Chat Spot

[RonPrice]

I continue my resolve to respond to the posts of chat spot after 8 days of 2013 and to keep my website updated at: http://www.ronpriceepoch.com/auto.html

[Steve Plonk]

Well, Barack Hussein Obama, II, has officially begun his second term as POTUS. The
public festivities continue tomorrow at the public swearing in at around Noon.
I am pleased the American people elected him to a second term as President.

[RonPrice]

Some interestng statistics for us all:

With the popular vote 50.4 percent for Obama to 48.1 percent for Romney in overview, one could say its "tweedledum or tweedldee." You are pleased that the American people elected him to a second term as President, and half of America is not.

Then there is the 40 to 50 per cent of people who don't even vote:
no. of voters///turnout
1988 181,956 91,587 50.3%
1992 189,493 104,600 55.2%
1996 196,789 96,390 49.0%
2000 209,787 105,594 50.3%
2004 219,553 122,349 55.7%
2008 229,945 131,407 57.1%
turnout for 2012 was 57.5 percent of the eligible voters

When combined with Team Obama and Team Romney collectively spending roughly $2 billion, this year's presidential cycle becomes the most expensive in American history.

[Steve Plonk]

Ron, you don't have the final results. Obama won with 51.02% of the popular vote after they counted the western states & the Florida vote.

See link: http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php

Ron, I also resent your characterizations of our election. Yes, money was spent, but the
American people prevailed & the rich Koch Bros. & their tea party travelers did not buy
the election like they wanted to. In my opinion, this was a hard fought election & the right men won the election. Basic American rights & values were at stake.

In 2012, we had a clear dividing line between rich corporate interests & "the 99%".
The regular folks won this election by voting for the Democratic candidate.

[RonPrice]

You are of course free to resent the details I posted, Steve, and I can understand your reaction to them however true their factual content was. By my late teens I found the partisan political process highly offensive with candidates declaring themselves and bashing their opponents. Loyal supporters would be digging up dirt on the opposition while trying to claim the moral high ground for their side. The rank and file, bombarded by campaign literature, heatedly argue the pros and cons of the various candidates. Observing the mudslinging, inflated promises, and self-aggrandizement that attends political elections in my teens and 20s I did not opt for your enthusiasm for the process.

To each their own, Steve. I do not resent your enthusiasm for the process; I am surprsied that you and millions of others take it so seriously when the process is so intellectually offensive. One of the signs of the breakdown of society in all parts of the world is the erosion of trust and collaboration between the individual and the institutions of governance. In many nations the electoral process has become discredited because of endemic corruption.

Contributing to the widening distrust of so vital a process are the influence on the outcome from vested interests having access to lavish funds, the restrictions on freedom of choice inherent in the party system, and the distortion in public perception of the candidates by the bias expressed in the media. Apathy, alienation, and disillusionment are a consequence, too, as is a growing sense of despair of the unlikelihood that the most capable citizens will emerge to deal with the manifold problems of a defective social order. Evident everywhere is a yearning for institutions which will dispense justice, dispel oppression, and foster an enduring unity between the disparate elements of society.

I wish you well, Steve, in your service to the high ideals I know you serve and believe in. These are difficult and complex times and they require patience, wisdom and understanding. May you be endowed with truckloads of each of these virtues as you head into your final years on this earth in the next several decades.-Ron

[stilltrucking]

"Politics is show business for ugly people"

The American Empire
Pax Americana
Nobel peace prizes and kill lists
let's face it we blew it in 1776, we could have been Canada if we had lost.

well all I can say is
when you are running down the american empire you are walking on the fighting side of me

[RonPrice]

You might be interested, Steve, given the values you possess on "your fighting side," in a view of the destiny of America that I have been exposed to in my 60 years of association with the Baha'i Faith. These views can be found at a link on the internet at: http://www.bahai.us/2012/07/01/as-ameri ... destiny-2/

The Baha’i Faith offers a vision of America’s spiritual destiny and an articulation of some of that vision is found at the above link placed in cyberspace several months ago on 1 July 2012.

The words at that link begin as follows:

The American nation, Baha’is believe, will evolve through tests and trials to become a land of spiritual distinction and leadership, a champion of justice and unity among all peoples and nations, and a powerful servant of the cause of everlasting peace, the peace promised by God in the sacred texts of the world’s religions.

To achieve this destiny, however, this nation must overcome several persistent spiritual challenges—removing every trace of racism from the hearts of its citizens, embracing the equality of women and men, eliminating the inordinate disparity between rich and poor, transforming a limited nationalism to the love of humanity as a whole, and in humility before God, submerge religious prejudices in a great spirit of mutual forbearance that will enable people to work together for the advancement of human understanding and peace. These are among the preeminent goals of the U.S. Baha’i community.

More than a century ago, In 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, son of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, visited the United States and Canada and wrote a special prayer for America:

“O Thou kind Lord! This gathering is turning to Thee. These hearts are radiant with Thy love. These minds and spirits are exhilarated by the message of Thy glad-tidings. O God! Let this American democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees, and render this just government victorious. Confirm this revered nation to upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity, to promulgate the Most Great Peace, to become thereby most glorious and praiseworthy among all the nations of the world. O God! This American nation is worthy of Thy favors and is deserving of Thy mercy. Make it precious and near to Thee through Thy bounty and bestowal.”--- ‘Abdu’l-Baha

Brian Taraz, a life-long member of the Baha’i Faith, has been composing and performing songs based on the prayers and writings of the Faith for many years. In 2009, Taraz put the words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s prayer to music and recorded it with some talented friends.

