Originally published in November 2011.
Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on, now,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
As I observe the zombie like reactions of Americans to our catastrophic economic highway to collapse, the continued plundering and pillaging of the national treasury by criminal Wall Street bankers, non-enforcement of existing laws against those who committed the largest crime in history, and reaction to young people across the country getting beaten, bludgeoned, shot with tear gas and pepper sprayed by police, I can’t help but wonder whether there is anyone home. Why are most Americans so passively accepting of these calamitous conditions? How did we become so comfortably numb? I’ve concluded Americans have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking due to their own intellectual laziness and overpowering mind manipulation by the elite through their propaganda emitting media machines. Some people are awaking from their trance, but the vast majority is still slumbering or fuming at erroneous perpetrators.
Both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement are a reflection of the mood change in the country, which is a result of government overreach, political corruption, dysfunctional economic policies, and a financial system designed to enrich the few while defrauding the many. The common theme is anger, frustration and disillusionment with a system so badly broken it appears unfixable through the existing supposedly democratic methods. The system has been captured by an oligarchy of moneyed interests from the financial industry, mega-corporations, and military industrial complex, protected by their captured puppets in Washington DC and sustained by the propaganda peddling corporate media. The differences in political parties are meaningless as they each advocate big government solutions to all social, economic, foreign relations, and monetary issues.
There is confusion and misunderstanding regarding the culprits in this drama. It was plain to me last week when I read about a small group of concerned citizens in the next town over who decided to support the Occupy movement by holding a nightly peaceful march to protest the criminal syndicate that is Wall Street and a political system designed to protect them. My local paper asked for people’s reaction to this Constitutional exercising of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Here is a sampling of the comments:
“What are those Occupy people thinking?! The whole concept is foreign to me. There are always going to be the haves and the have nots. Get over it. Blame yourself for not paying more attention in school or not working hard enough. Just wish people would take responsibility.”
“If they worked half as hard actually working as they do being a pain in everyone else’s ass, they’d be rich! Being born does not guarantee success or wealth. Only hard work does. Maybe we should let them all occupy a jail cell or two.”
“If the goal is to irritate hardworking suburban commuters on their way home, that sounds like the perfect time and location.”
“Let’s hope they don’t pitch tents and trash Lansdale. They need to look for a job, not occupy the streets.”
“I work, and even if I wasn’t working I wouldn’t (march); I would be out looking for a JOB!”
I was dumbfounded at the rage directed towards mostly young people who haven’t even begun their working careers and have played no part in the destruction of our economic system underway for the last 30 years. The people making these statements are middle aged, middle class suburbanites. They seem to be just as livid as the OWS protestors, but their ire is being directed towards the only people who have taken a stand against Wall Street greed and Washington D.C. malfeasance. I’m left scratching my head trying to understand their animosity towards people drawing attention to the enormous debt based ponzi scheme that is our country, versus their silent acquiescence to the transfer of trillions in taxpayer dollars to the criminal bankers that have destroyed the worldwide financial system. I can only come to the conclusion the average American has become so apathetic, willfully ignorant of facts and reality, distracted by the techno-gadgets that run their lives, uninterested in anything beyond next week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars or Jersey Shore, and willing to let the corporate media moguls form their opinions for them through relentless propaganda, the only thing that will get their attention is an absolute collapse of our economic scheme. Uninformed, unconcerned, intellectually vacant Americans will get exactly that in the not too distant future.
Greater Depression Hidden from View
“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” – Aristophanes, Plutus
The anger and vitriol directed at OWS protestors by middle class Americans is a misdirected reaction to a quandary they can’t quite comprehend. They know their lives are getting more difficult but aren’t sure why. They are paying more for energy, food, tuition, and real estate taxes, while the price of their houses decline and their wages stagnate. More than a quarter of all homeowners are underwater on their mortgage and many are drowning in credit card and student loan debt. At the same time, government drones tell them the economy is in its second year of recovery and corporate profits are at all-time highs. Government statistics, false storylines, and entitlement programs are designed to confuse the public and obscure the fact we are in the midst of another Depression. Everyone has seen the pictures of the Great Depression breadlines, farmers forced off their land during the dustbowl, and downtrodden Americans in soup kitchens. The economic conditions today are as bad as or worse than the Great Depression. This Depression is hidden from plain view because there are no unemployment lines, bread lines, or soup lines. We are experiencing an electronic Great Depression, as food stamps, unemployment compensation, Social security payments and welfare benefits are electronically delivered to millions of recipients.
There have been over 12 million foreclosure actions since 2007, with millions of Americans losing their homes. Another 16 million homeowners are underwater on their mortgages as home prices continue to fall and the economy sinks further by the day. The value of household real estate has fallen from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today, a loss of $6.5 trillion concentrated among the middle class. In contrast, mortgage debt has only decreased by $600 billion mostly due to write-offs by the banks that created fraudulent mortgage products to lure Americans into debt.
The unemployment rate in the United States reached 25% during the Great Depression. The government manipulated fictional unemployment rate reported to the public by drones at the BLS is currently 9.0%. They conveniently ignore the millions of people who have given up looking for work and those who have taken jobs as part-time pickle ploppers at McDonalds, when they previously assembled automobiles at GM. The true number of unemployed/underemployed is 23%.
Since 2007, unemployment has officially gone up by 7 million. In reality, the same percentage of the working age population should be employed today as in 2007 (63%). Since only 58.4% of the working age population is employed today (lowest since 1983), another 4 million needs to be added to the official unemployment tally. The fact is there are 240 million working age Americans and only 140 million are employed. This means there are 100 million working age Americans not working, but our government only classifies 14 million of them as unemployed. There is certainly millions of stay at home moms, students, and legitimately disabled among the 86 million people classified as not in the labor force, but you can’t tell me that another 20 to 30 million of these people couldn’t or wouldn’t work if given the opportunity.
The deception in government reported figures is borne out by the most successful government program of the Obama administration, which has been adding participants at an astounding rate. The Food Stamp program has been a smashing success as we’ve added 13.8 million Americans to this fine program since Obama’s inauguration, a mere 43% increase in less than three years. There are now 45.8 million Americans dependent upon food stamps for survival, 14.7% of the U.S. population. This program began in 1969 and enrollment always surges during recessions and declines during recoveries. But a funny thing happened during our current “recovery”. The government reported our recession over in December 2009. It was certainly over for the Wall Street psychopaths as they rewarded themselves with $43 billion of bonuses in 2009/2010. The number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 6.8 million during this government sponsored “recovery”. You’ll be happy to know that Obama’s good buddy – Jamie Dimon – and his well run machine at JP Morgan earns hundreds of millions administering the SNAP program.
Since 2007, Federal government transfer payments have increased from $1.7 trillion annually to $2.3 trillion, a 35% increase in four years. This is surely a sign of a recovering economy. Bernanke’s zero interest rate policy has stolen $400 billion per year from senior citizens and savers and handed it to the very bankers who caused the pain and suffering of millions. Personal interest income has declined from $1.4 trillion to $1.0 trillion, while Wall Street faux profits have soared. The game plan of the oligarchy has been to transfer hundreds of billions from taxpayers to bankers, report profits through accounting entries reducing loan loss reserves, pump up their stock prices and convince clueless lemming investors to buy newly issued shares at inflated valuations. The plan has failed. The zero interest rate policy’s unintended consequences have caused revolutions throughout the Middle East and massive food inflation across the developing world.
The single biggest reason the middle class feel frustrated, angry and like they are falling behind is due to the Federal Reserve and the relentless never ending inflation they produce in order to support their masters on Wall Street and provide cover for the trillions in debt spending by politicians in Washington DC. It is no surprise that beginning in 1980 when government spending began to accelerate much more rapidly than government revenues, the government decided to “tweak” how it measured inflation. The government reports inflation at 3.5% today. The truth is inflation is running in excess of 10% if measured exactly as it was in 1980. That’s right, we have a recession and we have inflation in double digits. No wonder the masses are restless.
The reason middle class Americans are being methodically exterminated and driven into poverty is the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. Since 1971, when Nixon extinguished the last vestiges of the gold standard and unleashed politicians to spend borrowed money without immediate consequence, the U.S. dollar has lost 82% of its purchasing power using the government manipulated CPI. In reality, it has lost over 90% of its purchasing power. The average American, after decades of being dumbed down by government sanctioned education, is incapable of understanding the impact of inflation on their lives. As their wages rise 2% to 3% per year and inflation rises 5% to 10% per year, they get poorer day by day. The Wall Street banks, who own the Federal Reserve, step in and convince the average American to substitute debt for real wealth in order to keep living the modern techno-lifestyle sold to them by mainstream corporate media.
The oligarchy of moneyed interests have done a spectacular job convincing the working middle class they should be angry at 20 year old OWS protestors, illegal immigrants and the inner city welfare class, rather than the true culprits – the Federal Reserve, Wall Street banks and mega-corporations. This is a testament to the power of propaganda and the intellectual slothfulness of the average American. U.S. based mega-corporations fired 864,000 higher wage American workers between 2000 and 2010, while hiring almost 3 million workers in low wage foreign countries, using their billions in cash to buy back their own stocks, and paying corporate executives shamefully excessive compensation. The corporate mainstream media treats corporate CEO’s like rock stars as if they deserve to be compensated at a level 243 times the average worker. The S&P 500 consists of the 500 biggest companies in America and while the executives of these companies have reaped millions in compensation, the stock index for these companies is at the exact level it was on July 9, 1998. Over the last thirteen years workers were fired by the thousands, shareholders earned 0% (negative 39% on an inflation adjusted basis), and executives got fabulously rich.
Man made inflation has stealthily devastated millions of lives over the last four decades. When the weekly wages of the average worker are adjusted for inflation, they are making 12% less than they did in 1971. Using a real non-manipulated measure of inflation, the average worker is making 30% less than they did in 1971. Sadly, our math challenged populace only comprehend their wages have doubled in the last forty years, without understanding the true impact of inflation. Thankfully, the Wall Street debt dealers with a helping hand from Madison Avenue propaganda peddlers stepped up to the plate and imprisoned the middle class with the shackles of $2.5 trillion in consumer debt. So, while real wages have fallen 30% since 1971, consumer debt has increased by 1,700%.
Americans have been snookered into renouncing their citizenship and converting to being mindless consumers. Citizenship requires a person to be actively engaged in the community with obligations to fellow citizens and future generations. Consumerism requires people to love things, embrace debt, worry about what others have, and become driven by the accumulation of possessions and the appearance of wealth. The disgusting exhibition that Madison Avenue maggots have coined Black Friday is the ultimate display of consumerism. In a nauseating display of senseless spending driven by retail conglomerates, Americans act like Pavlov’s salivating dogs by lining up for hours to stampede over and pepper spray other consumers to get the ultimate deal on that Chinese made toaster oven, Vietnamese made laptop, Korean made HDTV, or Mexican made tortilla maker. They don’t seem to grasp the irony of going deeper into debt buying cheap crap made in foreign countries by the workers who took their jobs. The mainstream media proclaims a hugely successful Black Friday as millions bought crap they didn’t need with money they don’t have, while millions more ate their Thanksgiving meals in food shelters – unreported by the media.This repulsive manifestation of consumerism is applauded and encouraged by our government, as described by George Monbiot:
“Governments are deemed to succeed or fail by how well they make money go round, regardless of whether it serves any useful purpose. They regard it as a sacred duty to encourage the country’s most revolting spectacle: the annual feeding frenzy in which shoppers queue all night, then stampede into the shops, elbow, trample and sometimes fight to be the first to carry off some designer junk which will go into landfill before the sales next year. The madder the orgy, the greater the triumph of economic management.”
The masses have been brainwashed by those in power into thinking consumer spending utilizing debt is essential for a strong economy, when the exact opposite is the truth. Saving and investment are the essential ingredients to a strong economy. Debt based spending only benefits bankers, mega-corporations, and politicians.
Mass Manipulation through Propaganda
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda to control the masses, would be so proud of his disciples running our country today. He clearly believed only an elite few were intellectually capable of running the show. Essentially, he hit upon the concept of the 1% telling the 99% what they should think and believe over eighty years ago. The mechanisms for controlling the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the population are so much more efficient today. The conditioning begins when we are children, as every child will be bombarded with at least 30,000 hours of propaganda broadcast by media corporations by the time they reach adulthood. Their minds are molded and they are instructed what to believe and what to value. Those in control of society want to keep the masses entertained at an infantile level, with instant gratification and satisfying desires as their only considerations. The elite have achieved their Alpha status through intellectual superiority, control of the money system, and control of the political process. Their power emanates from eliminating choices, while giving the illusion of choice to the masses. People think they are free, when in reality they are slaves to a two party political system, a few Wall Street banks, and whatever our TVs tell us to buy.
Our entire system is designed to control the thoughts and actions of the masses. In many ways it is done subtly, while recently it has become more bold and blatant. It is essential for the ruling elite to keep control of our minds through media messages and the educational system. It is not a surprise that our public education system has methodically deteriorated over the last four decades. The government gained control over education and purposely teaches our children selected historical myths, social engineering gibberish and only the bare essentials of math and science. The government creates the standardized tests and approves the textbooks. We are left with millions of functionally illiterate children that grow into non-critical thinking adults. This is the exact result desired by the 1%. If too many of the 99% were able to ignore the media propaganda and think for themselves, revolution would result. This is why the moneyed interests have circled the wagons, invoked police state thug tactics, and used all the powers of their media machine to squash the OWS movement. It threatens their power and control.
“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson
A highly educated engaged citizenry would be a danger to the existing social order. The 1%, educated at our finest universities, does not want average Americans to obtain a great education for a reasonable price. They want them to get a worthless diploma at an excessively high price tag and become debt slaves to the Wall Street 1%. They want uneducated, indebted consumers, not educated productive citizens. Our republic has been slowly perverted since the time of its inception. The insidious process had been slow and methodical until 1913. The establishment of the Federal Reserve by an elite group of bankers and their politician friends and the establishment of a personal income tax created the conditions that have allowed a small cabal of powerful men to dictate the course of our economic, political, social, and military policies for the last 98 years. Anyone that chooses to open their eyes and awake from the propaganda induced stupor can see the result of allowing a small group of corrupt authoritarian men using their power to pervert our government into tyranny. The majority remains oppressed, buried under trillions of debt, while the shysters reap obscene profits, poison the worldwide economic system, and walk away unscathed in the aftermath of their crimes.
The ruling oligarchy has become so brazen in the last few years that it has attracted the attention of the critical thinking minority. The advent of the internet has allowed these critical thinking few to analyze the un-sanitized facts, discuss the issues, and provide truth amidst a blizzard of lies. The proliferation of truth telling websites (Zero Hedge, Mish, Financial Sense, Naked Capitalism) has allowed truth seekers to bypass the government sanctioned corporate media. The pillaging of society by the politically powerful, corrupt 1% is plain to see in the graphs below.
The divergence in household income was not the result of hard work, superior intellectual firepower, or the media touted entrepreneurial spirit of the rich. It was the result of the 1% capturing the economic and political system of the United States and using it to ransack the wealth of the formerly working middle class. The fatal flaw which will ultimately result in a fitting end for the powerful elitists is their egos. They are psychopaths, unable to feel empathy for their fellow man. Enough is never enough. They always want more. Life is a game to them. They truly believe they can pull the right strings and continue to accumulate more riches. But they are wrong. They are blinded by their hubris. There are limits to growth based solely on debt and we’ve reached that limit. The world is crumbling under the weight of crippling debt created by these Wall Street psychopaths, while the corrupted bought off politicians try to shift the losses from the bankers who incurred them to the citizens who have already been fleeced. Nomi Prins captures the essence of our current situation:
“Today, the stock prices of the largest US banks are about as low as they were in the early part of 2009, not because of euro-contagion or Super-committee super-incompetence (a useless distraction anyway) but because of the ongoing transparency void surrounding the biggest banks amidst their central-bank-covered risks, and the political hot potato of how many emergency loans are required to keep them afloat at any given moment. Because investors don’t know their true exposures, any more than in early 2009. Because US banks catalyzed the global crisis that is currently manifesting itself in Europe. Because there never was a separate US housing crisis and European debt crisis. Instead, there is a worldwide, systemic, unregulated, uncontained, rapacious need for the most powerful banks and financial institutions to leverage whatever could be leveraged in whatever forms it could be leveraged in. So, now we’re just barely in the second quarter of the game of thrones, where the big banks are the kings, the ECB, IMF and the Fed are the money supply, and the populations are the powerless serfs. Yeah, let’s play the ECB inflation game, while the world crumbles.”
Those in power are beginning to lose control. You can sense their desperation. Their propaganda is losing its impact as the pain for millions of Americans has become acute. The outrage and anger flaring across the country on a daily basis, reflected in the OWS movement, is just the beginning of a revolutionary period descending upon this nation. The existing social order will be swept away, but they will not go without a fight. They will use their control of the police, military and media to try and crush the coming rebellion.
The Dream is Gone
“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome
In addition to controlling the monetary system and brainwashing the inhabitants with relentless propaganda, the ruling class has used their control of the political process to impose thousands of laws, statutes, rules, and regulations upon the citizens. Again, an apathetic, distracted, trusting populace has been easily convinced that more laws will make them safe and secure. They have willingly sacrificed liberty, freedom and self reliance for the façade of safety, security and protection. The overwhelming number of government rules and regulations are designed to control you and insure your compliance and obedience to those in power. In a non-corrupt society inhabited by citizens willing to honor their obligations, government’s function is to insure property rights and defend the country from foreign invaders. Citizens don’t need to be herded like sheep with threats of imprisonment to do what is right. We don’t need 90,000 pages of regulations telling us the difference between right and wrong.
There were 400 pages of Federal Tax rules when the 1% personal income tax was implemented in 1913. Did the 18,000% increase in tax rules since 1913 benefit the average American or did they benefit the 1% who hires the lobbyists to write the rules which are passed into law by the politicians who receive their campaign contributions from the 1%? Do you ever wonder why you pay more taxes than a billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager? Do you think our tax system is designed to benefit billionaires and mega-corporations when corporations with billions of income pay little or no taxes? Complexity and confusion benefits those who can create and take advantage of the complexity and confusion. Corporations and special interests have used their wealth to bribe politicians to design loopholes, credits, and exemptions that benefit their interests. The corruption of the system is terminal.
“The mistake you make, don’t you see, is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You’re trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can’t. One’s got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can’t put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.” – George Orwell
The American people are paying the price for allowing a few evil men to gain control of our government. The American people cowered in fear as the 342 page Patriot Act was somehow written in a few weeks after 9/11, introduced in Congress on October 23, passed the House on October 24 with no debate, passed the Senate on October 25 with no debate, and signed into law on October 26 by George Bush. A law passed by the ruling elite that stripped Americans of their freedoms and liberties was passed using fear mongering false patriotism propaganda to squelch dissent and the American people had no say in the matter. The government has used fear to keep the American people under control. We now unquestioningly accept being molested in airports. We shrug as our intelligence agencies eavesdrop on our telephone conversations and emails without the need for a court order. It is now taken for granted that we imprison people without charging them with a crime and assassinate suspected terrorists in foreign countries with predator drones. Invading countries and going to war no longer requires a declaration of war by Congress as required by the Constitution. The State grows ever more powerful.
Therefore, it is no surprise that Americans sit idly by, watching their 52 inch HDTVs, as young people across the country are beaten, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets and tear gas, and scorned and ridiculed by corporate media pundits for exercising their free speech rights to peacefully protest our corrupt system. The American tradition of civil disobedience is considered domestic terrorism by those in authority. Our beloved protectors in the Orwellian named Department of Homeland Security write reports classifying Ron Paul supporters and returning Iraq veterans as potential terrorists. If the powers that be get their way, the internet will be locked down and controlled, as it poses a huge threat to their thought control endeavors. Freedom to think, learn, question and organize resistance is unacceptable in the eyes of the elite. The country has reached a tipping point. Will enough right thinking Americans stand up and fight to bring down this corrupt system, or will we be herded silently to slaughter. The truth is there is something terribly wrong in this country. We are facing a myriad of problems that will require courage and common sense to overcome. We need only look in the mirror to find the guilty party. It is time to stop letting fear dictate our actions. Conflict is coming to this country due to the evil sanctioned by our corrupt leaders and the upright men and women who will bear the burden of destroying that evil.
Our civilization has adopted the worst aspects of the two most famous dystopian novels in history – Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. The question is whether the population of this country is too far gone to recover. The answer to that question will determine whether the country chooses authoritarian dictatorship or a renewal of our founding principles. Aldous Huxley understood the three pillars of Western civilization fifty years ago and that their destruction would result in a collapse of our economic system:
“Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while you people are over-consuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.”
The three pillars sustaining the American empire edifice of never ending war, ever accumulating debt and excessive consumerism are crumbling. The growing corruption and weight of un-payable debt have weakened the very foundation of our grand experiment. The existing structure will surely collapse. My entire adult life has tracked the decline of the American empire. I had become comfortably numb. I came to my senses and began to question all the Federal government/Wall Street/Corporate Media sponsored truths about eight years ago. Many others have also awoken and begun to challenge the false storylines dictated by those in power.
The young people leading the protests across this land are showing tremendous courage and a tenacity of spirit that has been dormant for decades among the lethargic, distracted, over-medicated public. Despite being subjected to government education conditioning, these young people have zeroed in on the enemy. They may not have all the solutions, but they have correctly identified the corrupt banking system as the central nervous system of this vampire squid sucking the life out of our nation. I will support any effort to shine a light on our crooked system. My three young sons deserve a chance at a better life than they will get under the thumb of this oligarchic criminal enterprise. As a child I caught a fleeting glimpse of the American Dream. I turned to look, but it was gone. I choose not to become comfortably numb. I choose to do whatever it will take to renew the opportunity for my sons to achieve the American Dream.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb
The only hope for us is a total collapse in this false economic system and some severe pain. Then perhaps we can start over.
“Peace in our time”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls
Nice!
Stop it Jim! Do you want to stampede the heard?
The sheeple can’t handle the truth and desperately need to embrace ignorance and denial as a coping mechanism
+10
Stan,
The sheep inevitably choose mentally ill in thugs like the Churchill, Bush, FDR, Stalin, Mao, Johnson, Reagan,Obama et al over men of peace every day of the week.
As admin so eloquently pointed out in his comparative of the duties of one engaged in community as opposed to a bleating consumer, the sheep prefer absolute control in all affairs of state and will blindly obey any tool the oligarch choose.
They will not give up their power. ’12 will see increased civil unrest, violence, beatings and shootings all in the name of “safety and anti-terrorism”. Obongo will attempt to declare and enforce martial law. We must be disarmed for them to exercise total control, and this will initially result in gun registration followed by confiscation. I’m talking house-to-house searches of the no-notice break your fucking door down variety. Every one of us that has filled out a yellow sheet at a dealer is on record somewhere. Pretty simple for F-troop to visit the dealers and demand to see said records. I really don’t need any more guns, but IF the need arises my purchases will be private with no paperwork. This probably will not happen until his second term, but it’s coming. Any ammo and accessories that I have purchased on the ‘net will be relocated. Target shooting will be done with ammo purchased for cash. Admin has put together a post that is simply incredible. I find it hard to believe that a Boomer didn’t write it it is so good. Yes, we have become comfortably numb. That is the easy way to go. Critical thinking requires an investment of time and energy into something besides American Idol, Dancing or some other mindless shit they provide as part of our 2011 “bread and circuses”. A blessed and peaceful Sunday to all. Once again we MUST read and digest what Admin had taken the time to provide for us.
Outstanding – Thank You
Bernays was Freud’s nephew: he came to America and used his uncle’s insights to found our most depraved endeavor – mass indoctrination and manipulation. He is the father of all modern propaganda, marketing and public relation techniques. He became rich. He was scum.
I have long urged everyone to watch the great documentary series “Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis:
http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-century-of-the-self
A good supplement is Frontline’s “The Persuaders” by Douglas Rushkoff:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/
Then top it off with Bill Hicks on Marketing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
Even those that were ripped off by MF Global are apparently numb. Where is the outrage? Why isn’t Jon C’s head on a stick for all to see?
The theft goes on and on and on………………………….
sad
Ef
One day people are going to wake up and realize what the fuck rope was made for—while it will put and end to this happy horeseshit it won’t be a pretty time.
“I can only come to the conclusion the average American has become so apathetic, willfully ignorant of facts and reality, distracted by the techno-gadgets that run their lives, uninterested in anything beyond next week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars or Jersey Shore, and willing to let the corporate media moguls form their opinions for them through relentless propaganda, the only thing that will get their attention is an absolute collapse of our economic scheme.”
This is undoubtedly true, and is probably the case for the majority of the people in this country. And therein lies the rub. Since the rage seems to be directed toward a more democratic society, if the majority already is, or wants to be as you describe, why isn’t this majority desire respected?
Not saying it is right, or good, but apparently it’s what the majority wants, or things probably would have collapsed a long time ago. If the majority of the sheep don’t mind sacrificing a few to the wolves so they may live, who’s to say they’re wrong? Animal herds/swarms do this all the time.
Of course it would suck for you to be one of the sheep being sacrificed. I see this process being extended into every aspect of our lives. Medical care, jobs, pensions, lifestyle. I think it’s been going on for decades.
The herds didn’t mind a couple of deaths, and assaults on Black Friday. They didn’t seem to be bothered by any world events while hey stampeded into stores. Don’t you think the herds will trample/or demand the trampling the OWS crowd if they become an alarming concern that could jeopardize the herd?
Outstanding
Great essay. Not even as depressing as it might have been, since after all collapse may both be coming, and be what’s needed.
