TYT - Wall Street Deregulation Coming Soon!

I Ching: Hexagram 32 - The Lines, Part 2

Nine in the second place means:
Remorse disappears.

The situation is abnormal. A man's force of character is greater than the available material power. Thus he might be afraid of allowing himself to attempt something beyond his strength. However, since it is the time of DURATION, it is possible for him to control his inner strength and so to avoid excess. Cause for remorse then disappears.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Whatever Big Brother Says

Trey Smith

Have you ever wondered how the government’s misinformation gains traction?

What I have noticed is that whenever a stunning episode occurs, such as 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, most everyone whether on the right or left goes along with the government’s explanation, because they can hook their agenda to the government’s account.

The leftwing likes the official stories of Muslims creating terrorist mayhem in America, because it proves their blowback theory and satisfies them that the dispossessed and oppressed can fight back against imperialism.

The patriotic rightwing likes the official story, because it proves America is attacked for its goodness or because terrorists were allowed in by immigration authorities and nurtured by welfare, or because the government, which can’t do anything right, ignored plentiful warnings.

Whatever the government says, no matter how problematical, the official story gets its traction from its compatibility with existing predispositions and agendas.

In such a country, truth has no relevance. Only agendas are important.
~ from Why Disinformation Works by Paul Craig Roberts ~

I both agree and disagree with Roberts' thesis. While I think much of American political discourse IS agenda-driven, how could it not be? Each one of us -- Roberts included -- has a perspective and we view life through this perspective. Put another way, objectivity is difficult to attain in a subjective world.

That said, I do agree that Americans, by and large, too readily accept government pronouncements. If a government official stated the sky is purple, a good majority of the people would run around saying the sky is purple without bothering to take a look at it for themselves! Being a natural born skeptic as well as a student of American history, I tend to take the opposite view. If the government declares the sky is purple, I immediately presume that it is anything but!

Of course, that too is a perspective (or agenda). ;-D

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Blue Collar Man

Performed by Styx

Give me a job, give me security

Give me a chance to survive

I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line

My god, I'm hardly alive

My mother and father, my wife and my friends

You see them laugh in my face

But I've got the power, and I've got the will

I'm not a charity case

I'll take those long nights, impossible odds

Keeping my eye to the keyhole

If it takes all that to be just what I am

Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man

Make me an offer that I can't refuse

Make me a respectable man

This is my last time in the unemployment line

So like it or not, I'll take the

Long nights, impossible odds

Keeping my back to the wall

If it takes all night to be just what I am

Well, I'm gonna be a blue collar man

Keeping my mind on a better life

Where happiness is only a heartbeat away

Paradise, can it be all I heard it was

I close my eyes and maybe I'm already there

I'll take those long nights, impossible odds

Keeping my back to the wall

All that to be just what I am

Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man

Do, do do do, do do do do

You don't understand

Do do do do do do do do do do do

I'll take those long nights, impossible odds

Keeping my eye to the keyhole

If it takes all night to be just who I am

Well, I'm bound to be a blue collar

Got to be a blue collar

Gonna be a blue collar man

All right!

Believe it.

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

At Play With Self II

Scott Bradley

The relatively lengthy story in the seventh chapter of the Zhuangzi in which Liezi is enamored by the clairvoyant powers of the shaman Jixian and thus comes to doubt the way of his master, Huzi, is typically both compelling and perplexing. It is choke full of insights into the psychological pitfalls of the spiritual quest, on the one hand, but somewhat overwhelming in Huzi's explanation of the positive outcomes of that quest, on the other. A brief overview of the story seems necessary.

Jixian is so adept at foretelling people's future by looking at their faces, to the point of telling them exactly when and how they will die, that people immediately flee when they see him. Not Liezi, however; he thinks this power greater than that of his master who then suggests Liezi bring the shaman to read his face. Three times the shaman comes and, because Huzi shows him something different each time, gets three different readings. On the fourth visit, he himself flees in terror.

What I would like to focus on here is not so much what Huzi was able to show of his self on each visit, but rather that he could show so many aspects of his self. One gets the impression that Huzi had a lot of self experience from which to choose and that he could move about within that experience at will. Figuring out what these were is where the difficulty arises, but we can get an idea through the responses of the shaman. At his first visit, he declared the impending demise of Huzi. At his second visit, he declares there are signs of renewed life (for which he takes credit). On the third visit, he declares Huzi much too confused to figure out. On the fourth visit, he sees something that sets him to flight. This last, Huzi tells us, was because he showed himself as he was before he was.

What seems clear from this story is that Huzi did not dwell in some fixed state of awareness but was rather able to move within a range of various self experiences. He could play with the experience of being a self. He could show himself as if near dead, because he was in some sense already dead. He could show life, because he was alive. He could show chaos because life, too, is chaos. And finally, he could show his non-existence because to have come to be is also not to be.

It's just a story, of course; we would be foolish to take any of it too literally. But in addition to teaching us the folly of seeking 'spiritual' power, it does seem to suggest that the awakened self-experience is one which if capable of self-play. If we bring this to stories of the playful back-and-forth of Zen masters, we might get a better understanding of where exactly it was that they were coming from.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 14, Part 8

Trey Smith

"Have you never seen a well sweep? Pull it, and down it comes; let go, and up it swings. It allows itself to be pulled around by men; it doesn't try to pull them. So it can go up and down and never get blamed by anybody.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

I had a bit of a problem getting a handle on this snippet because, in all honesty, I didn't know what a well sweep is. (Hah! It shows what a "city boy" I am!) If you don't know what a "well sweep" is either, here's the definition from Dictionary.com.

a device for raising buckets from and lowering them into a well, consisting of a long pivoted pole, the bucket being attached to one end by a long rope

It is much like the way a jack works when you find you must change a flat tire. To make the jack go up, you ratchet downward. To make the jack go down, you ratchet upward.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

Choosing Death Over Life

Trey Smith

More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. “They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,” Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime.

“The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,” Wingard added.

The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that force-feeding amounts to torture. The American Medical Association says that force-feeding violates medical ethics. “Every competent patient has the right to refuse medical intervention, including life-sustaining interventions,” AMA President Jeremy Lazarus wrote to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Yet President Barack Obama continues the tortuous Bush policy of force-feeding hunger strikers.
~ from Gitmo: Where Death is Preferable to Life by Marjorie Cohn ~

By and large, most people have a revulsion to the act of suicide. In most circles, it is considered a form of mental illness and in some places it is illegal. When most of us think about this act in general terms, it is a relatively quick act. An individual puts a gun in their mouth, hangs themselves or takes a lethal dose of pills that renders the soon-to-be-dead person unconscious in short order.

Many people view suicide as an impulsive act. A person makes this decision when they aren't thinking clearly. Because of its often quick nature, they don't have the requisite time to change their mind and, even if they do, it is often too late.

So, it can be difficult to wrap our heads around people who decide that death is preferable to life and then commence to end their lives in a slow and drawn out manner. Because it usually takes weeks to die from starvation, this is not an impulse decision -- it is conscious and thought out. What do we make of these sorts of situations?

What it points to is that life has become unbearable. Something or someone has robbed these individuals of the ability to live a life of dignity. It points to a situation of abject disrespect, intolerance, and unmitigated despair. When all hope is lost, the will to live typically goes with it.

That is precisely what has happened to the majority of prisoners housed at Gitmo. Though the majority have been cleared for release, they continue to languish in this American gulag. Though never charged with a crime, the hope of seeing family and friends again has been all but extinguished. The one person with the power to release them -- President Barack Obama -- steadfastly refuses to exercise this power. And the American people -- who get all worked up day-in and day-out on less than life-and-death issues -- yawn.

Who can blame these poor souls for trying to put an end to their personal hells? Who cannot blame America for playing the role of the devil?

I Ching: Hexagram 32 - The Lines, Part 1

Six at the beginning means:
Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently.
Nothing that would further.

Whatever endures can be created only gradually by long-continued work and careful reflection. In the same sense Lao-tse says: "If we wish to compress something, we must first let it fully expand." He who demands too much at once is acting precipitately, and because he attempts too much, he ends by succeeding in nothing.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

At Play With Self I

Scott Bradley

Kierkegaard tells us that the more we are aware of self, the more self we have. For him, this is a positive outcome since being an aware self is the prerequisite for a relationship with that "power which constitutes it", its Creator. The alternative would be to be bound within an encapsulated self which cannot see beyond itself. As alien as this may seem to those of us of a more "Eastern" persuasion where self is generally seen in a negative light, still I think Zhuangzi might have smiled in agreement with such a view.

To be self-aware is to be a self that sees itself. What does it see? It sees its foibles, its stupidities, its smallness. But if it sees itself, then it more than itself; or rather, it is more than its encapsulated self. Zhuangzi's hypothetical sage who has "no self" might also be described as one who has so much self that she doesn't have to be that ridiculously encapsulated self. She also "has no name", but my guess is that if we called her name she would look up.

One manifestation of being self-aware is the ability to laugh at one's self. Zhuangzi does this all the time. He makes pronouncements, then admits that they are groundless. There is good evidence that the whole of the Inner Chapters are a kind of joke. Zhuangzi figures that if he can get us laughing we might be set free from the seriousness that accrues to fixation on . . . well, things "fixed". It's hard to imagine Xunzi with all his rights and wrongs and pseudo-rational proofs of the truth of his way having a good laugh at himself. No, this is all very serious stuff, this spirituality. This is perhaps why he is able to so readily endorse the "five punishments" (tattooing, nose chopping, foot lopping, castration, and death).

One reason I love the humor of Woody Allen is its self-deprecating nature, as for instance, when he admits to being one of the 'few' males who experiences "penis-envy", an attribute that Freud intended only as descriptive of females. (A projection, no doubt.) This kind of self-awareness obviously does not make one a sage, but it's a good start.

To be self-aware is to have a self to play with. Monopoly is fun because it's a game. When we know it's a game we have fun; when we take it seriously we get angry, or hurt, or vengeful, or throw a tantrum. He who can play with his self, is also more likely to able to play well with others.

To have this larger self to which Kierkegaard aspired is to experience a kind of self-transcendence. This may not meet the specifications of no-self and other more radical pronouncements of ultimate spirituality, but for us novices in the way, it's a great first step.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

TYT - Should Anyone be JAILED for the IRS Scandal?

I Ching: Hexagram 32 - The Image

Thunder and wind: the image of DURATION.
Thus the superior man stands firm
And does not change his direction.

Thunder rolls, and the wind blows; both are examples of extreme mobility and so are seemingly the very opposite of duration, but the laws governing their appearance and subsidence, their coming and going, endure. In the same way the independence of the superior man is not based on rigidity and immobility of character. He always keeps abreast of the time and changes with it. What endures is the unswerving directive, the inner law of his being, which determines all his actions.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Not One, Not Two, Not Three

Trey Smith

Attorney General Eric Holder has just sent a truly incredible letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In it, he acknowledges that the U.S. has killed four of its own citizens in drone strikes. Casual news consumers may find that confusing. Hasn't there already been an extremely public debate about the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman? Indeed, everyone knows that, despite the 5th Amendment, the Obama Administration believes it can target and kill American citizens without due process, and that it has done so.

But that hasn't stopped Team Obama from keeping what everyone knows officially classified, permitting them to broach the subject when convenient and to dodge it when inconvenient. Wednesday's revelation, first reported by the indispensable Charlie Savage of the New York Times, is therefore a good thing. Team Obama has dispensed with the absurd pretense that targeting Americans is a secret, and admitted that they've killed a total of 4 Americans with drones.

It's actually three other features of the letter that are incredible.

1) While a total of four Americans have been killed in drone strikes, the Obama Administration says that it was only targeting one of them. This is an important fact to remember the next time you're told that their drone campaign is one of "targeted killing" or "surgical precision," or that drones can linger in the air for hours to make sure that only the intended targets are being blown up. Critics of the drone war have long pointed out that lots of people die by American-fired Hellfire missile who were never targeted, and whose identities aren't known at the time of their death. What a powerful, irrefutable reminder of those facts. It is a discredit to the Obama Administration that they are just now going on the record with this powerful information.

2) While the letter notes that three of four Americans weren't specifically targeted, including a 16-year-old, the letter offers no explanation of why young Abdulrahman was in fact killed, and gives no indication that his death is problematic. The American people are owed a full explanation of how he wound up dead. "We weren't trying to kill the 16-year-old American we blew up" isn't sufficient explanation, its an admission that a thorough, transparent investigation is needed.

3) In a letter that makes long overdue disclosures about facts that have long been public, and that could've been acknowledged months and months ago without doing any damage to national security, Holder has the chutzpah to write as if Team Obama is an enlightened model of transparency.
~ from The Audacity of Eric Holder's Letter Admitting Team Obama Killed 4 Americans by Conor Friedersdorf ~

Of all the recent revelations, this letter should invoke the biggest scandal of all! It could easily be grounds for impeachment. But I will be surprised if it gains very much traction in Washington because the GOP actually favors this aspect of the Obama administration and Democrats certainly won't move to impeach their own guy. Conservatives will bitch and moan for weeks about Benghazi and the IRS situation, but you won't hear much complaint about this President intimidating the media OR killing American citizens without due process.

If the President can kill American citizens -- some by accident -- without it causing a furor in Congress, the mainstream media or with the general public, what can't a President and his administration get away with? Oh yeah, I forgot. They can't get away with dragging their feet a bit before granting tax-exempt status for conservative political groups!

