The Wicked...

Greetings good citizen,

Again it is curious to note that the (Madly inflated) Dow has dropped 600 points since this time last week and apparently this is NOT NOTEWORTHY!

Um, since the only noticeable useful information to be provided by the stock markets are as a gauge of the One Percent’s feelings regarding global affairs in general, perhaps they are supposed to be ‘sulking’ over the loss of their ‘alternate’ candidate.

An unhappiness that will certainly be as shortlived as it is undeserved.

How unfortunate is it for the rest of the public that the media plays us for stupid regarding the One Percent’s ‘relationship’ with the world’s largest purchasing organization (who regularly pays through the nose for literally EVERYTHING! )

Nation Building: Public Talk, Secret Action
In the final days of the presidential campaign, President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that it was time to reap a peace dividend as America’s wars wind down.  Nation-building here at home should, he insisted, be put on the agenda: “What we can now do is free up some resources, to, for example, put Americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, our bridges.”

Setting aside just how slipshod or even downright disastrous Washington’s last decade of nation-building projects in Iraq and Afghanistan have been, the president’s proposal to rebuild roads, upgrade bridges, and retrofit the country’s electrical grid sounds eminently sensible.  After all, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives America’s infrastructure a grade of “D.”  If, in the era of the $800 billion stimulus package, $1 billion at first sounds paltry, ask the mayors of #Detroit, Belmar, New Jersey, or even New York City what that money would mean to their municipalities.  America may need $2.2 trillion in repairs and maintenance according to ASCE, but $1 billion could radically change the fortunes of many a city.

Instead, that money is flowing into the oil-rich Middle East.  Unknown to most Americans, thousands of State Department personnel, military advisors, and hired contractors remain at several large civilian bases in Iraq where nation-building projects are ongoing; hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been flowing into military construction projects in repressive Persian Gulf states like Bahrain and Qatar; and the Pentagon is expanding its construction program in Central Asia.  All of this adds up to a multifaceted project that seems at odds with the president’s rhetoric.  (The White House did not respond to TomDispatch’s repeated requests for comment.)

Just as the, er, ‘progressive media’ has predicted, the Republicans, supporters of tax cuts for the uber wealthy, are also HUGE ‘patriots’ in their support of military spending.

This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t distort the economy beyond recognition…but that’s one of the ‘side effects’ of predatory capitalism (over-concentration of money at the top of the social ladder, leaving wretched poverty below.)

What’s that? Still don’t think we need to replace the rules regarding money and its single useful purpose to society?

Again I will remind you that ALL money is funny…the only true cost is opportunity cost, the things we COULD HAVE DONE with those resources had they not been squandered to feather somebody’s personal nest.

In most cases a whole lot of nests would be a lot nicer than they are if those resources had been utilized in a wiser fashion.

Unfortunately, in these trying times it is difficult if not impossible to come to agreement on what constitutes ‘wisdom’.

Wise to me is outrageously stupid to a conservo-whacko! (who would rather not do anything with the resources in case the military needs them later!)

“Let society lounge in its own cesspool, the military will pay ‘top dollar’ for those resources that you want to waste on people who neither deserve or appreciate them…”

How do you deal with ‘whackos’ like that?

No irony should be lost on the fact that the ‘holy military’ (conservo-whackos literally ‘worship’ active duty service personnel, after they’re discharged they become ‘fucking civilians’ again so ‘fuck ‘em!) was established to protect us ALL.

But again I belabor the obvious when I point out that when it comes to conservo-whackos, ‘nothing go up top’ (may as well be a block of wood.)

They think what they think because that’s what they think!

Worse, they believe what they believe because somebody else told them that how things should be…so please don’t ask them to explain it, believing it is difficult enough!

But I digress…and I sincerely apologize for parading around on my favorite hobby horse in front of you all, shamelessly.

And you have to admit, it is difficult to cement your attention on the issue of ‘austerity for you’ while we waste billions on a military that serves the interests of the One Percent, coming from someone who preaches that ALL money is ‘funny’.

But my point isn’t ‘false austerity’ nor is it a bloated, useless military. It is GROSS MIS-MANAGEMENT!

And the real kicker is there ain’t a fucking thing we can do about it!

And I’m sure, by now, some of you want to slap me for reminding you AGAIN precisely how ‘powerless’ you are…

Well, I’m right here…

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Nukes

Greetings good citizen,

Traffic is down all around as Memorial Day celebrations have fanned out across all three days of the long weekend.

The ‘hot tidbit’ of the moment is on the wire services reporting how a fresh North Korean nuclear weapons test has rattled the Asian markets.

It is somewhat bizarre that the one political culture that frets endlessly over who should or should not have a nuclear weapon is the same culture which is alone in actually using this technology.

It is also the same political culture that is quick to threaten non-nuclear nations with nuclear annihilation. (Although the last nation reported to be threatened with nuclear annihilation was nuclear-armed Pakistan. While a nuke is a nuke, the ‘delivery systems’ are akin to comparing catapults with a continuously updated GPS based targeting system that is accurate to a few feet even if the weapon was launched from the other side of the planet…

The difference between the two is the difference between ‘hope’ and ‘certainty’. No irony should be lost on the fact that the huge build up of our nuclear arsenal over the years (as well as a steady stream of ‘improvements’ in both accuracy and delivery systems for this ‘arsenal]) has formed the ‘foundation’ of our current, monstrous government debt.

It is perhaps more ironic that other nations have not followed us down the path towards ‘nuclear supremacy’, other nations have concentrated on providing for their people instead of squandering their future on an ‘unwinable’ race.

Let the US pay for the R&D, they’ll sell us whatever they develop anyway.

This is perhaps the most ‘attractive’ feature of gaining membership to the ‘nuclear club’. President Bush has committed to sell all kinds of ‘state of the art’ nuclear technology to India…because we ‘like’ India…even if they aren’t signatories of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

This is yet another example of the longstanding public/private ‘partnership’ where the public foots the tab for the research, which is handed over for free to private sector corporations who sell the developments for the profit of their shareowners.

Which is to point out that we will never live in a world that is free of nuclear weapons until the motive to profit from this technology is eliminated.

In fact the only way to save the planet itself from being recklessly over-exploited is to remove the ability of the individual to profit from the pursuit of such activity.

The practice of selling votes for campaign contributions is a heinous abrogation of the responsibility of those elected to ‘represent’ us.

Naturally, there isn’t a single sitting politician that will admit to selling out their constituency for personal gain. Yet our representatives consistently fail to protect our interests.

The most recent failure is the passage of the Credit Card bill that fails to enact standards to prevent usury.

Is this merely an oversight or an extension of the belief that ‘markets are self-regulating’?

Simply put good citizen, a system that places profits for the individual ahead of the safety and well-being of society at large is not only foolish but dangerous in the extreme.

It is our collective duty to preserve the legacy of liberty this nation was founded upon so it does not 'perish’ from this earth…

There is at last a blueprint to save our nation from the fate of so many empires before us.

The drumbeat that the US is turning into a ‘banana republic’ grows louder good citizen.

The only one capable of saving us from this fate is ‘the man in the mirror’.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner