The end of October

October must end.
it may be argued that it never began.

Many philosophers have contemplated the true nature of reality, or even if there is a true nature, or a reality or any contemplation "upon it".
i have a rather simplistic view myself.
awareness is a potentiality, created by the consciousness necessitated by the needs of life.
and so, this awareness, gives rise to the awareness that there is a relationship between what happens, what is experienced and the various meanings that subsequently arise.
contemplation upon the temporal nature of ones existence, creation and meaning, are then unavoidable.
what is true, where it starts, where it ends, are meaningless contemplations, because they all negate the ongoing truth, outside of the physical form, of the existence of only arbitrary beginnings and quite literally, arbitrary endings.

i heard Dr. earth on television today, saying that all humans were, living, breathing earth. because dirt, is plants, is humans. we are just created out of dirt. we are just a form of dirt.

so it must be the case that our consciousness arises from dirt

which is a great idea, yet, just an idea.
the larger point being, that the philosophical contemplation of anything, is only as good, as the ability to produce insight into and upon our lives.

that insight, to be meaningful, must impact our actions and result in a fuller loving understanding and awareness of the only thing that matters in our lives.

Final Reflections on Joseph Stalin

The one thing that's hard to understand in reading the new biography of Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore, is what exactly Marxism, Leninism and Bolshevism has to do with Joseph Stalin, and what his legacy is.

Marxism, was nothing more than an insight. it was not a belief. It was not a moral, or ethical base, or even truly a goal. Not a goal of Lenin, and not a goal of Stalin. Almost immediately after seizing power, [much along the vein of the Cuban revolution, with a small cadre of true believers, vastly outnumbered, yet unopposed due to corruption and disorganization of those in power] they began to turn on the people.

Supposedly, their agenda was the liberation of the proletariat. Yet, the rub in all philosophical ideas, is the tension and inherent conflict between those who truly believe, [either in the name of the people, or not] and their belief that the very people that they are fighting to liberate and lead, must be controlled, oppressed and at times liquidated or robbed of their basic human rights, in order to achieve their "true" liberation. The Marxist/Leninist in this respect were true political "missionaries" exhibiting all of the most ruthless and detrimental inhumane aspects of missionaries to the darker continents and inhabited areas of savages. Saving them from themselves through a purging of their ideas, culture, way of life and often, oppression and abuse of their very bodies as they are literally scourged and cleansed in order that future generation may make benefit of their newfound truth.

Stalin grew up in a violent household with an alcoholic cobbler father and a very cunning and scheming mother. both were sadistically brutal to the young Stalin. Stalin also suffered from being sickly, and many horrific injuries and traumas, such that he walked with a permanent limp and had a lame arm too weak to hold onto a female dance partner.

Stalin's true talent, and gift, was a voracious appetite for knowledge, especially subversive knowledge, and a nature fire, passion and acumen for evaluating others and using all possible personality tools to effect his will and gain support for his agenda.

Stalin's practical education was composed of the seminary, where he not only received an excellent education, but also received a second excellent education in subversive activities, such as forming outlawed political and literature discussion groups, avoiding and ducking trouble, building consensus and a fervent base of supporters, while also devising ways of manipulating his environment to conjure up money, travel, and experiences to further his cause.

When he felt he had learned enough, he was expelled, with his grace. From here he went on to organizing labor, which in Baku, an oil rich area of the Russian domain, consisted of extortion, kidnapping, assassinations, bank robberies, blackmail, beatings, bombings and terror. Stalin was the leader and main figure in the black underworld of Baku.

Constantly under the surveillance of the Tsarist police and secret police, Stalin formed a link with Lenin. From my interpretation of events, their bond was not so much philosophical, rather, they both rose to strong positions within the "party" and anyone who experiences success in something, is apt to stick with it. As far as their articulation of party philosophy, it was not from the heart, it was purely from the head, and their interest was in devising a idea that would achieve two ends. 1. be philosophically sound, 2. ensure that they were in power, as the ones to dictate policy.

meanwhile, Stalin had been sent into exile on several occasions, seduced many under aged girls, had several children out of wedlock, escaped exile several times, in drag as a ruse at several junctures, meanwhile travelling across Europe to meet other Bolsheviks, and Lenin, learning several languages, writing prolifically, and staging a major, internationally known bank robbery that netted an equivalent of $3.5 million for Lenin's coffers.

The belief of the Bolsheviks, which numbered perhaps 2,500 at the time of the revolution, and had a core leadership of only 15-20 individuals, was that the revolution was inevitable, as articulated by their theorist/saint, Karl Marx. So that when the conditions were ripe for revolution, they, being prepared and ready with their plan, were able to take control of a vast empire, virtually unopposed, disorganized and almost in a comedic way.

But if the way they gained power was comedic, almost immediately after seizing power, it became bloodthirsty.
Stalin lay in wait, through Lenin's term, opposing him strongly at some points, and counteracting his mandates boldly at other times.

when Lenin died, Stalin consolidated his power against Trotsky. once he had slowly built enough power to seize control of the party outright, the terror began. having struggled against enemies for so long, his mind became interminably obsessed with paranoia and a fear of enemies. This is where the childhood beatings, the persecution of the seminary, the exiles, the gangsterism, the experiences of being covert, under constant surveillance and horrific injuries and crimes all culminated in the terror, where an estimated 25-40,000,000 Russian citizens were starved to death, shot, worked to death in the gulag, or died in exile.

Stalinism, Bolshevism, Leninism, Marxism, became wholly superfluous, once the ends were achieved, because the strength in the ideologies, was in their ability to represent the priorities of their adherents, and in the power of their propaganda.

It made no matter to Lenin (who had a brother executed for an assassination attempt of a Russian czar), that the conditions for the proletariat revolution were not present in Russian. Marx himself "corrected" Marxist/Russian adherents in letting them know that the proletariat revolution could never arise in a peasant state with communal farms. Russia would first have to pass into an age of private ownership, and then industrialization for a working class to emerge and become exploited enough to serve as a basis for the Marxist revolution.

other problems with Marxism in Russia, was the 5-year plan started by Stalin, became a 1-year plan as Stalin forced collectivism/socialism upon the peasants and their lords, all in the service to the industrialization predicted by Marx. The peasants rebelled, killing half of their field animals and not planting crops. Stalin's response was to take every bit of grain from the peasants, and imposing the death penalty for the theft of even a cup of grain. This caused the mass starvation in the Ukraine. the only known or recorded wide spread man made "famine" in the history of man.

all of this done, in service to Marx's proletarian revolution and proletariat freedom from capitalist exploitation.

if war is peace, then it can certainly be seen that any political ideology can be used to justify any political action or oppressive action, as long as the adherents, believe that the deviation, however great, is in service to the ultimate ends.

Richard Feynman: The Greatest Mind Since Einstein (DVD)

An instructor at cal tech for thirty years, Nobel prize laureate for physics, in charge of the team that performed the complex calculations needed for the Manhattan project in Los Alamos. He lead this team at a time before computers, when men with pencils computed the complex mathematics by hand and by formulas. Feynman’s ability to lead this team, was nothing short of fantastic by all accounts.

He said that his love of science was instilled in him by his father, a salesman who wanted to be a scientist. He taught his son to notice things. Feynman states, “he knew the difference between knowing something and just knowing the name for something. He talked about an example of when he was a young boy an dhe had a ball in the back of his wagon. When he started, the ball rolled to the back. When he stopped, the ball rolled to the front. His father said, “no one knows why this is. It’s called inertia, and things at rest, tend to want to stay at rest. Things in motion tend to want to stay in motion, until and unless some force acts upon it. That’s the difference between knowing the name of something and the reason why it exist/true understanding.

