Categories
Observations Politics

Each Political Party Has A Story — by James R Martin

“Stories do not materialize from a void but grow out of materials already in history and human experience.” Reading this sentence written by Robert McKee, who is writing about constructing screenplays, reminded me that in the real world there are stories that we live each moment of our lives. These stories have structures, events, beginnings, middles and endings. The outcomes of our personal stories don’t usually break the rules of probability. We always look for positive, happy outcomes for our stories, but in reality happy endings are not always likely outcomes in the actuality in which we find ourselves living. We make decisions and choices but they are often following a pattern, of which we may not be aware. One may dream of being a concert pianist, but without ten thousand hours of practice, study and some natural talent, the probability of that performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC is remote.

What of the political party stories in which we live and vote in the United States? While there are other stories, the main two scenarios, are a Republican story and a Democratic story. The outcomes or actions in these two stories are always predictable and do not change. Each party may attack candidates running for office in the other party. Candidates in each party may attack each other. But it really doesn’t matter who the person running is, if you vote for a Republican you are voting for the Republican story. If you vote for the Democrat, you are voting for a Democratic Story.

I saw a woman on a Facebook video talking about loosing her job in a manufacturing plant owned by Carrier. A factory where the Republican candidate for President told her that she and the other workers would not lose their jobs. Vote for him! He would be sure to stop the company from “outsourcing” work to foreign countries. He would “build a wall.” She said she voted for him because of this fact. But now she was loosing her job because the company was moving production to another country. She was practically begging the President, she helped elect, to keep his promise. However, keeping jobs in America is not part of the Republican story. The candidate ran as a Republican. She is a working class person who voted for the Republican Story.

This phenomenon of working and middle class people voting for Republican candidates, who make promises that don’t fit the plot line of the Republican Party’s story, repeats itself constantly. So, of course these promises are not kept. They are improbable outcomes under a Republican administration. The Republican story never benefits working and middle class people beyond a few superficial perks. The main benefits are always directed at the top one percent and corporate interests. Campaigns supposedly directed at curbing “alleged welfare abuses,” are not just about welfare recipients, they are about cutting larger social programs.  When services are cut, the money saved goes to the rich in the form of tax cuts.

All social reform, middle and working class advances financially and socially come under Democratic Administrations. Republican Administrations always try to take away these benefits. Republican conservatives have never stopped trying to undo Social Security, Medicare and recently the Affordable Care Act. They strip services, and give tax breaks to the wealthy. The story never changes. Yet people are manipulated, persuaded, perhaps on emotional grounds or other issues, to vote against their own best interests. In the back of their minds, they must know how the story ends, but they still buy into an improbable fantasy.

The same people would not suspend disbelief while watching a movie, where the main protagonist chose a course of action that doomed her, even though it was obvious to her that the choice was not good for her survival. For example trusting her life to a pathological liar. Falling off the high cliff into the rocky surf, thousands of feet below, always ends up the same way in reality. The story has only one possible ending. This is not an animated fantasy film.

I hope that voters in elections, now and in the fall, think about what story they are actually voting for. You can help write the story if you vote. Ignore all the rhetoric, spin, negative ads and appeals to tribalism. Vote for a story that will benefit your life and keep the story of the United States, one of the ongoing “noble experiment in democracy” and freedom for all.

Books by James R Martin

Available print and digital on Amazon

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

Documentary Directing and Storytelling: How to Direct Documentaries and More!

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)

Categories
Contemplation Meditation News People Reading Relationships

LISTENING IS THE KEY TO LEARNING

 

 

Reviewers have written about Listen Learn Share

“What the book ‘The Secret’ is to intention, ‘Listen, Learn, Share’ is to positive thought process and awareness.”

“Liked James R. Martin new book “Listen, Learn, and Share”. An impressive collaboration of eastern and western thinking, there is much to learn from it about the world as a whole.”

The stated purpose of this book is to share some simple truths to help people along their life paths. The book delivers on this purpose in a clear, gentle, and compelling way, providing many helpful insights into how to think about and consider our thoughts and feelings...”

 

It’s very easy to lose or shut down your learning ability. You can’t grow or make changes to your life if you’re not listening. Without listening and learning you keep creating similar outcomes, which are not always what you desire.

It’s like the sound of a recording, a word or note, stuck on the same glitch in the track, repeating itself endlessly, unable to get passed the glitch.

You can’t reset the recording if you don’t hear the glitch. You can’t move ahead if your tires are spinning.

You need to stop looking in the rear-view mirror, while you try to drive forward.

Listen, Learn, Share is a book that will help you get unstuck. It explores this phenomenon, exposing the causes of not moving forward, as it reveals how to move your mind into the present.

 

LISTEN LEARN SHARE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND APPLE iBOOK

Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways

 

 

ALSO BY James R Martin Available on Amazon

Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)

 

Categories
Contemplation Life Meditation Observations Reading

Article on Vipassana Meditation

What Exactly is Vipassana Meditation?

Vipassana or insight meditation is a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens.

By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

The distinction between Vipassana meditation and other styles of meditation is crucial and needs to be fully understood. Buddhism addresses two major types of meditation. They are different mental skills, modes of functioning or qualities of consciousness. In Pali, the original language of Theravada literature, they are called Vipassana and Samatha.

Vipassana can be translated as “Insight,” a clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Samatha can be translated as “concentration” or “tranquility.” It is a state in which the mind is brought to rest, focused only on one item and not allowed to wander. When this is done, a deep calm pervades body and mind, a state of tranquility which must be experienced to be understood.

More of article

 

What Exactly Is Vipassana Meditation?

LISTEN LEARN SHARE

Categories
News Orlando People Politics

Barack Obama in Orlando Florida May 2008 Campaign Stop

In 2008, early in his campaign for President, Barack Obama made a campaign stop in the  Greater Orlando Florida area suburb of Maitland. The event was organized by local Democrats. Excellent turnout.  Listening to Obama’s speech reminds that he did accomplish many of the things he campaigned on and would have done more with the cooperation of the Senate and Congress for all eight years.

Categories
News Observations People Politics

Hurricane Coverage — “Just The Facts Mam, Just The Facts…”

I’m in Orlando, Florida. Over the past week or longer I have listened to hurricane Irma news that has become thinly masked hysteria and propaganda. After watching hurricane Harvey devastate Huston and parts of Texas, I decided to be fully prepared for a possible hurricane in Florida this time of year. Having gone through a number of storms including Charley, right here in Winter Park, Florida, I knew how to prepare. Still, I’m grateful for the information communicated on television and online. It is important everyone be prepared and knows what to do.

Except for periodic checks, I am keeping TV news and the Weather Channel turned off. I appreciate this hurricanes severity and I believe everyone should take it seriously. Most reporters mean well, but there seems to be some hysterical reporting of events and tracking data on television. I have watched the predicted tracks of Irma for a week; the European Model, American models etc. and every day they have been predicting an imminent northward track for the storm. First it was up the east coast of Florida, then the center, and now the western coast. But hurricane Irma just keeps heading west. All of the predictions based on the computer models continue to be wrong. The only thing they got correct is that Irma is headed west. If this storm should head west into the Gulf of Mexico, few people will ever trust these forecasts in the future. Even now a well-known AM talk show radio host was claiming it is all “fake news,” before he evacuated the state.

Hurricane Irma is a force of nature and as such unpredictable in a total sense. It is a huge hurricane, 400 miles wide they keep saying, while they show a huge cone sweeping up the Florida peninsula to the north practically to Pennsylvania. Yes the storm is 400 miles wide, but the highest hurricane force winds only extend out about 70 miles from the eye of the storm.   In addition that’s 200 miles on each side of the center. The cone covering the anticipated but speculative track of the storm is misleading.

On Saturday afternoon, September ninth, the storm’s winds dropped to 135 mph and the hurricane became category 3. They are still predicting a northward turn up the west coast of Florida. Currently the storm is heading west, battering Cuba not showing any sign of turning north. Will it ultimately turn north? Probably it will do so, but where and when is not known. What should be said by the coverage is “we really don’t know where this hurricane will go. But here’s our best guess.”

All of the reporters and experts were quick to say that no one should be complacent, the hurricane could still be a category 5 when it goes through the straight and gains strength when it turns North and devastates the entire state of Florida, including Tampa and Orlando. But if the eye of the storm goes over Tampa, there will not be the same impact on Orlando as Tampa.

