Sunday, December 30, 2012

The Bleat Goes On: Faint Falsehoods

 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...
(M) We definitely agree with this! Social Security is not a piggy bank...

Posted on the @[177486166274:274:Being Liberal] fan page.

Here's another example:

  • Photo
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.



~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Bleat Goes On: Off the Cliff!

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.

Where were the Republican protests when George W. Bush DOUBLED our National Debt? Bush bankrupted the treasury, crashed the economy and left the country on the brink of a second Great Depression. It was Bush who signed the initial 800 billion in TARP funds over to the banks and effectively enslaved our children. Bush spent like a drunken sailor on two unfunded, unfounded oil wars and also on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans who are too rich to even notice a benefit and that have already cost us 1.5 trillion dollars in lost revenue. 
Not once in 8 years did any of these costs appear on a Bush budget and in just the last few years it was Obama that added the Bush Wars and tax cuts for the wealthy to his budgets. Republicans couldn't wait to blame the subsequent rise in the National Debt on Obama!  Had Bush been a proper custodian of our country we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!
 Everything President Obama spent was used to prevent a second crash like the Great Depression and our economy has shown remarkable improvement. President Obama is the first president in history to preside over a DOUBLING of the stock market in his first two years! He saved the auto industry in America, improved our infrastructure that Bush robbed to hide the true cost of his two wars and has brought Iraq to a close. That alone will begin to save us billions this year. President Obama got Osama bin Ladin (something Bush could not accomplish in eight years) and toppled Gaddafi. Obama has consistantly fought for the working man and America has certainly got it's money's worth from this man. I often wonder where we might be now had Obama taken office after Clinton with a huge surplus in the treasury instead of after Bush pillaged America.
..

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
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...

Photo

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Bleat Goes On: Killer Weed; Killer Teachers; Killer Buds;

"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
See, e.g.: Hemp versus Marijuana: Myths & Realities
  • Hemp versus Marijuana: Myths & Realities
http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/content/hemp.mj.html

Come visit @[269610086465390:274:Liberal Dragon]

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
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.

IF YOU SHARE IT! THEY WILL SIGN!
---- http://www.saveourpostoffice.us/ourpetition.html ----
"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."
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~ 

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Bleat Goes On: Lawyers, Guns & Money


~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
 
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...
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

unemployment-circle-cartoon
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.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Woody thinkz: This is sugar coating.
The fact of the matter is that NOTHING EVER goes "back" the way it "was."
Get used to it...
 

Monday, December 24, 2012

The Bleat Goes On: A Whole Convo

This is how I spend my days:
18 minutes ago ·


--30--

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~