In July of 1945, while still working on his PhD, he went to work with Dr. Oppenheimer on the Manhattan project. Dr. Feynman speaks of the moral question. He says he didn’t remember the reason why they were doing what they were doing. Germany was the enemy and they were also working on the problem, so the race was to do it first, and the fate of the world rested on their shoulders. Ocne Germany was defeated. Feynman faults himself for not once again re-evaluating his reasons for working on the project. Feynman talks about the wild celebrations that went on after the bomb was drooped on Hiroshima. He talks of champagne being popped, people getting drunk, yelling, celebrating, blissful… and the death and destruction and suffering in japan.

While working on the Manhattan project, he fell in love with and married a beautiful woman. A woman who was expected to die of tuberculosis. Her name was Arline Feynman. He realized that the only way he could care for her and also be with her, is if he married her. INH had been invented and she had taken the medication for a few months, but it was too late. She died.

Feynman formed a great relationship with an artist, and he decided that he would teach him physics if the artist taught him art. They did this on Sundays and they continued it for a number of years until Feynman become a very good artist. His artist friend would say that he could look at a flower and enjoy it’s beauty, but that a scientist would break that all down and not be able to enjoy the simple beauty. Feynman disagreed. He said that his knowledge of the mystery of cell biology, what was happening on the cell level, the biological level, the microscopic level, in addition to the colors, the sweetness of the smell,t he nectar and pollen, and the seeming awareness of the plant of itself and it’s surroundings added to the mystery, rather then subtracting from it.

Feynman won his Nobel prize for his work in physics and electrodynamics and electromagnetic physics. He shared the prize with two other scientist that also discovered the process of taking into account the phenomenon. Feynman also devised a way to diagram the processes that ignored the wave part of particles all together and focused on the particle behavior. It was described as a “very powerful” method. Another scientist speaking on the subject stated, “it never occurred to us to make a drawing and to combine the protons an electrons int his way.”

Feynman did not like honors. Saying, “I don’t like honors, I appreciate them, but I don’t like them. the prize is the discovery, the knowledge, the accomplishment. These are the real things. Honors are epaulets and uniforms. This bothers me.” Feynman talks about receiving an academic honor in school and then being awarded membership in a society. He said the major work of the society was in deciding who should be let into the society. He said he resigned from the national academy of science for this very same reason. “the whole thing was rotten”

Another friend agrees that Feynman did not like honrs per se, but also, in a way he did like them, because it gave him the “credentials to be quirky”. Feynman also learned to become an accomplished bongo player.

He met a guy flying kites in baja California. Feynman had to go to Lucienne Switzerland and the kite flying friend also had business so they went together. When they got there, Feynman talked to a scientist about a large two story experiment that they had going on. It was tons of people, and knobs and levels. When the other scientist was explaining the experiment, he remembered that the theory they were testing was one of Feynman’s theories, so he said, “this is to test one of your theories.” Feynman said, “how much did it cost?” the man said, “$37 million” Feynman said, “what? Don’t you trust me?”

Feynman loved imagination, but not so much the idea of “creativity” he called what he did “imagination in a straight jacket” meaning, that given all of the laws, and understanding of how the world worked, what is possible? It has to agree with what we already know, or what can we imagine that we already know?”

In 1978 Feynman began a 10 year battle with cancer. He had 4 cancer operations, not knowing if he would survive the first one. He had a strange form of cancer that never metastasized, but began in his kidney and grew around in tentacles around it, but never metastasizing. Shortly before his first surgery, someone had found an error in a paper that he had written with another scientist. Feynman weak, sick and close to death took on the problem a few days before his first surgery, plunged completely absorbed intot he problem. The other scientist could not do the calculations that Feynman could , so he could only watch. After 6 hours they gave up, but all the shile, they knew that the error was trivial, and not important. They finally decided to call it quits. Two hours later, Feynman called the other scientist to say that he had found the error. He was exhilarated, and walking on air.

Perhaps Feynman was best known for his work on the investigation of the space shuttle challenger tragedy. His work on the committee gave it instant credibility. he searched for the answer, looking in all the regular places, asking all of the questions that should be asked. He was able to see that the problem was simple and basic. So basic that he had to ask the question of how the tragedy was allowed to happen. The big wigs at NASA did not want anyone to think the space shuttle wasn't capable of hundreds of missions. the engineers knew it wasn't. The problems were ignored and the astronauts died as a result. when Feynman demanded that the evidence be included, those in power argued that it would be put in the appendix. when they said that they wanted a watered down version of what had been found, Feynman threatened to not sign his name to the report. they backed down, and Feynman was once again thrust into the public spotlight two years before his death.

In facing his death, he had a good ten years to contemplate it from when he was first diagnosed with Cancer. He figured that although he would die, he had shared so much of himself with so many individuals, that he would not really, ever truly die.

Iosef Dugashvili - Stalin, On A Pure Marxist Vision

Stalin on Marxism from Simon Sebag Montefiore's 'Young Stalin' :

Stalin's Marxism meant that the revolutionary proletariat alone is destined by history to liberate mankind and bring the world happiness. But humanity would undergo great trial and suffering and change before it would achieve scientifically proven Marxism. The heart of this providential progress was the class struggle. Marxism is the masses who's liberation is the catalyst for the freedom of the individual. This creed was, says Stalin, not only a theory of Socialism, it's an entire world view, a philosophical system like a scientifically proven religion. (Stalin) believed like Trotsky that the lasting thing is gained through combat. Blood, death, conflict were essential. Many storms, many torrents of blood, in Stalin's own words, would mark the struggle to end oppression.

Also of importance, Stalin believed in a mix between Marxism and Georgian nationalism. It was hard for him to believe in true international Marxism because the oppression and repression of Georgian's made them also dream of independence.

for political idealist, there is no room for dissent
even among their idealist-mates, they continually debate the particulars of minor points.
such bickering is a bad sign for the people at large.
for the "ignorant masses" know not that which will be demanded of them idealogically.

Frantz Fanon discusses at length the process by which those who are the "powerfully oppressed" become the revolutionary oppressor to those whom they had previously sworn to liberate.

Once idealogically strict revolutionaries claim power they set about the perpetual work of installing the first phase of their infrastructure, which is the elimination of negative human capital.

Dissenting voices can not be tolerated.

The dream that a society could be "cleansed" in this manner and be free, is in truth a subterfuge to justify inhumane acts upon fellow beings. Despots, who are unrestrained in their zeal to choose idealogies over human needs have an unfair advantage in the debate halls when the finer points of the necessitous work of the revolution is discussed.


The thing these ideaologies never achieve is the actual thing they are set up to achieve -liberation, peace, utopian exchanges, freedom, equality, etc. what they do achieve, what they are very good at creating is murder, paranoia, terror, assassination, oppression, repression, hardship, strife, hopelessness, fear...
The cleansing is perpetual.
The violence, endless.
The process of clearing the path for the coming Utopia becomes the means and the ends.
The process is above all criticism because it is a process, and can not be "judged" until finalized, and it will never be finalized.
The novel 1984 offers the best critique of the look and feel of a society caught within a perpetual paranoid cleansing.

There can be no vision, that can be imposed upon the heart of humanity.
Societies must move, but not necessarily forward.
At times moving towards or in response to some guiding light.
And at other times plunging headlong into the abyss.

Young Stalin has won the Costa Biography Prize (UK), the LA Times Book Prize in Biography (US), Le Grand Prix de Biographie Politicale (France) and the Kreisky Prize for Political LIterature (Austria).

