"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb disputing the outcome."
--(Attributed to) Benjamin Franklin
There
is a persistent problem with MANY of these iconic posts, mostly that
they are usually, in some significant aspect, totally wrong. Such is the case here. You can't accept and agree with shit just because the claims are plausible. Plausible, but false. Not that the sentiment is altogether misguided; only that the data used to elicit that sentiment is dubious. Look it up...
Here's another example:
I do wish smart people would stop posting this without checking if the claims made are accurate...which they are not. Google Government pensions: When I did it just now, there were more than 93 MILLION pages... I wouldn't mind that, actually, so much, if as a condition of their pensions they were required to abstain completely from trying to sell their DC skills to the private sector. Make 'em an offer they can't refuse: Take the pension, the health care, the rest of the federal retirement bennies OR go private. Not both.
Here's yet another one. This is another of those things which are
bandied about and which are SORT of true, but are too readily and too
simplistically and too thoughtlessly accepted by too many only partially
informed readers. Of the "value" of the debt, in general, the
"majority"--about 30%--is owed to Social Security, but it is far less
than the "more than 50%" which the lexicon suggests.
Just Binness: What should NOT be forgotten in this "Fiscal Cliff " farago of lies and misinformation is that the USofA owes the MAJORITY of its debt to ITSELF, payable in its OWN currency, at any rate or schedule it may decide.
Even the 'debt' we owe to outsiders is denominated in our own currency.
The thing is, is is NOT a "crisis," except that it has been manufactured ands sold by the placid, stenographic "press"
as one of those "shocks" which are often invented and always used by the Bosses/Owners to provide the excuse for anti-democratic, and/or anti-popular programs and
projects which would otherwise not see the light of day. The PATRIOT ACT was a memorable example.
The thing to remember is the whole fiscal cliff thing was Shamwow's idea, designed to blackmail 'liberals' into going along with "entitlement" cuts that Shamwow has wanted since Day One, 2009, after the failure of HIS very own "Catfood (Bowles/Simpson) Commission" to make those recommendations which he would then "regretfully" implemented.
It's nothing personal, you understand: he's under ORDERS to fuck us.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ An Offer You Can't Refuse: In
reporting labor conflicts and actions, the press always follow this
formula: Unions and workers "demand," while CorpoRats and bosses
"offer." In
fact the "offer" by the bosses is every much a "demand" as the "demand"
by the workers is an offer. But there is a rhetorical advantage in
being seen to be reasonable, while the reverse inheres with the notion
of a demand.
I knew LONG before he was elected that Pres. Shamwow was NOT an avatar of hope OR change when, in all his public pronouncements, he never once tried to redefine the terms of the debate. He NEVER challenged the corruption of the term "entitlement,." for instance--it has since turned out that the reason for his reticence was and is because he is actively hostile to the programs which constitute the USer social safety net. He actually revealed these things unabashedly in the '08 and '12 campaigns. In the first case, in an interview with the editorial board of some important media outlet, he first revealed that Reagan had been his "favorite" president, and then that he was embarrassed by the "excesses" of the counterculture of the '60s and '70s. I've said before, on hearing that, I felt like he was standing on my/our shoulders, shitting noisily on my/our heads. The fucker...
"Killer" Weed: The TRUE reason hemp is and will remain a "controlled substance" is because of the threat its non-psycho-active qualities and properties pose to ecologically disastrous, but well-established, 'profitable' (if the EXTERNALIZED costs are ignored) businesses and industries which would be threatened, if not out-right eradicated--think cotton--by the competition with the products derived from nature's "miracle weed." There are a MINIMUM of 25 THOUSAND, non-psychotropic uses for it. Here are some "Little known Hemp facts":
The original diesel motor was designed to run on hemp oil. An acre of hemp produces as much paper-quality pulp as FOUR acres of trees. Hemp oil is the highest source of essential
omega 3 and 6 fatty acids
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ Killer Pedagogy: Wayne
LaPierre and the rest of the moronic, drooling, bloody-minded gun goons
want to ARM teachers in classrooms to intervene if/when another
incident such as the Sandy Point slaughter should begin to unfold.Here's one BIG problem (or two, depending):
To keep a gun in a classroom safe from the hands or attentions of the
children, it would need to be kept in a gun-safe, or on the teacher's
person at all times. If in a gun-safe, it would be difficult to access in an emergency.
If on the teacher's person, it would be FAR too much of a
responsibility for someone who is as often distracted as typically
teachers can be. Plus, to USE a gun properly in a life-threatening
situation--to actually SHOOT someone--takes dozens of HOURS and
thousands of rounds of practice. Even trained soldiers often simply blaze away,
blindly, in a fire-fight. Coolness under fire only comes with experience. And I'd add: Do you REALLY want teachers who are trained killers in your child's classrooms, anyway?
