Pretty Much It

I'm no undying fan of the Democratic party, but compared to the alternative, it's far preferable. Basically I think money calls the tune in American politics, and it doesn't give a damn which party is in power. But money likes Republicans better. The Republicans like business, they like large concentrations of wealth, they hate regulation of just about any kind especially of business and industry. The Democrats--well, they're another story. They are more flexible, more in tune with the population that has to work for a living and all of their problems. I know all generalizations are unfair and not even true if there is but one exception, but I would contend that the Democrats tend to be more compassionate in their desire to have the greater society through the agency of the government tend to people's needs when they are in need. For all these reasons and a bunch more I have not enumerated, the Republican sweep in Tuesday's elections is disheartening. The common wisdom says the voters were expressing their disgust with Washington, with Obama, and the status quo, so they voted against the Democrats. But it seems to me that putting the lunatics in charge of the asylum is not quite the right move. There's more than a little truth in the cartoon below.

The Winning GOP Strategy

Ain't this the truth?

Doesn't this just about sum up politics and indeed life in America? I cannot believe I've actually heard Republicans flapping their jaws about "restoring funding to the military"!! Words fail me.

Tight vs. Not

Another Version of Red

Apologies for the cramped image. This was the best the software could arrange. You will find the source of this interesting view of the US here. (I should note here that the disappeared states of New Hampshire and Maine are the same color as their New England neighbors, i.e., not up tight.

"According to the study, states with strict regulations in their communities — such as dry counties, frequent death penalty sentences, strict school discipline and gay marriage bans — are "tight." Everything from the numbers of cops per capita to rates of substance use to the availability and access to booze, were considered when classifying some states as "tighter" — meaning "strongly enforced rules and little tolerance for deviance" — than their "loose" neighbors, in this case meaning states with "greater tolerance for deviance."

There's considerably more that went into it, and reading the source that is referenced above will give you a fuller picture. I cannot say I'm very surprised by this.

Freelancers Taking Over

 Ran across this interesting piece puttering around today.

A new report shows some 53 million Americans—or 34 percent of the U.S. workforce—are now working as freelancers in some capacity. "This is more than an economic change," asserts the report, a joint effort from the Freelancer's Union and freelance markeplaces oDesk and eLance. It's also "a cultural and social shift" that will "have major impacts on how Americans conceive of and organize their lives, their communities, and their economic power." 

That's more than a third of the workforce. I am one of these guys. I do freelance editing for a publishing house. And I fit easily into one of the demographics below. I don't need to do this work, but I like it, and it's nice it pays a little something in return. I'm not saying I'd do this without pay, but . . . well, you take my point.

Here's how the report breaks these 34 million people out:

• Independent contractors (21 million). This group hews closest to our "traditional" idea of freelancing: individuals whose main source of employment involves working on a project-to-project basis in their field. They make up about 40 percent of freelancers.
• Moonlighters (14.3 million). These are individuals who work regular full-time jobs and also do some amount of freelance work. This group includes 27 percent of freelancers. 
• Diversified workers (9.3 million). These are our serious hustlers, the folks pulling in income from multiple sources, including traditional employment and freelance work. A diversified worker may have a 20-hour per week bartending or retail job and supplement her income with freelance graphic design work and some time as an Uber driver. This group makes up about 18 percent of freelancers. 
• Temp workers (5.5 million). Temp workers are those working with a single employer, client, job, or project but on a temporary basis. This could be "a business strategy consultant working for one startup client" (the report's example) or a recent college graduate doing grunt or admin work for different companies each week through a temp agency. They make up about one-tenth of freelancers.
• Freelance business owners (2.8 million). This group includes people employ between one and five others and who consider themselves both freelancers and business owners. They make up 5 percent of the freelance economy.

And there are some other observations:

• 77 percent say they make as much or more money now than they did before becoming a freelancer
• About half (53 percent) say going freelance was totally their preference; the rest say it was out of necessity. 
• The main reason people take on freelance work is to earn extra money (68 percent), followed by the ability to have a flexible schedule (42 percent).

