Part 4: Paying Homage to Gonzo

For decades I've watched politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, flush my beloved country down the drain.  It continues.  Years ago, I believed in the Mainstream Political System, but I was looking only at the surface...& I was drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid, gulping it down.  For the last several years, I've looked beneath the surface and discovered the utter fraud, sham, and tragedy/joke that is American Politics.  The widespread deceit, corruption, and criminality is truly incredible.  Some of it gets reported by the prostitute Corporate Media (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, etc.), but much of it doesn't.  One has to go to other sources.  I'll illustrate, using only one other source.

The following items have been reported just recently on Democracy Now, the War and Peace Report, with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.  Perhaps you saw one or more of these topics on Corporate Media broadcasts, but I'd be willing to bet not.

1.  This year in Iraq there have been over 8,000 deaths as a result of the ongoing civil war there.  That's their highest number of casualties in the last five years.  The Sunnis and Shiites have not stopped killing each other.  Electrical service still is not provided to large parts of that country on a consistent basis.  Corruption in their government appears to be rampant.  [It makes one wonder why it was that our Fed Gov't expended so much of our blood & treasure over there.  Other than lots of big bucks for mega corporations, what did we accomplish?]

2.  Only a short time ago, Obama had millions of dollars of arms sent to the Shiite gov't of Iraq...to help fight the "terrorists".  I'll bet the Arms manufacturers here were very pleased.  Our Fed Gov't fully supports the Shiite government of Iraq...so does Iran's gov't.  I find that somewhat odd.  Basically, our Gov't is taking sides in a foreign civil war, and stoking the fires of that war by helping to arm one side.  A couple of Arab political analysts (in Western dress) found that to be rather bizarre.  I agree.

3.  Just the other day, our Fed Gov't killed four more terrorist SUSPECTS in Pakistan with yet another Drone attack.  This despite the fact that the Pakistani Gov't has told us to stop infringing on the sovereignty of the Pakistani people...by launching Drone attacks.  [You see, when our Gov't commits a crime, it's not a crime.  That only applies to other countries.  As Nixon said in a David Frost interview years ago, "When the President does it, it's not a crime."...I guess that principle still holds in DC today.]  Sorry Pakistan, you don't have any sovereignty; so says the Big Bully U.S. Gov't.

4.  A few days ago, fifteen SUSPECTS were killed in Yemen by a Drone attack.  It turns out that they were merely a wedding party going to a reception.  I imagine that the warmongers in DC will chalk it up to "collateral damage", maybe pay the victims' families a few thousand dollars, and then forget about it.  [This is shameful.  It's both immoral and unethical to go around killing suspects.  Terrorists are not soldiers, they're criminals.  The so-called "War on Terrorism" is not a war at all.  That's propaganda.  If you believe it is a war, please tell me, with which country are we at war?  When soldiers go to war, it's against soldiers from another country.  That's war.  This terrorism situation is a law enforcement issue.]

5.  Former President Bush (Dubya, not Daddy) recently cancelled an overseas trip.  He did so because sixty Human Rights Organizations around the world have been compiling evidence to be used to indict and arrest him for using/approving/ordering the torture of terrorist suspects during his administration.  [It's about time.]  Any such arrest would occur outside of this country, and the country he was going to agreed to give it a go.  [This story is not a spoof; it's true.]  Bush admitted to approving "waterboarding" in his fairly recent book.  Whether or not you agree that suffocating a person to a point just shy of death is torture or not is not relevant.  This is relevant:  every other country in the world believes that waterboarding is torture...even the few countries that do it.  I agree.  The fact that our Gov't did it is shameful and obscene...and UNAMERICAN.  Just because certain criminals are Neanderthal brutes doesn't mean that we should be.

Some of you may disagree with my views above, but that's not the point.  My point here is that I doubt you were aware of those stories if you listen to/watch only the Corporate Media.  Those networks are in league with the Fed Gov't to one degree or another, or in league with the Oligarchs of the mega corporations, or both.  We get only the news they want us to hear.  [Not long ago, CBS reported that for some unknown reason a man set himself on fire in DC, and died.  There was no follow-up story.  I suspect that the act was some sort of protest against either the Fed Gov't or mega corporations, or both.]

Incidentally, my investigator reports that the rumor regarding Ibocaine use in DC appears to be true.  He estimates that somewhere between 90% to 99% of the Fed politicians use the drug.  You may recall from Part 3 of this series that Ibocaine ingestion causes one to lose integrity and become a scumbag.  Don't confuse this drug with Ibogaine, a psychoactive substance that has been very successful in getting many people off heroin, the most addictive drug in the world.  [Ibogaine is probably banned in this country, which makes about as much sense as the ban on industrial hemp...we're the only developed country in the world that prohibits farmers from raising industrial hemp, a crop that is small-farmer-friendly and the products of which could replace many energy-gorging petro-chemical products.]

Just my opinion.
Dr. Gonzo

Part 3: Paying Homage to Gonzo

Not counting aggression and violence, mega banks have to be the most vile, obscene permutation in the Universe.  Take J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, for instance, the largest bank in the USA with $2.4 trillion in assets...that's enough by itself to qualify as an obscenity.  The bank recently was fined $13 BILLION in a civil suit by the Fed Gov't for fraud related to the mortgage meltdown.  To be fair, 70%-80% of the wrongdoings were committed by Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, which had been acquired by J.P. Morgan...which further proves my point about mega banks.  Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and several others were fined huge amounts as well...a few were over a billion dollars each.  Here's the kicker--- no criminal prosecutions as yet, and they're all still in business.

$13 billion...are you kidding me?  And they're still in business!  I realize full well that the value of today's dollar is only about three cents as compared to the 1913 dollar, but still...something's amiss here.  A mega corporation is worth $2.4 trillion, had an income in 2012 of $32 billion (or so), and is fined $13 billion.  In my view, there's some criminality going on there.  Those dollar figures are atrocious.  Many countries don't have those numbers of dollars.  Something is grossly wrong when that kind of inequality exists.  Don't blame Capitalism...only SMALL businesses practice that in this country; the Big Boys & Girls have Gov't puppets as Cronies...a situation that true Capitalism abhors.  Besides, pencils don't misspell words, and economic systems don't swindle people---individual people do that, and they do it under any system.

Many mega bankers are not the only criminals involved.  Criminal politicians were and still are responsible for setting things up so that their Cronies in Mega Banking could/can scam investors and the public in general.  Think:  who tore down Glass-Steagall?  As to the fairly recent financial regulatory "reform"---are you fracking kidding me...that's a complete joke, pure window dressing to mollify an already distracted public.

So, why is any of this history important today?  Simply put, there are not sufficient restraints in place, nor has sufficient punishment been meted out, in order to prevent something similar from happening again...probably sooner than later.  Do you really believe that the greedy Mega Bankers have "learned their lesson"?  Please.

By the way, I heard a rumor in New Mexico that the Wall Street criminals involved in the monumental scam are all on the South American drug, Ibocaine...still.  This would seem to make sense because Ibocaine causes one to lose integrity and become a scumbag.  It also makes sense because the effects of the drug are very long-lasting.  Not only that, but Ibocaine (I'm told) gives one an Imperial sense of one's own self, the feeling that there are the "small people", and then there's your group.  One of my investigators is looking into rumored use of the drug on Capitol Hill.

Here's another great documentary:  "Gonzo".

Just my opinion.
Dr. Gonzo 

Part 2: Paying Homage to Gonzo

The other day in the grocery store, I watched as the lady just ahead of me paid an incredibly high total for her goods with a credit card.  Shortly thereafter, that brought to mind the largest scam in the history of the USA.

When the Fed Gov't bailed out the speculative banks (and AIG, et.al.) a few years ago, I suspect that the public in general missed the biggest part of that scam.  But before I get into that portion of the story, let's consider the following.  [If this weren't so tragic, it would be comical beyond belief.]

Here's what happened.  The richest one-tenth of one percent of the people in this country, through speculative banking, did this:
1. created bizarre financial instruments such as credit default swaps which were supposed to guarantee or "insure" investments;  [Technically, they weren't "insurance policies", so no money reserves were required to back them up.]
2. created mortgage-backed securities, lied about their quality, and sold them to investors on a grand scale...along with the bogus credit default swaps.

As we all know, the whole scam went bust when subprime mortgages defaulted in large numbers.  But they were just the trigger of the crisis.  The underlying causes were:  the lying about the quality of the mortgage-backed securities; and the phony credit default swaps which were backed by zero reserves.  Then the investment banks told the Fed Gov't that they were "too big to fail", and the Gov't sold that lie to the public.  Next came the $787 billion bailout.  Unfortunately, that was just a small part of the scam.

The main ripoff was the following.  The Gov't made approximately $13 TRILLION in loans available to those banks...at far less than one percent interest.  They were the same banks that were the richest in the country, fraudulently sold shabby products, gambled it all...lost...and then had the Gov't bail them out AND loan them huge amounts of money at almost zero percent interest.

