Your experience / dialogue w/ your brother-in-law is not unique. At a person-to-person level, I find it fairly easy to find a number of points of agreement with others who may come from a supposedly 'opposite' political perspective. When we get to leave aside for a moment the differences (which often, I find, are reactions to the culture war fights), and examine the values that are most closely held, there's often a lot more of substance to agree on.
Unfortunately, the two sides of the Duopoly favor corporate power, the growth of money in politics, war and in particular war spending, and they both like to keep their factions in line by keeping alive / fueling the culture wars, now often focused heavily on social identitarian squabbles. That culture war, along with reactions pro and con to Trump, are enough to keep most people from even wanting to talk with the neighbor who happens to belong to the 'wrong' Party.
But as you express well here, when it comes to those issues of most importance, there is a lot of agreement potential. So thanks for continuing to build such bridges.
What's truly bizarre is that if you try to discuss parties or candidates you can easily start a fight, but if you discuss issues, you can almost always find agreement. The problem is that most people don't look at the voting records of their representatives. If they did, you would find nearly everyone agreeing that the politicians in both parties suck.
I've been in passionate discussions where we both tried to make our points and after a lot of give and take, both using different words and approach, realized we were both trying to make the same point!
Hi Bill! This is Buzz Davis, Vets for Peace in Tucson.
You have a number of good points. BUT what is the basis of your talk is: The discussion is among two former military members who have been in some forms of combat, i.e. purposeful killing.
Nearly all of the voting public today (about 60+ percent of the citizens) have never been in the military or if they have they were support troops and not in the line of fire or they were in the peace time military.
Men, I find, can be very "brave" about fighting X, Y or Z people if they are talking about the nation sending "other" people to war rather than themselves or their extended family
With Mr. Trump we have a very good example of a man who can be a trough talking but when the rubber hits the road he has a sore heel he says.
Mr. Biden is also a trough talker. In the 1960's he did not have heel soreness, he was a politician and too important to resign or take leave as some elected officials did during WWII.
All the wars will leave us like they left Sparta and Athens: All energy and money and people spent on forever wars and two destroyed societies. And both became "has-beens."
At this point Biden needs to be impeached for assisting war crimes, Dems in the House and Senate must expel the 147 members who voted to help the insurrection and expel them under the 14th Amend. Sec. 3. Then after 147 Republican members Congress are gone, then the House should impeach Trump for an attempted Coup and the Senate should convict and deny him holding any future elected or administrative office in the USA along with denying him any of the benefits of formerly holding office (i.e. retirement, office, library, body guards).
Regarding some of the commentors -- How can people be foolish enough to believe Trump when he talks about war and peace?
Those who believe only what they wish to believe coming out of the mouth or email of a liar are like a person who is beaten by their spouse saying. "Oh, I know she/he loves me and didn't mean to beat me and she/he said she/he will never do it again, so I am going to stay with her/him.
Men and women can fool themselves and all of us have probably done that once or a number of times in our lives.
We need Trump and Biden out of the 2024 race and new blood in!
Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023Liked by Bill Astore
So are you saying Bill that serving in the military is a necessary requirement for being POTUS? Their whole career was spent studying war! When you only have a Hammer, everything looks like a nail eh!
"The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is above all a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy". - Thomas Sowell
That's what General Wesley Clark said in the weeks right after 9/11 as he blew the whistle on US War Plans to remake the Middle East into the US-Israel image, changing the regimes of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and at THE END, Iran.
All the Israeli-US politicians saying Iran was behind October 7 is leading to that END of those 2001 US WAR PLANS.
It would go down as by far the most poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly armed and poorly executed insurrection in the history of the world. That’s the dead giveaway that it wasn’t an insurrection.
"It would go down as by far the most poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly armed and poorly executed insurrection in the history of the world. That’s the dead giveaway that it wasn’t an insurrection."
Considering the intellect of Trump followers , it's exactly what I would expect out of them for an insurrection.
First of all, it doesn't matter what candidates are on the Duopoly tickets. They'll follow National Security State orders and continue to serve their donors. That's how it works. Our only electoral hope at restoring our "democracy" is a viable third party and RCV.
And really, Biden "assisting war crimes"? Genocide Joe has been neck-deep in choreographing most of the US interventionist wars, long before he cheerled the Iraq debacle and eventually pushing its partitioning. Until the Gaza bloodbath, I thought Iraq and Ukraine were his worst criminal ventures.
