DENMARK A JUST NATION SANS AVARICE

Dear Peter, I thought you might want to see my recent op-ed for The Huffington Post which discusses what we can learn from Denmark's progressive social system. Thank you for your interest and support. Sincerely, Senator Bernie Sanders

What Can We Learn From Denmark? By Senator Bernie Sanders May 26, 2013 Danish Ambassador Peter Taksoe-Jensen spent a weekend in Vermont  this month traveling with me to town meetings in Burlington,  Brattleboro and Montpelier. Large crowds came out to learn about a social system very different from our own which provides extraordinary security and opportunity for the people of Denmark. Today in the United States there is a massive amount of economic anxiety. Unemployment is much too high, wages and income are too low, millions of Americans are struggling to find affordable health care and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider. While young working families search desperately for affordable child care, older Americans worry about how they can retire with dignity. Many of our people are physically exhausted as they work the longest hours of any industrialized country and have far less paid vacation time than other major countries. Denmark is a small, homogenous nation of about 5.5 million people. The United States is a melting pot of more than 315 million people. No question about it, Denmark and the United States are very different countries. Nonetheless, are there lessons that we can learn from Denmark? In Denmark, social policy in areas like health care, child care, education and protecting the unemployed are part of a "solidarity system" that makes sure that almost no one falls into economic despair. Danes pay very high taxes, but in return enjoy a quality of life that many Americans would find hard to believe. As the ambassador mentioned, while it is difficult to become very rich in Denmark no one is allowed to be poor. The minimum wage in Denmark is about twice that of the United States and people who are totally out of the labor market or unable to care for themselves have a basic income guarantee of about $100 per day. Health care in Denmark is universal, free of charge and high quality. Everybody is covered as a right of citizenship. The Danish health care system is popular, with patient satisfaction much higher than in our country. In Denmark, every citizen can choose a doctor in their area. Prescription drugs are inexpensive and free for those under 18 years of age. Interestingly, despite their universal coverage, the Danish health care system is far more cost-effective than ours. They spend about 11 percent of their GDP on health care. We spend almost 18 percent. When it comes to raising families, Danes understand that the first few years of a person's life are the most important in terms of intellectual and emotional development. In order to give strong support to expecting parents, mothers get four weeks of paid leave before giving birth. They get another 14 weeks afterward. Expecting fathers get two paid weeks off, and both parents have the right to 32 more weeks of leave during the first nine years of a child's life. The state covers three-quarters of the cost of child care, more for lower-income workers. At a time when college education in the United States is increasingly unaffordable and the average college graduate leaves school more than $25,000 in debt, virtually all higher education in Denmark is free. That includes not just college but graduate schools as well, including medical school. In a volatile global economy, the Danish government recognizes that it must invest heavily in training programs so workers can learn new skills to meet changing workforce demands. It also understands that when people lose their jobs they must have adequate income while they search for new jobs. If a worker loses his or her job in Denmark, unemployment insurance covers up to 90 percent of earnings for as long as two years. Here benefits can be cut off after as few as 26 weeks. In Denmark, adequate leisure and family time are considered an important part of having a good life. Every worker in Denmark is entitled to five weeks of paid vacation plus 11 paid holidays. The United States is the only major country that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation time. The result is that fewer than half of lower-paid hourly wage workers in our country receive any paid vacation days. Recently the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that the Danish people rank among the happiest in the world among some 40 countries that were studied. America did not crack the top 10. As Ambassador Taksoe-Jensen explained, the Danish social model did not develop overnight. It has evolved over many decades and, in general, has the political support of all parties across the political spectrum. One of the reasons for that may be that the Danes are, politically and economically, a very engaged and informed people. In their last election, which lasted all of three weeks and had no TV ads, 89 percent of Danes voted. In Denmark, more than 75 percent of the people are members of trade unions. In America today, as a result of the political and economic power of corporate America and the billionaire class, we are seeing a sustained and brutal attack against the economic well-being of the American worker. As the middle class disappears, benefits and guarantees that workers have secured over the last century are now on the chopping block. Republicans, and too many Democrats, are supporting cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition, education, and other basic needs -- at the same time as the very rich become much richer. Workers' rights, the ability to organize unions, and the very existence of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are now under massive assault.   In the U.S. Senate today, my right-wing colleagues talk a lot about "freedom" and limiting the size of government. Here's what they really mean.   They want ordinary Americans to have the freedom NOT to have health care in a country where 45,000 of our people die each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should. They want young people in our country to have the freedom NOT to go to college, and join the 400,000 young Americans unable to afford a higher education and the millions struggling with huge college debts. They want children and seniors in our country to have the freedom NOT to have enough food to eat, and join the many millions who are already hungry. And on and on it goes!   In Denmark, there is a very different understanding of what "freedom" means. In that country, they have gone a long way to ending the enormous anxieties that comes with economic insecurity. Instead of promoting a system which allows a few to have enormous wealth, they have developed a system which guarantees a strong minimal standard of living to all -- including the children, the elderly and the disabled.   The United States, in size, culture, and the diversity of our population, is a very different country from Denmark. Can we, however, learn some important lessons from them? You bet we can.