Let's imagine this---  I interview Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and several prominent economists, and they all agree...  "Yes, obviously it was a scam.  If those few banks had failed, the economy would not have collapsed.  Things would have gotten bad, but with adjustments, the market would have corrected itself.  Smaller banks would have filled in the gaps.  We should have let them fail and made the $13 trillion in loans (at less than 1% interest) available to American housholds.  They borrow money every single day with credit cards...at anywhere from 9% to 22% interest.  Imagine what it would do for Main Street and the economy if every household had a $15,000 loan at less than 1% interest, instead of a credit card balance of thousands at, say, 12-15% interest."

Not only was the financial bailout and loan program a scam, but the money was not used as intended.  Originally, the Gov't was going to buy up all the "toxic assets"; instead, the money was simply given to the banks to do with as they pleased.  They made more bets.  There are still approximately one quadrillion dollars worth of credit default swaps out there...guaranteeing nothing.

So, as I sit here sipping Wild Turkey and shooting through my window at a target outside, I wonder:  why does the Gov't loan money to super-rich banks at almost zero percent interest instead of to households?...and, why do we commoners put up with mega banks at all?  There are plenty of smaller, local banks that would love to have our business.  I suggest we boycott the big boys.  Immediately.  Let them eat credit default swaps.

By the way, I heartily recommend the movie, Where the Buffalo Roam... and the documentary film, Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride.  Gonzo galore.

Just my opinion.
Dr. Gonzo

Shifting Gears: Paying Homage to Gonzo, Part 1

The U.N. announced today that it's sending a Peace Keeping force to Texas.  This action was prompted primarily by the following.  A portion of the mini-series documentary (produced by Ken Burns), The West, describes how Mexicans and American Indians were mistreated and their lands stolen by Texans in the 1800s.  In a cameo appearance in the film, the former Texas Governor, Ann Richards, had this to say (paraphrased) in her sickenly sweet, Texas drawl:  "It is very unfortunate when things like that happen, but [when people say "but", nothing is important except whatever follows] that's what happens whenever people are conquered.".  Such a statement, of course, begs for an answer to this:  is that what supposedly honorable, God-fearing people do to others?  And this:  is conquering people something that Americans should have done?

In a related story, the U.N. (made into a totally anachronistic body by the Corporatocracy) further announced that after it was done in Texas, it would proceed to each of the other forty-nine States in order to seek redress on behalf of the American Indians.  The Secretary-General, Kofi Obama (no relation), intimated to this reporter that he feared the whole exercise would be to no avail.  "Basically, we've been castrated by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, CitiGroup, Bank of America, and AIG [part of the Oligarchy].", he said.  "How so?", I asked.  "Well," he replied, "their wholly-owned subsidiary, your Fed Gov't, is---at their direction---way behind on U.N. dues payments.  That puts us in a financial bind."

In another related story, the State of Texas (which generally believes itself to be a separate country, not subject to most U.S. laws) is preparing for the U.N. invasion by constructing a 15-feet-high, electrified fence around its entire border.  I spoke with the Head of the Texas Dept. of Public Safety and asked, "What about U.N. helicopters and/or paratroopers?".  He replied, "Oh, they can't afford those.".  He went on, "Besides, even if they get in, we'll do them like we do the Fed EPA:  just ignore them.  There's not a damned thing they can do about it.".

I recalled the brief time that I had lived in Texas, and thought, yes, that's pretty much what Texas does---if it doesn't like something from a higher authority, it simply ignores it.  The municipal water in the small town in which I lived did not meet EPA water quality standards (according to the town's own report).  The explanation given in the Annual Water Quality Report was this (paraphrased):  all water is contaminated to some degree.  The report went on:  we're working to correct the situation, but your water is safe by State Standards.  The report was exactly the same a year later.  Meanwhile, just to be safe, I drank bottled water.

Just my opinion.
Dr. Gonzo

Zero Aggression

The inspiration for this brief essay is Lao Tsu (or Tzu), generally accepted as the author of the classic, Tao te Ching, sixth century B.C. (or B.C.E.).  I first read it in 1974.  I believe it's one of the most important books ever written.

Should you become bored with this post, please at least read the last full paragraph.

The concept of Zero Aggression has been around for a very long time.  Very simply, it puts forth the idea that violence should always be avoided...except in self defense.  In other words, violence should never be initiated.  I suspect that most sane people accept that concept...even embrace it whole-heartedly.  The more I look at human history, however, the more it is apparent that we have a growing number of seemingly insane people on Earth...of course, not us, though.  We only engage in self defense, or so we've been told.

History always has fascinated me; it still does.  I remember being taught in elementary school that Jamestown (in New England) was the first permanent, European settlement in North America.  Our history book made a big deal of that "fact".  As I learned much later, that was totally false.  In 1598, Spain established the first permanent, European settlement in what is now the State of New Mexico...several years prior to Jamestown.  The Spanish had even earlier settlements in Florida, but they turned out not to be permanent.  The point is, one must be careful when reading History written from only one point of view.

We've always had aggressors in our species, and it's looking as though we always will have them.  Not always, but very often the aggressors win the day...and then write the history.  Case in point:  the invasion of the Americas by the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English (and a few others from Europe).  After the history was written by them, one would have thought that the indigenous peoples of the Americas had been "saved", rescued from poverty, paganism, savagery, ignorance, and the like.  Too bad there's almost no truth to that.

As far as I can see, every developed country has an Oligarchy, the elite, relatively few who "run" things...some of them in government, some not.  They appear to be overwhelmingly aggressive...in the worst sense.  If you disagree with that, objectively examine human history.  I think you'll change your mind.  Most of the time, the Oligarchs utilize propaganda to convince their People that the actions (involving violence or the threat of violence) undertaken are not aggressive, but rather are in self defense.  Even Hitler used that very ploy.  I never thought I'd see the day in the USA when pre-emptive war would be sold as "self defense".  That now has become standard thinking at the highest levels of our Fed Gov't.  Incredible.  That concept is an abomination...and is based on the premise that somehow the Future reliably can be predicted.  It can't be done with any consistent accuracy; there are too many variables.  The point is, Oligarchs use Edward Bernays-style propaganda to mold public thinking and lead people to the use of naked aggression.

In my relatively long life, over and over it has been my observation that Aggression primarily is due to one or more of the following:  propagandized "true believers"; history (whether accurate or inaccurate); and the insanity of some of the Powers-That-Be.  These are the formidable enemies of a sane world and Zero Aggression.  Throughout most of our history, we humans have relied almost exclusively on a top-down form of governance...at least, in the developed world.  That has brought us untold riches, but unfortunately, aggression, wars, inequality, and a sort of suffocation of the spirit as well.  Some probably feel that our system in the USA is bottom-up governance...representative government...but surely a truly objective examination of our situation will reveal that's simply not so.  As Alexis de Tocqueville stated, we're subject to "mild despotism".  More and more, it becomes less mild and more harsh.

There is an imperfect, but better way.  First, though, we must stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.  Examples---  Despite what we've been told---  Much of the History we've been taught is wrong.  CIA "Blowback" is a fact.  Our Gov't really does lie to us...and not just for our own good.  War IS Big Business.  Mega banks often have funded both sides of a conflict.  The U.S. Fed Gov't really is bent on Empire.  We really are inundated with Propaganda.  Mega corporations really are setting up a world economic structure with unelected people as the Heads of it.  The Constitution really is being violated almost every day by the Fed Gov't.  Our Gov't (not We the People) really is an Aggressor.  The NSA really is out of control.  And on & on.  Most importantly--- none of this is a "conspiracy".  It's mostly right out in the open for all to see.  Some secrets exist, but their existence does not prove a conspiracy.  The words "conspiracy theory" are used by Oligarchs in order to cut off discussion of controversial subjects.

Just my opinion.  Be Well

These Things are Un-American

For many years, I've seen an incredible amount of Edward Bernays-style propaganda foisted upon the inhabitants of this country.  [That type of indoctrination aided our Gov't in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Guatemala in the '50s.  The Feds did the same in Iraq, when Saddam worked for the CIA, and the same in Iran during that time period.]  I've been here in the USA for a bit over seven decades, all my life, and love this land and its People... especially the American West.  For decades, however, the U.S. Gov't (in collusion with mega corporations) has committed a long list of un-american activities.  The list is so long, and still growing, that I can present only a few of those activities here today.  The following are un-american...and are killing this country.

1.  Holding suspects without any kind of trial for years and years is an obscenity.  Gitmo is a shame.  Even Bradley Manning was held for three years before a trial.  This is as wrong as it can be...and violates our founding principles.

2.  Murdering two American citizens, one of them a 16-year-old boy, is beyond an obscenity.  His father was accused of running an Al Qaeda website and promoting jihad... so our President marked him for death.  Never mind that Letters of Marque and Reprisal, permitted under our Constitution, can be issued only by the Congress.  Why?  Because that's too grave a thing to be left up to only one person.  With the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), any U.S. President now can have any American terrorist SUSPECT executed without a trial, even on our soil...that's according to several sources, including an article in Forbes.  That violates the U.S. Constitution.

