Principles of Federalism

Federated principles are concerned with uniting people and getting them to work together in solidarity. Federal Government is general government that spans multiple centers of population and subdivisions and links people who might otherwise be at war with one another. Thus all the principles of Federal Government derive from two basic concepts: "E Pluribus Unum" -- out of many one and the notion that we are stronger when we work together; "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." The notion of "Union" as better than disunion is central to all of them. For a Federation to work it has to recognize the rights and responsibilities of both central authorities and local authorities, subsidiarity and replication of republican forms to the local level.

Make a Difference in 24 Hours

My Friends Michael Jackson (not the other one) and Leroy Nesbitt and the Black Student Fund have to struggle each year to raise enough money to support the thousands, millions of High School Graduates who don't have the depth of resources to pay for a college education, or even workforce training. This year's donation effort is a "challenge effort" in which a benefactor has promised to match donations. We had 3 hours to make a donation, at the point I wrote this, when I wrote this, to get the benefit of matching donations, but this is a worthwhile cause any day of the year.

Their website says;

"It's a With your support you will help BSF Scholars continue achieving academic, personal, and professional success."

They note that donation today will:

1. Help BSF scholars enroll in SAT and ACT test prep classes.
2. Help fund BSF’s Bishop T. Walker Award given to a graduating senior BSF scholar.
3. Help BSF scholars participate in BSF’s Community Day at Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home.
4. Help BSF scholars attend an annual outing at the Anacostia Playhouse.
5. Help families attend the 43rd Annual Independent School Fair.

For more on this subject please go to this page.

https://domore24.org/npos/black-student-fund

I donated.

For more on the Black Student Fund and GABIDDC:

GABIDDC Partnership with Black Student Fund:

GABIDDC Partnership Page

A Recklessly Corrupt Court! -- When is Fraud not Fraud?

United States ex rel. O’Donnell v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., No. 15-496 (2d Cir. 2016)

This is an incredible decision. Essentially the judge was saying that Bank of America cannot be held accountable for Countrywide frauds. They claim this is because the admittedly reckless and contemptuously misrepresented sales of fraudulent loans, the appeals court claims, somehow weren't proof of fraud! Somehow they weren't reckless and contemptuous enough. In my opinion this court's decision was reckless and contemptuous of the 7th amendment and rule of law. I'm no lawyer and I'd love it if some lawyer could justify this decision. I'm sure some can. I hope this gets appealed to the SCOTUS and that we have a less corrupt SCOTUS to hear the appeal. It just sounds really, really wrong.

How I'd like to See Bernie's Campaign End

I've only written about half of my series "The Trouble with Bernie Sanders" [see: The Trouble with Bernie Sandres] but I saw an article by Robert Reich that expresses some of my own feelings but reflects someone who has not been a part of the bitter and dishonest propaganda parts. I love Robert Reich. So I'll segue off of what he says, some of which I largely concur with. But a lot of which I think reflects his cocooned role as a professor:

"With the Democratic primaries grinding to a bitter end, I have suggestions for both Clinton and Sanders supporters that neither will like.” [Reich]

So far so good

The Real Problem

Actually the problem, Mr. Reich, is that your suggestions reflect the false equivalence proposition that somehow Bernie is being treated unfairly, which is part of the problem. The Real Problem is that Hillary is being depicted as being the problem. Instead of Bernie trying to Enlist her he's trying to destroy her and damage the party in the process. I was initially for Bernie Sanders. I liked his and your message. There seems to have been a major misunderstanding.

Richard Torgerson and USSIF

One of my friends dates to my younger days and his name is Richard Torgerson. I met a lot of fine and wonderful people during my days studying Buddhism and he was one of them. Richard Torgerson, is a man who managed to combine an investment advisor career with high idealism.

Thus he is involved in financial business, but in a way that is rare nowadays. His Financial West Group seeks to follow the guidances of:

Send Money your Donation is Tax Deductible

Image from Arlington Cemetary (taken by me)

The quarrelsome men promise victory in the end.

"There will be victory and prosperity again!"

We will defeat the evil enemy bye and bye

And those who have harmed us will surely die!

 

The men on the stage have a certain charm.

We will make our enemies build our walls

...and fund our wars.

And we will snatch all the glory.

Send money, your donation is tax deductible.

 

It's always the other folks who are corrupt!

Have you noticed the one finger pointed outward?

The leaders of my side always deserve all our money.

"The one percent are too rich!"

("Never mind that I'm a member"), he didn't say.

"I'm exempt because I'm leading the fight."

Apparently rules are for the enemy to break.

Send money, your donation is tax deductible.

 

The enemy! They are corrupt!

"The Oil barons want to blow us up."

"These person here shills for Wall Street"

"That person there is evil and must go down to defeat."

The trumpets blast the trash talk.

As former friends face off in hate.

The generals say "pay the accusations of that other fellow no mind"

"They are liars! March in step with us"

"You must follow ME. I'm your fearless leader!"

And "Send money, your donation is tax deductible."

"It is paying for my Vacation"

 

Meanwhile us common folks try to pay our rents

and our other bills

Whether or not we are bedazzled by magical claims

We pray that all will soon be fine.

We pay for all the magic with our blood, sweat and tears.

And when they can't deliver on promises, we are the bottom line.

Even when we start to feel like we've turned into a turnip.

the letters keep coming:

"Send money, your donation is tax deductible."

 

We have no objection to paying.

We will pay the costs for what we need.

Blood, sweat and tears? We bleed.

We know that burden dates to Adam and Eve.

We toil by our sweaty tears.

to try to make it better.

We sacrifice to help our fellow Human.

If only our fearless leaders would deliver on their promises.

But the letters keep coming:

"Send money, your donation is tax deductible."

 

I can buy a vision of peace

And march in step with the fearless leader.

I see a vision;

Great peace, and rows and rows of returning volunteers,

marching home again.

But that transforms in my imagination to rows and rows of uniform graves,

Each decorated with little flags

And mouldering in the rain.

My vision of joy transformed;

Into one of tragedy

children and their moms...

Weeping besides graves.

They aren't sharing a vision of peace when they say:

"Send money, your donation is tax deductible."

 

If it were only just my people and our scoundrels doing this.

I could blame my cons, carry a gun and securely fight on.

But the scoundrels are the same all over.

They talk so pretty, in the languages of the world.

It all sounds so romantic when they tell their people how great they are.

But when the children die it's because the fearless leaders lie,

Meanwhile they send their children to the same schools in Switzerland.

Where they learn to beg:

"Send money, your donation is tax deductible."

Christopher H. Holte 5/27/2016

This is a rewrite of what I wrote in 2013:

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/05/victory.html

A little smoke

Nothing like oil sands on fire to create a haze.

Might induce a bit of daze.

For the high and Mighty it might create a craze.

To wear masks or visit far away.

 

What a trifecta!

Oil and Grass and radiation.

What a wonderful way

to spread the misery across the nations.

 

Brittle bones or bad loans

different kinds of disaster

But for the stars above

they just float like the long ago Asters.

 

Thyroid nodules, radiation sickness.

Just a flu, pay it no mind!

Just a cost of doing business

Secret stuff really,

beyond my pay grade.

 

If we blow up the world,

well our bosses know what they are doing.

They wouldn't put us at harm,

would they?

 

I keep the secrets I was told to keep.

I'll carry them to my grave.

Some of them I don't even know I'm keeping

are hidden in my bones.

 

Christopher H. Holte

Inspired by this news article about the Fort Murray Fires, and my knowledge of what is stored at the Fort Murray hazardous (nuclear) waste sites: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-fire-smoke-greenland-europe-1.3599812