Camelot Lost...

The only problem with the Right Wing Republicans is that the wo/men of  their party, the front runners their candidacies for president, that among them is not one noble man. They are in essence the same fools who in spirit, presided over those who Murdered John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The Reverent, ML King, and Robert F. Kennedy, JFK, MLK and RFK. Those who lynched blacks, who underpaid employees, those who tried to crush Collective Bargaining, to enslave all and sundry, those haters who murdered people around the world to become wealthy. Whose despicable lives are applauded by a twisted version of Christianity, which has grown in the minds of those inbred, hypocritical, incapable of knowing sanctity, and yet somehow otherwise good people, share some of their hatred of most of the rest of humanity.

There is one way to tell a true Lover of God, it is in those who fight to protect His Creations; the animals, the pure, crystal , clear, potable, waters, equally clean air and oceans, trees and grasses. Those who wish to destroy them hate God. Dead trees, dead grasses, poisonsed

They all hate the working class and say so in their positions, they all, in not so many words pander to the murderous racists, misogynists, war mongering fascists and Anti Catholics, protectors of the cancer spreading, slave driving Military Medical Industrial Complex, Greedy, Depopulationist, voter control by elimination of anyone whose vote  betters the lives of the poor, the downtrodden, the non-white.

All these Hell-Bound criminals in white shirts responsible for all, if not the vast majority of evil doing in America, for the Wasted murders of millions, the wreckage of nations. To the world I am ashamed that so many have twisted the messages that Christianity has sent us into a series of broken ideas sent straight from Hell to America and easily grasped by the most greedy men on the planet. Each time one of them invokes the God I know, it makes me pray for a New Passover.

Isn't it ironic, that such overwhelming hypocrisy is spewed forth and God has not struck them dead on the spot?

Here is the core of the problem, we voted for a man, who showed us during his run for the presidency, a massive, fraudulent, lie, as his platform. I shall then write in a vote this time for not my old standby, Mickey Mouse, but for one of my imperfect Heroes, John F. Kennedy, the man they murdered, and whose son they may well have murdered. I recall my days of working for JFK with great pride and great sadness at losing such a fearless leader.

Even now, at writing these words I see so clearly my lifelong heroes, Jesus, FDR, JFK and a small handful of others. Where did America go wrong? When did we turn from the lofty Christian truths of FDR and JFK, to what we have now facing us?

I recall those last days of Camelot in America, and the final song of the musical, brings me often to tears, as it does right now:
"Don't Let it be forgot,
that once there was a spot,
for one brief shinning moment,
... that was Camelot..."

My Review for Amazon of the book "Austerity"

				Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea by Mark Blyth Edition: Hardcover Price: $16.95		42 used & new from $15.19
Logical and Simple, but Much Too Simply For The Dunces, April 6, 2013 This review is from: Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Hardcover) Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea Mark Blyth is Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of Political Science at Brown University and a Faculty Fellow at Brown's Watson Institute for International Studies. He is also the author of Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century. If you have common sense and are tired of being blamed for the idiocy of the crash, you will love this easy reading, simply perfect attack on one of the world's most insipid ideas in history, re: Economic "Austerity". Economic "Austerity", is right up there with, "The earth is square and if you sail too far out you will fall off of it", and "The Earth is the center of this universe". As we know, in semi-modern times Austerity grew out of the mindlessness of Germany between the 1920's and 1940's. It crushed the USA economy under three presidents and the only good thing about it is that it gave us FDR who created the middle classes and put into place laws like "the Glass Steagal Act, which was introduced during the Great Depression by former Treasury Secretary Sen. Carter Glass (D-VA) and Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee Rep. Henry B. Steagall (D-AL). As one of the first acts of FDR's New Deal, the legislation segregated commercial banks from securities markets, established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and enhanced the regulatory powers of the Federal Reserve over bank which prevented this sort of thing until they were overturned." Its earlier history was in nations festering in envy, and the hatred created by those not known for having created intelligent and unbiased leaders or workers. Long before that it became the handy work of the most intellectually deprived minds on the planet. The entire Idea of As one historian said,"Austerity" is a canard created by thieves, dunces and fools. It is indeed "A Confederacy of Dunces of Political, Depopulationist, greedy, Corrupt Corporate Fascism in their Hate Mongering and coveting of the creation of the three Middle classes." "Austerity's" "best points", (if there were any) are, useless, arrogance and incompetence. The notion that removing or reducing discretionary income some comes from minds which are envy and idiotically driven, without a clue about how math and an economy work at different levels. The economy of a family and a nation are far from the same. By taking away discretionary income one worsens a depression because those who have lost discretionary income can no longer support the companies from which they used they used to buy goods and services and then those companies go under. That is the kind of simple math taught in the best Primary and college prep school s around the world and the very notion that Austerity can solve the problems of throwing money away on poor investing and worse loans, is phenomenally, galactically, a symbol of indigestion of the brain, if there even is one, which is doubtful among those who propose it. The author uncovers much of this in his own words simply and easily comprehended by readers. Austerity, is evidence that a nation has allowed the least qualified people into a game into which they should never have been allowed to enter. Moreover, the main evil purpose/goal appears to be and should be admitted to be destabilization, a tool in which the present greedy Outsourcing avarice loaded Wall Street Bankster/theives aided by back to back, to back to back, friendly administrations and its attendant congresses, seems to delight in forcing onto other nations. Is that in practice for doing likewise unto ours? It is a path of disaster, which main goal is increasingly more disastertorus, ala the several presidents which preceded FDR. As John Quiggin, author of Zombie Economics says, "Of all the zombie ideas that have been reanimated in the wake of the global financial crisis, austerity is the most dangerous. Mark Blyth shows how austerity created the disasters of the 1930s, and contributed to the descent of the world into global war. He shows how European austerity policies have prevented any recovery from the crisis of 2009, while rescuing and protecting the banks and financial institutions that created the crisis." The KIRKUS REVIEW , says, "Most fascinating is the author's (Author Mark Blyth), "discussion of the historical underpinnings of austerity, first formulated by Enlightenment thinkers Locke, Hume and Adam Smith, around the (good) idea of parsimony and the (bad) idea of debt. Ultimately, writes Blyth, austerity is a 'zombie economic idea because it has been disproven time and again, but it just keeps coming.' A clear explanation of a complicated, and severely flawed, idea." The very notion that a budget has to be balanced by cutting discretionary income is ludicrous, vicious, and speaks to a thing that should be sought out by the US Attorney General and indicted under the RICO ACT and sited under the title of High Treason. Greedy banksters and Wall Street Demoniacs and either stupid and/or evil elected officials created the crisis we face. Government cuts during a recession? How inconceivable is that? Don't you wonder why so many billionaires, corporate people and politicians are punishing us for what they did? IN world history, and especially in American History, only about four to five times have budgets ever been balanced. Why were they, the criminals or the stupid, walking free? It would appear that this president thinks that he and they are above the law and God and see themselves as gods. Those who must balance the budget immediately regardless of the human cost should be noted for their lack of empathy, displacement of blame and lack of intelligence. The current crisis was not caused by taxpayers, but by foolhardy and corrupt banking and near zero interest and from Bailouts to stop banks from going into freefall when they should have been allowed to fall apart. Bailing them out at a rate of $85 billions a month by the twisted interests of the FED is wrecking the economy beyond easy repair. In Austerity Blyth uses a General G, S. Patton attack, "Holding them by the nose and kicking them in the arse." A dual rush upon the villains. What is amazing to me is that both the government and the voters allowed banksters and corporate pirates to make others believe that it was a failure by the people and not the banksters and corporate pirates and that the people, taxpayers should suffer the consequences and what makes the brightest people ticked is that we have an administration replacing the previous one, which is worse if that is possible. An added note of my own curiosity and the least understandable misbegotten "fix" is the Bernanke plan to drop interest rates on savings to near zero which has blocked more than $1 trillion dollars of discretionary cash from entering the market and is being kept by the banks instead of their clients gaining it and spending it this improving the economy and the job market. The other thing is that no one has mentioned placing an excise tax of 5% - 10% above domestic retail prices, upon all outsourced jobs which would bring the 31 millions unemployed or underemployed back into the starving market place. In fact that in 1920 an early depression was nipped in the bud by raising interest rates on savings and the recession ended within 18 months. I love this book, probably because Blyth, Paul Krugman, Senator Bernies Sanders, and many others are thinking along similar lines. I give it 5 x 5 Stars, God Bless Mark Blyth for wonderfully saying what is obvious to most of us and inconceivable to the corrupt.

THE LAYERS OF HELL/INFERNO

MY VERSION OF THE DIVINE COMEDY: 
STEP ONE, INFERNO

IS THIS A REVELATION?

THERE ARE THREE LAYERS OF HELL, FROM THE LEAST TO THE WORST 

OF THOSE THEREIN

WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY ELECTING COWARDS, AND GREEDY ONES AT THAT WHO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER. AND THE STATE OF THEIR SOULS IS THAT THOSE SOULS WILL BE CAST INTO HELL EVEN WHILE THEIR BODIES STILL WALK THE EARTH.

1)-         THOSE WHOSE SOULS ARE CAST DOWN INTO HELL AFTER DEATH, FOR A WHILE

2)-         THOSE WHOSE SOULS ARE CAST DOWN INTO HELL AFTER DEATH, FOREVER

3)-         THOSE WHOSE SOULS ARE CAST DOWN INTO HELL IN THIS LIFETIME AND REMAIN THERE WHILE THEIR BODIES ARE ALIVE AND STILL WALKING THE EARTH. THEY ARE THOSE WHO ARE SO GREEDY AND EVIL THAT THEY CREATE EVERY SORT OF HELL ON EARTH FOR THOSE THEY ENVY. FOR THEM IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SAVED, WHICH THEY KNOW INSTINCTIVELY AND WHICH DRIVES THEM TO DO THE SORT OF THINGS SO MANY POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN DOING SINCE THE DEATH OF FDR.

4)-         THOSE WHOSE SOULS HAVE RESIDED THERE FROM PREVIOUS  LIVES AND HAVE BEEN REINCARNATED TO DESTROY THOSE WHO DESTROYED THEM PREVIOUSLY.

          FOR THEM IT IS ALSO IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SAVED, WHICH THEY KNOW INSTINCTIVELY AND WHICH DRIVES THEM TO DO THE SORT OF THINGS SO MANY POLITICIANS HAVE BEEN DOING SINCE THE DEATH OF FDR AND ESPECIALLY SINCE 2001.

THE LAST (3 - 4) ARE THE WORST

Woodward: Extended interview

Woodward at war

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The Woodward reporting has caused the White House spin machine to sputter at a crucial time. The president was running around the country, campaign-style, warning that Republicans were at fault for the massive cuts set to hit Friday. What Obama never says: It was his own staff that proposed sequestration, and the tax hikes he now proposes — aimed at replacing half of the cuts — were never part of that very specific plan.
(PHOTOS: What they’re saying about sequestration)
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Woodward: Extended interview

Woodward blasts Obama 'madness'

The White House instead has, with great success, fudged the facts. The administration has convinced a majority of the country that Republicans are more to blame by emphasizing that Republicans voted for the plan. Which they did — after Obama conceived it.

The truth is that Obama and Republicans supported it because everyone believed it was a such a stupid idea that the grown-ups in Washington would never actually let it happen. They thought Obama and Congress would come up with a grand bargain on spending, entitlement cuts and tax increases, instead of allowing the sequestration ax to fall. They were wrong.
So the blame game is in full swing — and Woodward is smack in the middle of it. The Obama White House is out to discredit him. Behind the scenes, Obama allies are spreading word that the Woodward book broadly — and his reporting on sequestration specifically — are misleading because Republicans, especially House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, were so clearly among the chief sources.

It is no secret on Capitol Hill that Cantor and his staff cooperated extensively with Woodward. It is fairly obvious as you breeze through the opening chapters of the book. But we have talked with many Democrats and Republicans who cooperated with the book. And all of them say that while they might dispute some of the broader analytical points Woodward makes, the play-by-play is basically spot on.

David Plouffe, the longtime political adviser to Obama, taunted Woodward on Twitter shortly after this column was published. “Watching Woodward last 2 days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again,” he tweeted. “Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.”

Watching and now having interviewed Woodward, it is easy to see why White House officials get worked up about him. He clearly is skeptical of Obama’s approach to the job. “I’m not sure he fully understands the power he has,” Woodward said. “He sees that the power is the public megaphone going around to these campaign-like events, which is real, but the audience he needs to deal with is on this issue of the sequester and these budget issues is John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.”

Woodward also said that based on his reporting for the book, Obama deserves more of the blame for scuttling the grand bargain of 2011 that would have put sequestration to rest long ago. “He changed the deal and it blew up,” Woodward said. “I mean, you look at the facts, and even by the White House accounts by his aides, he was making a last-minute change.”

Woodward thinks there is still a grand bargain to be had between Obama and Boehner, with tax reform as a huge component. “Sit down and work through this,” he said. “I can see exactly how you come up with a deal that would dispose of lots of things.” Woodward, who helped bring down one presidency and has written instant history on every one since, added: “Color me a little baffled. I don’t understand this White House. Do you?”