3.  Ignoring the Constitution is a violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.  It makes our elected officials truly Outlaws.  The instances of such violations are so numerous that I couldn't complete a list of them if I worked on it for 24 hours a day for the rest of my life.  That's my best guess, and I don't believe it's an exaggeration.  Following are just a few examples of those violations.

4.  The PATRIOT Act and spying on Americans--- meta-data mining, and worse.  The Fourth Amendment states VERY clearly that we are to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures...unless there's a proper warrant..."particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to be seized".  You don't have to be an attorney to understand that; an eighth grader knows the meaning of it.  The PATRIOT Act does not supercede the U.S. Constitution; no law does.  It does, however, violate the Constitution; therefore, under our system of government, it is automatically null and void.  Period.

5.  Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 (if I recall the Clause correctly) charges Congress with the task of regulating the value of our money...but that duty was turned over to the newly created Fed Reserve by the 1913 Fed Reserve Act.  That law, in effect, amended the Constitution without the formal Amendment process.  The trouble is...no law supercedes the Supreme Law of the Land.  The Fed Reserve is a system of privately owned banks...and the Fed Reserve Act was written by a group of private mega bankers.  The conflict of interest is blatant.  Supposedly, the FED is overseen by the Gov't...that's an utter, cruel joke.  As Greenspan stated, back when, on a PBS News Hour interview, "No one has authority over us."...unfortunately, that's true.  As the former House Representative, Alan Grayson, discovered in a Hearing with former Fed Chairman Bernanke, billions of dollars have been sent to banks overseas, but the Chairman didn't know exactly where it went...not even vaguely.  There is almost zero accountability when it comes to the FED.

6.  As I've pointed out before, there are only three constitutionally permitted uses of the U.S. Military.  Two of them are so similar that I usually say there are only two.  The Supreme Law of the Land permits our military to be used only for these purposes:  to repel invasions; to quell insurrections [in this country]; and to enforce the Law of the Land [if some group is defying our law, as in the case of integration of schools in the South in the '60s].  To increase the number of uses of the military, our Gov't has passed laws such as the War Powers Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.  The problem is...no law supercedes the Constitution.  Our Outlaw Fed Gov't (those at the highest levels) is aware of that full well.  So, all of the current uses of the military in policing the world, are blatantly unconstitutional.  There is no question about that.

7.  Treaties and other International Agreements, such as NAFTA, CAFTA, TAFTA, and the TPP, along with membership in organizations such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, virtually have given away or sold for a song a large portion of our sovereignty.  I've discussed all that in other posts on this Blog; no time or energy to repeat it now.  Through the use of propaganda, our Gov't and the Corporatocracy basically have sold us down the river via these mechanisms.  It all sounds great when they sell it, but then wealth is transferred to the upper crust and jobs go overseas or South of the Border.  Worse still, we become subjected to binding rules not created by our supposed representatives in DC.

8.  Perpetual War, including the so-called War on Drugs, has turned this beautiful land into a Fascist State...the Constitution essentially has been shredded, privacy is becoming a thing of the past, and the super-rich are getting exponentially richer at our expense.

There is a better way... but first, we must stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.  [Do a YouTube Search for the 10-minute video, Financial Crime.  That's a good start.]

Just my opinion.

Whose Sarin?...and Good News

Thank Buddha-Mind (or "God", if you prefer) for journalists such as the Pulitzer Prize winner, Seymour Hersh.  In case you missed it, and as reported in depth on the 12-9-13 newscast of Democracy Now, Hersh has an article out that challenges the Fed Govt's assertion that it was "preposterous" to believe that anyone other than Assad launched the sarin gas attack in Syria not long ago.  "Preposterous" was the exact word used by the White House.  Here's the story in a nutshell---

1.  Hersh's unnamed sources, people in the Pentagon and the intelligence community, outraged by not only the misleading statements coming from the White House, but also by the unconstitutionality of the whole war proposal, revealed that Obama's claim that the attack had to have been launched by the Assad regime was nowhere near a certainty.

2.  There are well over 1,000 jihadist groups opposing Assad, and at least a couple of them have sarin-launching capability.

3.  Our Fed Gov't has in place some sort of passive sensors that indicate whenever the Syrian Army starts messing around with sarin gas.  Those sensors indicated nothing, no action, during the time just prior to the attacks.  [NOTE--- Sarin gas cannot be stored; it's too volatile, too reactive, and it degrades very quickly.  Only its component chemicals can be stored, then mixed just prior to use.]

Obama completely screwed up with his (paraphrased) "Syria must not cross the red line" pronouncement, but he used that plus the misinformation regarding the sarin attacks to attempt to get us into another war.  Why?  In my opinion, the answer is clear and the evidence of it is overwhelming.

War is business...BIG business.  The Corporatocracy, or Oligarchy, owns (lock, stock, and barrel) about 99% of all the elected officials in our Outlaw Fed Gov't.  [I refer to them as outlaws because they violate their constitutional oath of office on an almost daily basis.  I once saw a YouTube video clip in which a House member flat out stated, "Half of what we do is unconstitutional.  What's the big deal?"...they violate the Supreme Law of the Land, and don't care.]  As Lord Acton pointed out long ago, power corrupts.  Despite popular opinion to the contrary, I believe that Obama (like most all politicians in DC) is in the hip pocket of BIG Business.  That idea certainly was not original with me.  I first heard it from Left-leaning scholars such as Noam Chomsky, and socialists such as the Australian documentarian, John Pilger... and others.  As a result, I did my own research; the evidence is indisputable.

This is an essay, not a research paper.  I don't have the time or energy to again look up and cite all those references.  If you're interested, do your own digging.  Here's a tiny start:  in his first bid for President, Obama received more campaign donations from the speculative bankers on Wall Street than did McCain.  That's a fact.  It may not "prove" anything, but it's very suggestive, and when viewed with all the other evidence, results in the conclusion that there's about a 99% degree of probability that the man is a corporatist.

 The President did not succeed in getting us into another war.  Perhaps a small part of the reason for that failure was due to the American People saying, in essence, what a dumb idea.  But that wasn't the main reason.  Nor was it because Putin came up with a nonviolent approach to the Syrian problem.  Obama and Putin don't like each other, that's obvious to anyone.  I easily can imagine that Obama was somewhat humiliated by going the Putin route relative to Syria.  The main reason for the President's failure, according to Hersh, was that he couldn't continue on with the misleading justification for launching another war...because some people in the Pentagon and the intelligence community were saying that the evidence was weak.  There was no solid case.

The fact is, no one yet knows with any certainty who launched the sarin gas attacks in Syria.  We may never know.  The important point here is that yet another President believed he had the power to put us at war with a country that had not attacked us or even threatened us.  There is zero constitutional authority for the President to do such a thing...there was no invasion of our land, no insurrection here, and no one here was defying any Law of the Land.  Those scenarios are the only ones that can bring forth constitutionally permitted use of the military.  Without a constitutional Amendment, nothing else qualifies.  The DC Outlaws completely ignore the Constitution in that regard...they've been doing it for decades.

You may or may not have noticed, since the Syrian debacle, the Corporate Media have begun to turn against Obama.  Little things so far, just hints of displeasure, but it looks to me like a trend is developing.  The warmongers didn't get what they wanted.  Mega, transnational corporations of many types benefit greatly from the Business of War.

This piece should not be construed as in any way excusing Assad or "picking on" Obama.  I'm not a Republican or a Democrat; in fact, I believe that whole paradigm is a farce, nothing but propaganda.  I have a Science background...am well versed in the Scientific Method of Inquiry.  Am simply making observations and drawing a few conclusions.  I was just as hard on Bush, Clinton, Daddy Bush, and even Reagan.  By digging just a little, I think it's fairly conclusive that the Oligarchy rules this country.

In conclusion, I heartily recommend that everyone view the online Hersh interview on Democracy Now, December 9, 2013.  Unfortunately, Obama is just another in a long line of political frauds.

Just my opinion.

Good News and Bad News

1.  After three years in prison and being beaten, tortured & initially held incommunicado for a month, earlier this year a Yemeni journalist by the name of Shaye finally was released.  It wouldn't surprise me if you've never heard of him; the Corporate Media here pretty much ignored the story.  Jeremy Scahill, a journalist for The Nation, covered the story in depth.  Shaye is the journalist who broke the story of the U.S. cruise missile attack in Yemen (a few years ago) that killed a couple dozen civilians.  Whether or not any of them were members of Al Qaeda is hotly contested.  Shaye was set to be pardoned in 2011, but Obama's intervention apparently put a stop to that.  The dictator of Yemen (one of our several Death-Squad-type allies), ever mindful of how to get more U.S. aid, caved in to Obama's "concern".  The journalist, Shaye, had been convicted of abetting terrorism, or some such similar fantasy...according to a number of non-corporate media.

