WARNING: This is a rant!

"The world is in chaos. Honorable dealing is deteriorating, good friends are few, truth is held in disrepute, good service is underpaid, poor service is overpaid. Whole nations are committed to evil dealings: With one you fear insecurity, with another, inconsistency, with a third, betrayal. This being what it is, let the bad faith of others serve not as an example, but as warning. The real danger of the situation lies in the unhinging of your own integrity: accepting less than your best, being overly tolerant of stupidity, forgiving incompetence, fraternizing with the nonspiritual. The man of principle never forgets what he is, because he clearly sees what the others are." - Baltasar Gracian, Spanish Jesuit scholar, 1601-1658

I purposely neglected to insert a pretty picture on this post because I think y'all need to pay close attention to what I'm talking about.

We've seen everybody benefit from our labor and money from oil (cartels) families, to banks, to credit card companies.

The sub prime mortgage fiasco has dry-raped hardworking homeowners of the equity in their homes. If you haven't been affected by the rampant foreclosures, your ability to get housing in the future will be affected and in many cases, hampered.

Credit has wrecked havoc on freedom. Many if not most Americans are in bondage to their debt. In fact this country is in financial debt to China at this point.

Now we'll be signing blank checks to insurance companies which merely benefit the pharmaceutical industry. The House voted to approve a $1.1 trillion, 10-year plan! Now, most of you simple sheeple believe that this is a victory for Mr. Obama. But what you fail to realize and/or understand is that presidents have been attempting to pass this type of Universal Health care since FDR in 1929. Study your American History. And Hillary and Bill Clinton attempted to do this years ago. Conservatives and Liberals are like two teams playing for the same league. Don't get it twisted...they don't give a fuck about you, your civil liberties, or freedom for that matter. So what exactly am I saying?

Obama has indebted the USA more than all other Presidents in your history combined! Obama's proposed Health care measure will effectively eliminate the middle class as the tax burden of providing that level of universal care will completely bankrupt the backbone of the United States of America. And this all comes on the heels of the Swine Flu scare. The wealthy are not affected by this in any way because they already have private insurance anyway. And with effective tax shelters, they don't pay the percentage of taxes that the working class has to pay. DON'T BELIEVE ME...DO SOME RESEARCH & STUDY FOR YOURSELF! By all means, I challenge anyone to debate what I am saying.

Universal health care does not equal or equate to healing! There still is no cure for AIDS, Cancer, herpes, autism, etc. But what this does is essentially guarantee these pharmaceutical companies blank checks for the next ten years; Similar to the way that we saw CEOs of Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, and many of the other Rothschild/Rockefeller royal banks get away with highway robbery.

These forms of legislation and regulation will allow for a systematically, government controlled deflation of this new bubble which is attached to the bigger bubble caused by Clinton, Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson, Bush, and Obama.

What they do want is your labor and money. That's what makes the world go around...like butter and guns. And many of you all are too preoccupied with the new Jay-Z album...or who's doing what on the Real Housewives (modern day buffoonery). This isn't the time to be shucking and jiving. This is the time to get literate financially so that you can see how you are slowly but surely loosing your freedom. Remember, the stakes are higher. This thing is totally financial now.

“The Third World War has already started -- a silent war, not for that reason any less sinister. This war is tearing down Brazil, Latin America and practically all the Third World. Instead of soldiers dying there are children, instead of millions of wounded there are millions of unemployed; instead of destruction of bridges there is the tearing down of factories, schools, hospitals, and entire economies….It is a war over the foreign debt, one which has as its main weapon interest, a weapon more deadly than the atom bomb, more shattering than a laser beam.” -- Luis Ignacio Silva, as quoted on page 238 of Susan George's A Fate Worse Than Debt.

This is some shit out of DAS KAPITAL...utterly Marxist and reeks of Trotsky:

Make sure that all the money is gone from the U.S. treasury, make sure the deficits are so great that all social and educational programs are cut, increase the military and security budgets to "protect our nation" with all these monies going to corporations and security firms who are extra-national (not tied to any country, but actually more than multi-national in that they are outside the purview of any nation at any single moment) and stave in the social security fund by allowing it to go to private corporations for "investment"-and you have the perfect scenario for saying, "only the private sector can save us-we're broke and they have the money to run every program, fund every program, but of course, at huge costs and profits for the private corporations." Our only resource will be the corporate lenders, especially the large extra-national corporations who will have loyalty to no one except their corporate coffers and large share owners throughout the world.


If this isn't slavery, I don't know what is. They're pissing on us telling us it's rain & most are too dumb to know the difference.

WATCH THIS: The inevitable collapse of the dollar




PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WATCH THESE!

He says with his own mouth he won't add to the deficit...but his bill costs $1 trillion...WTF?!?! Talking out of 2 sides of his mouth.

Ain't NO STOPPING me now!

Below is the interview I did on The Guardian with James Boyd, in case you missed it.
http://apps.attainresponse.com/MediaF5/liveRecording.htm?id=49458


It's hard to imagine that reaching my goals would feel so incredible. I can't tell you how I feel like Rocky Balboa in the movie Rocky when he gets to the top of the stairs. Sheer EXHILARATION!

And you know what...this is only the beginning.

What I'm Reading

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is narrated by the omnipresent and illuminating commentary of Death set to a backdrop of Nazi Germany.

In this story, Death is not remorseful. Death is not exacting or vengeful. Death is here to tell the tale of a young girl named Liesel Meminger.

After her brother’s traumatic death, Liesel is escorted by her mother to a foster home on the ironically named Himmel Street in Molching, Germany. Himmel means Heaven. Although Himmel Street is far from heavenly, offering only beratings from her dour foster mother and a constant heaping of split pea soup, it is here that she begins to find solace in books. After a bout of nightmares, Liesel is consoled by her newly adopted Papa which leads to a bond between the two and introduces Liesel to the vorboten world of words. Papa is Hans Hubermann-a jovial accordion player, mustachioed and warm with more wit than money. Papa teaches Liesel how to read through her first stolen book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook. So begins Liesel’s fascination with books leading to a life of stealing and stolen moments. Thievery is not evil. It is an escape from Liesel’s hardsrabbled existence manifesting as criminally sweet tastes of candy, apples and learning.

Although Nazi Germany looms as large as any bully that Liesel encounters on Himmel Street, it does not dominate the story or eclipse the frail heroics of Liesel’s genuine stoicism. A bonfire in the town square is held in honor of the Führer’s birthday however its politics pale against Liesel’s heartful and illicit determination to savalage a banned and burning book from the embers. The Book Thief is shadowed by silent atrocities however it is the transformative power of books and relationships that shine leaving both Death and humans in awe of humanity.

“So much good, so much evil. Just add water”.

Lest We Don't Forget

NIGGA

Mooley

Porch Monkey

Darkie

Black Sambo

Monday...because nobody likes you

Aunt Jemima / Aunt Jane / Aunt Mary / Aunt Sally / Aunt Thomasina







Buffie

coloured

COON

Gable

Jigaboo, jiggabo, jijjiboo, zigabo, jig, jigg, jiggy, jigga

Jungle Bunny

Nig-nog

Mosshead

Pickaninny

Tar Baby

SPOOK

Thicklips

What other people on the face of the Earth have so many derogatory names?

NIGGA...you must not forget that once upon a time you were 3/5 of a man...or that you were shipped around the Trans-Atlantic like cargo, or cartons of cigarettes.

Before you were a nigger, you were a monkey and considered the lowest scum of the earth. Nigga you must not have forgotten Emmit Till, Nat Turner, and the rest of the niggas who were castrated, lynched, and hung from trees like apples and pears. In fact, look in your backyard...that might be a slave burial ground or that tree on the corner might have had some niggas hanging from it. When you dip your feet in the beach water, just know that it's the blood of many slave mutiny's intermingled in that salt water washing up on the shore.

You must not have forgotten how despicable this country REALLY thinks of you. How the country of your origin sold you into slavery and forced you to build America with your blood, sweat, and tears.

Come right on down... STEP & FETCH!

Do you realize that this form of widespread, systematic, Westernized, racist propaganda still exists? However, the methods have changed. Instead of having chains and shackles on your neck and wrists, they are now on your brain. No one has to rip your back open with a cat-o-nine-tails to prevent you from reading...YOU WILLINGLY REFUSE TO READ!Instead of being in bondage to the slave master...many of you are now in bondage to your financial debt, which you entered into on your own behalf. Yep, signed your soul away on the dotted line.

No one has to force you to rape and pillage your own village, many of you
willingly do it to your own community, with crack and Sherm. You willingly stab
your own brother and sister in the back. Many of you no longer need to be
threatened with murder to abandon your family...you willingly and joyfully do
it. They no longer have to force you to breed several niglets for more work
productivty on the plantation...you do it gleefully without Massa's whip.
We've somehow come to believe that because a melanated man sits in the White
House that racist bigotry no longer exists. And there still is no 40 acres or a
mule waiting for you.

There is no apology for the African Holocaust...nothing can erase 400 years of captivity. And may you never forget that your ancestors died just so that you can sit your ass in a plush, air-conditioned office and drive freely throughout this country that once put them on an auction block and ripped their babies from their wombs.

No matter how uppity and educated you may think you are...this is your legacy in this country. And may you never ever forget your ancestors built this country and it's economy with their blood. They had far less than you and did so much more, withstood so much more oppression, rape, murder, and systematic wiping out of their religion, HOPES, dreams, languages, gods, and more...against their will.

Lest we don't forget.

WHAT I'M READING

Living Rich for Less

About the Book:

You really can be rich in every way, every day.So you want to own the home you love, make memories on wonderful vacations with family or friends, finance college educations, and help others too?

You can–starting here and now.With lively humor, proven know-how, and practical principles for financial health, Living Rich for Less helps you stretch your dollars to realize the lifestyle of your dreams. Ellie Kay’s entertaining and enlightening examples show you simple steps to save, spend, and give smart, and her three main principles are undergirded by dozens of effective rules and hundreds of Cha-Ching Factor™ tips that keep or put money in your pocket.

Ellie knows what it’s like to be financially-strapped or struggling, wanting to be the Joneses but feeling as poor in spirit as in pocketbook. She went, within two and a half years, from being a new wife and mom with $40,000 in consumer debt and seven children (and college educations) to support, to being completely debt-free and within fifteen years able to pay cash for eleven different cars, give away three of those cars, buy two five-bedroom houses (moving from one to the other) and nicely furnish each, take wonderful vacations, dress her family in fine fashion; and support more than thirty non-profit organizations in more than a dozen different countries, giving away more than $100,000.

Isn’t that the kind of transformation to a rich life that you want?

Living Rich for Less helps anyone get there in our taxed-out, maxed-out times. Because financial security doesn’t mean just genuine prosperity, but being able to live luxuriously, give generously, and care for yourself as well as the others around you.

WHAT I'M READING

Most of the love poems similarly transform the mundane to the extraordinary. In “Your Shower,” the narrator becomes the water and soap in a lover’s shower. In a later poem, “Trash Pans,” crumbs beside the bed become the wreckage of the end of an affair. Isn’t this the experience of a person in love? Whether in the heady rush of early attraction or the bitter last days of a tryst, a person in love views the world as extensions of the relationship.

Giovanni tackles that experience head-on in her poem “Alchemical.” The lover becomes everything for the loved.


“I am the pepper / In your soup / The garlic / In your sauce / The taste in your mouth / When you are tired // I am a match // Light me // You need to change // How you look / At things” Through Giovanni’s eyes, we are forever changed in the way we view the world.


Whenever I read poetry books, I always mark the poems that I like, either by an X in the page corner or a highlighted title. When I started Giovanni’s book, I didn’t have a pen or a highlighter, so I began to dog ear pages. Now, the upper corners of the book are an accordion of folded corners. There are simply too many funny, uplifting, touching and just plain enjoyable poems for me to mention. I know this is a book I will turn to again and again, whenever I need to see the world a little differently.


What poetry do you turn to when you need to to see the world a little differently?

Namaste: Living in the moment

Pale clouds sail their tiny ships through the calm water of a morning sky while pansies lift painted petals to the sun as if a flock of butterflies had paused for a moment to slip fingers and toes deep in sweet earth in silent greeting.

Today, I realize to live in the moment is to learn how to listen, to dream the life I desire and then release it like a brilliant butterfly to follow the voice of the Divine.

When I slow my frantic pace and trust the guidance deep within the stillness of the moment, life becomes a sweet adventure as I rise to greet each morning like a pansy, lift my petals to the sun, and smile: my life is blessed.

iRUMINATE

BLURB
The Collection of Poetry Vol. II
By Brandi L. Bates

These are poems that teeter on the edge of propriety, which are by turns playful, even cocky, and laden with self-doubt. Their pretensions are few, their presumptions, endearing. In this volume, Bates employs syntactic, imagistic, and stylistic play to illustrate the non sequiturs, lyrical flights, and open-ended conclusions that a mind undergoes.

What stays a marvel in this impeccable poet's writing is her determination to bridge between the physically given world and that other we gloss with words, yet apprehend insistently as the defining presence of our lives themselves. Ruminations plays like mad monologue, or a diary of personal and far fetched dramas surfacing into ordinary life. In the deepest sense, these poems are true. These prose poems are highly lyrical with staccato-like clips of accusations, imperatives, and questions. This collection is a continuation of Bates' work with voice and opacity.

COMING SOON AND VERY SOON...my editor said it's my dopest poetry yet, HOLLA!

What I'm Listening To

Welcome to change. Let go of the old. Grab hold of the new. Let’s move to the future… If pop music is perfectly commercial, completely airbrushed, color corrected, and neatly packaged, with not one hair out of place— JimiJames is “Grittipop.” The visionary singer-songwriter’s authentically named brand of music is raw, uninhibited, and all inclusive. JimiJames has been challenging music industry standards since her debut album The Truth was released in 2006. The self-proclaimed “Rah Rah Girl” deliberately draws outside the lines and jumps off the page with her electrifying voice and empowering honesty.





KCRW 89.9 FM Radio DJ Garth Trinidad tagged JimiJames as one of the top artists to look out for in 2008. Trinidad originally premiered JimiJames The Truth on his highly respected syndicated radio show Chocolate City in Southern California. By the end of 2007, the album had been featured on Sirius Satellite radio’s 1 rated Hip-Hop Nation music segment (DJ Jamad’s Afromentals), and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) had requested that JimiJames submit The Truth for GRAMMY consideration. The L.A. native’s eclectic style is one part hip-hop swagger and two parts R&B soul singer— with pop star sex appeal and a dash of punk rebellion. Her early influences include Prince, Madonna, and Cyndi Lauper. The Rah Rah Girl later listened to Brandy, Missy Elliott, and SWV. JimiJames tells real stories and paints vivid pictures that expose what lies beneath the surface. Her music is playful, occasionally mischievous, often vulnerable, daring and sexy, yet soulful with substance.

Check out my girl JimiJames...fuck Rihanna, Bey, and all that other pseudo neo soul garbage...THIS IS REAL TALENT.

Sip Lounge in NYC ...Jimi rolled thru Labor Day weekend 2009 doin' her thizzle... folks gathered outside the door to listen...the house was packed. Have a listen:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1268025422448&ref=mf

She is CERTIFIED OFFICIAL! Trust me this girl got pipes and knows what to do with them & she's flyyyyy...just what music is missing!

Love you, Jimi!

WHAT I'M READING

If it is your intention to be the master of your financial destiny, you must begin paying more attention to your money. Not all financial advertisements or advisors have your best interests at heart, so you must learn the difference between the myths that you are being told and sold, and the reality of how money works. It is never too soon to begin, it’s true, but it’s also true that it’s never too late to start.

— Suze Orman

I know this subject [money] is serious stuff. Your future is riding on it. But taking control of your financial life doesn’t need to be a solitary and scary process. Fear comes from not knowing what to do or how to do it. And when we are fearful, we do nothing. …You really do have what it takes to move past broke; you just need to start moving forward.

— Suze Orman,

Because it's not cute to be young, fabulous and BROKE! Get financially literate so you can start making that Jehosaphat/Solomon Wealth!

WHAT I'M READING

TAKE AUTHORITY
"If you live like no one else, later you will live like no one else." -Dave Ramsey

I am currently reading Dave Ramsey’s wildly popular book, The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. This book is often mentioned by writers I respect, so I thought I would give it a whirl.

The main premise of the book is stop living a debt-ridden life and start only buying the things you can afford.

Make it a priority to pay down all debts and start an emergency fund of cash savings. Solid logic that I can stand behind.

One of Ramsey’s money management techniques is to only spend cash money for all life’s essentials.

Budget $100 per week for groceries? Put that amount in an envelope and stop buying food when it’s gone.
But here’s the thing, I actually spend more money when I have cash in my wallet.

My baby wants a new pencil sharpener at the art supply store? I do have a couple dollars on me. Why not? He’s a great kid and deserves nice things! The situation reverses itself when I’m cash poor. I know you want that cool pencil sharpener, but I’d hate to put a $4 purchase on the debit card. How about you clean your room and find the four million pencil sharpeners you already own?

I’m really good about not impulse shopping. I’ve even gotten myself to abstain from previously frequent thrift store explorations, and when I do I’m vigilant about only buying the things we need. Not the things I want. I’m not saying that I couldn’t train myself to be more self disciplined with cash, I just don’t feel the need to. Yes, I do have debt at the moment, (which is not related to fancy clothes, meals and vacations.)

cash vs. debit

"This is not a game, ... Debt has become a part of who we are. It's become that spoiled child in the grocery store with their lip stuck out: 'I want it. I want it. I deserve it because I breathe air.' And, well, that's an uphill climb in our culture right now, to go against that and say, 'Hey, let's be grownups here. Let's be mature, learn to delay pleasure, save up and pay for things.'" -Dave Ramsey

I will continue to read this book as I feel there’s much to be gleaned from Ramsey’s intense focus on living a debt-free life. Do you feel your finances would be in better control if you only spent cash?

"Financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this." -Dave Ramsey
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

“I'm not against people having new cars. I'm against them having you. We spend a tremendous amount impressing somebody at the stoplight who we'll never meet. It makes you broke and keeps you broke.” -Dave Ramsey

YOUR MONEY PROBLEMS ARE YOUR FAULT! FIX IT!

Don't Blame Me I Vote Independent