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• IS THIS AN IMPEACHMENT OFFENSE? IF SO LETS GET A REAL DEMOCRAT IN NEXT TIME-AN FDR PROGRESSIVE LIKE BERNIE SANDERS

What Does The Bible Say About Fasting?

Christianity: What Does The Bible Say About Fasting?

 I found this to be an interesting commentary on fasting, to/on which I shall expand later.

Source: Essortment

1. Christianity: What Does The Bible Say About Fasting?

Learn about the bible and fasting. Fasting is a time honored Christian ritual. What is its purpose? 

Fasting is a time honored Christian ritual. It is the voluntary sacrifice of food and sometimes drink, too. What is its purpose? How do we make a decision to fast? How long should we fast? 

Abstaining from food is the typical kind of fast. (Daniel 6:18) There are occasions when people abstain from both food and drink, though this is not common. (Ezra 10:6) Typically, fasts are one day in length. (Judges 20:26) Sometimes, they are three days (Esther 4:16), or even seven days; "And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. (1 Samuel 31:13) 

On three occasions in the Bible, people fasted for forty days. This is not a prescribed practice; these were very unusual circumstances. The first occasion was when Moses received the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 34:28) The next occasion was when Elijah encountered God before the anointing of Elisha. (1 Kings 19:8) The third occasion for such a fast was when Jesus was in the wilderness and tempted by Satan. (Matthew 4:2) 

There are many reasons given in the Bible for fasting. The fasting itself is an act of sacrifice and when we fast and experience hunger, we are reminded of God and His sacrifice for us. While fasting denies the flesh comfort, it feeds the spirit strength. Fasts are voluntary, part of religious tradition or done in obedience to God. When you decide to fast, be clear with yourself and with God about why you are fasting, how long you will fast and use the time normally spent preparing and eating food to deepen your relationship with God. The fast should serve a purpose; there should be a significant reason for it. 

Bereavement was once a common reason for fasting, though it is not so much anymore. The fasting may have been incidental in some cases but was often a way to feel closer to God during a particularly difficult time. "And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven" (Nehemiah 1:4) 

Distressing or difficult times are reasons for fasting. Fasting is a way of communicating feelings of fear, anxiety, distress or grief to God. Self-denial is one way of expressing genuineness or sincerity. It's also a way of making a spiritual contribution to relieving the situation, a way of showing God a willingness to do our part and asking Him to make up the difference. (See Esther 4:3) Fasting is sometimes used as a sacrifice when asking God to intervene in a situation. "But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom." (Psalms 35:13) 

Fasting can also be a way of expressing sorrow or regret for sin. God doesn't ask us for this sacrifice but He is pleased by it. "And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, we have sinned against the LORD"¦"(1 Samuel 7:6) When this kind of sacrifice is made as a sincere gesture of sorrow or penitence, it is accepted by God. 

When Christians seek guidance from God fasting may be an action that is helpful. The idea is to use the time we spend on food to spend with God instead. It provides extra time to spend in prayer, worship and listening. It is also a way of preparing for a spiritual event or change. It's an act of submission, a way to get our desire out of the way in order to allow the spirit to work. (Acts 13:1-3) 

Fasting can be a form of worship. "And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." (Luke 2:37) Surrendering comfort as an act of worship is not necessary but it is pleasing to God if it is sincere. It is much like saying, "Thank you God for giving Your Son for me. Let me be a little uncomfortable for Your sake." Here again fasting is an act of sacrifice. 

Fasting is a way of communicating emotion to God; it's a sacrifice that can be made for the sake of restoring a right relationship with God, or can be made coupled with a request for help. Fasting is a way to subdue our flesh for the sake of our spirit. Fasting must be done sincerely to be a pleasing sacrifice to God. 

It should be kept private; there is no need to reveal our sacrifice to anyone else unless a group is fasting together for a particular reason.

(I added: Or unless you wish to excite others into fasting, the more people participating, the more the power of prayer and fasting is a prayer, will be brought top the attention of all for inspirational purposes.) 

Fasting can be used for a variety of reasons but it must be done sincerely. Choosing to fast can be a way to communicate feelings like sorrow, grief, and regret but it can also be a way of worshipping God. Fasts can be a sacrifice when we ask God for help or guidance and they can be acts of obedience when God asks us to fast. Fasts are time limited and are done for a reason; be clear about how long you will fast and why you are fasting. Whatever your reason for fasting, use the extra time to grow closer to God. He will honor your sacrifice.