The governor of Florida is constantly saying “catastrophic,” “life threatening,” and “devastating.” “Worse hurricane in the history of mankind!” And won’t we be grateful and amazed at how well he handled this catastrophe and elect him to the senate. It is obvious that everyone, from politicians to television outlets have decided to purposefully exaggerate conditions in the name of “it’s better to be prepared.” “People won’t take things seriously enough if we tell them the truth or include any optimistic predictions.” It may be true that some “people” will do that. But facts are either true or false. Opinions should be voiced as opinions not reality.

I listened to a reporter on the weather channel increase numbers substantially from what was just reported by the channel’s weather expert. She quickly rounded off the numbers higher. Even the width of Florida shrunk from about 145 miles to 130 miles. Hmm, at the bottom of the peninsula it’s only a few feet! This “spin” of facts is not good. In the end it destroys trust in the reporting. It causes hysteria and panic.

Warnings are fine. But the facts should not be distorted for any reason, however important anyone may think it is to motivate viewers. Distorting and exaggerating the facts causes panic and hysteria. Like people fighting over water and stocking up on enough food for weeks. Of course if you live next to the ocean and a hurricane is approaching you should evacuate of find a shelter. But you need to be able to trust the information is factual and make an informed decision about what you will do. Because of all the spin and hype people just don’t trust what they are hearing.

I am prepared for this storm hitting Orlando in the next couple days. I’ve taken in all the furniture and other things from balconies and front porch. I stocked up on water, spare batteries and food. I am ready. I will work and/or relax. If I need a break read a book or as long as there is electricity find a movie to watch that is not apocalyptic. Definitely do some meditating.

J R Martin

Categories
Film Life Observations Relationships

Meet The Patels Review

MeetPatelscovThe best documentaries both inform and entertain. The viewer learns something new and enjoys the experience. Meet The Patels, winner of the audience award at the 2014 Los Angles Film Festival, achieves these goals as it explores the pressure on Indian American families to maintain their culture and traditions like marriage, when dealing with their American assimilated, second generation children.

This documentary is about Indian Americans, but it is also representative of what happens with other ethnic groups that have resettled in North and South America over the years. All ethnic groups coming to the United States have experienced the pressures of assimilation.

To view the entire review by Jim Martin go to Meet The Patels at J R Martin Media

Categories
Politics

Republicans Create DysfunctionalGovernment and Pathological Donald – by James R (Jim) Martin

Republicans must take responsibility for their party creating a dysfunctional congress, senate and Supreme Court, in other words, stopping government from functioning properly. They have done it for money, politics and avarice. They have lulled half the country into believing government is not functioning when in fact it is Republicans in government who are not functioning. Republicans are campaigning to fix all the things they are responsible for breaking. They pathologically lie and misrepresent reality to the public. They have reduced any dialog to name calling and a smoke screen of bullshit. Trump, the man Republicans are nominating to run for President,  is the complete embodiment of all the Republican party now represents.

PsychopathtestbookThe notion that Donald Trump some how represents the interests of working and middle class people is ludicrous since he is a billionaire, son of a millionaire. Donald Trump is not a pull your self up from the bootstraps, entrepreneur, businessman billionaire. He’s a member of the so-called “One Percent” of super rich billionaires. But he represents himself as an outsider, entrepreneur because he knows Americans like self-made people.

It appears that Donald  scores high on “the psychopath test” as  it is profiled  in a book by Jon Ronson entitled “The Psychopath Test-A Journey through the Madness Industry.” © 2011.  While it may be that many top executives and CEO’s would also score high on this test, the question remains, do we want someone who seems to mirror most of these attributes to be President of the United States?

Here is the famous twenty-point Hare PCL-R Psychopath Checklist as reported in the book (pg. 97) How many of the twenty signs appear to fit “The Donald?” Seems like he would get an A+ in a huge way.

  1. “Glibness/superficial charm
  2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
  3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
  4. Pathological lying
  5. Conning/manipulative
  6. Lack of remorse or guilt
  7. Shallow affect
  8. Callous/lack of empathy
  9. Parasitic lifestyle
  10. Poor behavioral controls
  11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
  12. Early behavior problems
  13. Lack of realistic long-term goals
  14. Impulsivity
  15. Irresponsibility
  16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  17. Many short-term marital relationships
  18. Juvenile delinquency
  19. Revocation of conditional release
  20. Criminal versatility”

The current Republican nominee for President is running on all the problems created by the Republican’s for at least sixteen years beginning, after 9/11 with the lead up to and ultimately the Iraq war. One graphic example is ISIS, a result of invading Iraq and the Republican Cheney/Bush administration criminal misrepresentation of the reasons for the Iraq war as demonstrated in this PBS Frontline documentary

“The Secret History of ISIS 54:47Video duration: 54:47 Aired: 05/17/16 Rating: NRVideo has closed captioning.”

mezzanine_456.jpg.crop.767x432“From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team comes the inside story of the creation of ISIS, and how the United States missed the many warning signs. The film uncovers the terror group’s earliest plans, the Islamic radicals who became its leaders, and the American failures to stop ISIS’s brutal rise.”

There is one possible error in the above copy for this documentary. The US did not miss “the many warning signs.” Republican’s Dick Cheney and George Bush ignored and suppressed the warning signs reported by US intelligence and others, so they could push the US into invading Iraq. This is apparent in the documentary and other sources.

The media and everyone else are reluctant to place the blame for problems, directly at the feet of the Republicans who caused the problems. News reporters on cable and in print constantly talk about the “dysfunction in congress.” What they should report is the Republican dysfunction in congress. By not reporting accurately and precisely they convey the impression that everyone in congress is part of the problem. When in fact it’s all coming from the Republican radicals and obstructionists who vowed from the start of President Obama’s first term to destroy and obstruct his administration.  Interestingly news sources do not seem to have much of a problem reporting possibly negative issues relating directly to Democrats.

Now we have, an apparent Republican Presidential nominee, Donald Trump, who is an obvious narcissistic, pathological liar manipulating and playing the media to his benefit. He has gotten more coverage than any candidate. He claims he’s going to fix everything the general public believes is wrong about the country. But he knows that it’s all a sham, that the public has been brainwashed with propaganda and conspiracy theories from Republicans, far right conservatives and lobbyists for many years. Trump used conspiracy theories like the racially motivated idea that President Obama wasn’t born in the US (Birthers) to keep his own name out there and to try to discredit the President. The public is distracted from the real problems by “dog whistle” issues that stir religious, racial, ethnic, cultural and social concerns. Working and middle class people succumb to tribal drum beats, as they dance in primitive circles, persuaded to vote against their own interests.

Voters believed that President Obama would bring change and end the wars the country was involved in when he was elected. But the Republicans made sure he couldn’t do it in an absolute way. For example, they watered down a very workable Affordable Health Care Act and then spent the next six years trying to destroy it in any way possible. Republicans made it impossible for the President to close Guantanamo by passing restrictive laws. Republicans tried to shut down the government and did, causing problems. Republicans stopped economic progress by not allowing the administrations plans for national infrastructure building and repair. Republicans voted against saving the American auto industry, brought to its knees by the Republican sponsored real estate crash beginning in 2007, but put up little resistance to the, too big to fail, bank bailout. The complete list is a story by itself.

Despite all the Republican dysfunction and obstruction, the President and the Democratic administration brought the country back from a terrible crisis in 2008.  They saved the auto industry, which is doing well now, and paid back loans to the government, with interest. The economy has steadily improved, unemployment gone down, the deficit reduced, troops brought home. This doesn’t seem to get much press.

Republicans have wasted billions of dollars on committees to investigate things like Bengazi and Hillary Clinton’s emails all for political gain. There is a technique practiced by Fox News, the Republican propaganda cable news outlet. Make up absurd claims about anything, throw them out there, twenty-four/seven, and see if anything sticks. Create enough smoke so that the public will believe there is a fire and blame it on the firemen, in this case the President, the Democrats and Liberals. There is so much smoke the general public doesn’t know what to believe because they can’t see things clearly.

Another hoax perpetrated on the public is the myth of the “liberal media.” When ever a fact contrary to Republican interests is reported, even though it’s accurate, it is deemed as liberal. I suppose it is a “liberal” trait to tell the truth but in this case the term is used to discredit the reporting as biased in some way, perhaps because the information was reported on in the first place. It is also a way to intimidate the press into using language that is less precise and ambiguous. Instead of saying Republicans in congress are causing government to not function properly, the report defers to just saying “congress is causing…” This gives the impression that it is all of congress that is obstructing and not doing their jobs when in fact it is just the Republicans. The public believes it is all of congress and therefore government that is the problem.

At the same time as the right-wing is running around claiming liberal media bias they are using all sorts of “frames” and “spin” to make it appear that the problem is something other than their obstruction.

Who ever wins the Democratic Party Nomination will face an onslaught of “dirty politics” from the Donald Trump campaign. It has already started with Trump calling Hillary Clinton names like “crooked Hillary,” and other things each time he mentions her in some false accusation, rambling tirade.  He is just continuing the bashing of Hillary Clinton that the Republican party has been doing for the last eight years and longer going back to when her husband was President. This continual attack has biased people to think ill of her unfairly.  Fair or not the perception is out there.  If the Republicans thought Bernie Sanders was going to be the nominee they would be attacking him.

Hopefully moderate and normally conservative Republicans will either, hold their noses and vote Democrat or vote for a Libertarian candidate.  Democrats need to unite after the primaries, rally around the Democratic nominee and turn out the vote as they did for Barack Obama in 2008. Because of new restrictive voter laws, early registration of voters is important. In addition to voting for President there is an opportunity to shift the balance of power in the Senate and Congress sending a message that the smoke screen is no longer working.

 

 

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

 

Categories
Arts Observations Poetry

May Magnolia

maymagnolia1

May Magnolia trumpet

Summer approaching

another moment passing

 

 

 

 

https://www.almostseventy-one.com/2016/05/01/three-photographs-and-haiku-poems/

© James R (Jim) Martin – Photographs and words.

Categories
Contemplation Life Observations

The Stranger In The Room

The Path

After some dinner nearby, my son and I headed into the Dr. Phillips, Disney Theater in Orlando to see a live performance with Steve Martin and Martin Short. There in the busy lobby I felt consciously present, in the moment aware of the environment, absorbed by the people and ambiance of this place and time. Anticipating the two-hour performance I headed into the restroom, which appeared to be a long room with facilities on either side. As I walked along looking for an open place, I noticed an older man walking toward me, almost like he knew me, he smiled, as he grew closer I noticed that he had a baseball cap on just like mine, and I started to say, “we have the same cap,” but as I reached up, pointing to my hat, my arm came into contact with the wall-to-wall, floor to ceiling mirror at the end of the room. I realized that the stranger coming toward me was my reflection in this mirror.

I’ve seen my photograph and reflections in the mirror a million times, but this was always from my subjective perspective. It seemed this time, for a moment, perhaps for the first time; I saw this body that I call me, as a stranger, in what could only be a mindful, “not self,” reflection.

One of the tenants of Buddhist philosophy is the “No Self” concept.   Whoever was there a moment ago is no longer you. The notion of “I” or “Me” or “I Am” does not exist. There is no “mini me” in the body’s mind, head or heart, making decisions. There may be memories of the past but those are thoughts stored in the archives of the mind’s modules that render a subjective point-of-view to what is experienced. The feeling of joy or pain is also not you; it’s an impermanent, passing thought or state.

Insight Meditation and the resulting Mindfulness facilitate mind and body living in the present moment, bare attention, non judgmental awareness of what is being experienced now, not thinking about past or future events and conversations.

Written by James R (Jim) Martin

Categories
Arts Contemplation Observations Photography Poetry

Three Photographs and Haiku Poems

IMG_1041cloudsA photograph can be a Haiku without words.

 

Afternoon gray clouds crowding

patches  April blue sky

Trees wave green greetings

 

 

 

 

IMG_1045a

Crow on a roof peak

Squawks presence loudly

Indifferent Blue Jay waits

 

 

 

 

maymagnolia1

May Magnolia trumpet

Summer approaching

another moment passing

 

 

 

Photographs and words by James (Jim) Martin ©2016