Conspiracy Theory Monday, or: How the Gov’t Actually Controls Us

The Trump admin recipe for Takeover:

Start with struggling middle class and add one part old-angry white guy who can’t say the n-word anymore.

Stir in a heaping cup of militant patriotism and a few dashes of irrational misplaced anger at kneeling football players.

Shake that shit up!

Next, take away health care access and any federal aid that “those lazy bums” might be using to, you know, eat and stuff. Take away money from middle class, (in the form of sneaky new tax laws) but don’t forget to tell the middle class the poor people are using their money.

Sprinkle in some self-righteous gay hate and unrealistic fear of “being persecuted” for being Christian, (all while claiming this is a Christian country.)

And finally, remove regs barring mentally ill people from obtaining “legal” firearms.

Now, add heat and agitate the fuck out of it, then watch it explode, like a lit pipe in like a meth lab.

Then swoop in and heroically pick of the pieces, writing any policy you want because people are too shell shocked to fight you.

The End…

no, really. It will prob be the end of the “United” States as we know it.

Sound paranoid? Any more paranoid than thinking our government is bent on taking our guns so they can commit genocide? Doubt it. After all, how would they make money off of us if we were dead?

House to Sue the Prez…(We the People, Still Ignored)

Talking Points Memo Headline: 

House Votes To Sue President For The First Time In History

Here’s a purely rhetorical question, because it makes too much common sense for the government to actually acknowledge the hypocrisy and give us a direct, non-convoluted answer:

WE the people– the constituents– can’t sue the government:

“Sovereign immunity has carried over to modern times in the form of a general rule that you cannot sue the government — unless the government says you can.” (source)

In the United States, the federal government has sovereign immunity and may not be sued unless it has waived its immunity or consented to suit. See Gray v. Bell, 712 F.2d 490, 507 (D.C. Cir. 1983). The United States as a sovereign is immune from suit unless it unequivocally consents to being sued.  (Wikipedia)

Well, these douchebags would never consent to us suing the collective pants off of them, (I mean, these are the same guys who get to vote on their own paychecks)  but they can sue the President? Doesn’t he get “sovereign immunity?”  Well, Congress, especially the Republican party, has done their best to block his every move in regards to this healthcare debacle anyway.  But regardless of whether or not you support the healthcare bill, these jokers in Congress do not have best interests of the majority of their constituents in mind.  (Those interests were already bought and paid for by the lobbyists and 1%.)

I call bullshit.  I think the whole lot of them should be kicked out on their overpaid keisters.  Or maybe the President can counter-sue for Treason.  The whole congressional process is a is a fucking joke now anyhow.

*grumble grumble*  I’m going to go eat some damn ice cream now.

 

A word on tolerance…

A friend of mine made an eloquent point on Facebook today (how’s that for irony; eloquence on Facebook!)

HE said:

Don’t be intolerant of my conservatism and ask me to be tolerant of your liberalism.

While I do agree with this, especially in light of the whole Phil Robertson debacle, my take on it is this:

I personally do not feel I am intolerant of conservatism, so much as I am intolerant of the almost compulsive need many conservatives  have to try to legislate their beliefs. In other words, it’s not enough for them to live by their own beliefs and rules; they want make their rules apply to everyone. I mean, for instance, if liberal policy allows gays to marry, a conservative does not need to “be gay” and/or get married if they don’t agree with it.  A liberal will not try to pass a law forcing a straight person to get “gay married.”  However, conversely, many conservatives feel the need to actually try to keep OTHERS from getting married and living the life they want…. See what I mean?

Also, as pertains to Phil, I do feel sorta bad he got fired. CQ essentially laid a trap by asking him questions to which they already knew the answer, and A & E then punished him for his honest opinion.  Personally, I think A & E has hitherto cashed in on the brash, unapologetic nature of the Robertson family, only now distancing themselves when it becomes too “controversial.”   That said, Phil should have know better.  The best answers to questions like the one he was asked are usually as short as possible.  Admittedly I do not watch the show; I’ve heard about it and had little desire to see one more reality show where people are rewarded with fame and money for acting like dicks, and Robertson’s remarks just seem to validate my decision to skip this particular show.

Open mouth, insert duck call…

Eff you, and your righteous indignation…

Man…there are so many hateful people in this world.  I am really starting to hate Facebook for making me so aware of it.  People like to blame all sorts of groups for “the state of the country…”  The Republicans, the Democrats, (Libs and Conservatives), the poor, the blacks, the whites, the illegals…  There is very little left of sympathy or empathy or the milk of human kindness.  SO many people only care about themselves and how things affect them.

The government just cut food stamps…again.  And the house endorsed and extra $500 million in aid to Israel…for missile systems!!!

Could someone tell me why so many people in this country hate our own poor, disdain giving them any help or money because they think it’s just the poor being “lazy” and the gov’t “enabling” them…?

But we can send a shit ton of money to other countries?  Oh, I bet I can…  Because somehow the House sees the money sent to Israel for weapons as a better “investment” than money spent on their own people.

Are we all so busy hating each other, blaming each other (damn lazy poor people,) that we can’t see the gov’t is the one sucking up all our money, screwing up our lives?

Facebook and the internet is really making me start to hate people…worse than I already did.   By all means, let’s cut SNAP aid and welfare money to the US poor….by, dear GOD, don’t let the Panda Cam go offline!!!

“Fuck you, poor person. We wanna see Pandas.”

No. Just…No.

This is one of the gems making the rounds on Facebook right now… (and by “gems,” I really mean ignorant, entitled bullshit…)

I find it amusing that hundreds of thousands of federal employees just got an unrequested “vacation” without pay because Congress couldn’t get their shit together, and STILL, everyone, including other middle class Americans, are still focusing on blaming the poor people in America.

(I’ve written about this before, and anyone interested in actual facts can check out that link…)

Or, if facts don’t really matter much, I’ll leave you with this little ode to misrepresentation and straight up lies. (I’ll reprint the caption that’s tagging along with this particular incarnation of an old pic, but please, don’t hold me responsible for the dumbassery…)

“What the hell is this… A picture is worth a thousand words. SOMEONE WAS AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME WITH A CAMERA. IT WAS REPORTED THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA WAS FURIOUS THAT HE WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA AND IT WAS PUBLISHED AND TRIED TO BLOCK IT. The name of the book Obama is holding is called: The Post-American World, and it was written by a fellow Muslim.(Fareed Zakaria) “Post” America means: The World “After” America !” If each person sends this to a minimum of twenty people on their address list, In three days, all people in The United States of America would have the message. I believe this is one photo that really should be passed around.”

‘Kay, guys…  I hope no one ever post pix of the stuff I read for entertainment!

Also…Obama is Christian…

Also…ah fuck it…  http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/postamerican.asp

The Impoverished American Mind

I get tired of hearing people bitch about how they “support” people on welfare.
SO I researched it…. On ONE website, I read it’s about a dime a day (I don’t know how he arrived at that figure, but what a commenter said on the topic was priceless:)

And I quote: “I’d pay two dimes if it makes some conservatard stop crying.” (Excuse the use of the insensitive suffix…)

One source has this handy pie chart, and asserts:

A slew of other government programs get a lot less in tax dollars than you might think, Kramer adds. For instance, the hot-button social program welfare gets just a fraction of a penny of every income tax dollar—about .59 cents—and foreign aid and diplomacy account for just 1.2 cents.

Did you know that in order for someone to receive SNAP benefits, their gross monthly income generally must be at or below 130 percent of the poverty line, or $2,069 (about $24,800 a year) for a three-person family in fiscal year 2013.
Furthermore, even before Obamacare, if you had health insurance, guess what you were doing: supporting other people! Most people in general good health will not use the amount of services to equal the premiums they pay in. Health care reform actually dictates that you start receiving a portion of unused premiums back, but people are still complaining. Any insurance works the same way. The car insurance you pay every month is going towards paying for other people’s accidents… You have insurance “in case” you get in an accident. I doubt you get much of your premium back for the year if you have no accidents.

Also, why do people bitch about welfare, when we are also paying so our representatives and officials can have vacation houses?  We’ll call people we don’t even know “lazy” and “moochers,” but our taxes go in larger part to paying about a bazillion other things with which we’d probably not personally agree.

Suffice it to say, most of our income tax money does NOT go to supporting the poor. It goes to the government, the military (and yet they are cutting our soldiers’ lunches?) The goverment spends six times the money on paying interest on the national debt  than they do on education.  If you really want to complain about not paying someone else’s bills, think about that.  And if you can’t afford ten cents out of your check to help poor people (not everyone abuses welfare), then maybe you should be worried more about your impoverished sense of empathy and morality.

So can we stop selectively bitching about poor people?

Related articles

• How We Ignore Poverty and Blame Poor People (duckyfem.wordpress.com)
• http://spritzophrenia.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/would-you-report-someone-for-welfare-fraud/
• http://www.cnbc.com/id/100975718
• http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/this-chart-blows-up-the-myth-of-the-welfare-queen/282452/

One word (I think): “XKeyscore”

So, for those of you who haven’t really been following the Snowden thing (that would be me included,) he’s the guy who leaked secret government information and is now seeking asylum in Russia (supposedly from prosecution, more likely from assassination for treason.)