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - We Shall Not Be Moved

Performed by The Seekers

Well I'm on my way to heaven

We shall not be moved

On my way to heaven

We shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

On the road to freedom

We shall not be moved

On the road to freedom

We shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

We're brothers together

We shall not be moved

We're brothers together

We shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

We shall not we shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water side

We shall not be moved

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Not the Apple of My Eye

Trey Smith

Apple has called for US corporate tax rates to be slashed after it admitted sheltering at least $30bn (£20bn) of international profits in Irish subsidiaries that pay no tax at all.

In a dramatic display of how threats from multinational corporations are driving down taxes across the world, chief executive Tim Cook warned Congress that he would refuse to repatriate a total of $100bn stashed offshore unless it acted to slash the 35% US rate.

Cook said the tax rate for repatriated money should be set "in single digits" to persuade companies to bring it back. Standard tax for US profits should be, he said, in the "mid 20s".

He also revealed that Apple had struck a secret deal with the Irish government in 1980 to limit its domestic taxes there to 2%.

Three subsidiaries based in Ireland are also used to shelter profits made in the rest of Europe and Asia but are not classed as resident in any country for tax purposes – a tactic dubbed the "iCompany" by critics.

Cook's testimony to a Senate sub-committee investigating multinational tax practices largely confirmed its findings that Apple had taken tax avoidance to a new extreme by structuring these companies so they did not incur tax liabilities anywhere.
~ from Apple Chief Calls on US Government to Slash US Corporate Tax by Dan Roberts and Dominic Rushe ~

Okay, let's see if we can get this straight. Apple -- the darling of so many liberals -- has utilized quasi-legal and unethical means to avoid its patriotic duty to pay US corporate taxes. In exchange for saving itself tens of billions of dollars, the company struck a secret deal to pay peanuts to Ireland on a very small amount of its largess. If that wasn't bad enough, Apple is also manipulating the system so that it isn't paying much in the way of taxes to a slew of others countries.

With all this admitted to, the Apple CEO has the audacity to suggest that the ONLY way his company might consider behaving in a more ethical manner is IF the US changes its corporate-friendly tax laws to allow Apple to shirk even more of their civic duty! (How magnanimous of him.)

Folks, this is a showcase for unmitigated greed. It is a showcase for how multinational corporations want boatloads of perks without any communitarian responsibilities. They believe that people should pay their taxes -- just not them!

As with all discussions of this nature, please do not allow yourselves to be caught up in that 35% tax rate figure. That merely represents the marginal tax rate -- the rate before any credits, deductions or exemptions are subtracted. Few, if any, US-based corporations actually pay the marginal rate. Study upon study has shown that most large corporations pay somewhere between one-third to one-half of the marginal tax rate. In other words, their effective tax rate is somewhere between 10-20%...for those corporations who pay ANY corporate income tax at all.

This provides us with some perspective in terms of Mr. Cook's suggestion that repatriated money should have a marginal tax rate in the single digits. What he is really suggesting is that his company would be more than happy to bring their money home IF they didn't have to pay ANY penalty at all because, as noted above, the marginal tax rate isn't the effective tax rate. If the repatriated tax rate was set at something like 7%, it would be relatively easy to conjure up enough deductions to bring the effective tax rate to zero!

Bit by Bit - Chapter 14, Part 7

Trey Smith

"Nothing is as good as a boat for crossing water, nothing as good as a cart for crossing land. But though a boat will get you over water, if you try to push it across land, you may push till your dying day and hardly move it any distance at all. And are the past and present not like the water and the land, and the states of Chou and Lu not like a boat and a cart?

"To hope to practice the ways of Chou in the state of Lu is like trying to push a boat over land - a great deal of work, no success, and certain danger to the person who tries it. The man who tries to do so has failed to understand the turning that has no direction, that responds to things and is never at a loss.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

When I often write that each of us has our paths to tread, it may spur some to ask: Is any path acceptable? I would respond both yes and no. Any path that takes a person from point A to point B is acceptable provided that it doesn't go against the flow of the currents of life.

For example, there are many ways to fell a tree. One person may employ a chainsaw. Another may use an ax. Someone else may use a handsaw. Still another person might use a pocketknife (a very slow process indeed!). All of these methods and more will cause the tree to fall. But the person who tries to fell a tree with a blade of grass or bowl of Jello will -- most likely -- not meet with any success at all!

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

Tonight on State TV

Trey Smith

One of the aspects of the FBI-AP phone records scandal that I think a lot of people don't recognize is that the only reason we even know about it is that the Obama administration WANTS us to know about it. The FBI could have utilized legal means to obtain the AP's phone records that did not require the government to notify the Associated Press. The very fact that they used a method that requires notification should tell us something.

I don't know about you, but I think the message is crystal clear. The Obama administration is putting professional journalists on notice that they only want the media to report news that is fed to them BY the government. If the media chooses to report news that is not handed to them by government lackeys, then there is a good chance that they will be investigated and possibly prosecuted! In other words, this is an admission that involves not so veiled intimidation.

This is not to suggest that the mainstream media acts as the government's watchdog anymore. By and large, they already report mainly what the government spoon feeds them. However, every now and then, the mainstream media does do its job, but soon they might not because they don't want the federal government going after them. We've got to remember that the mainstream media is big business and they certainly don't want to do anything that might conceivably impact the scared bottom line.

The real worry here is that American mainstream TV, radio, newspapers and even the web may come to resemble the state-run media in nations run by authoritarian regimes. Anything that is reported must first be cleared by government censors. If this happens, then the New York Times will have to change its motto from "All the news that fit to print" to "All the news the government allows us to share."

When this happens, you know that George Orwell will be rolling in his grave!

I Ching: Hexagram 32 - The Judgment

DURATION. Success. No blame.
Perseverance furthers.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.

Duration is a state whose movement is not worn down by hindrances. It is not a state of rest, for mere standstill is regression. Duration is rather the self–contained and therefore self–renewing movement of an organized, firmly integrated whole, taking place in accordance with immutable laws and beginning anew at every ending. The end is reached by an inward movement, by inhalation, systole, contraction, and this movement turns into a new beginning, in which the movement is directed outward, in exhalation, diastole, expansion.

Heavenly bodies exemplify duration. They move in their fixed orbits, and because of this their light–giving power endures. The seasons of the year follow a fixed law of change and transformation, hence can produce effects that endure.

So likewise the dedicated man embodies an enduring meaning in his way of life, and thereby the world is formed. In that which gives things their duration, we can come to understand the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Waylessness III

Scott Bradley

One of Zhuangzi's infrequent excursions into speculative metaphysics helps to further illustrate the way in which Dao is understood as dao-less and how we can use that understanding to find an approximating middle ground between Dao and warring daos. In the first post of this series, I suggested what might be called three levels of awareness (though this frightening suggestion immediately cries out for the qualifying concession that they are all equally Dao). These are: Dao that does not distinguish (waylessness), daos that distinguish and declare themselves Dao (the ways of, for example, the Confucians and Mohists), and daos that distinguish in declaring all daos equal (the way of Zhuangzi).

Zhuangzi's above mentioned foray into metaphysics seems purely hypothetical and as intended to further explain his "walking two roads" which immediately precedes it. The "ancients", he tells us, had the ultimate understanding; they understood that "there had never existed so-called things. Next there were those for whom things existed but never any definite boundaries between them. Next there were those for whom there were boundaries but never any rights and wrongs. When rights and wrongs waxed bright, the Course [Dao] began to wane. What set the Course [Dao] to waning was exactly what brought the cherishing of one thing over another to its fullness." (2:25-26; Ziporyn)

This is the devolution of the Dao-awareness. Where there is no discrimination between things there are no things; nor are there daos. This is waylessness. The middle way is that which acknowledges things and daos but does not judge some right and others wrong. This is Zhuangzi's accommodating way, an acknowledgment that we are dao-bound but can be informed by Dao. The final, and 'normal' way, is that in which there are things and daos and some are judged right and others wrong. Ironically, it is in proclaiming Dao that Dao is obscured. Proclaiming Dao, like declaring Truth, sets up the standard by which daos are judged. The final waning of Dao is when a dao is declared to be Dao.

The view from Dao might be likened to observing nature in its diversity, enjoying its every manifestation without declaring red or black ants good or bad. The view from the discriminating mind declares red ants good (if you are red) and black ants bad or black ants good (if you are black) and red ants bad. The view from an ant informed by Dao affirms both the ways of red-ness and black-ness, but being a specific kind of ant, follows along with whichever condition in which it finds itself.

This is "walking two roads".

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

TYT - Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answers on Big Banks

I Ching: Hexagram 32 (Hêng)

above CHEN THE AROUSING, THUNDER
below SUN THE GENTLE, WIND

The strong trigram Chên is above, the weak trigram Sun below. This hexagram is the inverse of the preceding one. In the latter we have influence, here we have union as an enduring condition. The two images are thunder and wind, which are likewise constantly paired phenomena. The lower trigram indicates gentleness within; the upper, movement without.

In the sphere of social relationships, the hexagram represents the institution of marriage as the enduring union of the sexes. During courtship the young man subordinates himself to the girl, but in marriage, which is represented by the coming together of the eldest son and the eldest daughter, the husband is the directing and moving force outside, while the wife, inside, is gentle and submissive.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.