Weed Killer: The BIGGEST problem with bringing into gummint
guys like this TAYLOR fuckstick, with a career and a LOT of money invested in Big Agra, and who won't EVER (and would never even DREAM to)
devote their lives to public service, izzat they have "conflicting"
loyalties; i.e., they will be RETURNING to the industries from which
they've been drafted, and so will (naturally) at least be tempted to use
their gummint positions to sweeten their eventual returns to the
private sector.
Killer Apps: USers are funny.
They are utterly, totally, completely immersed in the endless,
insidious streams of propaganda emanating from the CorpoRat State, its
lap-dog, bought-and-paid-for media, their religions, the constant,
unavoidable flow of advertisements, and yet they'll proudly proclaim
THEY aren't affected by it.
BUT, they'll then turn around and assure
you there is a "real" difference between Ford and Chevy, Bud and Coors,
McDonald's and Wendy's, Catholics and Baptists, Dims and GOPhux,
etc...There's a "difference" between a Ford and a fig-tree. There is none between a Bud Light and a Coors Lite other than spelling...
We live in the world's biggest, most comprehensive, most
sophisticated, most carefully built Skinner box, the boundaries of which
are maintained by the flickering blue screens by which we are
perpetually surrounded. What we are operantly conditioned to do is to consume without complaint or compunction. We are manipulated every MINUTE of the day.
EVERYTHING is "mediated," and by the very definition of the term,
manipulation is implied.
No word is heard, no image seen, in the CorpoRat culture which has not passed before the critical eyes of some corpoRat media maven, or some Frank-Luntz-clone, to make certain it accords with the relevant elements of the master narrative of which it is a part.
The Operant Conditioning Chamber, aka The Skinner Box~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Kill the Messenger: Until
such time as electronic messaging is totally ubiquitous, as commo9n as
electricity, and access to the Netz can be had as cheaply and reliably
as a stamp, there is a PRESSING, PUBLIC NEED for the Postal Service.
The Oligarchs, Owners, and Oners want only to destroy the Postal
Unions. They have NO care about what happens to the people served by the
Post Office.
"PETITION TO SAVE POST OFFICE!" Mail a postcard mailed to: Save Our Post Office, Post Office Box 5041, Terre Haute, IN 47805
Let's try not to be too "correct" or inoffensive about all this, shall we?
The Postal Service has been the object of perpetual, perennial Congressional butt-fucking since Raygun's days. The Owners and Bosses want to destroy the Postal Unions, the most powerful still in the Federal govt. It IS as simple as that.
Killer Reagan: Based on the argument that the GOPhux might NOT have become the pack of slavering loons, racist fuckwitz, and/or corpoRat felons without it having been led astray by Ronald Raygun, his handlers, and their gunsels, toadies, and lickspittles, a commentator blames Raygun for "killing" the GOP.
Maybe...
The true author of our minently successful, unquestionably triumphant, nearly universal, neo-fascist counter-revolution, the concluding days of which we are now enjoying, was Lewis F. Powell, who was appointed to the SCROTUS in 1972, but not BEFORE he had created for and bestowed upon his friend and neighbor, the COO of the US Chamber, a memorandum in which Powell outlined the steps the oligarchs and bosses would have to undertake to subvert all the "liberal" institutions of the State and the People, and thereby regain their rightful place atop the hegemonic structures of the nation.
Powell, who was still on the Court when Raygun treasonably stole the '80 election, was the architect of the rise of what we now know as the CorpoRat Rightwing who took over all the institutions of culture and society from their positions in the nation's boardrooms.
If you want to see exactly HOW the fascisti triumphed in the years since Raygun, find and read 'The Powell Memorandum."
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ Ready, Aim...: This is the weapon of choice of the Sandy Point killer: a Bushmaster .223cal semi-automatic "street-sweeper." Despite the apparent similarity in calibration, this weapon bears NO physical nor functional resemblance to your childhood, bolt-action .22.
I'd like the advocates for the "right" to HAVE one of these things, in any civilized surroundings, to explain to me FROM WHAT/WHOM they expect to employ this device for protection.
To be frank, I don't really trust ANYBODY with a gun, and especially THAT gun. Nobody can't derail, and go all fuuking postal. This kind of weapon just makes 'em MORE lethal when they snap.
But actually, I'm opposed to semi- and automatic weapons in public hands on principle. I think it quite reasonable to limit the "people's" armories to muzzle-loaded flintlocks, either long or short, as the Framers intended.
Woody warnz: This is just the tip of the feculent fucktard iceberg, the Koch Bros. There's still the Olins , and the Coors, and the Mellon-Scaiffe,
Adelson, and ALEC (still HUGELY influential), AEI, and Heritage... All are
the linear descendants of the Powell
memorandum, and the direction of Assoc. Justice Lewis Powell, who led
the rightard/corpoRat counter-insurrection of the 70s and 80s which
resulted in Raygun and the complete defilement of the Public Sphere. Google is really reluctant to give the names of the worst offenders.Google "Wealthiest Rightwing Tycoons" and NOTHING comes up...
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Don't be misled.This DOES NOT MEAN there are more jobs, or fewer unemployed workers.
It's a statistical trick.
It means that there are fewer people APPLYING for unemployment compensation.
But MANY of them were the "other 99ers," the people who were granted 99-week extensions for their unemployment compensation whose 99-week extensions have expired this month without them yet having found jobs to replace those they were DISEMPLOYED from by the Bosses.
Those
who defend their 'right' to possess and potentially use high-powered,
battlefield-appropriate, military-style firearms to "protect" themselves
and theirs have to answer one serious question:
From whom/what do you suppose your pop-gun armory is going to defend you?
![(M) We definitely agree with this! Social Security is not a piggy bank...
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![Hemp versus Marijuana: Myths & Realities
http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html
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![Photo: "In March 2010, President Obama’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology talked about GMOs with 100 other observers from the public. More than a year later, in May 2011, Tikkun magazine criticized Obama for pushing the USDA to deregulate GM alfalfa and sugar beets in America despite court orders to the contrary, warning that since sugar beets are about “50 percent of the sugar Americans use in their coffee, cereals, and desserts” it would adversely affect Americans. Tikkun warned the Obama Administration that this deregulation will mean “the end of the organic meat and organic dairy industries.” The validity of the statement is unsure, but Tikkun still highlights a good point. Supposedly, according to the U.S. government, “oversight systems have been developed to identify and reduce any environmental risks that might be associated with [the]…use [of GMOs]” but the question remains if the government can be fully trusted with that task.
The Center for Responsive Politics questions that trust. One of their projects, OpenSecrets, wrote in a 2010 blogpost that “… a close… look at the FDA reveals a close relationship between FDA personnel and private sector professionals that represent big agricultural companies.” President Barack Obama has appointed several people who were related to such a big agricultural company, Monsanto. USDA Secretary Tom Vislack did not necessarily work for Monsanto, but he favored GMOs as Governor of Iowa (i.e. in 2002 he wrote a letter to biotech groups chastising them for not growing GM corn and was supported by GMO-front groups. The Organic Consumers Association, when it opposed Vislack’s nomination in November 2008 (who was consequently confirmed by the Senate), declared he was a shill “for agribusiness biotech giants like Monsanto.” A Washington Post article in March 2011 proved this point, noting that Vislack approved GM alfalfa and corn for being used for ethanol and approved GM sugar beets. This was a step back from his previous policy to broker an agreement between the organic food groups and the GMO lobby. However, the USDA under Vislack’s management has approved every single GMO-based crop: they haven’t denied a single one.
Vislack wasn’t the only one who had a pro-GMO stand in the Obama Administration. Another nominee, Michael Taylor, clearly shows the connection of Monsanto and the national government. Taylor was a former attorney and vice president of public policy at Monsanto before he became the FDA Commissioner. In his position, according to Grist Magazine, he is a “kind of food czar of the Food and Drug Administration [who] assess[es] current food program challenges and opportunities, identif[ies] regulatory priorities, develop[s] the FDA’s budget request for fiscal year 2011, [and] implement[s] new food safety legislation.”
Other important figures, Islam Siddiqui who is the Agricultural Negotiator Trade Representative, and Lidia Watrud in the United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Effects Laboratory both worked at Monsanto prior to their jobs (Siddiqui as a lobbyist and Watrud as a former biotechnology researcher). Roger Bleachy, the director of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIDA) from October 5, 2009 to May 20, 2011, was previously the director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. NIDA claims to “advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well-being.” Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is tied to Monsanto! She was a Monsanto counsel when she worked at the Rose Law firm because she represented them among many other corporate interests.
The revolving door in the Obama Administration is small compared to the corruption in Congress by Monsanto. OpenSecrets wrote last month that they spent over “$1.4 million lobbying Washington… and spent about $6.3 million total last year, more than any other agribusiness firm except the tobacco company Altria.” This is not a good sign for a country that is supposed to value democracy. But as privileged “Founder” James Madison pointed out in Federalist 10, “the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail.” There is hope, however, in Federalist 51 (also written by Madison) that “the more powerful faction… [will] wish for a government which shall protect all parties, the weaker [and]… the more powerful.”"
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/06/its-a-monsanto-government/
http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2012/09/7-corporations-lobbying-against-gmo.html](https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c40.0.403.403/p403x403/557240_506613282689198_1391897179_n.jpg)
