Category Archives: Occupy Wall Street

Balkanization of Protest, Part 3: GENERATION GRIPE

Posted on 22 October 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Part One:  DIVIDE & CONQUER

Part Two:  Tea Party VS. Occupy Wall Street

Part Three:  Young & Able VS. Old & Infirm

Larus Occidentalis: adult and juvenile tug-o-war over ground squirrel

TWO-PARTY STRANGLEHOLD.  Along with the world-famous Broken System, it’s the talk of the town.  In fact, TWO-PARTY STRANGLEHOLD is the talk of the town THE SAME WAY the Broken System is talk of the town.

ALL talk . . . no DO.

The two-party stranglehold ABIDES, same as The System abides.  Democrats may and do fight like siblings among THEMSELVES.  Republicans may and do fight like siblings among THEMSELVES.  Democrats and Republicans may and DO fight each OTHER like Hatfields and McCoys.

But Republicans and Democrats do NOT fight the two-party stranglehold.  On the contrary, they are overtly and covertly and fiercely UNITED in protecting their best interests.

Not so, Protesters.

Protests, for starters, are not INTENDED to abide.  They are intended to ACCOMPLISH something.  People With Power DO something or they QUIT doing something, which is to say they MEET DEMANDS, and the Protest ceases with its cause.  Or People With Power REFUSE to meet demands and quash the Protest.

Or People With Power EFFECTIVELY refuse to meet demands by condemning demands and Protesters alike to the lifecycle of Novelty News, and the Protest runs out of steam like a Plaintiff against Deep Pockets.

Or People With Power don’t HAVE TO meet demands, because Protesters squabble and the Protest implode.

People With Power HAVE power because they’re BETTER at this game than Protesters are.  People With Power are SKILLED sowers of discord and fanners of flames.  DISAGREEMENT is to The System as OIL is to The Automobile.

In the Balkanization of Protest, the renowned Generation Gap is inflamed into the GENERATION GRIPE: Young & Able VERSUS Old & Infirm.

A point of uber-contention between people with LOTS of life experience and people with LITTLE life experience is Social Security.

I ask, WHO is opposed to a secure society?  People who are compelled to pay for OTHERS’ security when they themselves are INSECURE, that’s who.  And the Skinflints & Heartless who don’t care about anyone, but we don’t care about them right back.

Besides, complaining about Government is part of the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST schtick that resonates so well with the Young & Able.  Most people are NEVER satisfied, that should be clear.  TAXES TO CARRY THE DEAD WEIGHT OF THE DISABLED is as good as any other ax for Skinflints & Hard Hearts to grind.

It is the ever-INCREASING weight of Non Producers and the ever-increasing obviousness of #Waste, #Incompetence and #Corruption that have sent even compassionate and generous people to the mattresses.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

In a new #AARP commercial, a strident-sounding Spokesman for a group of serious-looking Seniors warns Congress they WILL be voting in November.  Whereas Young ‘Uns might have any number of things come up , those Seniors absolutely WILL go to the polls.  BANKABLE votes.  Of course, what ELSE do many of them have to do?  Look at the calendar of a handful of Octogenarians to verify that DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS are the mainstay.

COME BACK IN THREE WEEKS joins conversational standbys like HOW ARE YOU and HAVE A NICE DAY.  People are living longer; more and more treatments are devised, and healthcare is ALREADY unaffordable.

Young ‘Uns don’t want to be saddled with all that expense…and never a more rational thought was entertained.  Commoners can’t afford their OWN healthcare, much less that of a Senior population that is, even as I type, exploding with retiring Baby Boomers.

Able-Bodied of a certain TYPE have always resented and WILL always resent paying for the DIS-abled.  That’s THAT…people are unfailingly human.  But in ordinary times, even Skinflints and Hard Hearts begrudgingly pony up for Disability, same as childless folk pony up for Education and people who don’t smoke or barbeque or have a fireplace or set off fireworks or leave Christmas lights plugged in SUCK UP higher insurance premiums that are DIRECTLY traceable to mishaps and mischief of Smokers and Partiers and Fire Starters of assorted intent.

Again, complaining about Government is part of the SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST schtick that resonates so well with the Young & Able-Bodied.  The decisive majority of people is NEVER satisfied, that should be clear.  TAXES TO CARRY THE DEAD WEIGHT OF THE DISABLED is as good as any other ax for Skinflints & Hard Hearts to grind.  Environmentalists will ALWAYS hate that personnel-carrier-sized vehicles somehow connote Success.

I invite MISERS and HARD HEARTS to revisit the #Hardright meme of the notorious Sixties: AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.  If the false dichotomy FITS, goose-step to it.  Americans have validated and RE-validated the concept of SOCIAL SECURITY.  Americans have demonstrated and RE-demonstrated compassion and generosity toward the genuinely Needy.

If you don’t like that, find yerself a JUNGLE and have at it.  We will stand advised that Trespassers will be shot, and that Survivors will be shot again.

The flip side of TOUGH TITTY TO HARD HEARTS is TOUGH TITTY TO BLEEDING HEARTS.  Genuine needs are few.  It’s a real piece o’ work who thinks the GENUINE Needy should be left to fend for themselves, but LOTSA people resent Receivers when caring for them further reduces quality of life and further increases the fresh, raw vulnerability of Givers.

FIRST DO NO HARM is paralleled by FIRST PICK LOW-HANGING FRUIT.  Rigorous elimination of FRAUD & INEFFICIENCY precedes any reduction of “Entitlements”.

Speaking of “Entitlements,” can we agree that paying OUT here-ya-go freebie #Welfare is NOT the same thing as paying BACK good-faith (also compulsory) contributions?  Can we agree that CUTTING EXPENSES is not the same thing as BREAKING PROMISES?

Yeah yeah, I’ve heard #HardrightRepublicans tout a “transition period” to ween people from reliance on Safety Net, allowing Young & Able to “opt out” in the meantime.

REALITY CHECK:  Stipulated Government is a Murphy’s Law proposition.  That said, lemme guess, non-Officials NEVER screw up?  It couldn’t happen that a generation of Opt Out’s ALSO gets led astray and “finds itself” up shit creek without a paddle in ITS most vulnerable years?

Yeah yeah, I’ve heard SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST folk declare they will NOT prevail upon Government/Society even IF they are faced with ruination (which they WON’T be, ‘cuz they are Uber Clever).

Really?  Bear in mind, we’re talking about the FUTURE.  What happens when it isn’t “just” The Rugged Individualist facing financial ruin, but his KID facing certain death?  ‘Cuz I am here to remind Wishful Thinkers that literally not one in a million will save/invest enough to pay for, say, Childhood Leukemia out of pocket.

Young & Able are NOTORIOUS for imagining INVINCIBILITY.  They also crowd the statistics of those who leave this temporal existence WRAPPED AROUND TELEPHONE POLES.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Tough Guys are like the STEP OVER DISABLED Hard Hearts — too few to worry about, so long as ya don’t poke ‘em with hot sticks.  They’re too busy ruggedly and individually hewing existences outta whatever is at hand, and they have too much contempt for City Slickers, to meddle in politics . . . SO LONG AS YA DON’T POKE ‘EM WITH HOT STICKS.

#SocialSecurity and #Medicare are good things  Poor Planning, Mismanagement, Bad Faith, Fraud, PEOPLE PLEASING AND VOTE BUYING are bad.  If we’re gonna throw out babies with bathwater, VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS.

Dismantling programs before retiring incompetent Officials AND BANNING CORRUPT OFFICIALS from Public Service is like closing schools before retiring crappy Teachers and firing corrupt Administrators.

There is #Altruism and there is #Opportunism, and ALWAYS the twain shall meet.  LOOK AROUND to see the demoralization and distrust that breed like rabbits once Law Abiders can see that Lawmakers are above the Law.

The GENERATION GRIPE also manifests starkly as Booze & Pills VERSUS Marijuana.

Mind, since the rules for getting PAID are quite different ‘twixt REAL Journalists and #CitizenJournalists, it stands to Reason that rules of protocol will vary somewhat.  Even so, I can’t NOT internalize recent criticism by #JillAbramson of the New York Times, about needlessly over-long stories.

#StephenKing, in his book on writing, entitled succinctly On Writing:  “Kill your darlings.” 

Suffice it to say:

  • Americans are SPENDING fortunes to capriciously criminalize #Marijuana, and Americans are FOREGOING fortunes by capriciously criminalizing #Marijuana.
  • Anyone who has actually been high and actually been drunk AND IS NOT INVESTED IN BIG BOOZE, BIG PILLS, BIG LEGAL OR BIG INCARCERATION will attest that Alcohol is MUCH more “cunning, baffling and powerful” than #Marijuana.
  • #HEMP is an Emerging Market, and “we” are missing the boat because Profiteers & Prudes are hell-bent on criminalizing #Marijuana while promoting, celebrating and otherwise CAPITALIZING on #Alcohol & #Pharmaceuticals.

In arguing for the logical, righteous, prudent and inevitable decriminalization of comparatively harmless #Marijuana, I more often say SCREW JUSTICE, FOCUS ON ECONOMICS.

But as it pertains to the Young & Able VERSUS Old & Infirm division. within the Ruled ‘n Abused VERSUS Ruled ‘n Abused division, in the DIVIDE & CONQUER part of the BALKANIZATION OF PROTEST, I say put the truly startling economics on the back burner and take a gander at the SHEER HYPOCRISY.

Oldsters who wouldn’t live to next WEEK without cocktails of pharmaceuticals practically SPIT the term “Drug Addicts” while pinning them with blame for a cornucopia of ills.  I’d say THE POT CALLS THE KETTLE BLACK, ‘cept that’d be called RAAAAYCIST by goose-stepping Label Hurlers.

“The very height of irony” is hackneyed.  MANIFESTLY UNJUST manifestly does not move a critical mass.

Focus instead on the NAKED EMPEROR HYPOCRISY of people who wash down a wildly expensive, indeed unsustainable, #PrescriptionDrugPlan with copious amounts of Serial Killer #JohnBarleycorn.

CHRISTIANS & JEWS versus NON BELIEVERS & ALL OTHER FAITHS being yet another don’t-look-over-HERE-look-over-THERE-divide-and-conquer false dichotomy, I shall perversely conclude on #ArabProverbs:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Keep your friends close — hold your enemies closer.

Examine what is said, not who speaks.

A fool may be known by six things: anger without cause, speech without profit, change without progress, inquiry without object, putting trust in a stranger, and MISTAKING FOES FOR FRIENDS.

Amen.

آمين

 

copyright 2011 Implausible Endeavors LLC

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Balkanization of Protest, Part 2: #TeaParty VERSUS #OccupyWallStreet

Posted on 20 October 2011 by admin| 2 Comments

VERSUS is the operative word.

The “original” #TeaParty was largely right-of-center people who have HAD IT UP TO HERE with #Democrats, #Liberals, #Socialists, the #Republican Party, the #JusticeDepartment, #MainstreamMedia and the catchall Broken System.

#OccupyWallStreet is largely left-of-center people who have HAD IT UP TO HERE with #Republicans, #Conservatives, Reactionaries, the #Democratic Party, the Justice Department, #MainstreamMedia and the catchall Broken System.

Do I spy common ground, or WHAT?

There surely is SOME infusion of Tea Party passion into iOccupy.  As proof…hell, as HOPE…I point to the instant-classic YouTube of a (barely) 20-Something rant against WAR and the FEDERAL RESERVE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCsIqLPjP4A

GOOD. ON. HIM.

But animosity between the camps of Unhappy Campers is pronounced and increasing.  Why?  They COMPETE for the favor of the Mainstream Media they both claim to distrust, and they line up behind the Parties they both claim to buck.

Though SHEER NUMBERS is Rank & File’s unequivocal strong suit, they compete/fight with EACH OTHER, rather than COLLABORATE to vanquish common adversaries.

The operative word is COMMON.

OF COURSE they don’t like each other.  That is why they are on OPPOSITE ENDS of a manmade political construct.  It is difficult to imagine ANYONE has reached the ripe old age of, say, THIRTY without hearing that Passion is on a circle, not a line, with LOVE as up-close-and-personal to HATE as a next-door neighbor in a fenceless ‘hood.

In Ordinary Times, ASSUMING FREEDOM AND ABSENT SHIT-DISTURBING, many many many many of America’s #ConscientiousObjectors would not mix ‘n mingle  SO WHAT?

 

Show me a person whose emotions contain not one TRACE of dislike or disapproval, and I’ll show you a FLATLINER.  That is a matter of OPINION.

WINSTON CHURCHILL: “You have enemies? Good! That means you’ve STOOD for something in your lifetime.”

This is FACT: What most ails VICTIMIZED OUTRAGED RIGHT and VICTIMIZED OUTRAGED LEFT is not each other.  They didn’t get screwed outta homes, livelihoods, present security and future prospects BY EACH OTHER.

The Rich=Powerful people who screwed people over RIGHT, LEFT AND CENTER are BETTER at ruling the world/people than are the newly awakened.  Powers That WERE have been AT it for all of human history: DIVIDE & CONQUER.

In arguing that the #TeaParty is long since USURPED by #OldGuardRepublicans, I go back to March 2010 — “a long time ago,” by POLITICAL measure.  For the ol’ Permanent Record, Politics is NOT a Necessary Evil.  GOVERNMENT is a Necessary Evil.  TAXES are a Necessary Evil.  POLITICS is self-interested Opportunism…which is to say CAPITALIZING on Necessary Evil.

By measure of PROBABLE LIFE SPAN, I have spent “a long time” roaming around America, trying to make enough sense of INSANITY to squeeze my own craziness in edgewise, trying to memorialize ground conditions without WHITEWASHING, trying to write/say/do/ SOMETHING that contributes to the Effort to restore REASON and INTEGRITY to governance of the United States.

Being in Georgia when I learned of the upcoming ANTI OBAMACARE rally in Washington DC, I resolved to drive there.  NOT fly.  It jars my senses every time I contrast how much I formerly loved to travel with how afraid I now am of flying.  And  it is NOT #Terrorists who are scaring the bejeezus outta me.

I could not replicate my entry into the District of Columbia if I tried, but the first non-memorial edifice I came up against was the Department of Agriculture.  City BLOCKS of it, seemingly with more OFFICE WINDOWS than America has FARMERS.  It is the first and only time I vocalized RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

It IS futile, in a way.  Even if The Aggrieved oust The Icky, OTHER Icky will assert themselves, and they will amass wealth=power, and they will abuse that power.  Thousands of years of recorded history attest.  Still, must TRY.

It is opinion, not fact…that it is our duty to TRY, right to the buzzer.

It is historical FACT that certain Oppressed People HAVE risen and reclaimed their natural-born freedom from their manmade Oppressors.  Oppressors are thirteen to the dozen.  Overthrower becoming like or WORSE than Overthrown is a tale as common as it heartbreaking, but that does not mean Oppressed People should forbear OPPRESSION.

Might just as well say NO POINT IN LIVING, SINCE WE’RE GONNA DIE.

On the 20th of March 2010, the #TeaPartiers assembled on the lawn below the balcony wherefrom impervious Congress Members LOOKED DOWN ON THEM were the #TeaPartiers of my online AND in-the-flesh acquaintance.  FYI to Keyboard Commandos, you have to actually RISK venturing out and MEETING some “Online Posters” before you can even GUESSTIMATE  at who & what is real.  Phonies & Propaganda abound . . . just like Liars & False Advertising abound.  C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I-V-I-T-Y.

Bullies on high, bullies in schools.  Top-down, top-down.

The 3/20/10 #Obamacare protest was “original” Tea Party, people who quoted Founding Fathers and donned “period” costume.  DOWN on #Obamacare, they were.  (Americans will rue the day they fought for the right to pay for their OWN unaffordable healthcare, but that is another story.  A DIFFERENT story of Divide & Conquer.)

They were also DOWN on War and the ENTANGLING ALLIANCES.  They were DOWN on Government Overreach, Government Waste, Hyper Regulation, Civil Rights Abuse, Police Brutality, Self-Investigation, Entrenched Politicians, Corrupt Officials & the TWO-PARTY STRANGLEHOLD.

They were DOWN DOWN DOWN on #CentralBankers.  END THE FED!

They were ALSO comparatively FEW  – early, enthusiastic suggestion of 25,000 attendees was ridiculed out of countenance.  A FEW thousand?  Using Drake Stadium as a reference, not even 10,000.  They’re all hell-bent on REPEALING #Obamacare, but the big #TeaParty push against #Obamacare drew fewer people than a Latino assembly for I-don’t-know-what a few blocks away.  On a Saturday.

Then I learned that the TEA PARTY EXPRESS would roll into town later in the week . . . in high style and posh coaches, with SARAH PALIN headlining.

Sarah Palin, running mate of JOHN McCAIN and QUITTER of Alaskan Governorship is “suddenly” drawing crowds AND DONORS under the Tea Party banner.  Platforms, having weight and bulk, are hard to maintain and harder to peddle.  Banners are light and breezy, readily collapsed into “practically nothing” nd inexpensively reproduced with modifications, such as the addition of CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS.

Not only did the TEA PARTY EXPRESS roll into Washington DC AFTER the TeaParty protest of Obamacare on 3/20/10, it rolled into Washington DC AFTER the House PASSED Obamacare on 3/21/10.

TEA PARTY EXPRESS rolled into Dealmaking Central on a WEEK DAY…when those who HAVE jobs don’t DARE not show up for them.  TEA PARTY EXPRESS further distinguished itself from the “original” TeaParty, when TeaPartyExpress Brass posed and pontificated  on ONE side of the weekend and #SecondAmendment folk assenbked not only on the other side of the WEEKEND, but also the other side of the RIVER, in another state.

Say what you will about Hardcore Libertarian Gun Toters, FEEL about them however you do — some ARE scary — but as the sword is the last argument of kings, so an Armed Citizenry IS the last defense AGAINST Kings and Killers.  C’est la vie.

In short (lol), I believe the #TeaParty Moovement  has been co-opted AT LEAST since March 2010.

By Old Guard #Republicans, no less.  It is all fine and well for #SarahPalin to preach Anti Establishmentarianism NOW — it’s kinda hard to say who broke up with WHOM — but for absolute positive certain, she rode the coattails of none other than the Old Boy Network to her “discovery” as a  MEDIA SENSATION. Lady Go Go.

With the Republican Machine, same as with the Democratic Machine, comes ENHANCED SHOT AT VICTORY, also at big-league fundraising and high-flying lifestyles. “Original” Tea Partiers, flush with the “success” of installing infamous #RepublicanFreshman who played HOSTAGE POLITICS over #DebtDeal, don’t wanna do anything that might piss of the mighty “Republican Base.”

Power corrupts?  Money=Power, and there you have it.  #HardrightRepublicans have swept Funny Hat Tea Partiers off their feet with (at last!) THEIR slice o’ the pie.  IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM.  WINNING IS EVERYTHING.  THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS.

They who were lately mocked now RIDICULE the Socialists and Marxists among the #OccupyWallStreeters. Pray tell, what if Congress would be known and judged by photos of ANTHONY WEINER.

What if the entire American Legal System would be evaluated by Pennsylvania Judge Mark Ciavarella,WHO LOCKED KIDS UP FOR CASH?

If #LimousineLiberals are TRYING to overtake #OccupyWallStreet to make it pro-Obama or “just” tweak it ANTI GOP, it’s because they CAN.

Michael J. Fox in AMERICAN PRESIDENT: “…in the absence of genuineleadership, they‘ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.”

#MainstreamMedia is owned by GIANT CORPORATIONS.  Giant Corporations are doing very well.  Remember?  CORPORATE EARNINGS the bright spot of our poorly performing but well-propped economy.  Giant Corporations are not WITH The Resistance.  Officials that live like ROYALTY compared to our erstwhile Middle Class are not even SERVANTS to the Public, they are certainly not FRIENDS.

Even IF #OccupyWallStreet were initially the brainchild of Masterminds on “the other side”, it is only and entirely by INFIGHTING AMONG COMMONERS that they could keep AHOLD of so much discontent agitating amid so much suffering and insecurity.

DEMOTIVATORS INC: “Never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people.”

The election is more than a year away.  There is talk of a national Occupy assembly in #Philadelphia, commencing next JULY (love the venue, WEEP at the delay).  It is PREPOSTEROUS for theoretical populist groundswells of OUTRAGE & RESOLVE to quickly line up along party lines, behind existing standard-bearers.

It bears repeating, Commoners’ leverage lies in their NUMBERS.

More and more and more and more Resistors WITHHOLDING support from politicians and campaigns, pending redress of grievances, THAT will put pressure on them.  A larger and larger mass of people refusing to get sucked into party politics or distracted by Wedge Issues, THAT will scare them.  If we have learned nothing else about #Terrorism, we have learned that FEAR is highly motivational.

Starve the Cold, feed the Fevered.

ACCOMPLISHMENT trumps OCCUPATION.

copyright 2011 Implausible Endeavors LLC

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Balkanization of Protest, Part 1: DIVIDE & CONQUER

Posted on 18 October 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Balkanization of Protest . . . in PARTS, a’course.

Gambling is all the rage, is it not?  I will go out on a limb and suggest it is a very sure bet that more Americans have NOT read the American Declaration of Independence than HAVE read it.

…But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States…

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

 

A’course, Gamblers ain’t big on SAFE bets.  They like the possibility of BIG payouts, remaining stubbornly undeterred by diminishing probability of upside and gathering prospects of calamity.  Taking BIG RISKS is a BIG RUSH…what Addict doesn’t salivate over THAT?

Make no mistake, it is truer to say America is a nation of GAMBLERS than to say it is a nation of Builders.  It is truer to say America is a nation of ADDICTS than to say it is a nation of “hard working, law-abiding citizens”.  Who COULD abide by all the laws?  In September 2009, thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of Regulations = Laws ago, Gordon Crovitz opined in the Wall Street Journal that most Americans commit three felonies per day:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842.html

As to hard-working, some surely surely are.  MANY are.  Something on the order of 80%, by MY reckoning.  Anyone who DRIVES AROUND rather than FLIES OVER America knows Unemployment is significantly higher than nine-point-something.  By MY reckoning, something on the order of eighty percent work like MULES, while fifteen-ish percent HAVE no work (tho many collect SOMETHING FOR NOTHING), and something on the order of five percent hardly work (tho ALL are extravagantly compensated).

Make no mistake, is truer to say America is a RACIST nation than to say it is a Christian nation.  It is truer to say America is a MONEYIAN nation than to say it is Democratic nation.  It is truer to say America is the land of the FINED and the home of the FEARFUL than to continue boasting it as the land of the Free and the home of the Brave.

Truth sometimes hurts, and well I know it.  I have been screwed over six ways from Sunday while people who DID screw me over and people who screw me over NOW not only get off scot-free, they get RICHER.

Excuse me, ladies & gents and hookers & johns, but It is truer to say America is in DENIAL than to say America is in Recovery.

Left and “Right” will never agree on core issues.  That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade moniker spectrum.  (In retrospect, Democrats are lucky they didn’t reflexively offset Republicans’ brilliant choice of THE RIGHT with The Wrong.)  Liberals and “Conservatives” will never agree on core issues.  That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade political spectrum.  Socialists and Fascists will never agree on core issues.  That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade economic spectrum.  Believers and “Non Believers” (I will argue they believe in something ELSE) will never agree on core issues.  That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade spiritual spectrum.

But left, right, and center, Americans GOT screwed and are GETTING screwed.  Does SCREWED offend delicate sensibilities?  Is FLEECED more peecee?  Hoodwinked.  Bamboozled.  Pillaged.  ACROSS the spiritual spectrum, Reg’lar People got screwed.  ACROSS the ideological spectrum, Reg’lar People got screwed.  ACROSS the label-hurling spectrum, Reg’lar People who “merely” can’t stand each other got screwed.

Who did NOT get screwed across the board were Rich People, AS EVIDENCED BY AN INCREASING WEALTH GAP.  The Wealth Gap was unsustainable BEFORE the manmade “crisis” and it has INCREASED since then — that’s kinda all you need to know.  Well…THAT, and this business of OFFICIALS GETTING RICH.

Do the millions and millions and millions of American Screwed Over use the OPPORTUNITY inherent in Occupy Wall Street to band together  to ride Tyrants and Thieves outta Dodge?  No way, Jose.

SUPERIOR FORCE and MONOPOLY ON PROSECUTION/INCARCERATION is the obvious reason Commoners tolerate bullshit.  And superior Force is NOT to be discounted in importance, ‘specially with TORTURE having come back into fashion.  But it is not ENOUGH to render the broadcloth of a population helpless.  It has never been enough.  Throughout recorded history, straws have broken camels’ backs and masses have risen in revolt.

Why AREN’T the various factions of Screwed Over UNITING to marshall what is inarguably their greatest strength, SHEER NUMBERS?

Disagreements are too many to list, even if it was a worthy use of Time.  Besides which, disagreements are obviously the WEAK LINKS in alliances.  Recovery Circuit Wisdom: COMPARE AND DESPAIR.

Call me an Optimist (THAT’D be a first), but I DO spy foundational concepts on which all people in command of Reason and bound by Honesty MUST agree:

  • RESOURCES ARE SCARCE
  • HUMANS ARE FLAWED & MORTAL
  • MONEY = POWER, AND POWER CORRUPTS
  • SELF-INTEREST IS NATURAL/REFLEXIVE/AUTOMATIC
  • DECISIONS & ACTIONS HAVE COSTS & CONSEQUENCES
  • DIVIDE & CONQUER
  • TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS

In the spirits of FOLLOW THE MONEY and CUT TO THE CHASE, I draw the attention of the sliced, diced, chopped and pureed Indignant to DIVIDE & CONQUER and VICTORS GET SPOILS.

The Aggrieved ALLOWING themselves to be divided — BY VESTED INTERESTS, no less — along the very lines that make them THEM, plays RIGHT into the hands of Ruling Elite.  Every single day that The Aggrieved are neutered by division, the very people who so revere money they will screw over their own Countrymen “make” even MORE money — as evidenced by the cold hard fact that The Rich are getting EVEN RICHER and The Poor are getting EVEN POORER.

A Dolled Up Loyalist on MSNBC had the effin’ nerve to say yesterday, 10/16/11, “We don’t wanna mess up the one are of the recovery that’s going well, CORPORATE EARNINGS.”

Bold emphasis, mine.

I never suffered fools well, but now I’m kinda OFF people altogether.  Can’t trust ‘em, that’s been my experience.  I was always skeptical, but now I’m CYNICAL.  I used to want to live to be 100.  Not any more . . . no sir-ee.  Naturally smart, better than averagely educated, above averagely attractive and family with enough money that I won’t ever be on a park bench . . . and I have conscientiously SHORTENED my projected life span.  I make my decisions, including financial, accordingly.  THAT is how bad it is in America.

THAT is how unpleasant it is to abide Perpetual War and Institutionalize Injustice, in the wake of learning that much of what I have been told and taught is LIES, that key articles of belief are FALSE.

LIBERTY & JUSTICE FOR ALL . . . that’s a WHOPPER, that’s what THAT is.

I don’t care if you have sleeves of tattoos, a magenta mohawk and more piercings than a damn sieve.  I don’t care if you have 2.2 kids, a dog that eats better than most kids and and a house that does not threaten to DEVOUR you because you were successful and prudent enough put down 20%, and intelligent and educated enough to lock in a manageable 30-year rate on a loan that can refinance or borrow against, because you know how to do that kinda stuff without being taken to the cleaners.  If you are against LYING, CHEATING & STEALING, we are on the same side.

I don’t care if you are a Metrosexual strutting your stuff on busy boulevards for (hopefully) all the world to see, or if you are Militia brandishing weapons in remote backwoods for (hopefully) no one to see, if you are a crotchety old Geezer or a Know It All 20-Something.  If you are opposed to LYING, CHEATING & STEALING, we are on the same side.

If you believe in PRINCIPLES OVER PROFITS, if you believe in LETTING PUNISHMENTS SUIT CRIMES, if you believe in EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW, we are on the same side.

Benjamin Franklin wasn’t whistling Dixie when he warned Revolutionaries and Posterity i.e. We The People: HANG TOGETHER, OR HANG  SEPARATELY.

copyright 2011 Implausible Endeavors LLC

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PART 1:  Intro / DIVIDE & CONQUER

PART 2:   Tea Party VERSUS Occupy Wall Street

PART 3:  White Supremacists VERSUS Black Supremacists

PART 4:  Oldsters VERSUS Youngsters

PART 5:  Mainstream Media VERSUS Truth

PART 6:  Baby Boomers VERSUS Death

PART 7:  Conclusion / PULL HEADS OUTTA SAND, HOLD LINE THEREIN

 

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Occupy Wall Street Demands: 2 Cents on 8 Points

Posted on 5 October 2011 by admin| 4 Comments

“Shout” of thanks to Twitterer @robmillernow, for directing me to a link at which to vote on Occupy Wall Street DEMANDS.

Thanks especially for an opportunity to vote on something that might actually matter, WITHOUT providing the email address that people OBVIOUSLY sell despite protestations to the contrary, or I wouldn’t receive so much unwanted mail from so many unknown AND UNLIKED people.  Email from TODD PALIN?!?!  Email from PAUL RYAN?!?!  Are we KIDDING ME?!?!  I believe Sarah Palin is a superlative self-promoter, but an intellectual bantamweight AND A QUITTER.  I believe Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and John Boehner are OVERWHELMINGLY responsible for the HOSTAGE POLITICS that “underpinned” the Debt Deal-More-Like-Debacle.

Do I have THEIR email addresses, so I can give THEM a piece of MY mind?  No I do not, but I digress.

I do, and I do NOT digress.  Ivory Towers, more particularly DISCRIMINATORY SYSTEMIC ADVANTAGES FOR MONEYED INTERESTS, are at the indignant heart of Occupy Wall Street.

DELIGHTED is not an emotion with which I have much familiarity this millennium.  When casting my YAY vote for Item #1 (CONGRESS SHALL PASS HR 1489, REINSTATING KEY PROVISIONS OF GLASS-STEAGALL BANKING REGULATION), I was delighted to discover that I voted for its inclusion among FORMAL Demands, rather than OFFICIAL Demands.

Even before opening the link, I had “made a mental note” to comment that demands should be FORMALIZED, rather than made OFFICIAL. Formal Demand for REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES is protected by our Constitution. Our Bill of Rights commands REVOLT against Government turned abusive and imperious.

There is no kind, gentle way to disabuse people of the feel-good notion that Government CARES about them, that Officials are their Friends.  Who cannot resurrect from their youth the popping of the Santa Claus balloon? Never again to be inflated, THAT balloon . . . but fear not.  So MANY balloons, so little Time.

NOTHING about the Status Quo is part of the Solution.  INCLUDING Obama.  Excuse me, Die Hard Democrats, but Barack Obama swept into office with a LOT of political capital and he pointedly did NOT use it to lower the boom on White Collar Criminals.  He COULD have.  He chose NOT TO.  He COULD have raised the question American War Criminals, if “only” to assure a nervous world that we practice what we preach.  He chose NOT to.  He COULD have ended the Afghanistan War.  He not only chose not to, he ESCALATED it.  Concurrent with opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games.  While collecting a Nobel Peace Prize.

Does no one but me remember Obama’s promise to confine himself to Public Financing, if his Republican opponent would?  Which John McCain WOULD, once it was clear Obama was raising MEGA FUNDS.  But once he was hauling down MEGA FUNDS, Obama declined his own challenge.  What ensued was, BY FAR, the costliest presidential election in American history.  With history on the verge of “repeating itself.”  So mischievous, that History.  Incorrigible, really.

What happened to the NO LOBBYISTS WILL WORK IN MY WHITE HOUSE promise?

What ARE campaign fundraising and lobbying, except the nuts and bolts of MOENY IN POLITICS?

We may GET Obama again.  He COULD be preferable, if the Republican option is HARDRIGHT and there is no Independent option.  Big Money may even WANT him to sit there and finish his peas.  But we surely don’t BEGIN meaningful Conscientious Objection (which may be likened to NEGOTIATION) by saying we’ll keep the Sitting President (who may be likened to the CEO),

YAY on Item #2: FULLY INVESTIGATE WALL STREET CRIMINALS, with the following provisos

Calling for SUITS IN FEDERAL AGENCIES to investigate Suits on Wall Street, when relevant Federal Agencies failed to anticipate the “Crisis” AND have largely since given Shysters free passes is, jeepers, no more reassuring to me than Police investigating Police Brutality or The Government auditing The Fed.

“Luckily,” INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIONS = JOBS CREATION.

Moreover, it is not “only” Wall Street Criminals BUT ALSO CORRUPT OFFICIALS who must be vanquished. Only count up Tom DeLay and Charlie Rangel censures to know CONGRESS INVESTIGATING CONGRESS is worse than meaningless.  It is a WASTE of money.  Congress shall allot funds for INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION of Wall Street Criminals AND Corrupt Public Counterparts.

Further in regard to Item #2, I STRONGLY recommend memorializing specific demand for, upon convictions, the seizing of ill-gotten gains and, in the case of Corrupt Public Servants, the stripping of EXPENSIVE taxpayer-funded pensions.  I will suggest that PERMANENT BANISHMENT of convicted Executives & Officials from both Public Office AND the Finance Sector is akin to denial of firearms to certain Ex-Cons.

YAY on Item #3: REVERSAL OF CITIZENS UNITED (devastating bit of legislating from the bench) & SOMETHING RESEMBLING EQUAL TIME FOR CANDIDATES DURING CAMPAIGN SEASONS.

HOWEVER, comma, it is ALWAYS campaign season in America.  If memory serves, closer to 300 than 200 people have registered as Candidates in the next presidential “race”.  Shall they ALL get equal time?  At a discounted price, no less?  I am no champion of Corporate Media but, as written, Item #2 could regularly hurl Networks into the OPERATING LOSS range.

PUBLIC FINANCING will kill several vultures with one stone.

YAY on Item #4:  TAX THE RICH &  CLOSE LOOPHOLES.

HOWEVER, comma, it’s not about FAIR.  It’s about NECESSARY.  In the same way I hold Government to be a Necessary Evil, I am with Winston Churchill in holding THERE IS NO GOOD TAX.  The objective of taxation should be HOW MUCH DO WE NEED . . . not how much can we GET.

Make tax hikes on Rich STEEP, but temporary . . . y”know, in a STATE OF EMERGENCY.  ”We” have been posing quite a few “Firsts” in the name of STATE OF EMERGENCY.   I am lol’ing to myself at the thought of the fight that will presage the sunset of those hikes, but that is a fight for another day. No need to argue new paint colors while yer still puttin’ out the fire.

AUDIT the top one percent.  And AUDIT the 501(c)3′s while yer closin’ those loopholes.

YAY on Item #5: REVAMP THE SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION.

But I vote YAY only ‘cuz voting nay would be absurd, and there isn’t a third choice.  The Commission itself is not the problem.  CORRUPT &/OR INEPT REGULATORS are the problem.  We have PLENTY of regulations that aren’t being enforced as it is, so MORE regulation isn’t the Solution.  As for “proven professionals,” hell, Goldman Saxers are proven professionals.  Not everyone who ever served in Government can have been an Idiot or an Asshole, it just doesn’t stand to Reason.  It is therefore logical to assume something HAPPENS to erstwhile well-intentioned people, once they get a little bit o’ power.  Which segues to:

YAY on Item #6:  STRICTLY CURTAIL LOBBYISTS & LOBBYING.

I vote yay only because there wasn’t a box to check for LOBBYING SHALL BE ILLEGAL, & LOBBYISTS PROSECUTED FOR BRIBING OFFICIALS.

The new White House Petition platform, the one that DOES harvest all kindsa personal information, can replace Lobbying.  Either that, or eliminate the House of Representatives (major savings) and let individuals hire LAWYERS as needed (jobs creation & economic stimulus).

YAY on Item #7:  DISMANTLE REVOLVING DOORS

INCLUDING the one between Ivy Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve & the United States Treasury. ESPECIALLY the one between Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve and the United States Treasury.

YAY on Item #8:  ELIMINATE CORPORATE PERSONHOOD

Duh.

America is one sick puppy, what the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous calls a LAST GASPER.  Rehab, like Food Stamps, has lost its stigma as it has grown more popular.  Maybe the 8-point plan should be a 12-Step Program. When Ruling Elite predictably DECLINE or RESIST, we will understand it is classic Denial

PUT THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ON A CRASH DIET BY ENDING THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN & THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ.

DRAMATICALLY REDUCE FOREIGN AID WHILE WE SORT OUT WHO’S ON FIRST & WHAT’S ON SECOND.

SCALE BACK HOMELAND SECURITY, PATIOT ACT & TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADMINISTRATION Resources Are Scarce = First Law of Economics.  Devote fewer of our scarce resources to guarding AGAINST things happening and more of our scarce resources to MAKING things happen.  It’s a whole different mentality.  The noble idea underpinning INSURANCE is to mitigate the costs of calamity, not to rake in gambling pots.

END THE MERCENARY & HYPOCRITICAL WAR ON DRUGS.  REALZE IMMEDIATE REVENUE AND IMMEDIATE SAVINGS BY DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA — LICENSE, REGULATE & TAX IT AKIN TO ALCOHOL.

Peace may not be as profitable as war, but it’s a helluva lot cheaper.

Recovery Circuit Wisdom: See to it first that our own house is in order.  We can’t transmit something we haven’t got.

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Token Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

Posted on 5 October 2011 by admin| 1 Comment

Considering it produces no income and, WORSE, gives no evidence of helping anyone but ME — and even THAT is debatable — I spend a lotta lotta time on Twitter.

Sentence by sentence, with a 140-character limit per, MOST of it “original” composition, ask around, THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND TWEETS is a lotta lotta venting. The argument defending my commitment of uber-scarce resource TIME to Twitter turns on the intellectual, emotional and spiritual benefits of ORDERING MY THOUGHTS and TAMPERING MY RAGE.

I do not use the term RAGE lightly. ANGER is dangerous — NOT to say it does not sometimes serve excellent purpose, such as severing of toxic relationships. ANGER is a redder flag among red flags — think, RED HOT. Rage?  Redder, still.  Hot hot HOT says devoted parent to cherished child:  DON’T TOUCH!

See, I got screwed by Conscienceless Uber Rich BEFORE the Great Savings Heist of 2008…then AGAIN in 2008. I’m down to two gears for Anger: TOTALLY PISSED and PAYBACK IS A BITCH.

In MY world, in quote-unquote GOOD Times, “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our principles, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.  In THESE times, no lie or exaggeration, Anonymity seems to me to bear rather pointedly on SURVIVAL.  Poor Sergio Vieira de Mello.  Poor Vittorio Arrigoni.

One thing I am NOT anonymous about is my REMISSION from Alcoholism.   I quote from famous CHAPTER FIVE: HOW IT WORKS of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, BIBLE TO UNCOUNTED MILLIONS: “Resentment is the number one offender . . . With the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.”

Empirically, I AM FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE, such as it is.  More consequentially, I am fighting for the salvation of my soul — whether that is defined by the EXTREME heaven-hell paradigm or by karma-based Spiritual Evolution.  I categorically REJECT the dispiriting notion that THIS is the whole shebang.  It would scarcely be worth getting out of bed in the morning.  As far as I am concerned, this entire MILLENNIUM has sucked.

With more than a half-century of Life Experience under my belt, I have encountered NOTHING that breeds and feeds resentment like DELIBERATE INJUSTICE PERPETRATED BY MORE POWERFUL PARTIES WHO SWASHBUCKLE WITH BRAVADO THAT TRACES TO OFFICIAL COMPLICITY & JUDICIAL SYMPATHY.

Like when the Banking Sector plays FINANCIAL TERRORIST and the Federal Government sez PLENTY OF BLAME TO GO AROUND, LET’S MOVE FORWARD.

No can do.

People say LOSE THE ANGER.  Great idea.  Put it WHERE?  Profiteers and Opportunists are swashbuckling away. Injustices MOUNT. Consider how many OCCUPY WALL STREET Protesters have been arrested . . . and how many Real Estate Appraisers, Real Estate Agents, Mortgage Bankers, Hedge Fund Managers, Market Makers, Investment Advisors, Derivative Traders & Risk Assessors have NOT been arrested?

Hell, porn-surfing employees of the Securities & Exchange Commission, paid by Taxpayers to prevent JUST such a debacle as occurred with Sub-prime Credit Default Swaps, didn’t even get fired.

Societies get more of whatever turns a profit. Take Afghanistan, by way of random example. HEROIN and WAR turn profits. DRUG WAR & “REGULAR” WAR, we got. White Collar Crime pays EYE-POPPINGLY, MIND-BOGGLINGLY well in America, so we get more and more of it.  Scam Artistry abounds, INCLUDING in agencies and programs instituted and administered (again at Taxpayer expense) ostensibly to RECTIFY previous wrongdoings.  Corruption is RAMPANT.

And why WOULDN’T it be?

“Analysts” assign a PERCENT OF REAL to numbers. “Creative” Accounting has replaced Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.   Commerce without Generally Accepted Accounting Principles is as ridiculous as commerce without standardized Weights & Measures.

LET US COUNT THE WAYS is the only logical response, if modestly intelligent and attentive Americans ask themselves whether whether their Government has ever lied to them.  Ditto, if they ask themselves whether their Government has ever CONSPIRED in covert operations.  I give you Fast And Furious. Funneling arms to Mexican Drug Lords, what could possibly go wrong?

YOUR TAX DOLLARS HARDLY AT WORK.

I do not discount the possibility that OCCUPY WALL STREET was masterminded by, who else, Masterminds. Certainly it scooted the Palestinians’ bid to enjoy the same rights as Israelis onto the mental back burner of a notoriously attention-deficit electorate.  Continued marginalization of Palestinians IS an objective of many a Very Important Person, no?

I do not discount the probability that OCCUPY WALL STREET is riddled with Provocateurs from under BOTH the Anarchist rock AND the Martial Law rock.

I do not disregard the obviousness that OCCUPY WALL STREET includes Socialists, Marxists, KIDS, Communists, Bleeding Hearts, Wishful Thinkers and Slackers.

In a world not only gone mad, but a world gone mad with the United States blazing trails, Occupy Wall Street makes MORAL SENSE.  Occupy The Federal Reserve makes MORAL SENSE.  Occupy Washington DC makes MORAL SENSE.

Me, I am NOT an Anarchist.  I recognize Government as a NECESSARY EVIL.  I therefore view Corrupt Officials as TRAITORS and I am in the irreproachable company of Marcus Tullius Cicero in believing that Traitors must be executed, if a country would be sovereign and secure.  But that is a tangential subject, and I know how strongly “we” feel about Sanctity of Life . . . nudge nudge, wink wink.

Maybe we don’t HAVE TO disrupt commerce in a dozen Federal Reserve Cities.  Maybe we don’t HAVE TO shut down our nation’s CAPITOL, fer cryin’ out loud.  But evidence abounds that calling and writing and texting and voting have NOT turned the tide and WILL NOT turn the tide.  Look only to a Wealth Gap that continues to INCREASE, when it was already unsustainable at the START of the “Crisis”.

America gained BILLIONAIRES via a manmade clusterfuck of a wealth transfer that is lumped under the CRISIS umbrella like so much aftermath of a Natural Disaster.

It bears mention that even NATURAL DISASTERS turn profits for the Few, while taxing the Many. Even HOMELAND SECURITY.  I would never have believed such skullduggery would be commonplace in my own country, but for routine confrontation with the REALITY of it.  It is obscene. Think, SODOM & GOMORRAH.

If more and more and more GOOD-HEARTED, HARD-WORKING, SCREWED OVER & INDIGNANT AMERICANS support Occupy Wall Street, the tinier will become the percentage represented by Extremists.  NOBODY’S agenda is gonna be adopted wholesale . . . unless it is that of Prevailing Rulers.  Ninety-nine percent have no CHOICE but to compromise.  But first we must rout Bad Guys.

Even before that, though . . . FIRST, YOU’VE GOT TO GET MAD.

FIRST THINGS FIRST is an important Recovery Circuit Concept.

I quote again from the Big Book: “Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.”

The United States Government been stepping on toes in other countries for years for as long as it has had enough POWER to do so.  The United States Government has been doing it to AMERICANS for several years now.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, or it is NOT enough.

OCCUPY WALL STREET is a vehicle to WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN.  Egyptians didn’t manage to unseat Mubarek because HE was more dastardly as a Dictator or because THEY were more righteous as The Oppressed.  THEY WOULDN’T TAKE ‘NO’ FOR AN ANSWER.  They couldn’t.

THIS “crisis” was not without precedent in the S & L Crisis.  Who went to prison?  What changed?  Money is VERY seductive.  Human Nature is VERY flawed.  Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely; money IS power.  Greed is one of the SEVEN DEADLY SINS . . . not some component of the entrepreneurial spirit that, like other components, requires balance but is vital to Success.  There is no such thing as Greed Lite.

I know from whence I speak when I say SPENDING is an addiction, and money is a SUBSTANCE OF CHOICE.

Think of Occupy Wall Street as an INTERVENTION.  We can get back to circle-jerk bickering after we separate The Diseased from the herd and quarantine them.  It is highly contagious, what they have, and lethal. Think, MIDAS. Think, PIED PIPER.

Occupy Wall Street. Just say NO to Corruption. Think . . . THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD.

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