What the report doesn't address are the penetrating questions posed above, which all boil down basically to what's this doing to us? It's a major cultural and social shift, with major impacts, we're told. But you look in vein for what this might mean. Which upon reflection seems reasonable since analyzing and explaining major cultural shifts is something that gets done after they get done. Would be nice to know where we're headed though.

Americans Are Pissed Off

That's what the pollsters are finding out about us. We're mad as hell, but maybe not to the point where we're not going to take it anymore. People aren't yet on the streets with fire and brickbats building barricades against the forces of the state. But don't for a moment kid yourself that something like that is not possible here. This country has undergone two internal revolutions, numerous economic depressions (used to be "panics", now "recessions"), too many to count riots and tumults. We're convulsed in violence, consumed by our hatreds (you name it here: the government, the Right, the Left, the immigrants, Muslims, black people, the media, white people, brown people, religion, gays; the lies, cheating, and stealing that seem to form the essence of life in this country., and our powerlessness before a host of really serious problems, not the least of which is a national government that is itself paralyzed by hatreds.)

The snippet and the article really address primarily the stagnation of our national government. Which except for involving us in the expenditure of trillions of dollars for foreign wars against shadowy "terrorist" enemies seems utterly useless to address the serious problems that are obvious to millions upon millions of ordinary Americans. We've lost our faith, and everybody is casting about for somebody to blame. Politicians bear the brunt of the blame, and not without good reason.

Americans aren't happy about their politicians, the future, the economy, and just about everything else, according to the nation's pollsters, who say there is very little the public still believes in. 

"With an 'everything is terrible' mindset, I'm mostly thinking about how after several years of cantankerous and unproductive lawmaking in Washington, there are very few political figures or institutions who the public trusts anymore," the Washington Post's polling analyst Scott Clement told Politico. 

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows President Barack Obama's approval ratings are at a record low. A new Gallup Poll shows confidence in the economy is dropping. And overall, poll ratings for Republicans and Democrats are down, according to a CBS Poll.

Source

Broken Record

Maybe this is the flip side of the huge and growing disparity of wealth in this land of the free and home of the brave. Seventy-five percent of those who aren't in the fabled 1 percent, are gloomy about their financial futures. That's three-quarters of the country that say things are bad, and they ain't getting better.

Here's the gist of it: the rich aren't just getting poorer, most of the rest of us are getting poorer. Americans aren't buying stuff, they are putting off major decisions, and they're not retiring when they wanted. And they don't think things are getting better by any stretch of the imagination.

Some of what the source article says:

In its first large-scale study of household finances, the U.S. central bank uncovered lingering effects of the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression, with 42 percent of respondents saying they had delayed major purchases and 18 percent saying they put off a major life decision, including buying a home or getting married, due to the crisis.

Thirty-six percent said they now planned to retire later, according to the online survey.

In a finding that could figure into the Fed's monetary policy debate, three-fourths of households said they expected their incomes to be the same or lower over the next year.

                                     ===============================

Economic inequality in the United States has been receiving a lot of attention. But it’s not merely an issue of the rich getting richer. The typical American household has been getting poorer, too.

The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation. Those are the figures for a household at the median point in the wealth distribution — the level at which there are an equal number of households whose worth is higher and lower. But during the same period, the net worth of wealthy households increased substantially.

The Irrepressible JHK

That would be James Howard Kuntsler, author of the brash blog "Clusterfuck Nation," one of my regular reads. Kuntsler is nothing if not opinionated. I like him because you always know where he stands, he writes in a style reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson, and he is right, for the most part. But he does have some curious opinions. He's pro-Israel about almost everything and that goes for the latest abomination in Gaza. And he appears to favor restrictive immigration laws as well. But for the most part, he's got his head screwed on right.

I take my text from his entry of yesterday "All Hell":

Demonic forces are on the loose again now one hundred years after Europe blew itself apart for no good reason. (Why? Because some young Serbian nobody killed the heir to the Austrian throne on a back street in Sarajevo?) Maybe we are making a mistake to think that any sort of rationality applies now. Here in the depraved and disintegrating USA, we pretend that Afghanistan threatens our national interest from 7,000 miles away while denying that Russia has any business with its crumbling next-door neighbor (and former province), Ukraine — the crumbling of which was bought and paid for by the US Department of State and CIA.

Pretty basic understanding of the origins of WWI, which a century later, historians are still arguing about. Of course he's correct about everything else in the paragraph. It's for certain that we've seen the last of rationality in this country. (Did you catch the president the other day and his unforgettable phrase: "We tortured some folks"? I'm speechless that Obama could be so graceless. It's high time we stepped up and called it for what it is, but "some folks"??? Makes it sound like a backyard barbeque. And how many is "some" anyway? Doesn't sound like it could be too many, does it? When we know that number was one hell of a lot.) Rationality has long since deserted us. We've got the KKK now down on the border saying we ought to just be shooting these kids trying to get into the country. And is anybody going to argue that we're not basically depraved and that we're disintegrating before our eyes?

All the media in this country will soon be controlled by five gigantic corporations. NSA knows everything about you and the horse you rode in on. Crazies are out in the woods preparing for guerilla war. We live in a police state.

But don't worry: the NFL season is just around the corner.

The Intercept

For those of you who share my interest in the secret and often nefarious doings of our security and defense apparatus, I would commend to your attention the establishment of a new online publication called "The Intercept." I've long been a reader of Glenn Greenwald, most lately (in)famous for being instrumental in breaking the Edward Snowden story that informed the world the extent to which the U.S. national security agency (NSA) is spying on just about everybody in the world including us millions of once-unsuspecting (but now fully aware) Americans. Who thought the laws protected them from domestic spying and also prevented the NSA and other arms of the government from snooping into their affairs. The amazing thing is that even after the revelations of widespread NSA misconduct, a great many Americans aren't upset by it. It's yet another measure of our ignorance.

Here's an edited discussion of The Intercept's goals and purpose from its website. The emphasis in the paragraphs is mine.

This looks like something all friends of civil liberties ought to be jumping on.

About The Intercept

The Intercept, a publication of First Look Media, was created by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill. It has a two-fold mission: one short-term, the other long-term.

Our short-term mission is to provide a platform to report on the documents previously provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. . . . Our NSA coverage will be comprehensive, innovative and multi-faceted. We have a team of experienced editors and journalists devoted to the story. We will use all forms of digital media for our reporting. In addition, we will publish primary source documents on which our reporting is based. We will also invite outside experts with area knowledge to contribute to our reporting, and provide a platform for commentary and reader engagement.

Our long-term mission is to produce fearless, adversarial journalism across a wide range of issues. The editorial independence of our journalists will be guaranteed. They will be encouraged to pursue their passions, cultivate a unique voice, and publish stories without regard to whom they might anger or alienate. We believe the prime value of journalism is its power to impose transparency, and thus accountability, on the most powerful governmental and corporate bodies, and our journalists will be provided the full resources and support required to do this.

While our initial focus will be the critical work surrounding the NSA story, we are excited by the opportunity to grow with our readers into the broader and more comprehensive news outlet that the The Intercept will become.

Fourth of July Worship Service

Fenway patriots holding up the monstrous flag over the Green Monster in left

This is what Chris Hedges called his visit to Fenway Park in his latest piece in Truthdig. Subtitled "Kneeling in Fenway Park to the Gods of War," Hedges states plainly what any thinking person has noticed about big-time sports in America. All of them, without exception worship at the shrine of Mars. They never miss an opportunity to trumpet their love for the country and especially the "heroes" in uniform who fight the nation's wars. Here's part of what he wrote:

The religious reverie—repeated in sports arenas throughout the United States—is used to justify our bloated war budget and endless wars. Schools and libraries are closing. Unemployment and underemployment are chronic. Our infrastructure is broken and decrepit. And we will have paid a crippling $4 trillion for the useless and futile wars we waged over the last 13 years in the Middle East. But the military remains as unassailable as Jesus, or, among those who have season tickets at Fenway Park, the Red Sox. The military is the repository of our honor and patriotism. No public official dares criticize the armed forces or challenge their divine right to more than half of all the nation’s discretionary spending. And although we may be distrustful of government, the military—in the twisted logic of the American mind—is somehow separate.

