The Old Paradigm Doesn't Matter Anymore

Here's a Comment I just now posted on YouTube.  It was regarding a documentary about Castro, and in response to another comment which said the USA may be heading for socialism.  [I enlarged the type below on the Edit page, but the change didn't take...blame Tech Whiz Kids:]
...............................................
Let's not get caught up in Edward Bernays style Propaganda. In the USA, we've had a Mixed Economy for decades & decades...part capitalism & part socialism. For example, The VA Health Care System is 100% socialist--- the Gov't supplies med staff, buildings, equipment, meds, etc., and pays for 99.9% of it with tax money. As a Vet, I pay a small co-pay amount. [That is to say, I did when I was close enough to a VA Clinic to get care there; that's no longer true.] Furthermore, the "Capitalist" part of our economy is (for the most part) NOT Free Market Capitalism; instead, it's CRONY Capitalism. For example, take the Money Market--- when the Fed essentially sets the interest rate rather than the Market doing so, that's NOT Free Market Capitalism (FMC). When the Gov't bails out Mega Banks & other Corporations, that's NOT FMC. The fact is: the old, anachronistic political and economic labels don't matter anymore. The new paradigm is the Oligarchy v. the rest of us. At the highest levels, elected politicians and Mega Business rulers don't give a damn if their colleagues are Repubs, Dems, Socialists, Capitalists, or Druids. The old labels are Propaganda for controlling what the Oligarchs call, "the Little People". All the Rulers care about is Power and Riches...for them, not the rest of us. As far as they're concerned, the old Right v. Left paradigm is nothing but a joke...and it works to their advantage. Divide & conquer...and man, have they ever done that. ................................................

Not only my opinion. Be Well

Message to President Obama

https://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/stop-the-nuclear-weapons-hypocrisy

[This campaign may not be approved by CREDO; they tend to think that Obama is a Populist, not what he really is, a Corporatist.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Why So Many People Are Pissed Off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYoaV6f78wM

This is why many people all over are pissed off--- they've been forced into the Precariat by Globalization (at least, the CRONY Capitalists' view of that), Financialization, and the Plutocracy. Now, almost 5 years after this talk (which is condensed at the link), things are much worse. We all need to stop drinking the Edward Bernays style Propaganda Kool Aid coming from the Politicians, Plutocrats and Oligarchs.  

Not only my opinion. Be Well

p.s. This brief, condensed talk really does explain a lot...& not just in the case of Europe.

Changing Horses!

I've been doing this Blog for a bit over nine years now.  This is post number 301.  One can say only so much about the philosophy and actions of the State-Corporate Complex, aka, the Corporatocracy, the Plutocracy, the Oligarchy, the Shadow Government, the Plutonomy (Google it), CRONY Capitalism, the Rule of the Super-Rich, etc.  I find that mostly I'm repeating myself nowadays...or merely commenting on some current event.  It's time to change horses.

After watching a couple of short documentaries on the "Urban Homestead" on YouTube, it came to me that the guy & his family featured in those films are right on the money--- that's a good way to overcome the System described in the paragraph above.  It's not apparent at first, but the more one thinks about it, the more the truth of it comes out.

Consequently, I'll be cutting way back on posts here.  Last night I launched a new Blog, www.ContainerGardening2016.blogspot.com  ...please have a look.  I thank all the viewers, from all around the world, for spending your valuable time here for the past nine years.  That's very much appreciated.  From time to time, as the Economic Crash proceeds, I'll post a piece here again.  My main focus, though, now will be on the new site.

I urge everyone to view the YouTube pieces on the Urban Homestead, especially the one that was an award-winning short film in 2009.  In this technology-crazy modern era, we simply must become more self-sufficient.  That's one reason I started ContainerGardening2016.  Even if you have zero interest in the subject, please have a look.  Container gardening is relatively easy, inexpensive, saves you money, and, believe it or not, it's a way to fight/shun the Corporatocracy.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Some of the Corporatists Finally are Waking Up re: the Economic Collapse

Quotes from---
Goldman Sachs:  "We are witnessing a Stock Market exodus.";
Bank of America:  "The U.S. may already be in a Recession.";
Wall Street Journal:  "A Hedge Fund Exodus";
CNBC commentary:  "This [the weak consumer] could be the 'Black Swan' for the economy.";
                                 "We are in the midst of a deceleration in the economy, and the chain of                     dominoes leading to a recession has started to fall.";
                                 "This is the foreshadowing of a recession.";
JP Morgan:  "An economic crisis is inevitable.";
                   "The U.S. economy is steamrolling toward a Recession."
                   "Recession risk in the U.S. is rising rapidly.";
Bloomberg:  "The Shipping News Says the World Economy is Toast.";
                    [The Baltic Dry Index is way down.]
                    "The clouds are gathering again over the global village we live in; they are getting darker every                        day.";
CitiGroup:  "The global economy is on the brink of a Recession.";
                  "The global economy seems trapped in a death spiral...";
US Bank CEO:  "I worry that the economic, political issues can impact people's incentive to consume and                                their optimism to go down. That's what worries me."
                          [Well, it's difficult to maintain an incentive to consume when:  your wages are stagnant; or                                you have a part-time or temporary job; or you're unemployed; and the cost of living                                     (especially groceries and rent) keeps going up.  Hello.]

The above institutions/people have only scratched the surface relative to the Economic Crash that already has started, but at least it's a start.  Now, if we can get the politicians to admit what's going on, maybe we'll get somewhere.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well, and Best of Luck to Everyone

Ten Steps for Instituting Corporatism in a Society

This is from the superb documentary, "Requiem for the American Dream", with Noam Chomsky.  Chomsky often is regarded as a socialist, or even (especially by some on the political Right) as a communist; in reality, probably the closest thing to his political beliefs is a specific type of anarchism---anarcho-syndicalism, a type of direct democracy.  In any case, in the film mentioned above he shows in great detail how Corporatism essentially has taken over America, and how both the Right and the Left have been duped.  He refers to the ten points in my title as the "10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth and Power"---

1.  Reduce democracy.
2.  Shape ideology.
3.  Redesign the economy.
4.  Shift the burden.
5.  Attack solidarity.
6.  Run the regulators.
7.  Engineer elections.
8.  Keep the rabble in line.
9.  Manufacture consent.
10.  Marginalize the population.

Rich in detail and historical news clips, the documentary shows how Mega Business has manipulated American society through means such as Propaganda, Financialization, Lobbying, Consumerism, Crony Capitalism, political ideologies, undue influence, etc. to the point where genuine participatory democracy is pretty much long gone.

Apologies for the brevity of this piece, but I don't have the time or energy to adequately detail each of the ten points.  See the film; currently it's on Netflix, and probably found elsewhere online as well.  It shows exactly how a bloodless coup has taken place in the USA.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"The Drone Papers", and Obama the Assassin

This piece is a 10-16-15 REDUX---

"The Drone Papers", and Obama the Assassin

For a great overview of this subject and interviews with the investigative journalists involved, see today's newscast at Democracy Now (Friday, October 16, 2015).  I doubt you'll see anything like it on the Corporate Media outlets...which seem to be obsessed with the weather.

A whistleblower has supplied The Intercept.com with official secret documents regarding Obama's Drone Wars in Yemen, Somalia, & Afghanistan.  At their website (The Intercept), there's a series of articles based upon those documents:  "The Assassination Complex", "A Virtual Glossary", "The Kill Chain", "Find, Fix, Finish", "Manhunting in the Hindu Kush", "Firing Blind", "The Life and Death of Objective Peckham", and "Target Africa".  In a classified Pentagon study, officials found significant flaws in the Drone Program, including faulty Signals Intelligence (cell phone calls, texting, emails, etc.) and serious limitations in the drone technology itself.

Other of the Papers revealed that sometimes nine out of ten people killed are not the intended target.  [Anyone killed in a drone attack automatically is classified as an EKIA (Enemy Killed in Action)... even if that person is the target's grandmother.]  Also, reliance upon foreign intelligence is heavy, and in some cases, it's entirely possible that political opponents (especially in Yemen), not terrorists, were killed.  The Papers also revealed that in a few Afghan provinces, the residents opposed/resisted the Taliban...until Americans invaded their land.  There's much, much more, but I don't have the time or energy to cover it.  See the newscast at Democracy Now.

Obama is unconstitutionally targeting people for death.  A clause in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress, not the Executive Branch, can issue "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" (assassination orders).  Perhaps some people think, so what, he's killing terrorists who are a threat to us.  Too bad that's not always true...too bad that many more innocent people are being slaughtered than what we've been told by the Executive Branch, and too bad that we're not even at war with Somalia, Yemen, or Pakistan... all sovereign nations.  Pakistan, in particular, repeatedly has told our Gov't to stop bombing in their country.  Too bad that the Taliban now control more of Afghanistan than they ever did in the last fourteen years.  Too bad that Afghanistan is known (for very good reasons) as "The Graveyard of Empires".  The old Soviets had 500,000 Russian troops there...they lost that war.

Obama just recently stated (paraphrased):  "You know I'm not in favor of Endless War.".  All I know, Mr. President, is that's what you keep saying.  I see little to no evidence of the truth of that.  You claim these Drone Wars are not "war".  If that's true, then here's a thought for you:  you have no legal authority to order the murder of people around the world.  Who died & thus made you King?  Some of the people you're having killed probably were toddlers on 9-11-01.  Have they attacked us?  The fact is, even more than Bush-Cheney, you've maneuvered us into a present & future of perpetual war.  There's no end in sight.  There's no reasonable plan in sight.  Drone wars, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and who knows what's next--- you're a warmonger, all in the name of national security.  Wow, what an original justification.  Here's another fact:  your military actions are making new terrorists and stirring up the old ones.  A final fact:  IT IS LAW ENFORCEMENT and everyday citizens who are keeping us safe from Terrorism...not your terrorist-creating, military maneuvers.  You've succeeded in making our Gov't's actions the number one generator of terrorists in the entire world.  You've beaten out Bush-Cheney in that regard.  I didn't think that was possible.

I (& many reputable analysts) think your military misadventures are because the economy here is in bad shape, our fiscal & monetary conditions are appalling, the dollar's world reserve currency status is being seriously threatened, and your implementation of the Big Stick around the world supposedly will hold it all together.  All you're doing is making enemies around the Globe, while at the same time, destroying our economy.  You people in the DC Ivory Tower need to wake up and pay attention.  You're not the Master, you're the Servant.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well