Shame on You!

Greetings good citizen,

I received a rather bizarre e-mail yesterday inviting me to attend an economics ‘summer school’ in Italy.

Five Nobel Laureates will teach the class in English, so the Italian setting is merely to make the surroundings more…’realistic’ (While not currently in the headlines, Italy is one of the PIIGS in case anyone was wondering why they spelled pig with two i’s.)

How ‘appropriate’ that these five, er, ‘nitwits’ expound upon their economic theories in a country that likely practiced (and definitely suffered) from them?

Which brings us to yet another long neglected hobby horse…the one that each of these ‘Nobel Laureates’ needs to have hammered into their squeany little heads…

(Sing it choir!)

ALL ECONOMIES ARE LOCAL!

(Now give me an Amen!)

Hallelujah!

(Where the heck is MY Nobel Prize?)

Yes good citizen, I would ‘opine’ that you don’t know squat about economics if you turn a blind eye to this most basic of economic facts.

(Apparently my opinion is worthless to the rabid capitalists who hand out Nobel Prizes.)

Neither YOU (nor anyone else) can live in an ‘economic wasteland’.

That’s why the ‘global economy’ is in the tank (and it going to stay there until it gets ‘re-balanced’.)

Somehow these, er, ‘gentlemen’ believe this problem is going to solve itself. (and it very well might…however, the fabric of society can only take so much tearing before it shreds completely.)

Which is to ‘opine’ that IF society is ‘left to its own devices’ the fabric of civilization will be ‘obliterated’.

How complete will the destruction be?

Total (barring last minute intervention…which may or may not be successful.)

Sort of boggles the mind to see who’s still drinking the Kool-Aid after all these years.

Considering how lethal that stuff is you have to be amazed that they’re still lining up to down a shot or three!

But that’s all part of another ‘self-correcting’ genetic defect, the tendency to trust people who don’t have your best interests at heart.

Add in the ‘stupid factor’ and we find an endless line of potential Kool-Aid drinkers!

What Kool-Aid is that, you ask?

It’s the kind that blinds you to the existence of the ‘economic desert’.

“There are plenty of jobs out there! You’re just not trying hard enough.”

Yeah, the hundred million unemployed are just a figment of your imagination, especially considering how they ‘don’t want to work’…(which is right next to deciding you no longer want to live…but conservo-whackos will swallow anything regardless of how jagged the hooks are.)

How sad is it good citizen that these facts are also being ignored by the (alleged) alternative media thus our current political dialog is centered on NOT trimming the military budget?

Mighty sad.

Even more disturbing is this headline from today’s NY Times:

White House Tactic for C.I.A. Bid Holds Back Drone Memos
By SCOTT SHANE and MARK MAZZETTI

The administration may deny Senate Democrats information on targeted killings but tell Republicans more about a militant attack in Libya to win confirmation for John O. Brennan as C.I.A. director.

Um, correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Obama run as a Democrat?

WTF is going on here?

Seriously good citizen, how far gone is our situation?

It’s looking mighty tough to me…but who cares what I think, surely not the rabid capitalists!

Which makes me ask, just who has to live among these animals?

Why, (by gum) YOU DO!

And if you don’t do something to help yourself (hint, it all starts with the politicians) then shame on you!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Click, click...

Greetings good citizen,

The ‘Drums of Doom’ are pounding again (and I dislike running back to back posts on the topic of revolt.)

But today we have been, er, ‘gifted with’ yet another grim assessment of the state of our civilization

We’re really regressing back to the dark ages. It’s not a joke. And if that’s happening in the most powerful, richest country in history, then this catastrophe isn’t going to be averted -- and in a generation or two, everything else we’re talking about won’t matter. Something has to be done about it very soon in a dedicated, sustained way.

It’s not going to be easy to proceed. There are going to be barriers, difficulties, hardships, failures. It’s inevitable. But unless the spirit of the last year, here and elsewhere in the country and around the globe, continues to grow and becomes a major force in the social and political world, the chances for a decent future are not very high.

Let’s begin by asking how many of you disagree with Mr. Chomsky’s assertion that we are headed straight for another ‘dark ages’?

The other question would be how many of you appreciate precisely what this means?

And I’d have to opine ‘too few’. (Even for those of you who are in to ‘swords and sorcery’.)

Ironic that the world described the popular novel Hunger Games is very much like the world we are headed for.

Worse, we will end up there the same way the inhabitants of the story got there…‘spinelessness’.

Because it is never enough for a single individual to speak or act out against tyranny, a lone voice is easily silenced.

(That’s a land mine I tap dance on every day…but someone’s gotta do it.)

Then there’s the flip side of the OWS movement; we all know nothing is going to happen if the most action we take is point a finger and cry ‘shame’!

So good ol’ Noam is betting with me that when the party starts, we’ll have plenty of company.

Strange thing about backbone, it’s contagious. Simply seeing someone else ‘nut up’ sort of inspires you to do likewise. It is especially inspiring when you see those you wouldn’t ordinarily consider ‘courageous’ daring to do great things (even if they are cut down in the act!)

Weirdly, it is precisely this quality that the Vikings revered, facing certain death with unflinching valor is the stuff heroes are made of.

And sadly, we will need a great many heroes good citizen if we are to provide our children a future free of tyranny.

How sad is it that the time to start executing traitors was thirty years ago? (And finding them was as simple as looking for the R after their name.)

Worse, it is STILL that simple.

Where is (Gen.) Smedley Butler when you REALLY need him?

Seems our (generation’s) Smedley was asleep at the switch when the interlopers came creeping.

But the more logical answer would be that because of Smedley, the conspirators were forced to choose a different avenue of egress.

Finding a general to lead a coup was much riskier than it needs to be, especially with so many corrupt politicians just looking for an opportunity to be ‘of service’.

No, unsurprisingly the take over of our political system began at the grassroots level, where the ‘sniff testing’ is done and party endorsements are awarded.

Those people are appointees and it was a fairly easy matter to stack the deck so both sides of the fence were drawing from a singular pool of candidates.

This is why we the people can’t get a break!

And, worse, we can already see it coming again this November!

Our choices are O Bummer or Willard…

Sort of makes your stomach churn, doesn’t it?

Interesting choice…a guy who twiddled his thumbs for four years vs. a guy whose only trick seems to be sitting on his thumb!

Uh, how screwed are we?

Let’s look at it this way…the chances of anything improving economy wise are still ‘slim to none’.

And until we, er, ‘demand’ better, NOTHING is going to change.

Don’t underestimate them, good citizen. They are ready to pull off a coup the second there is a serious assault mounted on DC, they’ve been preparing for it for the past two decades!

This, weirdly enough, would work to our advantage if it were to happen sooner than later…

Just my two cents for anybody planning anything…

I’d tell you not to do anything ‘rash’ but, at the end of the day, it’s all up to you! (and ‘rash’ is always a matter of perspective…)

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Appointees

Greetings good citizen,

Markets around the world are rising meteorically…for no good reason, must be that ‘bargain thing’ nobody but brokers working on straight commission understand.

Naturally, stock market performance (these days) has absolutely nothing to do with the state of the ‘real economy’…

But it appears nobody explained this development to our politically appointed civil servants

Another witness, current Deputy Commissioner Susan Brita, was instrumental in asking Inspector General Brian Miller to investigate the 2010 conference. His stinging report was made public April 2. Since then, the agency head resigned, two deputies, including Peck, were fired and 10 employees have been placed on administrative leave.

Brita had emailed Peck in July that the inspector general found no substantive agenda for the Las Vegas conference. She said expenses for a clown suit, bicycles used for a team-building exercise, tuxedos and a mind-reader didn't lend themselves to the claim of a substantive conference.

Brita also questioned why a regional administrator in charge of the conference, Jeffrey Neely, received only a disciplinary letter that "is not even a slap on the wrist." Neely on Monday asserted his right to remain silent at a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

I heard this headline first on the radio this morning and it immediately struck me as odd that this particular ‘regional administrator’ was pleading the 5th.

Um, why was a public servant invoking their right not to incriminate themselves? Aren’t they sworn to deal honestly on the public’s behalf (or are political appointees exempt from this?)

And justice is ‘blind’ too, tell me another one.

Which begs the question of who is this clown trying to protect?

IF he was responsible for the, er, ‘poor decision-making’, man up and accept responsibility…but invoking the 5th sounds like he was ‘following orders’ and is doing his best to avoid revealing who TOLD HIM to do what he did.

Not for nothing but it is a foregone conclusion that we, the taxpaying public, will NEVER learn the truth behind political boondoggles such as the ‘Western Regions affair.’

Malfeasance is almost always cloaked under either ‘National Security’ or as a State Secret when it is committed on the federal level.

Um, I hope you see where this is going.

We have arrived, once again, on the doorstep of the public’s need to know and the failure of the Justice system to prosecute crimes committed by federal officials, ESPECIALLY political appointees who ‘abuse’ their positions to give their political opponents a ‘black eye’.

The only thing more ‘fucked up’ is the fact that it is all ‘window dressing’. This totally gratuitous blowout in Vegas is nothing more a thinly disguised ploy to disgrace a non-existent party FOR THE PUBLIC’S BENEFIT!

Can YOU say ‘TAX AND SPEND LIBERAL’?

It is more important to ask ‘what fucking liberals are you talking about, Bub?’

There AIN’T no ‘liberals’ around here, not in government, not anymore.

The D is now an L and it don’t stand for Liberal (lunatic is closer to the mark!)

The only thing worse is the R stands for C and the C really does mean Crazy!

But take heart, good citizen. Just because we have been ‘shut-out’ of the political arena doesn’t mean we are out of the game.

But it is a ‘game-changer’, that’s for sure!

How does that saying go…those who ‘impede’ civil discourse insure civil unrest (or something like that.)

Just ask the 80% who believe they are the 99%.

The >One percent have the (extremely gullible) top 20% on their side, their loyalty bought with positions of relative power over the oppressed.

They are the ones who keep reassuring the bottom 80% that they don’t have it so bad, that they should be grateful for what they have (and that they shouldn’t ask for [much less expect] more.)

And weirdly, the top 20% AREN’T too badly off…but they are seriously mistaken when it comes to their ‘underlings’.

Take this GAO boondoggle for instance…the $3,000 a night suite represents three MONTHS pay for workers in the bottom dectile of the income distribution, people who do society’s shittiest jobs for minimum wage or worse. (And are, sadly, happy to get the work for the small measure of ‘independence’ it affords them.)

Incredibly, (and it does defy logic) they continue to play the ‘government malfeasance card’ over and over…but for how long will they keep it up?

And no, we WILL NOT get a ‘people’s rebellion’ out of this, we will, most likely, get a coup…by the very same fuckers responsible for this mess in the first place!

But it won’t go well.

Because, (insanely) people here ‘believe’ they are ‘free’…

And it’s going to take a considerable amount of, er, ‘force’ to disabuse them of this silly notion…

Seriously, good citizen, I believe they have carried this charade far longer than I would have though possible…which is why I have been predicting the bottom would (and still COULD) drop out ‘any day now.’

The global financial system is FUBAR, there is no ‘repair’ possible.

The only thing left is the ‘reset button’ and you don’t want ‘thieves’ pushing that…but it sure looks like we won’t have much say in the matter.

I was going to ‘spare you’ the now familiar ‘under A Simple Plan’ counterargument to the above article (and if you aren’t interested in reading it, you can stop here and we’ll catch you later…

But I do us both a disservice if I don’t explain how it would be different.

First off, the GAO would ‘disappear’; there would be no such thing as ‘government accounting’ because quite literally there would be no (sitting) government…

Hold your horses, don’t get antsy now, let me explain!

What used to be handled by the government would now be handled by the Services Division, a sort of ‘catch all’ branch that administers things that government used to do like the military, police and the courts. (Education and science get their own divisions)

(See A Simple Plan for a detailed description of the divisions and what each one does.)

We could add to that the lack of political parties specifically INTENDED TO DIVIDE US, would also work to prevent boondoggles like the one featured above but that belabors the obvious.

Which brings us full circle to the conundrum of ‘if the goal is the betterment of the 'human condition', who is the ‘opposition’?

Well, we all know the answer to that one, our opponents are the ‘self-serving’ among us (who literally consider themselves our ‘betters’.)

Thanks for letting me inside you head,

Gegner