For a rock’n'roll version of the Prayer for America, and more, go to this link.-Ron Price, Australia
--------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.bahai.us/2012/07/01/as-ameri ... destiny-2/

[stilltrucking]

You might be interested, Steve, given the values you possess on "your fighting side,"

[RonPrice]

I assumed, Steve, in your above post and in your saying that: "when you are running down the American empire you are walking on the fighting side of me", you were an enthusiast for the future of the American democracy, the American nation, and its place in the wide-wide-world. Indeed, your enthusiasm brought out your fighting spirit, so to speak.

I assumed you attached a great importance to the future of the United States and that you attached a great importance to the values that stand at the basis of this deomcracy. Since the Baha'i community does as well, I thought my post above with its link would be of interest to you.-Ron Price, Tasmania, Australia

[zero_hero]

I only know a couple of people who are Baha'i. They hardly ever jumped to assumptions.

I never use enough emoticons.

[Steve Plonk]

Still Trucking, thanks for "zero heroing" Ron. I was getting tired of his pontificating.
Yes, Ron, you did get one fact wrong, Obama won by 51% of the popular vote, as I proved.
Fifty-seven percent or more Americans voted in the 2012 election which is more than
have voted in quite a few cycles. I am proud that nearly 60 percent of the public voted here.

We are not fined here, in America, like one is in Australia,
when one doesn't vote. I could say some mean things about Australia's right wing regime, but I won't. Australia still has a governor general, who has more power than parliament.
In Canada, that is not so. Canada signed a treaty, under Trudeau, with the Queen, which
gives Canada more governing autonomy than Australia has.

I agree with some of Zero Hero's sarcastic remarks, which you, Ron, answered back after Zero Hero posted, thinking that it was me. (One of Still Trucking's AKAs is Zero Hero.)
You don't cut down America unless you want folks to think you are a pontificating troll.
We live here in America & are quite aware of the facts. Your opinions, Ron, are something else, & not in a good way.

I know plenty of Bahai's, like Still Trucking said, who don't stoop to such sarcastic & uncalled for remarks about other peoples' countries. Looks like you are
more of a sociologist than you are a Bahai, when it comes to politics or other subjects
you don't care for. Or, am I ASSUMING TOO MUCH?

No one likes it when people
get pedantic--which I too am guilty of, from time to time.
Let's start fresh. I am sorry that I am quite partisan, but it can't be helped.
It is a new year, of course. Thanks again, Still Trucking, et al, for your posts. It is refreshing to get other viewpoints from our perspective.

[RonPrice]

Amen...start fresh.....

[zero_hero]

I got a streak of sarcasm a mile wide, I honor my father crazy mike, blesssed be his memory.

We are locked into this constitution steve, it ain't working like it was meant to. I wish we had a parliament or at least get back to the fundamentals the founding fathers told us to look out for We are and Empire Steve, maybe we are not such a nice empire steve. I am waiting for us to say fuck this being the most lethal military force on the planet, I don't like the look of Pax Americana, what ever else I can karp about Obama I sure have to congratulate him on being such a wonder commander in chief. I wish he could send in the drones on the communist bastards in the Republican party as far as this whole fucked debt farce.
But all in all I agree with ya, we have the best government money can buy.
RE: Baha'i
Joe drove the tiger truck for the circus that I worked for. Smoke Marlboro Lights, probably one of the most likable people I have ever met. Little old lady in Virgina who wrote a book about Ron's Religion,
I fixed her computer and she gave me a copy; but I lost it

I have visited the temple in Willamette IL.

[RonPrice]

Thanks, zero_hero, for that plug and that post. I visited this temple in Chicago in the mid-1960s when I was living in Windsor Ontario and first studying the Baha'i Faith seriously. My parents used to have political meetings in our home back in the 1950s and, after listening to the members argue for a year or so, I was completely innoculated against partisan politics.

Then studying politics, sociology and philosophy at university in the years 1963-67 comfirmed my innoculation and I searched for some alternative, some antidote to the poison that I saw in the world of the partisan-political.

The Baha'i Faith gave me something that both partisan politics and the many sects and denominations of Christianity did not give me in the 1950s and 1960s--and that is still the case in my 50s and 60s.

We all go down different paths in life, different religions and different causes, different ideologies and parties, with our different temperaments and personalities. I'll drop in here occasionally and watch my Ps and Qs so that I don't annoy those who are still enthusiastic about the democrats or the republicans, or the Christians, or, or, or....Seeya...all...lateRon......

[stilltrucking]

We are all in it together We are the most enthusiastic country in the world about religion, outside of the middle east that is. Oh yes we got enthusiasm. I wish you well, stay in touch. Don't be a stranger

. in friendship from me and all those user names I use. I am trying to break that habit but not with much luck. zero_hero, gypsyjoker, still.trucking, tinker jack, tarbaby, short timer, hypatia, diesel dyke, myrna minkoff, diana moon glampers, silent woman et al.