 Precisely. I was talking not long ago to a woman who is progressive in every other aspect of things that I've had occasion to discuss with her, except for the military. She could advance no good reason for not wanting to halve the defense budget. Indeed, she was just vague. There are a lot of bad people in the world, she says. As if that's a reason for bleeding our very sustenance into the military machine that is as rapcious as it is monstrous.

It's an unholy marriage, this coupling of American sports with the manic embrace of all things military. I've thought for a long time that bodes badly for our future. A people mindlessly embracing everything "patriotic" are ripe for exploitation by the most reactionary forces in our society.

Colbert on Birth Control

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Here is the link in case the embed above doesn't work for you. They can be squirrelly sometimes.

Sometimes the only way to deal with the idiotic logic-chopping the Supreme Court majority (the four cavemen plus Kennedy) uses to shackle the corporate state upon us further is to mock it beyond the limits of credulity. Because that's what some of these decisions are: beyond the limits of credulity. I'm speaking right now about the Hobby Lobby decision which now allows corporations to have religious objections to facets of the law. It's a way of letting them to selectively decide what portions of a law, in this case the Affordable Care Act, they want to follow. Of course, the corporation has this right, but all those employees who may not have the same religious objections, don't have it. Here's a story about the SC decision in the case.

Colbert takes a swipe at the foolishness by skewering the whole argument against contraception paid for by the government. It's great stuff. He is really blasting the court for its decision, but the Court isn't mentioned once. This is deeply funny.

Random Stories

With the subtitle: Mostly bad news. The following headlines appeared in today's USA Today.

• Economy shows new signs of weakness -- Well, for the regular people,the 99 percent of us who don't inhabit the realms of unreality where there is no such thing as not enough money to do any damn thing you want, this is not a great surprise. In fact, I would argue that the so-called "recovery" has not arrived for most of those millions brought low by the recession. The real question is whether it ever will.
• Police: Boy's parents researched hot-car deaths -- A mom and dad in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did some Internet research on child deaths inside of vehicles and the temperatures required for that to happen. Then the dad drives their 22-month old toddler to his job and leaves him locked in the SUV for 7 hours. The little boy died of hypothermia. The father claimed he "forgot" the kid was in the car. I don't know if there is a hell, but there ought to be. With a special place for people like this. 
• Critical need for primary care providers -- Bottom line is U.S. because of population growth, more aging people, and the Affordable Care Act is expected to need 52,000 more primary care physicians by 2025 and we're going to fall far short. There are a number of issues including funding for medical residencies, the rising cost of med school, more lucrative specialty care fields, and the scope of practice laws (states have been slow in allowing PAs and nurse practitioners to take over services traditionally provided by physicians.) I think the only thing this country is going to have more of by 2025 is idiots and poor people. Everything else, we're going to fall short.
• Ebola crisis now deadliest ever -- When does good news come out of Africa? The crisis in western Africa is the worst ever and it's threatening to spread. 400 dead already. This Ebola virus is deadly. Causes high fever, vomiting, muscle pain, diarrhea and can lead to massive internal bleeding and organ failure. It kills 90 percent of its victims. It's spread by simple contact with victim's (human or animal) fluids, tissues, or blood. Traditional African burial rituals, suspicion of foreign doctors, and just plain ole ignorance are not helping in the fight.
• Iraqi insurgents announce new Islamic state -- This Al-qaeda breakaway bunch (ISIL--Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant--they left because Al-qaeda wasn't radical enough) has overrun parts of Syria and northern Iraq. They say they are now a new Islamic caliphate. I guess we'll have to see, but another piece on the editorial page that asks "If the U.S. is going to re-engage, it should do so with the means to win." sends chills up my spine. Can anyone in their right mind think what we should do is get entangled in that shit again?

Who Goes Shopping?

The American Future

I remember the time where shopping used to pass for entertainment for a great many people in this country. You just go to a store, and there were millions of them selling God knows what, and buy shit you didn't need and maybe wanted at the time but don't want anymore. Look around your house: look how much stuff you have . . . now start eliminating all the stuff that you don't need. How much of it is left? What you've got surrounding you in your house, brothers and sisters, is all the evidence of the sterling work you've accomplished in keeping the myth of the viability of capitalism alive. Endless expansion. That's the basic premise of it. Capitalism "works" because there's more and more of everything all the time. Isn't "economic growth" the very foundation of every idea the politicians have? The unquestioning acceptance that everything will be fine if we just can get back to those lovely times of economic growth every year, year after year.

Well, we're in a different universe now. The answer to the question posed in the title is: fewer and fewer . . . and accelerating. You could do worse than reading the entire piece I've lifted this snippet from. It is not encouraging. We're whistling through a graveyard . . .

The absolute collapse in retail visitor counts is the warning siren that this country is about to collide with the reality Americans have run out of time, money, jobs, and illusions. The exponential growth model, built upon a never ending flow of consumer credit and an endless supply of cheap fuel, has reached its limit of growth. The titans of Wall Street and their puppets in Washington D.C. have wrung every drop of faux wealth from the dying middle class. There are nothing left but withering carcasses and bleached bones.

Once the Wall Street created fraud collapsed and the waves of delusion subsided, retailers have been revealed to be swimming naked. Their relentless expansion, based on exponential growth, cannibalized itself, new store construction ground to a halt, sales and profits have declined, and the inevitable closing of thousands of stores has begun. 

The implications of this long and winding road to ruin are far reaching. Store closings so far have only been a ripple compared to the tsunami coming to right size the industry for a future of declining spending. Over the next five to ten years, tens of thousands of stores will be shuttered. Companies like JC Penney, Sears and Radio Shack will go bankrupt and become historical footnotes. Considering retail employment is lower today than it was in 2002 before the massive retail expansion, the future will see in excess of 1 million retail workers lose their jobs. Bernanke and the Feds have allowed real estate mall owners to roll over non-performing loans and pretend they are generating enough rental income to cover their loan obligations. As more stores go dark, this little game of extend and pretend will come to an end. (source)

More on TPP

I found another succinct description of the Trans-Pacific Partnership this morning that I can share. 

Research concludes that if you're making less than $87,000 per year (the current 90th percentile wage), the Trans-Pacific Partnership would mean a pay cut. But that's fine for corporations who want this treaty. 

TPP is a massive "trade" treaty between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. "Trade" is in quotes because only five of the treaty's 29 chapters actually deal with trade. Others set rules on investment, set limits on the ability of governments to regulate corporations, restrict a government's ability to spend its own tax dollars on goods made in that country (such as "Buy America" procurement policies) and other things well beyond the usual scope of what would be considered a trade agreement. This leads many to claim that the treaty is really about limiting the ability of governments to reign in the giant corporations. (For those not familiar with TPP, read all about it in ourfuture.org's TPP section.)

Here's the source for the blip above. Bottom line is plain to see. Another gigantic boondoggle for rapacious, out-of-control capitalism, which, as is becoming increasingly apparent, will be the death of us all.

A Bad Deal

Traveling Salesman: Obama, having completely screwed up a chance to have a national single-payer health system as his legacy, is now trying to make his mark by forcing Asian nations to hand their sovereignty over to international cartels, by labeling anything that cuts into the potential profits of the world-wide corporate masters 'trade barriers'. Let's hope he fails at this at least as badly as he did with healthcare.  Source

 He's talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Never heard of it? Well, that's by design. This article from the Washington Post will enlighten you. Suffice it to say, this is not a good deal for people. This is a great deal for corporations. This is not a good deal for the environment. This is a great deal for corporations. This is not a good deal for the working class. This is a great deal for corporations. This is not a good deal for global warming. This is a great deal for corporations.

Got the picture? And it's going to be foisted upon us by the servants of the corporations in due time. Count on it.

BP Oil Spill Redux

Dead Sea Creatures on Gulf Beach -- BP Victims Four Years Later

Four years ago now--hard to believe--that BP's underwater broken oil well gushed almost 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. And the so-called "cleanup" spread 2 million gallons of toxic chemical oil dispersant into the water also. This article has the sordid details. The oil spill residue--and it's out there in millions of gallons on the sea floor--is still killing plant life, fish, birds, dolphins, turtles, and sickening crab, shrimp, and humans. It has permanently and seriously hurt the seafood industry in the Gulf states. It has brought some species to the brink of extinction. People in the affected area--Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida--are showing all manner of health problems connected with the oil and the supposedly harmless dispersant. The long and the short of it is this is a disaster that will be afflicting the environment and economy in the Gulf region for countless years to come.

But are you ready for the real bottom line?

Despite all of this ongoing evidence of BP's deleterious impact on the Gulf of Mexico region, President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has decided to allow the oil giant back into Gulf waters to search for more oil leases.

What the hell is wrong with us?

Ever Heard of Cliven Bundy?

I hadn't either, until he became nationwide news for defying the federal government over grazing fees on federal land in Nevada. This story will give you the facts. I can give them to you briefly, and I don't pretend to be anything but disdainful of Bundy and the fools that gathered around him. Bundy is a rich cattle rancher, who has been grazing his substantial herds of cattle on federal lands for years without paying the required grazing fees. Twenty years of this adds up to over a million bucks. But Bundy refused to pay. He actually said he did not recognize the "United States government." That he was obeying the laws of his state.

Well, there was a set-to of sorts. The feds seized Bundy's cows, thereby stirring up a confrontation between federal agents and Bundy with a gaggle of his Tea Party-type relatives and friends, some of them armed, and after some spiffy 5 o'clock news footage of shouting and sign-waving outraged citizens packing their heat and slinging their long guns, the feds retreated and later restored the cows too.

Jon Stewart carried out an elaborate mock of this idiot that you should watch. Give a look:

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I'm interested in what this says about us as a country. Does it really depend on who's breaking the law to determine whether the law is enforced? Seems so. The feds say they feared for the safety of Bundy and his gang of right-wing nut cases. That's why they left. But that wasn't the case with the David Koresch Bible cult in Waco, was it? And do you think for a second, a millisecond, the feds would have retreated before anti-war protesters, occupy Wall Street types, or pro-environment activists?

Nothing but Chaff

My little sister Mary Ellen just recently found a job after being unemployed for 14 months. I don't need to tell you that if you're 56 years old this is a long time, a real long time. I sure worried about her, and I think she worried a whole lot more than she let on. But she's a trooper. When the good fortune of a job finally came along--not in the kind of work she had been doing for 20 years either--she just took it in stride. She's happy with the new work, and I cannot tell you how relieved I am for her. Because I know the real story. People like my sister are nothing but chaff in the current economy, and they are likely to stay that way for a very long time.

The facts of the case, her case being a precise fit, are that since 2007, the number of people who have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks is up 191 percent. That, folks, translates to a bit fewer than 4 million people.

Well, aren't these people being taken care of, you say? Nope.

In Washington, the plight of the long-term jobless has largely faded from the policy conversation. At the moment, the federal government offers virtually no help to the 3.8 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months. The maximum duration of unemployment insurance payments fell from as long as 73 weeks to 26 weeks in most states in January.

A jobless aid bill is expected to win final approval from the Democrat-controlled Senate early next week, but it is not expected to pass the Republican-controlled House as currently constructed. Source

Revisiting Insanity

It's something we revisit often. In fact, it's getting to be an almost daily occurrence. News comes of something that's no surprise: some nut with a gun blows three people away, hurts a bunch more, and then kills himself at Ft. Hood, Texas. Yes, that's act II there. The first was worst, but now we've really stirred the pot and the crazies are out in force with their "solutions" and "explanations." We don't have to go any further than Fox news, do we?

Those geniuses, the "fair and balanced" joke that more Americans get their news from than any other source . . . well, it didn't take them long to discover the cause of the shooting. You guessed it: Obama. Why? Well, because everybody at Ft Hood is prevented by government policy--policy made by Bill Clinton and left in place by Obama--from walking around armed.

The people at Fox heartily approved of these sentiments voiced by the "Gateway Pundit," an infamous right-wing blogger who obviously has it all figured out:

‘The Obama administration is responsible for this mass shooting. They witnessed this before, they didn’t learn a thing. Gun-free zones are death zones. It is time to stand up to the lunacy.’" 

Got that? Policy that creates gun-free zones is lunacy. Obviously, the word means nothing anymore.

 Source

Another Slant on Crimea

Sounds Plausible: Jack Matlock, former US Ambassador to the USSR, says that in annexing Crimea, Putin may be at least partially reacting to years of provocation by the US, including the eastward march of NATO and the expansion of US military bases in Eastern Europe.  Source: here

 Gee, ya think? Why is it that the U.S. can do anything it damn well pleases in our "national interest," can define anything it damn well pleases as our "national interest," can deploy as many troops, ships, aircraft, and drones as we damn well please in our "national interest" and other countries are not afforded the same privileges?

Could it be that other countries' national interest is what we say it damn well is as well?

Grinding Out the Axiom . . . Again and Again

It is axiomatic, so it seems, that whatever Americans hear from the Western press, politicians, and pundits is the truth.  Even the most enlightened among our citizenry in the USA seem to believe every fable they are fed by these greedy ignoramuses.  For some reason, if the current occupant of the White House makes a claim, and it is repeated ad infinitum by his paid mouthpieces, it becomes gospel for a majority of the country.  What we fail to recollect is that, like most gospels, these fables or fairy tales are constructed and proferred to ameliorate the masses regarding their way of life, their beliefs. 

America is not the pristine and morally righteous land of the free, home of the brave.  Its ignorant leaders and their mouthpieces hide behind false flags and national security, as they manage their kill lists, drone bombings, trumped up NGOs, special ops, secret services, illegal  data collection, and grandiose spectacles; all of it in order to keep the blinders well in place and the masses preoccupied with the problems of housing, clothing and feeding themselves. All of this transpires as the wealthiest in the West, without fear or recrimination, steal and loot and enslave the rest of the world.  Why are we so stupid and oh, so lazy?

The latest boner is the arrogance of the Obama administration and its Euro-dupes to declare financial and economic war on Russia for publicly agreeing to help its own citizens living in Ukraine while addressing its own security interests, safeguarding its own borders from a newly installed fascism (with Washington’s assistance) in its sister country. All I hear from the Western politicians and its media lapdogs is whining about Russia and its evil intentions. I do not care to entertain any more American whining and complaining about Russia or Putin’s ulterior motives in Ukraine.   Let us focus on our own asshole in D.C., not someone else’s!  No modern government is perfect! Quite the opposite. They are all complicit in the degradation of the planet and the destruction of life, human or otherwise.  But, the smug self-righteousness of the American imperium is simply too much for any person with more than a forth grade education to stand for anymore!  source: here

 The writer of these truths continues with his wishes for Obama--the "oligarch in chief"--to suffer the same indignities as he's visited on others, such as being imprisoned in Guantanamo. I'm not going to go there. This sample is angry and true enough. I simply wonder whether he's right about the fourth-grade education part. Alas, if that were true, we'd be OK. But you and I know it's not true. There's a whole nation of sheep out there who have been propagandized and socialized into smug self-righteousness. And it won't be long before we all pay.