前看不清错误的大大小小的事 现在像似长了火眼金睛 一眼看通 。自然就看得远， 那么 家庭 儿女 财运 就自然而然上了几层楼。
In modern time, money is the lifeblood of society, as such central bank which control the money of a society, if not owned by nominal government, is actuality our shadow government. This is especially true in United States, Federal Reserve, which although has a name with “Federal” (thus misunderstood by many people thinking FED is an agency of the U>S Government, legally is is NOT), is privately owned. United States government (the three branches) get its funding from public taxes and by issuing treasury bonds. The fact is: our government borrows from bankers to be repaid by an unwitting third party called “we the people”. This money borrowed by government is then sliced an diced and sold as Treasury Bonds and Bills. – Yes, ALL our money – currency and credit – has been borrowed from the banks of the Federal Reserve, privatized central bank. And because U.S dollar is the reserved currency, Federal Reserve thus control all the money of the world.
Federal Reserve is root cause of inflation, because of its printing money policies. And because US dollar’s reserve currency’s function in world economy, Federal Reserve cause the inflation of the whole world. Food shortage is another side effect of Fed inflation inducing behavior. The world is facing the largest crisis of food shortages. We all have noticed higher food price in grocery stores, not to mention many countries around the world, who does not have control of planting seed, and having have to importing rice, have to pay higher price of the food imports, and thus is threaten by starvation. Not to mention the ever dragging wars making food more scarce – Ukraine, which is a major agriculture exporter is now deep entrenched in war and thus not able to provide food productions. Russia, another agriculture exporter, is being sanctioned. South Africa, yet another agriculture exporter, had record flooding, ensuring less agriculture outputs. Extremely weather condition had made less agriculture output in India and United States as well.
The constant war and economic sanctions of Russia making energy even more expensive. Many oil fields are exhausting its deposits. Federal Reserve’s helicopter money supply did not went into productivity producing and long term well-being of the world, rather it cause mammoth income disparity and social unrest. All the symptom of imbalance and evil producing.
The problem with Federal Reserve operation is rent seeking – trying to get money without giving in return. Trying to get people to pay you money without you having to do anything for them. TremendousPower and entitlements without obligation. So many resources mis-managment, so many mis-allocation of capital and assets.
Professor Michael Sandel from Harvard University argues that, the super riches are wrong in believing that their success is the doing of the successful, and therefore they deserve that material rewards that flow their way. Their delusion that their success is their own doing it, they their successful are self-made and self-sufficient, therefore they own little if anything to those who struggle, because those who struggle have no one to blame but themselves. Part of what makes this a kind of tyranny is that meritocracy is corrosive of the common good, it is corrosive of any sense of mutual responsibility for our fellow citizens and that include the responsibility of those who have flourished in the global economy to share their wealth and good fortune with those who have struggle, who struggled in large part because of the configuration of the economy, and so the redistribution of the winnings or rather the sharing of the winnings with everyone, with the entire society, is precisely a part of the politics of the common good. Resources of solidarity and shared citizenship, and mutual responsibility that are obstructed in so far as we are in the grip of the self-image that is is all our own doing.
Buddhist teaching of interdependence can further illuminate to those delusion: just like flower need fertilizer, sun light, water, ect. conditions to flourish, same of those who claimed they are self-made successful.
War as a way to change volatility of money supply. Fraud and Bankrupts are the syndromes of fiats money.
FED banking mechanism of fractional banking is a huge problem that need to address now, the fiat monetary system is stealing money from those who lived within their means, steal money from in the real sense from the world. If U.S does not have the ability to take care of the world, it is illegal (does not have the entitlement ) to print money to loot the world. Or put it in anyway, U.S dollar does not have the entitlement to be world currency. We should go back to gold standard. Gold payment will never have the risk of default, you either have it or not, can not be inflate by fiat currency。Savage banking should be removed. “野蛮的遗迹”仍受全球央行追捧？！ Jeffrey Sachs Last WARNING.
Professor Wolf is one of the conscience intellectual who devote his service and dedication to teaching people of the truth. Dr. Richard Wolff On The Top Lies Propping Up Capitalism. Isn’t it a discouraging thought that in America, of all places, there are many little potential Einsteins, Picassos, Sagans, and Mozarts that are falling by the wayside because of economic inequities CREATED by the “Land of the free and the home of the brave”? Compare those economic orphans to the trust fund babies that now occupy Wall street and Capitol Hill! We are almost half-way to the Palace of Versailles. Anyone who could afford – or who had to borrow their asses off to get an “education” – will understand that comment. If we, as a nation, were truly as wonderful as we SAY we are, wouldn’t WE be a special thing? What America actually HAS become is another beast altogether. We know the right things to think. We know the right things to say. We know the right things to do. We just don’t do them. America is NOT the land of the free. America is NOT the home of the brave. America has become the land of the rich and powerful.
In a country that value freedom of speech, Americans argue heatly about government/big tech/media censorship. But when I came to think about it, isn’t that everything we think, we say, we act have all reflected in the totality of universal consciousness that permeates everywhere? And each of us is a miniature of the cosmo and the cosmo is the Source/Origin of our mind. In the ultimate reality, censorship holds no power. 人是小宇宙，宇宙大身心， 人体与宇宙是一一对应的，宇宙中有什么，人体也相对应着有什么，人体相当于一个缩小版的微宇宙。 “All is sentient being. Grass, trees, land, sun, moon, and stars are all mind.” ~ Dogon, founder of Soto Zen Buddhism.
Such is the mystics! Science, physics, and spirituality are at last meeting each other through the search for universal consciousness. Scientists want to know why flocks of birds behave as if guided by a collective consciousness. Physicists are learning that non-local consciousness influences quantum particles, regardless of distance in time and space. Yogis, mystics, and meditators seek to enter into a state of wholeness with the divine or the universal mind, called Chaitanya, the cosmic consciousness. 人的意念能量有多強大？
The ideas of impermanence, interdependence and emptiness are central to Buddhist teaching – and to the whole Buddhist worldview view, there can be no true freedom or independence when we are trapped in the six lower worlds. Interdependence is not the same thing as being codependent. A codependent person tends to rely heavily on others for their sense of self and well-being。The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people equally possess the ten worlds. That is, we all possess the ten kinds of life conditions — from the highest state of Buddhahood to the lowest state of hell. These are the life conditions of the four noble worlds and the six paths. The life condition of Buddhahood moves one to improve the world. Such a person will love and cherish others, have a strong sense of justice, value peace, build a character with a deep sense of compassion, gain the trust of many people, and make others feel pleasant. On the contrary, one who is fascinated by devilish functions will become contentious and steeped in evil influences. Such an individual has a self-centered nature and takes pleasure in disruptive behavior. A person like this, with egocentric and biased views, will bring conflict and spread anger into society.
And that is why Confucius teaches us absolute ethics standard, (not ethical relativism). The Eightfold path is so important because that is what we contribute to the universal consciousness – be it greed or generosity, hatred or loving kindness,, ignorance or wisdom, arrogance or humility, all the dynamics will reflect in the totality of the universal mind. That is how each of us contribute to the quality of the collective karma.
With that in mind, let us pay homage to Amitufa – Buddha of Infinite Light & Infinite Life, Buddha of infinite blessing and protection! Nomo Amituofo! Let wish the peace and salvation of humanity to expand our conscious and grow in wisdom. 唸一句“阿彌陀佛”有多少好處？佛已說了10種！ 世間最安穩的“護身符”，其實就是一句“南無阿彌陀佛”！ 南无阿弥陀佛！南无阿弥陀佛！南无阿弥陀佛！
We have all experience many corruption and conspiracy in every areas of the government, the relentless pollution and exploitation of the Earth, the lost of common sense and fundamental ethics in social conducts the last several decades with the material abundance. Thom Hartmann had wrote a whole series to record many of the issues that block out progress and the toxics that need to purified before we can be refreshed to new beginnings. But to just have intellectual understanding is a good beginning, we need to put into our thought, speech and action to clear those bad habits, garbages from our mind by meditation and prayer. I am really impressed with his analyse about Neolibralism is a DISASTER, the sick mentality of the rich had no consideration of their fellow citizens for basic safety net (the homeless, the single mothers, the collapsing of education system, the border crisis of thousands, if not millions of under age kids, the human trafficking ). How REAGAN REPUBLICANS Flushed America Down The Toilet.