2.  Jeremy Scahill's movie, Dirty Wars, has been short-listed for a possible Oscar nomination in the documentary film category.  [Scahill is the guy who, awhile back, exposed the gross misdeeds of the private security company Blackwater in Iraq.  The company has since changed their name.]  The film, which is superb, details the largely unknown operations of JSOC, the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command--- assassinations of SUSPECTS, unreported attacks on various groups, etc.  Whistle blowers are key to the content of the movie.  The piece is on Netflix, and probably can be found elsewhere online.

3.  The Corporate Media mostly missed or ignored this story yesterday.  In about 100 cities here in the USA, fast-food workers protested wages less than $8/hour by walking out and marching.  About half of all such workers also are on public assistance because of their low wages. This while the executives of such companies are subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer---companies get to deduct (on their taxes) "performance-based" bonuses paid to executives.  My guess: some lobbyist wrote that amendment to a legislative bill. Then it was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.  Both FDR and Mussolini would have called that Fascism---the power of the State married to the power of BIG Business.

4.  In his second term as President, Obama continues his Justice Department's apparent policy of "too big to jail" relative to speculative banking fraud.  J.P. Morgan Chase recently was fined $13 BILLION dollars for NYSE violations, that is, misleading investors...purposely.  [With a fine that large, it makes one wonder what their annual net profit amounts to, given that they're still in business.]  Criminal investigations are "ongoing", but my best guess, don't hold your breath.  Not a single high-level mega bank executive has been criminally charged yet.

5.  Also in his second term as President, Obama continues his completely unconstitutional program of assassination of terrorist SUSPECTS.  Legally, only Congress can issue "Letters of Marque and Reprisal".  It's called Checks & Balances in our system of government.  Even as Commander-in-Chief, any President is limited by the Constitution...and again, no law supercedes the U.S. Constitution, not even the War Powers Act.  He's not a King, and never should be treated as one.

6.  In what seems to be an attempt to mollify the restless masses, just recently President Obama publicly expressed concern over "income inequality" in our land.  It sounds good, but I agree with John Pilger who said this, "Brand Obama...and it's all fake."... and this, "Don't listen to what he says.  Watch what he does.".

7.  As expressed by Jeremy Scahill, there is an ongoing, escalating war on journalism worldwide, that is, on non-corporate journalism.  [ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and even The News Hour on PBS mostly are safe from attack.]  Number 1. above is but one example.  In this country, the attacks usually are manifested as accusations of compromising "national security".  The National Security State appears to trump the First Amendment.  Even without that, the news is managed almost completely by the Corporate Media.  Whistle blowers usually are portrayed as somehow violating the "American Way", or worse, "National Security"...never mind that in most of those instances the Gov't is violating the U.S. Constitution, or mega companies are violating not only U.S. Law, but common decency as well.
-------------------------------------------

For the best possible newscast in the USA, I heartily recommend Democracy Now, the War and Peace Report, with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales.  They do not shrink from covering controversial subjects, and they do so in a manner not influenced by mega corporations.

Just my opinion.

Oligarchs, Propaganda, & Fascism

This all is not unique to the USA; it's a worldwide phenomenon in the developed world... at least, in general.  Perhaps a country such as Norway, for example, is not yet Fascist...really, I don't know.  As usual, I'm using FDR's and Mussolini's definition of Fascism:  the power of the State married to the power of BIG Business.  And as always, I maintain that none of it is a "conspiracy"; most of it is out in the open for all to see.  First, though, we have to stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.

Let's take a tiny example of that Kool Aid; it's here in the USA and goes by either of two names--- Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  It should be called, the Affordable Insurance Act.  As the Roosevelt Institute points out, the ACA is a "bonanza" for private health insurance companies.  It bails them out.  Apparently, people were dropping their policies or switching to cheaper, "catastrophic care" coverage.  Contrary to what some may think, insurance premiums have not decreased with the ACA; our Gov't is making up the difference...a bailout.  The availability of health CARE has not increased, and the COST of health care has not decreased.  Before the ACA, there already were long lines of folks at clinics with cash in hand.  Obamacare is not health care reform... instead, it's a bailout of private health care insurers, who now are even more entrenched in our health care system.

Notice that the Corporate Media here in this country rarely, if ever, speak of any of the above; rather, they focus on the "need" for the ACA, or on the basically unimportant fiasco regarding tech problems of the website.  Is their lack of coverage of what's really relevant a "conspiracy"?  No, I don't believe so.  It's more like individuals and groups with similar interests and mutual goals working sometimes individually, sometimes together, to promote BIG Business.  It's no more a conspiracy than is that of AT&T working to maximize profits.  Corporations are required by law to maximize profits for their shareholders.  It wasn't always that way, but that's another story.  [Google:  How did John D. Rockefeller change the rules for corporations.]

What are the "similar interests and mutual goals" of the Oligarchs?  Rather than repeat it, I refer you to Item number 4. in my November 2 post, "The New World Order...Again".  David Rockefeller stated it quite well...in 1991.

For two startling and brief depictions of more Propaganda in America (and the world), do a YouTube Search for each (separately) of these videos:  Political Fraud; and, Financial Crime.  They're both by ClassWarFilms, and each one is only about ten minutes in length.  They're somewhat shocking, but right on the mark.  The History of the USA is quite different from the History of the People of the USA, the former being to a large degree, nothing but propaganda...geared to benefit the Powers-That-Shouldn't-Be.  :)

Some Inconvenient Realities---
1.  In 1998, the richest 1% of this country owned 30% of the wealth; today it's between 40 & 50%.  [Estimates vary within that range.]  That's not because the other 99% of us are lazy...the game has been engineered in favor of the one-percenters.
2.  Capitalism has been replaced by Financialization...credit derivatives and other inventions of Wall Street that do not involve any production of goods.  The only true capitalists left in the world are owners of SMALL businesses.
3.  Most all mega corporations are owned & run by Crony Capitalists, aka, Fascists.  The Crony Capitalists don't influence elections here; they own them.
4.  We're in the largest class war in U.S. history, and as Warren Buffett lamented, "unfortunately, my class is winning."...he's correct.
5.  Taxpayer bailouts go to Wall Street, not Main Street.  Most of those who receive such bailouts do NOT use them to create jobs...and they're not required to do any such thing.  The game is rigged.
6.  Propaganda is viewed by the Oligarchs as both a necessary & beneficial component of any democracy...and obviously, the same is true of any totalitarian society.

I'm not a Republican or a Democrat.  I view them both (those at the top of each heap, anyway) as branches of the same, un-named political party:  the Mega Transnational Corporatist Party.  I'll give them this much, they surely know how to put forth the Propaganda.

Just my opinion.

This, That, and the Other--- The Arrogance of the Oligarchs

1.  Hopefully you've heard of the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  It's another so-called "Free Trade" agreement...that has almost nothing to do with trade, but almost everything to do with the Corporate Oligarchy re-writing the laws of individual countries, creating extra-judicial, binding tribunals, and allowing foreign corporations to sue countries for perceived economic losses due to the laws & policies of those same countries.  [I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.]  That means a European corporation, for example, could sue the US (to get some of your tax money) claiming that some health & safety law of ours caused them economic loss.  The "case" would be heard in a "tribunal" outside of this country...and would be binding.

As we speak, Obama is attempting to get Congress to vote him "fast-track authority" to approve this obscene treaty.  For more detailed info on the whole shabby affair, go to the "Democracy Now" news website, search for the 11/21/13 webcast, & look for a sidebar piece entitled "TPP Exposed..." (under "Most Popular"); there's also a sidebar entitled "A Corporate Trojan Horse".  I'll put the link immediately below, but I don't believe that Google allows embedded links on Blogspot anymore...I may be wrong about that---
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/11/14/tpp_exposed_wikileaks_publishes_secret_trade

2.  TAFTA, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement...ditto number 1 above.  Details are at citizen.org slash documents slash TAFTA-top-ten-factsheet.pdf ...the factsheet describes the top ten threats of this agreement to Americans' daily lives.  Again, I'll attempt to place the link immediately below---
http://www.citizen.org/documents/TAFTA-top-ten-factsheet.pdf

3.  Henry Kissinger once stated, " 'Illegal' we [the Fed Gov't] can do immediately; 'unconstitutional' takes a bit longer.".  Various laws (or portions thereof) are being used by the Fed Gov't to accomplish things that are violations of the U.S. Constitution, especially the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments; never mind the Ninth & Tenth Amendments... for all practical purposes, they no longer even exist.  Those laws include, but are not limited to, the PATRIOT Act (what a misnomer), The War Powers Act, and the National Defense Authorization Act.  Especially those three need to be [if we are to protect our Freedom] either fixed or repealed.

I cannot emphasize this more strongly:  no law supercedes the U.S. Constitution; only Treaties can do that.  If a law contradicts/violates the Constitution, it is automatically null and void under our system of government.  The Oligarchs don't want us to remember that...just my opinion.

