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I who am I? Born at the pinnacle of American prosperity to parents raised during the last great depression. I was the youngest child of the youngest children born almost between the generations and that in fact clouds and obscures who it is that I am really.
Given a front row seat for the generation of the 1960's I lived in Chicago in 1960. My father was a Democratic precinct captain, my mother an election judge. His father had been a Union organizer and had been beaten and jailed for his efforts. His first time in jail was for punching a Ku Klux Klansman during a parade in the 1930's. I never felt as if I was raised in a family of activists but seeing it print makes me think, yes. That is a part of who I am.
We find ourselves today living in a world treed by the hounds of madness, a complicit media covering contrite parties. Multilevel media, giving more access to communication yet stunting actual communication. More noise, less voice, more sound less music, more law less justice, more medicine less life.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 The New Poverty (3 comments)
The new poverty is subsidized with food stamps to the multitude which end up in the pockets of merchants. It creates a baseline economy, a brutal Dickensian society with a whiff of paternalism which says, "Feed them but don't actually attempt to improve their lot," merely subsidizing their poverty.
Sunday, February 5, 2012 Sometimes
I am in Astoria Oregon sitting in a house overlooking the bay and it is a beautiful site to see. The town is picturesque, like a postcard and here at least, I've yet to see anyone dumpster diving or hand lettering signs to beg for food. I saw them all yesterday on the way up here,
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 Under the Hammer (2 comments)
Sometimes you just don't know whether to laugh or cry, they don't even try to hide it anymore. It is like the US Army changing their name to Killco, the death and dying folks!
Friday, January 27, 2012 Alabama Bible Thumping Jesus Cult (2 comments)
The room was awash in subtle nervous tension, this was after all, a job interview. I was reminded of that, by the woman sitting next to me whose stomach kept growling loudly. The walls of this room were covered in environmental posters describing the project we would be canvassing for.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 The Symbol (1 comments)
For more than a decade we have witnessed high crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated against the people. We have seen stolen elections, questionable returns capped with court decisions, which invalidate even the appearance of legitimate democracy.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 It Is All One Big Thing (3 comments)
Remember now, that China imports only to fuel her exports, importing raw materials to export finished goods. Much in the same way the British Empire once did it and the Americans once did it in that former American Century. In 2001, China exported $510 billion in goods and this year she will export Three Trillion Dollars in products. A six fold increase in only ten years.
Monday, January 16, 2012 And So I Go From Here (2 comments)
So as I leave out of here, I leave and go into the night casting off the dead weight like a balloonist seeking altitude and distance over comfort. I cast off a bunch of old music books, songs which I didn't play or had never learned.
Monday, January 16, 2012 Dakota - Montana (2 comments)
What must the pioneers have thought when they found themselves here in this huge and empty land. You cannot fathom its scope without seeing it with your own eyes, this cold gigantic, barren and unforgiving land as far as the eye can see. Millions of acres of emptiness, this was dinosaur country.
Sunday, January 8, 2012 Out Here in the Streets (3 comments)
This year for the entire winter less than six inches of snow, what ever happened to tornado season? We have hurricanes in New England and droughts in Texas, isn't this the forecasted climate change which we were all warned about? What does your government say? The say nothing, they say nothing about climate change and talk instead about our energy needs.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 Fleecing the Poor (9 comments)
This is Capitalism; this is the glorious system which exploits all human frailty and all human need. It is the system which forces Ethiopian children to pack palm seedlings six days a week for starvation wages and forces the elderly to pour out their life savings on insurance policies
Saturday, December 31, 2011 A Normal Life (6 comments)
It has been one hell of a year for me as well; when it began I was living in a garage. Then I moved cross country from the warm and sunny South to the frozen North. I briefly visited Clear Lake Iowa where Buddy Holly's plane went down with the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valenzuela, I marched in the streets of the nation's capital and I watched the sunrise over Freedom Plaza.
Friday, December 30, 2011 Bathing in the Blood of Virgins (12 comments)
The scenario was written out long ago, a cast of ne'er do wells, misanthropes , retreads and dead heads were to compete for the honor of being soundly trounced by Barack Obama in next November's coronation err, I mean, election. It has everything a TV viewing audience could want; plot, pathos, angst and philandering.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 Were There Actually Two Ronald Reagan's? (5 comments)
Anyway, the story was told to me like this; Missile Toe is an individual who is now dying of cancer somewhere in Southern California. He or she will not tell me their gender out of fear of what might befall their families if his or her actual identity were ever to become known to the public. In the early 1950's, Missile Toe had worked on the Warner Brother's movie studio lot in an undisclosed position.
Saturday, December 24, 2011 Waiting for John Brown (2 comments)
From a thousand roads they come to a place where none expected to ever visit, let alone to stay, but the roads upon which they travel are all one way, like a clock, it ticks away and you find yourself set up here, like concrete, and you look to the future and you begin to wonder.
Friday, December 23, 2011 All the Way Home
We were headed for Panama City Beach Florida, the redneck Riviera. Back in the days when it was still fun, back before the Real Estate developers got a hold of it and paved it over with condominiums and shopping malls. In the early1970's it was a near endless chain of little mom and pop hotels broken only by the Snakatorium,
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 On the Streets of Bedford Falls
But it's been a tough year. The plastics plant built by Sam Wainwright relocated to China, throwing half the town out of work. Bert the cop was killed in a gang fight over turf, not far from the old the Bedford Falls High School. The troubles have driven the more affluent families to place their children in the Potter's Christian Academy.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Twisted Main Street
Already, I've met some of the regulars. I have not yet become one of them, but I feel as if I will, that I must. There's Stan, he's in his early thirties and he buys and sells comic books online and he talks too much. He can't help himself; he's just trying to be friendly and trying to overcome his own loneliness.
Friday, December 9, 2011 In Plain Sight (2 comments)
From the outset of this crisis the government response has been reactive and not proactive. Look for example at the response to the banking crisis versus the American crisis. During the banking crisis there was no debate, there was only a dark urgency and somber necessity, we must, we must!
Sunday, December 4, 2011 The Obama Deception (2 comments)
I spent a week with both "Stop the Machine" and Occupy D.C. in McPherson Park in Washington. I had a chance to get to know these people and I have listened to their stories, stories of unemployment. A 26 year old man named Kevin who lost his job and his home after his IT job was outsourced to India. I listened to a mother who lost her son in Afghanistan
Thursday, December 1, 2011 Love or Money (2 comments)
All that matters is money, so I shot my bolt and found myself a little worse for wear and tear. All of those old feelings came back and I was reminded again of why I had taken this simple vow in the first place. Yet three years has also taught me that being alone was an unnatural state of affairs as well.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 The Embers of Their Own Demise (1 comments)
Let the specters draw back the curtains and understand that we have turned a page. The illusion of freedom is fading fast, just as the illusion of Democratic government is fading fast. Rest yourself and brace yourself, for the storm ahead. Understand here, that the protestors in Zuccotti Park have won for us a great victory.
Monday, November 14, 2011 That Dark Horizon (1 comments)
Last Friday night Kayvan Sabeghi was beaten bloody by police on the streets of Oakland California.
"They told me to move, but I was like; "Move to where?" Sabeghi later recalled. "There was nowhere to move. Then they lined up in front of me. I was talking to one of them, saying "why are you doing this?" when one of them moved forward and hit me in the arms and legs and back with his baton.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 God is a Concept (6 comments)
We are taught in this country this myth of religious freedom and yet, in fact, most of the early founders were religious bigots. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by Puritans, Maryland by Catholics and Virginia by Anglicans and their beliefs were state beliefs, believe it or get out.
Friday, November 11, 2011 What This Country Needs (3 comments)
We have over 14 million unemployed in this country; the official unemployment rate is 9 percent. However, that is the U-3 number, which is the happy land figure, so take off your shoes and socks and play for a while in this imaginary hamburger storefront playground. The actual number for unemployment for October is 16.2 percent down from 16.5 percent from September and up from 15.9 percent a year ago.
