The tongue becomes numb
to raw truth’s reality
in America.
Tag Archives: media
EVERYTHING IS TOO SWEET
Filed under POETRY
PARTING WAYS
Duty.
Honor.
Country.
Fear.
Cowardice.
Submission.
The first three I claim
The last three I disdain.
No more need be said.
A national honor now dead.
Killed by those who fled
their duty to country,
a brilliant democracy.
I cannot shake the hand
of one unwilling to stand
by my side and claim
a nation fighting shame.
Pretense has no place
in a nation ruled by truth and grace.
Ignorance is no excuse for surprise
by those who choose to close their eyes
to crimes and fraud and hate
until it becomes too late
to grasp and seize and save
Duty,
Honor,
Country.
Parting ways.
CONNECTED
Some losses are too great to be borne.
Some losses are so huge they force us to mourn.
Some losses sift sinew and bone,
ideals and beliefs, tattered and worn.
Some losses pull hearts apart
smiling tears of grief, we feel all alone.
We pretend such loss is not our own
when watched on screens, viewed from afar.
But, connection is more than geography.
Some losses cross borders we cannot see.
Drought, floods and storms floor us all equally.
Bombs rain down on other cities
and beat us all bloody, in hidden anatomy.
Threads bind us together in an ethernet.
One stitch connecting us here and there,
of which we are determinedly unaware.
Instead we pretend, through word and prayer,
when what we really must do is give a care.
Some losses are too great to be borne.
Some losses are too great to ignore.
For, when we do, they lead to war.
Like children we make up games
and pretend life is merely a game to play.
Business and politics play out games’ themes.
Media reports but no one referees.
The games of politics and war become a melee.
But, life is much more than a game to play.
Some losses are too great to be borne.
Some losses are too great to ignore.
Our votes are not tokens to be tossed in a loss.
Our votes are connections which must not be lost.
Some losses are too great to be borne.
Some losses are too great to ignore.
Please, stop playing long enough
to go vote on behalf of ALL of us.
THE LIGHT WE REFUSE TO SEE
I used to believe Truth lived in the shadows.
If only we could shine enough light,
then Truth would be set free
for all to see.
There are those who prefer we stay in the dark,
it is true. They fear the Light will open our eyes.
It is no longer so easy to darken the streets
upon which we set our feet
hoping to reach a place of greater liberty.
Truth speeds around the world
from one shadowed place to the next.
Through media Truth moves at the speed of light.
Truth seekers use facts to light our way
along the path to a new day,
one where Light holds sway.
The darkness can no longer hide Truth in shadow.
Those who live in the dark side of life
create new truths able to live in false Light.
In their constant retelling of lies
Truth simply dies in plain sight.
The battle between the Light and the Dark,
between Truth and Lies
is now exposed in MAGA prose
stealing the limelight with false praise
for oligarchs, autocrats and murderers
whose only goal is to control
the flow of wealth into their own pockets
while those who work to be whole
starve and struggle at their feet.
Those forced to flee and seek amnesty as refugees
would add their story to our own
brightening the Truth we already know.
The telling would not surprise the homeless
who walk our own streets.
The homeless, like Truth, used to hide in shadow.
We try to keep them there so we cannot see
the borders they have crossed.
Truth and Light and Love are all apiece.
Without Love we are blind and refuse to seeTruth.
There is no Light strong enough to overcome
deliberate blindness cushioned by lies.
We allow them in boardrooms, newsrooms,
hearing rooms and even, courtrooms.
“Speak Truth to Power,” isn’t that what we say?
When Power seizes the Light with falsehood
can we not see that False Light
can never be allowed to hold sway?
True Light is always more powerful than false.
Liars know this and ban books, and oppose
all who stand alight within Truth’s glow.
This is the one thing I still know.
Filed under POETRY
MAGA World
Most only look for the exits
when the are ready to leave the store.
Those more anxious and insecure
look for the exits as soon as they arrive.
Others block the exits to keep shoppers inside.
The most hateful stand in the way
intimidating and bullying shoppers to stay.
The media reports no progress is being made;
shoppers are worried, stagnant and afraid.
It reports the bullies’ lies and stance
as if justified and true, asking trapped shoppers
to reply as if such obstruction is the rule.
Do those who own the store, own the media, too?
Some shoppers try to reason with those blocking the door.
Most, see what happens to those who seek egress
and stand silent, waiting, hoping for any progress.
Shoppers thought they were free within the store
to buy what they want and need, and then leave
to find a better store where new and better goods
were finding their way to shelves,
at prices more shoppers could afford.
Silently, too many acquiesce to the bondage
they now face, hunkering down in the aisles
hoping they can outlast doorways to a future
blocked to keep them in the past.
What happens when the stock becomes too low
to sustain the people waiting in the aisles?
Will silence fill their bellies and their souls?
How can any business survive
such a cowardly enterprise?
How do we reach those trapped inside?
How do we help move shoppers into the future?
By opening barred doors wide
and pushing MAGA blockers aside.
Filed under POETRY
PROTECT MARIUPOL’S HEROES
I cannot forget Mariuopl’s brave defenders.
Now, thrown into play by their surrender
to Putin and Russian offenders
of all that is sacred in Mary’s city.
Now, left to evildoers without pity.
Media seems to ignore this ignominy
replacing the glory of the sexier story
of fighting to the death, which has more cachet
as breaking news than a prisoner switch, any day.
Misplaced attention and failure to attend details
endangers Ukrainian defenders on the rails.
Instead of an exchange, they face trials,
and more victimization mile after mile
by the butchers who claim those who fought back
are war criminals, to cover their own tracks.
Mariupol’s men, women and children were blown off the map.
Ukraine’s borders scattered by Russia’s attempt to overlap
its peaceful neighbors, no longer members of the USSR.
Now seeking a new democratic order, looking afar
to The West whose history mirrors their own more fully.
Putin’s Russia determined to remain a USSR bully.
Now, Ukrainian heroes are more in need of our protection
and our media looking for its own glory screens off in defection.
Shine the light on heroes’ lives Russia bends to their destruction.
Use your news power to defend each hour of their lives and protect them.
Filed under POETRY
Sowing Chaos
Chaos is sown
when history is disowned.
Hiding past hurts
may reduce pain
but allows confusion to reign.
Disinformation presses lies
against the closed eyes.
Tit for tat news myths
play fast and loose games
for ratings and sponsor’s gains.
Hold tight to truth
and the lessons of history.
In chaos, our story will end
unless we know and defend
all we have been
and could become
Filed under POETRY
JOURNALISM
What light becomes
most fashionably bright
to rid us of the shadow of night?
Who decides
the cast, the angle
shining upon each bead and bangle?
Are we so transparent
no shadow shows,
willing to follow anyone who glows?
How have we not learned
that the light of day
best shows the way?
Fireflies dance around the darkness
distracting us from what matters
while truth lies shattered.
Talking points flicker
all day and night
while truth hides out of sight.
News becomes entertainment,
bread and circuses
to detain us.
News streams the highways
with fast-moving high lights
missing the truth by inches along the way.
Such roads cannot be safely crossed.
How do we get to the other side?
By stopping traffic at our own loss?
Filed under Uncategorized
THE SIN OF FLYING FEATHERS
THE SIN OF FLYING FEATHERS
Louise Annarino
March 31, 2012
A young boy goes in to the confessional.
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been one week since my last confession. I lied about my cousin so our friends would think he was rotten.”
“Before I give you your penance and absolve you of your sin, go get a pillow and bring it back to the confessional.”
The boy runs home, grabs a pillow from his bed and returns.
“Father, I have the pillow.”
“Now, my son, go stand on the front steps of church. Tear open the pillow and let the wind carry away every feather. Then return to the confessional.”
The young boy does as instructed. He rips open the pillow with a shout. The feathers are flying! It takes some time, but soon the feathers have dispersed. He returns to the confessional.
“Now, for your final penance before I can absolve you of your sin, go back outside and collect every feather.”
It is not easy to forget this lesson taught by Father Torre as we prepared for our first confession. Telling a lie is one of the most destructive and irreparable sins one can commit.
The feathers Have been flying in speech after speech,and ad after ad; not simply by misleading and untruthful “facts”, but in a slew of ad hominem attacks on President Obama. You cannot help but watch them float by.
–ObamaCare proves Obama is a socialist.
Fact: delivery of services is by the private sector; Doctors and hospitals are paid by insurance carriers or individuals, not the government.
Fact:Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions,canceling coverage when someone gets sick. The Donut Hole is closed. Companies must spend at least 80% of premiums on health care or refund difference to consumers.Quality and lower costs are now part of healthcare picture. This is good business sense;not socialism.
–Obama is a Muslim, was born in Kenya, was sworn in on the Koran.
Fact: He is a Christian (not that this should matter to anyone since the US Constitution assures freedom of religion, especially in those seeking government office). He was born in Hawaii. He was sworn in on the same Bible used by President AbrahamLincoln.
–Obama’s economic policies made the Bush recession worse, are anti-business, and are destroying our freedom.
Fact: Not since the Great Depression were so many jobs lost, 750,000 in one month. Within a year of the stimulus package, the peak of 4 years of job loss began to steadily decline, and continues to do so despite economists predicted a continued rise to a 20% jobless rate. The economy has added 1.2 million jobs in the past six months, the fastest pace of growth since 2006.The private sector created 3 million+ jobs during 22 months of consecutive job growth.
Fact:1.4+ million jobs were saved when the auto industry was saved from collapse.
Fact:The month to month change in new home sales was a gain of approximately 14% in 2012 vs. 5% in 2011. Lowest prices are rising slowly;highest prices are not. Movement is upward, but it will take more time for full recovery.-WallStreetExaminer,3-23-12
Fact:Business Roundtable‘s 2012 first-quarter survey of 128 CEOs,results:
-81% expect sales to increase in the next six months–a 12 percentage point gain over the prior quarter’s survey
–48% say their firms will increase U.S. capital spending, a 16 point jump.
-85%say staffing at their firms will hold steady or grow in the coming months.
-Survey’s index, a composite of CEO expectations for the next six months of sales, capital spending and employment–increased to 96.9 in the first quarter of this year, from 77.9 in the fourth quarter of 2011. Readings above 50 reflect growth. -Wall Street Journal, 3-28-2012
Fact: Senate Republicans have used the filibuster more than any time in history. Both House and Senate republican leadership has clearly stated they will stop Obama from succeeding. Despite this strategy of obstruction, the overall economy move steadily upward,as does the hopeful expectation of most Americans.
–Obama’s energy polices and refusal to drill for American oil are the cause of rising gas prices.
Fact: “The U.S. exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of this year, making it likely that 2011 will be the first time since 1949 that the nation is a net exporter of such goods, primarily diesel.That’s not all. The U.S. has reversed another decades-long trend. It began producing more crude oil in 2008 than the year before and accelerated that upswing 3% in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2010. That production has helped reduce U.S. imports of crude oil by about 10% since 2006.
“It’s dramatic. It’s transformative,” Edward Morse, a former senior U.S. energy official who now directs global commodities research at Citigroup, says of the historic shifts. He says the U.S. is importing a smaller share — 49% in 2010, down from 60% in 2005 — of the oil it uses, adding: “We’re moving toward energy independence.”
-http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/story/2011-12-16/us-oil-boom/52053236/1
-Obama is an apologist, anti-American, unpatriotic, and supports terrorism.
Fact: Osama bin Laden was found and killed.
Fact: Between 2004-2008 / 42 drone attacks. Between 2009-2012 / 252 drone attacks. Al Quaeda Afghanistan decimated – http://counterterrorism.newamerica.net/drones
Fact: End of Iraq War with orderly withdrawl of troops.
Fact: End of War in Afghanistan and orderly withdrawl of troops expected by 2014.
Fact: Obama gets agreement form companies to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for veterans. Obama negotiates settlement to reimburse veterans who suffered excess interest rates and/or foreclosure from private mortgage lenders.
Fact: Obama signs into law the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act which expands mental health and counseling services to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including National Guardsmen and reservists.
Fact: Michelle Obama and Jill Biden tirelessly work to improve the lives of miltary families.
Scattering feathers of deceit is not a pretty sight. While you sneeze and wheeze remember this: there can be no absolution at the polls for such sins. Vote for Barack Obama in November.
Filed under POLITICS
annarino writes 
TRADING TRUTH FOR POWER DURING WAR
We have been at war a long time. Those who predict we will have a second civil war miss the mark. We have been in a second civil war awhile already. I hesitate to write these words. It too easily will invite comparison to other wars than the one we are in. Just as references to a holocaust always reminds us of the worst one we can remember, which killed millions of innocents selected by a small group within a larger group of those who considered themselves superior beings, while others stood by and watched. We know the details differ from that Holocaust and others before and after. Just as the details of this Civil War differ from the first. But, the strategy of war is clearly present; and we would see it, if we would start noticing what is truly going on.
Wars start with lies. Propaganda machines must be put in place to name an enemy in derogatory terms so vile we can convince ourselves killing the other is not only justified but ordained. Religious leaders must be brought round, lest they stand in the way of those who would destroy other human beings, or deny them their right to live unmolested. All those who would seek to protect the innocents from attack must be corrupted and rewarded for standing aside while war proceeds. The more people who slide into deception, the easier it is to win a war. Once the state approves the action through legislation and courts, it is nearly impossible to turn the tide away from war.
Newt Gingrich enhanced the lies. Media constraints were removed under President Reagan allowing propaganda networks like FOX News and others to assert lie after lie until truth was no longer a cornerstone of journalism. Even FOX newscasters argue in court they are not journalists but entertainers. Of course. More than a decade ago television news was removed from control of a Vice-President for news and placed under the Vice-president for entertainment. Overseas news bureaus were dismantled. These changes allowed for the consolidation of propaganda as news. The New York Times and the Washington Post journalists, old-school journalism, still require three sources to validate stories. How can they compete with an un-regulated internet of algorithm-base-profitability news releases? The Big Lie is not the first lie. It is the one we noticed. The big lie started a long time ago. And after Trump is gone, and the party of lies disbanded the lies will continue unless we stop them by restoring the regulations which insisted on truth-telling. Our democracy flourished when free speech, like other freedoms, were fairly and reasonably regulated to assure freedom for all of us. Autocrats do not want us to have free minds. They want us to have controlled minds.
Think this Civil War we are in has caused no deaths? Tell that to the 800,000 and still counting Americans who have died from Covid. Tell that to Ahmaud Arbery, and to the Native American women on tribal lands who are America’s “missing”, and to Asian-American women fearful of walking alone, and for all women afraid of walking alone at night, and for those whose sexual identity is under attack. There is a commonality to such attacks…those under attack are not white males who believe themselves superior. The attacks are done by white males who believe themselves superior. The number of attacks are increasing exponentially with the increase in the lies sanctioned by certain media outlets and social networks, including comments by members of Congress. The amount of money funding these congressional leaders, secessionist groups, white supremacist groups and social media influencers is staggering. Yet, we are told we are a nation in economic crisis caused by immigrants and refugees, unions, people of color, women in the workforce etc. There is plenty of money in this country. But as part of the new civil war we have continually enacted legislation to channel money to the already rich through our tax code, and bleed dry the middle class. The big lie continues to blame the poor for our economic failures. How can the poor lose money they never had? How can their inability to purchase goods and stimulate the economy be blamed on them? Big lies make us stupid. Big lies make us illogical.
When did secession become acceptable? Or has it always been so? Was it when Sarah Palin whose husband at the time, a known secessionist, was selected to run as Vice-President by the Republican Party? Those statues and monuments to secessionists are Big Lies, too. We have honored the Big Lie for a very long time. We have enshrined it.
Gingrich did not create it. He did see its value in promoting a Republican Party which continues to push white male supremacy as its core belief. It no longer has any other platform. It has become, quite openly, the secessionist party. Donald trump is merely the poster boy for misogynist, racist, wealthy white supremacy. The rest of America, including poor white men of good will are the victims of this Civil War. There is no culture war because America has no culture separate from its diversity of cultures. The American tapestry has served us well. It created a strong middle-class capable of supporting a democratic republic. But, a democratic and culturally diverse America stands in the way of autocrats and oligarchs seeking to consolidate their wealth and power.
Money bought legislative power and blocked political funding laws to stop this corrupting influence on legislators. Money bought candidates and blocked transparency in political ads. Money bought judges and blocked voting rights enforcement. While Democratic candidates, for the most part, rely on single low value donors, Republican candidates raise billions of dollars at home and abroad. Money floats across boundaries through multi-national banks and corporations. Trump, the money-launderer understands this.The great con man has always been a great liar. The republican Party thinks he is perfect for the job of continuing its assault on truth. Because trading truth for power is an acceptable value during war.
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Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS
Tagged as CIVIL WAR, courts, Democratic Party, economy, journalism, judges, media, money, Republican Party, SOCIAL MEDDIA, taxes, war