Speaking of propaganda, did anyone else notice something odd about those quotes purporting to be “people’s reaction” ? They read like talking points from a GOP fax. Each one complete sentences, well balanced, grammatical, hitting all the metaphors and images. No one would write dialog like that in a novel or play. It’s like they interviewed Larry Kudlow of CNBS and just took five sentences and attributed them to “the people.”
Either that story is fake [likely, with our “free media”] or people are even more brainwashed then I imagined. It’s been amazing, over the last 30 years, to see ideas that were “kooky” [“Lower taxes raise more revenue!”] are now automatically mouthed by “the people.”
its called devolution—-these people are becoming a new species—-not evolving,but devolving—homo consumeri–in need of more stuff to fill his empty soul.
Another Great one
I will see you in Montana.
Josey
Your movie was on AMC last night. I watched it as I was finishing this article. It gets better with age.
Get 3 coffins ready!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgxTwmjWYSs
I never get tired of that.
Jesus! I guess this essay about sums it up. A couple of ideas occur to me:
The only glimmer of hope, albeit very faint, seems to be the Ron Paul campaign, simply because there is no one else with the courage to stand up for the Constitution in the face the onslaught Jim has so forcefully chronicled. Since there seems no way for him to actually “win” the Republican nomination, the presidential contest, absent a 3rd party candidacy, will come down to a media match up between Obomber and whichever buffoon emerges victorious from the touring clown car of the Republican primaries. Of course it is entirely possible that the whole circus will be manipulated to the extent deemed necessary by electronic voting machines anyhow, but, IF Ron Paul were somehow able to mount a 3rd party attempt ((call it the Constitution Party), I would suggest a simple graphic image that might help the cause. Remember the iconic image from Obomber’s campaign, the colorized photo under which was written the word “HOPE”? I’d like to see that image juxtaposed with one of the Republican candidate, colorized exactly in the same manner. The banner across Obomber would read “NOPE”. The one across the other clown would say “DOPE”. We could refer to the candidates as “Nope and Dope”. Beneath this graphic, it could say “Vote Ron Paul”. I know this 3rd party idea is probably far fetched, but one can always dream.
Now to a less happy thought, the subject that makes us all sick with fear, anger, brain-freeze or downright craziness: 9/11. A subject pertinent to Jim’s essay. I think most can agree that since 9/11, the plundering of our country has gathered a terrifying momentum. Of course many believe the government story of 9/11 simply because from a distance it appears plausible. Hijacked planes crashing into buildings causing them to burn and collapse, a terrorist piloting a plane into the Pentagon in an act of martyrdom. It’s understandable that people would never look beyond this very general description. However, any close scrutiny of the crime scenes, even a look at the most common television footage, demonstrates the absurdity of the scenario. That story would have you believe that relatively small fires caused by airplanes crashing into TWO buildings made THREE buildings, the two towers and Building 7 ( a very different kind of structure from the towers), collapse in the exact manner of a controlled demolition, symmetrically, at free fall speed. This, even though NO such steel framed buildings have EVER collapsed due to fire, even when the fires were much greater than those at the World Trade Center. This point is illustrated by the fire fighters’ lack of concern about such an outcome and their confidence that the fires were under control. There is simply no known way to make buildings collapse in such a rapid and symmetrical manner except through precisely placed explosions, explosions that look just like the the explosions seen in numerous 9/11 videos. In the case of building 7, we even have the public statement by Larry Silverstein , the lease holder, that they “decided to pull” the building, something that could not have happened without weeks of preparation. “Pull” is term for taking down a structure through demolition. I myself heard Gulianni live on TV describing his flight from Building 7. He said that he had been told that the buildings were going to come down and described his escape to safety. Hmmm…that’s interesting. No one told the cops or firemen who were about to die.
I was working in a recording studio in lower Manhattan during much of that September and will never forget the toxic cloud that rose up in the darkness every night where once the lights of the Towers had stood. That cloud now seems a symbol of the darkness that has shut down critical thinking and intellectual freedom in the USA. Numerous serious investigators have demonstrated the falsehood and impossibility of the government account. They include eminent theologian and philosopher, David Ray Griffin, Lt. Colonel Bob Bowman, a former director of the early star wars program, Richard Gage and hundreds of professional architects and engineers; the list is endless. This past summer, prominent scientists gathered in Toronto to examine physical evidence such as the chemical residue of explosive thermite which was widely present in dust from the Trade Center. The agreed that the three trade center buildings were taken down by explosives.
Over the years I’ve had a chance to spend time with many of the best known “Truthers”, Col. Bowman, Senator Mike Gravell, Willie Rodrigues, the 9/11 hero feted by Bush who gave up a Republican sponsored political career because his conscience dictated that he tell what he had actually seen on that day. All of these people have risked much and gained nothing from taking up the cause. I don’t know exactly who carried out the 9/11 operation or whether or not real Islamic terrorists were flying any of the planes. I do know, however, that official Washington has gone to great lengths to cover up the crime and that vast amounts of money have changed hands as a result of the events of 9/11, swelling the coffers of the national “security” state while the nation itself becomes increasingly impoverished and indeed less secure. I realize that accepting that 9/11 as an horrific act of teason is almost unthinkable and seems wildly implausible, but when forced to choose between the impossible and the implausible, what choice do we have?
But why such an ultimately transparent crime? Why not a big bomb in the Mall of America or some other event that really could have been carried out by Osama et al.? Maybe it had to do with destroying the SEC documents supposedly in Building 7, collecting the big insurance check that went to Silverstein? Who knows? Maybe it was classic mind control>Force a whole culture to believe the preposterous, paralyze the thinking of the nation, freeze everyone in a state cognitive dissonance, then distract them with silly consumer fantasies, while you fleece the sheep, all of course for the greater good of preserving order and the flow of oil. I F**KING HATE THIS SUBJECT. SOMEONE PLEASE SHOW ME WHERE I’M WRONG> I’m writing this when I should be firing up the old chainsaw and helping a neighbor clean up the mess from that freak blizzard and turn the mess into firewood. One last thought: Maybe we need another bumper sticker slogan to help clean up our current post 9/11 mess and wake us up before it’s too late: “Bring the 9/11 Traitors to Justice”. OK, one other last thought: Maybe we need to let the traitors off the hook and hope that before they go to hell they will content themselves with counting their money and leave us in peace…..er…. Fat Chance.
Curious? Check out Col Bowman below or google any of the names I’ve mentioned. The woodpile awaits.
Our ruling elites will see to it that Ron Paul (or anyone like him) shall never achieve power – they shall isolate him or kill him if necessary. Violent revolution is now the only solution (Liebermann, mark this post as “terrorist”).
There is a War being waged on the citizens of the United States … by the United States … and we are losing on many fronts.
1. IDEOLOGY AND FEAR.
Counter-terrorism and national security is the official ideology of the U.S. totalitarian state. All domestic and foreign crimes are justified under the umbrella of security and defense. The State generates fear and insecurity so that the people support the false and permanent war on terror. We are in a permanent psychological state of subservience resulting in the destruction of our free will.
ALL totalitarian states rely on fear ….. it is the life-blood that keeps the fascist state going. But enemies don’t fall out of the sky. So the State creates external enemies to keep the people submissive and scared. The State painstakingly design a menu of propaganda, lies, and disinformation. Aren’t you afraid of Syria yet?
But it is not enough to generate fear about an outside enemy. We also need internal enemies. Homemade terrorists. They are EVERYWHERE! You could be one for merely having the wrong bumper sticker. Or, saying you hate cops. Or, literally a thousand other reasons. “Temporary” Patriot Acts are renewed without debate, and even more heinous liberty removing laws are even now on the docket.
Drama, blood, murder, ….. all this fear shuts down critical thinking and makes people even more stupid than they already are … if that’s even possible … and keeps the real terrorists, the scum in Washington, in power.
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2. NO CHOICES
Washington is one party dictatorship with two political factions. All other choices will be mocked, destroyed, or assimilated. The will of the power elite prevails over the will of the people. This false two-party paradigm allows the elite to remain in control and continue to loot America without being discovered as the real enemy of the American people.
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3. MILITARIZATION OF POLICE.
The public space is an urban war zone; para-militarized police SWAT teams, helicopters, infrared sensing, really heavy militarized weaponry, video surveillance systems, geographic mapping systems, and even more recently, drone systems … tactics once reserved for real enemies in foreign lands, now used daily with impunity against Americans.
We’re living in a prison society where the cop is a guard and the citizen is an inmate who is considered guilty and a potential violent threat to the state. Public space is an urban war zone. The rule of law is dead. Instead, police officers are brainwashed and used to rape the public in the name of security.
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4. DRUGS.
Have a couple marijuana cigs in your possession and you might spend ten years in jail depending on which state you live in.
Run a small herbal or natural drug business, or sell raw milk and the Feds will shut you down, fine you, and/or send you to jail.
But the Feds just LOVE pharmaceutical drugs. Legalized drugs that are pushed nearly non-stop on television. Drugs whose side effects are often worse than the cure. Drugs that are known to maim and cause death. The FDA – populated and run by former drug pushers, errr, drug company lobbyists and executives – approving this shit without hesitation. The US Government – the biggest dope pusher on the planet. Hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of anti-depressant “happy drugs” sold every year. These drugs that actually alter your brain chemistry … and keep you stupid, sedated, and satisfied.
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5. MASS MANIPULATION OF CULTURE
The most important element of culture is storytelling. Stories connect us with our past, inform our present actions, and point the way towards the future. Sadly, the overwhelming masses get their Story from mass media – a hijacking and manipulation on a scale unknown in human history.
The entire edifice of “mainstream” culture is designed to control thought and speech. State propaganda and predictive programming techniques are regularly used in T.V. programming and films to control behavior and thoughts. The manipulation of mass culture by the elite is part of a larger war against the mental integrity of the individual and the free will of the people We have been turned into animals under this psychological prison system.
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6. LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND THE LOSS OF STIGMA.
Politicians all lie constantly. Corporate Annual Reports are full of lies. Head Coaches lie. Wall Street lies about everything. Teachers and their unions lie. Church leaders lie. Madison Avenue Ad execs lie …. Virtually every one of the million commercials you’ll see in your lifetime is one big lie either of omission or commission. Your financial analyst lies. We are a nation of liars, and all we do is shrug our shoulders.
It wasn’t always thus. There was a time when social stigma, shame, or ridicule carried power.
Now, massive liars and cheaters lead in the polls. Scum like Newt. Truth-tellers are treated like outcasts and driven outside of the community while the biggest liars and mass murderers lead the nation. In a just world, unjust men like Bush and Obama would not just be shamed, but hanged, and buried in the sea. But the reverse is happening. Depending on your political bent these creatures are called saviors of the nation and defenders of freedom.
Meanwhile, Ron Paul is stigmatized as “loony” for advocating freedom in America and peace in the Middle East. And all the other sociopathic madmen who chatter at the Republican debates calling for more endless wars are given the most media attention. America has done an about face. Stigma is no longer career ending … it is life giving. Evil is now good. God help us all.
“The devil’s no fool.”
And… “God’s Away, God’s Away,
God’s Away on Business”
“Goddamn there’s always such
A big temptation
To be good, To be good
There’s always free cheddar in
A mousetrap, baby
It’s a deal, it’s a deal…”
whoops – sorry – last comment was me
Nice post, clearly lays it out there for those who don’t want to keep their heads buried in the sand. I will pass this one around and discuss with family and friends; hopefully awaken some from their slumber.
@John Coster: You truthers give me a bad case of gas. I was watching when the second aircraft smacked its’ target tower. Later, watched video of the the first plane strike.
After I watched both towers get hit, I went into the bathroom and threw up. The mental pain was unbelievable. Watching the videos of the firemen huddling in the sub-floor area between the two buildings listening to the thud and crash of bodies smashing into the roof above them as people jumped to their death rather than burn to death literally burned itself into my psyche.
The only thing that saved the White House was the suicide charge by passengers in the aircraft over PA and the pilot crashed the plane there rather than have it retaken.
If the conspiracy theory crowd wants to play, then play with the fact that people all up and down the line ignored warning from FBO operators and individual instructors about the middle Eastern people wanting to learn how to fly but no bother taking off or landing the aircraft. The FBI was advised several times and chose to ignore the warnings.
There were no pre-planted explosives in lower Manhattan that day. Only mad men flying airplanes and dying men and women who were their victims. I will die with those terrible images burned into my brain.
As terrible as that was, back on 9/11/2001, it does not justify the loss of freedoms that have happened since. It was a “crises that shouldn’t be wasted” as the current Mayor of Chicago once said and since the Federal Government is a cancer on America’s mortal body, the Feds took advantage of it to grow ever bigger and more oppressive in response to it.
Too bad. We now need to reverse the process and floating bull shit fantasies about conspiracy theory and planted explosives will certainly not help that along.
MA
i have come to realize after observing this blog and the responders, appears that most are what some like to claim as earthers. meaning that they are’nt understanding that a grasshopper turns black after the frost or that leaves change color. it is very gratifying that my dad was right, back in the forties when the govt. got heavily involed in agriculture ,subsidies, land banks, milk pricing controls etc.. his only comment “this won’t last”. wise man my dad. i love it, not to worry, someone said something about geese and golden eggs. “oh well life is hard”. its like i told my sons. we(meaning my sons and me) “we know how to do it, they can only talk about it”. experience is a great teacher if you can afford the schooling. don’t forget the people of walmart have rights too.if you don’t like the grammar or the composition structure, do like the rest do, shoot the messanger
relax
+1000 Another one hit otta the park. And the Cubs win the World Series!!!
Too bad the vast majority of American sheeple, and their leaders, have brains of Teflon and this kind of stuff will just slide right off.
That’s right, brains of Teflon. Teflon as you know is the completely artificial, manufactured substance you coat a substance with if you don’t want anything to stick. In the case of your frying pan, it is burned bits. In the case of your brain, it is truth or reality. All of the consumerism (=faux economic growth), propaganda (=news), leadership (=warmongering) of the past 30 years has been a masterful coating of the brains of the citizenry with a perfect way to numb them, comfortably, to the crimes of the financial and political elites.
And the real tragedy is that most of the American sheeple have applied the Teflon to their own brains, wilfully, gleefully, financing their own enslavement in a vain pursuit of a Lifestye of the Rich and Famous.
Good thing we have this thing like the internet and blogs like these to turn some people’s brains to velcro.
Hopefully something good will stick.
Blah, blah, blah,
nothing new under the sun, you are just waking up to the fact that capitalism requires the exploitation of somebody, be they slaves, serfs, indentured servents, indentured seaman, share croppers, Chinese imigrants who built railroads, foreigners in underdeveloped countries who sell raw materials cheap and buy finished goods at massively crushing prices. How in hell do you think the railroads were built, by corrupt industrialists. The draft riots in the civil war, the pension riots after WW 1. Nothing new here. The only way to change it is by following the words of Mao, “all power comes from the barrel of a gun”. If you are not willing to do that, then stop bellyaching and realize that you are no better then your apathetic neighbors. If you want true fairness, then pay chinese workers $15 per hour and triple the cost of the computer that you typed your blog on.
Bill
Fuck you.
Cordially
Admin
What I noticed from the graphics is how skinny those men were in the soup kitchen. Considering Mississippi and Louisiana have some of the highest obesity rates, it would be interesting to see what body types use their Louisiana Purchase ebt cards.
Really good post Jim. I haven’t been contributing like I would like to but ever since I bought an iPad I haven’t been tapping out many emails. iPads don’t lend themselves to typing if you know what I mean. They’re truly amazing devices though.
Bill,
I have never sworn on this site before, but today is the day. Fuck you.
We don’t have capitalism. It can be called a lot of things, corporatism, kleptocracy, fascism. But it ain’t capitalism, you marxist asshole.
EF
Is anyone having any trouble viewing TBP website? Lately, everytime I go to this website, my anti virus software picks up virus threats. I have never had this problem until the past week. I’m just curious if anyone else is dealing with the same virus issues from viewing this website.
jmarz
My own computer has been attacked and my anti-virus software has stopped the attack.
Jmarz
No me and I’m off and on a number of times a day… You must be using a PC – that’s it! Get a Mac..
MA
If there are any computer experts out there, the IP address of the attacker is:
208.76.54.124
Maybe someone can figure out who that is.
BP’s economic and social analysis displays an obvious and considerable intellectual acumen supplemented by the requisite and endlessly proliferating and colorful graphs statistically verifying what is now acknowledged as an unprecedented national catastrophe of epic proportions (of all of this many of us have grown quite “numb” if not altogether “comfortable”)While the author can continue to congratulate himself, as he does, on such an ongoing, detailed, and comprehensive compendium of seemingly irrefutable evidence of our socio-economic cataclysm, his effusively sentimental paean to the “The young people leading the protests across this land” displays a remarkable lack of the rigorous intellectual culture which otherwise typifies his intensive scrutiny of the systemic corruption which infests the our nation down to its very rotting foundations. Perhaps if he took the time to apply his considerable analytical abilities not only to the complex political and intelligence matrices (witness Adbusters Media and George Soros Open Society institute) underlying the various “Occupy” joints but also the significant and uncritical suggestibility of a woefully narcissistic, superficially informed and inherently contradictory generational mobocracy, he might discern more of an emanation of a peculiar psychopathology distinguished by unconscious, subliminal, manipulated, and reflexive reactions characteristic of the neurotically self obsessed. The techniques of hypnotic suggestion and the campaigns of Madison Avenue marketing have more to do with this efflorescence of the marginalized and pathetically suggestible minions of a lost and disenfranchised generation than any hopelessly idealized notion of heroism or courage. If the engineered financial “crisis” is a tragedy than it is being followed hard on by the farce of an overweening exhibitionism masquerading as free speech. As Carl Jung once averred, the hallmark of neurosis is “a sense of inferiority masquerading as offended innocence.”
yardfarmer
You’re a fucking blowhard. Succinct enough for you.
I bet you jacked off every time Glenn Beck did one of his George Soros org charts. You’re a nutjob.
208.76.54.124
Reverse lookup says that 26 websites use that address.
http://www.domaintools.com/research/reverse-ip/?hostname=208.76.54.124
Some of us are doing something about it.
The Revolution *will* be/is being televised
let the good times roll…
Brilliant article, you have a talent. The statistics are so staggering, the msm won’t touch it with a thousand foot poll. The truth always prevails no matter how long it may take. Eventually things will get so bad, the dire situation will bitch slap all the sheeple right in the face.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win…Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”
Mohandas K. Gandhi
“Top Notch” treatise…..Thanks Jim Quinn!
It deserves to be printed to paper….and passed out to any of the Epsilons and sheep in American society interested in their own awakening.
Amazing how many times Waters has nailed it.
And out in the valley warm and clean
The little ones sit by their TV screens
No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry
Down to the very last breath
Bartender what is wrong with me
Why am I so out of breath
The captain said excuse me ma’am
This species has amused itself to death
Amused itself to death
Amused itself to death
We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on earth
But then it was over
We ohhed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out
Spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah
And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death
Jim Quinn, you are becoming the Thomas Paine of our time – perhaps you now are.
This piece needs to be sent to EVERYONE. Send it to your family, your friends, and even your enemies. Do it TODAY.
If the Washington Post has the balls to print Barry Ritholtz’ “The Big Lie” series, perhaps they might even have the balls to publish “Comfortably Numb,” which hits a thousand times harder – and more directly – than the Barry Ritholtz piece.
I have never read a more succinct expose on our situation than this. To date, this is your pièce de résistance.
That the site is undergoing cyber attack, that astroturfers now appear in the comments section, is simply proof that this writing has the moral power that our enemies so fear.
Rock on.
Admin, you nailed it again.
I too cannot believe the talking points, the same old responses and the utter foolishness.
Over the TG break, without my even bringing it up, people basically had those paper quotes you found.
I could only respond, politely for once, and I suppose that means I have talking points of my own:
“I’m glad someone’s standing up and saying something about the reeming we’re getting, Tea Party or OWS”.
“All I want is for dinner to cost the same next year”.
“Why pepper spray kids if they’re so ‘full of it”?
“Do you really think that the market’s even worth THAT?”
“Do you really think that banks even loan out deposits? You DO know where credit comes from, right?”
“I work hard, save money, go to school, get better returns than your broker, and you’re going to tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
“Protest DC?… Why not both?”
“What are you going to do about the next bailout, the next print-out or next market-drop?”
Eventually, though, being polite angers people and they grumble about what an asshole I am and change the subject…
So that’s when I add “You dumbass”, “Ya fucking genius”, and “You pompous piece of shit” to my talking points.
I love the holidays…
Another great piece by the Admin. Off topic-I was moving my office on Friday and while cleaning the nether reaches of my desk drawers, I found the hard copy of “Boomers-Your Crisis Has Arrived” a co-worker had printed for me from Financial Sense a couple(?) years ago. Looking over my scribbled notes, circled passages & arrows brought me back-a crystallizing moment for me.
This article should be required reading for every American. Excellent, excellent, excellent.
Excellent. I was playing around on the Occupy forum the other day so I could get a little barometric reading of the mood and ideas of whoever may be passing through there. I’m actually pretty hopeful! About to share this article on FB…
@bill and@ yardfarmer——–???????????????-trolls ???????????-devolution???????stupid morons————your game plan is apparent.
Jim,
As usual well done. Having actually studied the song “Comfortably Numb” from different disciplines, economics never occurred to me. A side note: the song was used 2 times in the series The Sopranos. The first scene was Tony singing it (and was happy) and the second scene when his nephew died in the car accident (and Tony was happy again). The band claims it was based on a concert in Philadelphia were one of the artist was really sick.
Found this comment on the Occupywallst. Site:
URGENT! US Senate To Vote On Bill That Will Allow The Military To Arrest Americans On American Soil And Hold Them Indefinitely, without charge.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
If enacted, sections 1031 and 1032 of the NDAA would:
1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and outside the United States;
(2) Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise be outside of military control, including civilians picked up within the United States itself; and
(3) Transfer to the Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement, penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department of Justice.
Stop this madness! Sign the petition at:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being/
Admin – thanks again for the effort.
Above you say you are dumbfounded by the responses you have heard. I suppose that is one point of difference between us – I am not dumbfounded in the slightest – I know that is the position of a great many Americans, for better (not) or worse (absolutley).
To a certain extent even those who are beginning to awaken realyl do not understand the problems. To the above comments from the non-OWS folks, I would add these I have heard from OWS supporters: “I do not know what is wrong, but I just want to be able to pay my bills”, “All I want is a good paying job”, “All I want is a free college education”, etc. etc.
These folks know something is wrong, but they do not know what has caused it, nor can they see beyond their own wants and desires – and if they were not in a bad situation personally, a lot of them would blend back in amongst the sheeple. Not all of them, of course.
And so I am fairly and squarely entrenched in my position that the people will not wake up until there is a full blown economic collapse. And how that will play out is anyone’s guess.
And this issue is not unique to the US. Virtually every Western nation, and a great many others, has fallen into the same tarpit. Even the vaunted Germans are running huge government deficits and have banks that are insolvent. This cannot continue. The bead and circuses (welfare states) system is ending in tears, as it must.
I do not know what will replace it. It seems to me a great many that are awakening to the issue see the solution as even bigger government – they are looking to the government for solutions and for salvation. They have not yet seen that that is doomed to fail. One only has to look at the continued support that Obama – the proponent of big government – continues to have in such dire times to realize the plight we are in. This is truly astonishing stuff – a bulk of the population still believes, or increasingly believes, that the answer lies in a welfare state.
It is uncertain times in which to live. Thanks again for the magnificent effort.
Bill, Yardfarter…
You’re specious, unauthenticated garbage was spoon-fed to you by amphetamine-based substance users who jealously reacted to the lack of their own greasy hands in the pot of organic populism and, reacting as such, cast assertions and causality among those who, with the same fervor, scrambled to apply their own mischievious label post-facto… unsuccesfully…
In my opinion.
Admin
Nice.
I read the comments and lots of unfamiliar screen names and other websites weighed in. Good sign. That alone is worth your effort.
Some really good statements of fact in the article. One of my favorites:
“It is not a surprise that our public education system has methodically deteriorated over the last four decades. The government gained control over education and purposely teaches our children selected historical myths, social engineering gibberish and only the bare essentials of math and science.”
All in all, it’s just another Brick in the Wall.
RE
Llpoh:
It’s like the old frog in the boiling pot…
The broth’s warming and a bubble surfaces (The Tea Party)… it balloons and pops.
A little time passes, another disturbance surfaces (OWS) and it too will pop.
Before we know it, a rolling boil. This, that… bubbling. Movement, convection, heat… time passes without calm.
You’re right, right, right…. few know why but it’s really starting to suck and few don’t even know what the soup’s going to taste like. Pretty scary.
Colma – Really scary. We oft complain around here about the fact that so often the principles of the Constitution are not adhered to. In times this troubling, I am fearful that at the end of the turmoil that the Constitution may no longer even exist. People will simply go ballistic when their standard of living disintegrates. What will occur then is anyone’s guess.
Hopefully, there will be enough good and decent people to ensure that whatever happens doesn’t devolve into something even worse than we have. I am not entirely certain. Too many people have no idea about right and wrong, the rule of law, of what are actual human rights and what are entitllements that have been gussied up as rights, and what are actual freedoms. In a monumental upheaval it is possible that we could lose it all. I hope not – I hope I am just being too much of a doomsayer. But I simply do not know how it will play out.
We desparately need leaders with vision. But what do we have? Obama and the GOP version of the 3 Stooges. I simply do not think the US people can come to grips with backing a man of integrity like Paul. Smoke and mirrors, and the promise of bread and circuses, will again win the day, I am afraid.
I am sick and tired of everyone heaping crap on such nice, useful and pretty animals such as the sheeps are.
If you want truly stupid, wasteful and lacking vision just say humans. We can take it. And leave the poor sheeps alone.
Decent is good =Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street and Ron Paul.