One of the most recently revealed “dirty secrets” is an NSA data collection tool called XKeyscore.

According to documents provided by Snowden, XKeyscore “allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.”  (source)

I can’t pretend to know or understand all the ways the government violates our rights and our privacy every day.  I mean… Monsanto.  Need I say more on that?

For a brief overview of how XKeyscore works, you can check out this link.  For me, knowing the principal behind it is enough.  It has been suggested by some that “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”  I’d warrant that after 9/11, more people began to value a feeling of security over personal privacy.  Increased security in airports, for instance…  Who cares if you have to be patted down, as long as it keeps someone with a bomb or box cutter off your plane, right?

Here’s the problem.  These are sound prinicipals.  But given the out-of-control mutation of capitalism in this country, they are idealistic more than realistic. I guess the real fear for many people, myself included, is the anticipation of when (not if) the government decides that any activism or criticism of said government is “doing something wrong.”   The real fear is when people start getting selectively prosecuted, based on whose bottom line they are threatening…  I can see this getting abused by big business and government officials who want to keep their “online antics” (Mr. Weiner?) under raps

I can envision a country where  “pirates” get hit with criminal charges for downloading movies and music for personal use, while pedophiles and online predators go unchecked, so long as they don’t cost anyone “important” any money.

Cynical?  Maybe.  But is it far off the mark?  Sadly, I don’t think so.

*I do not own this image…please don’t arrest me

We the Underdogs: Capitalism and Democracy

I think most of America’s problems stem from two things.

Firstly, we are supposedly a capitalist country and democratic republic.  And yet, it seems as if capitalism and democracy, by their very nature, are diametrically opposed. Until the people that are supposed to represent us stop taking campaign money from business lobbyists and religious organizations, we can never hope to realize the freedoms we thought our constitution protected.

Capitalism is (supposedly/ideally) is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. Politically, it is the system of laissez-faire (freedom). Legally it is a system of objective laws (rule of law as opposed to rule of man). Economically, when such freedom is applied to the sphere of production its’ result is the free-market.(source)

Closer to the truth of the matter, yet still idealistic, may be the Wikipedia definition:

An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital assets and goods. In a capitalist economy, investors are free to buy, sell, produce, and distribute goods and services with at most limited government control, at prices determined primarily by a competition for profit in a free market. Central elements of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, and a price system.

What capitalism seems to mean in America now, though, is closer to Jafar’s idea of the golden rule:

It feels like everything is crony capitalism,

I found it rather interesting (in a sad and ironic way) how Ayn Rand described capitalism.

When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.

That’s all swell, but we really don’t have separation of church and state either. But this will never stop until politicians are disallowed from taking campaign money from lobbyists and churches. Until that happens, politicians will always be more influenced by what their contributors want then by what the people want.  Some people debate the meaning of the “separation of church and state” mentioned in constitution.  Some people, myself included, feel that parts of the constitution are obsolete. Sacrilege!  But I do wonder, how “ironclad” can it be if it can be “amended” so much?  I think regardless of what was intended then, I think today one can not write legislation for a whole country based on one religion, and with many politicians in the church’s pocket, that’s pretty much exactly what’s happening (think about how they’re trying to jam prayer back into school and force women’s reproductive rights issues.)

Anyway, it’s my opinion…my belief…that between the capitalism that keeps the poor poor–

Attempts at eliminating minimum wage and claiming it will “help” the poor (one can only guess at the ass backwards logic behind that one).  Forcing taxpayers to subsidize their profits by footing the bill for all the Walmart employees  on welfare or food stamps as a result of their pitifully inadequate wages, and let’s not forget the government bailing out Big Business–

–and the religious conservatives bent on forcing us all to follow their rules and code of morality through legislation (lobbyists giving money to influence representatives…and here money comes into play again) the majority of America is in a stranglehold.  Basically, if we’re not CEOs of the gas companies, we’re the schmucks who pay 3.69 a gallon because we have no real recourse.  After all,  our representatives’ campaigns are probably being financed by the gas company.  This is a very simplistic generalization, but you see what I’m getting at, and I am not the only person who feels the weight of being low man on the totem…    

Let me finish up by leaving you with another Ayn Rand quote to think on:

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.

Yup…we’re doomed.

Related articles

• Why I don’t agree with laissez-faire (aquariuswolf.wordpress.com)
• Don’t Confuse Free Market Capitalism with Crony Capitalism (yevala.com)
• http://appalachianconservative.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/ayn-rand-quotes-on-capitalism-government-and-liberty/

Conflict or “Equilibrium”

My regular readers know I’m becoming quite the misanthrope in my old age (that’d be 31.)   The world is a lot smaller now that we’re all virtually connected via the internet.  Everyday that I’m online, I’m bombarded with information, a lot of it bad news.  War, famine, rape, death, abuse, injustice.  People doing horrible things to the Earth, animals, each other…their own children.  It’s always been around, but now we’re ever more aware of it, and it seems to be getting worse.

Becoming a mother has made me hypersensitive to the atrocity.  I hate this world we live in.  I hate these people who can’t see past their own id.  My heart breaks for the innocents, and I’m often afraid for my child, who has to grow up in… a sea of crazy people.  I wonder what we can do to effect a significant change in people…   It feels like there’s nothing we can do.

And then today,  I started watching Equilibrium.

The film follows John Preston (Bale), a warrior-priest and enforcement officer in a future dystopia where both feelings and artistic expression are outlawed and citizens take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions.

Based on the concept that emotions are the root of all strife in the world, the logic is that by eliminating these basic emotions, conflict is eliminated.  And the concept seems to have merit, if you don’t consider the immediate execution of any persons committing “sense” offenses, as well as the incineration of any emotionally stimulating material– art, music, and apparently, puppies–  to be “conflict.”

I’m sure this was the director’s intention, but is it any wonder the insignia for the dystopic powers that be looks like a swastika?

But as you may well have guessed, it is a colorless, pointless, and dull existence, devoid of any happiness…or empathy And in the end, isn’t the absence of empathy the root of the problem our world already faces?

The problem with the film…  Sean Bean.  Goddammit! Is there any film in which he doesn’t die ?

Just Sayin’

Came across this on Facebook this morning.  In the interest of brevity, I edited some of it out, but you can see the whole thing here.  Also, it should be noted that the validity of some of the facts contained in the following have been called into question. You can check out one guy’s rebuttal here.

Wal-Mart vs. The Morons

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day. 2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + CostcoK-Mart combined.
5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world’s largest private employer, and most speak English.
6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.
7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined…
8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought
bankruptcy…
11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth’s population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)
You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.
To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature…
a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
c. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
d. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to”the poor” and they only want more.
e. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
You have FAILED in every “government service” you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.
AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM??
AND I know what’s wrong. We have lost our minds to “Political Correctness”
Someone please tell me what is wrong with all the people that
run this country!!!!!!
We’re “broke” and can’t help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, etc. and the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey and now Pakistan ( the previous home of bin Laden). literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do they get any breaks.
AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without needed medicines, and mentally ill without treatment, etc.

What I want to point out really has more to do with the attitude of the piece than with any specific “facts” represented within.  One passage in particular really rubbed me the wrong way.

Let’s look specifically at this passage:

We’re “broke” and can’t help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, etc. and the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile, and Turkey and now Pakistan ( the previous home of bin Laden). literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do they get any breaks.
AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without needed medicines, and mentally ill without treatment, etc.

This would mean so much more if the people purporting this supposed injustice actually gave a shit. I don’t think it’s that we “can’t” help our own people… I think the problem is that many people in this country (specifically the “haves,” as opposed to the “have nots”) have just as much disdain for and issues with helping “our own” people as they do those of other countries.  There’s this perception that if you’re poor in American, it’s because you are lazy.  It’s evident in all the snide remarks about people on “welfare” and food stamps I see all over social media.  Don’t believe me?  The writer of this piece expressed some of that disdain with his claim:

$1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to”the poor” and they only want more.

I’d like to take his little air quotes and shove them up his ass.  Sure, there are many people that milk the system.  But there are just as many people who try to do things to improve their situation and are rewarded with a reduction in help from the government.  If you’re pissed that people are being lazy, maybe you should re-examine the way the government rewards the laziness more than it does people who are trying to get out of the hole.   You can go to work, make a pittance, and lose your food stamps, yet if you stay home and sit on your ass, you will keep receiving the full amount.   So why would someone who is poor and needs all the help they can get want to be penalized for trying to do the right thing?

That aside, let’s take a minute to examine the self-important attitude and complete lack of compassion directed towards the poor in this country, as shown in just that single statement.  Apparently the writer has a better idea of how to decide who is worthy of help in this country and who is not.  The very “poor” people he decries for sucking up all the “confiscated” money may well be the parents of the “children going to bed hungry,” or the “elderly without needed medicine.”

Anyway, that said, I believe the article has some valid points.  The amount of money congress makes (and they can approve their own “automatic raises”) is obscene, and yet this country’s budget is in the toilet.   Maybe we should focus on changing that before passing judgment on and withholding aid from “the poor,” less fortunate people of our country.  Just sayin’.