Sunday, November 6, 2011 Being Woody Guthrie (2 comments)
Today we have so many celebrities who take on social causes; it is almost a given that they will each have some charity or cause that they support. That is good, I suppose, but still there is a clear distinction between being socially conscious and being Woody Guthrie
Thursday, November 3, 2011 And The Country Went To Hell (2 comments)
In August of 1930, Herbert Hoover addresses the American Bankers Association in Cleveland,
"During the past year you have carried the credit system of the nation safely through a most difficult crisis. In this success you have demonstrated not alone the soundness of the credit system, but also the capacity of the bankers in emergency."
Friday, October 28, 2011 When The Whistles Don't Blow (2 comments)
In 2001 Bradley Birkenfeld went to work for UBS Bank in Geneva, Switzerland, and Bradley Birkenfeld is no angel by any stretch of the imagination. He is everything that you would expect a corporate international banker to be. The son of a neurosurgeon, Birkenfeld earned a master's degree in business administration and worked for State Street Bank in Boston before joining UBS.
Sunday, October 23, 2011 Murderland (8 comments)
This is who we are and this is what we do, we kill people and break things and cheat people for money. All is for profit, we love money, it is our God, our golden calf. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peace makers: for they shall be called the children of God." In America, the short answer to that statement would be, f*ck you hippie.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Breaking the Fall (7 comments)
The Bush administration adhered to a strict policy of non-reality politics. Every pronouncement and every sentence contained the word terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. Who was the male prostitute signed into the White House over 100 times? Where were the weapons of mass destruction hidden?
Saturday, October 15, 2011 The Breeze
Does having a finger stuck up your anus for a traffic ticket qualify as unreasonable? Does being X-rayed by untested technology to board an aircraft qualify as unreasonable? Does being tazered by police for the crime of talking back seem unreasonable? This is the nature of the fascist state, to control every aspect of your life with fear.
Thursday, October 13, 2011 American Stories
The "Stop the Machine" rally was for me a huge success; it has restored my faith in the general goodness and wisdom of the people of this nation. I have met Americans of every age, race and station and they are good. They have put down the tools of their lives; they have left their jobs and their loved ones and traveled thousands of miles to come here to address their government.
Monday, October 10, 2011 We are the 99% (1 comments)
We marched through the city canyons of concrete columns, bureaucracy and statues of long forgotten dead generals. As we marched the car horns sounded in support and people on the sidewalk gave us the thumbs up sign. "Occupy Wall Street, occupy K Street, occupy everything and never give it back!"
Monday, October 10, 2011 Freedom Plaza DC; Breaking News (3 comments)
Freedom Plaza - Organiser Kevin Zeese anounces Federal Officials in Washington agree to a four month extention of Freedom Plaza protest permit. Officials also stated the the Freedom Plaza protestors must make accomodations for other scheduled events in the park.
Monday, October 10, 2011 Mixed Messages
I make my rounds through the plaza to see all my friends both new and old. Andrea and Bert from the staff of the Old Elm Tree and the special Code Pink ladies from deep in the heart of Texas, they are all special. We are all special here. That is the lesson which I have gleaned. I have met so many really nice, really great and really special people.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 Day One
The crowds were large diverse and expectant, all are waiting for something. They are as diverse as a crowd can be yet they are united in the knowledge that something is very wrong in America.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 A Plaza Called Freedom
The time is pivotal; will this thing now grow or wither away? There is a lot riding on this event and a lot of people have invested a lot of hope in this and we must trust and depend on each other despite our political differences.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 I Am In
The road passes beneath us, across one thousand miles littered with chain stores and sterile corporate fast food outlets. As we passed through Chicago at rush hour I was struck by how little this city ever really changes. It is a city of brownstones and of small alleyways, of gritty skylines filled with smokestacks and Catholic church steeples.
Friday, September 30, 2011 I Am One (2 comments)
I gave him five bucks but what struck me most about this young man in his mid twenties was the fear that I saw in his eyes. He was a man afraid, afraid of his hunger, afraid of his own tiredness and afraid of his future. He is a young man lost in a nation of locked doors, so as I prepare myself for my trip to Washington D.C. part of this young man will go with me.
Sunday, September 25, 2011 Schizophrenic Nation
If the Bush administration had been looking to invade just any old oil rich nation they should have chosen Mexico and saved the bus fare. A nation of 107 million souls where a ruling elite of one million rightwing ideologues controls a majority of the society's assets. Forty seven percent of the Mexican population owns nothing, not land or cars or homes, they own nothing.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 In Every Age (1 comments)
Recently the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, warned that New York could face riots in the streets if something were not done about the employment situation. This was a story with media legs, ABC glossed over it while the Wall Street Journal pooh poohed it. CNN took the story and turned it into a story about partisan politics.
Thursday, September 15, 2011 The Big Book of Freedom (7 comments)
In those long ago days our soldiers were referred to as our brave boys serving their country, today they are called only heroes. The irony has not escaped me that some of my friends served in Vietnam and now my son's friends who serve in Iraq / Afghanistan and they return home damaged and broken just as mine did.
Saturday, September 10, 2011 The Fascist Moses (5 comments)
Let's kick Richard Nixon, its great fun; we all did it at parties back in the 1970s. But that was the previous generation and this generation has missed out on the fun, like Woodstock. Unbeknownst to this current generation there would have been hundreds of fistfights and stabbings at Woodstock had it not been for three little words, "f**k Richard Nixon!"
Friday, September 9, 2011 Twilight's Last Gleaming (3 comments)
The crime is beyond rival, it opened an entire new field of warfare upon the earth. Or as the Roman maxim advises, "Who gains from this?" Did Islamic revolutionaries gain anything from the 9-11 attack? Did this attack in anyway advance their goals?
Monday, September 5, 2011 The Real History of Labor Day (3 comments)
The courage of unarmed men who charge a line of well armed men for a principle is the epitome of valor. When government shoots down its citizens in the street it is a public admission that any references to liberty and freedom are nothing more than pale illusions; an admission by government that their power is exerted from gun barrels alone.
Saturday, September 3, 2011 Caligula's Orgy (7 comments)
It has been ten years now since this country began beating its plowshares into swords and beating its people into submission. It has been ten years of Caligula's orgy, ten years of banquets and fine feasts, ten years of high tech weaponry and low tech poverty, of high tax cuts and low wage cuts and an age of societal dissolution.
Monday, August 29, 2011 The Miserable Ones (4 comments)
On July 11, an eleven year old boy awoke from his bed to find that his father was gone. The boy found two notes left behind, the first instructed the boy to take his play station and go to the neighbor's house. The second note asked the neighbors to take his son in because the father was no longer financially able to care for his son.
Saturday, August 27, 2011 Summer Winds
There is no competition here, only the desire to cooperate with each other and to work together communally. The gardeners share their stories and their problems. It's been a tough year for corn and the potato bugs were especially hungry this year. The gardeners share their extras as well,
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 He's Not Serious (2 comments)
It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sickening, college tuition paid out for jobs at McDonalds and the Gap are called job training while interning for pennies is called retraining.
Saturday, August 20, 2011 The Outcast (7 comments)
I feel as if I've have been immersed in a bad dream from which I cannot awake. I've witnessed the changes in myself which unemployment and homelessness have wrought while I have witnessed the playback on our society as a whole. I no longer feel at home anywhere,
Friday, August 19, 2011 And So It Has Begun
The more the Tea Party pushes, the lower their popularity numbers fall and Republicans in Congress are able to play a now you see them, now you don't game. When it suits them, the Tea Party members appear in the media as Republican statesmen while shaking the crazy stick on other more partisan media outlets
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Room 101
File this one under some people will believe anything, after over a week of market volatility caused by manufactured crisis's the news media tells a worried public, "Its alright now, you can go back to sleep. There will be no recession, move along, nothing to see here."
Sunday, August 14, 2011 October 2011 - Why I will Be There (2 comments)
We are forced to take off our shoes and empty our pockets because they want you and me to think of all those other people in line with us as our potential enemies. They want to divide us and make us fear each other, because it is fear which is being used as a tool of government. Innocent people should not fear government, yet the police cars that were once blue or yellow are now jet black with dark tinted windows
Monday, August 8, 2011 Imaginary Nation (1 comments)
payrolls rose by 117,000 but that is the view as seen through the keyhole, the civilian non institutional population rose by 182,000 but the members of what your government calls the civilian labor force dropped by 193,000. Nearly 200,000 Americans dropped out of the labor market in the last thirty days. Lottery winners, independently wealthy or perhaps alien abductions are to blame?
Thursday, August 4, 2011 The Flowers of Madness (5 comments)
I wonder if this is how the average American felt in 1860 or 1931? The rest of the story is inevitable and predictable and shameful. This is no less than our own raid on Harper's Ferry and from here there is no turning back. I had begun to write a story filled with inglorious facts and figures about the economy but I canned it. It told a story alright, but it didn't say nothing really,
Sunday, July 31, 2011 For the Benefit of Mr. Kite (3 comments)
Corporate America has declared themselves sovereign and are instrumental in fomenting this budget impasse. First, Washington Republican's throw down the gauntlet and declare that they won't allow the debt ceiling to be raised. Then Mr. Obama's declares, What? Why that will cause a crisis, which could cause the United States to default on its obligations and to lower it's credit rating.
Friday, July 22, 2011 Drenched to the Bone (5 comments)
Before the collapse of the American economy in 07 the financial experts began to ask, could the Euro be the reserve currency of the future? Then the US created and led the world into a financial bolgia, the world's economies both sick and well were thrown in chaos and disarray. Germany began a financial stimulus program three times the size per capita as the Obama stimulus and lo and behold the German economy began to recover
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Last Space Shuttle Mission, a Tribute
Schoolteachers, engineers, doctors, researchers and scientists don't just fall from the sky. These people are investing in their own futures, unsure of their own success or potential yet they are willing to accept the challenge. Each generation makes that commitment and knowledge is multiplied.
Monday, July 18, 2011 The Master's Children (2 comments)
I was out meeting folks last week, seems that no matter where I go; while the accents may change the stories they tell stay the same. I met a man named Tom; he was an electrician and a sort of jack of all trades. He told me, "The more jobs you can do the more work you can get." I could relate to his feelings as they were mine as well.
Saturday, July 16, 2011 Which Republican Party Do You Support? (4 comments)
Governments are servants of the people and when they fail to provide for the people they are intended to serve, then, they should be fired. We can label or pigeon hole governments as free or independent or Capitalist or Communist or any label in between.
Thursday, July 7, 2011 Dante's Slope (6 comments)
I no longer have a sense of normality, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. None of my employers have tried to cheat me out of my time; no one has made the type of demands on me that conventional employers have made. No one has been disappointed in my work or made any complaints about either the caliber or quality.
Monday, July 4, 2011 What Would Ben Do? (1 comments)
Ray McGovern, retired CIA officer, was tackled and dragged to the ground by civil servants behaving like goons, for standing silently with his back to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she spoke. How far then are we from troops firing on American civilians?
Thursday, June 30, 2011 Breakfast Food
For generations the back of cereal boxes had been the province of small children, full of puzzles and games and cartoons, but no more. "Catch All Your Family Memories at the Walmart Photo Center!" Beneath this rather curious headline are pictures of adults and children, preschoolers were in the majority of the photos with fishing tackle.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 The Broken Court of Dreams (2 comments)
The courts ruling is designed to strip from government the power to legislate. Cigarette warning labels are a violation of the tobacco company's free speech. Joe Camel ads on the back of a Captain Crunch box? Sure why not? Making food producers list the ingredients of their products or forcing manufactures to list how much sugar or how much fat is in their product?
Sunday, June 26, 2011 In this Country at Least, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (11 comments)
Across the races, religions and continents of mankind the root cause is always the same. Whether that be in the form of antiquated repressive Islamic monarchies, Wall Street corporate banking cartels or well armed drug gangs. Their desire is to carve out wealth and power on the backs of the poor and powerless and to take from them with guile, gun or legal edict.
Thursday, June 23, 2011 The Empire Strikes Back
In this "Brave New World" the Alpha's and Beta's, Gamma's and Delta's are fed a never ending stream of scorn for their neighbors. Politicians pour out innuendos and invectives towards enemy's de jour. The media indoctrinates the public to hate and to distrust Muslims, Blacks, Gay's, Hispanics, the poor, the unemployed and the foreclosed upon.
Thursday, June 16, 2011 The Vestibule of Hell
I watched John Pilger's film, "The War You Don't See" the other night and of course it should be banned or better still ignored, America is no longer a reality based environment. America is a video game for erectile dysfunctional stock brokers.
Sunday, June 12, 2011 When the Levee Breaks (2 comments)
Justice is the determination of what it right and fair, of what is best for all. Law is the operation of public control and public order, it was the law which murdered Socrates. It was law which murdered Jesus Christ and Joan of Ark. It is the law which has legitimized every order given by every despot ever in power, for once in power law becomes the preferred tool for despotic public control.
Thursday, June 9, 2011 Missy Wants a Bridge (7 comments)
Growth is a good thing most of the time. Growth with the aim of good community development is a good thing but growth for the sake of growth alone is nothing more than the manipulation of government in the name of greed.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 The Success of Failure (4 comments)
Who gains from this? A wise man might ask, who gains from loss? Who gains from the cessation of prosperity? I asked a new acquaintance if she was aware that the Federal Reserve was lending money to member banks for 0.10 percent. "No," she answered, "what does that mean?"
Thursday, June 2, 2011 Silent Season
In 1962 Rachel Carson published her book, "Silent Spring." It warned of a future without song birds because of the use of the pesticide DDT. The DDT caused a thinning of the bird's egg shells so the eggs would break and the birds could not reproduce.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 Capitalism (17 comments)
Our American political system runs not on one man one vote, but on one man one million dollars. Candidates' chances of success or failure are determined directly by their ability to raise funds. Successful candidates then find themselves beholden to which ever special interests funded their campaign. Barack Obama is nothing less than a prime example of this principle.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 A Lower Order of Being (1 comments)
George Washington was born the son of a farmer and began a career as a surveyor. He fought for the British in the French and Indian wars and led an unsuccessful charge in pursuit of retreating Native Americans into a forest. George learned that day that you never follow Native Americans retreating into a forest.
Thursday, May 26, 2011 Part of the Plan (2 comments)
Wages for the average American worker rose forty three cents an hour year to date or $17.20 per week before taxes. Those working in the retail trade saw their wages increase by miserly fourteen cents per hour, a paltry $5.60 cents per week.
Saturday, May 21, 2011 Cry Havoc
If you play chess you understand that the goal is to control the center of the board. You do this by a mixing the power of the different chess pieces. Some pieces are obvious and right out in front. Pawns are weak and obvious while others, such as the queen or bishop, are powerful and can strike from a distance. Your goal is to deceive your opponent into misunderstanding the power of your pieces.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Is Anyone at Home? (2 comments)
These things, these events leave scars and marks that Tide won't wash off. Like a death or a divorce, you carry them with you internally from then on. With upwards of ten million home foreclosures and maybe as many evictions it means that nearly of a third of our population has been displaced and scarred.
Sunday, May 15, 2011 Waking the Dead (5 comments)
A so called liberal Democrat rolls away a foundation stone of the New Deal and the public is left unaware. It means that after the banks and speculators have crushed the economy and forced millions of Americans from their homes the Congress of the United States will now reward them with a banking monopoly.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 Little Rambo (2 comments)
Last year the administration called this green shoots when all that it was, was springtime. The Bureau of Labor statistics announced new 244,000 jobs this month while down the street from me the local ice cream shop opened for the season. The grass has begun to grow and swimming pools are preparing to open for summer. Yet despite all of these new jobs the administration has created the unemployment number went up!
Friday, May 6, 2011 Enabling Acts (25 comments)
The story sets up like Jell-O and changing from hour to hour as the Dallas police announce that a suspect in the shooting of the President has been arrested, "His name is Lee Harvey Oswald, "The thing I am concerned about, and so is [Deputy Attorney General Nicholas] Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin." --FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover,
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 A Thread That is Not About Bin Laden (1 comments)
In a builder's economy growth is generated by the building itself. Ten thousand new homes being built each month meant new jobs. Jobs for carpenters and concrete truck drivers and roofers, new jobs for building suppliers and closing attorneys, Real Estate sales people and bankers. It is an economy based on real growth but the real growth supporting the artificial growth,
Sunday, May 1, 2011 Corporate Fascism Marches On
The Mexican's are then left to deal with the pollution, and because of the low wages paid to their workers, there isn't enough money for the citizens to build a new water treatment facility. The corporations pay little in taxes as part of their inducement to set up shop in Mexico and Mexico is forced to compete against other third world nations on wage scales alone, creating an escape proof industrial sweat shop.
Saturday, April 30, 2011 Epilogue;
Were those thousands of evolutionary eons productive if our society is no safer today than in the days of marauding Vikings or the Black Death? The germs and pillagers are this time from among our own. Where the doctors will only help you for a price? Where you are no safer inside the city walls than outside them, where you must watch your back as well as your front out of a fear of your own kinsman.
Friday, April 29, 2011 Kingdoms of Greed
The banks which acted illegally now look to subvert even the process which lets them off with a slap on the wrist. The sufferings of millions of men, women and children are subverted and discounted all in the name of greed. This is what America is about, only here; only in this place could such a thing be possible.
Sunday, April 24, 2011 Paint it Black
If we consider what Machiavelli is trying to tell us across the centuries then we can begin to understand all that is going on around us today. If you sought to destroy a free society you would first stifle incomes of its workers. Poor people working longer hours and earning less money have little time to organize resistance.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 Personal Responsibility (3 comments)
Personal responsibility is favorite rallying cry among the right wing reactionaries. It is a euphemism to justify their own wealth and to disavow the suffering of millions of others. It is not unlike Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" only it is steeped in the plantation owner's nascent paternalism.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 Bite Me Clown! (8 comments)
"Each McDonald's spends nearly $507,595 on wages," Sorry, McDonald's doesn't spend any money on wages, McDonald's pays out wages to its workers who have done labor for the company and earned the money. McDonald's calling wages spending is like a farmer saying that he is buying his dirt seeds.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 Upon the Wreckage of Oligarchy
Then this hearty band of self reliant individualist began their self reliant trade of brewing corn whiskey. Their healthy skepticism of too much government ended at the barrel of government muskets. The issue wasn't strong drink; the issue was a means of storing a corn crop and adding value to an agricultural product.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 The Obama Two Step (1 comments)
Through poor perception management the Icelandic government has been unable to convince the populace to accept responsibility for the losses of foreigners in a private Icelandic enterprise. All the agreement has called for was the repayment of $61,000 by each Icelandic family, a mere 40 percent of the countries GDP.
Sunday, April 10, 2011 100 Reasons for Revolution (3 comments)
I began this article before the events in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race were announced. When I first heard of this rape of a public franchise my hands began to tremble with rage. You see in a past life I was once an assistant poll manager in Georgia. Every state handles its elections a little differently but the processes are the same. Every box, polling machine or computer terminal is numbered, locked and sealed.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 Oh Brother Where Art Thou? (1 comments)
"Join us in the fight to keep building a better, more prosperous America. Are you in?"
Are you in? Poverty?
Are you in? Foreclosure?
Are you in? An unemployment line?
Are you in? The military on your fourth tour?
Are you in? A panic trying to pay increased tuition?
Are you in? Desperation trying to keep your family together?
Are you in? The street?
Monday, April 4, 2011 A Bright Future (1 comments)
Big money carries a big stick, Jeffery Immelt of G.E. practically lives in the White House. Corporate Obama is still pro nuclear power despite the Fukushima disaster, he assures us that we will do it better and we will do it with government money! Capitalism is all about the free market unless the free market doesn't want it but big money does.
Friday, April 1, 2011 I've heard Enough, I've had Enough (7 comments)
But the corporate invertebrate can be excused, this was a mere formality. A banal explanation to a dead eyed war weary nation why when it has no resources for its own people it can spend billions to protect "our interests" in Libya. There was another event going on in New York the other night, this one just for the insiders, for the schmoozers and users, those animals more equal than others.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 A Place of No Pity
How quickly we will remove the coat of humanity and dance a strip tease for the coins thrown at us. Our imagination empowers us while our lack of scruples debases us and our hubris is used to protect us with the armor of "we didn't know", or "how could we have expected" or "it was for the good of the company".
Saturday, March 26, 2011 For the Money
The west was whistling, "It Can't Happen Here" while strolling past the graveyard. The Russians were directing attention away from the culprits responsible by praising the heroism of those sacrificing themselves because of careless and foolish decisions and design schemes. Except that the Russian designers weren't so foolish as to build a multiple nuclear reactor facility on the edge of their countries capitol and largest city
Thursday, March 24, 2011 To Grind Your Bones to Make their Bread
In a cynical and orchestrated campaign the American populace was presented a choice between an elderly ne'er do well millionaire with a psychotic illiterate beauty queen running mate or a young vigorous young man with a beautiful wife and two small children. Understand? Sarah Palin was the poison pill; she was chosen to guarantee that moderates would flee from the Republican Party.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Charlotte's Economy (A Fable)
"Because Wilbur, we GOP arachnids are social climbers; that is part of our philosophy of life, to rise as far as possible and to help others climb, too!"
"You want me to live in the rafters and spin a web, Charlotte?"
"No, Wilbur, not like me. You can rise as far as a pig can rise and that will always be far below where I will rise to, but it is still better than laying in the mud and the muck all day."
Sunday, March 20, 2011 The Capitalist Follies (4 comments)
There are days in this world when the events overwhelm us. Forces of nature batter us and remind us of how frail our lives and our societies truly are. Political events and political upheaval appear and vanish before our eyes. The United Nations authorizes a no fly zone in support of anti government rebels in Libya.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 Mr. Wrong from Right (4 comments)
Then Mr. Tall, Dark and Corporate decides to repeal the forty one year old ban on deep water oil drilling put in place by Dick Nixon. Nixon had put the ban in place after a massive Santa Barbara California oil spill prompted Nixon to tell the nation that this type of accident must never be allowed to happen again.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 Will You Walk to the Gulag? (6 comments)
How do you explain to small children about losing a home? How do you explain why daddy isn't come along? How do you explain why so many of their toys must be left behind? How do you explain why the new place is so small and isn't as nice as the old place? What does it mean when a generation of children grow up without a real home?
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 Two Visions (3 comments)
Can Capitalism be saved from itself? Will the phoenix rise from its own ashes again only to circle again above the injured looking for to select more innocent victims? With rumors of benevolence, whispers of appetite with the bared teeth of a carnivore.
Sunday, March 6, 2011 The History of the 2012 Presidential Campaign (1 comments)
In 2008 Barack Obama came from out of nowhere and was presented to the American public as a strong principled, decent man. Complete with his own log cabin story of being a community organizer, Barack slew Goliath and now he wants to save America from the evil Republicans. He was presented to the American public as a great reformer and a champion for the middle class. Get it? Holy Bandersnatch Batman!