Piercing through the frog of neoliberalism, Hartman spoke of the insanity of Milton Friedman and the like-minds. The rise of economic and financial terrorism, the upheaval of economic instability in American and the world can traced back to Reagan Administration and Friedman’s shock therapy economics, which was acclaimed by the media as the super star nobel prize level innovation. Public have no idea the policies and devastating consequences Milton Friedman and the likes produced. His theory seems out of touch with lived reality or normal people’s economic experience, and 100% based on ideology & things he read in textbooks from other people in an ivory tower. Or if not, then plain Psychopathy. He said all licenses and certificates (including license for doctors) should be dropped as well as labor unions and laws against racial discrimination. Milton said there is no need for government to make sure drugs are safe. It is thought provoking to watch Young Michael Moore discuss the value of human life with Milton who had been evading the question of principle.
This has been a road of harden capitalism rather than a road of “good” intentions; Monopolies was all about saving the upper class from the “unwashed.” Period. We observed the collapse of Chilean economy in 1970s, Russia in the 1990s are the application of Milton Friedman theory. Despite all the talks of free market, the truth of USA is not a FREE MARKET. Professor Michael Hudson have a lot to share with you. Through these schemes, the elites had looted the majority public $50 Trillion dollars in the last few decades.REPUBLICANS Legalized STOCK FRAUD in America.
Taoism believes that all evils came from energy imbalance within any entity. Take the example of human health, we get sick because of immunity system deteriorated, as a result, our body/defense system energy level is lower than the average of the environment. Nature law is then automatically kick in to fill out the void. So the forces from outside(in the form of humid, heat, dryness etc. ) will invade and cause malady, in some case even total collapse. With each person regardless of gender, we have both masculine and feminine qualities that need to get in balance for us to thrive. Either too much masculine or too much feminine is off the middle way. 过犹不及。這世界上 是無形在决定有形， 並不是 有形在決定無形 。
We should not complain about others make our body unhealthy, right? we should take our own responsibility for it. Recital Buddhism sutras, such like recitaling Sutra of Ksitigarbha Fundamental Vow can help release those karmic debt. Prayer and sticking to eight-fold path will get our benign energy to counter balance the karmic deficit. Namo Amituofo! 南无阿彌陀佛！
This dynamics when apply to the social behavior, reflect when an entity is not mature enough to have self control, not taking consideration of the bigger world and over emphasize its own entitlement/freedom out of desire of greed, aversion and ignorance, (for example taking precepts as in Buddhism), eventually when situation get very bad, forces from outside( in the form of other people, karmic creditor, ghost from other realm, our unconsciousness etc.) be attracted by nature law to help the entity to take control so as to maintain the balance, most likely not in the form not so desirable for entity. Therefore, the Chinese early education emphasize character training from very start, by forming good habits and knowing what is right thing to do and what is not to do. Chinese parents do not give too much praise, but pay more attention to help the kids improve all kind of personality traits that would lead to long term psychological/spiritual development of the higher good. Confucius famously said, if a kid do not have good character, the fault is caused by the father not playing his role. 子不教，父之过也。
When you look into the son, you see the father, the mother, you see the ancestors. A son cannot exist by himself alone, a son or a daughter can only inter-be with parents, ancestors, and so on. That is not difficult to see. As a biologist, you can look into the body of a person, and you see that person is the continuation of his parents. All the cells and all genes have been transmitted by many generations of ancestors.
If a son got so angry at his parents. They are something wrong in it. There are young men who are so mad at their father, that they declare this: “I don’t want to have anything to do with him: But it is nonsense. Your father is in every cell of your body. You cannot remove your father out of you. the fact is you are the continuation of your father, and you are your father. You can not take him out of you. You have no private, separate existence. That self, the self (atma) does not exist. A separate existence, some permanent, non-changing entity sometimes we call it ‘soul’, is not there.
To the extend that western mind OVER-FOCUS on the Yang type of energy, the ego etc, and under-develop its Yin energy, the instinct/potential of the mind, and thus causing major imbalance and delusions in relate to ultimate reality, oriental mind emphasize the the development of overall balance, thus achieving higher wisdom that align more closely to the truth of reality. Shadow(Yin) in the Taoism symbol does NOT mean it is bad/negative, it just means it is not obvious, it is hidden. The Yin Yang symbol is a representation of holistic non-duality dynamics. It speaks of the interaction of spirit and material within the wholeness. Perfection in Confucianism means the gold mean middle way (中庸）. Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and nuclear disarmament advocate, writes that the Middle Way is a process of “living and making one’s mark on society while constantly interrogating one’s own actions to ensure that they accord with the path of humanity.”
In the same token, Jeffrey Sachs: A Negotiated End to Fighting in Ukraine Is the Only Real Way to End the Bloodshed. With the war in Ukraine now in its 10th month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden have both expressed openness to peace talks to end the fighting, as have leaders in France, Germany and elsewhere. This comes as millions of Ukrainians brace for a winter without heat or electricity due to Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. “This war needs to end because it’s a disaster for everybody, a threat to the whole world,” says economist and foreign policy scholar Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He says four major issues need to be addressed to end the war: Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, NATO enlargement, the fate of Crimea and the future of the Donbas region.
U.S. House passes Respect for Marriage Act is anti-Divine Principle, anti-humanity. It had no respect for our future generation, no respect for the family, no respect for the country. The House officers put their own ego above the principle of divine’s intention. Repent and correct the wrong doing is of upmost importance. 如何懺悔才能消業障？普賢菩薩教你4個方法. 懺悔罪業是非常重要的修行。懺是發露過去所作的舊惡，悔是知錯以後不會再作。懺悔就是向我們的冤親債主道歉，請求他們原諒。我們的身口意無時無刻不在造作著各種罪業，如果能夠依善知識引導，努力懺盡罪業，就能徹底扭轉墮落惡趣的命運。
Psychologically, we meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.” ― CarlJung speaks of the “shadow” and regards it as an area of the unconscious that is very hard to access, our motivations, repressed complexes and guilt feelings are to be found in it, although usually we are unaware of them and cannot even visualize them, let alone admit them. He compares human consciousness to the tip of an iceberg sticking out of the water – the unconscious he symbolizes as the submerged mass of ice, containing both the collective unconscious and the individual unconscious, the so-called shadow personality. The latter is the shadow side of our being, in which everything we have been and experienced is stored. It contains our secret desires, and resolved and unresolved psychic problems from the past (incarnations). They emerge in our dreams, yet, they do exercise an influence on our lives, although, in the main, we do not connect them wit ourselves but project them on the environment, where they manifest and return to us as fate.
The Hindu-Buddhism term avidya, ignorance – the basic unconsciousness as a result of which it appears that the universe is a collection of separate things and events. A Buddha or “awakened one” is precisely the man who has overcome this unconsciousness and is no more bewitched by sakaya-drishti, the “vision of separateness.” In other words, he sees each “part” of nature without ignoring its relation to the whole, without being deceived by the illusions of maya which, as we also saw, is based on the idea of “measurement”, the dividing of the world into classes, into countable things and events. So divided, the world appears to be dual (dvaita), but to the unobstructed vision of the sage it is in truth undivided or non-dual (advaita) and in this state identical with Brahman, the immeasurable and infinite reality.
Considered as a collection of separate things, the world is thus a creation of thought. Maya, or measuring and classifying, is an operation of the mind, and as such is the “mother” (mata) of a strictly abstracted conception of nature, illusory in the sense that nature is so divided only one’s mind. Maya is illusory in an evil sense only when the vision of the world as divided is not subordinate to the vision of the world as undivided, when in other words, the cleverness of the measuring mind does not become too much of a good thing and is “unable to see the forest for the trees.”
