Whittled away...

Greetings good citizen,

Markets just opened here in the capital of capitalism where the simple act of opening the NYSE is enough to drive markets around the globe upwards for no reason whatsoever…which is pathetic considering what this says about their ‘regard’ for ‘investor intelligence’…such as it is.

But then we return to the ever-present dilemma of a media that treats the rest of us with similar contempt. And while it has become my habit to point at Alternet and to label it the ‘Libertarian press’ they really are only a half a step removed from Fox news…where stories about bigfoot and what the ancient aliens knew dominate.

Under the category of, (what else) ’book reviews’ we have the following, er, ‘proposal’.

If we’re going to take the time to slow down, we want quality. Slow democracy doesn’t mean we have to attend every poorly advertised, badly run city council meeting. What slow democracy can help us do is learn to identify authentic, healthy processes; participate judiciously and with the patient confidence that real change takes time; and support the people who engage us in meaningful decision making, so they’ll do it some more. Inclusive, well-run deliberations with effective follow-through can make an enormous difference in the life of a community.

Slow food advocates know that a sustainable food system must offer healthy food in an ecologically viable way, but there’s more. As journalist Ben Hewitt describes in The Town That Food Saved , “It must feed the locals.” Just as slow food cannot only feed the rich and elite, slow democracy must be open to all. The people, or demos in Greek, are at the heart of the word “democracy.” 

Finding a place in the life of the already overburdened and underprivileged—such as single working parents, or low-wage workers who string together two or three jobs—is one of the greatest challenges of slow democracy. But these are the populations most often shut out of the democratic process, and most in need of what it has to offer. Slow democracy incorporates people from all walks of life and the full range of the human condition: from talkers to doers, from those who value charts and graphs to those who love chatting over coffee. It makes room for those who like to talk at microphones but also celebrates the vast majority of us who would, frankly, rather die than make a speech. It builds on the already-existing web of relationships that form a community, recognizing that some of our best ideas come while taking a walk with a neighbor. And it forges new relationships, introducing us to people we might have avoided but come to appreciate.

What SHOULD hit you in the eye is the futility of trying to make things work using a thoroughly corrupted system.

Do you see the first pissing contest already?

Knot-head would fight you tooth and nail over whether or not the system was corrupt, totally ignoring how we got where we are today and why it happened at all.

Don’t bring up the subject of why NOBODY has been prosecuted for a whole laundry list of offenses, (with the financial ones being the least of the charges!) because you’ll be ‘talking to the hand’, they just don’t want to hear it.

Are you prepared to have this battle with EVERY corrupt motherfucker getting greased by the current system?

Because that’s how it’s going to go, everybody is a ‘corruption fighter’ until it benefits them…then it’s okay, its not really stealing, it’s, er, taking the edge or some other harmless euphemism.

So what a stupid idea it is to try to use the system to ‘fix’ the system, it can’t be done.

Do we sit here and suffer with a thoroughly corrupted system or do we REPLACE IT with one THAT CAN’T BE CORRUPTED?

Because replacing what exists is the ONLY road to salvation, if we don’t scrap the whole electoral system and the totally corrupt practice of voting for people who vote for us without ever consulting us then 'change' will remain impossible. (Why is it so difficult to convince people the current method of so-called 'democracy' is a BAD idea?)

ESPECIALLY TODAY, when only one ‘entity’ has a seat at the table and that entity is the soul-less corporation. Where the relentless pursuit of profits trumps the very health of civilization…an entire world where only a few can ‘live’ (everyone else suffers.)

And while I preach to the choir, I may as well be talking to the fucking wall!

Yes, you’re keeping your powder dry…which is all fine and well, can’t fight them if they have you locked up.

Which brings us to a secondary problem, when the shit hit’s the fan will you be ready?

Chances are the answer will be no.

It’s already too late when tanks are parked in your driveway. (Although it is a perfect opportunity to kill the asshole who parked a tank in your driveway…and you don’t have to hunt him down either!)

Most of you (around the world) are aware that you are being ‘penned in’, corralled as it were as your ‘legal standing’ is whittled down to nothing.

Soon, you poor son of a bitch, there will be a bounty on your sorry ass…and then it will really be too late!

So if you’re wondering when would be a ‘judicious’ time to strike, I’d say you’re already a month behind schedule!

Be that as it may, there’s no time like the present.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Mutual Feelings

Greetings good citizen,

In case you were wondering, it’s NOT ‘just you’ (that suspects the world is operating against its own best interests.)

People in other parts of the world are experiencing the exact same thing, which results in a variety of ‘disillusionment’ we see displayed here:

QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"I used to think the army was to defend the country and resist and fight the Western projects in the Middle East. My conclusion, after that, was that we were serving in an army that does not protect its own people."

JAMAL ABU HOURAN, a former Syrian soldier who joined the rebels fighting the government in April.

Makes you wonder just how many US service people would echo that exact same sentiment…

And when the time comes, how many of them will join the rebels for precisely the same reason?

Life With Syria's Rebels in a Cold and Cunning War
By C. J. CHIVERS

A rebel group presents a cross-section of a nation in upheaval – an accountant, real estate agent, farmers and laborers who have taken up arms believing their time has come.

Which returns us to a more complex question, good citizen. How do you know when it’s ‘time’?

We all have the sneaking suspicion that when you’re running for cover you’ll have missed that “I should have been ready for this” moment.

Meaning most of us won’t know it’s ‘time’ until after the fact. This also means the decision to act will be made ‘for us’.

The question, naturally is ‘who will make this choice for us?’

