Letters To The Oppressors

Here is a letter sent today to Joe L. Price, Bank of America Executive, via Occupy the Board Room, which allows you to let corporate executives know what you think:

Hello. Kindly abdicate your position immediately and relinquish your misappropriated wealth to the hungry and homeless.

I like you. I want you to be able to support your family and do cool things with your friends. I think that your hard work should be rewarded. But at present, you are supporting an enterprise that (contrary to the propaganda about creating wealth for the economy) dilutes the economy's wealth and skims it off the top for your benefit, all for the sake pushing around electronic “money” that does nobody a whit of good except you and your conspirators. There is nothing being created here.

Except for you and your conspirators, who have purchased the suppression of laws that should be enforced against a possible plethora of criminal acts committed by your cronies (and your employees who get enough crumbs to keep them in your servitude), these activities do not feed anybody. They do not house anybody who needs housing. They do not clothe anybody who has trouble clothing themselves and their families. They do not provide medical care for people who need it. They do not provide college educations for those who cannot afford them. All they do is unconscionably enrich a group of executives and provide them with so much of an excess of luxury goods and property that the rest of us (the 99%) are struggling harder and harder every day to make ends meet.

I do like you, as I said before. I want to offer you advice to help you avoid a fate such as that which befell Marie Antoinette, or Nicolae Ceaucescu, or any of those other misguided souls who allowed their hubris to blind them, and who did things that made others' lives horrible and promoted suffering. People thought they were evil. I want them to think better of you. I don't think anything bad should happen to you at all. I hope that some day we can sit across a table with each other, sip tea, and know that our work contributes equally to the benefit of society, and that both of our families are doing well. Don't you want that, too? I hope so.

Dressing for Success at the Occupation?

There have been a number of people talking about how people should dress nice to participate in the occupation. Playing dress-up is fine for those who want to do it and feel they have to put up some kind of appearance for someone else (the media, the authorities, etc.). But an important part of what many participants are doing here is a rebellion against those whose only competency is in their manicuring skills. That is part of what many of us are doing with our participation. How many of us have been passed over for jobs, promotions or other perks in society, despite skills we might have that would absolutely qualify us for that perk, only to have it go to someone else who is willing to conform their appearance to what the authorities require of a good lapdog?

Those who will tell you that it is not them that require any certain mode of appearance or clothing will always say that it is for the benefit of the OTHERS who require it...it is just what is expected in society. That glosses over deep-seated prejudices that they themselves have, however benevolent they think their advice might be. We love them anyway...they mean well.

There is absolutely no reason why a male should have to wear a false representation of a flaccid penis around his neck in many social circumstances (Thank the stars that this is not required of females!). It's actually pretty darn ridiculous. However, it is a requirement, and a deep-seated expectation, in many situations.

How many news anchors have you seen with obvious piercings? How many contestants on game shows have you encountered with short sleeves showing multiple tattooes? Where are the transvestite police? The political system "looks like America?" I don't think so.

Please, please, please...dress how you like...if it involves a business suit, that is fine for you. If you feel like somebody won't take us seriously if we don't look a certain way, then take it upon yourself to look that way. Just please don't impose it on the rest of us who have lived our whole lives in the shadow of this often unacknowledged and commonly unredressable form of discrimination.

Remembrances for the Occupation

To the 1%: You have looted everything we need to thrive. You have mined people as if they were veins of resources running through the earth. You have raised your champagne glasses in contempt of us. Please make your beds somewhere else, like Qaddafi suddenly did at the request of the people. Maybe you will have a good time trading anecdotes with fallen dictators. We will chase you out peacefully.

We will remember the trolls. We will remember the naysayers. We will remember the people who kept harping that it couldn't be done. We will remember the police who beat the innocent. We will remember the politicians who ordered the arrests. Because we need to show them kindness when the occupation is over, no matter what the ultimate outcome is.

Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Wall (Street)

There have been news sources popping up that have been talking about how the Democrats are trying to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement. It may be inevitable that sources of money and power will eventually try to infiltrate a movement and try to influence its direction.

But one form of infiltration would be infinitely useful to the occupation. Mr. Obama, come lead the protests into the buildings on Wall Street. Be there to protect the protesters from the police. Walk them into the institutions that they have been battered away from by the New York Police. Do you think the NYPD would stop POTUS? Then we will know that your sympathetic comments are not just lip service.

But there is almost no chance of that, since the President has been purchased by those interests. Maybe if they keep contributing to Romney for the 2012 election cycle...

Power to the...Umm...

Why is everybody who runs for president a power-hungry freak? Oh, yeah, because they want to be even more intense power-hungry freaks.

Dangerous Uses of Power

In Mexico, the state of Veracruz’s Assembly recently passed a provision making it a crime to use Twitter and other social networks to undermine public order. It boggles the mind to think of the possible oppressive interpretations of such a law.

Fun Things To Do With Knives

When the deputy chancellor of the Texas A & M System (a former chief of staff of Rick Perry) was fired from his job, he pulled out a knife and refused to turn over his keys and work badge. And then he later said it was a joke. You just can't make this stuff up.

Caring vs. Insuring

Everybody is talking about health insurance. But whatever happened to focusing on health CARE? All that seems to have happened is that we get mined on a monthly basis to be shaken down for a payment to a large corporation. If you dare to stop that payment, it possibly becomes much harder and more expensive to re-start it in the future. Many of us wouldn't even mind making that payment, and even making it larger, if it seemed like it was leading to getting health care covered for ourselves and our families. But those of us who are "insured" can (and probably will) go bankrupt if a major medical event were to happen, despite having "insurance."

"Everyone should have health insurance? I say everyone should have health care. I'm not selling insurance."--Dennis Kucinich

It's All Your Fault

It is amusing (yet sad) to hear about people who shrug their shoulders and say that it is someone's choice to take on some extreme hardship created by external constraints. Like, "It's their choice if they die because they didn't want to have health insurance."

What does that lead to? "It was your choice to get hit by that bus; you chose to cross the street at that moment. It was your choice to not have any food. It was your choice to contract that disease."

It seems to many of us that a lot of people really don't care if there are opportunities afforded to people, as long as they have some. We would probably like to be wrong about that.

They Are Going To Fight Her Tooth And Nail

‎"I hear all this, you know, 'Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever,'" Warren said. "No. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own -- nobody.

"You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory -- and hire someone to protect against this -- because of the work the rest of us did.

"Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless -- keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."--Elizabeth Warren

Lies And Profits

Commercials and ads always talk how people can "save money" by buying whatever is being advertised. But you don't save money. There is no savings account with that money in it for you. You MIGHT spend less (assuming the offer is not just a trick or gimmick, which is entirely possible). You could spend even less (and maybe even save money) by not buying the vaunted product. They really should say in the commercials, "Buy this, and you'll save ME money."

And what about those commercials that advertise "no interest until..."? Let that happen. Have absolutely no interest in that stuff they are advertising.

Free To Be...

The biggest problem with libertarians wanting to get us out of the drug war is that there appears to be no interest from the libertarians in creating the infrastructure necessary to transform a criminal justice response into a public health response. All they espouse is a desire to legalize drugs and fill our streets with junkies in the alleys free to be deathly ill and to do whatever they want. If anyone thinks we will not be paying for that, they are deluding themselves.

Groucho Nailed It

‎"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." --Groucho Marx

The Sweet Sound of Sedition

"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."--Eugene V. Debs, upon being sentenced for sedition

Is There a Mad Hatter at this Tea Party?

Once the Tea Party succeeds in shrinking the size of the government, the rest of us will be unencumbered to embark on entrepreneurial ventures. Like setting up toll checkpoints on the streets where they live.

The Jayne Mansfield Plan

Trying to balance the budget through tax cuts is like trying to achieve peace through decapitation.

Starving Our Country

The Republicans' insistence on starving the country of revenue is like a company telling its best salesperson, "Say, we expect you to boost sales, though you'll have to do it without shoes, a car, a phone, or any communication device that might cost money, and in your underwear. But here's a golf pencil and a toy plastic abacus; you can write on napkins from your local fast food place (if they still put any out)."

This doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. It seems like they have no interest in improving our nation. They just want to rid it of the "undesirables."

But don't despair; if worse comes to worse, we can always go to fast food places and get packets of parmesan cheese, litle containers of half-and-half, and a dab of jalapeno relish, and make alfredo sauce for our forty-cents worth of noodles. That is, until the armed guards at the fast-food places beat us to a pulp.

We're not broke. We're deliberately being broken.

You Get What You Pay For

Some people say that we should cut legislators' pay. But if they are low-paid, then they will be people who have made a lot of money elsewhere; mostly without empathy or willingness to help the working class. Just look at our Texas Legislature, which pays $7200 a year.

Glenn Beck, Oracle For The Criminally Insane

Aren't we all glad that Glenn Beck is around to explain American History to us? Some of us may have had it all wrong. Who would have guessed that Stalin created Social Security, the White Album was an evil plot to destroy society, and that Franklin Roosevelt rose from the dead in 2009?

And he dabbles in world history, too, with his cringeworthy little jaunt to Auschwitz.

Reds

How is it that the color red, now semi-abandoned by communism, has been appropriated by the republicans? Are there some closet Bolsheviks in the GOP? Really, one would think they would go with stick figures or fingerpaints as a graphic tool; those would mean more to their target audience.

This color scheme didn't seem to be pervasive prior to the (stolen) election of 2000. Then it was all over the place.

Astronaut Pioneers For The Good Of All Mankind

People have been talking about sending a man to Mars. But here's a better idea. Why don't we send some of our politicians to the Sun? Heck, Rick Perry would probably volunteer to go.

Here's How To Solve Our Problems

Here's a sure way to get two opposing sides to reach a solution. Lock the two leaders of the opposing factions in a room together until they get to an agreement. If they haven't gotten there in a week, stop bringing in food. If they haven't gotten there in two more days, no more bathroom breaks. It no agreement after another day, no more water.

If they go all Bobby Sands (which they probably won't, because most of them are basically chickenshit to the core), bring in negotiator #2 for each side.

Teaching Our Politicians?

Why is it that people are saying that we can't afford the teachers, rather than the investment bankers who ruined the economy? And, all these stingy politicians talking about these essential services we can't afford, aren't they the ones we can't afford the most? They are either millionaires or will get gravy jobs from their buddies who they helped screw everybody else around when they get out of office. Why are they still in office? Aren't there more of us than there are of them?

Someone pointed out the other day that there are no protesters out there going crazy with signs, saying, "Close our schools!"

A Good Plan

Do what you can, be where you're needed, enjoy the company of good friends, work on what makes you happy and makes the world a better place, fight against injustice whether it be in the state or the corporations, and don't worry excessively about "-isms." It's the "-isms" that help divide us and make our thinking rigid.

One Little Story Of Corporate Stupidity

Dear Mike Turner:

I just went into your Planet Fitness on Anderson Rd., thinking that I could pay for an unemployed friend's gym membership for a few months, to do a guy who is down on his luck a favor. Your manager actually would not let me pay on his membership. Not only am I kinda hacked that I couldn't do my friend a solid, but I'm kinda incredulous that y'all would not take my money for the services you provide. The manager told me you were his boss and gave me your email address, so I'm contacting you.

Anyway, I ended up a little rankled, knowing that it does no good to try to reason with a person with a closed mind, so I didn't really press the point. I did tell the manager that I would notify some newspapers, and you can see from the cc's on this message that I am notifying some media sources, if only because when I tell someone I'll do something, I'm good for my word. He really didn't seem to care one way or another. If I don't get a response from these few I've sent this to (it's pretty hard to contact the media--not only is there no central directory of media sources, but most of them have these forms on their site to fill out instead of email addresses), I'll notify some more in a few days..

Y'know, I work out a Gold's Gym all the time and was possibly thinking about switching to your place. But now, hell no. And I'll tell anyone who asks about your business, or anyone who is interested in a gym, this story.

Once again, I have no interest in persuading a closed mind to have some kindness, and perhaps the good samaritan moment has already passed for me. I just can't believe that y'all wouldn't take my money for the product you sell. What kinda business model is that? I can't believe that there is no way for someone to figure out how to take free money. If y'all are out of business in a few years (not that I'm wishing anything bad for you in the business realm or in any other arena, but hey, it's a tough economy), please re-read this email. Not that I think that this event would be the cause, but if a pebble can contribute to an avalanche...well, I think you get my drift. Just taking a moment out of my overloaded life to make this point, hope you will take a moment out of your busy day to give a damn. Peace.

Followup email (sent to admin@planetfitness.com (just a guess but it didn't bounce back):

And oh, by the way, the manager gave me a bogus email for "Mike Turner" so it bounced back. I wonder if there is even a real person named "Mike Turner" who is this manager's boss? There is no email or even a physical address on your site (at least not easily available, maybe if i scour the whole site but don't want to waste my time).

So Far, It's Looking Like "Flashfracking" Is Ahead In The Polls

See previous post.

Blitzfracking?

Trying to think of a name for a fun little hobby. It's more stimulating that knitting, but not as wacko as reverse bungee-jumping. Here's how it works:

You begin by meandering around mid-city on your bicycle, taking in the beautiful scenery and colorful surroundings, thinking how wonderful it is to be alive in the good ol' USA (or Namibia, Kazakhstan, wherever the hell...). Anyway, in your state of blissful meander, you chance upon a live news broadcast. There's a perky cub reporter pulling in megabucks to plant her ass in a park somewhere and pretend to be a journalist. She is in the viewing frame of an expensive camera run by an underpaid camera guy. There's a huge, forced polyvinyl smile on her face while she gushes to some far-off anchor (who is doing a fabulous job pretending to understand what is going on around him) about how absolutely wonderful it is that business interests are shoving an apple tree up your ass yet again. She states the OBVIOUS about how spectacular it is for everybody when one has a large woody, fruit bearing perennial forcibly inserted up one's butt. Because, of course, if only everybody had an apple tree jammed up their posterior, businesses would prosper, industry would smile down on the people and, magically, everybody would have a job. Not to mention (with a *wink*) the dual possibilities of the end of all tyranny and the cure for all known disease.

Meanwhile, you manage to cease your lurid admiration of this hideous spectacle celebrating (the death of) the American way. Pedaling furiously, you swoop down and sidle up in a position directly behind the impossibly sunny correspondent, your mouth scant inches from her ear. Quickly, directly over her shoulder, you scream "FUCK!" (or any other highly objectionable utterance of your choosing) as loudly as you can. Fill your lungs beforehand and just draw it out; make it long enough to make home couch potatoes tilt their heads up a few degrees from their drunken (or moronic; that works, too) stupors.

Approach quickly (before the camera guy has a chance to give her the secret hand signal), to accomplish this sick little deed, knowing that you are acting on behalf of the betterment of the community. The next step is to peel off as rapidly as you can into the shadows, shooting clumps of turf grass into her astonished face. You quickly become invisible to all except in the memories of those watching the six o'clock news with their mouths agape. My, it's invigorating to watch an up-and-coming corporate tarball jump out of her skin on live TV. Sorta like watching Wile E. Coyote hit the anvil. Good fun. And triple bonus points for hitting a national news program, like the Today Show. Major acclaim is in order for anyone who can charge their way on to a pompous, condescending religious show like the 700 Club (watching Pat Robertson shit himself on a live broadcast after a filthy word bounces off the back of his neck might be considered the apex of existence to some). Try hard to not get shot. Or arrested.

Anyway, the working title for this stimulating little sidebar (surely, it needs a monthly magazine. Oh wait, that's a dying medium...) is "blitzfracking." Anybody have a better title?

Some might say this activity takes advantage of our Empty-American community. And, granted, there may be some truth to that claim. But ripe fruit is put there for the picking. When opportunity knocks, you want to be there to answer the door.

How To Watch Most Action Movies On Mute Or In Any Language

Protagonist is tough but flawed. He has a complicated relationship with the smart chick (and/or the ex). Protagonist and chick argue over stupid, meaningless shit all the friggin' time, but everybody in the audience (or on your couch, if you're at home) can see right through this manufactured tension. Bad guys show up (or if they were there from the beginning, they intensify). Bad guys fuck with everybody. Shit blows up. Protagonist and chick might jump out of the way of an explosion, just in the nick of time, in slow motion. Protagonist starts visibly agonizing a lot. Protagonist might, at some point, punch a wall out of frustration, because the fucking world just doesn't work as it should. It's just not fair, god damn it, as he bites his fist.

Protagonist chases the bad guys around. Bad guys chase Protagonist around. More shit blows up. Bad guys mess with Protagonist, nab him, and put him in a situation there's no way he can get out of (e.g.--Original "Star Trek" before every mid-show commercial), but he slips out anyway, mostly because dipshit Bad guys waited too fucking long to wipe him (sometimes because they are giving a speech about how devious and clever they are, a la Snidely Whiplash). Protagonist turns the table and nails the bad guys. Protagonist is still flawed, but a little nicer, even though he doesn't like to show it. The end.

A Worthy Goal?

Sometimes it is hard to fathom what is going on in the minds of policy-makers these days. The social safety net seems to be chopped off more and more each day, and opportunities for improving one's standing in society are getting curtailed to a greater degree as time goes on, except for the super wealthy.

One of the latest moves by Austin Independent School District appears to be an initiative to close as many as 15 schools due to budgetary pressure. If we as a society can't educate our children, it will not be long before we will degenerate into a failed state. Pure and simple.

So what is the goal here? The goal is apparently to achieve a generation of illiterates, a panoply of unemployed, and a government that wants everybody to deal with any attendant misery that falls their way as a result of this brilliant plan on their own. Meanwhile, as an amusing sidebar, corporations mine people for the change in their pockets, health care becomes unaffordable, and defense spending spins out of control. And they seem to be succeeding magnificently

Guessing What Is In The State Of The Union Address

A new day is dawning, the American people are great, we have to get busy, and we're screwed, but the sun is shining.

Just a guess as to what is going to be in the State of the Union Address.

About That Political Process Thing

It is hard to recruit good candidates for office. There's too much negative to counterbalance the positive. Anyone who would want to run is subjected to distortions of anything they have said, having to defend the most minor infractions, and having their whole lives under microscopic scrutiny. And corporate interests own the political process; anyone who tries to fight that usually becomes not much more than a placeholder unless they are exceptional.

This is unfortunate, because it means that the natural order of things dictate that decent, caring people with good motives are naturally driven away from politics. And people who have deep needs to abuse power, plunder resources to fill their pockets and take advantage of people, are drawn toward it.

Keith Olbermann Exits Stage Left, His Speech Curtailed

Part of the deal surrounding Keith Olbermann's exit from MSNBC apparently requires him to not talk about the agreement, and also prohibits him from being able to work in television again for a while. Though the Constitution prevents Congress from abridging our freedom of speech, there is no such prohibition for corporations, or for private deals, agreements, settlements, etc.

It is very common for settlement agreements or employment contracts to have provisions curtailing speech. Some of these provisions can be crushingly draconian. The argument here is that there has been some consideration paid for a service provided, which is the service of keeping one's trap shut. But, in reality, contractual clauses can serve as a work-around for that sometimes inconvenient First Amendment.

And then there's a whole different layer added when an employee simply feels (or has been the recipient of communication about) pressure to not speak out simply because she feels it could adversely affect her employment or promotion prospects. There certainly is some reasonable limit to things one should not say disparagingly about tone's employer. But, in most cases, it is not very reasonable to stop an employee from commenting about issues unrelated to the company.

And many companies are also trying to regulate behavior outside the workplace. Some companies are prohibiting smoking off-duty, for example. This has been ruled legal in most jurisdictions. But an extreme and really chilling example is the fast food restaurant that told employees that they should vote Republican if they wanted to stay in good graces with the company.

Keith Olbermann probably doesn't feel any of the economic pressures that the average working-class or middle-class person does regarding these issues. That departure agreement that he assented to is probably fairly lucrative.

Texas Times, They Are A Changin'

There may be some good news coming due to the coming demographic changes in Texas. Soon Texas should have a Hispanic majority, and Hispanics trend toward voting Democrat. Even though Republicans won every statewide office this last time, if they really mess up the budget much more, it could create a perfect storm.

Right now, the "spending cuts" they are talking about are just shifting a lot of the costs onto municipalities, school districts, and the general public. So a lot of the talk about saving money is probably going to be just smoke and mirrors. But the various players in this upcoming fiscal nightmare will surely want to spin it as a victory for cutting spending. The question coming up is whether voters will believe this pile of garbage.

Maybe Texas will get so "fed up" (to use Rick Perry's latest catch phrase), and sometime in the next decade, the voters will elect Sen. Keith Olbermann and Sen. Rachel Maddow? Then again, maybe that's a little too much wishful thinking. First of all, they would have to move here, and second of all, Texas is still pretty conservative in the rural areas. But there is some precedent for liberal Texas leaders: look at Ralph Yarborough, Jim Hightower, and Ann Richards, among others.

Shoot Them In The Head?

It seems that at one point in his show, Glenn Beck made some thoughtless comment about how political opponents should be dealt with: his advice was that you would have to "shoot them in the head." Well, now a Congressional representative has been shot in the head. And, of course, there's no proof of any direct link, of course, just as there is no direct link to Sarah Palin's placement of crosshairs over Gabrielle Gifford's district, accompanied by the comment that people would have to "take her out."

But, seriously, it is amazing to consider the amount of complete rhetorical barf that gets converted to filthy, unrepentant wealth. While decent people are unemployed and homeless. And congressional representatives are ACTUALLY getting shot in the head. Is there a problem with priorities here?

The conservative refrain used to be, "Get a job!" Now it seems to be, "Dig a hole!" Because that is the best deal many people down on their luck would get if some of these nutjobs actually governed.

Once you dig your hole so you will be out of sight, make sure you don't breathe too loudly, and maybe some edible fungus will grow on the walls. Because there aren't enough jobs to follow the old refrain: "Get a job, deadbeat!" And nobody will put the homeless in the huge amounts of empty foreclosed homes.

But here's a really scary prospect. Think about Glenn Beck actually running things through running for political office rather than wearing an overcrapped intellectual diaper and calling it a "university." There's a frightening concept. What is more scary in this scenario; the idiots who would vote for him, or the nihilists who won't vote at all because the process is so corrupt, thereby letting the idiots run rampant on the playground?

Divorce, American Style

Things are awfully polarized, and it seems like there are so many important issues that two factions who see themselves as opposite sides of the coin simply refuse to agree on. Politicians and pundits seems to just dig rhetorical trenches and plant themselves firmly in them, refusing to cede any ground to the other side.

Maybe we should just set up two parallel governments. The liberals can choose to be governed by one, and the conservatives can choose to be governed by the other. Why couldn't two (or several) governments operate on the same territory? We already have federal, state, county and municipal governments all operating side by side in the same places. Common functions or anything that can be agreed upon (prosecuting people for murder, traffic violations) can be dealt with by a central entity created by something akin to a treaty (sort of a UN between the liberals and the conservatives, but with more governing power?). This suggestion probably wouldn't solve the problem of corporate dominance over our governmental structures, though.

But if we did have two separate governments, we could have single-payer health care, a living wage, and an end to hunger and homelessness on one side, and a pile of stingy dipshits who like to swim in money on the other.

The Most Dangerous Substance

We need to immediately work to stamp out the most dangerous substance known to mankind: water. It's a FACT that 100% of the people in America's prisons have tried water at least once. Also, one sip and you are ADDICTED FOR LIFE! Many of these crazed water addicts have even been known to move on to even more irresponsible behavior, such as drinking milk or tea.

Ah, the power of hyperbolic argument.

Please Step Away From The Government

Darrell Issa is making the claim that the Obama administration is one of the most corrupt presidention administrations of all time. It is kind of ironic to make that claim, after the previous administration was stocked to the brim with war criminals.

But, then again, what would anyone expect from a hypercapitalist industrialist whose most frequently repeated words are "Please step away from the car." It's just another hyperbolic twist transferring inconvenient facts into an intellectual mobius strip of fantasy.

No big deal, really, this type of sideshow is soon to be an everyday occurrence. Step right up...to the carnival freak show that will pass for governing in the next session of the House. The clowns are already piling out of the car and spraying seltzer on you.

Governing By Wrecking Ball

Many of the more conservative members of Congress are riding along with the (newly empowered) wave of Tea Partiers and intensifying their howls against supposed overblown spending in the Federal Government. Granted, there is a problem, and it is not confined to this country. Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Iceland are facing huge budgetary difficulties, and Argentina is recovering from having basically gone under a while back.

One of the big problems in the United States, though, is that many of the long-term and medium-term structural deficit problems were intentionally created by conservatives, who dropped revenue to accommodate their philosophical proclivities, but failed to accordingly cut programs and spending to accommodate the shortage of funds. The fact that the economy was tanking and tax revenues dropped even further for the Feds and for most states didn't help at all.

Of course, the conservatives in power during the Bush era couldn't make cuts in government programs concurrent with the tax cuts, because then they would be hounded out of office by the voters (as they pretty much were in 2008 because of the economic collapse mostly caused by their policies). So they have preferred to let society and infrastructure crumble, which, coincidentally, goes along conveniently and elegantly with a psychotically apocalyptic vision of the world colored by masturbatory religious fervor. This plan also fits in well with a sudden, feverish insistence that everything has to be chopped to the bone (after the fecal matter is already flying through the fan blades) to save the republic. All they had to do was block everything they could for two years after going into the governing minority, and do everything in their power to obfuscate what is really going on and shift the blame for much of the resulting carnage to the Democrats.

It never hurts to have an electorate comprised of a huge bloc whose attention span is dictated by texting and video games, and others who are just desperate to find someone to blame. Toss in a creeping imbalance of wealth and the resultant destruction of the middle class, and you have the cherry on the whipped cream topping the perfect storm.

It is doubtful that any of this is included in the definition of the verb "to govern" in the dictionary...

Constitution Or Constipation?

In the new Republican-controlled House, the Constitution will be read on the floor on the first day. This is probably a good thing, since so many members seem to be pretty ignorant of what is contained therein.

Maybe the Supreme Court will take a hint and start using the Constitution as a guide as well when they issue their decisions. Because decisions like Bush v. Gore and Citizens United don't seem to have considered it much at all.

Remembrances Of All Who Mattered

As news organizations assemble lists of those who died in 2010, let us remember also all the people who left us who led lives outside the news diaspora. There were many wonderful people who left us in the last year who worked hard, filled important roles, raised families (or supported themselves admirably and elegantly despite difficulties), and struggled and scrimped to put food on their tables, but who mattered nonetheless. Some may have considered their lives unremarkable, but there was always someone who was touched by multitudes of quiet heroes who didn't dominate the political, entertainment or business headlines. Let us all consider the magnificent contributions that the quiet unsung made among us, and give them our thanks and gratitude.

Happy New Year to all. May this year bring joy, prosperity, peace, and above all, sanity.

Ringing In The New Year

We need to stop allocating resources to items that will push the American Empire over the edge and start pouring energy into investments that will build our infrastructure and support our people from the ground up. Let's hope the New Year brings more of this targeted kind of thinking and behavior.

"The evidence is pretty good that we’ll get a better return on investment in early childhood education than in, say, a military base in Germany."--Nicholas Kristof

Into the trash bin with the old, wear the new like a brand new suit.