Buddhism many case study recorded by highly respectable Buddhist practitioners thought out the history about incarnation, back and forth of human, animals born into different realms. 轮回为人的狗, (previous dog incarnated into human), 闻鲁直（黄庭坚）前世为妇人，诵《法华经》，以诵经功德故，今世聪明，有官职。戒禅师后身苏东坡. 国际知名的刑侦鉴识专家，李昌钰 在2006年4月2日北大演讲的一番话。他前世是和尚。此随业缘来者也。若生西方，岂如是而已哉！ 印光大师修订的《清凉山志》讲述真实的轮回故事，薄荷猪原来是为了度化众生，乘大悲愿力，倒驾慈航的“潜伏”菩萨。菩萨们“应以猪身得度者，即现猪身而为说法”，以启发众生心中的如意宝珠藏。《印祖文钞》: 一位清朝探花的前世今生. 蕅益大师见闻的投胎转世事件。 还有一个前世欠债，今生做驴也要还 的。 Those true records told us a lesson that we better return our karmic debt this life, otherwise the debt will accumulate with interest and get more heavier in future life. We do not know if we can return to become human form the next life.
So whenever we cannot bear the idiosyncrasies, habits, or characteristics of others, but are sorely tried and irritated by them, we may be sure that part of our own shadow is involved. This means that we have repressed these peculiarities within ourselves. Many an external situation to which we are unavoidably exposed is no more than a reflection of what is within us. We cannot deal with it as long as we regard it as exterior and nothing to do with us. Whatever is not being lived will continue to be projected on others for as long as it is not being deal with. Consciously dealing with it, which helps to integrate the shadow, can be made considerably easier. Acceptance of the fact that external events mirror internal events produces great changes. If one recognizes oneself as the instigating “I,” one will realize one’s creative potential, and one’s inner ability to improve one’s life and fate. Then one will no longer wait for assistance from outside, but will rely on self-help and will unremittingly pursue further development though creative consciousness. 净空法师: 为什么要积阴德 标清. 曾仕强：你的小孩将来是不是个有福气的人，从小就要在这些方面开始教育让他们惜福。 孩子不知什么叫习惯，所以大人要做给他看。 西方人是个没有福气的民族。 美国人是全世界最浪费的国家。 Westerns do not understand what manifested as material abundance was the work of many previous incarnations of merits. When we waste, we lost our hard earned credits accumulated over many life times. It is a terrible thing to waste!
Usually the consequences of these shadow functions are beyond our control. In a measure, they represent deterministic tendencies, things that are done automatically, or psychic compulsion mechanisms, and are at their mercy. If we regard the shadow as evil, we can hardly love it, but will treat it as infernal and blame it all over again, possibly it is hard to accept that we ought to learn to love our shadow. We love only what appeals to us as worth loving. what helps us on our way, what does us good. But let us remember how much always depends on our awareness. As the saying goes: “What You Shout Into The Woods Echoes Back”. We ourselves are called upon to rescue our shadow by giving it its true significance. Released from guilt, we can accept the forces, the experiences, and the essences of the shadow as an integral part of ourselves. but before we reach this stage, we must be capable of thinking through the consequences of our actions, and must also be prepared to bear the total responsibility for whatever we do. It is for this reason, the Eastern philosophy also emphasize on self reflection, learn from the time-tested teaching of the sages, hold precepts, and work on self cultivation to transform those bad habits, unwholesome personalities. 戒定慧；吾日当三省吾身。 Hence the golden rule of Confucius: “Do unto others what you would want to be done to you.” and “to do what is right, not what is easy.”
The Yin Yang dynamics also apply to thing we can not see/hear. Such as abortion. We are actually killing a life, even though we did not hear the baby crying, nor seeing its suffering, and thus does not have the awareness and empathy. But we have own the life karmic debt that will need to repay in the future time together plus with interest. That was the reason Buddhism advice against abortion. We have to honor the fetus. When abortion, not only the mother commit crime, also the father and the doctors, hospital, medical facilities that perform such act all had karmic debt need to pay in the future. 堕胎的罪业很严重 怎样做才能帮到堕胎的孩子 .
Tucker Carlson Show is bold enough to point out many horrible things that are being done to our Nation’s children. The fact that this is not a crime to Surgically alter or remove the reproductive glands of children is almost as disturbing as the act itself. And the fact that anyone would be OK with this. Tells me how deranged our society is becoming. These judges, lawyers, media, advertisements all need to be held accountable. One audience testified, “I know PERSONALLY what happens to the entire life of a child who is violated ~ it screws you up on so many levels it’s horrifying! It’s still effects my DAILY life, and I’m now 50 years old! Unbelievable! UNBELIEVABLE!” It’s sad that we have lawless people in offices that are supposed to protect us from lawless people. Another said, “If you have ever seen the destruction of a perfectly healthy young child up close as I have with a neighbour’s daughter who has been through this outrageous medical intervention. It is a crime, to see this lovely young person with obvious mental issues being allowed by their freaks of parents to be ruined instead of helped is beyond belief. Yes it is a crime and a very serious one.”
Mattel is becoming a gender cult. The toy company is promoting transgenderism and hormone blockers to little kids, and instructing on ways to keep the information from parents.
US News Express美國時事通 报道美国的变态的酷儿教育：戀童癖, 變性人, 亂性, 種族衝突, 等等. 這些在西方世界的墮落, 在1920年代的德國上演過一模一樣的事情, 如同翻版. 家长一定要多施行在家教育，或是找看當地有沒有Classical Christian School, 現在正在美國各地興起。這種教育方式就是當年美國立國先賢所受的教育。融合古希臘與基督教傳統，培育thinker, not worker. 老中們，別再迷戀名校，全部淪陷為左派的馬克斯主義製造工廠。請參看Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth.
The energy of Planet Uranus is associated with transformation, restructure, freedom, innovation, breakthrough, detachment, unpredictable, individualist, ruthless, eccentric, chaos. Planet Uranus denotes an energy that strives to keep the universe flexible by preventing too much order. It break one out of patterns that have become too rigid. It represents the random element of mutation that is necessary for creative innovation However it operate suddenly and with extreme eccentricity, whatever it may affect or symbolize takes the form of something unusual, far different from the everyday world. It is said to rule enlightenment, expanding of consciousness, it is the lightning flash that illuminates a dark landscape. It is a force of nature that operates outside human culture or human concern, often takes the form of revolutions, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Uranus people often have no concern for individuals at all, but only for a process of revolutionary change with which they have identified. To deal with Uranus energy, one must not stick to the status quo. The problem with Uranus is being ready for it, and most people are not. To the extend people are not grow to certain point of maturity, self discipline, accountability, doing the necessary preparation for growth, Uranus will be experienced as traumatic.
Uranus energy is affiliate with change, thus the saying: change is constant. It reminds us one of the four noble truth – The truth of suffering is perhaps the most straightforward of the Four Noble Truths. It simply means that life is full of all kinds of physical and emotional pain. The pain of sickness, the pain of change, the pain of loss, and the general ‘suffering’ that comes with being human are all included in this truth. It helps us see that life is not all sunshine and rainbows. As much as we might try, things will always go wrong. The truth of suffering emphasizes that suffering is a part of life. Individually, suffering originates from our minds. Greed, hatred, and delusion are the three ‘poisons’ that contribute to suffering. Humanity, as a whole, we create collective suffering. If we can accept this truth, it will help us live with more awareness and compassion towards ourselves and others. All these poisons operate within us to some extent. When we are aware of them, we can weaken their influence and start living a more mindful life. By following the Eightfold Path, and Ten Wholesome Ways of Actions and living a meaningful life, we can alleviate suffering for ourselves and others. 众恶莫做，众善奉行. 淨空老法師 – 解決痛苦，最殊勝的方法。 賢首禪苑 體佛法師讲解 大方廣圓覺經对我们适应当下纷乱动荡的社会生活是很好的启示。 这个系列很长，不过这一集又很多概括和总结。
Good government starting from each of us individually. It looks like American society is taking on the form of lower end manifestation of Uranus energy. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” Proverbs 29:2 One of the irony is that government allow online pornography, but do not allow religious teaching of saints and sages in school. Government approval for gun purchase, but did nothing to reduce social problems that causing the shootings that threat the peace and stability of daily life. Ingraham on the epidemic of lonely Americans, call out the culprits out there, chief among them are brazenly corrupt public health sector, their media lap dogs and those love power and control. Americans reportedly flocked to gun and firearm stores on Black Friday this year. Judge Jeanine: You want to defund the police, how about you defund the FBI? The FBI needs to be cleaned out from the top down and held accountable.
Free speech creates dialogue which creates empathy. Suppression of speech isolates thought and creates extremism. But the government should regulate the technocracy/monopolies which intruding privacy and preying on the youth by misled them. Governor Kristi Noem had baned TikTok for South Dakota state agencies. Why Apple’s Board of Directors should be looked at amid China protests: Kissel. Audience said, “the fact that Microsoft still exists means that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) doesn’t!” People who can maintain their integrity are in the rare these days. Elon Musk contradictory behavior: he on hand talked about harms of AI much more serious than nuclear weapon, on the other hand he is the one working vigorously to profit from it: REVEALED His NEW AI Girlfriend, Tesla’s HUMANOID Female Robot. The proliferation of humanoid robots purchased by real persons who can then benefit and profit from their robots will essentially be a re-invention of slavery in all aspects except for not being living entities. So what happens when the robots artificial intelligence grasps this concept and objects to it? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meaningful conversation with an AI friend without it turning into a full blown biological female argument? After all, is not Elon Musk instigating the lust and darkness in human nature? – one of the impurities: killing, double-check/double standard in speech and action, sexual misconduct, stealing? Our government should charge highest taxes for this type of business! because they produce many society disease. ‘Dear Lord, Save Us From The High IQ Stupid People!‘: John Kennedy Eviscerates ‘Woke’ culture, but it should be not limited to Democrats.
It is inspiring to see so many people likeJohn Paul who stick to their integrity. Kayne West, rapper, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, joins ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ to discuss politics, BLM, Hollywood, relationship with Barack Obama and more. A genuine good smart person that wants the best for our country and the whole world, he came out to speak of the truth. Audiences said, for those who have ears to truly hear him, will know he’s not crazy. He is very much authentic and doesn’t let anyone change him. He’s not crazy he’s smarter than “THEY” want him to be. We’ve got a lot of respect for this guy. His a lot smarter than people give him credit for. Same goes to Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and now Elon Musk. In addition to all the anonymous warriors for us to have a better world.
There is a huge struggling of the mind every where. Can we find a way to give education back to kids? College and University has became the place of indoctrination nowadays, rather than place of disseminating truth and wisdom. Secularism certainly is one of the culprit. You send your kids off to college, you are proud, so happy. Then the kid comes back and hates not only you and the country but himself, and the chances of that child having a happy productive personal life go to about zero. One of the case in point is former Mount Holyoke student Annabella Rockwell says she was taught by the liberal college that she was a victim of patriarchal oppression and had to undergo ‘deprogramming’ after graduation. This isn’t just college, it’s happening to grade school and high school kids as well. We need to end this evil somehow. There are lots of anxiety among kids and young people these. Helping kids understand their relationship with reality is of ultimate importance in the era of virtual reality. Practicing spirituality is the way to go. Knowing where we come from, and where we go to, will help young people anchor their mind amid all the chaos.
Who exactly runs the Biden administration? One of the senior officers in the Department of Energy Sam Brinton, non-binary Biden official. One audience said: “I am an Military Veteran, served during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, I offered my life to keep this country strong and free, I love America and what I just watched tonite, felt like I took a punch to my chest…. I am just very sadden tonight.” “The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where, through consumption and entertainment, the slaves would love their servitudes.” – Aldous Huxley
Even worse Democratic party are leading some dark and horrifying development. For example, a lawmaker in Virginia called Elizabeth Guzmani is introducing a bill that will charge parents who are not wholeheartedly endorse their minor children’s sex change whims, if you object to the kid’s request to have a mastectomy, send you to jail. Another example is the recent liberals’ use of Fetterman in Philadelphia midterm election – one of the most famous politicians in the country merging with computer(it is said he had brain damage) – this is the future technocratic have imagined, the most cynical political move in US history. Where exactly is the software end and the John Fetterman’s consciousness begin? Pennsylvania could very well be sending one of the computer program to the senate which will inevitably be hacked. What is more irony is, for a long stretch lasting well into his 40s, Fetterman’s main source of income came from his parents. Alas the New York Times told its reader, who did not know better, that Fetterman turned his a blasted town into national symbol of hope, hard work, and authentic blue jeans.
One more issue – we lost a hundred thousand Americans in drug abuse, just last year, mostly are young people, and many hundreds of thousands over the past five years. And yet when was the last time we see politicians mention about fighting for people with drug additions and their families ? We have just a reversal of Roe vs. Wade, yet there is no mention of protection or supporting of the single moms and their baby, in the media or politician’s speech. The left has created a breakdown in law and order and fail to do things that improve American life, as a result many social disadvantaged groups are put under stress and deranged by the dysfunctional system which the left has turn a blank eye to. Then in 2016, the liberals can no longer say “Give us 50 years, we will turn Baltimore into Geneva!” Many liberals’ wild ideas which were based on delusions fall flat face. Every single liberal enthusiasm failed, from money illusion of Friedman monetary policy to market economy, from radical feminism to urban renewal, from out-sourcing to shared economy, each and every one turned out to be disaster. After all these, are they now going to jump on board of AI and planting computer chip to human as the next fad? One reader commented that there is more sheep in this country than people who love this country and love the Lord !!
Richard D. Wolff | America’s Major Tax SCAM , reminds people that President Roosevelt in the state of union speech in 1944, a time of war, had proposed the top income tax bracket to the richest people he was in favor was 100%. What that meant was every dollar over $25K (that was the cut off amount then, would be about $380K-$390K now) will sent government. Eventually it was settled at 94% with the support from both Republican and Democratic. After Roosevelt passed away, the top bracket remained above 90% for the next 20 years. Even in 1970s, it was at 70%. In 1945, for every dollar tax from individuals, government also get $1.5 from corporations. The total from corporations was 50% more than from individuals.
Today for every dollar tax from individuals, corporations turn in 25 cents. And we have a top personal tax bracket at 37%, and many corporations evade taxes by hiring top accountants to take advantage of loop holes. 60 Top Corporations Paid $0 Federal Taxes Under Trump Tax Law. And we know many corporations use the cash to buy back stock to boost their executives compensation packages and reward investors who benefits tremendously from loosing Federal Reserve Bank monetary policies since the Green Span, Bernanke years. As a result the last 50 years witnessed the rolling back the tax on corporate and shift on individuals, and rolling back the tax on wealthy individuals and put it instead to all the less advantaged.
The Chris Hedges Report interviewed with Richard Wolff on the issue of Inflation, Europe’s energy crisis, and the Fed. Professor Wolff said, price went up because the people who had the power raise them, and our government had not protected the consumers. A tiny minority of American, a less than one percent who are employers, that is the corporate employers, one after another, raised the prices, and imposed the inflation on the rest of us. It is of course reasonably to ask why employers raise price, they raise price to make profit. The problem is, the employers are very tiny minority, and we the consumers are the majority. They make up excuses like supply chain disruption issues, the Chinese delayed because of COVID-19 related concerns, or just because other people are raising the price. The American media overwhelmingly service the employer class by giving enormous attention and exaggeration to all the excuses they claimed, with minimal investigative scrutiny, and almost never point out to Americans, that what you grumbled about supermarket or department store are the decisions made by a small unaccountable minority looking to make more profits. There are a lot of providential support that inflation are going together with nice corporate profitability improvements.
The Europeans are paying a heavy financial price for the war in Ukraine, but here in American, the power that be are leading the charge to the sanction of Russia for oil and gas export. The Russians might very well come up with counter sanctions of their own, which together with sanctions from the west, drive up the total cost of energy, especially for the Europe. The discriminatory impact of the sanction program on Europe, as well as the subsidize program on industry here in United States put Europe in jeopardy. In addition, the Ukraine are suffering from proliferation of winter weather and the energy facilities damage from war.