The Propaganda Kool Aid

Remember Jim Jones and The People's Temple, the guy who convinced (or forced) about 800 of his congregation to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid?  That's the metaphor for the essay below.

There's no nice way to say this, or perhaps it's that I don't have the time to find a nice way.  So please forgive me if I sound harsh.  I've been observing this scenario for decades, and I'm a bit fed up.

You folks who still believe that voting (in the present system) makes a difference just keep electing the same types of people over & over & over...candidates chosen, groomed, and financed by the Oligarchs. And you both (Repubs & Dems) keep blaming the other side. Here's a clue: they're all on the same side.

What if they put on an election...and nobody showed up to vote? Now THAT would send a message! But it will never happen... because Americans just keep drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid. "Oh, don't you know---it's the Republicans' fault." "Oh, don't you know---it's the Democrats' fault."

Here's another clue: it's the voters' fault...all of you. No one else puts those clowns in office. ALL of them represent the one-percenters, the Oligarchs...ALL of them vote for deficit spending... ALL of them shaft the common people... ALL of them pass laws & implement policies that transfer wealth from the Middle Class to the 1% upper crust. [40% of the wealth of this land now is owned by 1% of the people...& that's not because 99% of us are lazy.] But go ahead, keep voting for them...keep drinking the Kool Aid that says this one is different, this one is on our side, that one over there is the problem. Sorry, but you're dead wrong.

American voters (all of you) are getting exactly the type of government that you deserve...because you just keep drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid. The Oligarchs have divided & conquered us completely. When it comes to politics, I no longer have any sympathy whatsoever for American voters...apparently all you see is the false surface of American politics...the propaganda...Right v. Left, Conservatives v. Progressives, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

There is a better way...actually, almost anything would be better than the fraudulent, dictatorial, crony political parties that run the show now... puppets of the mega corporations. But first, voters have to stop drinking the Kool Aid.

Just my opinion.

The New World Order...Again

Below is a comment I left on CBSNews.com, in response to a brief comment in the Evening News by John Miller about the New World Order.  The recent LAX shooter had yelled out something about the NWO, and analyst Miller stated something to the effect that "conspiracy theorists" believed in the same and in "black helicopters" and the like.  That's the background for this response of mine---
[For this article, I've expanded the original comment a bit; additions are in brackets.]

For Mr. Miller---RE: the New World Order---


1. You may or may not know, but former President Bush (Sr.) told us that we could look forward to a "New World Order". It's not a conspiracy theory.

2. Forget the "black helicopters"...I suspect that very few believe in that scenario. The one of which Mr. Bush spoke is much worse...and again, it's NOT a conspiracy. It's right out in the open.

3. The actual New World Order involves the creation (ongoing as we speak) of a world economic structure run by transnational, mega corporations (including mega banks). [The results already are evident: neocolonialism in the Southern Hemisphere; manufacturing & jobs beginning to disappear in the Northern Hemisphere; Financialization (nothing but paper) replacing productive work; competition shrinking; and an exponential transfer of wealth from the Middle Class to the 1% upper crust.  That's the real NWO.] Again, it's out in the open for all to see.

4. As David Rockefeller stated publicly in 1991 (paraphrased due to memory): "Surely it is preferable to have the world run by [business] elites than by nations and the corrupt politicians of the past."...that's the goal of the Corporatocracy...and it's not a conspiracy. The Oligarchy believes it's simply good business...at least, that's my opinion of what they believe.

5. The Corporate Media love to conflate these two different New World Orders, and call the whole mess a "conspiracy theory". That phrase is used by Oligarchs to squash serious discussion of controversial subjects. But in the last several years or so, we commoners (I believe) have seen through that ploy. The propaganda won't work anymore. More and more, people are realizing that NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, [Credit Default Swaps, Mortgage-Backed Securities, Financialization,] etc. are not good for not only the USA, but the world as well.

6. Thus, my suggestion is for the Media to stop using that tired phrase ["conspiracy theory"]. Your credibility is at stake. [It's already in the toilet, but perhaps if you stop, then maybe you'll get some credibility back.] We just don't believe it anymore.

Just my opinion.

The Endless War of All Wars, and Kill Lists

I just finished watching a 2013 documentary, "Dirty Wars", which is about U.S. covert operations in the so-called "War on Terrorism".  The film is by Jeremy Scahill, the guy who broke the story of abuses in Iraq by the private security company formerly known as Blackwater.  This is an excellent film.

In previous blogs, I've lamented the fact that our Outlaw Fed Gov't (those at the highest levels) orders the murder of terrorist SUSPECTS.  One of those was an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki (or perhaps more accurately, -Aulaqi).  Scahill points out that two weeks after Awlaki's murder, our Gov't killed another American citizen in another targeted assassination---Awlaki's 16-year-old son.  Gov't spokesmen claimed that the son's death was not intentional, but rather "collateral damage".  Perhaps...perhaps not.  Perhaps it was a weird type of "pre-emptive strike" because the Powers-That-Be were worried about what the kid might do in the future.  [The entire concept of pre-emptive strikes is atrocious; it's naked aggression while claiming to know the Future.]

The U.S. Constitution DOES permit targeted assassinations through the mechanism of "Letters of Marque and Reprisal".  Here's the catch, however---and this is crucial--- Letters of Marque and Reprisal can be issued only by the U.S. Congress, not by the Executive Branch.  So once again, our Fed Gov't (in this case, the President) is violating the Supreme Law of the Land.  My guess is that the justification for the President marking those suspects to be killed is some "law" or another.  So again, I'll point out that no law supercedes the Constitution...not the War Powers Act, or any other law.

Our Gov't now is engaged in a whole series of undeclared "wars" and is doing so in blatant violation of the Constitution.  We've attained the Machiavellian concept of Perpetual War, a tool used by rulers throughout History to maintain power and control the citizenry.  Very little of this is about "safety"; most of it is about Empire and money.  Neocolonialism, Oligarchy, nonparticipatory democracy, power, mega transnational business, Edward Bernays-style propaganda, and money for the super-rich are all the order of the day.  All adult Americans should be thoroughly ashamed.

Just my opinion.  Be Well

Allodial Title

This piece is prompted by my recent experience registering my truck for the first time in the State of New Mexico.  I won't bore you (as I probably did with friends and family via emails) with those details; suffice it to say that it was a long, drawn-out process culminating in an 80-mile round trip.  The whole thing made me curious about registration and titles relating to one's property.  In doing research on this subject, I did my best to primarily stick to "legitimate and reputable" sources of information.  Nowadays, though, some of the "nutcake" sites seem to make more sense than many of those considered "reputable".  That's mostly because of Legal-Speak.  :)

Most people, perhaps all of us in some instances, do not hold full title to any of our property even if it's paid off.  For example, 85% of land owners in the USA do not own any mineral rights to their land.  That's why some ranchers in Wyoming are, against their will, being forced to accomodate oil drilling operations on "their" land.  The vehicle title that you may hold is not a full, paramount title unless you have the Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin (MCO) of the vehicle...and that is held by the State.  You are not allowed to possess it.  [In almost all cases, new car dealers automatically submit MCOs to the State...unless you insist that it be given to you.]  As soon as you "register" your vehicle, if you have an MCO, you must submit it to the State.  I imagine that the State has what it considers good reasons for this process, but the point is, you are left without an "allodial title" to that property.

An allodial title is one that is free and clear of any "feudal duties", including taxes, fees, etc.  In other words, the property is un-a-lienable.  Obviously, this concept originated in Feudal times when the King was paramount.  Please note, however, that the concept carried through in both English and American law all the way through the founding of the United States of America.  Many early European-Americans were granted allodial title to their land.  As you might guess, eventually this created problems for both the Government and the landowner.  The Government's problem is obvious:  no taxes.  The potential landowner's problem is:  who is going to make a mortgage loan on property upon which no lien can ever be placed?  [No problem if the buyer has the full cash amount.]

Over time, the Government solved its problem the way government sometimes does:  it simply, for all practical purposes, abolished the allodial title system.  Presently there is only ONE State in the USA where one can obtain an allodial property title---Texas.  From what I've read however, the process is so drawn out and convoluted that it may as well not exist.  Other States/jurisdictions have allodial titles, but in "modern" times they've all passed laws stating that individual property owners with allodial titles are subject to taxes, fees, liens, etc.  In other words, Government still calls them "allodial titles", but they're not.

Various local or regional groups within the Sovereignty Movement have manuals up to 75 or more pages in length instructing people on how to convert a standard title to an allodial title.  [NOTE:  I'm guessing that about 99.9% of the folks in the Sovereignty Movement are completely nonviolent; despite that, the Fed Gov't and many State Gov'ts have deemed them all to be "potential terrorists".  That's important because under the National Defense Authorization Act (in my opinion, a completely unconstitutional "law"...and thus null and void under our system of gov't), such people now can be arrested without a warrant, detained indefinitely without access to a lawyer, and even EXECUTED without a trial.  That's according to a piece in Forbes.  All that and nary a peep from the People...incredible.]

