Well, we are in some thick fog now, folks. Knee deep in some real shit. Uglier than a mud fence! The corporate-sponsored presidential lie-fest has begun! So, the framers of this propaganda-extravaganza tell us that it is all about the economy. You hear that, Jethro Bodine? It’s all about our economy. Yep, granny, I heard it. Well, we all know that the fortunetellers are only giving us what they already think the average down-and-out-Jethro is naive enough to swallow. These egg-sucking dogs are pissing on our legs and telling us its just raining out. Then one of the paid pitchwomen tells us, that it was “just the president having a conversation with the American people.” Well, slap my head and call me silly. That was a conversation? It looked more to me like he was inside the outhouse when lightening struck.
Wednesday night’s propaganda fest was just more maneuvering for capital, folks, for money. Ask Billy Boy Clinton or Governor (whose your daddy) Cuomo! They hosted some pretty “gala” galas that night. The truly sad fact is that most of the people in the USA and around the world sit there and buy this bullshit. They believe there is a real difference between the two clowns up on the stage. They do not want to know the clowns are merely puppets. They believe in the institution of democracy, the myths of choice, freedom and progress. They think the dream is achievable, and the world will survive it. They do not want to be told that the entire charade is brought to you by Koch (Brothers) Industries, et. al.
Now, the pundits – the paid geek-heads up on the “tele” – try to convince us that this formality of a spectacle is meaningful; and they dutifully parse those meanings for our ravenous consumption. (I even know another American living here in Siberia who climbed on the Internet this morning just to watch the charade.) Meanwhile these pinhead pundits tell us what we need to believe in; how we ought to think. Why there is even a new “Wonkbook” online – Everything You Need to Know About the First Debate. Gosh, I better check that out! But, their analyses are as useless as a milk bucket under a bull! According to these brilliant analysts, it is clear after this first skirmish that the incumbent had his head fully shoved up his ass, while the challenger should have found a similar hiding place for his own hands. Perhaps Romney needed to speak with the Denver Broncos football coach while he was in town, just to learn something about the effective use of hand signals. In any event, did this really do anything more than just give people another excuse to watch the “tele” with beer and pretzels at hand, waste more taxpayer money, and raise contributions for this civilized war game?
The bottom-line: does anyone really believe either of these two horse traders? Does anyone really care? Well, I guess a number of folks do. But, do we have any evidence that they will do what they say? Does what they say really matter? Are they really saying anything meaningful at all? Here is the real question of the night: Is Mitt going to overturn Obama’s policies on casino capitalism and American-style fascism? Is Obama going to reverse direction on himself? Of course not. The unleashing of American greed, along with the illegal collection of data and the detention of ordinary Americans will continue as it has, unabated, while the brown-shirts at the Combined Intelligence and Fusion Center for NORAD in Colorado Springs just keep spending our tax revenues on their domestic spying programs, their new cars, and assorted electronic toys. Why, they have even come up with a killer-app so that they can use your own smartphone to spy on you. But, if all of this is really about stopping terrorists, then they are barking up the wrong tree.
Yet, they all ignore the most obvious solution to American homeland security: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MENA. Leave the rest of the world alone, and focus on cleaning up your own shit-stall. If you want to save this shit-storm, then we need serious economic contraction, not expansion. And, if you want to save the planet, you need to dismantle the whole fucking mess and reconstitute the human community on a more primitive (not primal… don’t get your knickers in a twist) model. But, of course, that is an impossible political solution; our corporate-fascist owners will not allow their investments in military hardware, software, or other solutions – and the exploitable resources to which they provide access – to vanish. They need to keep us restless citizens frightened and on a short leash, while they brutalize the rest of the world for whatever they can plunder and steal in the race for what’s left.
Just ask the native American Indians how that worked out for them. Not real well. Maybe those ‘unruly Islamic hordes’ are simply looking at the history of our colonization of the “New World,” and thinking… there, but for the grace of Allah, go us. And I am afraid that Chris Hedges was correct this week with the headline on his signature column: What Is Happening to Muslims Will Happen to the Rest of Us. Get ready foks, the shit-storm is just heating up; the vodka and pickles are chilling in the root-cellar, and the hot dogs and beer are already on the picnic tables. So just step right up and vote for your choice of “Thing One” or “Thing Two.” Why, thank you Dr. Seuss; I think I will // pass… the pickles and vodka, please!!
kulturCritic 
‘The truly sad fact is that most of the people in the USA and around the world sit there and buy this bullshit’, and people want to know why I have become a cranky misanthropist.
Me too!!
The worst thing about other people’s bullshit is that, even if it makes great fertilizer, it sometimes contains hidden thistle seeds.
♫ Oh be careful little grass farmer what you spread. (For the Father up above is looking down in love.) ♪
At any rate, I can’t help but read that the debate blah blah blah, and my first impression is that Obama deliberately let Romney role-play the frat boy bully. As General Turgidson would say, “an obvious Commie trick.”
That explains everything, Mike. LOL
“How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works. “
Sandy,
It would appear that your distillation of the horrors being perpetrated upon the majority of Earth’s homo sapiens by TPTB (not limited to Amerikins) is; but, business as usual for the so called “thinking apes”. Equally egregious is what we are doing to the rest of the fauna and flora attempting to reside on Spaceship Earth. Unknown or denied by the majority of the “humane” critters is that the Earth is undergoing another massive fauna die off, courtesy of the human hordes, with an unbelievably rapid onset rate.
It is my contention that the situation unfolding here on Earth has likely occurred an unfathomable number of times, and in parallel with us, on planets throughout the Universe within which we exist. That we, as a species, are blind to what we do to the environment is easily comprehended when one considers that for the majority of the timeline of our ascendency from “Lucy” to Cro Mangon our numbers were so few that we for all intents and purposes lived on an Earth of infinite resources and we had an impact comparable to other species. Unfortunately; once we began to use our larger brains to invent more effective mechanisms to enable our security in multitudinous ways our numbers swelled exponentially.
The invention of agriculture likely sealed the Earth’s fate, for this experiment, as too many fucking humans (literally) overran every habitable landmass on Earth. As our numbers swelled survival became our highest priority and those most proficient we now view as “greedy psychopaths” or alternatively TPTB. Fortunately or unfortunately depending upon ones point of view TPTB required scores of minions to produce the “wealth” their egos could not live without, so we the unwashed were allowed to breed by the zillions to support their desires.
And again, fortunately or unfortunately we find ourselves on the cusp of another near total collapse of all of the Earth’s fauna likely to be followed by another cycle subsequent to an appropriate recovery period of millions to hundreds of millions of years. Mayhap the next Cro Mangon equivalent will pull head from ass and recognize that greedy psychopaths are not the natural leaders they appear to be and unbridled reproduction of voracious resource consumers is not rational. On second thought, not likely.
A memorable analysis, Ken… but the likely alternative, not1
TPTB are the Fungus Among Us.
“In populations eating little or no wheat, rye and barley, the prevalence of schizophrenia is quite low…” ~Dr. Karl Lorenz
Do I need to mention ergotism, LSD, “shrooms,” and Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants,Drugs,and Human Evolution by Terence McKenna?
Yes, humans are being mindfully manipulated into creating yet another global feast for hungry, hungry fungus, just as soon as thermonuclear war or a CME event creates 400 Chernobyl/Fukushima feasting sites around the world.
Bow to your masters fresh off the horseshit pile—not to be confused with Obama/Romney—oh you vain hairless great apes. But don’t feel too bad, fungus dominates the minds of ants too.
“In many commercial nuclear reactors, the radioactive water becomes contaminated with melanotic organisms. Nobody really knows what the hell they are doing there.” ~Arturo Casadevall, microbiologist, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
So, it would follow then that the darker races of humankind will survive the final thermo-nuclear war; unlike the fair skinned japanese who got burnt to a crisp. Am I tracking with you; or am I just bein’ silly?
Ha! Good question! Now I’m wondering if human melanin is protective of ionizing radiation…..hmmm.
If so, I’m done sunk with my redneck “farmer’s tan.” LOL
Lookee at who just bought a brand new pair of populist trousers! They fit real nice, Sandy. Love the rant this week.
It has been said many times in these pages by you and your readers but this train is not stopping until it hits the end of the line. We’ll use up every resource, destroy any culture, repress any people and sacrifice any values to keep the economy going to the bitter end. And that “we” goes for all of the world not just our dear old USA.
But, the puppet show is entertaining to watch.
Keep ’em coming.
😉 Thanks for reading, Mr. Miller… as always. These trousers are getting a bit tight… maybe I will take ’em off, an mosey on down to the saloon!
the hubris, the hubris, (one of those words i learned reading blogs) is breathtaking, today on the web we are treated to this little gem.
The Benghazi Consulate: Has the Crime Scene Been Contaminated?
Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/10/05/the-benghazi-consulate-has-the-crime-scene-been-contaminated/#ixzz28QsUapMA
well duh, even a dumb redneck from the plains can figure that one out. jesus h. christ, back in the day raping, beating, and killing an ambassador was considered an act of war, if any of it is even true, but not no more. nope, now that we own the whole wide world it’s a “crime scene”. i wonder how the ambassadors wife feels about this, you know, being shocked senseless by an rpg, it’s kind of like being mugged.
now those dirty reds that wilson had to crush? silly little boys and girls with their “one big union” slogan, good thing we had such a “progressive” president to show them what’s what, huh? good thing we have such a “progressive” in the white house today, to take care of those little things like civil liberties, but not to worry, he’s an expert in constitutional law.
all of this was foreseen a hundred years ago. if we had established some sort of social justice back then? well, maybe we could have used up all of the resources that much faster. who does the global economy serve? follow the money. does it make sense to ship raw materials and finished goods around the planet chasing the lowest wage? maybe to them that control the planet, otherwise, no, it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
90% of the crap spewing from these two tools mouths is lies, damn lies, and statistics, their statistics. both of these buffoons are pandering to the richest and the poorest among us, the formerly middle class? they can do what they are told.
christ, when i go onto the blogosphere and hear these self-satisfied, supposedly forward thinking, college educated people call themselves “progressives”? i just want to hurl. my counselor however, has said i need to keep my blood pressure down.
OK derek… it is time to take your pills!!! LOL
1000mg of FUKITOL®, stat!
That’s it fuck-it-all ! LOL
I just hope Sandy is saving all this in hard copy, too, cause when things of ppfffffffffftttttttttttt!! we will loose all the bits and bytes.
Of interest is the Ted Rall editorial cartoon … http://www.gocomics.com/tedrall
Now, being blessed or cursed with an ability to interpolate nuances that others seem to miss, or purposefully ignore, a lot of you have that ability ,also, Obama’s haggard demeanor on the debates said to me “OK, what is being planned that only he and a few others know about?”
Oh well Maybe ill survive by being the weird wise woman living in the deteriorating over grown apt building that people trek to and leave food for insights?
See? pretty pictures to tell you how to walk your path (eyes her Tarot cards)
Either way, Marlena, it smells like говно (shit) Ha, ha!
and people get on my case when I say that voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. Still smells like hovadina. (bullshit) I say to not vote is a revolutionary act of defiance and freedom.Then i get the “well if you don’t vote you have to STFU about any results” Shrugs
That a girl, Marlena!!! Put dem folkes in their place.
Here they tell me, well if you don’t vote, then you can’t complain about the results. So I say, what’s complaining done for you lately? Hovadina all right…
And no matter who you vote for the government gets in….
You are Sooooo observant mr Miller!! LOL
My partner would beg to differ. Sigh. Well, off to slop the hogs.
n the SF Chronicle letters section one writer directs her comments to “Dear Mr. President.” Her final comment is: “You seemed to be missing in action last night at the debate. You have my vote because I know the true danger Romney’s extreme supporters pose to the health and well-being of this country, but you need to show some spark and spunk in the debates.”
I can only imagine how terribly challenging it must be to muster spark and spunk in a debate when one has expressed nearly none of it during four years in a leadership role. I feel certain Obama, like Clinton and most pols entering the national political arena, was indoctrinated in such a way as to cow any truly progressive idealism he may have possessed. Mouthing stylized speeches is something one can be trained for and gifted at, but truly embodying lasting values with integrity is a completely different thing. The indoctrination is probably something like: “Okay, Sonny, here is your goody bag and here are the expectations you need to deliver or you will disappear from the scene in short order.”
It is different for folks like Bush, Ryan, Romney, the Kochs, etc. who possess only the tiniest shreds of lasting or spiritual values. They have faith that we all live in a competitive world of every man for himself and use vague phrases that imply otherwise merely to hoodwink and confuse. Because they remain consciously ignorant of the lasting values, they cannot be held responsible to make choices in accord with them. Obama governs one way and speaks sometimes a different way and that can never be sustained. I am sure he is being torn apart inside himself, and trying to take solace in his outer circumstance of “Ain’t life great, I am the President.”
Real leaders with honesty and integrity are gotten rid of as soon as possible through various means by those who wield the power from behind the scenes. Thus, we end up with non-leader choices like Romney and Obama, either of whom will serve the agenda of the crony capitalists’ club.
I have to admit, in my recent past life (pre-2008 or so) I was quite the political junkie. Yes, I was quite the believer in the potential power of “smart, intelligent liberal politics,” but like a lot of people I suppose, Obama was just the eye-opener I needed to come out my trance. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed the psycho-drama playing out on our national stage quite so much as I do now that I no longer have any personal investment in it, even though for the most part the mundane details of it bore me now. It’s really the reaction to it all that I enjoy most now, that and the obvious character (or lack thereof) studies afforded by the live debates. Scripted or no, it’s nearly impossible for even world class bullshitters like these two to conceal all of their personal idiosyncrasies.
For instance, I’ve noticed this before about Romney, but it REALLY struck me this time; he’s POSITIVELY GIDDY about the idea of getting his hands on so much power. ABSOLUTELY DRUNK with the idea of being Prez! Not a good sign at all, especially since he’s so beholden to pleasing a constituency that’s far from in love with him. I can easily imagine him swinging wildly extreme soon after assuming office to keep the pit bulls in his own party at bay. A perfect Nazi in short.
Obama on the other hand looked worn out and listless. Like he’s just tired of the charade. I’m beginning to honestly wonder if the poor bastard wasn’t threatened as soon as he took office and told to get in line – or else. Unless he’s an unapologetic congenital liar (entirely possible as well), it’s the only thing that explains the vast gulf between what he says and what he does in office. But one thing’s for sure I think, the bloom is off the rose for Obama with the Prez shit. Unlike Billy Bob, he doesn’t revel in the spotlight, and he’s damn sure not an effective negotiator or exerciser of political power, if in fact he’s even been trying to be for the past four years. His legacy as the first black Prez is already assured, but his even bigger legacy as the latest, and possibly the greatest, disaster of a Dem Prez is almost fully formed now as well. In the end, his one lasting legacy might turn out to be that he presided over and indeed caused the end of “liberal” two party politics in the US. We’ve been headed this way for quite some time now either way, but Obama has definitely kicked the whole process into high gear. I think the neo-Nazi Imperium must be right around the corner now. Pity the young.
As long as their iPads are operating, the young won’t bat a nose-ring infected eyelash!
Agreed. Better to pity the old, the poor, and the infirm. They’re always the first to go. The young and healthy are still useful, if for nothing else as cannon fodder.
After years of toiling in the academic swamp and the corporate-financial wasteland you claim to have awakened five years ago somewhere off in Siberia where you’ve reentered academe.
Waal, bust my ass and call me shortie (a thing done regularly in the hip-hop world. You found the true religion of cynicism and despair, Sandy. Pat, yosef onta back widoud sprainin yore rist!
Actually, I don’t much mind the cynicism, except for the young not batting a nose-ring infected eyelash. Why? Because I’m reading this in a very large and busy “town-square-type” Starbucks in a very upscale and distant Philly suburb where I came to enjoy a latte and a brewed coffee while waiting for my partner to finish her morning appointments tuning-up a couple of women who need weekly mechanical updates to remain sane in their search for the American Dream. (There but for the grace of circumstance go I. (A few weeks ago I had Saturday appointments for client tune-ups at the same office.)
Anyhoo, as I sit here reading you and DA despair the hopes of the future, I also watch the parade (long and without breaks this morning) of my well-off by any previous worldly standard neighbors while listening and watching us all trundle and talk meaningflly about tennis-dates and who did what last night and since Saturdays are parent days after Friday nights are children nights what they will do even more fully tonight before sleeping it off on Sunday.
I hope that your town in the Altai is less rotten with modern kultur than this lil ole wealthy township is. Yet, I imagine that the petrol use and the wasting of environment procedes apace there as well as it does here. My fourtenn year-old has been environmentally aware for years, but now is rather cynical himself about the change he’s able to make and influence. Plus, he does enjoy Netfix.
Meanwhile I find myself reminded in reading that exchange of two old men bemoaning how much worse the younger generation are than our generation. *sigh* Maybe they are, but that would be a rather hard make for them, considering that we oomers and xers have basically sucked all the milk from Mama Gaia’s breasts and we still haven’t gotten our fill.
Cynicism is fine, although I must admit that David Letterman began to cloy and tire me out after his first four years of Late Night. Cynicism isn’t an answer; it’s merely a cheap trick. Both of you can do better. So can I. Thanks for the vent space.
Well Now!! That Was Refreshing!! Thanks, Nichole. warm regards from ‘getting colder’ Siberia, sandy
Now that was some genuine cynicism! Not a small amount of bitterness thrown in for good measure too. Actually, every time someone gets on my case for my cynicism, which as you can probably imagine is almost all of the time, I simply remind them that I prefer to see myself as nothing more than a realist, who tries to call things as I honestly see them. I honestly don’t see a single thing in anything I said above that’s the least bit cynical. Matter of fact, I’m pretty damn sure I understated the cold reality of our current situation mightily. But that’s just me. I could be wrong.
In my experience, Americans in general, and upscale rich pricks in particular, don’t like to have their shit exposed at all. Not surprising, since once you start digging you more often than not find that that’s all there is to them. Shit. Material shit, pseudo-philosophic shit, religious shit, real or imagined academic/intellectual superiority shit, me first/we first team shit, cult of personality shit, beautiful appearance/anti-aging shit, Amerika Uber Alles shit; shit, shit, shit!
There I go missing the close italics tag again. Now that’s some incredibly stupid SHIT!
Now, that is a good rant, DA.
Let me add, another well-circulated theory is that Obama sold out prior to 2008 to pose as the faux liberal Democratic Trojan Horse for enacting radical conservative policies during what was known would be a drastic economic downturn and time of economic consolidation for the hyper-wealthy in the wake of Bush II. This makes a lot of sense as well. It would certainly explain his meteoric rise to power and his appeal to the Wall Street and corporate crowds, as well as all of his behavior since. If so, it was a political masterstroke, and effectively represents a coup by other means, technically not even illegal (that I know of). In that light, perhaps Obama’s current demeanor is the result of some inner psycho-drama playing out over the realization of the consequences of his decision. I don’t know, but I know damn sure Barry O is NOT what he seems to be. There’s definitely more to this story than just another incompetent Democratic President. There’s simply too much at stake for something like that to happen in this day and age.
Food for thought DA
i see what you’re stepping in, and there is certainly some validity to your premise, witness what happened to JFK, MLK, RFK, and Malcolm X. there is, however, another explanation, and that is that the Big O is just another bubble boy, cut off from reality, despite his stint as a “community organizer”, whatever that is. i mean come on, look at his experience in what some call the real world, has the man ever shoveled gravel all day for $8 an hour, i seriously doubt it. how many of these politicos have ever shoveled bacon grease up off a floor? worked with caustic chemicals? or had their fingers cracking from benzene exposure? damn few.
oh yeah, they love to talk about how “my daddy was a union member”, they’ve never spent any time on the line. nah, it’s not just the Democrats, or the Republicans, it;s a class thing, the myth of the “smart society”, it’s a giant yawning class divide, and both parties are selling the snake oil that it can be overcome with hard work and the right education, what a con game. there is no win-win, and if the O really believes the garbage he preaches? then he really is out of touch.
I guess the only thing I would counter with is that I’d expect to see a little more randomness in Obama’s decision making if he were merely out of touch, maybe a la W in his second term, who even had his base scratching their heads. Obama’s decisions seem so uniformly contrary to what he preaches right up and down the line, that there seems to be a well thought out agenda behind them. The health care reform fiasco in particular really made me sit up and take notice. Then of course after that it was just one thing after another, and has been ever since. But that might just be me projecting. We all see what we want to see.
Well said. I don’t buy the “outa touch” BS… never did, after I saw him assemble his pack of wallstreet hos as his cabinet.
Soon after his nomination Obummer gave a televised speech the evening after his get acquainted meeting with AIPAC. I recall thinking shortly after he began, that he seemed like a man that had just received an offer he couldn’t refuse. It is not beyond all reason that he may have recently received another.
It is perhaps time to get past the illusion that politicians are allowed to make their own decisions.
Mmm… but could anyone suckled by the Chicago political machine really be that innocent?
The word innocent has more than one meaning and I’m not going to presume to know which one you meant. I’m afraid I don’t immediately grasp how to connect his innocence or lack thereof and connections to a notorious political machine to the curious coincidence of a noticeable (well, to me anyway) change in tune just hours after a private and seemingly mandated meeting with people who are should we say well connected with an intelligence service well known for political murder.
He could for all that any of us apparently know be the Manchurian Candidate, but I’m inclined to think that Mrs. Clinton was fitted for that jacket. Barry was making noises suggesting that he might be a loose cannon. Even a suspicion of cannon looseness would almost certainly cause someone to be sent to make sure it was lashed down. And that brings us back to the machine and and perhaps a certain mayoral suckling.
My own longstanding position has been that noone who wants the job should be allowed to have it. It is however my clear understanding that the rule in effect is that noone who would do the job in the interests of all will ever be allowed to have it. I’ve seen it alleged that Plato addressed this issue and apparently could identify no exceptions.
No, of course not. But that is what tribals well-acquainted with the ways of power did. No obvious graspers got the job. Now it seems to be a prerequisite.
Plato must have read the tribals… don’t ya think?? LOL
This meme really started to get traction after the Salahi White House State Dinner security fiasco. There was a lot of talk on the net that this might have been a none to subtle message from some unnamed powers within the national security apparatus to Obama that there are ways for “bad things to happen” that will never be traceable, should he not toe the line on national security issues or whatever. Of course that’s all speculation, as it must be if it’s truly effective, but the idea certainly sounds plausible to me. That was early on in his administration, and his decisions since that time surely give the theory credence. Just sayin’.
These were my thoughts three years ago when I wrote this:
The military invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan has ended up being more of an action bent upon regime change and empire building than a capture of criminals who participated in planning acts of terrorism. I remain convinced that the strategy that should have been taken would have been a combined police, special forces, diplomatic effort. President Obama’s stated strategy sounds more like a politician struggling to maintain his credibility with all sides of the issue than it does a statesman seeking a strategy that is practical, effective, and compassionate.
His decision should come as no surprise to us however, since, during his campaign for president, he made it clear that he was a “true believer” in his predecessor’s War on Terror. Obama never suggested that he would attempt any strategy other than the delusional notion of securing peace (“protecting our freedom”) through the elimination of any and all who would oppose our presence and treatment of their countrymen as less than human, expendable, and unworthy of being understood.
“I have this feeling that whoever is elected president, no matter what promises you make on the campaign trail, blah, blah, blah, when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down—and it’s a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you’ve never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll—and then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president, ‘Any questions?’
“Just what my agenda is.”
~Bill Hicks
you guys ;-0
Yeah, I imagine that’s not too far off from the truth. We already know about Skull and Bones and similar secret societies, so I imagine something like that raised to a higher level. I mean really, does anyone think that the hyper-wealthy dynastic movers and shakers of this world, who depend on stable and predictable macro policies for the long term, are possibly gonna put all that at risk every four years based on the whims of a sometimes fickle electorate? I think they’re a good deal smarter than that and have the ways and means to enforce their will at any level they choose. Assuming Obama wasn’t bought off very early in his career, I imagine his talk of ending wars, shutting down Gitmo, and possibly prosecuting people in high places for war crimes set off the alarms in high places immediately. Funny how all that talk stopped so suddenly soon after he took office. Almost like a gag order had been put out. Funny, that.
i thought this was kind of cute, and sad at the same time.
Nice rants, everyone! But mebbe it’s time to quit obsessing about the bullshit and move on? After all, as long as you keep your attention on the Spectacle, the Spectacle got what it wanted…
Did you see the research recently about the baboon troop turning peaceful and cooperative when all the greedy alpha males got rubbed out by catching a disease from the meat they hogged? What we need is a die-off allright… of the self-aggrandizive psychopaths and their helpers. Their Darwin Award is waiting offstage.
Let’s open a restaurant in DC, Vera! LOL
You mean… Sweeney Todd + tainted meat?! I could just work! LOL! Count me in…
I think we just made the red light go ding at NORAD!!! LOL
With branches in NYC, Chicago. London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong yes?
Ha, ha, ha
Perfect example of Darwinism in operation, that the fit survive The greedy alpha males died off because of their behavior. The rest of the troupe survived cause cooperation is more likely to lead to species survival than greed
bingo – sharing!!
The fascinating part is… even though the balance of the genders realigned itself as young outliers joined the troop, the cooperative spirit that could do a reset in the absence of the bullies remained. Hm. If even baboons can do it… mmm…
Not to throw cold water; but, how long has the troop been followed since this revelation? Since baboons live nearly half as long as homo sapiens, one would logically desire to follow this troop through several generations to ascertain a continuing pattern.
The die-off was 1983 to 86.
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0020124
Robert Heinlein wrote of a “Committee for Aesthetic Deletions,” a secret society dedicated to executing “scoundrels whose removal will improve the human breed.” (To Sail Beyond the Sunset, 1987)
An excellent idea, practiced by our sensible ancestors.
“After all, as long as you keep your attention on the Spectacle, the Spectacle got what it wanted…”
One Spectacle or another. We have come to enjoy our programming, haven’t we? I remember game shows, variety shows and regional wrestling on teebee when I was less than six all them years ago in Nashville. 1950s. Not sure much has changed except now its presidential debates, three-d and computer-generated magic. Wonder if waterfalls existed as July Fourth firework displays in the 1870s?
How subversive must one be to merit a drone? How subversive to merit a cot in a super max?
Poisoned food seems a grand idea, but Obama, Boehner, Putin, Netanyahu, the Chinese Politburo, Cameron, Merkel, the senior leadership of the IMF and World Bank, everyone on all the various Fed and Fed regional banks boards, the Euro-Bank, the leadership in Japan, Netherlands, France, Italy (plus Berlusconi,) the Spanish Cortes, and then the power guys (Kochs, Gates, Adelson, Petersons, Buffetts, Waltons, and all the assorted biz-pigs? That’s a heap of ptomaine and a lot of cooking. Seems like barricades, lampposts and hemp rope would be easier to coordinate and a helluva lot cheaper. *smile*
That’s why Sweeney Todd picked up his old fashioned razor, lifted it up and proclaimed: Now my arm is complete! You visit the Barber of Fleet Street, receive one cut too many, and off you slide down to the restaurant. (As long as you want to keep things discrete). A wonderful musical, btw, with Angela Lansbury.
Nichole, you are definitely on a roll tonight (10:30 pm here); and you are right about the barricades. LOL
This is the paragraph that speaks to me: Yet, they all ignore the most obvious solution to American homeland security: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MENA. Leave the rest of the world alone, and focus on cleaning up your own shit-stall … we need serious economic contraction, not expansion ….
That’s the crux, which is lost in daily/weekly political hype. Didn’t bother watching the spectacle/debate. In fact, I pay very little attention to any of it because the longer arcs of history subsume all ephemera. Our current arc is pretty clear, no denying.
The other most obvious solution is to stop devoting half of our public funds to blowing shit up (and for that matter, blow up other peoples). I keep reading discussions of economics that identify entitlement programs barreling down on us with underfunded obligations that will sink us like so many European countries. Almost no one questions the wisdom of continuing to devote so much of our efforts and expenses to defense and offense, monitoring and surveillance, data capture and analysis, and pointless destruction of lives, social systems, governments, etc. when those aren’t really the things that threaten beyond the usual and mostly impotent saber rattling. Talk about your elephants in the room. Yeah, a few thousand people died as a direct result of terrorism over the past decade. Well, a few thousand also died of airplane crashes. To make either of those our top priority is a little like focusing the complaint on someone pulling your hair; meanwhile someone else is chopping off your legs with a fucking chainsaw!
The expansive comments (50+) overnight, before I could find time to indulge, speak to conspiracy and powers that lie beyond any of us. I’m unsure whether it’s even necessary to personify them in the form of a greedy cabal of psychopaths pulling levers and marionette strings. Rather, I think in terms of power laws or algorithms that are cooked into the stew of both natural processes and cultural institutions (including politics). We may adapt (or game) on the short term, but we submit in the end. Politics can be interesting and infuriating, but on some level it’s just churning water. I’d rather attend to other things.
Brutus – I can find nothing to disagree with in your clear and emotional comment. sandy
So the intent is to find something with which to disagree? I admit I often do that, but I like agreement better.
In comments, I have no intent
No intent; just noting a fact in this particular instance.
I wrote about it on LB. Politics is everywhere. It’s not at all like churning water. It’s about the flows of power among human beings. Avoiding learning it and paying attention to it… only at your peril. Just because the Spectacle wants us to think of politics as only this one dirty corner of it…
I’m just as imperiled by political power whether I pay attention or not. Powerless participation seems to me worthlessly hortatory. Maybe you can be more specific.
Brutus, it’s everywhere. Everytime you interact with someone. Everytime you are trying to get something done with others. Everytime you give up power to some workplace bully. Etc etc. Paying attention to the flows of power and ignoring the political spectacle is the beginning of the real revolution. 😉
Let me clarify some of my above. I don’t think that it’s is all necessarily political skullduggery and subterfuge – not at all – just that that’s got some not small part to play in it as well. I imagine that the “CIA shit” is much more the icing on the cake, or rather, the fail safe for when all other methods don’t work. Listen, coordinating conspiracies is no easy matter, even for people in high places, so I’m sure it’s never the preferred method. Much too messy, much too expensive, and MUCH too risky to be the “go to” method on a routine basis. And on a more intellectual level, I imagine it’s also much too crass and unsophisticated (OK, I’m projecting here) to suit the refined tastes of the elite power brokers who might feel the need to employ it from time to time. But nonetheless, hard times occasionally DO call for extreme measures, and I think it would be EXTREMELY simplistic to assume that men of such EXTREME power and wealth wouldn’t employ them quite readily if they felt the need.
At the risk of stating the obvious too obviously, I’m too subtle a thinker to fall into all-or-nothing, either/or traps. I wouldn’t presume that of any of the contributors here. My point was that even if such conspiratorial activity does occur in actuality from time to time, it still doesn’t matter much to me because the underlying motivations stem from attitudes shared by almost all of us socialized into the Curriculum of the West. Most of us lack the power to alter the overall course of things much, but even among those who do, it’s really part of a larger cultural expression in which we all participate to a very large degree. Fiat money, American exceptionalism, anti-intellectualism, crass celebrations of trash culture, militarism, nationalism, etc. are part of consensus reality even if a small minority opposes them. So for an iconoclast, it doesn’t take the infrequent conspiracy to reveal the barbaric heart beating within.
there may be a reason for the anti-intellectualism. my guess is that much of what passes for critical thought is part of the very trash culture of which you speak.,
The NPR Third-Party Candidate Debate
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/06/162438686/the-npr-third-party-candidate-debate
Closing Remarks
Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party
“Whether you vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, I’m going to offer up a couple predictions. One is we’re going to continue to have a heightened police state in this country. The other is that we’re going to find ourselves in a continued state of military intervention; we are at continuous war with everyone. And then, lastly, we’re going to find ourselves — regardless of which two of these guys gets elected — we’re going to find ourselves continuing to borrow and spend money in ways that are absolutely unsustainable and if we don’t get control of this, we are going to collapse as a country. We are not immune from the mathematics of continuing to borrow and print money to the tune of 43 cents out of every dollar we spend.”
Jill Stein, Green Party
“Well, I agree with Gary that we are really headed in the wrong direction – and in fact, we are accelerating in the wrong direction under both parties. And in fact, Barack Obama has basically embraced most of the key policies of George Bush on the bailouts for Wall Street, the layoffs for Main Street, the expanding free trade agreements that offshore our jobs and undermine wages at home; the expanding wars, the attack on our civil liberties, drill-baby-drill on the climate, you name it. We’re going in the wrong direction. We need a president — we need a political party, that is of, by and for the people. If you go into the voting booth, and you cast a vote for either Wall Street-sponsored candidate, you are giving them a mandate for four more years of the same.”
and i don’t even drive a Volvo, never had a latte’, no bris’ and chablis for me, more like brats and beer, will wonders never cease? of course even these two people could be flogging a dead horse, wanting to wear the conductors hat on a runaway train.
what will be, will be, and when the juice runs out it gonna get ugly. for me and mine i an kind of happy to be living among the savage rednecks in deepest darkest amerika, some of them still believe in outdated notions like honor, integrity, such quaint 20th century notions.
i am amazed that high rise buildings are still being built, amazed that the govt. is not attempting to move people back to the land, small farmsteads using human and animal labor are much more sustainable.
oh well, no wonder i think this way, i’m just one generation away from the plow, even have an old pair of clod-hoppers in the closet.
An election is the seeking of goddam lying thorny brambles to rule over magnificent trees.
Well, I’m proud to say that a resident of New Mexico, where Gary Johnson is the former two term governor, and I’m also proud to say that I agree with most of the points they put forth here, if not always for the reasons they put forward in support. Too bad neither will be in contention this year. Maybe next time. But in a system where money buys influence, can anybody possibly wonder why?
And by the by, we need MUCH MORE than just a President, yo! Presidents can be bought, intimidated, or otherwise influenced, even after they’ve assumed office. That part ain’t gonna be NEARLY so easy change.
Does the American public have the appetite for a presidential candidate to tell it like it really is? I imagine that the reality of contraction would be inconceivable to most of the electorate. Until there is a sea change in public opinion happens and we all realize that simplifying our lives is not a bad thing, I think any leader that proposes we make do with less would get shouted down and booted off stage in a heartbeat.
Actually – anyone suggesting the real truth about our extravagant lifestyle would be quickly prosecuted as a terrorist commie and most likely executed.
witness Chuck Todd’s outburst on “Meet the Depressed”.
“This is really making me crazy,” he told his “Meet the Press” friends. ” The Federal Reserve gets questioned now for politics these days. The Supreme Court and John Roberts get – we have got, we have corroded – what we’re doing, we are corroding trust in our federal government in a way. And, one-time responsible people are doing it. And the idea that Donald Trump and Jack Welch, rich people with crazy conspiracy theories, can get traction on this is a bad trend … We have mainstreamed, ‘when did you stop beating your wife.’”
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/07/sunday_best_chuck_todd_loses_it/
well geez, who in the hell is chuck todd?
“Todd was born in Miami, Florida. He attended George Washington University from 1990 to 1994; although he majored in political science and minored in music, he did not graduate.[10] Todd is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.[11] He resides in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Kristian Denny Todd, daughter Margaret, and son Harrison.[12] Kristian Denny Todd is a communications professional and cofounder of Maverick Strategies and Mail, which provides direct mail and consulting services for Democratic candidates and progressive causes.”
so, i guess he puts down “some college” on his resume? oh, that’s right, he doesn’t have to apply for jobs, his wife works for “progressive” causes. unlike yours truly, who also has “some college”.
the ruling class, the intelligentsia, the pundits, they are all looking a bit moonie to me lately..
krishna, krishna, hare, hare, krishna…………..
would you care to make a donation?
jesus loves you, you know?
praise god.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Todd
They are coming for YOU!
Excellent point. But in line with the idea that if you can’t first imagine something actually happening you can never actually make it happen, here’s how I imagine it might someday happen.
First, a candidate or candidates must be able to attract some kind of attention at local levels professing those truths. As local levels are much more attuned to the facts on the ground, this will no doubt be MUCH easier, and indeed, simply INEVITABLE as the inevitable contraction progresses. Additionally, local budgets and resources are more often than not constrained already by federal mandates and such. State and local budgets always feel the pinch before the monetary sovereign does.
Second, and here’s where it gets kind of iffy. Local contractionist candidates have to then take the meme national, where it will no doubt REALLY hit some political headwinds. This could go several ways, depending on the pace of the contraction (among many things) and multitudinous unforeseeable political wildcards. Among them:
1. TPTB drag shit out slowly. Contractionist candidates might have to keep hammering their points over many election cycles to advance to the national stage. Best option for TPTB, and thus the most likely to be pursued. Contraction economics/politics is a TOUGH sell under any circumstances.
2. TPTB drag shit out slowly, but reality intervenes in the form of major contraction events. Most likely scenario IMO. Contractionist candidates need to be in place and have a ready battle plan ready to execute. SEIZE THE DAY! as the old saw goes. Local goes (inter)national overnight! In retrospect, this is how most history worth recording is actually made.
3. TPTB drag shit out slowly (sensing a theme here?) and for whatever reason prevent the local from EVER going national. Certainly TPTB’s goal.
4. State and local pressures fracture the union in part or altogether before national consensus is ever reached. I’d say that this option is at least as possible as any other but that’s just me (forever the cynic!).
5. ALL of this belies (some of) our peculiar conceit – we Americans – that WE are somehow the center of the FUCKING universe! In fact, believe it or not, we aren’t.
And finally, all of this is really a moot point, as we already have our laboratory test result: Jimmy Carter. As Morris Berman goes to great lengths to assert in his book Why Amerrica Failed, we’ve already been down this road once before with QUITE conclusive results.
Consider the possibility that, by 2008, TPTB recognized that disaster was just around the corner, and that they (like the recent Olympic badminton teams) were “playing to lose”. Make sure the other party is on duty when the ship hits the rocks, then take charge in the aftermath. McCain thought he could do it on his own against H. R. Clinton, but then Obama got his party’s nomination, and McCain had to do something drastic to ensure defeat: Sarah Palin. But the disaster has been temporarily delayed. Now the man with access to the best machinery for forecasting the future isn’t sure that we wants to be in the White House when it arrives, while Romney’s staff are too busy campaigning to get him into the office to brief him on the problems ahead.
Anything is possible Chuck… I know I wouldn’t want to be standing in the doorway when the place begins to crumble.
Sandy, they’ll just keep selling! It’s the invisible hand of the grim reaper, baby! LOL
Taibbi today (probably the only “MSM guy” (?) I really pay any attention to) on the whole electioneering circus. How the Hype Became Bigger Than the Presidential Election
What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. A decision that in reality takes one or two days of careful research to make is somehow stretched out into a process that involves two years of relentless, suffocating mind-warfare, an onslaught of toxic media messaging directed at liberals, conservatives and everyone in between that by Election Day makes every dinner conversation dangerous and literally divides families.
No matter how you feel about politics I think, that paragraph is damn sure true. So much money and hot air expended for what amounts to in the end, so very little. Or is that the point of it all in the first place? Arguably so. Cynical me asks, could this all be nothing more than an effort to churn the economy every four (two to a lesser extent) years, while at the same time letting the little people somehow feel involved with “THE POLITICAL PROCESS” that they’ve been told since they were but wee urchins made they and their’s truly exceptional members of the greatest nation that God and Jesus ever anointed as such? [Suitable Patriotic music played LOUDLY here.]
Ahh, cynicism, I LOVE THEE SO!
if you like taibbi, you might like this guy, they used to work together.
http://exiledonline.com/
A LITTLE bit more nuance maybe…
every dinner conversation dangerous and literally divides families
HA! I’m deciding between Plan A and Plan B this Fucksgiving.
A: “I’ll give you my cynicism when you pry it from my cold, cold heart!”
B: Hey, didn’t some swarthy-bearded Greek cynic “counter-culture street preacher” in the Levant overturn the money tables or collapse the WTC or somethin’?
I’ll just head to the kitchen and make a sandwich.
I’ll meet you there Mike, and we’ll compare notes (and trade laughs) over shards of Turkey flesh killed for some ostensible symbolic reason (thank you, Uncle Tom!), but otherwise quite tasty. Cynicism – it’s what’s for dinner.
Wow, Sandy. I think if your waiting for tonight’s VP “debates’ to finish before posting you’re gonna have a hay day. Someone evidently put Ben Gay into Biden’s shorts before tonight’s debate, cause he’s out in full attack dog mode like I’ve never seen. Fair to say, the Dems are blowing it BIG TIME in my opinion. All Ryan has to do is keep his mouth such at this point to come off as the more reasonable of the two. Biden is a TOTAL liability in a forum such as this. Yeah, Ryan is a total dissembling liar like they are all are, but he’s DAMN GOOD at it! Biden? I don’t even know what to say. He’s an old fucking buffoon, at least at times. Score one for Eddie Munster and Mittens.