And, come on, your TDS is showing. Trump's "attempted Coup"? If that's the case, it was the sorriest insurrection ever attempted - no weapons confiscated at the scene, according to FBI Assistant Director Jill Sanborn, and only one shot fired, by a Capitol police officer, killing unarmed demonstrator Ashli Babbitt.
In the real world families get together at Thanksgiving and enjoy the same levels of enjoyment as they would at any other time. If a person is prone to argument, the fact that it is Thanksgiving likely won’t deter them from seeking one.
Yet every year since 2016 the self anointed social psychologists employed in the news rooms of our major newspapers feel it necessary to publish helpful advice on how to throw a Thanksgiving dinner worthy of a Hallmark episode.
The gist is always;
“Avoid conversation with any family members who voted for Trump. Don’t even make eye contact. These people are unreasonable, lack education and since they probably have a gun in their truck, closely monitor their alcohol intake.”
Things get progressively worse for Trump voter guests as BLM protests and vaccine mandates emerge until eventually, while not saying it outright, they think it’s probably best not to invite them at all.
I’m glad you and I are able to enjoy the company of people with different political views without fear of having to call 911 or a mental health emergency hotline.
Love this name--Operation Ongoing Bullshit! It's perfect and I will now use it personally and maybe even in my classes since I'm also a historian of US empire. I can't vote for Trump, either, but I'm going to make it clear that will not vote for Biden. The Dems need to take seriously the fact that "no name Dem" polls better than Biden.
You might think that your view of Trump is a "minor disagreement" but that is the only thing you get a vote on. If Trump is on the ballot and your brother-in-law votes for him and you vote for someone else then it really doesn't matter what you two think about the "issues". We don't vote on issues. We vote for our "representatives" who usually turn out to be representatives of somebody else (starting with themselves and their careers of course). The United States is not a direct democracy. Unfortunately.
let me know the next time that brobdingnagian mind of yours plunges into the mysterium of 'infinity' fireman. please then haul what you discover into my brain, as, contrary to what you suggest, i don't 'enjoy' the advantages of ESP... too my dolour and contrition!
I'd like to see a plebiscite in the US worded as follows:
"It is estimated that our participation in the Ukraine-Russia war will end up costing the US about 2 trillion dollars, including money for reconstructing Ukraine after the war. Per household this works out to about $17,000.
Do you support this Ukraine project? Please note that your "yes" vote means that you consent to a charge of $17,000 on your credit card already on file. Also, depending on the results of the vote of this plebiscite, you consent to a charge up to an additional $17,000 to make up for those who vote "no" on this question, who will not be charged anything. Your credit card charges will appear under the heading "Project Ukraine".
Joe Biden and the Democratic party leadership recommend that you vote "yes" on this question. Mitch McConnell and the Republican party leadership also recommend that you vote "yes" on this question.
+We both agreed Joe Biden isn’t the answer in 2024. My brother-in-law is open to Trump; I can’t vote for Trump for so many reasons.
So let's get real Bill.
"Pragmatic" is the word I'm looking for here I guess.
: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs to the exclusion of intellectual matters : practical as opposed to idealistic.
Who are you going to vote for?
Trump is the only very slim chance that America will not start, or be complicit, in another war.
Cornel West will not get to 1st base in the Swamp. Nor any other 3rd Party Candidate.
You know that.
And voting for the crooked Democrats is voting for more of the same.
If you don't agree with this - you know I maintain you will be doing just as good as if you took the George Carlin approach and stay home on election day.
This Lifelong Vanishing-- I'm about to become extinct lol Moderate Dem. due to my being a Union Thug, Working Class, Firefighter, but anywho when it comes to the Presidential Election will Vote the Man, or woman over Party which is what I've done since I could Vote. So far I'm undecided..!
Occasionally in my 83 years i have been unable to mark my ballot for any candidate in some political contests. So far i see no viable or qualified entry for president.
Hello All! I just read all the comments to Bill A. submission on Thanksgiving.
It seems to me we are on a Merry Go Round.
I prefer to ask given the very threatening situation we as citizens of a nation if great trouble and a nation that faces an election in Nov. of 2024 WHAT SHOULD WE TRY TO DO?
Worst post to date! A bit hyper-masculinist and dismissive of Trump's (along with your recognition of genocide Joe's) dangerous ways (Meat! Sports! Guns! Oh my!).
The collateral damage of October 7 for the ruling politicians, is from what the ordinary people can see on TV, for the 1st Time since 2003 before the Iraq WAR, a growing PEACE MOVEMENT was born!
"Far too often, we’re told there are unbridgeable differences between right and left in America. Differences exist, of course, yet there’s so much Americans can and do agree on."
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; (Jews)
For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:"
Ephesians 2
Also understood as THE COMMON ERA of Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3
The Old Testament Jewish Religious Establishment that took over this real World Israeli government last January wouldn't like that idea!
If they did, this World would not have seen the horrific carnage in both Israel and Gaza.
We aren't going to be saved by any white bearded guy sitting on a throne in the sky!!! Where is your Concrete EVIDENCE for this nonsense? The scientific way of thinking is the path to the future and future institutions of mankind. Faith is the absense of evidence! What about the Big Bang? How we've evolved from other creatures, how the Earth is 4.6 billion yrs. old!?Its a Fairy Tale... I wish this was true too --its so tempting, but Darwin pointed out that order can come out of chaos over the evolution of Time...There is nothing for a Creator to do if a Universe always was! Where did God come from? The Universe always was, is and forever will be. There was no need for a Creator...!
Obviously you do, but I don't see God as being a white bearded guy sitting on a throne in the sky. That's nonsense! God is a Spirit, and can only be seen believing there is more than can be seen in this minuscule Maternal World, just a spec in the Universe.
So you think ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is the way to go?
People think on who and what they love. Everybody does that!
Today is the 89th Day of my 80th year counting up, not down.
I suddenly, unexpectedly came alive to God in the Human Body February 1, 1975, forty-eight years ago.
Like most People, I made no room in my thoughts or heart for God until that Day. In 1968 I was 24 coming from a very poor family and my pay package was $25,000 in 1968 Dollars. That bought the stuff that costs $200,000 in Today's Dollars we have inflated ourselves so much.
The more an individual practices the Faith and looks for God in themselves and the World, the more they understand and see the Evidences of God. Simply put, if you don't look, you don't find!
I tried to convey that Spiritual Awakening in terms Materialistic People might understand writing about it 12 years ago, "DAY OF AWAKENING – DAVID vs GOLIATH vs ARMAGEDDON"
These 12 years later, more People than ever before can see this real MATERIAL World is at the precipice of ARMAGEDDON like never before. According to the Bible, ARMAGEDDON is in Israel recreated from the Bible and starts there, which is what we're seeing developing TODAY.
As for the Big Bang, in the Bible Genesis 1: 2-3 it's written, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.'
With many unknown authors some 2,000-year ago, all with 1/1,000th of the knowledge we have now, how do we know they just didn't make all this stuff up?
Faith, by definition is believing things with no evidence Ray. Do we agree?
So why does an individual practicing Faith need to see the evidence of a God. Huh?
"Thats why we call it Faith. Because it's not knowledge" - Christopher Hitchens
You say that the universe had a cause - and of all the hundreds of "Gods", it was your "God" who created and fine-tuned the universe. Is that what your holy book says?.
And 6-billion years later he sneaks some obscure contradictory scriptures to few humans in a tiny country of illiterate people on a teeny tiny planet so they all men could learn about him and praise him.
When inventing a "God", the most important thing is to claim it is invisible, inaudible, and imperceptible in every way. Otherwise, people will become skeptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing. Like ending the deaths of thousands of infants starving to death in the World today as we type here?
taking it an infant's 'finite' step further, dennis, as w/ the daddy-god myths, we try to comprehend infinity by constructing 'time-myths' about big bangs, black holes, evolutionary time-frames, cosmic time~space continuum dynamics, what came before, what came before that, and that, and that... i perceive even those as exercises in the futility of our developing time-constructs b/c we are incapable of wrapping our fatuous brains around the inenarrable concept of infinity, precisely b/c it is NOT finite. all plausible cosmic realities [and all life forms understand those 'realities' differently] evolved in 'finite' constructs. infinity in its purest pellucidity is beyond our grasp; if we mentate too deeply and too-long absorbed in it, most of us become sufficiently dizzy and mepheliginous that we surrender in defeasance. others invent daddy-gods, the odd mommy-god, or other odd-gods in order to compensate. i suspect such folks fear relinquishing their god-myths in trepidation that they will fall down fuzzy-brained again.
Yes.., Ray the Bible is full of "Verses" Now you made me laugh so lets agree to disagree. You will never get through to me as I will never get through to you...
Lastly your supposed facts & beliefs/ prophecies with nothing to back them up like direct evidence are maybe just pesky stubborn things that may somehow still fire your passion to believe, but are to me at best wishful thinking. They cannot alter the state of their total lack of evidence. BS They simply don't pass this mans smell test!
Your experience / dialogue w/ your brother-in-law is not unique. At a person-to-person level, I find it fairly easy to find a number of points of agreement with others who may come from a supposedly 'opposite' political perspective. When we get to leave aside for a moment the differences (which often, I find, are reactions to the culture war fights), and examine the values that are most closely held, there's often a lot more of substance to agree on.
Unfortunately, the two sides of the Duopoly favor corporate power, the growth of money in politics, war and in particular war spending, and they both like to keep their factions in line by keeping alive / fueling the culture wars, now often focused heavily on social identitarian squabbles. That culture war, along with reactions pro and con to Trump, are enough to keep most people from even wanting to talk with the neighbor who happens to belong to the 'wrong' Party.
But as you express well here, when it comes to those issues of most importance, there is a lot of agreement potential. So thanks for continuing to build such bridges.
Yes. Exactly.
What's truly bizarre is that if you try to discuss parties or candidates you can easily start a fight, but if you discuss issues, you can almost always find agreement. The problem is that most people don't look at the voting records of their representatives. If they did, you would find nearly everyone agreeing that the politicians in both parties suck.
I've been in passionate discussions where we both tried to make our points and after a lot of give and take, both using different words and approach, realized we were both trying to make the same point!
Most rewarding, is it not? this work of bridge-building at a time when too many are determined to destroy bridges?
Blessed are the Peace Makers!
Hi Bill! This is Buzz Davis, Vets for Peace in Tucson.
You have a number of good points. BUT what is the basis of your talk is: The discussion is among two former military members who have been in some forms of combat, i.e. purposeful killing.
Nearly all of the voting public today (about 60+ percent of the citizens) have never been in the military or if they have they were support troops and not in the line of fire or they were in the peace time military.
Men, I find, can be very "brave" about fighting X, Y or Z people if they are talking about the nation sending "other" people to war rather than themselves or their extended family
With Mr. Trump we have a very good example of a man who can be a trough talking but when the rubber hits the road he has a sore heel he says.
Mr. Biden is also a trough talker. In the 1960's he did not have heel soreness, he was a politician and too important to resign or take leave as some elected officials did during WWII.
All the wars will leave us like they left Sparta and Athens: All energy and money and people spent on forever wars and two destroyed societies. And both became "has-beens."
At this point Biden needs to be impeached for assisting war crimes, Dems in the House and Senate must expel the 147 members who voted to help the insurrection and expel them under the 14th Amend. Sec. 3. Then after 147 Republican members Congress are gone, then the House should impeach Trump for an attempted Coup and the Senate should convict and deny him holding any future elected or administrative office in the USA along with denying him any of the benefits of formerly holding office (i.e. retirement, office, library, body guards).
Regarding some of the commentors -- How can people be foolish enough to believe Trump when he talks about war and peace?
Those who believe only what they wish to believe coming out of the mouth or email of a liar are like a person who is beaten by their spouse saying. "Oh, I know she/he loves me and didn't mean to beat me and she/he said she/he will never do it again, so I am going to stay with her/him.
Men and women can fool themselves and all of us have probably done that once or a number of times in our lives.
We need Trump and Biden out of the 2024 race and new blood in!
Peace! Buzz
Thanks, Buzz.
Biden and Trump: yup, they talk tough. Both had no interest in serving in the military.
Both men are also liars who routinely exaggerate their own accomplishments. Imagine that: two lying politicians! Some "choice"!
So are you saying Bill that serving in the military is a necessary requirement for being POTUS? Their whole career was spent studying war! When you only have a Hammer, everything looks like a nail eh!
"The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is above all a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy". - Thomas Sowell
No.
Then why did you say... "yup, they talk tough. Both had no interest in serving in the military?"
Not a pejorative statement eh?
A grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something.
I said it because it's true.
Fair enough.
I liked IKE
That's what General Wesley Clark said in the weeks right after 9/11 as he blew the whistle on US War Plans to remake the Middle East into the US-Israel image, changing the regimes of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and at THE END, Iran.
All the Israeli-US politicians saying Iran was behind October 7 is leading to that END of those 2001 US WAR PLANS.
Hear and see him in his own words:
https://youtu.be/7mNr1aaDiNw?si=xxA0y3Fe4_mTWRqW
NEVER pay attention to what a politician says. Pay attention to what they do.
Also, as conspicuous Frenchman Voltaire wrote, "Judge a man not by the good he does, but by the good he doesn't do."
Brother if it were insurrrection, no one had a plan, and no one brought to the fight any of their 2d amendment tools.
It would go down as by far the most poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly armed and poorly executed insurrection in the history of the world. That’s the dead giveaway that it wasn’t an insurrection.
"It would go down as by far the most poorly planned, poorly organized, poorly armed and poorly executed insurrection in the history of the world. That’s the dead giveaway that it wasn’t an insurrection."
Considering the intellect of Trump followers , it's exactly what I would expect out of them for an insurrection.
"then the House should impeach Trump for an attempted Coup"
"attempted Coup" - LMAO - you have been drinking the KOOLAID my friend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIYESmzwqLc
So many FBI agents and hidden informants were present at the Capitol on January 6th?
Newly released tapes are shedding shocking new light on the truth of that day.
No wonder they didn't want you to see these tapes.
The most disturbing part of this whole story is that a lot of gullible Americans believe the "attempted coup" was real.
And again Buzz, who is this new blood? Gavin Newsom? Cornel West? Get real eh!
Buzz,
First of all, it doesn't matter what candidates are on the Duopoly tickets. They'll follow National Security State orders and continue to serve their donors. That's how it works. Our only electoral hope at restoring our "democracy" is a viable third party and RCV.
And really, Biden "assisting war crimes"? Genocide Joe has been neck-deep in choreographing most of the US interventionist wars, long before he cheerled the Iraq debacle and eventually pushing its partitioning. Until the Gaza bloodbath, I thought Iraq and Ukraine were his worst criminal ventures.
And, come on, your TDS is showing. Trump's "attempted Coup"? If that's the case, it was the sorriest insurrection ever attempted - no weapons confiscated at the scene, according to FBI Assistant Director Jill Sanborn, and only one shot fired, by a Capitol police officer, killing unarmed demonstrator Ashli Babbitt.
In the real world families get together at Thanksgiving and enjoy the same levels of enjoyment as they would at any other time. If a person is prone to argument, the fact that it is Thanksgiving likely won’t deter them from seeking one.
Yet every year since 2016 the self anointed social psychologists employed in the news rooms of our major newspapers feel it necessary to publish helpful advice on how to throw a Thanksgiving dinner worthy of a Hallmark episode.
The gist is always;
“Avoid conversation with any family members who voted for Trump. Don’t even make eye contact. These people are unreasonable, lack education and since they probably have a gun in their truck, closely monitor their alcohol intake.”
Things get progressively worse for Trump voter guests as BLM protests and vaccine mandates emerge until eventually, while not saying it outright, they think it’s probably best not to invite them at all.
I’m glad you and I are able to enjoy the company of people with different political views without fear of having to call 911 or a mental health emergency hotline.
Love this name--Operation Ongoing Bullshit! It's perfect and I will now use it personally and maybe even in my classes since I'm also a historian of US empire. I can't vote for Trump, either, but I'm going to make it clear that will not vote for Biden. The Dems need to take seriously the fact that "no name Dem" polls better than Biden.
You might think that your view of Trump is a "minor disagreement" but that is the only thing you get a vote on. If Trump is on the ballot and your brother-in-law votes for him and you vote for someone else then it really doesn't matter what you two think about the "issues". We don't vote on issues. We vote for our "representatives" who usually turn out to be representatives of somebody else (starting with themselves and their careers of course). The United States is not a direct democracy. Unfortunately.
As for Vietnam, any poltician that told France the US would handle Vietnam should have gone to jail.
And so should have Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and Wolfowitz, For their lying transitions.
let me know the next time that brobdingnagian mind of yours plunges into the mysterium of 'infinity' fireman. please then haul what you discover into my brain, as, contrary to what you suggest, i don't 'enjoy' the advantages of ESP... too my dolour and contrition!
I'd like to see a plebiscite in the US worded as follows:
"It is estimated that our participation in the Ukraine-Russia war will end up costing the US about 2 trillion dollars, including money for reconstructing Ukraine after the war. Per household this works out to about $17,000.
Do you support this Ukraine project? Please note that your "yes" vote means that you consent to a charge of $17,000 on your credit card already on file. Also, depending on the results of the vote of this plebiscite, you consent to a charge up to an additional $17,000 to make up for those who vote "no" on this question, who will not be charged anything. Your credit card charges will appear under the heading "Project Ukraine".
Joe Biden and the Democratic party leadership recommend that you vote "yes" on this question. Mitch McConnell and the Republican party leadership also recommend that you vote "yes" on this question.
If only!
+We both agreed Joe Biden isn’t the answer in 2024. My brother-in-law is open to Trump; I can’t vote for Trump for so many reasons.
So let's get real Bill.
"Pragmatic" is the word I'm looking for here I guess.
: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs to the exclusion of intellectual matters : practical as opposed to idealistic.
Who are you going to vote for?
Trump is the only very slim chance that America will not start, or be complicit, in another war.
Cornel West will not get to 1st base in the Swamp. Nor any other 3rd Party Candidate.
You know that.
And voting for the crooked Democrats is voting for more of the same.
If you don't agree with this - you know I maintain you will be doing just as good as if you took the George Carlin approach and stay home on election day.
I have 11 months to think it over. And a lot can happen in 11 months.
This Lifelong Vanishing-- I'm about to become extinct lol Moderate Dem. due to my being a Union Thug, Working Class, Firefighter, but anywho when it comes to the Presidential Election will Vote the Man, or woman over Party which is what I've done since I could Vote. So far I'm undecided..!
I agree with most said here but as 83 old white male republican i consider any supporter of Dolald Trump part of a criminal conspiracy.
Only republicans i think were qualified to be president were General George Washington and General Dwight Eisenhower.
And maybe T.R.
As for anybody else, maybe FDR.
So who are you going to vote for my friend?
What candidate of any stripe is going to beat Trump?
Occasionally in my 83 years i have been unable to mark my ballot for any candidate in some political contests. So far i see no viable or qualified entry for president.
Maybe I'll write in Che.
Hello All! I just read all the comments to Bill A. submission on Thanksgiving.
It seems to me we are on a Merry Go Round.
I prefer to ask given the very threatening situation we as citizens of a nation if great trouble and a nation that faces an election in Nov. of 2024 WHAT SHOULD WE TRY TO DO?
Peace, Buzz Davis VFP in Tucson
Hi Buzz: I think we need to act like responsible citizens. We need to get involved in whatever way we can and fight back.
What we can't do is to surrender.
Worst post to date! A bit hyper-masculinist and dismissive of Trump's (along with your recognition of genocide Joe's) dangerous ways (Meat! Sports! Guns! Oh my!).
How dare we talk about sports! How dare we mention guns! How dare we eat meat!
Good luck building a mass movement by berating people.
Absent a critique and eventual marginalization of such things, there's little hope for any (progressively more humane and peaceful) future movements.
The collateral damage of October 7 for the ruling politicians, is from what the ordinary people can see on TV, for the 1st Time since 2003 before the Iraq WAR, a growing PEACE MOVEMENT was born!
PEACE?
There are 32 current world conflicts.
Historically 8800 wars..
Its football by the gods..
"Far too often, we’re told there are unbridgeable differences between right and left in America. Differences exist, of course, yet there’s so much Americans can and do agree on."
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; (Jews)
For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:"
Ephesians 2
Also understood as THE COMMON ERA of Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3
The Old Testament Jewish Religious Establishment that took over this real World Israeli government last January wouldn't like that idea!
If they did, this World would not have seen the horrific carnage in both Israel and Gaza.
We aren't going to be saved by any white bearded guy sitting on a throne in the sky!!! Where is your Concrete EVIDENCE for this nonsense? The scientific way of thinking is the path to the future and future institutions of mankind. Faith is the absense of evidence! What about the Big Bang? How we've evolved from other creatures, how the Earth is 4.6 billion yrs. old!?Its a Fairy Tale... I wish this was true too --its so tempting, but Darwin pointed out that order can come out of chaos over the evolution of Time...There is nothing for a Creator to do if a Universe always was! Where did God come from? The Universe always was, is and forever will be. There was no need for a Creator...!
At least 80 percent of humans are insane myth followers .
You mean wishful thinkers not necessarily practical thinkers or Heavenly minded but no Earthly good?
Ok
Obviously you do, but I don't see God as being a white bearded guy sitting on a throne in the sky. That's nonsense! God is a Spirit, and can only be seen believing there is more than can be seen in this minuscule Maternal World, just a spec in the Universe.
So you think ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is the way to go?
People think on who and what they love. Everybody does that!
Today is the 89th Day of my 80th year counting up, not down.
I suddenly, unexpectedly came alive to God in the Human Body February 1, 1975, forty-eight years ago.
Like most People, I made no room in my thoughts or heart for God until that Day. In 1968 I was 24 coming from a very poor family and my pay package was $25,000 in 1968 Dollars. That bought the stuff that costs $200,000 in Today's Dollars we have inflated ourselves so much.
The more an individual practices the Faith and looks for God in themselves and the World, the more they understand and see the Evidences of God. Simply put, if you don't look, you don't find!
I tried to convey that Spiritual Awakening in terms Materialistic People might understand writing about it 12 years ago, "DAY OF AWAKENING – DAVID vs GOLIATH vs ARMAGEDDON"
https://rayjc.com/2011/12/25/day-of-awakening-david-vs-goliath-vs-armageddon/
These 12 years later, more People than ever before can see this real MATERIAL World is at the precipice of ARMAGEDDON like never before. According to the Bible, ARMAGEDDON is in Israel recreated from the Bible and starts there, which is what we're seeing developing TODAY.
As for the Big Bang, in the Bible Genesis 1: 2-3 it's written, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.'
What a Big Bang that was!
Hope you got my emails today Ray my friend.
How do we know anything in the Bible is true?
With many unknown authors some 2,000-year ago, all with 1/1,000th of the knowledge we have now, how do we know they just didn't make all this stuff up?
Faith, by definition is believing things with no evidence Ray. Do we agree?
So why does an individual practicing Faith need to see the evidence of a God. Huh?
"Thats why we call it Faith. Because it's not knowledge" - Christopher Hitchens
You say that the universe had a cause - and of all the hundreds of "Gods", it was your "God" who created and fine-tuned the universe. Is that what your holy book says?.
And 6-billion years later he sneaks some obscure contradictory scriptures to few humans in a tiny country of illiterate people on a teeny tiny planet so they all men could learn about him and praise him.
When inventing a "God", the most important thing is to claim it is invisible, inaudible, and imperceptible in every way. Otherwise, people will become skeptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing. Like ending the deaths of thousands of infants starving to death in the World today as we type here?
Have a great day Ray.
taking it an infant's 'finite' step further, dennis, as w/ the daddy-god myths, we try to comprehend infinity by constructing 'time-myths' about big bangs, black holes, evolutionary time-frames, cosmic time~space continuum dynamics, what came before, what came before that, and that, and that... i perceive even those as exercises in the futility of our developing time-constructs b/c we are incapable of wrapping our fatuous brains around the inenarrable concept of infinity, precisely b/c it is NOT finite. all plausible cosmic realities [and all life forms understand those 'realities' differently] evolved in 'finite' constructs. infinity in its purest pellucidity is beyond our grasp; if we mentate too deeply and too-long absorbed in it, most of us become sufficiently dizzy and mepheliginous that we surrender in defeasance. others invent daddy-gods, the odd mommy-god, or other odd-gods in order to compensate. i suspect such folks fear relinquishing their god-myths in trepidation that they will fall down fuzzy-brained again.
Now you're reading my mind.
Yes.., Ray the Bible is full of "Verses" Now you made me laugh so lets agree to disagree. You will never get through to me as I will never get through to you...
Lastly your supposed facts & beliefs/ prophecies with nothing to back them up like direct evidence are maybe just pesky stubborn things that may somehow still fire your passion to believe, but are to me at best wishful thinking. They cannot alter the state of their total lack of evidence. BS They simply don't pass this mans smell test!