And the answer to that question is simple, if you’ve been paying attention.

Who the hell has been trying to exterminate us?

Short answer, the > One Percent.

What is this tiny group’s most potent tool?

The Corporate owned media.

Who represents this group’s ‘boots on the ground’?

The GOP (and to a lesser extent the DNC.)

So ironically it will ‘probably’ start as a clash between the Tea Party and the OWS movement.

And you have to wonder…what happened to the leaderless, causeless ‘movement’?

Was the ‘we don’t like what’s going on’ (but we offer no alternatives) movement die of ‘lack of interest’?

How fucked up is it good citizen that they go as far as drawing attention to the 99% then they sit on it?

We’re going to ‘occupy’ (space) until you arrogant assholes straighten up and fly right!

And we all saw how THAT worked out, didn’t we.

We’re especially thankful for the raises we all got because the 99% ‘flexed its muscles’…or not.

But I digress…

What about this ‘rebel spirit’ that is sweeping the Arab nations of the world?

The Corporate owned media is calling it the ‘cry for democracy’…but those of us living under so-called ‘democratic societies’ know it must be something else because those people won’t be any better off if the current government steps down.

Like the tune says: ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!’

Isn’t that the lesson currently being taught to the Egyptians?

You can stick whatever face you like at the top, so long as that face goes along with the ‘Status quo.’

How fucking sad is it good citizen that the (currently running unopposed) incumbent US president is the exact same deal?

Which brings to mind the question of, ‘how wise is it put a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ remark like the one above most of the way through a 3 page essay?

As for the other ‘rhetorical questions’ asked here, it truly doesn’t matter who shoots who first. There WILL be blood and the best estimates at the moment dictate there will be lots of it.

Some of it innocent; but the bulk will be those who richly deserve it.

A little ‘read between the lines’ here…disregard what you see on the corporate owned media, it’s mostly bullshit anyway.

The real question is how long do these morons think they can keep a lid on things?

Are we really going to see a test of the principle, ‘you can only control that which you can destroy’?

Probably…and more the pity because these blackguards hallmark has been ubiquitous waste!

But freedom never comes cheap…a lesson that needs to be relearned repeatedly.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Dreamland

Greetings good citizen,

Perhaps today is not the day to ask ‘who are these people and who, precisely, do they think they’re fooling?'

Here in ‘Dreamland’ otherwise known as the broken and miserable US of A, we are told ‘there’s always room at the top’…but we know what that means. The unspoken part of that expression says ‘for MY kids!’

There’s a lot of ‘speech’ favoring equal rights and affirmative action but very little actual evidence of it.

What they’re trying to say is ‘there’s room at the top…but it’s reserved for me and mine.

So we get more stories like this from the friggin’ clueless (who sadly think you’re just as clueless as they are/pretend to be.)

Ivy League universities tend to self-select young people who have a more conformist sense of achievement. True, students at Harvard and Yale are unlikely to be forced to work at coffee shops to pay off loans. But they measure themselves by a different yardstick, and the idea of not living up to all the hype that they and their families have been fed about their world-class educations can induce panic even in the well-to-do. Plus, Ivy Leaguers, just like students everywhere, register cultural shifts, and with the U.S. economy still crawling and the Eurozone stumbling and JP Morgan losing billions, many of them now feel that they had better make a run for Wall Street and make as much money as they can before Armageddon.

[Not that money is going to do you a lick of good once the bottom drops out!]

Then there’s also what James Kwak and others have described as the wildly successful Wall Street recruiting machine. Flush with cash, Wall Street firms can hire consultants and recruiters who tailor their pitches to the audience, mimicking the kinds of tests, competitive environment and validation these young people have been trained to respond to.

Ironically, Greg Smith, who recently quit(e) [typo in original] Goldman Sachs, stating his reasons in a New York Times editorial, described how he was taken in by – and later organized – just these kinds of recruiting efforts. Only his journey ended in complete disillusionment and the shameful knowledge that he was working in a den of crooks.

Yuppers, the children of the >One Percent are just scrambling for a job, right along with the rest of the ‘mud people’ (as they call us behind our backs, cowards)

Like their parents (if these jerk-offs play their cards right) they’ll never have to ‘work’ a day in their lives.

But, contrary to popular belief, ‘sucking up’ to the ‘right people’ can be a full-time job by itself.

And their parents proved to them (repeatedly) that it’s not what you know but who…

So, who are these ‘best and brightest’ minds that Wall Street tends to lure over to the ‘dark side’ of Finance?

They are your ‘straight A’ scholars, kids with an aptitude for solving problems who are also easily indoctrinated.

Not only can they do complex equations but, in their youth, they also tend to be exceedingly gullible/trusting.

How sad is it that the ‘Masters of the Universe’ don’t want ‘our’ obvious problems solved, all they want are new ways to bilk the system.

Sadly, fraud can only go, er, ‘unnoticed’ for just so long…then it has to be addressed or your whole civilization collapses.

Like our current ‘irreversible’ situation.

Yes, good citizen, we are walking our personal ‘trial of tears’ where the same people responsible for breaking our civilization start implementing ‘patches’ that fix problems no one else notices!

Like gay marriage.

WTF!

Worse, my longstanding ‘optimism’ that most people were smarter than the media would have us believe is slipping…but I do live in a conservative part of the State.

Naturally, things wouldn’t be this far gone if ‘most people’ were brighter than the media thinks.

Which is to point out that the battle for the future promises to be tougher than any of us suspected, largely due to ‘indecisiveness’.

On a certain level we are (most of us) aware that we’re being ‘played’ that what the media sells us isn’t 100% true.

But we want to believe the current regime isn’t ‘pure evil’ so we sort of sigh and shrug and think, what can you do? When we see things going irrevocably wrong.

While it is the (corporate owned) media’s goal to keep us asleep, it needn’t be a deep restful sleep. Your tossing and turning and general feeling of unease is perfectly natural.

Because the Dream weavers know it’s a ‘bad old world’ out there. Always has been, always will be and they don’t see the need to ‘interfere’ with the ‘natural order of things’.

So on this Memorial Day it would be wise to take a moment and contemplate just what we’re being asked to remember.

The Dream Weavers want you to be grateful to those who died for your freedom.

But are you free?

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Police State

Greetings good citizen,

Happy Sunday good citizen! Most Some of you have been to commune with ‘Spirit in the sky’ and don’t want anyone ‘harshing your mellow’ while your fresh from the pew…but for most of us those stirrings of ‘brotherly love’ we get from communing with God never make it out of the church’s parking lot.

But hey, not to worry, Big Brother’s got your back!

Why do I say that? You’d be hard-pressed to find someone more religious than a conservative!

On last night's Real Time, Bill Maher interviewed Dan Rather about his thoughts on opinion journalism ("I think it has its place" but "it's not my kind of journalism"), Rather's Bush-going-AWOL story, which famously got him fired, and media consolidation. His thoughts on that:

Whether you're a conservative or a liberal or a progressive, a Democrat or a Republican, everybody can be and should be concerned about this: the constant consolidation of media, particularly national distribution of media, with a few companies -- no more than six, my count is four -- now control more than 80 percent of the true national distribution of news. These large corporations, they have things they need from the power structure in Washington, whether it's Republican or Democrat, and of course the people in Washington have things they want the news to be reported. To put it bluntly, very big business is in bed with very big government in Washington, and has more to do with what the average person sees, hears, and reads than most people know.

And what does the Conservo-fascist do with political power?

Have a gander:

I've always thought of the Military Industrial Complex as welfare for white guys. This would back up that claim:

Among other unasked for changes, the bill keeps aging aircraft and ships the military wants to phase out, keeps the Army and Marines at larger force levels and orders construction of missile defenses.

They don't want it, they don't need it, but the Republican donors want the profits and their conservative base voters want the very well paying, extremely high benefits jobs.

They like to say they hate Big Government, but that's a lie. They love it. It's just that they want to funnel the money to their own constituencies --- and they want to build a police state that will keep everyone else in line in case they decide to do something about it.

And you thought I was paranoid? Not that they don’t have damn good reason to be, er, ‘suspicious.’

In a ‘free and democratic’ society, what could be the motivation of people ardently attempting to strangle democracy in its sleep?

Worse, good citizen…what kind of democracy is it that only asks you to chose someone who will decide in your name WITHOUT EVER CONSULTING YOU?

Because in my book that is NOT ‘democracy’, it’s FRAUD!

BY DEFINITION ‘democracy’ is you having your say DIRECTLY on the issue at hand.

This process that removes you completely from the entire decision-making process is both treachery AND fraud!

And you can see that this ‘process’ has been ‘duplicated’ right down the line.

So you CAN’T use the process to fix the process!

(Which has created the current pickle of the system being broken and there’s no way to fix it (from the outside and no will to fix it on the inside!))

So we ‘cast our votes’ (as we will in a couple of months) then they hand pick the winners, (completely disregarding your vote,) then they go ahead and do what they want without regard for the consequences!

Because to defy them now is to invite, whether you realize it or not, getting ‘disappeared’.

How ironic is it that it was the communists that made this a ‘common occurance’…but understand, this didn’t start until AFTER the ‘counter-revolution’ had succeeded.

Just as the ‘trade doors’ to China remained closed UNTIL the ‘counter-revolution’ and the usurpers had cemented their power! THEN they made overtures to the West to join the ‘global community’.

And who accepted? Richard Nixon. No matter where you look over the past forty years there's a conservo-fascist behind every big move!

Now we have a shattered global economy (capitalism was NEVER intended to be a ‘universal’ commerce system because of its ‘cannibalistic qualities’ and it’s over reliance on an extremely limited amount of ‘market share’.) threatening to leave a huge ‘void’ that much of the human race will fall into.

And the psychopath running the whole thing doesn’t care! Worse, he believes it is the ‘natural order’ of things.

Pushing humanity into its own cesspool is no more than we deserve, especially for ‘permitting’ something as cruel as capitalism to flourish!

And that’s a pretty damning indictment regardless of how you look at it.

It’s the same sad story, good citizen. The few will have to claw our way back from the brink to save the rest of us.

And among those saved will be the seeds of repeat episode.

Without the proper social safeguards, those seeds will contaminate society with a fresh crop of blind greed-heads, who will promptly destroy whatever they get their hands on.

Look at the job in front of us now and think for a moment; couldn’t all of this have been avoided if only we had the proper safeguards in place?

Look no further than A Simple Plan, the only revolutionary formula designed to defeat the ‘counter-revolution’ from the beginning!

With no money (hard currency) corruption is impossible and political power will remain permanently beyond the reach of the ‘self-serving’.

To even suggest removing political power from the hands of the people is an exile offense under the human anti-exploitation law!

Which is to point out that November is just the beginning of a long, slippery slope we need to claw our way back to the top of.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Demos

Greetings good citizen,

Yesterday’s, er, ‘irrational’ surge in world-wide markets is being followed by a nosedive as we can see from the following headlines:

Wall Street Pulls Back
By REUTERS 23 minutes ago

Shares moved into negative territory and bank stocks declined despite some better-than-expected quarterly results.

But the banking sector ISN’T the freaking entire economy!
Yet we have this nonsense:

JPMorgan Chase's Earnings Beat Expectations
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ 37 minutes ago

The bank said it earned $1.31 a share in the first quarter of 2012, compared with $1.28 a share in the same period a year ago.

Lookie that! A whooping three fucking cents! (times a billion shares…WTF!)

Wait a minute, is that a mask hanging out of his back pocket next to the gun stuck in his waistband?

And who is that he’s talking to?

Wells Fargo Profit Rises 13%, as Revenue Increases
By BEN PROTESS 46 minutes ago

Wells Fargo reported earnings of $4.2 billion, or 75 cents a share, as its loan portfolio continued to improve.

Banks produce nothing but DEBT, good citizen, which should warn you to what’s going on when the ONLY ‘successful companies’ in your national economy happen to be in the financial sector…

When your economy is dominated by a ‘non-productive’ sector, you end up with this sort of bullshit: [The ten ways our democracy is crumbling]

1. Money and Politics
2. Voter Disenfranchisement
3. Our Skewed Distribution of Income
4. Tax Breaks for the Super-rich
5. Wall Street Bailouts
6. Deficit Hysteria
7. Crumbling Social and Physical Infrastructure
8. The Failure to Create Jobs
9. The Revolving Door
10. Worshiping the Market Gods

Is It Too Late for Democracy?

The game’s not over yet. We still have freedom of expression and the right to protest – more or less. Occupy Wall Street both showed how the debate could be altered, and how easily the authorities could end the encampments. So, it’s an open question whether we have the will to build and sustain a broad, powerful anti-Wall Street movement.

The financial rot is deeply impacting our democratic structures. It should worry us when Wall Street and its political minions warn that we might become the next Greece. They, of course, are referring to the debt crisis. But Greece is also the very place where finance is crushing democracy. Austerity is being rammed down the throats of the Greek people and democratic government can no longer protect the infirm and the unemployed from the onslaught of the oligarchs. It is both sad and frightening that it’s happening at the historical birthplace of democracy.

We all are Greeks.

It is the last remark that most of you should find, er, ‘objectionable’.

Because he’s right, we are still using a ‘highly bastardized’ form of a method created/pioneered by the ANCIENT Greeks.

(I need to tread carefully here as I’m married to one…)

Most of you are aware that I have been, er, ‘openly critical’ of those claiming to be ‘Democrats’ (mostly because their ideology is far from Democratic!)

The ‘bi-partisan legislation’ coming out of this supposedly ‘Democratic administration’ has been decidedly conservative.

And we can only wonder why that is…

Why is it that the only thing our ‘decide in our name without ever consulting us’ politicians can agree on is legislation that is favorable to or protects the already wealthy?

Which is to ask why does the writer of this article NOT champion a ‘purer’ form of democracy if he truly believes in ‘letting the people decide’?

 You see, we Anarchists believe in ‘true democracy’ where we have the RIGHT to vote directly on the law itself! (Anarchy = ‘rules without rulers’!)

What a wonderful world it SHOULD BE, but sadly those who feel compelled to DECIDE FOR US are too fearful to let us decide for ourselves (although they've done more than 'okay' for themselves...)

Which is to point out that there can be NO DEMOCRACY when only a few are allowed to participate in the decision making process!

Which is to point out that we can ALL agree on the basics and what we can’t agree on we probably shouldn’t be legislating!

Just another little something for you to play with from your uncle Gegner…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Finger Pointing...

Greetings good citizen,

Everywhere you look there are reports of violence being committed BY POLICE against the OWS protesters.

Sadly if not for bad news it appears the media has already ‘tired’ of reporting the activities of OWS.

Will the coming bad economic news suck OWS back onto center stage?

Hard to say. The corporate owned media is opportunistic if nothing else.

Anyway, one hour after the open and the Dow is down more than 200 points, but considering the first 12,000 are all ‘fluff/eyewash’, being down 200 is an insignificant drop in the bucket.

Naturally, the corporate owned media is blaming government gridlock for the massive losses.

Barring an unexpected turnaround before Monday’s deadline, the failure of the special Congressional deficit committee will be the third high-profile effort to fall short of a deal in the last 12 months, including a bipartisan deficit commission and talks last summer between President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner.

By law, the special Congressional committee’s inability to reach an agreement will trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over 10 years to the military and domestic programs, to start in 2013.

As time wound down to a Monday night deadline for an agreement, Capitol Hill lacked the frenzied negotiation typical of a Congressional race to beat the clock. Instead, many members — well aware that Congressional approval ratings are near historic lows in polls — seemed resigned to the fact that Democrats and Republicans remained far apart on major budget issues, especially tax increases on the affluent, which Democrats insist must be part of any deficit solution and which Republicans oppose.

There are all kinds of corporate welfare and military cuts that could be made to our budget but the republican’s oppose that, favoring cuts to social programs instead.

Then a lot of this pain is avoidable simply by raising taxes on those who have more than they can spend…but the party of ‘NO’ will have no part of that (and the Democrats in name only refuse to fight for it, so where does that leave you?)

Who is this 99% and why are they so ineffective?

Could the answer be as simple as ’faux democracy’?

So terrifying was the ‘tyranny of the majority’ that the system has been rendered useless by the favored few?

But nobody questions this…once they’re old enough to be on their own that is.

If nothing else the one rule you can’t escape is ‘go along to get along.’

They can’t make you do it, they can only make you wish the fuck you had!

Why can’t you use the ballot box to make a better life?

You might take it into your head to vote a better life for yourself…hell, you might even vote for anti-usury legislation and then where would capitalists be?

Guess which nation is the only (advanced economy) on the planet that DOES NOT have anti-usury legislation?

We USED to have laws against usury but Bush Jr. did away with them.

Which ONCE AGAIN calls into question the essential SANITY of anyone who ADMITS they vote or are a member of the Republican Party.

Not that there’s a nickel’s worth of difference between a Republican and a sell-out Democrat (regardless of how ‘progressive’ they paint themselves.)

I’d jump on my favorite hobby horse and call them all out as Libertarians but you already know that.

But I seriously digress…

It’s disturbing how the lack of political control can spill over into so many other areas!

We’re twelve months away from the next presidential election cycle and there’s still nobody to vote ‘for’…which is actually typical.

Most of the time your vote is cast between the lesser of two evils; so you inevitably pick the wrong one.

Returning to the issue at hand we have the OWS/ I am the 99% ‘movement’ and they’ve got…‘nothing’…which leaves us where?

Right where we started. Nothing to do, no place to go and no way to get there if we did.

So we should all just sit on our thumbs, right?

[Which is the, er, polite way of telling you to go fuck yourself! Which is precisely what those who have hijacked our political system have done, especially if you don‘t like it!]

Which is to ask, is there any excuse for the political/economic gridlock gripping the world today?

Short answer, no.

What really sucks is that change is so tantalizingly close but, once again, we’ve come up short in the intestinal fortitude department!

BE the change good citizen!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

In for a Penny....

Greetings good citizen,

One of the famous lines from the movie ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’ is when Jeff Bridges opines to Clint Eastwood, in for a penny, in for a pound.

This is supposed to allude to the idea that there is no such thing as being a ‘little guilty’ just as there’s no such thing as being ‘a little pregnant’.

If you’re gonna commit a crime, be sure you do as big a crime as you can because you're facing the same prison sentence if you steal two-hundred as you would be if you stole two million.

No irony should be lost on the fact that the odds you would ‘walk away’ from a two million dollar robbery are far greater than that of a ‘petty’ theft, (largely due to the methods employed.)

But I digress…

Let us return to the, er, ‘highly optimistic’ plan to stand up to the captors of our government.

Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of us have become pacified by corporatocracy created institutions and culture.

What do you suppose is WRONG with all of the proposed solutions to our ‘captive government problem?

Like the capitalist’s disturbing tendency to set resources to ‘infinite’, those who believe what we currently have is ‘fixable’ keep doing the same thing with the timeline.

You WILL suffocate in roughly three minutes.

You WILL die of thirst in roughly a week

You WILL die of starvation in roughly thirty days.

Worse, all of the above are ‘best case’ scenarios, most of you would die sooner.

What is the common factor in all three statements?

Time.

Given ‘forever’ the idiots running our economy would ‘extend and pretend’ for the next thousand years (although it only took them forty years to crash the global economy.)

And THAT is the other ‘damning factor’ most ‘we can fix this’ boneheads fail to take into consideration.

It’s not ‘just us’, the whole world is FUBAR, so there’s no where to hide from the coming disaster!

So far there hasn’t been a single news report linking Japan’s loss of nuclear power to the sudden spike in oil prices but think about it, Japan HAS TO get the energy from somewhere!

Why? Because unlike the vast economic desert known as the US of A, Japan has managed to retain it’s ‘leadership’ in IC chip technology (that originated here.)

And the world has found out for the umpteenth time what a bad idea ‘sole sourcing’ is!

No irony should be lost on the fact that (taxpayer bailed out automaker) GM has been virtually shut down by the snipping of its Japanese supply lines.

But hey, what’s $50 billion and a couple of hundred thousand blue-collar assembly jobs between, er, ‘cronies’? (Because these people are NOT your ‘friends’ by any stretch of the imagination.)

It probably helps to keep in mind that the ‘self-important few’ don’t consider the majority of us to be on the same level of the food chain as they are.

How ironic is it that we would have very different opinions on the depravity of being willing to prey on your own kind?

Naturally we have the blind and tone deaf media to thank for this outcome.

Man, one of the difficulties of writing about the subject of ‘society in general’ is it has a bad habit of being all over the social map!

So, back to the article in question; if we had ‘forever’ (or could count on the situation remaining ‘static’ for, well, a really long time) MAYBE we could ‘outlast’ the rotten apples that infest our political processes.

Sadly that process starts with seizing control of the ‘party machinery’.

We seriously DON’T have the time this would take. All the conservatives would have to do to seize power right now is to force a stand-off.

Which is to point out that you won’t be focused on supporting the ‘anti-authoritarians’ when the truck from the supermarket warehouse is a week overdue.

Geez, there’s that ‘time’ thing again!

Speaking of a game of dominoes we have this piece from today’s Automatic Earth that lays out how global finance will collapse in a near textbook 'cascade'.

In yet another ‘watch and learn’ exercise, we will witness Europe erupt in violent class war long before similar ‘incidents’ start to take place here.

And, naturally, the corporate owned media will dismiss the unrest as the acts of ‘domestic terrorists’ and applaud the overly violent (military) response to it.

Face it good citizen, once the battle lines are drawn, negotiations will be a ‘non-starter’.

It will, on the other hand, be a damn good time to get in touch with your inner savage.

What they lack in numbers they will attempt to make up for in ferocity.

Are you up for the challenge?

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

The mists of history...

Greetings good citizen,

Like money, the ‘origins’ of capitalism are murky and hidden in the mists of time and history.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to determine with any authority if the entity credited in this article titled Peak Capitalism was the ‘first’ multinational corporation or if it was indeed the mother of all corporations; because it is neither here nor there.

I suspect most would agree where it all started isn’t nearly as crucial as where it is all heading.

I find the article very enlightening from the respect of its ‘implications’ for larger society. It is easy to see that society has not been ‘managed’ for the benefit of (all) humanity for a very long time…why nobody thinks this is peculiar is the disturbing part.

In fact, I find it particularly disturbing that there aren’t more writers asking the kind of questions you will regularly find here…

Different drummer aside, we are all living pretty much the same existence with pretty much the same set of experiences, so why is nobody else complaining?

Perhaps it is the conundrum of ‘genius’…Einstein was astonished to learn that most people didn’t think in ‘pictures’ like he did. Perhaps this is the same phenomenon, what is ‘obvious’ to me has been successfully indoctrinated out of you.

Because most of us no longer ‘buy the lie’ that is ‘representative democracy’ better known as government by those who can pay for it, for the rest of us.

YOU surrender your ‘right to decide’ to someone who will make decisions in your name without ever consulting you.

Now we stand on the brink of losing even that little ‘veneer’ of ‘participation’ because we know it isn’t worth the effort.

Should we be ‘upset’ that our vote will soon be, er, ‘denied’ to us or should we secretly be thankful that we have finally been forced to confront the truth?

Voting for others to vote for us is WORSE than not voting at all!

One need only look at the all of the poverty that this has created to see how well that has worked over the past two-hundred and thirty years…


We hold these truths to be ‘self-evident’…but like people themselves, apparently some truths are more evident than others...

Worse is the level of rejection one receives when you propose that we return the decision making process back to where is belongs, in the hands of those who must live with the consequences of their actions (or inaction, it works both ways.)

Bizarrely, from the time you were old enough to comprehend, others have made decisions for you. What isn’t adequately explained is they do this in preparation for the day when you will have to make decisions on your own!

Understandably, it is much ‘easier’ to have someone else decide ‘for you’. All you have to do is comply. It is also ‘easy’ to convince yourself that the decider is ‘in tune’ with you, that they would decide pretty much the same way you would so it’s no big deal…

BUT, the decider gets to determine a lot of things you never even get to look at or consider…and Shazam, you’re stuck with the ‘consequences of those decisions’ (while he or his successors have ‘excused’ him from being prosecuted for his ‘official acts’.)

Understand good citizen, YOU have been RAPED and LOOTED while the perps accomplices simply turned their heads like nothing happened…and then they presented you with the ‘bill’ for what was stolen.

About that bill…it isn’t really a demand for payment so much as it is a list of the destruction that was done to our civilization.

The truly disturbing part is the damage is ‘global’, there is no place you can go to escape the carnage. (Which might explain why so many legislators/superrich have bought ‘floating palaces’ recently…)

Like the author of the article points out, corporations are the foundation for ‘legalized plunder’. If we as a species are to protect ourselves from the ‘pirates’ (who would kill us all) we MUST reform civilization and hunt down the predators before they exterminate us.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

PS. I am fully aware that the posts are ‘trespassing’ on the ‘incredible’ BUT there is ample historical evidence for this and worse, so don’t be so quick as to dismiss this as ‘speculative fancy’…

GOP wins!

Greetings good citizen,

It’s hard to say if yesterday’s Republican victory is the result of ‘voter apathy’ or if it is the Legacy of GOP governor Mitt Romney, who ‘gifted’ my home state with ‘mandatory’ health insurance…which, as one would expect, sucks. People who end up on the ‘free’ end of the system (due to low/no income) find, as one would expect, no service providers willing to accept what the state plan pays.

So the ‘financially challenged’ end up where they started, no coverage at all BUT, they are no longer ‘counted’ as being uninsured, they do indeed have ‘insurance’, insurance that no healthcare provider accepts but what are ya gonna to do?

Which brings us to the ‘Republican victory’…are we staring at ‘voter apathy’ or, as I have been saying, is the ‘Ballot box’ broken? It doesn’t matter what you scribble on the ballot if your ‘betters’ have already decided the outcome for you.

This, good citizen, is the difference between participation and the illusion of participation that is passed off as our ‘free and fair’ government.

Sadly, your ‘right’ to decide who will make decisions in your name without ever consulting you has also been stripped by those who control the farce that we have come to call ‘government’.

No irony should be lost on the fact that those who benefit the most from the ‘status quo’ are the same people seeking to strip from you the protection of the government. Hell, they even campaign as being ‘anti-government’, but you have to ‘read between the lines’ to fully understand what they are ‘against’.

In a nutshell, they are ‘against’ you being protected from their machinations. They really do want to charge you for the air you breathe, but they have to crush the government in order to lay claim to your air supply!

Um, for those of you who are extremely ‘literal’, I am not claiming that conservatism/libertarianism’s ‘sole objective’ is to eliminate the word ‘free’ from our language…that’s only part of their agenda.

What makes this even weirder is the root word ‘liberty’ actually means ‘freedom from tyranny’…and tyranny is exactly what these idiots advocate! They want to be ‘free’ to charge you for everything!

Which begs a different question: Can you be ‘free’ in a society where nothing else is?

Short answer: no! You will be, by default, an economic slave; forever forced to act against your own best interests as you ‘serve’ the interests of the ‘owners of money’.

Interesting phrase; that last bit, our circumstances today are pretty close to that not particularly desirable outcome.

You do indeed toil your life away, against your own best interests, while you serve the ‘owners of money’…and let’s not forget the central premise, nobody owes you nothin’. Should they decide they don’t like looking at you anymore, they are free to hire someone more pleasing and it’s ‘tough nuts’ to you! If you can’t live on what they pay you: it’s not their problem, it’s yours!

We’ve drifted pretty ‘far afield’ here, from Republican victory to the predatory mindset of the followers of the Chicago School of economics…the ‘basis’ for libertarianism.

In a shift from matters economic (although you never get completely away) we turn our attention tonight to what, for me, was a local election

G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats

By a decisive margin, Mr. Brown defeated Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, who had been considered a prohibitive favorite to win just over a month ago after she easily won the Democratic primary. [Voter turnout was reported to be 50%, there is all kinds of rhetoric as to ‘why’ voters, some who claim to have never voted Republican before, to switch sides. Since the public is unable to verify poll results, we will never know the true results with any degree of certainty.]

With all precincts counted, Mr. Brown had 52 percent of the vote to Ms. Coakley’s 47 percent.

“Tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Mr. Brown told his cheering supporters in a victory speech, standing in front of a backdrop that said “The People’s Seat.” [Um, if you don’t believe the ballot box is broken here in Massachusetts then go ahead and explain 6 successive Republican governors in an overwhelmingly Democratic state?]

The election left Democrats in Congress scrambling to salvage a bill overhauling the nation’s health care system, which the late Mr. Kennedy had called “the cause of my life.” Mr. Brown has vowed to oppose the bill, and once he takes office the Democrats will no longer control the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome filibusters. [This opens the door to some very interesting scenarios, especially if people suspect we are dealing with another ‘stolen election.’ Once an unheard of phenomenon, the ‘upset victory’ particularly by conservative politicians, has become the ‘norm’ around the world.]

There were immediate signs that the bill had become imperiled. House members indicated they would not quickly pass the bill the Senate approved last month.

And after the results were announced, one centrist Democratic senator, Jim Webb of Virginia, called on Senate leaders to suspend any votes on the Democrats’ health care legislation until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. The election, he said, was a referendum on both health care and the integrity of the government process.

Beyond the bill, the election of a man supported by the Tea Party movement also represented an unexpected reproach by many voters to President Obama after his first year in office, and struck fear into the hearts of Democratic lawmakers, who are already worried about their prospects in the midterm elections later this year.

Mr. Brown was able to appeal to independents who were anxious about the economy and concerned about the direction taken by Democrats, now that they control both Beacon Hill and Washington. He rallied his supporters when he said, at the last debate, that he was not running for Mr. Kennedy’s seat but for “the people’s seat.” [This is a bizarre way of looking at what boils down to the equivalent of the ‘House of Lords’, who until 1923 had seats that were appointed by the governor rather than elected. The Senate exists to ‘counterbalance’ the popularly elected House of Representatives. Each state gets an ‘equal number’ of Senators while more populous states can enjoy larger contingents of Representatives. By making the Senate the ‘playground of the rich’ and requiring that all legislation passes both houses, do the wealthy retain complete control over the legislative process. There’s nothing ‘fair’ about this.]

That seat, held for nearly half a century by Mr. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, will now be held for the next two years by a Republican who has said he supports water-boarding as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects. Opposes a federal cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions and opposes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless they leave the country. It was a sharp swing of the pendulum, but even Democratic voters said they wanted the Obama administration to change direction.

“I’m hoping that it gives a message to the country,” said Marlene Connolly, 73, of North Andover, a lifelong Democrat who said she cast her first vote for a Republican on Tuesday. “I think if Massachusetts puts Brown in, it’s a message of ‘that’s enough.’ Let’s stop the giveaways and let’s get jobs going.” [While the government does indeed ‘have the power’ to legislate new jobs and to eliminate debt, our corporate overlords would be seeking regime change if such legislation were proposed, never mind enacted. They haven’t pushed civilization to the brink just to have it undone with the stroke of the legislative pen!]

Mr. Brown ran strongest in the suburbs of Boston, where the independent voters who make up a majority in Massachusetts turned out in large numbers. Ms. Coakley did best in urban areas, winning overwhelmingly in Boston and running ahead in Springfield, Worcester, Fall River and New Bedford, but her margins were not large enough to carry her to victory. [The idiots in my own community voted Republican by a two to one margin…but what do you expect from an affluent town that voted for W twice?]

In a concession speech before cheering supporters, Ms. Coakley acknowledged that voters were angry and said she had hoped to deal with the concerns.

“Our mission continues, and our work goes on,” she said, echoing well-known remarks by Mr. Kennedy. “I am heartbroken at the result, as I know you are, and I know we will get up together tomorrow and continue this fight, even with this result tonight.” [Strangely, I wonder if people will realize that we can no longer trust the ballot box? The upcoming mid-terms are likely to be far more interesting than anyone currently anticipates.]

The crowd at Mr. Brown’s victory rally, upset by reports that Democrats might try to vote on the health care bill before he takes office, chanted, “Seat him now!” Mr. Brown, for his part, noted that the interim senator holding the seat had finished his work, and that he was ready to go to Washington “without delay.” And he effusively praised Mr. Kennedy as a big-hearted, tireless worker, and said that he hoped to prove a worthy successor to him. [Given the long delay in getting ANY legislation through Congress while they enjoyed a majority sort of serves what has become GW’s third term right.]

Ms. Coakley’s defeat, in a state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote, led to a round of finger-pointing among Democrats. Some criticized her tendency for gaffes — in a radio interview she offended Red Sox fans when she incorrectly suggested that Curt Schilling, a beloved former Red Sox pitcher, was a Yankee fan — while others criticized a lackluster, low-key campaign. [She won the primary handily, what happened yesterday was a repeat of a now familiar conservative ‘upset victory’. Something’s rotten here, it always is when a candidate comes out of the dark the way Brown did.]

Mr. Brown presented himself as a Massachusetts Everyman, featuring the pickup truck he drives around the state in his speeches and one of his television commercials, calling in to talk radio shows and campaigning with popular local sports figures.

The implications of the election drew nationwide attention, and millions of dollars of outside spending, to the race. It transformed what many had expected to be a sleepy, low-turnout special election on a snowy day in January into a high-profile contest that appeared to draw more voters than expected to the polls. There were reports of traffic jams outside suburban polling stations, while other polling stations had to call for extra ballots. [Ironically, when I went to vote yesterday I had the place to myself…]

The late surge by Mr. Brown appeared to catch Democrats by surprise, causing them to scramble in the last week and a half of the campaign and hastily schedule an appearance by Mr. Obama with Ms. Coakley on Sunday afternoon. [Understand, he ran on ‘nothing’, worse, all I heard about the Brown candidacy is what he wouldn’t do, there isn’t one thing he went on record as a goal to accomplish. For all I know, he’s going to Washington solely to polish the damn ‘Junior Senator’s seat!]

“Understand what’s at stake here, Massachusetts,” Mr. Obama said in his speech that day, repeatedly invoking Mr. Kennedy’s legacy. “It’s whether we’re going forwards or backwards.” He all but pleaded with voters to support Ms. Coakley, to preserve his agenda. [Probably shouldn’t have come to that but you reap what you sow. All of this foot dragging and compromising has produced nothing…and Mr. Obama didn’t have time to waste.]

As voters went to the polls, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, made it clear that the president was “not pleased” with the situation Ms. Coakley found herself in. “He was both surprised and frustrated,” Mr. Gibbs said. [I have had the chance to view local election results and it sure looks ‘screwy’, there are far more ‘conservative’ votes than normal.]

Although the race has riveted the nation largely because it was seen as contributing to the success or defeat of the health care bill, the potency of the issue for voters here was difficult to gauge. That is because Massachusetts already has near-universal health coverage, thanks to a law passed when Mitt Romney, a Republican, was governor.

Thus Massachusetts is one of the few states where the benefits promised by the national bill were expected to have little effect on how many of its residents got coverage, making it an unlikely place for a referendum on the health care bill. [Those lying sacks of shit! People here were hoping for the ‘public option’, the crap Romney saddled us with is worthless as most healthcare providers refuse to accept it.]

On Capitol Hill, the fate of the health care legislation was highly uncertain as Democratic leaders quickly gathered to plot strategy in the wake of the Republican victory. [Left unanswered is why they waited so long? They let the majority slip through their fingers…but they have fumbled repeatedly on other issues as well.]

Sentiment about how to proceed was mixed, with several lawmakers saying the House would not accept the Senate-passed plan. Top officials had said that approach was the party’s best alternative, and many members said they still believed it was crucial that Democrats pass a plan. [Note what passes for ‘conventional wisdom’ coming from the same idiots who want you to believe Massachusetts has ‘nothing to gain’ from the healthcare reform bill!]

“It is important for us to pass legislation,” said Representative Baron P. Hill, a conservative Democrat from Indiana.

Reporting was contributed by Katie Zezima, Danielle Ossher and Bret Silverberg in Massachusetts, and Carl Hulse and David M. Herszenhorn in Washington.

Understand good citizen if we get saddled with an ‘insurance mandate’ like we have here in Massachusetts, it will force a large number of people into making some extremely difficult choices. It’s no longer ‘heat or eat’, it becomes ‘buy insurance OR pay for heat OR pay for food’…because if you can’t do two, you sure as shit can’t do all three!

Worse, there is absolutely zero reason to believe that the ‘mandated insurance’ will provide you with blanket health coverage. You can get insurance today that only costs a hundred dollars a month. The ‘catch’ is the first hundred thousand dollars is all you!

You are only insured if a ‘catastrophe’ strikes, like you break every bone in your body, forcing you to spend the next six months in traction and the following six months in rehab.

In the strange alchemy of insurance, you’re covered…just not for very much.

Let’s suppose a hundred dollars a month is too rich for your blood, your only economic support comes from food stamps, you don’t have any money. Well, surprise, surprise, if you don’t have money, you can still get coverage…it’s just that the coverage is next to useless. You can see a doctor but the first problem with that is finding a doctor/clinic that will accept your basically free healthcare plan. There may not be anybody in your state (or in any of the surrounding states) who is willing to treat you. There might be somebody two states away but then transportation becomes an issue…nevermind ‘timeliness’. Clinics are only required to service just so many ‘indigent’ patients, once they’ve satisfied this requirement, they can thumb their nose at you as they turn you away.

If there isn’t enough service to go around, tough, it’s not their problem, it’s yours!

Which is to ask why should this be any different?

The only ‘perspective’ to add here is it’s no accident we have the oldest government on the planet…not because it works so well, nobody is buying that horse pucky, but because the status quo is so firmly entrenched.

You certainly don’t need me to tell you that ‘entrenched = corrupt’, that’s axiomatic.

If we are to turn things around, we need to start over from scratch with a brand new crew and a new way of doing things.

Nothing less will succeed.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner