Military flags have gold fringe.
More information here.
I'm just saying.
9/29/08
This is about Trust
In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition, and by the opposition of those who can give the full strength of the argument on the side of error. In an age of authority and spiritual bondage, the opinions of an individual are often important, -- sometimes decisive. One voice may determine the judgment of a country. But in an age of free discussion, little is to be feared from great names, on whatever side arrayed. When I hear a man complaining that some cause which he has at heart will be put back for years by a speech of a book, I suspect that his attachment to it is prejudice, that he has no consciousness of standing on a rock. The more discussion the better, if passion and personality be eschewed; and discussion, even if stormy, often winnows truth from error, a good never to be expected in an uninquiring age. -- William Ellery Channing, American preacher and religious reformer, 1780-1842, on the slavery question
The proposed bailout will not work because it does not address the problem. In fact, it makes the problem worse.
The problem is trust. It doesn't exist. It has been actively, purposely eroded by people in all positions of power, whether in Congress, the White House, or the panelled boardrooms of corporate America. Greedy, powerful people erased trust by refusing to deal with the American people in good faith. Republicans did it, and Democrats did it, and corporations did it. And we have been well aware of that for many years. But as it turns out, they don't deal with each other in good faith, either. Whoever could have predicted such a thing?!?!?!?!
Now 'suddenly', 'without warning', 'surprising them no end', 'we' have a 'crisis'. Oh boo hoo hoo they cry. Give us lots of money so we can have more confidence.
No. These are junkies and dealers, addicted to money and power. It's time to go to detox and rehab.
Poor planning on your part does not make a crisis on my part.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay: Princes and lords may flourish or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied. -- Oliver Goldsmith, Irish poet, dramatist and novelist, 1728-1774, from The Deserted Village
The proposed bailout will not work because it does not address the problem. In fact, it makes the problem worse.
The problem is trust. It doesn't exist. It has been actively, purposely eroded by people in all positions of power, whether in Congress, the White House, or the panelled boardrooms of corporate America. Greedy, powerful people erased trust by refusing to deal with the American people in good faith. Republicans did it, and Democrats did it, and corporations did it. And we have been well aware of that for many years. But as it turns out, they don't deal with each other in good faith, either. Whoever could have predicted such a thing?!?!?!?!
Now 'suddenly', 'without warning', 'surprising them no end', 'we' have a 'crisis'. Oh boo hoo hoo they cry. Give us lots of money so we can have more confidence.
No. These are junkies and dealers, addicted to money and power. It's time to go to detox and rehab.
Poor planning on your part does not make a crisis on my part.
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay: Princes and lords may flourish or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied. -- Oliver Goldsmith, Irish poet, dramatist and novelist, 1728-1774, from The Deserted Village
9/28/08
They Sold Us Down The River Again
These assholes have supposedly worked it all out. So they say. (Does Henry Paulson look like a bloodsucking ghoul all the time?)
Behold the cornucopia of hedging language to describe this deal.
This is total bullshit. Vote them all out. This is a house of cards deal for the house of cards economy. The thing will fall down just as soon as our money gets whisked away.The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help [or not help] troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try [they will try, but they will fail] to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.
At the insistence of House Republicans, some [unspecified amount] of the program's $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage [as opposed to require] holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.
The legislation would place "reasonable" limits [as determined by the ultra-rich] on severance packages for executives of companies that benefit from the rescue plan, said a senior administration official who was authorized to speak only on background. It would affect fired executives of financial firms, and executives of firms that go bankrupt. Some [unspecified] of the provisions would be retroactive and some [unspecified] prospective, the official said.
The proposed legislation also calls for the financial sector to help [unspecified limited responsibility] make up the difference if [you mean when] the government does not recoup its investment in five years, the official said, but details were unclear. [wink wink]
Also, the government would receive stock warrants in return for the bailout relief, giving taxpayers a chance to share [kind of like the craps tables] in financial companies' future profits.
To help struggling homeowners, the plan would require the government to try [try but fail, then express regret] renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers' monthly payments so they can keep their homes.
The measure's main elements were proposed a week ago by the Bush administration, with Paulson heading efforts to push it through the Democratic-controlled Congress. Democrats insisted on greater congressional oversight, more taxpayer protections, help for homeowners facing possible foreclosure, and restrictions on executives' compensation.
To some degree, [what do you think...2%?] all those items were added.
At the insistence of House Republicans, who threatened to sidetrack negotiations at midweek, the insurance provision was added as an alternative to having the government buy distressed securities. House Republicans say it will require less [CYA...they 'tried' to help us] taxpayer spending for the bailout.
But the Treasury Department has said the insurance provision would not pump enough money into the financial sector to make credit sufficiently available. The department would decide how to structure the insurance provisions, [Unitary Executive Powers] said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of the negotiators.
Money for the rescue plan would be phased in, he said. The first $350 billion would be available as soon as the president requested it. Congress could try [and fail, surely expressing regret] to block later amounts if it believed the program was not working. The president could veto such a move, however, requiring extra large margins in the House and Senate to override.
Despite the changes made during an intense week of negotiations, the heart of the program remains Bush's original idea: To have the government spend billions of dollars to buy mortgage-backed securities whose value has plummeted as hundreds of thousands of Americans have defaulted on their home loans.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Saturday that the goal was to come up with a final agreement before the Asian markets open Sunday night. "Everybody is waiting for this thing to tip a little bit too far," he said, so "we may not have another day."
The correct answer for the American people is NO BAILOUT. They failed the test. It is time to go.
So what happened is that the people who actually own this country told the people who pretend to run this country what to do. Apparently your only role, American citizen, is to shut up and pay.
But consider that many financial analysts say that the real reason that the government bailed out Freddie and Fannie is because China demanded it. And there were rumors last week that China instructed its banks to stop lending to U.S. banks. The U.S. owes trillions of dollars to China which, along with Japan, Saudi Arabia, and other creditor nations, is keeping America afloat. If they pulled the plug, the U.S. would instantly default on its obligations.
They say that economics and finance are now global. Perhaps corruption, blackmail and tyranny are also.
9/27/08
9/26/08
Let Us Break Their Bonds Asunder!
Go here to see some wonderful righteous indignation and SOLUTIONS, and videos, and letters from outraged Americans, and every manner of truth about the financial crisis and proposed abhorrent bailout.
If you have not made any phone calls yet, what the sam-hell are you waiting for?
The phone calls are working. At long last, Americans have been aroused from their stupor, praise God.
Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yoke from us! Psalm 2:3
UPDATE: Read Joan Veon.
A Higher Standard
All the war dead couldn't do what the economy seems to be doing: waking people up. It shows us the power of money, does it not? Sad, but we'll take the wake up call any way we can get it.
The division between left and right is easily manipulated for the ruling class. The division between ultra-rich and everybody else...not so much. The ruling class may have touched the third rail this time, as they have purposely set themselves apart from everyone else. So. Now they are apart from everyone else, as in pretty much every single person you know, whether democrat or republican, left or right, does not belong to the ruling class. The people who want to be bailed out travel in their own circles. That's the way they like it. They do not want to mingle with the hoi polloi, like you bubba, even though you might think you shit chocolate bars because you have a nice house and a nice car. Whatever. What I'm trying to say is when you get into us v them games, and you are so very seriously outnumbered, umm..., and pretty much all the people in the military come from the lower classes, well, you might want to rethink that plan.
In order for their plans to work, they must count on the military turning against us. Again, this may be one thing to accomplish with a terrorist attack or some more easily manipulated political trick, but it's quite another to accomplish with an economic collapse.
Therefore, John McCain seems to be devising a rise from the ashes. He will be a Maverick on this one. He will be the one to stand up to Wall Street, and then Sarah Palin will get back to Katie Couric with the answer, victoriously, to her question about how John McCain has stood up to the established interests. It doesn't matter if he's rolled over for three decades. It only matters what he does now. And if he is the one to stand up to Wall Street now, well, that will be all that matters. Does Obama understand this? Who knows.
The Republicans will be empowered. Then the terrorist attack will come, and then...Game Over USA. Sorry you lose.
But, first, we have this moment in time. We have this moment when everyone with eyes to see may gaze upon the true divide between us, the very many, and them, the chosen few. We observe an impressive chasm which the rich themselves excavated. They consider themselves safely on the other side. Safe from you and me.
Of course John McCain is one of them. So is Obama. But McCain will cross over here, magically, on a holographic media bridge, and pretend to be one of us just for as long as necessary until the terrorist attack comes and takes over the narrative, assuring him the victory. Then he dies and we are stuck with the vicious shrew.
Don't fall for it. If McCain or the Republicans stop the bailout plan, hey that great. Awesome. But we owe them NOTHING in exchange. NOT ONE THING! The politicians have the current account deficit with us, the American people. They owe US. You can think of any victory here as a small deposit against the vast treasure that they have looted from our country: dead and mangled people, outsourced jobs, moral standing around the world, crumbling infrastructure, environmental damage, substandard health care and education, etc. to infinity and beyond.
Now some will argue, well why should a politician stand up to Wall Street if they get nothing in return?
Because there comes a time when the scales of justice demand to be balanced. Any man or woman who cannot do the right thing without some sort of payback is inherently unqualified to lead this country.
Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous; teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to seek reward, except that of knowing that I do your will. St. Ignatius Loyola
The division between left and right is easily manipulated for the ruling class. The division between ultra-rich and everybody else...not so much. The ruling class may have touched the third rail this time, as they have purposely set themselves apart from everyone else. So. Now they are apart from everyone else, as in pretty much every single person you know, whether democrat or republican, left or right, does not belong to the ruling class. The people who want to be bailed out travel in their own circles. That's the way they like it. They do not want to mingle with the hoi polloi, like you bubba, even though you might think you shit chocolate bars because you have a nice house and a nice car. Whatever. What I'm trying to say is when you get into us v them games, and you are so very seriously outnumbered, umm..., and pretty much all the people in the military come from the lower classes, well, you might want to rethink that plan.
In order for their plans to work, they must count on the military turning against us. Again, this may be one thing to accomplish with a terrorist attack or some more easily manipulated political trick, but it's quite another to accomplish with an economic collapse.
Therefore, John McCain seems to be devising a rise from the ashes. He will be a Maverick on this one. He will be the one to stand up to Wall Street, and then Sarah Palin will get back to Katie Couric with the answer, victoriously, to her question about how John McCain has stood up to the established interests. It doesn't matter if he's rolled over for three decades. It only matters what he does now. And if he is the one to stand up to Wall Street now, well, that will be all that matters. Does Obama understand this? Who knows.
The Republicans will be empowered. Then the terrorist attack will come, and then...Game Over USA. Sorry you lose.
But, first, we have this moment in time. We have this moment when everyone with eyes to see may gaze upon the true divide between us, the very many, and them, the chosen few. We observe an impressive chasm which the rich themselves excavated. They consider themselves safely on the other side. Safe from you and me.
Of course John McCain is one of them. So is Obama. But McCain will cross over here, magically, on a holographic media bridge, and pretend to be one of us just for as long as necessary until the terrorist attack comes and takes over the narrative, assuring him the victory. Then he dies and we are stuck with the vicious shrew.
Don't fall for it. If McCain or the Republicans stop the bailout plan, hey that great. Awesome. But we owe them NOTHING in exchange. NOT ONE THING! The politicians have the current account deficit with us, the American people. They owe US. You can think of any victory here as a small deposit against the vast treasure that they have looted from our country: dead and mangled people, outsourced jobs, moral standing around the world, crumbling infrastructure, environmental damage, substandard health care and education, etc. to infinity and beyond.
Now some will argue, well why should a politician stand up to Wall Street if they get nothing in return?
Because there comes a time when the scales of justice demand to be balanced. Any man or woman who cannot do the right thing without some sort of payback is inherently unqualified to lead this country.
Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous; teach me to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to seek reward, except that of knowing that I do your will. St. Ignatius Loyola
Understand the Stakes
Original here. I thank God for Americans like this man. Please, if you haven't started making phone calls and applying pressure to our elected representatives, now is the time. It is working. Stand up for yourself and be counted. - A. Peasant
The headline's oscillate between proclamations of bailout success and dark forebodings--the visual representation of this is conveniently graphed for us on the stock indexes for the day. "See?" they taunt. "See how the market gets better when we say the bailout is at hand? See how it gets worse when word of your stonewalling gets out?
"We cannot let up on the Congress, and, frankly, at this point we should be calling our state representatives as well. We must accept the reality of this situation: This bailout has minimal impact on the American people; it is primarily about paying off foreign interests before the collapse, even if that process is to be heavily veiled and masked by transactions. The $700 billion dollars is nothing in the face of the problem at hand. It is enough to save a few prominent corporations, leaving them in position to sweep up the remnants at fire-sale prices. The great rush to get this bailout through isn't about saving the markets. It's about sucking in as much capital as possible before the market collapses. As quickly as the Treasury writes the check, the recipient corporations will retrench and shift their money out of the U.S. Dollar. Foreign funds will buy stock rapidly, in companies that hold solid assets, because they need to buy something fast with those dollars.
It is the collapse of the derivitives market that looms, trillions of dollars in "credit default swaps" (62 trillion in the Unites States alone, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association), basically insurance bonds against losses in other credit instruments, bundled and sold over and over again, like some kind of world-wide Ponzi scheme. It's not just the taxpayers holding the bag here; it is mutual funds and pension plans and savers from here and other nations who are all about to get flattened. So far, every time the true market price of these bonds rears its ugly head, it is pennies on the dollar, and this unveiling is what they have been fighting off since Bear Sterns.
The great lie is that this bail out will 'unclog' the credit pipes--as if other people are sitting around with trillions of dollars ready to buy out junk bonds at above-market prices. This is an almost laughable theory being presented to the people of the United States. "If we buy $700,000,000,000 of these bad, severely overvalued bonds at above-market prices, then others will buy the remaining $61.3 trillion of bad, severely overvalued bonds at above market-prices." Right. Come on, kids..Follow the piper down to the river...
But this isn't the dialogue that is happening in the public forum (yeah, I use that loosely). President Bush all but confessed that the sins of the world market seizure are borne by the USA, though he makes it sound like an unforeseen consequence, like all gamblers do when the pot goes the other way. And he did a great job of redirecting attention towards mortgages as the entirety of the problem, instead of merely the first crack in a dam made of cheap clay. What he cannot say is this: "It is the derivatives market that has created hundreds of trillions in false wealth, and it is this market that is imploding. We are entering a severe recession that will result in the collapse and restructuring of the economy in ways you cannot imagine, though many people have imagined it and you probably should have listened more.
As far as the bailout, if you knew what we know, you'd be looting, too..."President Bush met with McCain and Senator Obama today. This isn't about negotiating the bailout; this is about negotiating with the voters. I wish it was different on either front. By the way, President Bush, if you ever wanted to have your Anakin Skywalker moment, veto the bill no matter what and tell people what's really going on. Your father would become a footnote...
There is not enough money in the world to circumvent a massive correction in the market. Literally. That's the problem. There is not a lot of money, actual wealth, at all. There are just a lot of people saying they have money. They hold up a bond that's worth six cents and declare, "This is worth a dollar." You think it is a damnable offense that some family lies on a mortgage application, exaggerating assets, to get a loan? Corporations like Lehman, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, and the whole line up yet to come all did this to the tune of hundreds of billions. But with every default, more of these toxic bonds get found out. You see, the corporations aren't really losing money; they are just being forced to reveal that they didn't have the money in the first place. This is why "the credit" has come to a standstill. That is the usual consequence of lying to your creditors...
Your friends and family must understand these things and take action. We need whatever flimsy credit we have left to help our fellow taxpayers when misfortune lands upon them above and beyond the sum of their choices. That's why we pool our money, that's why we hire these people to manage the People's operations. We, as a nation, need to seriously review our hiring practices...
Keep calling your Senator, your representatives, your Governor, your mayor. Hammer them with this message: You've bailed out enough. Near a trillion dollars already. We will reinstate the value of the dollar by working our way out of this mess, as a people who all seek the same liberty, regardless of how we often differ in the application of that liberty. We will not bail you out, and if the fall of these corporations results in the bought-and-sold members of Congress and members of the administration losing their revenue streams, so be it. Maybe, if there is no damn money to be made in D.C., we can get some people in there who actually want to fulfill their oaths.
Listen to what Bush said and shake your head free of the patter of hyperbole. You already can't get credit, and frankly you shouldn't go anymore into debt anyway. You already can't find a good job, or at least a job that feels like you contributed something at the end of the day. You already are paying escalating prices for everything, and this new addition of debt will dilute the dollar further, and you will pay more--inflation is simply a form of taxation. It's called monetizing the debt. Either way, we lose. We can't convert our paychecks overnight into Swiss Francs. We won't know when to sell that gold we hoarded, and then it will be confiscated. And we, unlike the rest of the world, have no savings.
Let's just get on with it. Eight years of this administration dangling the Sword of Damocles over our heads, the constant threat of disaster used to provoke our acceptance of the erosion of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, has grown old. We've given up habeas corpus, we've given up the right to peaceful protest, we given up privacy in our homes. We give up a free press. We're okay with torture, now? When I joined the Marines at 17, I thought we were the good guys. Now, we've got an Army brigade with active orders on U.S. soil, the first time since the Civil War, moving to Colorado, having been trained to enforce martial law. Now, just to bring it home, they would have us give up a trillion dollars.
So, let's just get on with it, then. Bring the damn crisis. Bring your shock and awe. We'll show you what we got. We'll show you that for all of your divisiveness, we are not a mass of ignorant people incapable of adaptation, courage, unity and faith. Get on with it already. Get on with your master plan so we can plan for our tomorrow.
Yeah, history does repeat itself, and at the end, the empire always loses. It loses because people who require such obscene advantage in life in order to secure success are weak, and they build weak structures, in such a hurry to reach the heavens. But we are more than commerce, or a marketplace. And we are not a nation of people with a Constitution and Bill of Rights--We are a Nation because of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. That is the agreement that binds us. We are sovereign individuals who consent to be a Nation, through agreed upon rules of law and truthful representation. There is no royalty or papacy that dare lay claim to our free will--that is what our founders recognized, that is the experiment of our democratic republic crafted from their humility, and that is the experiment still left undone. That we would choose to avoid for a short time discomfort rather than secure the integrity of that great experiment is baffling. It renders the acts and sacrifices of those before us as lesser deeds, and resigns the promise of those who will follow to the ambitions of empty men.
John Caelan Say no to this bailout. Save the bailout for us. We are going to need it.
UPDATE: Bush's speech last night was like some kind of terrible fire insurance offered by the mafia--"Pay us or else..." Look, and see: This is a scam, the greatest transfer of wealth in our times from the poor to the select rich. The derivitives market represents 45 trillion in potentially bad debt alone. The bail out will postpone, for weeks only, the inevitable collapse of this house of cards, and the dollar will be broken. THIS NATION IS BANKRUPT and the rest of the world is running out of self-serving reasons to augment our audacious spending. We require well over 2 billion a day in debt-financing just to keep the lights on. That is dissolving before our eyes.
This bailout is Meat..on a rope. Animals see the meat hanging there and lunge, excited by the instant gratification. Sentient beings stop and think, "Meat...but on a rope.." The animal is trapped, the sentient being either steers clear or outsmarts the trap. What are we? Do you not see the rope attached to this putrid chunk of meat dangling in front of you?
An entire army brigade reports to NORTHCOM in October, the first active duty unit to EVER be permanently assigned to our home soil. They have been retrained in crowd control, tasers, and other law enforcement actions, in violation of more laws than you can shake a stick at. Come on, people. When it walks like a duck, its's a duck, and we know a thing or two about ducks. This is the end of our republic and the scenario is something like this:
1. The bail out is passed, buying them the time they need to distract through the next few weeks.
2. An "incident" takes place in early October, civil unrest is amplified, a national emergency is implemented.
3. The dollar tanks, the nation suspends servicing debt.
4. Three days later, the country decends into martial law.
5. McCain and Pailin win the election, an outcome of amplified fraud.
6. McCain will die (the actuaries on his skin cancer predict this), and Pailin becomes the president, exactly what they want, a zealot to control the police state, without questioning other policy (does she know enough to question?)
7. War is widened to ramp up the only production we have left, the military-industrial complex, with the subsequent redirecting of the worker base towards defense and military service.
8. A draft is reinstated as part of that redirection.
9. Your kid dies.
10. Their kids die.
THIS IS THE LAST STAND. If they get control of this money, mark your calendar as this being the date the Republic folded. Do not choose promises of security over liberty! Everytime that promise is made throughout history, it is a great deception. Self-determination is the grant of providence, the root of all conflict through the ages. If you sacrifice your free will, your time in this experience is for naught. Too long have we been distanced from cause and effect, too long have we suffered in the throws of cognitive dissonance, too long have we ignored the face of the lie. Trust your instincts--you are more than the sum of your experiences. You know what is happening. React accordingly, or lose the right to react.
John Caelan
REPOST AS YOU WISH
The headline's oscillate between proclamations of bailout success and dark forebodings--the visual representation of this is conveniently graphed for us on the stock indexes for the day. "See?" they taunt. "See how the market gets better when we say the bailout is at hand? See how it gets worse when word of your stonewalling gets out?
"We cannot let up on the Congress, and, frankly, at this point we should be calling our state representatives as well. We must accept the reality of this situation: This bailout has minimal impact on the American people; it is primarily about paying off foreign interests before the collapse, even if that process is to be heavily veiled and masked by transactions. The $700 billion dollars is nothing in the face of the problem at hand. It is enough to save a few prominent corporations, leaving them in position to sweep up the remnants at fire-sale prices. The great rush to get this bailout through isn't about saving the markets. It's about sucking in as much capital as possible before the market collapses. As quickly as the Treasury writes the check, the recipient corporations will retrench and shift their money out of the U.S. Dollar. Foreign funds will buy stock rapidly, in companies that hold solid assets, because they need to buy something fast with those dollars.
It is the collapse of the derivitives market that looms, trillions of dollars in "credit default swaps" (62 trillion in the Unites States alone, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association), basically insurance bonds against losses in other credit instruments, bundled and sold over and over again, like some kind of world-wide Ponzi scheme. It's not just the taxpayers holding the bag here; it is mutual funds and pension plans and savers from here and other nations who are all about to get flattened. So far, every time the true market price of these bonds rears its ugly head, it is pennies on the dollar, and this unveiling is what they have been fighting off since Bear Sterns.
The great lie is that this bail out will 'unclog' the credit pipes--as if other people are sitting around with trillions of dollars ready to buy out junk bonds at above-market prices. This is an almost laughable theory being presented to the people of the United States. "If we buy $700,000,000,000 of these bad, severely overvalued bonds at above-market prices, then others will buy the remaining $61.3 trillion of bad, severely overvalued bonds at above market-prices." Right. Come on, kids..Follow the piper down to the river...
But this isn't the dialogue that is happening in the public forum (yeah, I use that loosely). President Bush all but confessed that the sins of the world market seizure are borne by the USA, though he makes it sound like an unforeseen consequence, like all gamblers do when the pot goes the other way. And he did a great job of redirecting attention towards mortgages as the entirety of the problem, instead of merely the first crack in a dam made of cheap clay. What he cannot say is this: "It is the derivatives market that has created hundreds of trillions in false wealth, and it is this market that is imploding. We are entering a severe recession that will result in the collapse and restructuring of the economy in ways you cannot imagine, though many people have imagined it and you probably should have listened more.
As far as the bailout, if you knew what we know, you'd be looting, too..."President Bush met with McCain and Senator Obama today. This isn't about negotiating the bailout; this is about negotiating with the voters. I wish it was different on either front. By the way, President Bush, if you ever wanted to have your Anakin Skywalker moment, veto the bill no matter what and tell people what's really going on. Your father would become a footnote...
There is not enough money in the world to circumvent a massive correction in the market. Literally. That's the problem. There is not a lot of money, actual wealth, at all. There are just a lot of people saying they have money. They hold up a bond that's worth six cents and declare, "This is worth a dollar." You think it is a damnable offense that some family lies on a mortgage application, exaggerating assets, to get a loan? Corporations like Lehman, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, and the whole line up yet to come all did this to the tune of hundreds of billions. But with every default, more of these toxic bonds get found out. You see, the corporations aren't really losing money; they are just being forced to reveal that they didn't have the money in the first place. This is why "the credit" has come to a standstill. That is the usual consequence of lying to your creditors...
Your friends and family must understand these things and take action. We need whatever flimsy credit we have left to help our fellow taxpayers when misfortune lands upon them above and beyond the sum of their choices. That's why we pool our money, that's why we hire these people to manage the People's operations. We, as a nation, need to seriously review our hiring practices...
Keep calling your Senator, your representatives, your Governor, your mayor. Hammer them with this message: You've bailed out enough. Near a trillion dollars already. We will reinstate the value of the dollar by working our way out of this mess, as a people who all seek the same liberty, regardless of how we often differ in the application of that liberty. We will not bail you out, and if the fall of these corporations results in the bought-and-sold members of Congress and members of the administration losing their revenue streams, so be it. Maybe, if there is no damn money to be made in D.C., we can get some people in there who actually want to fulfill their oaths.
Listen to what Bush said and shake your head free of the patter of hyperbole. You already can't get credit, and frankly you shouldn't go anymore into debt anyway. You already can't find a good job, or at least a job that feels like you contributed something at the end of the day. You already are paying escalating prices for everything, and this new addition of debt will dilute the dollar further, and you will pay more--inflation is simply a form of taxation. It's called monetizing the debt. Either way, we lose. We can't convert our paychecks overnight into Swiss Francs. We won't know when to sell that gold we hoarded, and then it will be confiscated. And we, unlike the rest of the world, have no savings.
Let's just get on with it. Eight years of this administration dangling the Sword of Damocles over our heads, the constant threat of disaster used to provoke our acceptance of the erosion of our Constitution and Bill of Rights, has grown old. We've given up habeas corpus, we've given up the right to peaceful protest, we given up privacy in our homes. We give up a free press. We're okay with torture, now? When I joined the Marines at 17, I thought we were the good guys. Now, we've got an Army brigade with active orders on U.S. soil, the first time since the Civil War, moving to Colorado, having been trained to enforce martial law. Now, just to bring it home, they would have us give up a trillion dollars.
So, let's just get on with it, then. Bring the damn crisis. Bring your shock and awe. We'll show you what we got. We'll show you that for all of your divisiveness, we are not a mass of ignorant people incapable of adaptation, courage, unity and faith. Get on with it already. Get on with your master plan so we can plan for our tomorrow.
Yeah, history does repeat itself, and at the end, the empire always loses. It loses because people who require such obscene advantage in life in order to secure success are weak, and they build weak structures, in such a hurry to reach the heavens. But we are more than commerce, or a marketplace. And we are not a nation of people with a Constitution and Bill of Rights--We are a Nation because of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. That is the agreement that binds us. We are sovereign individuals who consent to be a Nation, through agreed upon rules of law and truthful representation. There is no royalty or papacy that dare lay claim to our free will--that is what our founders recognized, that is the experiment of our democratic republic crafted from their humility, and that is the experiment still left undone. That we would choose to avoid for a short time discomfort rather than secure the integrity of that great experiment is baffling. It renders the acts and sacrifices of those before us as lesser deeds, and resigns the promise of those who will follow to the ambitions of empty men.
John Caelan Say no to this bailout. Save the bailout for us. We are going to need it.
UPDATE: Bush's speech last night was like some kind of terrible fire insurance offered by the mafia--"Pay us or else..." Look, and see: This is a scam, the greatest transfer of wealth in our times from the poor to the select rich. The derivitives market represents 45 trillion in potentially bad debt alone. The bail out will postpone, for weeks only, the inevitable collapse of this house of cards, and the dollar will be broken. THIS NATION IS BANKRUPT and the rest of the world is running out of self-serving reasons to augment our audacious spending. We require well over 2 billion a day in debt-financing just to keep the lights on. That is dissolving before our eyes.
This bailout is Meat..on a rope. Animals see the meat hanging there and lunge, excited by the instant gratification. Sentient beings stop and think, "Meat...but on a rope.." The animal is trapped, the sentient being either steers clear or outsmarts the trap. What are we? Do you not see the rope attached to this putrid chunk of meat dangling in front of you?
An entire army brigade reports to NORTHCOM in October, the first active duty unit to EVER be permanently assigned to our home soil. They have been retrained in crowd control, tasers, and other law enforcement actions, in violation of more laws than you can shake a stick at. Come on, people. When it walks like a duck, its's a duck, and we know a thing or two about ducks. This is the end of our republic and the scenario is something like this:
1. The bail out is passed, buying them the time they need to distract through the next few weeks.
2. An "incident" takes place in early October, civil unrest is amplified, a national emergency is implemented.
3. The dollar tanks, the nation suspends servicing debt.
4. Three days later, the country decends into martial law.
5. McCain and Pailin win the election, an outcome of amplified fraud.
6. McCain will die (the actuaries on his skin cancer predict this), and Pailin becomes the president, exactly what they want, a zealot to control the police state, without questioning other policy (does she know enough to question?)
7. War is widened to ramp up the only production we have left, the military-industrial complex, with the subsequent redirecting of the worker base towards defense and military service.
8. A draft is reinstated as part of that redirection.
9. Your kid dies.
10. Their kids die.
THIS IS THE LAST STAND. If they get control of this money, mark your calendar as this being the date the Republic folded. Do not choose promises of security over liberty! Everytime that promise is made throughout history, it is a great deception. Self-determination is the grant of providence, the root of all conflict through the ages. If you sacrifice your free will, your time in this experience is for naught. Too long have we been distanced from cause and effect, too long have we suffered in the throws of cognitive dissonance, too long have we ignored the face of the lie. Trust your instincts--you are more than the sum of your experiences. You know what is happening. React accordingly, or lose the right to react.
John Caelan
REPOST AS YOU WISH
9/25/08
This Bailout Is A TRAP
If you can stand it, watch the video of Bush delivering his little pep talk to the nation last night. When he delivers his vicious lies, cleverly honed though they may be by his writers, the truth flickers across his face. You can see it in his eye area and around his mouth, the ripples of astonishment, the fleeting smirks, the lips pursed in disgust, the arched brow as he delivers what he absolutely, positively knows are LIES to the American people. The expressions go by very quickly, in fractions of seconds, but they are there. I'm sure somewhere our government has this super technology that they use in airports to analyze our faces for terrorist intent, and if they have that trained on GWB they must be laughing their asses off right now, as he leads the charge to rape our country one more time for the road. It's as if he almost can't believe we're going to fall for it again, but he'll give it the old college try. Rah rah.
This bailout plan is a trap, of that I am convinced. Bush and Paulson keep talking about what will happen if we don't do it, but nobody talks about what will happen if we do do it. They don't want you to know about that. They don't want you to know what this bailout will do to the economy.
Keep calling your congresspeople. Here you can see one, DeFazio D-Oregon, actually show some courage as he speaks the Truth on the House floor. We need more of this, much more. We need many more people to have courage and to stand against this plan. There should be NO bailout. As DeFazio says, let them write off the bad debt first. If they need help after that, let them take a loan under stiff terms. Is that not what would be expected of any one of us? Of course it is. Good enough then, for them who already have so much.
A wolf never can so badly enslave a fellow-wolf as a man can enslave a fellow-man. It is not easier to live in freedom than to fight for freedom. One must fight for freedom like an archangel, but one must live in freedom as a saint. When you fight for freedom you are helping every slave of the world, not only yourself. - Nicholai Velimirovic, Wisdom of the Serbians
This bailout plan is a trap, of that I am convinced. Bush and Paulson keep talking about what will happen if we don't do it, but nobody talks about what will happen if we do do it. They don't want you to know about that. They don't want you to know what this bailout will do to the economy.
What it can do is provide a one-time transfer of wealth to insiders who already have been playing the debt-credit system and siphoning off its predatory financial proceeds to themselves. The Wall Street bankers, brokers and fund managers to whom I’ve been speaking for many decades all know this. That is why they pay themselves such large annual bonuses and large salaries each year. The idea is to take as much as you can. As the saying goes: “You only have to make a fortune once in a lifetime.” They have been salting away their fortunes year after year, mainly in hard assets: real estate (free of mortgages), fine furniture, boats and trophy art.Do not believe these people. They lie ALL THE TIME. They don't care about Americans. They only care about themselves. They set this up, knowing it would come to this, and now they will force us at gunpoint to bail them out, lying the whole time that we will be made whole. We never will. Our dollar will collapse, chaos will break out, and then they will clamp down with Martial Law and begin the oppression in earnest. It's no coincidence that the Army will install an active duty unit on October 1st, within the US, to handle 'civil unrest' and 'crowd control,' using the latest 'non-lethal' weapons. That would be in 6 days.
Their plan now is for icing on the cake – to take Mr. Paulson’s $700 billion and run. It’s not a “bailout of the financial system.” It’s as giveaway – to insiders, to sell out all their bad bets. Companies across the board will get rid of their bad mortgages, and also their bad car loans, furniture time payments, credit-card loans, student loans – all the debts that any competent actuary could have told them never could have been paid in the first place.
...Promises that “taxpayers” will be able to recover a large part of this money are a fiction. If there were a hope of recovering this money, then investors abroad – foreign buyout funds, foreign banks, foreign sovereign wealth funds – would have been willing to buy Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, A.I.G. and other companies at some price. But they wouldn’t touch this at any price.
...For the government to even begin to recover some of the value of the $700 billion in junk mortgages it has bought would force new homebuyers to pay even more of their income to the banks. And if they do that, they will have less income to spend on goods and services. The domestic market will shrink, and tax revenues will fall at the state, local and federal levels. The debt overhead will deflate the economy, causing shrinkage all down the line.
So here’s where the cognitive dissonance comes in: It is necessary, even inevitable, for the volume of debt to come down – not up – to restore equilibrium. The economy was well on its way to preparing the ground for this last week. As Alan Meltzer of the American Enterprise Institute (of all places!) explained on McNeill-Lehrer, Merrill Lynch was able to be sold at 22 cents on the dollar; and the economy survived Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns being wiped out.
Such debt writes-offs are a precondition for writing down America’s mortgage debts to levels that are affordable. But Mr. Paulson’s plan is to fight against this tide. He wants the Wall Street to keep on raking in money at the expense of the economy at large. These are the big banks who lobbied Congress to appoint de-regulators, the banks whose officers paid themselves enormous bonuses and gave themselves enormous golden parachutes. They were the leaders in the great disinformation campaign about the magic of compound interest. And now they are to get their payoff.
The pretense is that not to pay them off would threaten “the economy.” The reality is that it only would stop their predatory behavior. Worse than that, for the economy at large a government take-over of these bad loans would prevent the debt write-down that the economy needs!
It gets worse. If Congress should be so destructive as to buy out $700 billion of bad loans (for starters), the sellers will do just what Russia’s kleptocrats did. They will take their money and move it abroad to a “hard” currency country. This will help collapse the dollar. Up will go gasoline costs and prices for other imports. America will be turned into a Russian-style post-Soviet economy, having endowed a new domestic kleptocracy of insiders, who use some of their gains to finance the campaigns of American Yeltsins such as McCain.
Keep calling your congresspeople. Here you can see one, DeFazio D-Oregon, actually show some courage as he speaks the Truth on the House floor. We need more of this, much more. We need many more people to have courage and to stand against this plan. There should be NO bailout. As DeFazio says, let them write off the bad debt first. If they need help after that, let them take a loan under stiff terms. Is that not what would be expected of any one of us? Of course it is. Good enough then, for them who already have so much.
A wolf never can so badly enslave a fellow-wolf as a man can enslave a fellow-man. It is not easier to live in freedom than to fight for freedom. One must fight for freedom like an archangel, but one must live in freedom as a saint. When you fight for freedom you are helping every slave of the world, not only yourself. - Nicholai Velimirovic, Wisdom of the Serbians
9/24/08
This Bailout is Total Bullshit!
OK, look. I'm no economist. This is the situation as best I can tell. We can pick Door #1: No bailout, severe recession; or Door #2: Bailout, greedy bankers happy, hyperinflationary depression follows, martial law, new currency (Amero) forced on Americans, NWO victory.
If you are not outraged yet, you need to pay closer attention. These Wall Street people have been screwing us every way to Sunday. These high rollers, these are the people ordering the 100 foot yachts and having to get on a waiting list because the demand is so high and there aren't enough crewmen! to service their amazing lifestyles, these are the people you are being asked -- nay THREATENED by Hank Paulson and other White House goons -- to bail out. Or else our economy will go in to a severe recession and credit will be tightened.
Is that right? A severe recession? In the unforgettable words of GWB, bring it on.
We can survive a severe recession people. It's the 'Rescue Plan' we need to avoid.
WAKE UP!!!
9/23/08
An event in which some people find out that they have been hung out to dry, to their astonishment.
First off, let us consider the hinterlands, the great unwashed, the American people who have been forced to pay for the Iraq War and its consequences with their ever-stagnant salaries. What do they think about all this brouhaha?
The American people blame the GOP 2:1 for the unfolding economic disaster.
Now let us move up a few socio-economic clicks, to the bustling corridors of Wall Street.
And a step about them, many in the Republicans in Congress have been left bewildered.
Or Else WHAT, exactly? We could be somehow less screwed?
The American people blame the GOP 2:1 for the unfolding economic disaster.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The financial turmoil that has rocked global markets appears to be benefiting US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, according to a new poll released Monday that finds the Democratic candidate pulling ahead of his Republican opponent John McCain with a 51 percent to 46 percent lead.Yes. Of course we do. We may be flouridated and gamma-rayed into bright smiling idiocy, but we're not dead yet. A few brain cells yet have the working synapses, ruthlessly connecting the Bush dot with the economic misery dot, over and over again.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll also finds that by a two-to-one margin Americans blame Republicans for the current financial crisis.
Forty-seven percent of registered voters say Republicans are more responsible for the state of the economy, compared to 24 percent of registered voters who say Democrats are more responsible.
Now let us move up a few socio-economic clicks, to the bustling corridors of Wall Street.
The title character of my 2007 novel, Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy, was inspired by a real-life shoeshiner who plied his trade among the Guccis and Ferragamos of the financial district. What a view he had! From the very bottom rung of the economic ladder, he watched Wall Street insanity of outlandish proportions: the shady world of unbelievable hedge-fund profits, the supermodel girlfriends, $5,000 bottles of wine, cocaine-fueled trading and partying, the jaw-dropping castles of the new superrich being erected in Greenwich and the Hamptons.Oh dear. Dear dear dear. My goodness gracious. This is just terrible. Brown-bagged lunches?? What is the world coming to?...Few people on the trading floor were inclined to make small talk with menial workers last week, one such worker told me, because 90 percent of the staff had put in full days over the weekend, trying to figure out the latest repercussions for their company. All day, he saw people staring at their monitors in disbelief, pausing only to yell, "What the [expletive]?" or "This is a [expletive]-show." There was none of the usual horseplay or joking around. Instead, people were screaming into their phones and then slamming them down.
Many of the traders who were used to receiving six-figure annual bonuses have started brown-bagging their lunches instead of ordering in sushi or eating out at local restaurants. "Dude, we already passed the recession," one trader explained to the worker. "This is the Depression. Save your money."
The trading floor had always seemed, to one observer, rock-solid Republican -- until recently. One staunch Republican stood up in his trading group's row and announced, to the amazed stares of his colleagues, "I'm voting for Obama. I don't care if I have to pay more taxes. I just want things to be fixed."
And a step about them, many in the Republicans in Congress have been left bewildered.
Last week’s deepening financial crisis and the string of bailouts engineered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left Republicans bewildered, whipsawed and divided over how to respond....Some members of the Republican Study Committee, which represents conservative stalwarts, were decrying the bailout plan as a step closer to "socialism," according to Roll Call.No comment. But even farther up, in the hallowed halls, walk the people who are not confused, and not bewildered, and not upset. For these people, everything is under control and proceeding apace.
Yes. This is an emergency. It's time to ram some new dictatorial powers down the American people's collective throat quickly. OR ELSE!What happened on September 18-19 took years of preparation, capped by a faux ideology crafted by public-relations think tanks to be broadcast under emergency conditions to panic Congress - and voters - right before the presidential election. This seems to be our September election surprise. Under staged crisis conditions, Pres. Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson are now calling for the country to come together in a War on Defaulting Homeowners. This is said to be the only hope to "save the system." (What system is this? Not industrial capitalism, or even banking as we know it.) The largest transformation of America's financial system since the Great Depression has been compressed into just two weeks, starting with the doubling of America's national debt on September 7 with the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (My computer's spellchecker will not permit me to use the euphemism "conservatorship" that Mr. Paulson applied to bailing out the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fraudsters.)
Economic theory used to explain that profits and interest were a return for calculated risk. But today, the name of the game is capital gains and computerized gambling on the direction of interest rates, foreign currencies and stock prices - and when bad bets are made, bailouts are the calculated economic return for campaign contributions. But this is not supposed to be the time to talk of such things. "We must act now to protect our nation's economic health from serious risk," intoned Pres. Bush on September 19. What he meant was that the White House must make the Republican Party's largest group of campaign contributors whole - Wall Street, that is - by bailing out their bad gambles. "There will be ample opportunity to debate the origins of this problem. Now is the time to solve it." In other words, don't make this an election issue. "In our nation's history there have been moments that require us to come together across party lines to address major challenges. This is such a moment." Right before the presidential election! The same guff was heard earlier on Friday morning from Sec. Paulson: "Our economic health requires that we work together for prompt, bipartisan action." The broadcasters said that half a trillion dollars was discussed for this day's maneuverings.
Or Else WHAT, exactly? We could be somehow less screwed?
9/22/08
Not quite sure what to say here...
I tried to call the senators and reps this weekend, just for shits and giggles. The following mailboxes were full: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry. I was able to leave a couple of messages for other people.
What currently transpires is not wealth destruction, but a massive transfer. Some few people, somewhere, sit atop mountains of money.
Furthermore, as of this point, we have been left to the mercy and judgment of this man. I warn you, you will see a high definition close up picture of his face. Please note the eyes (as if you couldn't).
WTF?
What currently transpires is not wealth destruction, but a massive transfer. Some few people, somewhere, sit atop mountains of money.
Furthermore, as of this point, we have been left to the mercy and judgment of this man. I warn you, you will see a high definition close up picture of his face. Please note the eyes (as if you couldn't).
WTF?
9/19/08
A Teaching Moment
Regarding Sarah Palin, we have all seen and read much. Yes she has become an enormous distraction, but this is a teaching moment for the American people.
We have been here before, eight years ago, and this time one can only hope (please, please God have mercy on your people) that we have learned something in the intervening period of pure misery. Why do we still find this all so shocking?!?
Someone at DKos parses the curious tale of how Sarah Palin reacted when John McCain asked her to be his VP.
She has now given two completely different answers to explain/describe her reaction to the VP nod. In the one to Gibson, she bragged about not even blinking. Now she says she consulted with her family and they even voted. Oh sure. How democratic is that?This is something I can't let pass--not without taking notice. Sarah Palin has just made her most blatant lie yet. It's one that the average television viewer can catch. And most tellingly, it's a lie that exposes not just mendacity, but a compulsion to lie.
In a transparent attempt to shore up her feminist appeal, she's changed her story on how she accepted the offer to run for vice-president.
Which one is it, Sarah? The problem with lying isn't so much putting the lies out there. It's in sticking to them.
So which one is it? What has happened here?
Her answer to Charlie Gibson was the real answer. She is in all likelihood a psychopath, as I wrote here. I noticed that Charlie also said, in asking his question, that it might belie some hubris for her to accept the job, but she glided right past that little remark and nobody else seems to have mentioned it either. There's a great deal of focus on her not knowing about the Bush Doctrine, and so forth. Be that as it may. But from a purely emotional level, her performance made it completely plain -- if you have eyes to see -- that she is ruthless and cutthroat, completely devoid of introspection or even a tiny shred of humility. This is not a nice person. I don't care what she looks like on the outside.
Psychopaths do not experience normal human emotions, and they try to fake it. But sometimes they just get it wrong. Her no blinking answer was a clashing gong to many thinking, feeling Americans; and now she has to redo that answer by having a new answer, the answer that a normal human would have. The fact that it contradicts her previous answer is of no concern to her. You have to understand that's how these people operate. Haven't we seen this over and over again with Bush/Cheney and the GOP? Reality is what they say it is. They actually believe that. They do not understand why we get all hung up on consistency and principles because they have no principles.
As for the comparisons to Cheney, I think they are accurate and justified. The main difference being that Cheney has been inside Washington for what, 30 years?, giving him plenty of time to learn how to spin his lies. Also, he spends so much time behind the scenes where he doesn't have to bother with all this pesky PR stuff. Sarah is a neophyte in comparison, but that does not mean that she is any less despicable. And if we're stupid enough to find out, well heaven help us.
Bonus: Additional information from Alaska about her ruthless behavior toward Monegan.
9/18/08
What's in your holster, human?
These people who have of late destroyed the world? What menace courses through their bodies where a soul belongs? Who are these people? What are these people?
I believe in aristocracy though, if that is the right word and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. - From a 1941 essay by EM Forster
Some people will screw you at the slightest provocation. Some people go way out of their way to screw you. But others just won't do it, even if you earned it. They are the true aristocracy. Why? Because they are better, bigger, deeper, made of a finer substance. More human. More humane. Generous. Compassionate. Plucky. Brave.
If you're lucky, you will at least desire to be like one of them. You will freely recognize and admit their goodness, you will admire their quality, imperfect though your own life may be to the measure. You will not denigrate them for trying. You will understand that without this striving to guide you, you're just wallowing around in muck; and you will disgust yourself, turning to alcohol or the addiction of your choice to self-medicate and numb your own profound disgust with your own pathetic self. Your unfulfilled goodness will be exquisitely painful.
If you're so unlucky, you don't even give a crap about any of this. You don't even have the slightest idea what I'm talking about. It's not real to you. You have no problems of interior conflict or remorse. You are the people who skip through life, blithely unaware of the devastation, with that fake smile on your face and those dead eyes blinking at us. To those I say, just because it's not real to you, that does not mean it's not real. I'm done with you people, or whatever the hell you are. Go. Away. From. Here.
But if you do understand what I'm saying, you need to be strengthened, and to have courage. Not just for your own sake, but for us all.
What you see unfolding in the world today...well, by their fruits shall ye know them. This is the world that good people created and psychopaths destroyed. Because they have no creative spark. They can only destroy, so everything they think they 'built' has been ultimately the instrument of destruction. It was never real. The fiat currency, adored by the greedy, was not real money; and now we all know. We have a giant, monumental crashing destruction taking place. Good. Let it fall down. Let it all come down and be pulverized into dust and ashes. It does not deserve to exist and suck the lifeblood out of good people, as it has done for generations. We can make something much, much better.
Good people can recognize each other, just like the psychopaths among us, 'passing' as human. Sometimes it takes a while, because many good people have been burnt so many times that they hold back a little out of caution. Good people know all too well the treachery of the evil, because we good people make such great victims. We know that. We learn that. But still, over time we find each other.
So here's my shout out to the good people of the world, and there are a lot of you, though perhaps not so many as one would hope. Too many people have been dulled and compromised. They don't dare to be good. Maybe they had a little good inside, once upon a time, and someone beat it out of them. Please have courage. Please don't succumb. Please find the shred of goodness you once held in your heart, perhaps many years ago, and dare to expose it.
Goodness is a secret weapon. When you take it out of it's holster, which is in your heart, it feels like you might die. But you probably won't. (And even if you did, well shit we're all going to die someday. Wouldn't it be better to die for goodness' sake?) This powerful weapon can have amazing repellent properties against evil. Amazing.
You have to have a little courage, people. I know its scary. I am scared, too. But you can't cave into that. This is a numbers game, allright? We outnumber them. Good people outnumber evil people by magnitudes. And look at the evil. They have screwed up their own numbers game, the one they own, the very financial system. And you got burnt, too, no doubt. But so have we all. So many many times. And we have had the luxury of not being Iraqis, or Afghans, or Palestinians, or Lebanese, or Africans, or any multitude of people literally discarded and destroyed throughout the world by the rapacious evil.
It does not have to be this way. I just cannot accept that it has to be this way, and I hope you cannot accept it either. Our governments have created God-knows-what technology with their black-ops budgets, money siphoned off through their evil schemes of drug running and gun running. Who can count all the innocent lives destroyed to 'buy' this technology, which has been kept hidden from the human race? And what do they give us instead? They wage war on the world without our consent. They make us debt slaves. They give us a broken down country, infrastructure falling apart, pollution and poison in the sky, in the water, and in the food. I know someone who died of Mad Cow disease this week, here in the US. We have a poisoned food supply. I have young friends and family members fighting off mysterious, virulent autoimmune diseases which have robbed them of dignity and robust health. Something has gone desperately wrong. But we can't give up. Don't give up until they put you in the ground.
Just as the psychopaths can recognize each other from childhood, every good person must cultivate the ability to recognize both other good people and the evil among us. You must also learn to discern those who have been horribly compromised but are essentially good. This is not easy, but it can be done. People with no conscience will leave their telltale signs. They will make strange remarks. You can figure it out if you know what to look for. Read up on it.
Come on people. You have what it takes. Just use it. Stand up for yourselves. Stand up for each other. Be a human being while we still have time. Dare to wield your inherent goodness in the face of cruelty and chaos.
I believe in aristocracy though, if that is the right word and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. - From a 1941 essay by EM Forster
Some people will screw you at the slightest provocation. Some people go way out of their way to screw you. But others just won't do it, even if you earned it. They are the true aristocracy. Why? Because they are better, bigger, deeper, made of a finer substance. More human. More humane. Generous. Compassionate. Plucky. Brave.
If you're lucky, you will at least desire to be like one of them. You will freely recognize and admit their goodness, you will admire their quality, imperfect though your own life may be to the measure. You will not denigrate them for trying. You will understand that without this striving to guide you, you're just wallowing around in muck; and you will disgust yourself, turning to alcohol or the addiction of your choice to self-medicate and numb your own profound disgust with your own pathetic self. Your unfulfilled goodness will be exquisitely painful.
If you're so unlucky, you don't even give a crap about any of this. You don't even have the slightest idea what I'm talking about. It's not real to you. You have no problems of interior conflict or remorse. You are the people who skip through life, blithely unaware of the devastation, with that fake smile on your face and those dead eyes blinking at us. To those I say, just because it's not real to you, that does not mean it's not real. I'm done with you people, or whatever the hell you are. Go. Away. From. Here.
But if you do understand what I'm saying, you need to be strengthened, and to have courage. Not just for your own sake, but for us all.
What you see unfolding in the world today...well, by their fruits shall ye know them. This is the world that good people created and psychopaths destroyed. Because they have no creative spark. They can only destroy, so everything they think they 'built' has been ultimately the instrument of destruction. It was never real. The fiat currency, adored by the greedy, was not real money; and now we all know. We have a giant, monumental crashing destruction taking place. Good. Let it fall down. Let it all come down and be pulverized into dust and ashes. It does not deserve to exist and suck the lifeblood out of good people, as it has done for generations. We can make something much, much better.
Good people can recognize each other, just like the psychopaths among us, 'passing' as human. Sometimes it takes a while, because many good people have been burnt so many times that they hold back a little out of caution. Good people know all too well the treachery of the evil, because we good people make such great victims. We know that. We learn that. But still, over time we find each other.
So here's my shout out to the good people of the world, and there are a lot of you, though perhaps not so many as one would hope. Too many people have been dulled and compromised. They don't dare to be good. Maybe they had a little good inside, once upon a time, and someone beat it out of them. Please have courage. Please don't succumb. Please find the shred of goodness you once held in your heart, perhaps many years ago, and dare to expose it.
Goodness is a secret weapon. When you take it out of it's holster, which is in your heart, it feels like you might die. But you probably won't. (And even if you did, well shit we're all going to die someday. Wouldn't it be better to die for goodness' sake?) This powerful weapon can have amazing repellent properties against evil. Amazing.
You have to have a little courage, people. I know its scary. I am scared, too. But you can't cave into that. This is a numbers game, allright? We outnumber them. Good people outnumber evil people by magnitudes. And look at the evil. They have screwed up their own numbers game, the one they own, the very financial system. And you got burnt, too, no doubt. But so have we all. So many many times. And we have had the luxury of not being Iraqis, or Afghans, or Palestinians, or Lebanese, or Africans, or any multitude of people literally discarded and destroyed throughout the world by the rapacious evil.
It does not have to be this way. I just cannot accept that it has to be this way, and I hope you cannot accept it either. Our governments have created God-knows-what technology with their black-ops budgets, money siphoned off through their evil schemes of drug running and gun running. Who can count all the innocent lives destroyed to 'buy' this technology, which has been kept hidden from the human race? And what do they give us instead? They wage war on the world without our consent. They make us debt slaves. They give us a broken down country, infrastructure falling apart, pollution and poison in the sky, in the water, and in the food. I know someone who died of Mad Cow disease this week, here in the US. We have a poisoned food supply. I have young friends and family members fighting off mysterious, virulent autoimmune diseases which have robbed them of dignity and robust health. Something has gone desperately wrong. But we can't give up. Don't give up until they put you in the ground.
Just as the psychopaths can recognize each other from childhood, every good person must cultivate the ability to recognize both other good people and the evil among us. You must also learn to discern those who have been horribly compromised but are essentially good. This is not easy, but it can be done. People with no conscience will leave their telltale signs. They will make strange remarks. You can figure it out if you know what to look for. Read up on it.
Come on people. You have what it takes. Just use it. Stand up for yourselves. Stand up for each other. Be a human being while we still have time. Dare to wield your inherent goodness in the face of cruelty and chaos.
9/17/08
All the chips are on the table
At the risk of sounding really crazy, I do think now is as good a time as any to think through the worst case scenarios which may lie directly ahead.
Obviously, the economy is collapsing; though so far the major tremors shake the shadow economy of big Wall Street firms. While scary to watch on the news, you may wonder how this will affect you. Aside from the fact that you, dear US taxpayer, your children, your grandchildren and your great great grandchildren have been made wage slaves -- well aside from that -- it probably doesn't affect you at all, as long as you can keep your job. But it may affect your employer, like say if you work in the financial industry or the insurance industry, or if your employer relies on the financial industry or the insurance industry as a customer base, or any infinite number of scenarios by which we have all become trapped in a sticky spiderweb of financial interconnectedness.
However, and this is important, this disaster may possibly help avert an even larger disaster -- WW III -- by cutting off the source of financing. If the world economy refuses to lend us more money, since we don't any longer seem capable of paying it back, then it would really put a crimp in the hose for funding military adventures. That is why I think the timing of this problem may be off by a couple of months, because the War with Iran has not happened yet. Events should have gone (ideally, to the psychopaths) along this trajectory: War with Iran (caused by an Israeli false flag operation, blamed on Iran), then financial collapse (blamed on the war and Iran via proxy, not on Bush), then martial law in the US (an unfortunate necessity, also blamed on the evil Iran). This would have greatly facilitated sliding McCain/Palin into the White House. But the financial collapse has occurred first, a significant handicap for McCain/Palin as well as the war planners. As it stands now you have the financial collapse (correctly blamed on Bush), and an excellent chance that everyone, being very pissy about the collapsed economy, will rightfully blame the War with Iran on Bush and Israel. It's just not going to be so easy to pull this off and get away with it, too.
But that doesn't mean they won't do it. That's the problem with psychopaths. You can't rely on them to make good decisions. In fact, you can rely on them to overreach, and in this case their overreaching can cause millions of deaths.
Lord Stirling reports here that Bush the Idiot has agreed to sell Israel some bunker buster bombs, and one may conclude that Israel will use them to attack Iran, especially if that monster Netanyahu steps in as Prime Minister in a few days. And then what?
I just really think people should know that the minute you hear about an attack on Iran, you would be advised to get your fanny home, and pick up your kids at school, and plan to hang out at your house for the next month or so. Please God may I be wrong, and we can all have a good laugh about it someday. Nothing would make me happier.
Obviously, the economy is collapsing; though so far the major tremors shake the shadow economy of big Wall Street firms. While scary to watch on the news, you may wonder how this will affect you. Aside from the fact that you, dear US taxpayer, your children, your grandchildren and your great great grandchildren have been made wage slaves -- well aside from that -- it probably doesn't affect you at all, as long as you can keep your job. But it may affect your employer, like say if you work in the financial industry or the insurance industry, or if your employer relies on the financial industry or the insurance industry as a customer base, or any infinite number of scenarios by which we have all become trapped in a sticky spiderweb of financial interconnectedness.
However, and this is important, this disaster may possibly help avert an even larger disaster -- WW III -- by cutting off the source of financing. If the world economy refuses to lend us more money, since we don't any longer seem capable of paying it back, then it would really put a crimp in the hose for funding military adventures. That is why I think the timing of this problem may be off by a couple of months, because the War with Iran has not happened yet. Events should have gone (ideally, to the psychopaths) along this trajectory: War with Iran (caused by an Israeli false flag operation, blamed on Iran), then financial collapse (blamed on the war and Iran via proxy, not on Bush), then martial law in the US (an unfortunate necessity, also blamed on the evil Iran). This would have greatly facilitated sliding McCain/Palin into the White House. But the financial collapse has occurred first, a significant handicap for McCain/Palin as well as the war planners. As it stands now you have the financial collapse (correctly blamed on Bush), and an excellent chance that everyone, being very pissy about the collapsed economy, will rightfully blame the War with Iran on Bush and Israel. It's just not going to be so easy to pull this off and get away with it, too.
But that doesn't mean they won't do it. That's the problem with psychopaths. You can't rely on them to make good decisions. In fact, you can rely on them to overreach, and in this case their overreaching can cause millions of deaths.
Lord Stirling reports here that Bush the Idiot has agreed to sell Israel some bunker buster bombs, and one may conclude that Israel will use them to attack Iran, especially if that monster Netanyahu steps in as Prime Minister in a few days. And then what?
The Israeli and American war planners may be counting on all sides refraining from the use of WMD. Rather like Saddam held back his 29 WMD armed (chemical and anthrax) Scud-type guided missiles during the First Gulf War and like Hezbollah did during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. If this is the strategy it is one very, very, massive risk to all involved.And if they don't? If they don't, Iran will possibly use their ABW (Advanced Biological Warfare) weapons, which are scary as shit, and cheap, and you wouldn't know until two weeks later -- or in other words -- Too Late.
I just really think people should know that the minute you hear about an attack on Iran, you would be advised to get your fanny home, and pick up your kids at school, and plan to hang out at your house for the next month or so. Please God may I be wrong, and we can all have a good laugh about it someday. Nothing would make me happier.
9/16/08
Where does one even begin?
Following the news can easily become a full-time job, and interpreting the news takes the wisdom of Solomon. Since I am unqualified for that task, let me just wish all of you the best of luck and I'll do what I can with the cards we've been dealt.
As for the financial meltdown currently taking place, I see it but I'm not sure what it really means yet. It appears to be planned event, but the timing seems off. Perhaps "they" hoped to forestall it until after the elections to insure that McCain could get in first. In addition, it does not seem that everyone expected to have both feet on the reservation about McCain got the memo. Perhaps Palin is a bridge too far. The overall problem appears to be that events are happening so quickly that they defy coordination and control. Considering how orchestrated our lives have become, the advantage accrues to those paying attention -- as long as you can keep up. Good luck.
Meanwhile, the revelations about the DOJ and Cheney's cabal back in 2004 are very, very interesting. Clearly Cheney and Addington have been making all sorts of decisions and using a combination of secrecy and bullying to make it all stick. Addington whined:
But we still don't know what was this surveillance 'thing' that prompted such intense pushback from the DOJ.
While all this rages on, we've had other news about the mysterious weapons that Bob Woodward told Larry King about. He couldn't say more because someone could get killed, by which he must have meant a "good guy," since obviously, plenty of people have been getting killed by the said unknown technology, but I digress...
And what the hell is going on with Hurricane Ike? Gee whiz the Republicans were so attentive to people's needs when Hurricane Gustav displaced their convention. They were paragons of virtue. But here we are, just two weeks later, and they're right back to the Katrina playbook.
These things are connected. It's all connected: mysterious weapons, surveillance, the lethargic and brain-dead American public, weather modification. We must discover the connections, and they have to do with technology.
As for the financial meltdown currently taking place, I see it but I'm not sure what it really means yet. It appears to be planned event, but the timing seems off. Perhaps "they" hoped to forestall it until after the elections to insure that McCain could get in first. In addition, it does not seem that everyone expected to have both feet on the reservation about McCain got the memo. Perhaps Palin is a bridge too far. The overall problem appears to be that events are happening so quickly that they defy coordination and control. Considering how orchestrated our lives have become, the advantage accrues to those paying attention -- as long as you can keep up. Good luck.
Meanwhile, the revelations about the DOJ and Cheney's cabal back in 2004 are very, very interesting. Clearly Cheney and Addington have been making all sorts of decisions and using a combination of secrecy and bullying to make it all stick. Addington whined:
"I'm sure when we leave office we're all going to be hauled up before congressional committees and grand juries," Addington told one colleague in disgust.God Willing!
But we still don't know what was this surveillance 'thing' that prompted such intense pushback from the DOJ.
While all this rages on, we've had other news about the mysterious weapons that Bob Woodward told Larry King about. He couldn't say more because someone could get killed, by which he must have meant a "good guy," since obviously, plenty of people have been getting killed by the said unknown technology, but I digress...
And what the hell is going on with Hurricane Ike? Gee whiz the Republicans were so attentive to people's needs when Hurricane Gustav displaced their convention. They were paragons of virtue. But here we are, just two weeks later, and they're right back to the Katrina playbook.
These things are connected. It's all connected: mysterious weapons, surveillance, the lethargic and brain-dead American public, weather modification. We must discover the connections, and they have to do with technology.
The surveillance state is well in place and all pervasive. The government here employs one in 25 people (2001) to snitch on their neighbors and clientele, and there are many more recruits available who do this out of some misguided zealotry: fundamental churches are sponsored to provide candidates for this role, as well as any other organization including but not limited to motorcycle club/gang members. Two way television surveillance is rife, and in place just about anywhere there are cable TV facilities. Many monitors and televisions are equipped with a camera OUT, letting law enforcement into your living room whenever they feel the need. The legislation enacted recently by boy george (Since 9-11) is just an attempt to make all this legal on paper.Watching people in their homes, through their TVs and computers? Was that what pushed Ashcroft and Comey over the edge? I mean, were they ok with monitoring all our phone calls and emails, but they drew the line at the peep show? I don't know. That's just the problem -- we don't know. So much secrecy surrounds our government, and what they're really doing, and to what nefarious ends.
The New World Order is wireless, and will never end unless the antennae come down. That is the stark truth. Get up close to them, see how they are made.I encourage you to explore the links at this site, especially if you have some background in science.
9/13/08
A Little Treasure
I went to a yard sale today and bought a little antique book with gilded pages from 1929. I paid ten cents. It is full of beautiful things like this:
41. The Sparrow, by Ivan Sergiewich Turgenev, Russian novelist, 1818-1883
41. The Sparrow, by Ivan Sergiewich Turgenev, Russian novelist, 1818-1883
I was returning from hunting and walking along an avenue of the garden, my dog running in front of me.
Suddenly he took shorter steps, and began to steal along as though tracking game.
I looked along the avenue and saw a young sparrow, with yellow about its beak and down on its head. It had fallen out of the nest (the wind was violently shaking the birch trees in the avenue) and sat unable to move, helplessly flapping its half-grown wings.
My dog was slowly approaching it, when, suddenly darting down from a tree close by, an old dark-throated sparrow fell like a stone right before his nose, and all ruffled up, terrified, with despairing and pitiful cheeps, it flung itself twice towards the open jaws of shining teeth.
It sprang to save; it cast itself before its nestling, but all its tiny body was shaking with terror; its note was harsh and strange. Swooning with fear, it offered itself up!
What a huge monster must the dog have seemed to it! And yet it could not stay on its high branch out of danger. A force stronger than its will flung it down.
My Tresor stood still, drew back. Clearly he too recognized this force.
I hastened to call off the disconcerted dog, and went away, full of reverence.
Love, I thought, is stronger than death or the fear of death. Only by it, by love, life holds together and advances.
Dream Tales and Prose Poems
Trans. Constance Garnett
9/12/08
Totally Unacceptable
Army: Settlers have crossed the red line
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221142452189&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
No no no, silly, it's not a problem that they're attacking Palestinian civilians. That kind of thing is routinely overlooked.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1011977.html
The problem is they are attacking the IDF. That, my friends, is crossing a line.
She can blink, but she don't think
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...
I'm sure the Society of American Sociopaths will be duly impressed. You have conveyed the secret meanings to them. They know you are one of the tribe. Normal people, of course, will be horrified. But that's the fun of it, no? To horrify the normal people, those saps every one of them, who have such silly expectations, who persist in earnest effort against the pitiless tide of corruption? Aha. It must be so entertaining for you to play the role of American folk hero alongside the American war hero.
Charlie Gibson asks Sarah if she has the experience to be Vice President, and perhaps, heaven forfend, President of the United States.
Are you kidding me? This is like the Best Job Offer EVAH!! Why would Sarah Palin hesitate? She is no fool. This will make her rich and famous. Who gives a crap about all that other stuff? This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and thus she didn't blink, and she didn't think. That kind of reflective bullshit is for conscientious people, also known as saps. When you have no conscience, you have no problem taking on jobs and responsibilities above your pay grade. As a matter of fact, this is the preferred method for psychopaths to fill the upper echelons of business and government with other psychopaths, greatly facilitatating massive corruption.
The 'mission' she speaks of? To 'reform the country' and secure 'victory in the war'? If only Charlie had pushed her to define those platitudes, perhaps she could have given even more secret dog whistles to the religious right.
But wait there's more!!
Charlie pressed Sarah about whether it was acceptable for the US to violate Pakistan's sovereignty. He asked the question several times.
But would you look at her? She is so pretty. She is so charming. She's a mom, and a 'Christian,' so we have nothing to worry about.
I'm sure the Society of American Sociopaths will be duly impressed. You have conveyed the secret meanings to them. They know you are one of the tribe. Normal people, of course, will be horrified. But that's the fun of it, no? To horrify the normal people, those saps every one of them, who have such silly expectations, who persist in earnest effort against the pitiless tide of corruption? Aha. It must be so entertaining for you to play the role of American folk hero alongside the American war hero.
Charlie Gibson asks Sarah if she has the experience to be Vice President, and perhaps, heaven forfend, President of the United States.
Palin says she immediately accepted the VP offer from Sen. McCain, despite misgivings Gibson suggested she might have. "I didn't hesitate," she said. "I answered him yes because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we're on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can't blink. So I didn't blink then even when asked to run as his running mate."In true psychopathic fashion, Sarah admits to being 'wired' in such a way that self-reflection has no role in such important, monumental decisions. Why would she stop for one nanosecond? To consider whether this might be good for her family? To consider whether she deserves to represent the American people in this way? To consider whether she can do this job?
Are you kidding me? This is like the Best Job Offer EVAH!! Why would Sarah Palin hesitate? She is no fool. This will make her rich and famous. Who gives a crap about all that other stuff? This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and thus she didn't blink, and she didn't think. That kind of reflective bullshit is for conscientious people, also known as saps. When you have no conscience, you have no problem taking on jobs and responsibilities above your pay grade. As a matter of fact, this is the preferred method for psychopaths to fill the upper echelons of business and government with other psychopaths, greatly facilitatating massive corruption.
The 'mission' she speaks of? To 'reform the country' and secure 'victory in the war'? If only Charlie had pushed her to define those platitudes, perhaps she could have given even more secret dog whistles to the religious right.
But wait there's more!!
Charlie pressed Sarah about whether it was acceptable for the US to violate Pakistan's sovereignty. He asked the question several times.
PALIN: "In order to stop Islamic extremists, those terrorists who would seek to destroy America and our allies, we must do whatever it takes and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions in where we go and even who we target."Yes, Charlie. YES YES YES. She is ok with murdering Muslims, who hate us for our freedoms, and she does not have to 'think' about that either. No conscience required. Tough tough tough. All options on the table. Have to protect our 'allies.'
GIBSON: "And let me finish with this. I just, I got lost in a blizzard of words there. Was that a yes? You think we have the right to go across the border, with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to go after terrorists... ?"
PALIN: "I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We have got to have all options out there on the table."
But would you look at her? She is so pretty. She is so charming. She's a mom, and a 'Christian,' so we have nothing to worry about.
It should be emphasized that psychopaths are quite often interesting - even exciting! They exude a captivating energy that keeps their listeners on the edge of their seats. Even if some part of the normal person is shocked or repelled by what the psychopath says, they are like the mouse hypnotized by the torturing cat. Even if they have the chance to run away, they don’t. Many Psychopaths “make their living” by using charm, deceit, and manipulation to gain the confidence of their victims. Many of them can be found in white collar professions where they are aided in their evil by the fact that most people expect certain classes of people to be trustworthy because of their social or professional credentials. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, generally do not have to earn our trust because they have it by virtue of their positions. But the fact is: psychopaths are found in such lofty spheres also!
At the same time, psychopaths are good impostors. They have absolutely no hesitation about forging and brazenly using impressive credentials to adopt professional roles that bring prestige and power. They pick professions in which the requisite skills are easy to fake, the jargon is easy to learn, and the credentials are unlikely to be thoroughly checked. Psychopaths find it extremely easy to pose as financial consultants, ministers, psychological counselors and psychologists. And that’s a scary thought.
Psychopaths make their way by conning people into doing things for them; obtaining money for them, prestige, power, or even standing up for them when others try to expose them. But that is their claim to fame. That’s what they do. And they do it very well. What’s more, the job is very easy because most people are gullible with an unshakable belief in the inherent goodness of man which, I should add, has been programmed into normal people by psychopaths.
9/11/08
The Price of Sanity is Now Happiness
Well here we are again. The seventh anniversary of the day of infamy. What can one say about today? Well, that really depends on where your mind has gone over the past seven years. I am going to keep this personal, and tell you how 9/11 has changed my life.
I used to be a happy person. When George Bush stole the 2000 election, I knew he was stealing and I knew things were bad. What the hell was the matter with people? How come they could not see through this man? Real men did not need to strut around like roosters and talk with an affected phony accent, but millions found this act charming. The destruction of the American mind, the withering away of our ability to discern reality, had already been sufficiently advanced to allow a complete and obvious impostor like GWB to be taken seriously. Of course, the corporate media shills moved mountains to make this happen. None of this could have happened without their constant facilitation, an unforgivable betrayal that will land many of them in the ninth circle of hell, where they belong.
Of course I believed that terrorists attacked us on 9/11, but I couldn't bring myself to support Bush even then. He always creeped me out. Somehow I was immune to his wiles and knew we had to get rid of this guy in 2004. People were digging up the truth about his National Guard service and other lies, like the ones used to get us into Iraq; and many blatant lies were documented. But no. The cancer had spread. Republicans refused to hear the truth, and they became vicious in Bush's defense.
Around that time I also began doing a little research into 9/11. Questions had been bubbling, but the commission had people that we thought we could trust, like John McCain. Surely, after being eviscerated by Rove's machine, he would sidle up close to Bush and stick the shiv in. Wasn't that what he was doing? How could he let these treacherous liars get away with it -- all these dead Americans? McCain was a war hero. He would save us from Bush using his position on the 9/11 commission. Ha! Wrong again. He never did anything of the sort. On the contrary, he overlooked everything and tucked in nice and cozy.
One thing led to another, and I became hooked on finding out why nothing makes sense in this country. And I found out enough. Do I have the answers to every question? Certainly not, but I found out enough to know that we are ruined, and how, and by whom. I found out enough to know that I brought three children into this world and their future is bleak, and my heart is broken. I found out enough to understand why this country constantly talks about Israel, and Israel's security, and what's good for Israel. I found out enough to know that for just two or three percent of our population, Jewish people hold a truly amazing number of key government and corporate media jobs from which they shape both policy and narrative. I found out enough to know that this whole war on terror is a big cock-up designed to keep us at war because some people profit handsomely from death and destruction. I found out enough to know why the vast majority of Americans have to work harder and harder to maintain a declining standard of living. I found out enough to know that the official story of 9/11 makes no sense, and even if the truth movement has been littered with misinformation designed to discredit honest people, the official story still makes no sense and they obviously have much to hide. I found out enough to know that our Constitution no longer protects us, but our government doesn't even have the balls to admit that we live in a dictatorship because they're so greedy and cowardly they want everything for free, even unlimited power over the American people. And I found out enough to know that all these things are connected.
That's what I did since 9/11/01. And now I am no longer happy. I ceased to be happy five years ago, and in fact, I live in a state of grim depression. But that is the sacrifice I made to understand, in an imperfect way, what has happened to our country. It is the price of living in reality. I am depressed, but I am sane. I am depressed because I am sane. And I encourage every American to start somewhere, and to start to apprehend the truth in all its depressing darkness, because that is the only way to honor all the people, and there are so many, who have been murdered as a result of this day seven years ago. It is the only way out of the growing insanity that we have become. The entire world watches in horror, wondering if we will emerge from the swoon in time or take the entire planet down in a final fit of insane delusion.
I used to be a happy person. When George Bush stole the 2000 election, I knew he was stealing and I knew things were bad. What the hell was the matter with people? How come they could not see through this man? Real men did not need to strut around like roosters and talk with an affected phony accent, but millions found this act charming. The destruction of the American mind, the withering away of our ability to discern reality, had already been sufficiently advanced to allow a complete and obvious impostor like GWB to be taken seriously. Of course, the corporate media shills moved mountains to make this happen. None of this could have happened without their constant facilitation, an unforgivable betrayal that will land many of them in the ninth circle of hell, where they belong.
Of course I believed that terrorists attacked us on 9/11, but I couldn't bring myself to support Bush even then. He always creeped me out. Somehow I was immune to his wiles and knew we had to get rid of this guy in 2004. People were digging up the truth about his National Guard service and other lies, like the ones used to get us into Iraq; and many blatant lies were documented. But no. The cancer had spread. Republicans refused to hear the truth, and they became vicious in Bush's defense.
Around that time I also began doing a little research into 9/11. Questions had been bubbling, but the commission had people that we thought we could trust, like John McCain. Surely, after being eviscerated by Rove's machine, he would sidle up close to Bush and stick the shiv in. Wasn't that what he was doing? How could he let these treacherous liars get away with it -- all these dead Americans? McCain was a war hero. He would save us from Bush using his position on the 9/11 commission. Ha! Wrong again. He never did anything of the sort. On the contrary, he overlooked everything and tucked in nice and cozy.
One thing led to another, and I became hooked on finding out why nothing makes sense in this country. And I found out enough. Do I have the answers to every question? Certainly not, but I found out enough to know that we are ruined, and how, and by whom. I found out enough to know that I brought three children into this world and their future is bleak, and my heart is broken. I found out enough to understand why this country constantly talks about Israel, and Israel's security, and what's good for Israel. I found out enough to know that for just two or three percent of our population, Jewish people hold a truly amazing number of key government and corporate media jobs from which they shape both policy and narrative. I found out enough to know that this whole war on terror is a big cock-up designed to keep us at war because some people profit handsomely from death and destruction. I found out enough to know why the vast majority of Americans have to work harder and harder to maintain a declining standard of living. I found out enough to know that the official story of 9/11 makes no sense, and even if the truth movement has been littered with misinformation designed to discredit honest people, the official story still makes no sense and they obviously have much to hide. I found out enough to know that our Constitution no longer protects us, but our government doesn't even have the balls to admit that we live in a dictatorship because they're so greedy and cowardly they want everything for free, even unlimited power over the American people. And I found out enough to know that all these things are connected.
That's what I did since 9/11/01. And now I am no longer happy. I ceased to be happy five years ago, and in fact, I live in a state of grim depression. But that is the sacrifice I made to understand, in an imperfect way, what has happened to our country. It is the price of living in reality. I am depressed, but I am sane. I am depressed because I am sane. And I encourage every American to start somewhere, and to start to apprehend the truth in all its depressing darkness, because that is the only way to honor all the people, and there are so many, who have been murdered as a result of this day seven years ago. It is the only way out of the growing insanity that we have become. The entire world watches in horror, wondering if we will emerge from the swoon in time or take the entire planet down in a final fit of insane delusion.
9/10/08
Hey, they're getting pretty good on the harp
I think I'm kidding.
But seriously, will you look at the location of this earthquake?
Right on the Strait of Hormuz. Hmm.
What a remarkable coincidence.
Go ahead. Type it into Google maps.
Sick minds make sick weapons
Remember when Benazir Bhutto was killed? I wrote a little theory about that assassination, and at the time it made me very nervous because I got some...shall we say...powerful visitors to my blog. The government does not like people poking around their black ops weapons technology. But they want to use the weapons, see, because they are just so sick!, so it's such a damned if you do/damned if you don't kind of problem for them. They have to be totally on their toes to provide alternative explanations and plenty of spin if anyone notices anything amiss.
These weapons have been in use, but they've been used on poor people far away for years. Few reporters have written about these dark things, and surely those that could expose them wouldn't for fear of losing their jobs (or worse). Now we have the 'intrepid' Bob Woodward 'breaking the story' in truly titillating fashion through CNN and Larry King. (link via s o s)
Bob says:
That sick bastard Donald Rumsfeld was rubbing his hands together back in 2002 about zapping people, and the predictions then were that the weapons would be ready in less than five years. So now it's 2008, and lo and behold, Bob Woodward deigns to inform us through Larry King that our military is using some amazing shit against the 'terrorists.'
Yeah, well. Terrorists like this, murdered by Israelis with our cool technology in 2006? Maybe it was still experimental back then.
Or was this little child just murdered with boring old traditional weapons like tank shells, bullets, or bombs? Was he suffocated and crushed to death under rubble? Such a boring death.
Well, there are always the mysterious chemical weapons...
These weapons have been in use, but they've been used on poor people far away for years. Few reporters have written about these dark things, and surely those that could expose them wouldn't for fear of losing their jobs (or worse). Now we have the 'intrepid' Bob Woodward 'breaking the story' in truly titillating fashion through CNN and Larry King. (link via s o s)
Bob says:
“The top secret operations will “some day in history … be described to people’s amazement,” Woodward told King.Amazement, eh? Try horror, you fucking asshole. Pardon me, but it is not amazing "in a good way" that our government has used billions of dollars, most likely laundered drug money which wrecked a few million American lives along the way to the Pentagon black ops budget, to develop secret laser weapons that have been used to kill innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
That sick bastard Donald Rumsfeld was rubbing his hands together back in 2002 about zapping people, and the predictions then were that the weapons would be ready in less than five years. So now it's 2008, and lo and behold, Bob Woodward deigns to inform us through Larry King that our military is using some amazing shit against the 'terrorists.'
Yeah, well. Terrorists like this, murdered by Israelis with our cool technology in 2006? Maybe it was still experimental back then.
Or was this little child just murdered with boring old traditional weapons like tank shells, bullets, or bombs? Was he suffocated and crushed to death under rubble? Such a boring death.Well, there are always the mysterious chemical weapons...
Dear all ,I wish I could help. All I can do is point out the LIES of our government and the INCESSANT LYING of the corporate media. All I can do is point out to my fellow Americans that these technologies will be used against us in the name of Homeland Security. And that you will be instructed to like it and be supportive because you are to believe that only bad people will ever come to know these things intimately, and while you're smoking that crack pipe please remember that all the people in the US military are truly and surely boyscouts who walk old ladies across the street and carry their groceries and would never, ever do anything to hurt an innocent person. So you can trust them completely with any kind of weapon, no matter how diabolical it may seem, because this is America. And I am just as qualified to be Vice President as Sarah Palin because my son plays hockey and I make my kids' own damned sandwiches, too. And that's all it takes. Right? RIGHT????Ok , I have to admit the attached pictures are hideously gruesome, but you have to look at them . Help me find out what kind of weapons cause this kind of dismemberment and mutation. What kind of weapons cause this kind of damage? Do you know? Could you find out?
None of this is confirmed, or could be here and now. However, there are growing doubts that Israel might be using internationally forbidden weapons in its current aggression against Lebanon. News from "Southern Medical Center", a hospital in Saida( in South Lebanon) are not good.
Dr. Bashir Sham, member of "French Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons", explains that the way the corps [sic] look when they reach the hospital , especially those of the air strikes in Doueir and Rmayleih, is very abnormal. One might think they were burnt , but their colour is dark , they're inflated, and they have a terrible smell. All this , and the hair is not burnt nor do the bodies bleed.
Eight of the victims of an air strike on Rmayleih bridge, near Saida, on the 15th of July, were transferred to Sham's hospital.
Sham says that only chemical poisonous substances "lead to instant death without bleeding". And what indicates the power of these substances, is the high and unusual of number of dead victimes, compared to the number of injuries.
Sham thinks that whatever abnormal substance causing these features might penetrate through the skin, or another explanation would be that the missiles contained toxic gas that stopped the proper functioning of the nervous system, and led to blood clotting.
These toxic materials cause immediate death, within two to thirty minutes, according to Sham, who admits that these doubts can't be proven, not even by an autopsy.
The director of the same medical center, Ali Mansour, says that due to the strong smell of the corps, he couldn't breath properly for at least 12 hours after the corps were handled.
He explains that the center received eight bodies from Rmeileh last Monday, and none of them was bleeding. Mansour tells us the hospital wrote to both the commissioner of the European Union for Foreign Affaires Javier Solana, and the United Nations Secretary general Kofi Anan. He said that dr Sham will communicate his doubts to the Doctors Order in Lebanon.
CAN YOU HELP US , PLEASE!
9/9/08
The fall must be near, because look at all this pride
They're everywhere. These shallow people, full of hubris, lacking in all humility and busting at the seams with smug self-righteousness. The people of the lie.
Let's begin with Dick Cheney. We don't usually hear too much about him, but lately he's been quite visible. These must be his plans that are falling apart, and therefore he himself has been forced to come out of his lair and straighten it out. We all know that sense of utter frustration when you shove everyone out of the way to fix something yourself? I think that is what we are witnessing now. But it's not working. Which countries have decided to oppose Russia in anything more than words? (crickets) The more Bush, Cheney and Rice open their mouths, the more foolish they look. The more they display their impotence. But do they shut up? Oh no. They are too proud for that. They keep pushing that rock uphill.
Then we have Israel and the Zionists. The myth currently known as Jewish history has been debunked by Jewish historians. Jews are no more special than anyone else. They are not 'direct and exclusive descendants' of the people who received the Torah in Sinai. There's no justification for the Jews-only state of Israel. But no matter! We are all instructed to carry on as if this were fact, not myth, because a few people in Israel have a need to feel superior and justify their racism. And while many others surely know better, they don't speak up because the charming myth sort of benefits them a little, so why rock the boat?
And speaking of group pride, what about those Republicans? They're coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches now that Sarah Palin has come aboard. What is it about this woman? She's so shallow. YES. She's a racist. YES! She's a Dominionist. YES!! She's vindictive. YES!!! It's all those things and more, don't you see?? She embodies The Base. She is base. The Republicans held up a mirror to their base, and they see Sarah Palin reflected back at them: a whitewashed tomb, beautiful on the outside but full of everything unclean. They are proud of her because she is just like them. In their spite and vindictiveness, they want her in the White House just to prove a fucking point. What is the point? That they own this country and they'll drive it into the ground come hell or high water, and you can't stop it. That's it. The driving animus behind these people is bitter rage.
Does the world ever need a hero right now. The desire is tangible. I carry it with me every minute of every day and night. Because I don't know how we're going to survive these wicked people. I have hopes for Vlad Putin, but he is just a man, after all. It's not fair to expect him to solve a problem of this magnitude.
Let's begin with Dick Cheney. We don't usually hear too much about him, but lately he's been quite visible. These must be his plans that are falling apart, and therefore he himself has been forced to come out of his lair and straighten it out. We all know that sense of utter frustration when you shove everyone out of the way to fix something yourself? I think that is what we are witnessing now. But it's not working. Which countries have decided to oppose Russia in anything more than words? (crickets) The more Bush, Cheney and Rice open their mouths, the more foolish they look. The more they display their impotence. But do they shut up? Oh no. They are too proud for that. They keep pushing that rock uphill.
Then we have Israel and the Zionists. The myth currently known as Jewish history has been debunked by Jewish historians. Jews are no more special than anyone else. They are not 'direct and exclusive descendants' of the people who received the Torah in Sinai. There's no justification for the Jews-only state of Israel. But no matter! We are all instructed to carry on as if this were fact, not myth, because a few people in Israel have a need to feel superior and justify their racism. And while many others surely know better, they don't speak up because the charming myth sort of benefits them a little, so why rock the boat?
And speaking of group pride, what about those Republicans? They're coming out of the woodwork like cockroaches now that Sarah Palin has come aboard. What is it about this woman? She's so shallow. YES. She's a racist. YES! She's a Dominionist. YES!! She's vindictive. YES!!! It's all those things and more, don't you see?? She embodies The Base. She is base. The Republicans held up a mirror to their base, and they see Sarah Palin reflected back at them: a whitewashed tomb, beautiful on the outside but full of everything unclean. They are proud of her because she is just like them. In their spite and vindictiveness, they want her in the White House just to prove a fucking point. What is the point? That they own this country and they'll drive it into the ground come hell or high water, and you can't stop it. That's it. The driving animus behind these people is bitter rage.
Does the world ever need a hero right now. The desire is tangible. I carry it with me every minute of every day and night. Because I don't know how we're going to survive these wicked people. I have hopes for Vlad Putin, but he is just a man, after all. It's not fair to expect him to solve a problem of this magnitude.
After seven days I dreamed a dream in the night. And lo, a wind arose from the sea and stirred up all its waves. As I kept looking the wind made something like the figure of a man come up out of the heart of the sea. And I saw that this man flew with the clouds of heaven; and wherever he turned his face to look, everything under his gaze trembled, and whenever his voice issued from his mouth, all who heard his voice melted as wax melts when it feels the fire.
After this I looked and saw that an innumerable multitude of people were gathered together from the four winds of heaven to make war against the man who came up out of the sea. And I looked and saw that he carved out for himself a great mountain, and flew up on to it. And I tried to see the region or place from which the mountain was carved, but I could not.
After this I looked and saw that all who had gathered together against him, to wage war with him, were filled with fear, and yet they dared to fight. When he saw the onrush of the approaching multitude, he neither lifted his hand nor held a spear or any weapon of war; but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth something like a stream of fire, and from his lips a flaming breath, and from his tongue he shot forth a storm of sparks. All these were mingled together, the stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm, and fell on the onrushing multitude that was prepared to fight, and burned up all of them, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke. When I saw it, I was amazed.
After this I saw the same man come down from the mountain and call to himself another multitude that was peaceable. Then many people came to him, some of whom were joyful and some sorrowful; some of them were bound, and some were bringing others as offerings. 2 Esdras 13:1-13
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