Jude's Threshold

By James Kwak

A couple of weeks ago I posted a 6,000-word essay laying out a new economic vision for the Democratic Party. It kind of vanished into the ether, although Stephen Metcalf was kind enough to say this:

So here it is, in 27 words:

All people need a few basic things:

• An education
• A job
• A place to live
• Health care
• A decent retirement

Let’s make sure everyone has these things.

If you want more, there is always the long version.

What a difference a lunar cycle can make! We dive back into the deep waters again on this New Moon at 02° 47′ Cancer on 23 June 2017 07:31 PM PDT. Water and earth are clearly in charge on this lunation with three planets in signs that they rule: Moon in Cancer, Venus in Taurus and Neptune in Pisces.

The luminaries create a stellium in Cancer with Mercury, entwining the thought process with emotions. While this gives us the ability to articulate our feelings, it is important to be aware the bias is towards subjectivity. If we do our best to keep this in mind, we may avoid the blind spots created tripping us up big time down the line. The best workaround is to engage our emotional intelligence and tune into what our intuitive side has to say.

The other planet in Cancer is Mars, and his strength is…

Jama Ecuador – My creative mind immediately painted the room’s interior walls with vibrant colors.   In seconds, that easily-accessed area of my imagination organized what was inside, traveled to the market and returned with tossed-aside crates previously used for transporting fruits and vegetables.     In another direction, my mind found discarded boards from construction projects, which could be altered to make shelves.

Click, click, click  – My imagination zoomed with ideas.  It would almost work for a temporary studio…   But – wait… water.. .a sink… a bathroom.

“Perdon,” I asked with an awkward approach, “Do you have a bathroom?  Water?”

You’ve seen Politico‘s current feature on Darrel Issa’s list of investigations into the Obama administration once the 112th Congress opens on Wednesday January 5, 2011.

It’s like the GOP vs Bill Clinton all over again and broadcaster Thom Hartmann has said that if the Rs can distract the people for long enough, they can hide the fact that the GOP has no new ideas for moving the country forward. I must concur with Mr. Hartmann though I sincerely believe that moving the country toward fascism is closer to Washington’s intention.

As of January 5th, Mr. Issa will be chairman of the ‘top oversight committee’ in Congress which grumps me up no end for if Congress hadn’t vacated its oversight duties years ago we might not be in the financial mess we’re in, yet Issa is passionately itching to use the congressional ‘oversight’ function to plague and undermine the GOP’s…

How a girl who wanted to make big in fashion world traveled from a sleepy town of Slovenia to the most coveted house on earth….How the most powerful man on earth needs her more than she needed him 20 years ago! Presenting Melania Trump…..

The union made perfect sense for Donald too. After demanding Ivana and needy Marla, Melania would be the perfect mate, one who would be an advertisement for his virility while giving him his “space.” Federico Pignatelli, a longtime Trump friend and business associate, who founded the fashion studio Pier 59, says, “Ivana was an intelligent, entrepreneurial woman. Also a very strong-minded person and very feisty. While instead, Melania . . . really no fights.” For her part, Melania would get a luxurious home where she could indulge her hobbies—Pilates and reading fashion magazines, according to People—in peace, and a promise that she would never…

Hmmm wierd or what?

Browsing round the papers this morning I was struck by two connected items.  First the entrenched quality of Oligarchy with its attendant cronyism in the United States, and the sclerotic reactionary conservatism of the Holy Catholic Church.

In America people who give money to winning campaigns get to be Ambassadors. In this America is all but unique.  It is a practice only used by her, and a few burned-out basket cases of countries also riddled with debt and corruption.  In this America is right up there with such luminaries as Kazakhstan.

And not surprisingly they are not necessarily good at what they do.  Who can forget the cringe-making Christmas Cards from Bruce Oreck’s time in Finland?  Bruce seemed only interested in showing off his body building prowess to the bemused Finns rather than knuckling down to promoting the interests of the country that had sent him…