A constant question I ask is, ‘What is patriotism?’ For example, every time someone’s party loses a national election and thus, power over the rest of us, there are instant screams of ‘I am going away’. Or, in the case of the GOP, ‘We will secede from the nation!’ It is painfully obvious that our Congress isn’t patriotic. And our corporate and banking industries also think patriotism is for chumps. But lots of people feel this way. The flag waving is a mile wide and an inch deep in America. Except in one place: people who earn very little money, tend to feel a genuine sense of patriotism that is quite touching in its innocence.
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I get all sorts of invitations which I can’t honor. Some of them are actually rather peculiar. I can see from the venue description that if I were invited to speak, I would probably start a riot. HAHAHA….on the left, I used to be an explosive speaker and thus, not asked back, either! For some reason, people want only staged debates, not real ones. I hope someday, I get invited to speak at something like the FreedomFest:
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FreedomFest: The World’s Largest Gathering of Free Minds
Dear freedom lovers,
The agenda for this year’s big show, FreedomFest, is now available online at www.freedomfest.com. FreedomFest 2009, scheduled for July 9-11 at Bally’s Events Center in Las Vegas, will smash all records, with over 1,000 expected to attend, including dozens of experts, authors, think tanks, and media. It’s truly a Renaissance weekend for free thinkers, offering nine conferences in one. Here’s the latest update:
A host of things are listed but then comes these two interesting items:
Ø LIBERTY EDITORS CONFERENCE
Held every year at FreedomFest, Liberty magazine editors (Stephen Cox, Doug Casey, Drew Ferguson, Jo Ann Skousen, Charles Murray, Randall O’Toole, David Friedman, David Boaz, Kathy Bradford) offer 10 sessions, including a big debate on “Anarchy vs. Limited Government” and “Liberty and Religion.”
Once upon a time, long ago, in my hippie days, we started this commune called ‘Anarchists Unite’. Well, people would stop by and see us lounging on the porch and say, ‘You are anarchists! How can you unite?’ We would then drop everything and cry out, ‘Oh no! We have to disband! We have to fight each other!’
My favorite moment in ‘Monty Python’s Holy Grail’ is when the two peasants try to explain to King Arthur, how they run their anarchist syndicalist collective. The rules were very similar to our rules. Only we had some very weird rules such as, ‘Everyone has to sleep in a different bed each night.’
This worked great until I got the flu. Then, I was in the same bed for a week. After that, everyone slept in whatever bed they were in during my illness. It so happened, I had a nice bedroom with a view of the Bay. Heh. Some people could accuse me of conspiring to pretend to be sick….!
Most people really have no idea what an anarchist society is like. It is like Afghanistan: the SOCIAL rules are severe but the POLITICAL rules are pure power politics. And power grows out of the barrel of guns.
Now, here is a session that raises my hackles, big time:
Ø OFFSHORE TAX BOOT CAMP
Beat the tax man with offshore planning, the benefits and risks of moving abroad, and legitimate tax shelters. Learn from the experts: Vern Jacobs, CPA, and Marshall Langer, the world’s premier international tax attorney, who will speak on the advantages of moving to a low-tax state or a tax haven, and the advantages of a second passport. In addition, estate planning experts Jeff Verdon and David T. Phillips will offer solutions to higher taxes under Obama. Hear also financial experts Ron Holland, Jon Golding, Joe Gandolfo, Peter Zipper, and Michael Checkan.
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GOOD GRIEF!!!! Do people have no shame at all? This group of pseudo-anarchists want no borders. They want no patriotism. They don’t want to pay taxes. They want to be DUAL CITIZENS and thus, skip out of a country? Wow. I say, if people are unhappy here, they can go. Bon appetite. Don’t let the door bang you on the rear when you depart. But to keep dual citizenship is a cheat and a fraud. Too many people are doing this now and it shows.
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I have a warning that can’t be clearer: whoever takes over America in the future will be someone who is patriotic and who will get rid of all the dual citizens, tax shelter users, offshore sanctuaries will be made very uncomfortable: this is INEVITABLE. The US has stood aside while fiends have ripped us apart. Displacing US citizens with internal as well as external cheap foreign labor, exposing us to the depredations of ‘free trade’ so that it has completely destroyed our home base and driven us deep in the red…these matters will not be fixed via ‘more freedom.’
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Back in 1970, I get yelled at and shunned because, at a world summit of leftist organizations held in Oakland, CA, I said we had to encourage patriotism. This was the year, my American flag was taken out of our commune when I was sick (this was when our rule about beds was suspended due to this flu) while I was sick in bed, one of the members told me, they were going to raise the flag on the 4th of July as I suggested.
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Well, some of their friends burned my flag. A riot ensued. Some of the arrested people told the cops, it was my flag. So the police invaded my bedroom. And were quite embarrassed as I was unable to even sit up. So they sat around my bed and we had a chat about patriotism.
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This was a turning point in my relations with them. We became quite friendly. I even arranged a ‘Cops vs Freaks’ frisbee match. We surprised the cops by throwing garbage can lids instead of frisbees. They, in turn, sprayed us with underarm deodorant. We all ended up laughing nearly to death. Police brutality! Heh.
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In all seriousness: this FreedomFest is NOT the beginning of a new party! It is a sign of the illness that is eating up our society. It is wrong, dead wrong, in a hundred ways. The left is no better: both seek various things for themselves but ignore the most important thing: The United States. I keep saying, we have one major thing to worry about: the survival of our nation. We cannot ignore this. Fixing our economic mess means, defending our borders from penetration of foreign goods. It means, not allowing the offshoring of our white collar labor. It means collecting taxes. It means pulling our military back to reasonable borders and having a strong navy but keeping the troops home, home, home.
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It means honoring our debts and protecting our own people. This means, social services. It means public transportation. It means keeping gas guzzlers off the roads due to the need to restrict oil imports. It means nationalized healthcare. It means reducing the gulf between the rich and poor so the rich can’t be aristocrats while the poor die on the streets. This means, a fair, honest, hard working society.
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The left cannot expect a free ride. The right cannot isolate themselves. Both must keep in view the most important thing: keeping not only our government BUT OUR TRADE out of the red. It means sacrifices! I am told, over and over again, ‘Japanese cars are better.’ Well, guess what? I DON’T CARE!!! If we want better cars, we can develop them, ourselves. If we can’t do this, we use trains or horses until we figure out how to do this. Selling our nation into Japan’s control is NOT AN OPTION. It is collective suicide so we can tool about in nifty cars. Great. When one becomes a slave of a foreign power, don’t come weeping to me.
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Here is another link sent to me that shows a lack of understanding how societies operate:
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TraderView :: Managed Futures & Alternative Investment Specialists
For decades, public servants and socialists in the G7 have quietly been socializing the economies in which they reside, destroying the wealth creation of the formerly capitalist economies in which MIDDLE CLASSES were healthy and growing and their wealth was accumulating and savings were growing. They are transferring the wealth production of the private sector into public sector hands through one means or another. To name a few, these means are high and rising taxes — directly through taxes and fees and indirectly through the confiscation of wealth from FIAT money and credit creation (stealing the purchasing power of your savings and wages while it sits in your bank accounts).
Good gods! Germany was one of the earliest socialist nations. Under Bismark, of all people. He was very simple about it: without socialism, you have weak armies due to hunger, overwork, lack of schooling and troops unwilling to die or go to war due to a desire to stay home and feed the family. Germany nearly took down ALL the world’s empires after just 30 years of socialism.
Hitler’s national socialism was the same except he limited the people who got socialism. That is, the disabled, religious and ethnic minorities, etc. He wanted to brutally eliminate them. Israel is a national socialist nation that does exactly the same thing today. This sort of socialism creates wars.
Ever increasing mandates destroy innovation from rising businesses so established corporations can SQUASH the benefits of capitalism. They do so by BUYING the entrenched public servants through funding their reelections with campaign donations. Then the public servants create rules and regulations to “protect you” from innovations from rising new entrepreneurs and businesses, depriving the formerly CAPITALIST economies in which they reside of NEW innovations which provide every man “more of everything for less”. Capitalist economies have a natural type of disinflation which is ESSENTIAL for creating a more stable fiat currency system….
If we had national healthcare, small or new businesses or innovative industries could then hire people without the worries about health insurance. Older industries with older workers won’t have to worry about being bankrupted by demands for healthcare. And workers don’t have to worry about going bankrupt even if they have insurance. This sort of nationalist health is practiced by nearly all of our trade rivals who are global powers.
It is so much easier for public servants to substitute easy money (monetary policy and inflation) and asset inflation for the fiscal policies of growth (less taxes, less innovation stifling regulations and less mandates). It pays them more because industries are forced into the arms of government as they fail from its policies, or FLEE to economies in which they can PRESERVE their competitiveness. Once on the subsidy bandwagon, permanent political constituencies are the result! This is why the G7 have been steadily de -industrializing for over four decades. They must move outside the grasp of G7 public servants to stay in business. It is self preservation on a corporate level.
Even if we had zero social services (burning cities are to be ignored, of course) we still can’t compete with China. Period. The standard of living/pay differentials are just too great. The only barrier to this is tariffs and we threw this away.
Money printing drives more and more people into government dependence. It is a silent tax. Less taxes, regulations and mandates drive constituents to freedom. Which do you think government wishes to do? Asset-backed economies rely on financial and fixed assets growing faster than the stated rate of inflation, creating the illusion of growth and rising incomes. It is the way public servants PUSH their constituents into the arms of government solutions which, when implemented, serve the government’s elite constituents and ever-growing legion of government bureaucrats at the expense of the broad public which have placed their trust and votes in them. All solutions lead to more of the government and less in the private sectors. So it’s less for you, me, and our families, and more for them.
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One thing that really pisses me off is how these sorts of people like Tedbits cannot understand how openly communist governments such as China’s can run circles around the US. If he thinks there is a magic tool that will fix this while doing absolutely nothing about free trade, I am all ears. But it is increasingly obvious that his sort thinks we can use some form of monetarism to fix a trade imbalance based on labor differentials and the growth of a massive number of tax and bank havens that are out of control. Not to mention, the central Bank of Japan.
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None of these guys mention the military/industrial complex. Instead of viewing this and the entire military as public employees, public spending, they like to think of these as businesses for profit. Well, the profit is from the taxpayers, 100%. It is a massive leeching system that is draining the lifeblood from our economic system. It is THE major ‘government solution’. And it is growing, not shrinking.
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Just as one has to keep a close eye on trade, one has to limit military spending. After every war, there is a depression due to governments cutting drastically, military spending and the urge to pay off war debts. We ‘fixed’ this after WWII by never being at peace. We have one war after another and all of these were under the massive mushroom cloud umbrella called ‘the Cold War’ and then, when it vanished into thin air, we popped up the infantile ‘War on Terror’.
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VIDEO: Beck guest Scheuer: “The only chance we have as a country right now is” for bin Laden to “detonate a major weapon” in U.S. – BlackListed News Mr. Scheuer, a right wing Zionist, said, ‘The only chance we have as a country right now is for bin Laden to detonate a major weapon’ in one of our cities!
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Is this man a patriot or a traitor? He thinks, the only way we can be ‘united’ is for us to be AT WAR! This is madness. This is a death march to nuclear war hell. Is our solution to the money we owe the world going to be nuclear war? You bet! These monsters think it would be just jim dandy to blow up everyone and then start all over again, once they crawl out of their individual Caves of Wealth and Death which we call ‘bomb shelters’.
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I was enraged when Bush won because he and Cheney immediately began to build bigger and better bomb shelters for themselves. This was a very, very bad sign. A tax revolt against social services while no tax revolt against our military is just plain silly. We can’t have a military without social services. As it is, our mercenary armies now pay families over $100,000 for each dead soldier. But this is chump change and it is all being billed to the Chinese! Will our soldiers die if there are no social services AND no more money from China to pay for them? Of course not.
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CommercialLitigationAdvisor-Spring-2009.pdf
he New York Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state, has just issued a holding that may effectively make the courts in New York the collection agency against almost any debtor who does not have all its assets hidden under its mattress. The Court has held that the assets of a judgment debtor which are in the possession of an entity, such as a bank or a brokerage house, that does business in New York, can be executed against through a special type of enforcement proceeding brought in a New York court, whether or not the creditor, the debtor, or the asset itself, has anything to do with the State of New York.
Koehler v. The Bank of Bermuda Limited, 2009 WL 1543698, decided June 4, 2009. As long as the bank or other entity in possession of the asset does business in New York — and almost all the major banks in the world do — such a “garnishee,” as the entity holding the asset is called, can be ordered to bring the asset to New York where it can be seized by the creditor. The impact is revolutionary.
Whenever a creditor with a judgment thinks the debtor may have an account at a bank that has an office in New York, or has investments through a brokerage house that does business in New York, it is simple and inexpensive to start a “turnover proceeding,” as the devise is called, against the New York office of the bank or brokerage, and see what assets are turned up. We anticipate a flurry of filings of out of state and foreign judgments in New York, followed promptly by actions to compel the transfer of assets to New York for seizure by judgment creditors.
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About time. The sovereign nations are finally going after all the tax and banking havens. This is now life and death. Asking whole societies to keel over dead or live in social chaos while people skim off wealth and then make it disappear overseas, will end. Period. Either we end it now or someone will take over America and use very draconian powers to prevent this. The hope of people who want social anarchy is to have the South American solution: a military muscle man willing to kill the citizens while the rich live it up in Europe. Wonderful. Imagine that sort of life.
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The rich live in enclaves and the poor live in wretched huts. The rich fly to other countries for health care and the poor die in the gutter. No thank you. Anyone who suggests we devolve into this sort of ’society’ obviously hasn’t much mercy or morals. I know how brutal these places are. I have seen starving children in the gutter. It is heart breaking. And wrong. Mexico shouldn’t be like this. Peru shouldn’t be like this. Nor Honduras.
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I will note that all the democracies in South and Central America are boycotting the coup in Honduras. I fear the sense of social anarchism of the right because they will leave only one source of social care: religion. And do we want a country run like IRAN??? Are we nuts? Secular socialism works. And I bet, if we could quiz the demonstrators in Iran last week, they would demand socialism of the sort we enjoy in the West.
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MINA Breaking News – Americans Fed Up with Out of Control Airport ‘Searches’
But two court cases in the past month question whether TSA searches—which the agency says have broadened to allow screeners to use more judgment—have been going too far. A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said. “The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing,” Judge Marbley wrote.
In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization launched from Ron Paul’s presidential run, was detained at the St. Louis airport because he was carrying $4,700 in a lock box from the sale of tickets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and campaign paraphernalia. TSA screeners quizzed him about the cash, his employment and the purpose of his trip to St. Louis, then summoned local police and threatened him with arrest because he responded to their questions with a question of his own: What were his rights and could TSA legally require him to answer? Mr. Bierfeldt recorded the encounter on his iPhone and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in June against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, claiming in part that Mr. Bierfeldt’s experience at the airport was not an anomaly….
TSA said in a statement on the Bierfeldt incident that travelers are required to cooperate with screeners, and while it is legal to carry any amount of money when flying domestically, the agency believes cooperation includes answering questions about property. As a result of the recording, however, TSA determined that “the tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate and proper disciplinary action was taken.” The cases will likely inflame TSA critics and frequent travelers who believe screeners take a heavy-handed approach and worsen the hassle of getting through airports with layers of rules and sometimes inconsistent policies between different cities.
“TSA agents don’t get to play cops,” says Ben Wizner, an attorney who filed Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit. The ACLU has heard an increasing number of reports of TSA agents involved in what he called “mission creep,” he says.
This intrusive searching was launched long, long ago. When I was a hippie. They were looking for drugs. And anything else they could lay their hands on. They confiscated property, too. I warned the right wingers, this will happen to you guys, next. But these unconstitutional intrusions were applauded by the right wingers who never, ever imagined, the State would go after THEM!
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Welcome aboard! About time! Hope some lessons are learned. We can have social systems AND personal freedoms at the same time. Hiding profits so they can’t be taxed is not a freedom. Unless one wishes to live in anarchy. And trust me, anarchy isn’t pretty. Any money you might save this way will vanish when bandits come calling for the loot. And they will include kidnapping, too. We know this from reading the news in various countries with little to no social services.
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81 Comments
July 3, 2009 at 2:44 am
why don’t you make nice with sarah palen and become a trusted advisor? heh. i bet you and her would get along real good!
July 3, 2009 at 2:53 am
“Most people really have no idea what an anarchist society is like. It is like Afghanistan”
-EMS
Hardly. For a window into what anarchism looked like in practice I would highly recommend George Orwell’s account in “Homage to Catalonia” about its brief flowering in Republican Spain. Noam Chomsky gives a riveting account of how both the “left” and the right assisted Franco in destroying it in his seminal work “American Power and the New Mandarins”.
There are fewer Americans of whom I am more proud than those “premature anti-fascists” of the Abraham Lincoln brigade who fought and died there.
July 3, 2009 at 3:49 am
One thing that really pisses me off is how these sorts of people like Tedbits cannot understand how openly communist governments such as China’s can run circles around the US.
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in 50 years they will America look like a wasteful ignorant race
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but thats a long time we need more wasteful ignorant people yes men and tv channels
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and Honduras… i dont really understand why all sides panicked like someone was going to steal the popular vote of a progressive movement… my hunch is that Jose Manuel ZELAYA Rosales was pushing his popular base to challenge the ‘entrenched political class’ by offering him a referendum of change ‘whatever that means’… and everyone became afraid of a popular backlash so they chose no referendum and a popular backlash ‘better than a referendum and a popular backlash’… Jose 1 – VooDoo 0… im interested in south American politics, personally i think its in a revolutionary youthful spirit of anti-imperialism that is reaching out for voice and knowledge ‘which will change everything’… they are our natural Allys and may have a nice progressive outlook on the modern Americas… Thar’ an Active lot of boys
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOO5ofUk4xI&NR=1
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i shop at banana republic
July 3, 2009 at 4:46 am
All of the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write our Constitution did so with a price on their heads.
None of these Founding Fathers was in doubt of their fate had the Revolution War been lost.
The Founding Fathers were all in.
And so are patriots.
July 3, 2009 at 11:54 am
Patriotism, the first garment of the scoundrel, wrapped in the flag and carrying some religious claptrap book. Render nothing, neither unto Caesar nor unto Gods; keep it all for yourself, preferably in something high real value, low weight and hidden. It matters not on which side of an arbitrary coloured line on a piece of onionskin you lay your head or eat your bread.
As long as it hurts no other; do as thou wilt. That is the whole of the law and the only law.
Except for that other Golden Rule; he who has the gold maketh the rules.
July 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm
@PLove: You do realize that the “founding fathers” were all terrorists don’t you? Under the laws of the country in which they lived, under the political system into which they were born and to which they owed fealty and reverence and obeisance they were stinking no good terrorists.
So they write some claptrap about inalienable rights, yeah yeah inalienable rights come out of superior firepower. You have only as much right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as you can keep your government from infringing. If you do not possess superior firepower you have no rights; and those with the least firepower do so love the bunting and shoddy under which they are killed. Patriotism: a set of beliefs fed to fools to get them killed for the benefit of people who can mouth the set of things they don’t believe.
For the whole of patriotism is this and ever shall be this: If they had not loved being sheared, they would not have remained sheep.
July 3, 2009 at 12:03 pm
but the main problem with our society is people thinking they are too “smart” or too “special” or too “educated” to have to do any real, actual work. and so the productive few who do real work are supporting too many sophists and slackers who pretend to work at their pretend jobs, or educated fools who think they can get something for nothing. its all a virtue problem basically….and ignorance by the “educated” who somehow do not even understand what an “investment” is. and this stupidity is demonstrated by the kind of thinking that regarded the boy scout virtues somehow as “bad”. hahahahahah! how special you all were….and now you all are going to discover what happens to those who …. well i won’t say it. but you all helped bring this onto yourselves. suffer and learn.
July 3, 2009 at 12:05 pm
@EMS:
Scheuer is ex CIA. His was the group that was supposed to keep the relevant people apprised of what OBL was supposedly doing. He has spent the last 8 years passing the buck for his and his groups shortcomings. Fox loves him. Just another gasbagging killer. Although if he does get his wish and someone does try for a second bite of the apple, I can only hope that he survives.
But then I believe people should always get what the wish for and get to see it too.
July 3, 2009 at 12:11 pm
and ego. such problems you all make for yourselves as you masturbate your minds for your egos sake. hahahahhahaha! my prediction? first one side shall prevail, then the other….and after you all consume yourselves and your massive demented egos, me, well probably not me, but “mine” will still be here at the end to pick up the pieces. hahahahah!
July 3, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Great Article, and very appropriate for the 4th Elaine:
Plovering:
The Founding Fathers were all in["Give me liberty or give me death."].
And so are patriots.
We could twist our arguments about patriotism a thousand different ways, but the two sentences above are basic to any argument about this concept…and this leads to another logical question.
As a US citizen, are you IN or are you out? Do you see yourself as being loyal to our Constitution itself since it is the original law of the land, and what binds us all together or do you think you have the right to ignore it?
And, I believe that most people with normal reading abilities have the ability to read and interpret The Constitution themselves…and thus, have the ability to know what is acceptable and legal within the bounds of US citizenship….freedom of speech, free press, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and so on throughout this wonderful document.
The arrogant, lackey joker who detained the traveler was certainly detaining him illegally because the cash was no threat to anyone around him, and could not reasonably be interpreted as such.
And I too believe that, from the Supreme Court on down, lackey judges are distorting the original meanings of The Constitution in one way or another to suit the wishes of their corporate and ideological patrons, and these patrons hold minority opinions in relation to the rest of the US citizenry. And holding minority opinions, in relation to the rest of the US citizenry, does not give them the right to interpret the law of the land as they see fit under The Constitution. You see, the Constitution was written to support the WILL OF THE MAJORITY of US citizens.
While earning my masters degree, I was required to personally research the legality of internet porn inside the US by my professor who was teaching us political science.
In doing this thankless task, I had to read The Constitution carefully in relation to freedom of speech and expression. Then, I had to make an interpretation of what common will or common morality meant…and then, had to come to a conclusion as to what could be considered Constitutional as law and how law might be applied to the issue. Of course, state’s rights and local community standards came into the issue also.
Common morality is what a majority of the people think is or is not offensive…and nobody will ever agree completely on this. To attempt to define common morality and then set it in stone is a fool’s errand because this ideal changes just as soon as it is accepted and the public mindset begins to challenge such ideals again. This is were my difficulty came in.
Everyone except a very few pedophiles will agree that sexually exploiting and photographing underage children is morally wrong…a very clear common moral ideal. So, this is common morality throughout the US (and around the world for the most part), and it is ok to pass a federal law against this…and such a law would be very Constitutional.
However, if a young, adult couple in more liberal LA or Atlanta or NY City or Charlotte, NC wants to film a movie of themselves having sex and sell it to an Internet company, it is likely that not to many people in these bigger cities would oppose them as long as they don’t make it in a public park or on their front lawn where children and offended others might see.
However, suppose, when residents of Liberty Bible College in Lynchburg, Va. see this movie on the Internet (one questions what the would be looking for in the first place), all hell breaks loose, and the local Lynchburg Bible Beaters Society might try to extradite the liberal minded LA couple into a Lynchburg court and charge them under local Lynchburg obscenity laws. (this is an example I made up)
Instances similar to this exact thing happened early on, and I concluded that doing this is unacceptable under The US Constitution. If LA accepts the LA couple’s actions, then they cannot be tried in Lynchburg for an act they did not commit in Lynchburg even though Lynchburg law might state that making pornographic films there is illegal….On the other hand, common morality in Lynchburg might allow Lynchburg residents to forbid the making or viewing of pornography there…but this is always open to challenge under The Constitution. Suppose that the youngsters in Lynchburg secretly view porn and enjoy it, and they grow up seeing it as not being bad, and then decide that porn is not immoral or wrong. Then, they have a right to challenge the existing Lynchburg law and make filming and viewing porn legal there.
You see, that is the fabulous beauty of the US Constitution. It gives citizens the right to challenge and change the law when the will of most of the people changes in regard to an issue….and it takes a 2/3 vote in Congress to amend the Constitution’s laws….and even disinterested, slow witted citizens’ ears and eyes perk up when someone mentions doing this…and most citizens really don’t want to even hear about changing or messing with this document…and this is a common wisdom that is very wonderful. So this is why The Constitution is not changed often except after some upheavals like the Civil Rights Movement.
I discovered at the end of my course that my professor was a Constitutional lawyer and law expert on loan from Purdue and that I had just researched future arguments against federal laws against Internet porn. We left the community standards thing in place, but a non-mainstream community cannot prosecute outsiders under its laws…but the Justice Department has every right to go after child porn with a vengeance under federal law because the will of a majority of the people is against child porn.
Now, back to Patriotism.
Mark Twain had seen the horrible mass murder of the Civil War and he stated that “Patriotism is the last refuge of fools and scoundrels.”
In relation to war, I agree with Twain, but to me Patriotism means so much more than stupid saber rattling and drum beating and flag waving.
I think US citizens must always ask themselves. Am I IN? Am I a citizen of the US, not just on paper written in some documents somewhere, but in my mind and within my will itself. Do I see myself as a member of the US citizens societal “pack” itself (think of sled dog team in your mind as you read this)? Am I willing to scrap and fight with other members of the “pack” who try to lead us all in wrong directions that will cause or “pack” great harm or death? Am I willing to help take down a foolish leader or leaders who cannot lead or who allow themselves to be pushed off course by other ambitious pack members?
Now, I’m probably going to catch hell for saying this too, but I do not believe that anyone can serve two masters adequately and loyally, so I’m against dual citizenships except in special cases where children are concerned.
Once, a person grows to an age of consent, it is my notion that he or she should have to choose. If they want to be citizens of the world, let them go there and be citizens of the world, but force them to give up their US citizenship. This would solve quite a few sovereignty problems and tax problems also, but would require many adjustments for immigrants and children.
If people want to store their money in Dubai or Jersey, and pay no US taxes, and live there most of the year, then, take their US citizenship away from them. If they want to be wealthy expatriate world travelers who give nothing to the US, then let them wander the world, but come into the US as a foreigner would have to come here, with a stamped passport and less rights than US citizens enjoy.
The US has tolerated selfish individuals who steal from its wealth, live in other lands and jet set around the world on US money, but give nothing back whatsoever.
We’ve even had recent presidential candidates who ran scams and hedge funds from outside the US borders and gave nothing back, who wanted to lead us.
That was a godawful thing… and the bastard should have been arrested and thrown out of the country for arrogance if for nothing else.
That is the kind of anarchy Elaine is talking about. Taking everything and giving nothing back…NOT IN himself, but wanting to run things and use those who are IN.
Now, we who are IN, just like marriage, for better or worse, need to understand that we have a RIGHT and a DUTY to criticize our nation and try to continually make it better. This is SELF-CRITICISM and we have every right to do this. This is how we beat the demons out of this US entity to which we belong.
Keeping ourselves healthy involves this continual exorcism of evil and demons, and we who are IN must work constantly against powerful evil forces to ever adequately accomplish this exorcism, and I suspect that our jobs will never be complete because just like in Ghostbusters, the evil floats around in the clouds and in greedy mens’ minds, and looks for a place to settle in our midst…and we must exorcise it repeatedly, and look into our own souls to make sure that they are also kept pure.
Are you IN or are you out?
Happy fourth of July everyone.
July 3, 2009 at 12:26 pm
@OH:
As I go over the BS virtues, I see several that I malign on a hourly and sometimes minutely basis. I am not a believer in obediance or religion so the reverence thing is right out. Trust must be earned before it is extended, so that puts a crimp in the BS definition of trustworthy.
I have never been able to extend my loyalty beyond individuals, damn shame that I suppose.
I don’t use hand lotion, seven different soaps, teeth whiteners, so I suppose I am not currently considered among the clean.
I am not intrusive into other people’s lives and issues, so I guess I am not helpful in the BS yenta sense.
Now polite and thrifty, I am. Or cheap and distant depending on the spin and the spinner.
I just never learned how to give air kisses and piss money up a rope.
That pretty much leaves cheerful and brave and kind. Let a smile be your umbrella and you end up with a mouthful of polluted water … forced cheerfulness doesn’t work for me.
I am as brave as necessary to avoid getting harmed. My kindness is legendary. Legends being lies aged in oak and sipped in small quantities late at night.
And that leaves Friendly, and as I recall I once issued a blanket invitation ( when this was a much less populated blog ) to anyone to stop by and have a drink if you were in my neck of Gaza.
July 3, 2009 at 12:31 pm
@David:
In when it’s worth my while, out when it’s not.
Now how hard was that?
July 3, 2009 at 12:51 pm
actually CK, ken of the buffalo, of all people, found the simple, incredible truth….the truth, the “secret” to having a family or community or society or country that works well for all is to do the anarchist thing apparently, which is give more than you expect to receive. a daunting prospect for fools seemingly but there it is.
the second thing nobody seems to understand is this…. and that is this. events here in our physical world somehow “reflect” truths from the higher spiritual reality. like it or not. believe it or not. it is the damnest thing. but there this is too. examples are too obvious and numerous for me to mention unless you promise not to be swine about it…. so here you all are, stuck in the middle again. hahahahha!
July 3, 2009 at 12:58 pm
so do you see? do i have to state the obvious? just give more than you expect to receive. hahahahahah! hahahhaha! and YOU are clever? (“you” being generic of course)
July 3, 2009 at 1:04 pm
so who in this world gives more than they expect to receive? and who takes all they can get, and gives back nothing if they can get away with it because …. because… BECAUSE ITS ALL ABOUT ME! its always, everywhere, all the time ALL ABOUT ME! hahahhahahah! tell me what you all believe in folks. tell me about it. hahahahah!
July 3, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Do note that I never, ever talk about ‘the Sheeple’. I dislike that term. There are people who are deliberately misled. There are people who are distracted. There are people who are fooled. There are people who are exploited.
The cure for all this is education, discussion, focus on issues and courage. I am angry with the ‘FreedomFest’ organization because of their philosophical basis: me, myself and I-ism is self-centered and foolish.
They obviously are NOT ready AT ALL to lead anyone. They all want to save their own skins! Ack. They are NO DIFFERENT from the present political classes who also want to save only themselves!
Whoever figures out how to inspire people to change and then LEAD them will be our next ruler. I have no doubts about this. Obama pretended to be this person but got caught up in the gears of his own political and economic buddies and he ends up changing nothing fundamental.
The right wing is screaming he is a socialist. I wish! He isn’t. He is a corporatist. Why can’t the right see the difference?
HAHAHA. That is because the right is ruled by corporatists, too! This is why the FreedomFest is echoing the ‘gimme mine!’ message of the gnomes! I read the long list of discussions and it could have been drawn up by Goldman Sachs!
This is what angers me the most. It is NOT a break with the present. It is the STATUS QUO minus healthcare, social security, welfare, unions and all the other things ALL civilized nations have.
July 3, 2009 at 2:22 pm
We do have pure anarchy right now in the U.S.A. 100% pure. The Soviet Union was also 100% pure anarchy too. Sounds impossible? Well guess what?
I, too, lived in an “anarchist commune.” In fact, it was so anarchistic that nobody thought of it as “anarchism” at all!!! But there were (usually) no (formal) rules whatsoever. Theoretically, I suppose, things were run by “consensus,” and this was actually claimed occasionally. In reality, the place was really run by a few kids who came from upper class families, and the large majority of non-upper class kids had to just go along. There was some strife, but this continued for some time, about seven years.
However, the decisions imposed by these upper class kids were truly insane. They had absolute self-confidence that they were the only ones who truly knew what was “going on.” After many years of this anarchism, the vast pile of insane decisions became so unsustainable that these upper class kids could no longer bear the situation.
So they turned (almost) total power over their not-for-profit corporation over to me!!! But by that time, things were so out of hand that the project was nearly doomed. We had a restaurant and a health food store. The restaurant manager tried to sell the restaurant, and when I blocked that move, he just stopped paying rent, so I had to go to court and evict him. And another thing that merely seemed odd to me at the time (I was very naive in some ways), was that all of the former upper class “informal ruling elite” kids simultaneously decamped! This would not have been so bad if they had left gradually, but they all walked out on the very day I assumed power (the corporation presidency). (Do you wonder why?) And no one had suggested during the meetings that led to my “coup” that this would occur. One quarter of the rent money vanished instantly, so I was not going to pay the bills that month! Also, I had to accept a few unfortunately nutty tenants, which led to more chaos. Tragically, the upper class “informal ruling elite” kids retained control of the board, in absentia, and they insisted that I was not under any circumstances to show the books to the remaining tenants (this was their only decision). So, of course, the renters began accusing me of getting rich off of their rent. I certainly should have just revealed the information, but I was naive and confused. My books were absolutely pristine, and I was not even paying myself a penny. But, yet again, the the upper class “informal ruling elite” kids were absolutely confident that they were the ones who “knew what was going on.” Their peculiar arrogance was beyond belief. (Yes, the Daily Kos is also 100% pure anarchy!)
At least I never did any of the monumentally stupid things that the former “ruling elite” had perpetrated. The first thing I did was to buy and install the very first electronic fire alarms that became available at Radio Shack. Within a month, the Fire Department conducted a “raid” to uncover any code violations, and I’m sure there were some, but when they saw the very first electronic alarms that they had ever encountered, they gave us a total pass. Things soon devolved into chaos over the refusal to show the occupants the financial books that I carefully kept, and this eventually led to unbearable tension, and one of the nuttier occupants that I had been forced to accept actually began shooting a rifle (at random, I hope).
Two things were branded into my mind by this fiasco: the “ruling elite” kids were arrogant to a degree that I had not formerly imagined to be possible, and even though they supposedly “knew what was really going on,” their decisions were disastrously absurd. The other thing was that the original crop of non-upper class occupants always sided with me, and we always made, sane, reasonable decisions, even when things began to disintegrate. This is something I will never forget!!!
Regarding the patriotism question, I have had some experiences dealing with it. My brother (who passed away recently) fought very valiantly in Vietnam. (He would not be gone now if the VA had been closer, and had been even slightly competent. Since he was “eligible for the VA,” he couldn’t obtain any other free care, natch. The bastards.) He remained gung-ho about the virtue of “necessary wars” up until the end. I, on the other hand, had been traveling to D.C. to protest the war while he had been fighting it. My brother very strongly disagreed with this, and I continued my protesting after he had returned from two tours, the first mandatory, the second voluntary. But very strangely, he never held this against me. Rather, he was terrified that the government would do awful things to me for my efforts, and he begged me to stop, not because of his disagreement with this, but because he was genuinely afraid for me! All those years of me worrying about him, and then he began worrying about me!
But why did he not ever argue that what I was doing was “unpatriotic?” I often wondered about this. Much later, it occurred to me that his fear that the government would crush me was not unjustified; in the back of my mind, I had been fearful of this too. The way I see it now, I was unmindful of the notion that what I was doing was really kind of patriotic. Maybe that is a deeper reason why he never condemned my actions.
July 3, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Who needs a leader? Sheeple need leaders.
Sometimes one dislikes things that are too true in their accuracy. There are in this world people who desire nothing more than to be told what to do, when to do it, and how long to do it. Self imposed subjugation to whoever yells loudest or smiles broadest or palavers most emptily. Give them a God and they will do whatever you have convinced them God wants them to do. Give them a Man of a White Horse and they will do whatever you convince them Reagan or Goldwater of Kennedy would have wanted.
Give them a blank sheet of paper and a pen and walk away and they will evaporate into puddles of lanolin and sheeple droppings.
As Barbie once said in her apt description of one of the hallmarks of sheeplehood. Maths is hard, let’s go shopping.
Both wings of that American bird of prey know that the half white president is a wholly owned subsidiary of Gollum Sucks. It will be no other way. Maybe a Romney shall lead you? How about another Clinton? There is always another Bush somewhere… Neil is available.
July 3, 2009 at 2:25 pm
sigh. i don’t know who our next “leaders” will be, but i know who they should be. i.e. those who give more than they expect to get. how difficult is this to understand? how impossible would this be? how “educated” do you have to be to be able to see this or hear this i wonder?
this is what would be known as a “spiritual revolution”.
this is also what would be known as “gods people”
and any people who could manage this would be the people who would inherit the earth.
hahahahahah! so tell me what of your many “ism’s” would beat this for a philosophy. and what could you possibly learn that would be more beneficial to EVERYONE, to ALL of the people ALL of the time than this i wonder.
surely finally this is all that is possible to say. surely i am done now cc.
July 3, 2009 at 2:30 pm
To me the government is much like trolls on a discussion group.
Feed them and they just keep multiplying and eventually drown and kill what was useful.
Laugh at them and that also encourages them to multiply.
Ignore them and eventually they drift to another group where they can predominate.
CK’s Law: If it looks and sounds like a troll it is probably government.
July 3, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Cast your bread upon the waters and:
1) You get back a loaf of soggy bread.
or
2) You attract seagulls … masses of seagulls who shit upon you if you don’t keep giving them free bread; and who shit upon you if you do.
or
3) The bread is made from GM wheat and as it dissolves it kills all the plankton and the little fishies and the bigger fishies.
Give a man a fish, you have fed him for a meal; educate a man in fisheries science and you have created government bureaucrat, teach a man to fish and you have created a taxable man with fishy breath.
July 3, 2009 at 2:37 pm
“The cure for all this is education…” That’s exactly what I have been saying. But not just ANY kind of education. Certainly not the kind that is mass produced in the Public School system here in the US of A. I really believe that our educators-and the rest who are in charge–are producing precisely the kind of student THEY intended. I said intended NOT stated type of student. Feed the kids with this PC stuff, focus on what little Johnny and Janey FEEL, not on whether Johnny/Janey can read with any kind of discernment. Or developing students that can graduate from 12th grade WITH 12th grade math skills, plus comparable reading and writing skills. Too much education and the masses can get TOO MANY bright ideas about fairness and equality and the ruling classes HATE that kind of education. Our ruling class very often hides their ACTUAL intentions in plain sight, it’s just in disguise. “We have to save the banking system…” that’s another ruling class initiative.
July 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm
For everybody ! And specially to Elaine.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5675198/Chinas-banks-are-an-accident-waiting-to-happen-to-every-one-of-us.html
July 3, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Everyone wants to imagine, they don’t need leaders. But we know from history that groups following a leader usually end up dominating groups that are anarchistic. This is all there is!
Pretending human nature doesn’t exist won’t work. So the question always should be, which leaders do we follow and what is their philosophy?
Philosophical beliefs matter a great deal! This is why we have to address the issue, what do we believe in? From the ancient Greeks to modern times, this is the #1 thing that has to be discussed and explained.
Once we understand this, we can move onto the next step which is, organization of the followers. ‘Group think’ is very much a mental system that operates in ALL humans even ones who pride themselves on not being part of any group thinking system.
July 3, 2009 at 5:10 pm
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5621DR20090703
Major nations should back dollar as key currency: Japan
.
Thats what im sayin’ show some respect… we got balls bitches banks grub energy brains and guts
July 3, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Patriots protect thought, speech, and truth for the commonweal.
Traitors repress truth at all costs to protect their “Big Lie.”
The Lizards are carpet bombing our industrial base, as surely as was done to Germany in WWII.
Only the Constitution can save us.
July 3, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Pornography is basically a form of prostitution (slavery) which is at its core a function of organized crime.
Organized crime is in reality very different from the ‘pop culture’ renditions people are distracted with in the movies and on TV.
Organized crime preys on human moral weakness in order to advance its agenda in a coldly calculated fashion. This is directly related to all the stuff the folks here like to complain about regarding corruption of all our systems.
Organized crime really appreciates so-called ‘liberals’ who clamor about ‘rights’ and argue and change laws when it comes to things that were once upon a time by-and-large understood as being indicative of moral degradation.
I know this may be controversial for some but so-called ‘social conservatives’ aren’t necessarily wrong about everything, even those that come to their conclusions using means that may be considered obtuse by us ‘educated’ folk. But I have hardly run across anyone, ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative’, that will ever concede a fault of their own, and this is a big part of the overall problem, not incidentally.
Also, remember the book “Brave New World (Order)’ when considering the ramifications of a hyper-sexualized, drug and alcohol addled culture.
Humanity is under a lot of evolutionary pressure right now.
And if we can’t figure out a way to stop slavery and war, then I am not sure the death of every human on the face of the planet is not actually justified.
July 3, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Welcome to the Lizard Shithouse.
http://tinyurl.com/qg9bwa
July 3, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I think we need to distinguish between patriotism and nationalism. They seem so similar and are used interchangeably but in reality take divergent paths once you get beyond “love of country.” Nationalism leads to empire-building and all types of outwardly expansive movements. Quite dangerous.
We talk about the “sheeple” (yes, I think that sounds quite arrogant) but how else to describe group think among a population that cares and/or knows little and is herded into an opinion corner? Some of misguided population “missed a turn somewhere.” While they profess patriotism, they are in fact quite nationalistic in their outlook. We see this in the military, many of the GOPers, good church-goers who read Time magazine, etc.
The others — forget the “lefties” they turn there noses up at America and wish to be more “politically evolved” like the Euros. To them, patriotism is for the unwashed and uneducated.
So what, are we left with. We’ve got a hybid of nationalistic socialism! Sounds good huh, what could possibly go wrong?!? Do citizens get the government they deserve? Sounds harsh, but do they?
Happy 4th!
July 4, 2009 at 1:12 am
*sigh*
Well, Ok, philosophy and ideas, FWIW:
All of the myths, religion, great poetry, and philosophy up until now have basically been an attempt to codify the wisdom gleaned from human experience down through the ages.
The liberal ideal, which is relatively recent, purports that maximum prosperity and happiness will arise when individuals are free to fulfill their own potential through the exercise of natural liberty in good faith. But this is a paradox because people by-and-large refuse to act in good faith. Therefore we end up with a flawed system of laws that exist in a state of dynamic tension with individual liberty. I’ve been told it beats screams in the night, at any rate.
Eventually, the corrupting elements wear down the culture and exploit the flaws in the system and it breaks down.
So the corruption ends up being purged by force or destruction, but in so doing liberty, and possibly ‘civilization’ is destroyed as well.
The miracle of consciousness is that we are not mere slaves to ‘nature’. By that I mean we do not have to behave like animals. And we must evolve thus in order to partake of the blessings of precious liberty, and possibly even survive as a species.
And here is some poetry from 1977 by Kerry Livgren, which one can partake in musical form through “Point of Know Return”, Kansas.
Your ever-humble fool.
July 4, 2009 at 1:34 am
Charlottemom:
Many people are not politically oriented nearly as much as we on this blog are. Many are young and struggling to get and keep a job that will help them raise their families, and they don’t have time to research the candidates or read Internet world news daily so they will have a critical understanding of what is going on.
I’m in no way bragging, but I have a masters degree with some courses in philosophy and political science and differing religions and social sciences too. I was blessed with being taught by some of the best teachers one could find anywhere, but I still often struggle with different issues that affect our daily life and the world around us. I can just imagine what it must be like to have a public high school education or less, and after doing 8 or ten hours on the job, and then picking up kids and shopping for food, clothes, etc…then having to evaluate candidates running for office and wisely voting for the better one at the polls. It is very difficult to do even for me. I sympathize with others who have less time and background than some of us here do.
Maybe we should not be too hard on them.
I think many are struggling to understand, but its very difficult in today’s world filled with propaganda and misinformation. That is where we on this blog can help.
When we find ourselves in conversations with these good folks, don’t talk down to them, and don’t use big words and complex sentences. Keep it simple and be very sympathetic and kind as you point out important issues that will affect their thinking…and we might be able to influence some of these folks to make good decisions in our political processes.
July 4, 2009 at 5:24 am
OBL has been dead for several years. Anyone who brings him up is a phoney, pure and simple.
I remember getting the business by TSA early on. This guy was barking at me: turn right! raise your arms! When I meekly asked: Please and thankyou? he nearly exploded! But as the noose that used to be our economy tightens, you’ll see plenty of people eager to torment their fellow citizens for a little bread, sad to say.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
ELAINE: You have no proof he is dead. Assuming something isn’t the same as knowing something. If you only visit websites that make this presumption over and over and over again, you feel secure in the emotion, ‘He IS dead.’ But this is due to hearing others claim, he is dead. People who disagree with you, on the other hand, are just as ‘right’ as you are. I assume he is very much alive because he keeps turning out comments on current events. Also, I didn’t see him pass through the Gates of Death. So my ‘proof’ is even more secure than your ‘proof’. See how this works?
July 4, 2009 at 7:11 am
The Economics of Illusion
http://mises.org/story/3497
July 4, 2009 at 11:16 am
Happy 4th to those of you who “celebrate it”.
The document itself was completed on the 2nd to the best of knowledge, but I could be mistaken.
Peace,
Ken
July 4, 2009 at 11:17 am
I am sorry Elaine but most people cannot imagine nor do they wish a world that does not include myriads of people telling them what to do and what to think.
Mobs with leaders do usually beget countervailing mobs with leaders. ( Black Hand comes to mind, IRA, Alaska Independence Party).
As Larry DFH points out, nationstates never have any difficulty finding citizens willing to “lead” other citizens.
When I was much younger, I worked in a slaughterhouse. Sheep are led to the slaughter by bellwethers whether or not the sheep were moral or godfearing or deeply philosophical, sheeple likewise. Eventually the bellwether is replaced but the sheeple still follow.
I am reminded yet again of that scene in the Magnificent Seven where Eli Wallach explains thusly to Yul Brynner: ” If God had not wanted them sheared, he would not have made them sheep”(le). I am also reminded of a scene in Treasure of the Sierra Madres: “Badges? We don need no stinkin badges.”
July 4, 2009 at 11:29 am
CK – that is why the term “sheeple” is offensive.
I avoid it like the plague! I don’t use that term except perhaps in reference to other messages that have used it. I hopefully — I can’t go back and check everything I have written on the internet cause it is alot — anytime I’ve reference some other message using aforementioned term I have been most derogatory towards it.
Get the drift?
Sorry for any typos inadvance….i’m busy!
July 4, 2009 at 12:16 pm
If you have contempt for your fellow citizens, you cannot lead. Nor can you teach.
Teaching requires patience. People are very prone to being manipulated via propaganda. Propaganda is whatever we imagine it to be but trust me, we are SURROUNDED by propaganda. This very, very much includes ‘contrary’ information.
I produce my own ‘propaganda’ which is my own ‘belief system’ which I cooked up by living life and testing out things here, there and everywhere. This means, taking chances all the time, thinking about stuff that is different from stuff I think about, earlier (we call this ‘learning’).
The very first step in understanding your own brain is to understand, we ALL suck down ‘propaganda’ ALL the time. We are unaware of it, of course. People think, they are very clever when they see some of the propaganda some of the time but then, become arrogant and imagine, they see ALL of the propaganda ALL of the time…to paraphrase Lincoln.
The truth is this: since we love propaganda and will voluntarily create a situation where we accept propaganda that is drilled into our heads, we are moved by ‘LEADERS’ who happen to be the people who launch propaganda campaigns and trust me, this is done by ALL sorts of leaders.
Evidently, I am NOT a leader. Whenever I mention anything outside of interlocking propaganda systems, people who read me here get very, very angry and think I am insane or stupid. This is what I track with the greatest interest. Because in the long run, I am interested in the human brain/emotion systems and whenever I discover a ‘pain’ spot, I poke at it because I want to see how it is constructed, what caused it and how can I change it.
Changing minds is harder than changing smelly socks, by the way.
July 4, 2009 at 12:20 pm
PS: I didn’t post a story yesterday because I finally got my new trifocal glasses. Until my brain gets used to them, there is a LOT of distortion and I feel like I am stoned on LSD. Heh.
It reminds me how the mind edits reality. We actually see things upside down and then our brains make it rightside up again. And our brains constantly change the data coming in to fit our imagination of what we think we should be seeing.
Until my brain figures out what the distortions from my glasses are, it is upset to see this distortion and wants to FOCUS on the distortion, not the clearly focused parts which is bad so I have to concentrate on looking only at the focused part of what I see and ignore the out of focus.
This is a lesson, by the way, how we perceive the world.
July 4, 2009 at 12:43 pm
It’s amazing, literally awesome that the world works at all and doesn’t just simply and gradually, glacially, come to a complete stop.
When I read the opposing views on just about any subject, the vast differences of opinion, the stupid and the brilliant, the inane and the serious, the comic and the tragic, the tension (sometimes spilling over into a bloody hell) between men and women, old and young, left and right, europe and america, asia and the rest of the world, it is a wonder that the world ever got this far.
When seeing the billions of people that populate the poorest of our countries and their wasted and dying, diseased children by the score, I think that there is a fifth of us that are less ‘rational’ than animals to have children that starve to death, what kind of people are these? They bear no resemblance to me. They might as well be aliens from some antediluvian jungle. All they do is mate and struggle to survive. An ant colony or a bacteria live better lives. And they continue to reproduce year after year. I just don’t get it.
July 4, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Yama-uba Strikes Back ?
http://tinyurl.com/lmu6on
Happy 4th
July 4, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Drugman, at it again. More govnt debt baby!
NY Times
July 4, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Sorry, meant to say Krugman
July 4, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Alas, we are supposed to have more government debt during downturns! Instead, we had massive debt in UPTURNS! This was totally insane on every possible level!
Cutting government spending during a downturn is madness and leads to public chaos. This is how the IMF operates: when a country is in trouble, they force governments to attack the social system!
Disgusting but typical. This sort of manic thinking is why we have riots, revolutions, chaos, wars and insurrections.
July 4, 2009 at 1:40 pm
There are no further short run deficits. The deficits are permanent. The jobs are gone and will not return, in fact there are even more that will disappear.
And why screw around with more ‘debt’? Just print the damned money, give it out to the chronically unemployed, and watch the economy boom.
More stimulus, eh? Try it and then reap yet another whirlwind on the way to Xanadu.
July 4, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Having neither the desire to lead nor the desire to teach frees me from a lot of worry.
One on One, most people are not too contemptible. In groups larger than three, contemptibility rises exponentially.
q) Is Osama morté?
a) Does his existence change your income, if his being alive makes you better off then of course he is alive; if his existence doesn’t effect your income then his existence is an irrelevancy.
July 4, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I disagree with that – at least the last part.
Irrelevancy is an over-used term in my humble opinion – of course, if you don’t think my opinion is relevant, well then…..you know what to do don’t you?
Ignore it!
CK – I don’t know if you really have a fat ass. Do you?
July 4, 2009 at 3:03 pm
oh by the way…that was NOT
ad-hominan or however the goofy lawyers like to proclaim.
Previously, I claimed CK had a fat ass, but I knew when I was making the claim that it was risky. Now I just want to know if I was accurate or not.
If CK lived in Mississippi, then the odds would be more likely. Same for Alabama.
I’m not so sure Air Conditioning is a good thing, although I won’t deny I enjoy the GE unit that operates where I spend a lot of time.
Even so, my ass is NOT fat.
Happy 4th to everyone here!
I mean that.
July 4, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Bin Laden has never been ‘irrelevant’ and certainly, if you believe that our incessant wars with Muslims don’t matter, that is beyond sad.
This is why we have to deal with the stuff bin Laden talks about.
July 4, 2009 at 4:07 pm
bin Laden may be alive and he may be dead, but I agree we need to talk.
That is why I am here.
But if you are interested, I do have my own “blogs” so to speak.
They just are not nearly as polished as this one is so why reinvent the wheel.
(I have standing to make that response).
I love the country I was born in – I love all of it.
Peace,
Ken
*history matters
July 4, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Still – I have no desire to focus upon goofy-stupido bin-laden (whoever he is and whatever archetype he “represents”).
building is so much rewarding.
Tearing things down is EASY.
Anybody remember 9-11.
I do.
I think one day we will get to the bottom of it, but just now there are some more important things to accomplish.
Still the 134.5 B bond story is still fresh. I’ve heard some very interesting rumors on this one and a couple of most coincidental numbers supposedly matching up makes it even more interesting for me.
Don’t you think Japan?
I like the idea of “free transportation owned by all” – most sensible.
Happy 4th….
July 4, 2009 at 4:49 pm
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/07/quantitative-easing-credit-easing-and.html
“if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”
.
they make small medium big bigger and CARPENTER hammers duh… thats alot of different nails you can handle
July 4, 2009 at 9:08 pm
If ( what a sad word that is at times ) the USA did not keep making war on Islam and the Oil producing nations wherein Islam is the predominate folly belief, Bin Laden would never have achieved anything beyond his usefulness to the CIA as a catspaw to attack the USSR’s folly in Afghanistan with.
And If, the USA had ignored that folly, the USSR would have fallen sooner and harder than it did.
Instead the USA has gone abroad looking to create monsters and then side with them and then turn on them because indeed we are perfidious albion’s seed in so many ways. A sad inversion indeed. I note in passing that even the fantasy book most Americans claim to hold in their hearts suggests that one first clean the HUGE blindness from one’s own eyes before sticking one’s fingers into somebody else’s eyes.
July 4, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Patriotism is a branch taking of the tree of Idealism and idealism is due to ignorance ,confusion & the desire to avoid unpleasantness.Conception of reason must derive from the living nature of reality not from man made static logic.Photos from space show mother earth as one unit in constant flux.Only humans can be ignorant enough to section this wonderful planet into cut up sections
July 4, 2009 at 10:20 pm
At least you’re evenhanded. Good essay, overall.
“Good gods! Germany was one of the earliest socialist nations. Under Bismark, of all people.”
Whoop-de-do. Bismarck’s plan was for people over 70, in a time and place when the average life expectancy was 45. Today, in the US, people retire and live another 25-30 years.
No retirement ever anticipated people being idle for a quarter-century. Really, the only solution is to move the retirement age up.
July 4, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Lizards cause Crash with overregulation.
http://tinyurl.com/mj5ys3
July 5, 2009 at 12:16 am
So Sarah Palin resigned to follow a “higher calling”. Now it is becoming clearer who shall be the demagogue which will lead the US unto Neo-Fascistic glory.
Will that make US/Canada into 1930s Germany/Austria or Czechoslovakia? As a cyncial Canadian I’ll bet the latter.
July 5, 2009 at 2:03 am
Elmer Fudd Americans vs Angelo Mozillo “Bugs Bunny”…….. From http://www.exiled.com
I get so pissed when I see our patriotism perverted by corporate/military contractor
bagmen…..
Here’s a quote from “Elmer Fudd Americans”
“If I was an oligarch and I wanted to buy my spoiled little shit of a son a toy that would make him laugh and laugh for hours, I’d buy him a middle-class American. Because Americans are funny the way all dupes and chumps are funny. You can trick today’s Americans time and again, and they always fall for it. And when you trick them, they stomp around dramatically and make a lot of blustery noise about “the people” who allegedly “aren’t going to stand much more of this” because “our founding forefathers bla bla bla” and of course the ol’ “you can fool some of the people some of the time, buttcha can’t fool bla bla bla…” Basically, if you’ve seen your Elmer Fudd, then you’ve seen your American sucker in all of his cartoon comic-foil glory: a sentimental buffoon, a harmless chump whose guns don’t fool anyone but himself.
Every day, Americans play the role of Elmer Fudd to the oligarchy’s Bugs Bunny–if you look at it from the oligarchy’s point of view, at least.
Exhibit A: Multigazllionaire scumbag Angelo Mozilo v. American Suckers.
Tuesday it was reported that Mozilo, the guy who destroyed millions of Americans’ lives and now faces fraud charges, is making American taxpayers-his victims-pay for his legal defense. Yup, Bank of America, which only exists thanks to tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, is using YOUR MONEY to defend Angelo Mozilo against YOU, the victim.
Bank of America paying Mozilo’s legal fees
Tue Jun 9, 2009 3:59pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp said on Tuesday it is covering the legal fees of Angelo Mozilo, the former Countrywide Financial Corp chief executive charged with securities fraud and insider trading.
Lawyers for the former executives last week said they planned to fight the SEC’s claims.
Bank of America has taken $45 billion from the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
What makes this really funny is that Mozilo doesn’t even need your money, because he’s already stolen at least half a billion from you suckers… But he’s taking taxpayer dollars to defend himself anyway, for the same reason that dogs lick their balls: BECAUSE IT TICKLES!”
July 5, 2009 at 2:05 am
Mistake:
That website was not http://www.exiled.com
Its http://www.exiledonline.com
July 5, 2009 at 8:26 am
“Police State – The Militarization of the Police Force in USA”…
http://tinyurl.com/ktkdgs
Same here in the UK.
July 5, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Yes, we live in a police state. Usually, the wider the gap between rich and poor, the more need for draconian police power so the poor can be kept at bay.
July 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Blues:
Viewed the video…an eye opener….police with g..damned General Electric Vulcan mini guns that shoot 6000 bullets per minute on an armored vehicle, rolling into a town near you.
Gimme a godamned break! That kind of firepower is used to bring down attacking jet fighter planes which few American civilians own. Grenade launchers to be used against American civilians…idiotic…maybe to take out small, street corner gatherings of plotting neighborhood “turrists.”
And, again, in the US, human insanity reigns supreme.
Looks like the US arms industry has found another ready market, and has paid off politicians to provide taxpayer funding so they can sell our police such murderous military hardware instead of the Tasers that they presently use to take out the mentally disabled and elderly little old ladies and schoolchildren to give them heart attacks.
And, we all know that if some young aggressive policemen are armed with mini-guns, there is going to be one joker who is stupid enough to believe he needs to man such a weapon against his neighborhood.
It is almost certain that if such a weapon is deployed, someone will get carried away in a confrontational situation and just have to open up with one and take out a crowd of one or two hundred people, just to see how it works.
The official explanation will probably be that the crowd was thinking about throwing their torches or pitchforks at him, so, tragically, they had to die (complete with crocodile tears).
In today’s America, arrogance and idiocy, combined with insanity, reigns supreme, and that’s a hell of a dangerous combination.
How can we “patriotic” citizens resist such totalitarian fascism when our opponents are armed like this?
If the powers that be cannot force us to buy it, and they cannot tax it, and they cannot make it illegal, they have little control over us. Of course, they constantly try to do all of these things…and that is the road to their downfall.
We super indebted, peasant, consumerslaves should look to history in the former Soviet Union and in other totalitarian nations to see how citizens resist such authoritarian aggressions. We went through much of this in earlier discussions.
A goal might be to legally resist within the legal limits of the laws that restrain us, and to cause the totalitarians to display excessive behaviors that cause their discreditation in the eyes of the world and humanity itself…and totalitarians usually eventually do this to themselves anyway with ever increasing excesses in their methods and brutality….and we’re well on our way when neighborhood policemen have miniguns.
As someone mentioned in previous discussion, drop back to spending only on essentials, even if you have money…don’t feed the beast…and this goes for work output also.
OH rightfully suggested that a way to national success is that we all give more than we expect to receive, but now is not a time for doing this. That is for when our freedom from tyranny is being protected by our government and its servants…and that is not presently happening when we see police so heavily armed and ready to destroy their own neighbors and neighborhoods.
To economically resist will be rather easy in today’s economy, since both jobs and available cash to consume is increasingly limited….but our job is to also not take on personal debt, no matter how much is shoved at us…and this will be very hard for many to resist, but when the temptation arises, just think about who or what, armed with a grenade launcher of minigun, might come after you to foreclose when you try to default.
If you are a slave, work at minimal efficiency. This is always effective, and it provokes a response, and harsher crackdowns on workers, and this creates ever increasing resentments, until the totalitarian system itself falters. If slaves get few rewards, let them provide little in return, and hasten the death of the beast that oppresses them.
The mind is a wonderful thing that can create imaginative, solutions that fall within legal bounds, if it can just be freed from restrictions placed upon it by propaganda and human selfishness.
Open confrontations are out…even peaceful protesters will not fare well…imagine Kent State if the NG were armed with 6000 bullets per minute, General Electric Vulcan mini guns in those days…nobody would have been left to even take photographs of the chaos.
We recently had a discussion about this. It is easily to pretty much conclude that open resistance and rebellion is out. These guys have all kinds of firepower and are willing to use it to kill us if necessary.
July 5, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Sorry, Tell.
I said that blues posted the link to the video…Tell posted it.
Thanks Tell.
July 5, 2009 at 2:47 pm
No revolution ever succeeded due to passive resistance. That is a cop out. All revolutions featured fighting, sometimes, very fierce fighting. These things are violent for a reason: ruling elites don’t just go away. Exploiters don’t just stop.
Small changes like the Civil Rights Act still were very bloody affairs. Lots of people wishing for the right to vote were beaten, put in prison, lost their jobs or were murdered, for example. More than one the major leaders were violently eliminated.
July 5, 2009 at 3:10 pm
so….i still find i have nothing more to say than what i already have said. good. from now on, i swear i will be….pragmatic.
and no matter how far i search, this blog without a doubt is the most interesting with the best commentators. and elaine is special.
and some of you must be very, very smart and good people, which i bet is uncommon. yipper dipper! thank you
July 5, 2009 at 3:31 pm
“If you are a slave, work at minimal efficiency. This is always effective, and it provokes a response,…”
Yeah. “They” get rid of your ass.
“this blog without a doubt is the most interesting with the best commentators. ”
I like the comments too. Gives new meaning to the word “incoherent”.
July 5, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Yes, Smith, you are one of the incoherent commentators here but you should have accepted the praise from Openly Hidden before opening your own mouth.
July 5, 2009 at 6:35 pm
One of the beauties of the internet is that we can discuss ideas”we learn from each other”just as language is a social product so is learning.Attacking a persons personality that is ugly behavior and counter productive,it just exposes a puny mind.
July 5, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Smith and I have been joking since 1996. We are actually old friends which is why I put the smiley face there.
July 5, 2009 at 8:45 pm
J.S………….
I’m glad you never pretend to be for the average
guy in the street. Us Americans used to pride ourselves by thinking we always rooted for the underdog. But you do a masterful job of rooting for Jabba The Hut and other obesely entitled oligarchic parasites.
July 5, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Don’t know if I’m willing to face a mini gun Elaine. Once saw them take out an enemy mortar squad from the air….like lasers, with streams of fire with three or four bullets between each tracer….and the bullets cover the earth in a pattern that will hit every six inches in a swath a hundred yards wide.
So, Elaine you go out and face the mini guns, and I’ll just be the non-productive slow-witted slave, and go hungry. Then, the powers that be will probably just shoot us both anyway, you for rebellion and me for nonproductivity.
No, Elaine, I’m just being facetious…and you are probably right as far as creating real change is concerned…that some real blood might have to be shed.
As I read this piece that Tell posted, I also realized that such information is meant to provoke people like me to write articles just like the one that I wrote…that we don’t stand a chance in hell against the police in a head on confrontation nowadays.
And, these dudes who have this weaponry are not joking… I once read one of the bibles of elites, a book by a fellow named Napolean Hill…”Think and Grow Rich.” One truism in that book is “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can make happen.” Well, that is very much true for these guys, and if they conceive miniguns for rebellious American citizens…if you rebel, they will make it happen…they’re not bluffing, just as those NG at Kent State were not bluffing when their officers allowed them to load their rifles with live ammo.
Elaine, you’ve chided me before about these elites who do this and tell me, “they don’t care.”
Well, I believe you.
Now, Elaine, I might not be too bright, but I’m not stupid enough to write a long post on your blog about how we should all go grab our guns and go marching into open rebellion either. And I won’t do that because I’m against that for a basic reason. In today’s world, it would be totally unaffective and dissidents and rebels would soon be propagandized as the bad guys.
But I do openly advocate non violent resistance against injustice, criminality and malfeasance within the limits of the law as written in the US Constitution.
I don’t care to go out and drum up support for politicians and leaders who do not have my interests in mind at all. I don’t care to work for a company that is unwilling to pay a fair price for my work, and I will avoid buying what they sell if I can.
The person who picks up a gun and goes at it with the police or military is dead meat…simple as that.
Elaine, goto the link Tell provided and take a good look at the weaponry…and they have an Active Denial System for peaceful protest marchers and protesters too.
Those things are just a directed microwave oven on wheels…and it vibrates the outer layers of your skin until it fries them or you leave the area…your choice.
They also have low frequency directional weapons that send out sounds that are too painful for you to stand. These things, just like Tasers, might stop your heart if you have abnormal rythms, but they don’t leave a mark…and you just died from overexcitement…maybe you should have stayed home is what your relatives will be told.
And those sound things can be aimed directly at protest leaders and can have the volume turned up to take out specific individuals.
Sound is a powerful weapon. Son sometimes sets up live sound for concerts… you have to be very careful to get the frequencies right or you will give vulnerable people heart attacks.
In the lower frequencies, sound can be turned into a deadly weapon that kills instantly. The only reason that it has not been deployed militarily is that it will penetrate almost anything and cannot be aimed selectivly very well. The higher frequencies like the present active denial weapons can be aimed selectivly.
Oh, the powers that be have been busy as little bumble bees in the last few years while they were floating in money that they stole from the nation.
This isn’t the 1960s, and these guys are not the old ideological policemen of those times who personally wanted to beat you with their clubs. These guys don’t want to touch you. In their minds, they are in a video game, and you are the opponents, and their job is to knock down as many opponents as possible and score as high as possible, but they want to do this without getting blood on their uniforms or bruises on their faces… If the violence cannot be controlled from a safe distance with a joystick shooting rays and bullets, they don’t want to do it. Even when they confront, they put on all sorts of body armor and face shields…and you are only a “target” or an “opponent,” not a breathing, bleeding human being.
This is the video game generation come of age, with all kinds of deadly impersonal technology to use to create a place for themselves in the world…amoral…impersonal…and unanalytical about the long term historical effects of their present actions….in fact, often very much unthinking about their present actions.
Now, I will state again what everyone obviously overlooked, and here it is,
___
The mind is a wonderful thing that can create imaginative, solutions that fall within legal bounds, if it can just be freed from restrictions placed upon it by propaganda and human selfishness.
___
Now, please everyone, think this last paragraph over and try to understand what I’m saying. Different times in history require different solutions to problems, and we serfs and proles are facing some of the greatest challenges for our survival that we have ever faced, and on a monumental scale too. And the answers still lie in our own minds and imaginations. So, we had all better get to thinking and creating solutions that might work against the new, enhanced threats that we face.
July 5, 2009 at 10:43 pm
The ‘battlefield’ we must contend is IN THE MIND. It is moral, psychological and political. We are not in a ‘revolutionary’ situation…yet. The chances of this happening, though, rises as the finances fall. Right now, our military is all mercenary. They get lots and lots of money, a third of our budget, at least.
So the military mercenary forces are happy! But what if our government goes bankrupt?
Unhappy, unpaid soldiers with weapons are usually the cause of revolutions. Look at Russia: the Czar armed and trained many, many Russian males to fight Germany. They then decided it would be more profitable to fight the Czar. End of the Czar and his entire entourage including his children!
No, the main thing here is to NOT GIVE UP. We have plenty of room for peaceful teaching and organizing. But if we do this based on fear, we are defeated before we even start debating issues, much less, contending for control.
The internet is killing the mainstream media. This is step one in taking our own control over our own debates. Ron Paul, in 1990, was kept off to the sidelines. Now, he exists online, all the time. No matter how the media tries to ignore him, he doesn’t need them anymore!
That is just one example. I am online. This is no insignificant feat! No one really likes me because I am contentious. This is deliberate. I am still in the ‘we better learn to think’ mode. I am the hammer and anvil and people who come here hopefully, change.
Of course, I am often a total failure. Shrugging my shoulders, I just go onwards! This is because people who go forwards instead of quailing in fear, make history. And making history is very important. As Tolstoy noted, the ‘little people’, the ’sheeple’ are the true turners of the wheels of history. The ruling elites are along for the ride.
Often times, revolutions happen when the ’sheeple’ become stubborn and cease following orders.
July 6, 2009 at 12:13 am
Elaine:
“Often times, revolutions happen when the ’sheeple’ become stubborn and cease following orders.” [or maybe believing the bullshit they are fed, or better still, make a joke out of it like Soviet citizens did].
We need some humorists in our midst, but we are lacking in this respect.
Yes Elaine. You are now talking exactly about what I have in mind. And citizens have to come up with new, creative ways not to go along with the insanity and criminality and madness.
One reason I wrote the long comment on Tell’s link is that I wanted fellow readers to go there and be aware of just how godawful stupid and deadly these fascists and corporatists and bankers are. The pass out money and arm our police with enough deadly military hardware to fight off a midsized nation, just to “keep the peace.”
That is so godamned stupid and asinine that it is almost unbelievable…mini guns for the cop on the beat….and anyone who sees a need for neighborhood policemen to carry mini guns is a fear soaked idiot.
On the other hand, on this blog and others, we occasionally have a poster openly state that he wants to go get his deer rifle and snipe at the authorities.
That kind of thinking is presently wrong, not to mention totally illegal, and the poor guy will be dead almost immediately if he is not arrested by Homeland Security Stasi and tortured as a terrorist, no matter how patriotic he might be.
There are certainly provocateurs on these websites who look for those who want to take up arms, so our dialogue, and how we approach things is very important.
I too agree Elaine, we are not at the point where open rebellion is needed, but we are nearing a point where citizen unrest will likely begin. As you noted, the Internet has made the games that elites play very difficult to keep secret.
No doubt, you as our leader, and many of us on this blog have learned from each other and have taught others about what is going on.
The PTB are nervous or they would not allow the arming of police with mini guns and grenade launchers.
Now, I’m not a military hater. I was once a member of the rank and file of the military, and some awfully good people served our nation in the military. What I dislike is the same as you mentioned…using OUR military as Murder and Torture Incorporated…for hire to psychopathic corporate bosses who view our lives like they view the lives of gnats.
When I write my criticisms and about our economic decline, and my views as a critical citizen, I try to be open and honest and aim some of what I say at the military…and the intelligence agencies that read these blogs.
They are important to us too, yes, even as national protectors, and they have far more power to undercut the thieves and scoundrels in high places than we mouthy complainers do.
As you pointed out, when (not if) we decline economically, our military will have some choices to make. It can move to rescue us or it can just go and be a “for hire” killing machine, going from place to place, hiring itself out to the highest bidder until, it eventfully becomes corrupt from within and weakens, and someone somewhere else in the world destroys it. All corrupt, “for hire”, thugs and heavies eventually go down, unless they belong to a legitimate organization.
You pointed to Russian History, and you are very correct. The Russians did support war against Germany in 1914, and cheered to the marching drumbeats, but two years later, amidst military defeat, and deprivation on the home front, the military mutinied in huge numbers, and became the backbone of the revolution. We are seeing some mutinous behaviors by soldiers right now, where they refuse to go on patrols and become bomb fodder. In Vietnam, soldiers did the same thing after they realized the war was lost…avoiding the enemy on patrols. This is a sign that things are changing, and we must remember, that patrols are usually led by young officers who will become ranking generals someday. So things do have a tendency to change.
We are in a not too different position from Czarist Russia or the Former Soviet Union right now.
We citizens, at this point, don’t need to go off half cocked. There are many more imaginative and constructive and legal ways to do things, and people are beginning to think about them and get some ideas about what needs doing.
Thanks for the great commentary Elaine. You are on track about this.
July 6, 2009 at 1:49 am
I really respect you, David, even whenever I disagree. It is very, very hard to navigate the waters of History as it Happens. It looks all so easy, in retrospect but when it is happening, it is nearly impossible to see at all.
All we know is, we are like leaves in a storm, we get blown here or there or end up in the gutter, rotating as we bob on the surface as the waters flow relentlessly around us.
Yet, we can control our own destinies even in a very small way: inside of our own brains, we control this resource, this place. Ultimately, it is our own, if we so wish. We were granted only one wish by the Dire Sisters of Destiny: we can make choices but only if we resist doing things thoughtlessly.
Thinking is the first battle we must wage with ourselves. The second is, understanding Nature and how we exist inside of it. With these two things, we achieve a wonderful state: even if we are in prison, we are free, inside.
Rich people (think: Michael Jackson) often live desperate lives trapped in their own emotional prisons. They can only escape by dying. I pity them.
July 6, 2009 at 11:54 am
@David: The minigun has been around since early Vietnam era. It was used in DC-3’s, C-130h’s and other flying gunsplatforms. And the Vietnamese won.
Microwaves can be reflected.
Yeah its terrible that todays state will use miniguns and microwaves against citizens, and yesterdays state used gatling guns and disease and napalm.
And ever since the bobbies in london have started carrying arms, the crime rate has skyrocketed.
A citizenry that is underarmed vis a vis its “protectors” are better known as slaves.
But fear not, the government has been enrolling many gangbangers and foreign nationals into the military, miniguns and other fancy weaponry will be available to the citizenry as soon as the troops are repatriated from the middle east. Markets in everything Dave. And poverty is endemic to the US military here in Das Mutterland.
July 6, 2009 at 12:50 pm
“you should have accepted the praise from Openly Hidden before opening your own mouth.”
I didn’t get the impression that OH was referring to me.
“Smith and I have been joking since 1996. We are actually old friends which is why I put the smiley face there.”
Yeah. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Elaine?
“I’m glad you never pretend to be for the average
guy in the street. Us Americans used to pride ourselves by thinking we always rooted for the underdog.”
I pick and choose who I’m for. Just because someone/something is an underdog doesn’t automatically mean they’re/it’s wonderful. There are other factors involved.
“Now, [Paul] exists online, all the time.”
And how does that translate into Electoral College votes?
“No one really likes me because I am contentious.”
Not true, Elaine. I like you just fine – that’s why I read your blog.
July 6, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I do not consider either major party to be “patriotic”, nor are most of their elected officeholders “patriots”; “traitors” comes a lot closer in some cases, though “corrupt pawns” is probably more accurate for most of them. This is why I am an independent. I don’t fit in either group, their “big tents” are not big enough for someone like me who thinks for themselves and actually cares about this country.
I have zero hope that they will change. Eventually, something WILL change, and this nation will have to start seriously dealing with the huge problems that have been allowed to build up, and in many cases were caused, by these bi-partisan criminals. It will be a different cast of characters that lead us forward though, for better or for worse, not them.
Unfortunately, I am very much afraid that whoever replaces them may not really be any better. It may be a matter of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I am particularly fearful that what we have to look forward to when this national political catastrophe plays itself out to its inevitable conclusion is a military/authoritarian regime in some form or another. The military is arguably one of the few institutions that still actually “works” in this country, and except for a few on the extreme fringes, the military is generally is held in high esteem by most people. I am afraid that when things get bad enough, it is going to be all too tempting to see the military as our national saviors, and it might be all to tempting for some of the top brass to actually believe it. Authoritarianism, wrapped in the national flag and stepping to the beat of a military march; it wouldn’t be the first time that a republic ended up that way.
I have been saying that the 21st century is going to be one long exercise in giving up things. I must say that giving up our 220 year old republic, and all the rights and freedoms guaranteed under its constitution, is going to be the most painful and bitter loss of all.
July 6, 2009 at 3:14 pm
WNC Observor – I think I agree with your sentiment, but with respect to the “military” it depends on how they “behave” – collectively and individually. I think that will be determining – collectively and individually.
Draconians were great units in “The WAR of 1776″, but draconian methods are no longer functional as long as “we” are able to communicate. (In my humble opinion).
I respect military folks where-ever they are. I want them to come home.
Peace,
Ken
p.s. I figured out how to see the charts but if I keep on getting all these “yes/no” prompts then I dumping Windows for something better.
July 6, 2009 at 3:16 pm
oops again and last post (really – well, last for the day)…
Meant to say “dragoons”.
Mobility is of course critical.
Ask anyhow who knows about “blitzing”
July 7, 2009 at 12:13 pm
WNC Observer:
Your thoughts are running exactly parallel with mine, I just started to write a post about what you just said, but figured I had run my mouth too much already….but you are right on track, and I will continue a bit.
You said:
The military is arguably one of the few institutions that still actually “works” in this country, and except for a few on the extreme fringes, the military is generally is held in high esteem by most people. I am afraid that when things get bad enough, it is going to be all too tempting to see the military as our national saviors, and it might be all to tempting for some of the top brass to actually believe it.”
Well, it, the military, does not work too well since it is overburdened with useless war making in distant lands and contractor/corporate control, but it does work to some extent…and when these guys, including the contractors, feel threatened by our decline, they will act (they have before)….and the “old money” NWO screw ups will have difficulty controlling the show as they have for so long…and the military itself might even become a key player as you said. We should remember that when Nixon was faltering, and Vietnam was crumbling, and the nation was about to collapse, General Alexander Haig essentially took over and ran our government then until Agnew and Nixon cleared out and Ford could be installed.
So, what you are talking about does have precedence, but would require coordination and the exclusion of some people who have been installed to prevent such occurrences. Probably, such a move would not be unilateral.
You also said:
“Authoritarianism, wrapped in the national flag and stepping to the beat of a military march; it wouldn’t be the first time that a republic ended up that way.”
That is what we have now. Corporatists using OUR (the taxpayers) military as their personal squad of high tech hit men….to dominate anyone who does not go along with their NWO plans for world domination.
One other thing that Elaine and some of the rest of us know needs doing is that certain disloyal elements of our government need to be thrown under the bus…and this also goes for assigning responsibility for 9/11. These folks have come to believe that they are untouchable, but, I suspect that there are people in our military and other agencies who are just as disappointed by the way things are going as I am.
So, yes, whatever happens might be authoritarian, but the old codger NWO folks are very authoritarian, and they have no roots in the working classes of America, and the military and other agencies do…so who knows what might come of what you are talking about?
WNC, things just get more interesting don’t they? And our speculation about this is probably worth $1.25, the price of a cup of coffee, soon due for a large price increase.
July 7, 2009 at 12:48 pm
‘Coffee’ reminds me that there are many things which we MUST import. This is why we keep a close control over what we do import. We should NOT import stuff we could produce here, for example. The trick is to keep as much production home while exporting certain items to balance all the stuff we cannot make here, like coffee.
July 7, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Patriotism:
http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm