when we read the latest news dispatches from official washington, we are washed over in the crocodile tears of ms. hillary and bambam the little lamb. they are so distraught that momo khadafi is being a bad sport and hurting his people, and they even went to the UN security council and made a noise about making him stop it.
funny, when their pardners in tel aviv said, no way, jose on the settlements freeze in the occupied palestinian territories, their voting arms went limp. they suffered from a rare form of cowardice-induced paralysis, which rendered them incapable of uttering certain syllables in the english language: S-T-O-P.
speaking of momo, remember when The Greatest President We Ever Had anointed the unhinged one Most Likely To Be Worse Than Hitler, before unleashing the F-16s on momo's tent in tripoli? those were the days, were they not, when the gentle giant, america, started to show its nerve? that's when, post-vietnam, DC gradually began rebuilding the american consensus for those little, friendly regime-changing dust-ups that now pretty much define the world's only remaining stupidpower.
we haven't changed, of course, but momo did. after being pariah for lo, those many years, he saw what the dubnub did to saddam, and suddenly found religion. he became a born-again friend to tony blair and behold, a new era of business opportunities bloomed. the freedom-loving western oligarchies decided to kiss and make up, letting bygones be bygones while the oil spigots opened and the kickbacks began.
the guardian had a piece today about how a sudden change was in the air for libyan dissidents, as well. once given the ear of the policy establishment, to cudgel against their erstwhile leader, they suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of the law. some of the less fortunate transited from being freedom-fighters to terrorists, eventually finding themselve rendered unto momo -- so he might have his way with them.
this deplorable but true situation, unfortunately, is more indicative of the western oligarchies' true sentiments towards those poor saps dying in the streets of tripoli, as the khadafi clan pummels them with the full variety of military implements that his sponsors at the International War-mongers Commodities Exchange can provide -- on credit, natch. in public our teary-eyed, reptilian-brained leaders put on a good show for the TV audience, while behind the scenes, we're told, barak the hopeless changeling has asked his CIA minions to prepare a plan on how to game the freedom markets in order to maximize ROI for the corporate shareholders of the US government.
in the junior nasty cadets department, we can't neglect to mention the anxiety over at the israeli trading desk. their shares are down since the crisis began, after an spectacular run of 30 years of thumbing their noses at the millions of arabs who surround them on three sides. it was only a short time ago that the fractured palestinian authority was so prostrate before the zionists that they practically begged to be spat upon and kicked. no PA offer, regardless of how humiliating and self-effacing, was even acknowledged by their negotiating "partners."
this makes the US veto of the security council resolution -- condemning the continuing settlement construction on occupied territory -- tougher than ever for a world grown tired of the arrogance of corrupt elites to stomach. the hypocrisy of the US is so unashamedly blatant that no one even bothers to defend the ongoing criminal enterprise behind this sorry state of affairs. the arabs, for one, have quit listening to the lies coming out of the west -- too busy throwing shoes at their own leaders to trouble themselves with ours.
yep, casting out the thieves from the temple, or throwing the bums out of office -- whatever you wanna call it. the level of dysfunction is egregious enough, and we ought to be able to see that which is in front of our faces. but if it's early yet, the first stirrings of a liberation movement are appearing, like crocuses out of the unnaturally warm soil. it's past time for us to cast out our corrupt leadership as well.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
price of oil going up -- the wazoo!
i have on the other tab a report from ABC-disneyworld news, quoting an oil tycoon in tex-ass, explaining to the poor, brainless, SUV-driving american schmuck, that there's a one-word explanation of rising earl prices.
he spells it L-I-B-Y-A.
my spelling translates that to B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T!
how could this be? "Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston... has been following gas prices one way or another for more than 30 years," so why wouldn't he be an authoritative source for reliable, understandable, fact-based information on the rocketing price?
on the way home from work this afternoon, incidentally, a gallon of unleaded has gone up .15 cents in one day -- to $3.15 a gallon. while still cheap by international standards, the last time the cocktail of the american dream reached these prices -- during the summer before the collapse in 2008 -- the public was about to have a major conniption. i mean, genuine, ass-based heartburn seized the republic.
what's going on now in MENA -- middle east, north africa, for those slow on the acronym tip -- is upsetting the political status quo in the region, vis a vis american political hegemony, with our reliable dictators being dealt out of the game -- replaced with jacks instead of jokers.
the oil still gets pumped, gets shipped, refined and put on the global market. it's just not the american earl companies who necessarily get first dibs. there are plenty of other customers with hard cash, ready to spend, whether it be china, india, brazil and the rest of the rising economic powers.
the US, on the other hand, has used military muscle and corruption to prop up these client regimes, who make it possible to plunder the wealth of resource-rich fiefdoms while leaving the restless citizenry clutching air. this system has carried the day for six decades -- the last three of which has seen the imperial goon squads within the US attempting to impose the corrupt regimes on the fringes of the empire on the domestic population.
since the ascension of saint ronald the rancid in the political version of american idol, the oligarchy's patient drive to revoke the social compact of the new deal, and replace it with a new, dirty deal for working people, has continued without pause.
in the process of stealing everything that isn't nailed down, and then taking the crow bar to that, too, successive republican presidents, and the alternating democratic scam artists in this good cop-bad cop confidence game, have squandered trillions of dollars of the wealth of others in the process of enriching themselves. after tripling, doubling and doubling again the national debt, they have finally reached a point where the entire economy is teetering on the edge of collapse.
of all the things they've ruined, the currency may be the one that most provides a bit of shock therapy to the somnambulist nation USA -- the first real taste of poverty that most of us have ever experienced. our grandparents and elderly parents (unless you're an immigrant) are the only ones in our midst who know the real pain of genuine economic collapse.
(in this regard, it's a bit like war -- we're the first to cheer the troops with their shock-and-awe displays of killing professionalism and efficiency. yet it's all observed from a great distance, with the cheering section separated from the destruction and agony by 5,000 miles of technological wizardry.)
so let us again consider: are the events in MENA causing the rapid escalation of gasoline prices at the pump here in the US? or is it something completely more insidious, and kept out of the mass media's discussion of the cause of our pain?
are we dealing with the after effects of ben bernanke and the FED printing wheelbarrow-loads of worthless paper money, flooding the globe with dollars in an effort to refloat the economy and blow yet more speculative bubbles, to keep the wall street bankers' perpetual ponzi schemes rolling on?
i reckon it's the latter. again, the oil still flows as it always has. the only ones who are really discomfited by the disposal of these toilet-filling, US-backed regimes in the oil-rich areas of the globe are the hustlers and cheats of the elites who are used to calling the shots and cashing in on the deals -- not to mention the rest of us, who've been their unwitting enablers as we bought the snake oil of the profits of republicanism saint ronnie, saint newt, saint turdblossom, saint johnny boner and the virgin scary, sarah satan.
i'm not looking forward to being poor and living on the street, but when i think of all the victims of US imperialism -- both abroad and at home -- i think to myself, why shouldn't we? we were the fools who allowed the skies to cloud up and shit on this exceptional land.
he spells it L-I-B-Y-A.
my spelling translates that to B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T!
how could this be? "Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston... has been following gas prices one way or another for more than 30 years," so why wouldn't he be an authoritative source for reliable, understandable, fact-based information on the rocketing price?
on the way home from work this afternoon, incidentally, a gallon of unleaded has gone up .15 cents in one day -- to $3.15 a gallon. while still cheap by international standards, the last time the cocktail of the american dream reached these prices -- during the summer before the collapse in 2008 -- the public was about to have a major conniption. i mean, genuine, ass-based heartburn seized the republic.
what's going on now in MENA -- middle east, north africa, for those slow on the acronym tip -- is upsetting the political status quo in the region, vis a vis american political hegemony, with our reliable dictators being dealt out of the game -- replaced with jacks instead of jokers.
the oil still gets pumped, gets shipped, refined and put on the global market. it's just not the american earl companies who necessarily get first dibs. there are plenty of other customers with hard cash, ready to spend, whether it be china, india, brazil and the rest of the rising economic powers.
the US, on the other hand, has used military muscle and corruption to prop up these client regimes, who make it possible to plunder the wealth of resource-rich fiefdoms while leaving the restless citizenry clutching air. this system has carried the day for six decades -- the last three of which has seen the imperial goon squads within the US attempting to impose the corrupt regimes on the fringes of the empire on the domestic population.
since the ascension of saint ronald the rancid in the political version of american idol, the oligarchy's patient drive to revoke the social compact of the new deal, and replace it with a new, dirty deal for working people, has continued without pause.
in the process of stealing everything that isn't nailed down, and then taking the crow bar to that, too, successive republican presidents, and the alternating democratic scam artists in this good cop-bad cop confidence game, have squandered trillions of dollars of the wealth of others in the process of enriching themselves. after tripling, doubling and doubling again the national debt, they have finally reached a point where the entire economy is teetering on the edge of collapse.
of all the things they've ruined, the currency may be the one that most provides a bit of shock therapy to the somnambulist nation USA -- the first real taste of poverty that most of us have ever experienced. our grandparents and elderly parents (unless you're an immigrant) are the only ones in our midst who know the real pain of genuine economic collapse.
(in this regard, it's a bit like war -- we're the first to cheer the troops with their shock-and-awe displays of killing professionalism and efficiency. yet it's all observed from a great distance, with the cheering section separated from the destruction and agony by 5,000 miles of technological wizardry.)
so let us again consider: are the events in MENA causing the rapid escalation of gasoline prices at the pump here in the US? or is it something completely more insidious, and kept out of the mass media's discussion of the cause of our pain?
are we dealing with the after effects of ben bernanke and the FED printing wheelbarrow-loads of worthless paper money, flooding the globe with dollars in an effort to refloat the economy and blow yet more speculative bubbles, to keep the wall street bankers' perpetual ponzi schemes rolling on?
i reckon it's the latter. again, the oil still flows as it always has. the only ones who are really discomfited by the disposal of these toilet-filling, US-backed regimes in the oil-rich areas of the globe are the hustlers and cheats of the elites who are used to calling the shots and cashing in on the deals -- not to mention the rest of us, who've been their unwitting enablers as we bought the snake oil of the profits of republicanism saint ronnie, saint newt, saint turdblossom, saint johnny boner and the virgin scary, sarah satan.
i'm not looking forward to being poor and living on the street, but when i think of all the victims of US imperialism -- both abroad and at home -- i think to myself, why shouldn't we? we were the fools who allowed the skies to cloud up and shit on this exceptional land.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
saturday's jaunt
i only left the house once on sunday -- to go to the grocery store. that's pretty unmotivated for me, but sometimes i think i'm just getting overwhelmed with sensory input. i need a timeout from all the toys and technology that bogs down my brain.
i'm trying not to become a muddlehead.
on saturday, i did a bit of exploring downtown. back to shockoe hill cemetery, where the great whig editor is buried, and then on to downtown, where the democrats' jefferson-jackson day soiree was in full swing. i had no idea that the jacksonian democrats were foes of the whigs! besides, that, there was a gospel quintet, glorious, strutting its stuff in front of barky's spiritual store on broad street, as well as the usual hordes of ordinary people on the block.
here are some pictures:
i'm trying not to become a muddlehead.
on saturday, i did a bit of exploring downtown. back to shockoe hill cemetery, where the great whig editor is buried, and then on to downtown, where the democrats' jefferson-jackson day soiree was in full swing. i had no idea that the jacksonian democrats were foes of the whigs! besides, that, there was a gospel quintet, glorious, strutting its stuff in front of barky's spiritual store on broad street, as well as the usual hordes of ordinary people on the block.
here are some pictures:
 |
| sarah mills, tomb in the middle, was born 226 years ago on 2/20! |
 |
| the symbolism of the cross through the crown has always interested me |
 |
| the hustlers on the street these days are the developers, who despite the crash of the real estate bubble seem to have ready access to cash. |
 |
| this is the quintet 'Glorious,' belting out the spirituals in front of barky's. dunno about the chick in purple. |
 |
| not sure whether this is their publicist or just a fan |
 |
| too bad the city had to be tearing up the sidewalk this week |
 |
| name your poison |
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| you can't take a day off from life, no matter what... |
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| here's the new miracle-mobile, on display at the jeff-jackson day event at the convention center. any truth to the rumor it runs on piss? |
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| traci was a little embarassed to be caught by a photographer while on the phone |
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| gratuitous shot of homeless woman outside the swanky downtown hotels |
 |
| okay, one more homeless guy, taking a break from the blustery midday hustle on broad street, while a convention-goer chats on his cell |
news you can abuse
Netanyahu says Iran 'exploiting crisis'
what the hell has netanyahu think his government has been doing all these years? while the US is embroiled in 2 major overseas clusterfucks in its war on terror, the israeli government has used the fears of US sheep to steamroller the palestinians with its settlements regime and the rest of its programme of occupation and destruction of the indigenous peoples. now that reform mania is sweeping the flanks of american empire, to which israel is inextricably tied, the erstwhile butcher of tel aviv is now feeling a bit twitchy.
the iranians are exploiting the situation in egypt to run a couple of its ships through the suez -- who can blame them for that? -- and the new egyptian regime is reluctant to show its true colors as the enemies of real reform. so they're prevaricating and looking for a graceful exit. there ain't one, guys.
if the iranian navy wants to sail to syria, who are the israelis to be telling the egyptian dipshits what's kosher?
if there was ever a CIA-backed "revolution", this is one. it has US meddling written all over it. while the obasm administration and hillary clinton posture about their support for democracy and freedom, they're working all the levers in private to bolster their client regimes around the globe. it just ain't a good time for their version of "democracy".
so why to throw a little anti-china agitation into the mix? they'd do anything to keep the autocrats in beijing twitching a bit themselves, but these mysterious tweets and other inducements to gather are just the US government using people power to advance their own cynical games. they care nothing at all about the average chinese worker, who as a powerless and underpaid chump keeps the global corporations flush with cash, and sales at wal-mart humming along.
the australian newspaper put the astroturf nature of the protests succinctly: "no angry crowds or placards visible in Beijing and only a three-man scuffle breaking out in Shanghai." there is no stomach for a revolution in china -- not yet. they're on the escalator that's still going up. there's not sufficient reason for widespread disaffection with the regime.
a different story in the US, however, with rising prices and the agitation of the corporatocracy against its clones in the government appears to be accelerating the collapse of the american social contract that underpins allegiance to the state.
After House passage of GOP budget cuts, lawmakers head home to hear from voters
i fully expect the coming budget battles, as well as the fight over the debt ceiling, to go nuclear and lead to a shutdown of the government. this, in turn, will rattle worldwide financial markets in a way that will be deeply destructive to US prestige, and a total drag on the dollar. it will prove to the rest of the world that our financial system is a plaything of political elites with no adult supervision.
what washington, the banks and giant corporations have in common is complete disdain for the lives and concerns of ordinary people. when lawmakers go home to hear from voters, it goes in one ear and comes out the other. the only interests that get a hearing are the ones who speak with a checkbook, and most of them have given up on the country and are increasingly looking abroad for new opportunities for rapine and plunder.
tim geithner was at the G20, again imploring the chinese to raise the value of the yuan. this is so transparent as to be laughable, as the US tries to export its inflation to china through the fed's super-low interest rates. as worthless dollars flood the world economy, competitor nations are doing all they can to stifle the US plans to do to their economies what our banks did here.
in the process, we're about to get a taste of poverty here in the USA, as paul craig roberts recently wrote. i see no way around the increasing likelihood of spiraling commodities prices in the months ahead.
then the politicians will finally really start to hear from voters. they'll probably all go into hiding.
past glory, our shame
 |
| the south shall rise again! |
it seems like the confederate "ideal" of states rights are also continually being renewed in the south, through the tea party and its national sponsors, the koch brothers.
today, however, states rights means something very different than it did during the time before and during the civil war.
during the "nullification crisis of 1828", south carolina refused to collect a tariff on imported manufactured goods -- a tariff imposed by the national government in support of fledgling domestic industries. south carolina threatened to secede from the union, and was only prevented from doing so by a compromised gradual reduction of the tariff.
today, when states like virginia and arizona attempt to pass "nullification" laws, they echo the belligerency of an earlier era, but without the clout to carry out their threats (which they don't make explicit, anyway). which of these states could realistically survive as independent political entities?
the most obnoxious "red" states are freeloaders. they receive outsized federal largesse in proportion to the tax burden they carry. still, they feel put upon by the federal government, and their representatives will not level with these penis-heads about what egregious, unbearable hypocrites they are.
they aren't the worst, though. that would have to be the oligarchs themselves, people like the koch brothers who are diligently funding projects to subvert and eventually destroy american democracy. unlike the secessionists during the civil war, they don't have a program of replacing the union with something. their goal is to simply wreck the polity, and then the economy, in some misanthropic, malignant program to destroy several hundred years of human effort.
during that time, we achieved a modicum of progress, while at the same time flirting with self-annihilation. as if releasing the nuclear genie wasn't foolish enough, the next step is to poison the planet, so that the small steps we're made as a species to justice and equality can be fully and permanently eradicated.
dunno about you, but the idea of someone sitting in their climate-controlled bunker, counting his gold bullion, sounds like the type of dystopia i definitely don't want to be party to. especially on the receiving end!
Friday, February 18, 2011
noxious news, you lose
the US house "slogs" through it's $1.2 trillion spending bill, and it shows its true corporate colors. while the dems seem to be particularly adept and coming up with giveaways to the banksters and wall street, the GOPper cousins are working the corporate and industrial space for freebies and giveaways.
the ABC disney-ized report says the bullseye is on the EPA, SEC and commodities futures trading commission, where the regulatory burden on their sugar daddies has got these screaming jesuses on the right in a tizzy. let markets do their work! let markets police themselves! get the government off our backs! you know the refrain.
since when did giant corporations become the good guys in our corporate media space, such that we're the poopsies to their fat-ass, daddy-warbucks entreaties to keep our dirty mitts off their businesses? i'll tell you, it wasn't during the progressive era that busted the trusts and monopolies of the guilded age. it wasn't in the '30s, when most of the regulations against wild-eyed speculation with other folks money was finally codified and made the rules of the game.
if you've been following the news lately, you may have heard of hunton & williams, a nice, hometown lawfirm here in richmond, va., that's at the epicenter of the smash wikileaks scandal. the justice department plays footsie with these guys, and sends corporate miscreants, who need expert guidance in eliminating opponents, their way.
a partner of the firm, back in the 1970s, authored the manifesto that the corporate ruling classes have used since then to insinuate themselves into the very fiber of the government's being. they have metathesized to the point where corporate control has totally subsumed the host organism. now big corporations own the US government.
this partner? none other than lewis powell, the late supreme court justice. a very interesting subject, for anyone wishing to learn how things work.
but back to the noxious news from DC. the GOPper house majority is preparing their super-whopper, as-you-like-it big-business budget, and defunding any and all brakes on corporate larceny and recklessness. this is their primary function and goal, and for good measure they wrap it with anti-abortion silver paper, with a red bow symbolizing the blood of their victims.
the hapless democrats, who were ineffectual when they possessed a overwhelming majority in both houses of congress, as well as the white house, seem even less relevant that ever, with their protestations amounting to a stamp of their tiny feet in a gesture of defiance. what a gesture.
we get nothing from our representatives in government, because the only ones who are really players are the people who own the media and the government. the fired up minions of mammon, the rabid, tea-party goons, have never amounted to more than a quarter of the voters, but everyone else is so underwhelmed with their choices and the results they get from voting that they've simply tuned it all out.
this suits the masters fine. they'll take their show-horses on the raving-lunatic right, show them crushing all opposition on the nightly news, until we're standing around with our hands in empty pockets, asking ourselves what day it is.
my advice is, buy all the vaseline you can afford.
the ABC disney-ized report says the bullseye is on the EPA, SEC and commodities futures trading commission, where the regulatory burden on their sugar daddies has got these screaming jesuses on the right in a tizzy. let markets do their work! let markets police themselves! get the government off our backs! you know the refrain.
since when did giant corporations become the good guys in our corporate media space, such that we're the poopsies to their fat-ass, daddy-warbucks entreaties to keep our dirty mitts off their businesses? i'll tell you, it wasn't during the progressive era that busted the trusts and monopolies of the guilded age. it wasn't in the '30s, when most of the regulations against wild-eyed speculation with other folks money was finally codified and made the rules of the game.
if you've been following the news lately, you may have heard of hunton & williams, a nice, hometown lawfirm here in richmond, va., that's at the epicenter of the smash wikileaks scandal. the justice department plays footsie with these guys, and sends corporate miscreants, who need expert guidance in eliminating opponents, their way.
a partner of the firm, back in the 1970s, authored the manifesto that the corporate ruling classes have used since then to insinuate themselves into the very fiber of the government's being. they have metathesized to the point where corporate control has totally subsumed the host organism. now big corporations own the US government.
this partner? none other than lewis powell, the late supreme court justice. a very interesting subject, for anyone wishing to learn how things work.
but back to the noxious news from DC. the GOPper house majority is preparing their super-whopper, as-you-like-it big-business budget, and defunding any and all brakes on corporate larceny and recklessness. this is their primary function and goal, and for good measure they wrap it with anti-abortion silver paper, with a red bow symbolizing the blood of their victims.
the hapless democrats, who were ineffectual when they possessed a overwhelming majority in both houses of congress, as well as the white house, seem even less relevant that ever, with their protestations amounting to a stamp of their tiny feet in a gesture of defiance. what a gesture.
we get nothing from our representatives in government, because the only ones who are really players are the people who own the media and the government. the fired up minions of mammon, the rabid, tea-party goons, have never amounted to more than a quarter of the voters, but everyone else is so underwhelmed with their choices and the results they get from voting that they've simply tuned it all out.
this suits the masters fine. they'll take their show-horses on the raving-lunatic right, show them crushing all opposition on the nightly news, until we're standing around with our hands in empty pockets, asking ourselves what day it is.
my advice is, buy all the vaseline you can afford.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Revolution is Televised
linh dinh is the shit!
i visit his photo blog, state of the union, every day. this is not the fluff and puff photography on the specialist websites.
i can personally vouch for the observations in this paragraph:
Nowadays, Americans are constantly urged to be vigilant of suspicious activities. Even taking photos in a public place can draw attention from the authorities. I myself have been harassed in several states. Citing the Patriot Act, a bike riding private security guard threatened to arrest me in Kansas City, KS. In Cleveland, a Greyhound bus driver kicked me off his bus because I refused to store my expensive camera and lenses in the luggage hold. Stories like these abound. With so much hysteria drummed up by Homeland Security, one would think that bombs are constantly being planted all over America, but in fact, the exact opposite is true. When a bomb plot is actually discovered, more often than not it is the work of the FBI!
we are nothing but a boxcar of nervous nellies being carted off to the slaughterhouse. i had to go through the routine just yesterday with one of the local yokels, who stopped me for "walking with camera." she wanted me to show her my photos, but i declined. it simply would've caused her too much cognitive dissonance to try to understand why i had taken a number of shots of a gnarled, twisted pine tree at the edge of an overgrown dump.
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