So Many Stories

I used to write all the time.
So many stories would come to me, and it seemed a shame to not give them life.
Now, they still seize upon me and I follow them, and then a few moments, I snap out of it, no longer feeling the obsession to continue writing them.
But today, there were two stories that were particularly strong.
So, Here they are:

1. A boy coming of age, lives in a normal, pleasant community. Mother and father. nothing too corny, strict, repressive, outlandish or indulgent. not boring, not overly exciting. The one thing that could be said of this family, (mother, father and son) is that the boys is distant from his father, who is not all that interesting, involved with work, but doesn't really have much to add, but is kind and a good father and obviously loves his wife and son. One day, through the sloppiness of the son, the mother finds a marijuana joint in his pocket. it's half smoked. she also finds some weird little drawings that the son has drawn. she tells the father. after dinner a night of so later, the father says he would like to talk to the son. the mother leaves the table, the father and son talk. the father doesn't mention the joint. the father then takes the kid down to the basement. the son doesn't think there is anything of interest down there. the father unlocks a room, and it's a beautiful workspace with drafting board and all kinds of very imaginative drawings. a lot of native American motifs. the father was an artist. he has many psychedelic experiences. he shows his sons his drawings. he tells his son that he can come down and use this room whenever he would like and use his materials. over the next several weeks and months, the son comes to find out that the Father was raised by his native American grandmother and grandfather before being placed in foster care when one and then the other died. he was adopted by a white family. he lost touch with his culture. it hurt too much, so he forgot it. until he got older, ran away at 15 and went back to the res. he found a spirit man. he did sweat lodges, learned the history of his people at the pine ridge res. he then saw his friends, one by one, fall to the wayside due to drink, dv and other evils. he went to AA, renounced. went to church, met his wife. started as a graphic artist, went to school, rose to the level of art director, and then supervisor, no longer doing art. the son, learns much from the father, and much of what he has thought and felt has come true to his vision. the end.

the idea for this came from that key time in life when you are in your adolescence and the world begins to open up to you and you are exploring, experimenting and seeing things from many different angles. in a sense, you can come to know anyone at any time. but in adolescesnce, you challenge your parents and in this story, the key is, that the boys is ready to hear and to know something very intimate and special about his father.. .that changes his complete conception of himself, his father, his mother and the world in which they live.

2. this story sets up with a couple driving out in the country for a weekend to just do something different. they come to a little bullshit festival with a carnival type atomsphere. they stop. they walk around and do a few basic things, and then they see a ride that says, "time stops" and the carny running the ride says that inside the ride, time stops, so you can take your time and spend as much time as you want, but not have to worry that you will miss anything, that it will get late, that they have something else they have to do, or anything.. they can spend as much time in there as they want, but once they come out, they can't go back in. the couple observes people coming in and then coming out, they only spend a few seconds in, or a minute or two. when they come out, they ask them, 'what's it like" but the people only smile and walk by, sometimes laughing. they go inside and it's true. time stops. there is a shaman inside of sorts. he can offer any wish. and he helps them as a guide to do whatever they want for the time they are insdie. the expanse is wide, there are fields... and they are able to indulge without feelig that they are missing anything, are missed, anyone is worried, obligations, etc. they stay for years, and then come out, and as part of the deal, have agreed to take a 7 day vow of silence as part of their reintegration.

the idea for this came from an idea i had for a "time stop" mediation. a lot of the reason we don't meditate or do our regular practices, is becasue we don't have time.. so what if we had time? it really is silly, because if we are moving and living, then time is passing... but somehow, "time stopping" eliminates a lot of the problem in centering, focusing, listening, being patient and being present...

Woman Faces 50 Years in Forced Labor of Undocumented Worker.

The following article came out today in the S.F. Chronicle.
Coming on the heels of having just finished William T. Weld's 'American Slavery as it is', It's especially relevant to look at the form of present day virtual slavery'. The horrors of slavery have little diminished in the world. It has instead adapted itself cunningly to the culture of today's world.

There are many "free trade zones" in third world countries, strategically located near shipping facilities and which constitute mini- spheres of influence, where the laws of the home country little apply. In these areas the work conditions, treatment of employees, social and family lives and relations, are all closely monitored and controlled by the host company.

Many employees labor for little more than subsistence. Their choice, is to either work, or to die. There is little or no health care, no occupational safety or health, sick time, vacation time, or overtime.

If you compound the situation discussed below, though horrible and inhumane, it pales in comparison to slavery as it was practiced in the 17th-19th century in America, yet, the woman who extracted forced labor from her nanny for a period of 3-4 years, is now, having been convicted, facing a total of 50 years in federal prison for her crimes.

The perpetrator has three children of her own, at least two of which are in elementary school. It is doubtful that once she is sentenced, that her children will see her in the free air until they are well into their adult lives.

Click on this link to view an online copy of the Superseding indictment.It's an excellent read to see the thoroughness of the prosecutors investigation, which leaves no doubt as to the guilt of the accused on several main counts. Once they had the original tourist Visa application, signed by the perpetrator, stating that the woman in question would stay for only a week, in a motel in Miami, only to be found in the perpetrators apartment in Walnut Creek three years later (having transferred flights in Miami on the day of arrival), it was but little work of the prosecutor to establish the point that the entire foul conspiracy, from the visa application until the victim having escaped her persecutos, had been undertaken, in a manner completely in line with the allegations and testimony of the enslaved nanny.

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 10, 2009

A Walnut Creek real estate agent has been convicted of charges that she lured a Peruvian nanny to the East Bay with promises of a better life but instead kept her as an indentured servant for nearly two years. Mabelle de la Rosa Dann, 46, also known as Mabelle Crabbe, kept the nanny a virtual prisoner, cut her off from Spanish-speaking media and rationed her food, authorities said.

She was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury in Oakland of forced labor and other charges. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken is to sentence her Jan. 13. "No person should ever be forced to live in a world of fear, isolation and servitude," said John Morton, an assistant secretary for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Dann helped bring Zoraida Pena-Canal, 30, of Peru into the United States on a three-month visitor's visa in July 2006.

Prosecutors said Dann lured Pena-Canal here with the promise that she would live in a large house with her own bedroom and private bathroom. Dann allegedly said she would pay Pena-Canal $600 a month after deducting the cost of the plane ticket for the first five months.Instead, Pena-Canal knew almost no world outside Dann's 900-square-foot apartment on Ygnacio Valley Road in the Cypress Creek apartment complex in Walnut Creek, where the two women lived with Dann's three children, Special Agent Jennifer Alderete of Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court. Pena-Canal worked seven days a week caring for the children, cleaning the apartment, cooking and washing laundry, Alderete wrote. She was forced to live on the living room floor. Pena-Canal "appeared unkempt and wore the same clothing each day," Alderete wrote.

Dann never paid the nanny and instead charged her about $15,000 for Dann's expenses in Peru, including her costs for searching for nannies before she hired Pena-Canal, the affidavit said. Dann took the nanny's visa, passport and Peruvian identification each day with her when she went to work, authorities said. Dann allegedly told her nanny, "When you come to the United States, you must suffer," authorities said.

Dann broke Pena-Canal's radio and a television set, telling her that she didn't want her to listen to or view Spanish-speaking programs "because it would put ideas in her head," the affidavit said. Dann also rationed Pena-Canal's food, weighing her meat and counting out the number of pieces of fruit she could eat, investigators said. Pena-Canal eventually confided in people at Indian Valley Elementary School, where Dann's twin sons were students. She fled from the apartment April 16, 2008, and witnesses contacted authorities.

In addition to forced labor, Dann was convicted of unlawful use of documents in furtherance of servitude, harboring an illegal alien for the purpose of private financial gain, conspiracy to commit visa fraud and visa fraud. Nancy Harris, an attorney representing Pena-Canal in the suit, said Friday that her client "feels extremely vindicated by this verdict, which bolsters her unflinching belief in this country's justice system."

'Young Stalin' By Simon Sebag Montefiore.

Young Stalin is a story about the youth of Joseph (Iosif) Dzhugashvili (jew-gosh-vee-lee).
Stalin was known to have been a native Georgian, top of the class seminary student, excellent singer, charismatic, lame armed, son of an alcoholic. Both of his parents beat him sadistically. His father was a cobbler, who bragged about being able to make two pairs of shoes per day. His mother was very attractive when young and was able to land the cobbler though many young girls were vying for his hand.

Stalin's other siblings, all died prematurely or were miscarried (if I remember correctly), and his mother was so pleased that her son Joseph lived, she promised to do a pilgrimage in thanks.

Now the whole part about Stalin being a seminary student has to be taken with a grain of salt. It's not like today, where folks only enter the seminary if they hear a calling to God and want to become priests. In the middle ages up until the early 20th century, the best European schools were "seminaries", so it was more a matter of getting the best possible education, than hearing a higher calling.

The idea of Stalin being a "criminal" also must be taken with a grain of salt. In the time of the Russian Czar's, the different republics (Ukraine, Georgia, etc) were native enclaves, who were very patriotic and loving of their native lands. So to wish to overthrown the Czar's was a popular political intrigue. In fact, in the time of the Czar's, there were in essence two "political" parties. Those who believed in and benefited from the Czar's and those that wished to overthrow him.

Most of Stalin's criminal activities were centered on fund raising activities for Vladimir Lenin. And in this time, to raise funds, was to be a bank robber and thief.

Stalin organized a heist of a bank that netted Lenin and his party $3.5 million dollars in today's currency, although the purchasing power was much greater (in a time when the major expenditures of a household were clothing wine/vodka and food, and not "entertainment" cable, electricity, cars, etc, etc, etc.

Stalin was a voracious reader of many "banned" text, which was in essence all Western European philosophy, poetry, fiction and art. He also was capable of getting perfect marks in all of his classes, ranking as high as #5 in his class. When he sang, he could bring tears to the eyes of those who listened. He also showed wit, the ability to organize and negotiate ruthlessly.
In the bank robbery he organized, he was able to not only train and organize most of his crew, but he also compromised several of the bank employees through his poetry... yes, Stalin was also a great poet who had several poems published in one of the major Poetry anthologies in Russia from when he was a school boy, until well after his death. He also mastered many languages.

There are those who would say that Stalin was inept. But such arguments can be refuted. His grip on power was total. He ruled one of the largest and most powerful nations on earth. he defeated the Nazi's, outmaneuvered Churchill and Truman and always played his hand close to the chest, relying on a small, insular, ever changing cadre of command personnel to exact and extract his due.

One of the major players in the creation of the man that would become Stalin and lead one of the bloodiest terrors in the history of the world was his mother. Time and again, she was able to solicit benefactors and powerful and influential people to intercede, advocate, fund and extricate Stalin from many problems and dead ends. On many occasions her advocacy and maneuverings got him into prestigious schools, paid his tuition, circumvented punishments and placed him in positions from which he could cultivate the skills that would one day rule a nation.

It was in fact Stalin's ability to be at once, a great poet, student, organizer, and artist, and at the same time, a top notch ruthless criminal mastermind, that made him invaluable to Lenin's Bolsheviks. With his hard-scrabble obtained skill set and intelligence, Stalin was no match for his cohorts in the upper political elite. With these tools, both legitimate and illegitimate, he had too many tools to contend with. With his political cronies playing the role his mother used to play in clearing out problems from the periphery and sometimes from his path, the man Stalin would make his indelible mark upon the world.

"Under the pretext of constructing `socialism in one country', Stalin terrorized large segments of the Soviet population, such as the Kulaks, a term for prosperous farmers who were disinherited when agriculture was collectivized. He also orchestrated a massive famine in the Ukraine in which an estimated 5 million people died. It is believed that with the purges, forced famines, state terrorism, labor camps, and forced migrations, Stalin was responsible for the death of as many as 40 million people within the borders of the Soviet Union... ...By some estimates, one quarter of the Russian population was wiped out in the war."

Blacks burned at the Stake in 19th Century America

From, 'American Slavery as it is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses' by Theodore D. Weld
What is related here is but one of hundreds of documented incidents throughout the south.

Page 156, column 2, ' Objections Considered -- Public Opinion'
Testimony of B. Coleman & Jas. Jones

On the 28th of April 1836, in the eny of St. Louis Missouri, a black ma, named McIntosh who had stabbed an officer, that had arrested him, was seized by the multitude, fastened to a tree in the midst of the ity, wood piled around him, and in open day and in the presence of an immense throng of citizens, he was burned to death. the Alton (Ill.) Telegraph, in it's account of the scene says;


"all was silent as death while the executioners were piling
wood around their victim. he said not a word, until feeling
that the flames had seized him. He then uttered an awful
howl, attempting to sing and pray, then hung his head,
and suffered in silence, except in the following instance:
--After the flames had surrounded their prey, his eyes
burnt out of his head, and his mouth seemingly parched
to a cinder, someone in the crowd, more compassionate
than the rest, proposed to put an end to his misery by
shooting him, when it was replied, 'that would be of no
use, since he was already out of pain' 'No, no,' said the
wretch, ' I am not, I am suffering as much as ever ; shoot
me, shoot me.' 'No, no,' said one of the fiends who was
standing about the sacrifice they were roasting, 'he shall
not be shot. I would sooner slacken the fire, if that would
increase his misery; ' and the man who said this was, as
we understand, an officer of justice!'

The St. Louis correspondent of a New York paper adds,

"The shrieks and groans of the victim were loud and
piercing, and to observe one limb after another drop into
the fire was awful indeed. He was about fifteen minutes
in dying. I visited the place this morning, and saw his
body, or the remains of it, at the place of execution. He
was burnt to a crump. His legs and arms were gone, and
only a part of his head and body were left."

Dream

had a dream that i needed a taxi to get me to the middle of town quickly.
the driver was an older white man.
a stereotypical cabbie.
i stepped in the cab and he started driving fast.
then the cab disappeared and we were on rails and the railcar didn't have a top of sides.
we went faster and then passed through a construction area.
i could see that the rails went to the side, up in the air, and ended abruptly.
i thought, "wha?...."
but before i could react, we'd gone off the side and were hundreds of feet off the ground.
i looked at the cabbie and said, "are you out of your mind?"
he was focused on his task, and dismissed my upset and told me about how this was the best way.
looking down, i could see some tracks, but it was beyond me, how we were going to land softly.
seeing as there was nothing i could do, and the cabbie was so nonchalant,
i smiled and then looked at this cabbie and he was talking usual cabbie talk.
but when we did land, it was so smooth, that i was unable to perceive the difference between flying and being back on the ground.

it was nice to remember in the midst of the dream the two principles that had become themes in my waking life.
1. no matter the situation, i should always be at peace, because at all times, I am within my home (my body)
2. regardless of what's going on, you should always focus on your relationship with other beings that you are engaged with, and allowing your truth, the truth and a deep receptivity to the truth of others to be your guide.
when i told this dream to a co-worker, she said there was a number 3.
3. sometimes to get where you need to go, you need to do something that appears to be an insane leap, trusting your instincts and those who can guide you along what is a well worn path, your path, yet may seem like no path to you at the time.

Pre-sunrise thoughts

i was doing situps after running and i looked at my body and thought, "this doesn't even look like my body"
and it made me realize that it's not. it's a vehicle that was given to me, entrusted to me, just as my mind, spirit, personality, intelligence.
it was entrusted to me, but it's not mine really.
and so the question is, if god entrusted you with the most precious thing that you could ever have,
would you take care of that, and never forget that it was such a gift?
would you pledge to never forsake it, harm it, scold it, damage it?
...?

yes, it is such a gift, whereby you can attain any and all earthly pleasures and desires, or enter any spiritual realms, and realize all truths and do unabounded service unto others.