It seems to me that the efforts of the Sovereignty Movement relative to allodial title are a waste of time.  Governments never again will allow INDIVIDUAL landowners to hold such a title.  They may call it "allodial", but as I pointed out above, it won't be.

Time and energy constraints prevent me from giving this subject the treatment it deserves.  It's a fascinating history with huge implications for so-called modern times.  I hope some of you will look into it further.

Happy Trails

Game Over

This is a Comment I made on the CBS online newscast for 9-18-13---  [The ADDENDUM below is not part of the original Comment.]

ScottHaley says--- 
1. RE: Fed to keep interest rates low by buying more bonds--- Ask yourself, where does the Fed get the money to "buy bonds"? Is it from the Treasury (fiat printing, out of thin air), or from its member banks (which, according to a 1984 Fed Court case, "are not Federal instrumentalities, but are private corporations")? ["Buying T-Bills or Gov't Bonds" is Gov't-Speak for loaning the Gov't money.] Who gets the interest payments when the Fed "buys bonds"?

2. The Fed Reserve is authorized by the 1913 Fed Reserve Act, a LAW. That Law allowed the Congress to abrogate one of its required constitutional duties: to regulate the value of our money. But there's a problem with that, long ignored by the DC politicos: no law supercedes the U.S. Constitution. Politicians know that full well, but ignore it. This issue is important because Congress supposedly answers to the People, but the Fed (according to Greenspan on a PBS interview back when) "answers to no one"..."no one has authority over us".

3. RE: Obamacare--- According to my research and what was reported on CBS News, a policy via Obamacare tailored to me personally would cost approximately $600 per month. I can't afford a policy for $100 per month. So much for the grand benefits of Obamacare...at least, in relation to me.

4. RE: shutting down the Gov't v. raising the Debt Ceiling--- For the past 80-85 yrs or so, the Fed Gov't has been adhering to Keynesian Economics...essentially, institutionalized deficit spending. It's not a matter of the Gov't being bankrupt in the future; it's already bankrupt, & has been for decades. The politicians have no intention of ever eliminating the National Debt; the Debt Bubble will continue to grow until, like all bubbles, it eventually bursts. The recent "sequestration" efforts did nothing substantial to reduce spending; those efforts only addressed the proposed INCREASES in spending. Even those are being exempted by Congress passing laws to that effect. Deficit spending is continuing, & will continue, until the Debt Bubble bursts. Then it's goodbye Keynes... & our economy...game over.  

ADDENDUM: Since going completely off the Gold Standard in 1971 (under Nixon), the only reason the dollar has any value at all is because it is the world's reserve currency.  With ongoing institutionalized deficit spending and the ever-increasing national Debt Bubble, inevitably the time will come when other countries decide that the dollar should no longer be the world's reserve currency.  That's when the bubble will burst; countries will dump their U.S. dollars.  That will cause our economy to tank.  Game Over.  What can be done to prevent that scenario?  In my opinion, nothing substantial---the propaganda favoring Keynesian Economics is too thick.  Will we recover from the biggest crash in history?  I believe so, but it will be an incredibly long, difficult and painful recovery.

Throw Out the Constitution...

because ignoring it has the same effect.
One thing is glaringly obvious regarding the discussion about Syria & the authority to attack: no politician in DC and no one in the Corporate Media has said much of anything (perhaps nothing) about the Constitution. Instead, we hear about "precedents", the War Powers Act, Humanitarian imperatives, etc. There's a very good reason for that. Nowhere in the SUPREME Law of the Land is power delegated to the Fed Gov't to attack a country that is no threat to the USA and has not attacked us. If I'm wrong about that, I'd like to see anyone in the Gov't or anyone in the Corporate Media point out exactly where that power is enumerated in the Constitution.

I'm not asking commenters on various public forums to show me the constitutional authority... because my experience with comments there the last few days has shown me that (if those forums are representative samples of Americans' constitutional knowledge) most Americans nowadays know almost nothing about how this Republic is supposed to operate legally.

Someone needs to tell "Bomb-Bomb-Iran" McCain that the War Powers Act, along with every other LAW, does NOT supercede the Constitution. If Laws trumped the SUPREME Law of the Land, there would be no point at all in having a Constitution. For decades, the puppets in DC have ignored the Constitution at will. Not long ago, I saw a clip on YouTube in which a Congressman (can't remember his name) said to an interviewer, "Half of what we do is unconstitutional. What's the big deal?". That pretty much says it for politicians.

The Supreme Law of the Land is crystal clear on the permitted uses of the military, there are only three...1. To execute the laws of the land (as in the case of the Whiskey Rebellion in the mid-1790s). 2. To repel invasions. 3. To quell insurrections. [Numbers 1 & 3 appear to be so similar that in the last 50 years I've usually said there are only two permitted uses.] People sometimes retort that this is modern-day America; all that old stuff is completely out-of-date. Perhaps so; that's why there are two mechanisms for updating the Constitution---the Amendment process and the Constitutional Convention. Both were purposely designed to be cumbersome...changing the Supreme Law of the Land should not be easy.  For a time, the DC puppets did use the Amendment process to update the Supreme Law, but then they quit. It was easier to pass laws. They gambled that the American public would not know the difference; apparently, they won.  I guess it never occurred to the Founders that We the People would allow our servant government to ignore the Constitution.

The Commander-in-Chief is constrained by the permitted uses of the military enumerated in the Constitution. I've been appalled to read or sometimes hear people say something like: The Constitution doesn't prohibit the President (or anyone in Gov't) from doing thus-&-such; therefore he/she/they can do it. We are a Gov't of Enumerated Powers [Google it]; the enumeration of things that the Gov't can do IS the prohibition. Creating a comprehensive list of prohibitions would be impossible---the list would be endless. [Isn't American Government taught in schools anymore?]

President Obama claims to be a constitutional scholar; I see no evidence of that at all. Or, if he is one, then he's deceiving the public. Again, I challenge ANYONE in Gov't or the Media to show me legitimate, constitutional authority for attacking Syria...constitutional authority. Anyone in Gov't or the Corporate Media.  [I'm not naive enough to expect a response.]   I like Woody Allen's old joke:  I feel much better now that I've given up hope.  :)

Obama & "Socialism"...and Other Outrageous Stuff Regarding Syria

Here are quotes regarding President Obama from two well known socialists, men whom I admire---
First, Noam Chomsky, a brilliant analyst of the world political & cultural scene.  He calls himself a Libertarian Socialist, which is another, less controversial label for Anarcho-Syndicalist---
"He's worse than Bush.  Bush kidnapped suspects and had them tortured, but Obama just has them killed...suspects...even an American citizen [in Yemen] whose sole, known crime was that he ran an Al Qaida website."
"The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is gone with Obama."
"After running as a peace candidate, he initially expanded the war in Afghanistan."
"Obama is Head of the largest terrorist organization in the world, our central government."
"He's, at will, having suspects killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen."
"Obama purposely was marketed in a vague manner by the public relations firms that run campaigns.  They read polls, so they came up with 'Hope' and 'Change'.  Well, Hope for what?  What kind of Change?"
Next, John Pilger, a peace and social justice advocate, a journalist, a documentary film producer & director, and a self-declared Socialist---
"Brand Obama...it's all fake."
"He's a product of the Public Relations propaganda system first instituted by Edward Bernays long ago."
"In his book, he said that his first job after graduating from Columbia was with a business consulting firm.  For some reason, he didn't reveal the name of the firm or what he did there.  The company is Business Systems International, a known front for the CIA.  I know this because it's highly active in my home country, Australia.  Perhaps there is nothing sinister in what he did for that company, but it seems it would be worth knowing in order to get a full measure of the man."
"During his brief stay as a Senator, he voted for the PATRIOT Act [what a misnomer], the Iraq War, and the death penalty.  He voted against a single-payer health care system."
'The worst thing about having Obama as President is: that has silenced large portions of the Left and the Peace Movement."
Given those statements by two prominent socialists, I'd say that there's a high degree of probability that Obama is promoting fascism, not socialism.
----------------------------------------------------
On another topic, very recently I've been participating in the online Comment forum at CBSNews.com regarding the article, "Can Obama Attack Syria Without the Approval of Congress?".  The focus of my comments has been the Constitution...Enumerated Powers, etc....and the War Powers Act.  The entire proposed action, with or without the approval of Congress, is (in my opinion) unconstitutional...& plainly so.
I bring this up because of my experience with other commenters...literally hundreds of them.  IF the comments on that forum are in any way representative of the knowledge that Americans have regarding how our Constitutional Republic is supposed to function, then we have no hope (no pun intended) whatsoever of surviving as a relatively free people.

The misconceptions were absolutely astounding...and were presented with sincere and great passion.  Here are some examples...all paraphrased---
1. The Commander-in-Chief can do anything he wants with the military.  If he couldn't, he wouldn't be Commander-in-Chief.
2. The President doesn't need the approval of anyone to attack another country... unless war has been declared.  Without a declaration of war, he can do what he wants to.
3. What are enumerated powers?  Whoever heard of that!?
4. The War Powers Act gives the President the authority to attack Syria, or anyone else.
5.  The President is a kind & wise man; therefore, he should be able to attack Syria.  He knows more than we do.
6.  The Commander-in-Chief doesn't need anyone's approval to do anything with the military.  The only exception to that is if he were to use soldiers to take over the USA.
7.  We haven't declared war since WWII [that's true], so attacking Syria is permitted.

It goes on & on like that.  I find it appalling.  I only can guess that incessant propaganda and an extremely poor education system in the USA are to blame.  What a shame.  Just my opinion.

Syria and Our Constitution

Here we go again. Read the Constitution---there are only two uses of the military permitted: 1. to repel invasions; 2. to quell insurrections. To get around that, Presidents have been relying on the War Powers Act to use our military pretty much whenever they see fit. The trouble is...laws do NOT supercede the Constitution. Using our military as the world's police force, no matter how justified, is unconstitutional. There is no legitimate authority for that use.  Yes, what's happening in Syria is an obscenity, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with constitutional use of the military.

An Amendment is required to change the situation, but politicians just pass laws instead. [It's easier to do that than to get 3/4ths of the States to ratify a new Amendment.] That's called "Legislative Absolutism", a term coined by Justice Harlan in 1901; it means passing laws with no regard for the limitations placed upon the Feds by the Constitution.

Let's not forget that Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, & others all had "laws" in place to justify their actions, too. The Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. Change it if you must, but do not simply ignore it. Changing it must be done by amendment or a constitutional convention; no other ways are permitted in our system of government. None.

As always...just my opinion...after ~ 50 years of serious study of the U.S. Constitution, probably the most plainly written document ever put forth by a government.

"Hot Coffee"

I just now finished watching the documentary, "Hot Coffee".  It's online at NetFlix and probably other sites as well.  Remember the infamous McDonald's lawsuit involving a lady who spilled coffee on her lap?  Remember how most of us denigrated her for bringing suit against McDonald's?  This film covers that case and several others in the tort arena; more than that, it delves into the Oligarchy's role in so-called Tort Reform.

In the case of the lady suing McDonald's, my mind was completely changed.  After seeing photographs of the burns, finding out that her medical bills were well over $10,000, and that there were hundreds of prior similar incidents and McDonald's ignored all complaints, and that her recovery involved numerous skin grafts, I decided she deserved every penny she was awarded by the jury.  Most importantly, initially all she requested of McDonald's was that they pay her medical bills.

Another case involved a 19-year-old woman employee of KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time) who was gang raped in Iraq by male co-workers and then locked in a shipping container.  The criminal case went nowhere ("He said, she said", I assume), and she couldn't bring a civil suit---tort case---against KBR because her employment contained a mandatory binding arbitration clause in fine print.  It took her four years to get the case into court.  Another case involved a mother who gave birth to a mentally damaged son, the damage being due to obvious medical malpractice.  Because of caps on court case jury awards in her State, her son's medical bills are now being paid largely by MediCaid (in other words, by the taxpayer) instead of by those who caused the damage.  There were other cases covered in the film, but I don't have time to go into them.

The above cases certainly make the documentary interesting, but it's real value is in the exposing of the so-called Tort Reform propaganda.  Backed by mega corporations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and former politicians such as George W. Bush, the tort reform movement is attempting (with significant success) to bamboozle Americans into believing that juries who hear tort cases somehow are incompetent when it comes to determining the amount of awards to plaintiffs.  Of course, the tort reform propaganda doesn't state it that way.  :)

I'm beginning to doubt that most people know the function of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in our society.  It's primary purpose is to be a lobbyist in DC for mega corporations.  It also funnels campaign funds to candidates for State Supreme Court Justice who are favorable to mega business interests.  Such Justices are then instrumental in overturning jury awards to wronged plaintiffs in tort cases.  The film documents such actions.

Tort Reform propaganda concentrates on those nasty trial lawyers [:)]; I fully admit that personally I don't care much for them either.  What the propaganda ignores and suppresses, however, is the fact that bringing suit in court is our main protection against shabby manufacturers, employers, and others.  The propagandists say that what they're against is FRIVOLOUS lawsuits, not the concept of bringing suit...and so, they promote caps on jury awards.  Think about that for a moment.  1. Frivolous lawsuits generally are thrown out of court.  2. Caps on awards apply to everyone and every case, not just those deemed frivolous by the Oligarchs.***  3. Without the possibility of a very large punitive damage award against them, those causing damage to people have little incentive to clean up their acts.  [***The film shows a clip of George W. Bush (back when) bragging to Congress that such-and-such Legislative Bill will put a stop to "frivolous" lawsuits by placing caps on jury awards to plaintiffs.  The man never could reason (or at least appears not to be able to).  Hey, Dubya, those caps you're so proud of apply to ALL cases.  They would even apply to a hypothetical case against a surgeon I once knew who used to boast that he could operate on a patient even when he (the surgeon) was "three sheets to the wind"... drunk.  Caps---what a dandy idea, George...yeah, right.] 

The Oligarchs also are rapidly implementing mandatory binding arbitration wherever and whenever they can, the purpose of which is to keep people out of court.  Do you hold a bank credit card?  If so, there's a 99% probability that if you have a dispute with the company, you cannot sue them in court---you're subject to mandatory arbitration.  The same is true if you own a cell phone...and many other manufactured goods.  It's also true for a large number of employees at a large number of places of employment.  According to the film, more employees now are subject to mandatory arbitration than there are members of employee unions.  No redress in court for you.  Anyone with common sense should be able to figure out that "arbitration" is a scam---it's biased in favor of the employer or manufacturer or other defendant.  The supposedly "independent" arbitrator would like more arbitration business from the Oligarch.  What do you, the plaintiff, have to offer?  Nothing, as far as the arbitrator is concerned.

Tort Reform and mandatory arbitration are two more oligarchical tools designed to dominate individuals and bypass basic individual rights.  Don't fall for the blatant propaganda.

Happy Trails

The Class War in America

I just now finished watching a fairly recent piece on Frontline, "Two American Families" with Bill Moyers.  Brilliant.  He chronicled the struggles of two families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin over a period of about twenty years.  What a vivid illustration of the economic travails of those hard-working folks and of a once-great country going down the drain.  I tried to leave a comment on the PBS website, but that function was not working for some reason.  My comment follows...

In my opinion, The Big Picture related to this story is as follows.  As Warren Buffett stated not long ago, "There's a Class War going on in America, and unfortunately, my class is winning.".  The Oligarchy, devoid of political ideology, for decades has been promoting Globalization for the simple reason that it greatly benefits the upper, upper crust.  Cheaper labor, relatively few health & safety standards for workers, relatively few environmental regulations with which to comply, no labor unions, etc. all mean more profits for the transnational mega corporations.  Manufacturing and jobs leave our country.  We are rapidly approaching the day when only two economic classes will remain in the USA:  the super rich and the poor or so close to poor that the difference doesn't matter.

Despite their rhetoric to the contrary, both Republican and Democrat politicians support (or do not oppose) the above scenario.  You think not?  If you were to name all the American politicians who do NOT support NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, and the like, I predict that the numbers of them would not take up more than the fingers of one hand...and those few folks have been marginalized completely.  Despite the unceasing propaganda in this great land, politics is (for all intents & purposes) dead in the USA...all that remains is Crony Capitalism...Mega Business...Fascism.

The situation will not improve until Americans fully realize that we have been Divided and Conquered by the Oligarchy.  They get richer while we get poorer.  Even if that realization ever comes, I fear that Americans cannot effectively divorce themselves from divisive politics long enough to take the peaceful action necessary to correct the mess that we're in.  Even if, by some miracle, the political propaganda was ignored...even if Americans could analyze what's going on devoid of the dead political paradigm...I fear we would not have the will to execute a solution.  It would take a massive boycott of the Mega Corporations and their Cronies in DC.  The chances of that happening essentially are zero.  I don't see it ever happening; I hope, for the sake of my grandchildren, that I'm wrong.

Google Flaws

This is my second rant regarding Corporatocracy computer tech whiz kids.  In this case, here are some pointed questions/comments for the Google folks [I would have emailed these to them, but they don't allow a customer to do that.]---
1.  Why do you have 89,000,000 [:)] "accounts" for ONE person?...a separate YouTube acct., a separate Blogspot acct., a separate Chrome acct., etc., ad nauseum.
Here's a thought---one person can have one account that's good for all the Google stuff.  At the very least, you could allow us to have one User Name & password for all these separate accounts.  Oh, I know---"security" issues.  You let me worry about my security on all these innocuous websites of yours.  There's nothing to secure!
2.  Speaking of  "security", stop telling me that I MUST choose another password because the strength of my choice is weak.  Mind your own business.  I should be able to use any password that I please.
3.  Why do you insist on continuing to use a defunct, nonexistent email address for my Blogspot sign-in...& refuse to let me update it?
4.  Do you purposely make creating an "account" difficult & incredibly convoluted?  Do you have any common sense at all?  I tried to set up an AdSense "account"; after an hour, I gave up.
5.  Do you really believe that your "Help" pages are speaking to the lay person?  Here's a clue:  I have a Master's Degree, & half the time you may as well be speaking Greek to me.  Have mercy...wake up.  Not all of us are tech geeks.
6.  Stop being so cheap---hire a bunch more people so you then can permit us to email you.  The fact is, it appears as though you don't really care what problems your customers are having with your convoluted procedures.  Just remember, we're the reason you're able to make money from your advertisers.

Now, sign out of this account, sign in to your Google account to get your verification number, then click on "Help", scroll down to "Numbers", take note of the Number in the red brackets, then sign out of your Google account, check your email, follow the link given in the email, then sign in to your XXXXXX account, scroll down to "Add Account", click on that, then sign out of that account, sign back in to your Google account, look for "Add Account, Step 2", then click on that, then sign in to your YYYYY account, look for the box that says, "Step 3", click on that, go to your email, click on the link, then look for "Step 4", then verify your ID by supplying a new password, then type in the code letters (that no one can read half the time), click on "Submit", then sign in to your Google account, scroll down, and then...

Hey, Whiz Kids---  creating an "account" should be a one-page, one-click process.  Why are they "accounts" at all?---they're all free of charge.  Oh, forgive me, I forgot--- you're tracking all of us and our interests, and then selling that info to advertisers.  Are you selling or giving the info to anyone else?

Political Correctness (PC)

This (below) is from a postscript that I wrote to my brother.  It may be of interest to some or all of you...and, as always, it's just my opinion.  [Thankfully, I think the PC Movement is on its way out of our society; at least, I see the beginnings of that.]

Russell Means (R.I.P.) of A.I.M. stated in an interview with a Caucasian, "I'm an American Indian; a 'native american' is anyone born in this country."  John Echohawk of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) once wrote, "There is nothing whatsoever wrong with the term, 'American Indian'."

As you might guess, I really don't like the whole "politically correct" schtick.  I think it's akin to de Tocqueville's "mild despotism"...the bending & shaping of individuals by the power structure.  It doesn't bother me that others use the term "native american" (as long as they don't insist that I use it), but I prefer "American Indian"... and I have only the greatest respect for those folks.  [I'm aware that some Indians prefer "Native American".]

To illustrate how silly (to me) all the PC stuff is--- Almost everyone would refer to us as "White"; even the Fed Gov't uses that term on forms.  I really dislike the term. Typing paper is "white"; I certainly am not.  European American, Caucasian, Anglo---fine, no worries...but please, not "White".  As applied to humans, I think the term is stupid...but...I don't make a big deal out of it & start a PC movement to pressure everyone into not saying "White".  After all, taking offense to something like that is (to me) the problem of the offended...I think it's a sign of insecurity & psychological weakness.  I say to such folks:  look inward to solve your problems, not outward.  Whatever happened to "Sticks & stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."?

Point is: I believe that the whole PC Movement is a contrivance of the power structure (Oligarchy) to intrude upon Individualism and limit free speech.  The Oligarchy does its best to make us into a Nation of Sheep.  Well...enough of that whole subject.  [It's good to vent... avoids ulcers...& prison :)]

Happy Trails

This and That

1.  I see by yesterday's headlines that Afghanimization is going about as well as did Vietnamization---Nixon & Kissinger's plan to turn over the fighting in Vietnam (back when) to the South Vietnamese Army.  Similar conditions exist in Afghanistan as existed in Vietnam during that war---a corrupt government, a native Army incapable of defending itself, a native people who do not support the corrupt/puppet government, and a native people who want us out of their country.  And yet we continue... completely ignoring the lessons of History.  Young troops being maimed & killed for the sake of the Corporatocracy...the Oligarchy...the Plutocracy...whatever you wish to call it...and, the estimated one trillion dollars worth of unmined minerals...the natural gas & oil pipeline corridors...Brzezinki's "American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives".  Shameful...and utterly so.  Apparently most Americans still believe that the present war is protecting us from TERRORISM, the Boogie Man that replaced the other Boogie Man, Communism.  Please.  That's about as true as the line that the Vietnam war was protecting us from Communism.  Let's see, N. Vietnam won...and life everywhere else went on pretty much the same.  No dominoes fell.  We now trade with Vietnam and visit there at will.

2.  Kudos to Snowden, the guy who blew the whistle on the NSA.  The NSA's actions were the result of orders from the FISA "Court", a secret "court" with absolutely no oversight by anyone...not Congress, not anyone... except of course, the Dictator-in-Chief (any President, not just Obama).  Where are the "checks and balances"?  Over the last 2-3 decades, the Executive Branch has seized an incredible amount of unconstitutional power.  Defenders of that obscenity can go on & on about how this or that secret action---with no oversight---prevented this or that calamity.  They miss the point---our Constitutional Republic cannot legally operate that way.  We have, in effect, an Outlaw Government.  Defenders of the current obscenity can go on & on about how, as Obama put it, "no one's conversations are being listened to".  Really?  How do we know?---there's no oversight.  Plus, the NSA actions included the internet.  I didn't hear anyone say, "no one's web surfing is being watched".  Again, how do we know...there's zero oversight.  Our Republic exists in name only...the checks and balances are long gone.  Long gone.

Be Well

Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville

Below is a dynamite quote from Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville; it was written a couple hundred years ago.  It's an amazing prediction that generally sums up the way things are in the USA (& pretty much all of the developed world) today.

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting.  [Emphasis added.] Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, [Emphasis added.] till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

I would change only the very last clause to read as follows: 
"...of which the government and the Oligarchy are the shepherds."

The situation cannot be blamed only on the Republicans, or only on the Democrats; both are responsible, and equally so.  To blame one or the other, which it seems most Americans do, is to fall into the Divide and Conquer Trap that was well executed by the Oligarchy.  It's important to realize, however, that the whole thing is not a "conspiracy" of any kind...at least, no more a conspiracy than AT&T "conspiring" to make as much money as possible.  The Oligarchy uses the word "conspiracy", or the words "conspiracy theory", to eliminate further discussion of a topic...no one wants to be thought of as a "nut".

The problem is not only at the national and State levels.  Unfortunately, most counties, cities, and towns have adopted "International" property and enforcement codes.  My experience has been that because their codes are international, in the minds of the government officials, that makes everything OK and unassailable by reason and common sense.  I hate to say it and see it, but this is almost everywhere---
"...covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting.  Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people,  till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

All the elections in the world will not change any of that, and violence is not any kind of option---it would be completely & brutally crushed in short order.  Guaranteed.  Massive, peaceful boycotts are not viable options either...only because most Americans do not have the will for such things and we are totally Divided and Conquered.

Sad to say, but I see no effective solution on a large scale.  People are resisting in small ways, passively.  That's about all one can do.  All of this is why I've (for the most part) given up on politics and rarely post on this blog anymore.  I've turned to Art, and what a joy!  Despite that, every so often I see something like the quote above and share it.  I do it mainly because it saddens me to see most of my fellow countrymen still stuck in the anachronistic Repubs v. Dems political paradigm.

Happy Trails

Computer/Internet Tech Whiz Kids Are Crazy

I'm hoping that family/friends/email acquaintances will see this post because it contains an alternate email address...even after successfully going through all their "security" questions, Hotmail won't let me access my scottfree12 account.  New/alternate email:  AbstractCowboy@hotmail.com .  I can't remember too many email addresses, so drop me a note at my alternate address.  Am hoping sooner or later to convince Hotmail that the other "[another] person [is] using this account" (scottfree12) is me.  Then I can get back my email address "book".  Don't ever forget your email password if you have Hotmail.  Answering the "security question"---e.g., "Who was your favorite teacher?"--- will not be enough.  So my question to the corporatists at MSN is:  Why do you even have a security question?  It did not suffice in my case.  Neither did my full name, birthdate, latest email contacts, recent Hotmail folders created, etc.!  Wake up, Whiz Kids, enough of your security crap.  [Can you tell that I'm frustrated with Techs?  :)]

The move to the beautiful State of New Mexico was smooth, but tiring.  Am way out here in (essentially) the wilderness.  After moving into a cabin & finally getting a landline phone---cell coverage is nonexistent on the 50 acres---I spent literally hours on the phone trying to get high-speed or satellite internet.  Wild Blue Satellite has a customer at this place (100 yards down the driveway), but claims to have no coverage---at the end of an hour conversation trying to figure out how that could be so, the tech finally tells me that satellite internet is done by "allotments", & this area is full-up.  Am on "high-speed" dial-up now; what a joke---the "high-speed" part.

Have done 15 new paintings since arriving here.  Don't know yet if I can email those as attachments while on dial-up.  Time will tell.

My best to all.  Keep resisting the Crony Capitalist Corporatocracy, and be well.