Who are the Republicans?

The IRS, who weighs heavily, and often with savagery, on the poor, whose tax burden is in excess of 11 % of their income, so that even the working poor, and the average husband and wife, each working at two or three jobs can never get ahead, and on the middle class, who shell out more than 6% of their income to the IRS, but the tax guys look the other way when it comes to making the rich pay up.  This is despite the fact that the rich pay less than 2% of their income in taxes, to begin with.  And the stalwart Republicans, the GOP, who now are holding the American people hostage, for the purpose of negotiating with Obama to take even more money away from Main Street to put into the hands of the 1% elites and on Wall Street.  The yokels are the step'n'fetch it boys for the rich ---

Ah!  the Rich, whose hideous tragedy is that they just don't seem ever to have quite enough money --- so would we all mind terribly looking the other way while they help themselves to ours --- just to make the likes of David A. Koch and his brother Charles, the Koch brothers, don'chya know, dry their their eyes of bitter tears and smile, darn ya, smile!

My fervent wish is that the people of America would stop making the Koch brothers and their pals, (for a list of their pals, click here so happy.  Simply giving up with a sigh, as my parents did, with a wispy smile and resignation in their hearts, saying, "Well, that's the way life is, what can you do?"

You can imagine that your children are starving and get off your ass and take charge of your life.  That's one thing you could do.  You could join with others who are oppressed and take charge of your lives.

Finally, since all you did when Occupy Wall Street was going was criticize them for being unwashed and wondering where they went to the bathroom, you could lend a hand.  And revive Occupy The Planet.

You could begin writing letters to the editors of your local newspaper's Op-Ed page.  And write with fire and poison in your pen!  Or you could donate to progressive causes which are online all over the place.

Or you could become a serf!  And your children and their children will thank you for being a piece of shit wimp!

Obama's War On Freedom of the Press

The Obama Whitehouse once again demonstrated that Obama is the enemy of democracy, an enthusiastic  violator of First Amendment freedom of the press, and a cocksucker of and for the plutocracy.  What it also says is that the skirmishes with the GOP driven House of Representatives, his battles with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are nothing but outer theater.  A dog and pony show for the masses.

The release of Yemeni journalist Abdulalelah Haider Shaye has not made the Whitehouse happy.  Shaye has already served 2 years in Yemeni prison as a political prisoner.  His crime?

Telling the truth.

When telling the truth entails a blatant disregard for career and money, it becomes an act of Civil Disobedience in this money mad culture we now find ourselves in.  

More Agitprop Against Critics of Surveillance State

uth Marcus's current column, which, btw, The Oregonian gave pride of place today, on the Op-Ed page, is one of the, well, I was going to say worst, but on second thought, let's say most transparently propagandistic pieces of nonsense I've read in many a day.  "Snowden's No Hero"  the headline reads.  Marcus is no doubt aware that Snowden has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wonderful idea! I'd say.

Speaking from her megaphone at the Washington Post, her article appears an arrow aimed at puncturing any such design.  What I see is the White House sending signals of displeasure at the notion that the same committee that made such a gross blunder when they awarded Obama that very award in 2008, might try to over correct by awarding it to a real hero.

As if to display her liberal creds, she uses Martin Luther King as an example of how a hero ought to proceed.  She quotes MLK extensively.  But she disregards the reality that civil rights concerning the black community was more than forty years ago and worlds away from this issue.  There is no model for how to be heroic in this era of very high-tek.  This world is dominated by the likes of Booz Allen Hamilton --- a giant hi-tech surveillance contractor who is accustomed to getting those no-bid multi-billion dollar contracts from the NSA.

Even here, the way to truth is to follow the money.  And the money leads directly to Booz Allen's door. And to Barack Obama's door.  Obama garnered well over a hundred and forty seven thou from Booz Allen alone. Not to mention very generous donations to Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, and John Kerry campaigns among a host of other very well known politicians too numerous to name here. For an excellent discussion of the intimate, nay, cozy relationship between NSA and Booz Allen Hamilton, as well as both political parties, see the well documented article by David Sirota

"Simply put," Sirota says, "there are huge corporate forces with a vested financial interest in making sure the debate over security is tilted toward the surveillance state and against the critics of that surveillance state."

In describing heroic action, Marcus mentions Socrates, actually Plato's evocation of him in the Crito, where Socrates refutes Crito's plea to escape prison and death.  She mentions this as a way to show Snowden isn't really a hero because he is unwilling to hang around and accept a corrupt government's prosecution against him.

I have referred to the same dialogue, the Crito, to contrast the philosophy and actions of Ayn Rand with those of a real philosopher, namely, Socrates.  Rand railed against the philosophical underpinnings which helped to create Social Security and Medicare.  Then she availed herself of both at the end.  Rand was not a hero, by any stretch, nor even, when you hold her up to Socrates, a decent philosopher.  She was a hypocrite.  A nothing.  Not worthy of mention.

Marcus mentions Socrates, but avoids the name of Thomas Drake.  Drake did his best to alert the NSA and the CIA, and the FBI, and finally Congress about the threat of an attack on the World Trad Center on 9/11.  Thomas Drake was thanked by being fired from his job, his name deliberately smeared, and threatened with imprisonment, for his trouble.

The Real Criminal Class

he Psychology department at U of CA at Berkeley has added a big exclamation point to the long held poetic suspicion that the rich are rotten to the core and the poor are inherently more virtuous, more compassionate and more giving.  I must add that I have seen evidence of this sort of behavior and now this data merely confirms what we've all, folk wisdom people and poets and playwrights, always known. Now comes the latest and very conclusive results that the richer they are the more likely they are to steal candy from a baby.

Literally,

Steal candy from a baby.

Remember this is based on a thorough research study for nearly a decade.  But as far as I can tell, this experiment is far from the first study to show sad and dramatic differences in the ethical and moral differences between rich and poor.

And as far as I am concerned, there is the same difference between Republican and Progressive.  If you have a hard time with my findings you can set up your own experiments.  I have set up and completed my own research.  One cannot help but notice that Republicans are far more likely to lie, to cheat, and to bully, than Progressives.  Not that all Progressives are perfect models of virtue all the time, but the likelihood of a conservative evincing rude behavior among his or her perceived inferiors, whether they were actually inferior or not is huge.  This set of observations runs side by side with Lord Acton's famous dictum that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." 

Strange.  You would think it was just the reverse.  That those with plenty would be more liberal and more virtuous while the poor would wish to conserve more stringently and not help out their neighbor.  But the American Taliban, the Evangelical Christians many of whom make up significant portion of the Tea Party, are the least virtuous, most hypocritical and un-Christlike, bigoted, slanderous and judgmental of any group in America. In other words --- rich conservatives are human trash.

And that is not to say that all Republicans are appalling snobs.  Mostly it seems to be the richest and the loudest.  The leadership.  The broadcast voices: The Rushes.  The Michael Savages.  The Lars Larsens.

Big Voices, tiny men --- moral midgets, really.

And by wealthy we are speaking of relatively modest income, such as one hundred fifty to two hundred thousand dollars a year.  A pittance compared to Wall Street banksters who pull down 20, 40 60, million a business quarter.

*  *  *  *  *

We cannot forget that we have a list of men of immense wealth, billionaires, who have chosen to act as a force for good at the very least in their community, if not the entire planet.  But  and really, though those who do add their names to the list of great generosity, the studies show they tend to live longer and to be healthier, and get a better night's sleep, and generally report happier lives, than their stingier colleagues, the rich are, nevertheless, rather slow to add their names.  

Why Clock Has Run Out For Obama As "The Good Guy"

on't get me wrong.  I voted for President Obama not once but twice.  He was so anti-Romney and Romney was never a possibility as far as I am concerned.  He leaned over backward to establish himself as a member of the elite.  The traitorous 1%.

He promised to dismantle PBS for Chrissakes.

That may have been the remark which finally tore it among voters.  Single parent moms, still on the fence, no longer able to sit their child in front of the tube to watch Sesame Street, would have heard that and run over to Democratic Headquarters to work the phone banks on behalf of Obama. Something they never would have done before that remark.

But now...

Obama has done nothing in this term to suggest that he is a free and independent agent, and not a puppet of the Fascist MIC (Military Industrial Complex) warmongers and war profiteers, among other giant corporations, GE, maker of weapons;  Haliburton, always waiting in the wings to slurp up those multi-billion dollar no-bid contracts, and then deliver a toxic or near toxic and dramatically inferior product to our boys on the front lines.  Lockheed;  Boeing;  Bechtel; it is a long ugly list and they all appear to have Barry in their collective back pocket.

The Drone assassination policy is beneath contempt.  It moves the president into the category of War Criminal.  ( "If the president does it it is not a crime."  Richard Millhouse Nixon) Actually it is a crime and Nixon was forced to resign for crimes which now look like patty-cake compared to the nasty shit BushBama has been up to.

The NSA AND FBI revelations of the past several months --- and really going back to the Bush Administration are going to need serious public conversation.  And that conversation, given that we are allowed to have it, may lead to the total dismantling of the Federal Government.  And it may end up with the voting citizens of the US having to write a new Constitutional Amendment, protecting citizen privacy, or else we toss the whole maghilla and start over from scratch   We can thank the Bush-wipes for initiating the process of shredding of Constitutionally guaranteed civil Rights.  But then too we need to throw out several traitorous members of the Supreme Court, as well:  Starting with Antonin Scalia, moving on (and downward) to Clarence "Ding-Dong" Thomas, but not forgetting Alito.  These men have consistently erred in their judgment and decisions.  And these were not merely simple-minded errors or lapses.

They show a consistent trend of sympathy toward dark fascist forces embodied in the current crop of Corporations who have committed the treason of buying off the United States Congress, and apparently --- the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, and now there is little doubt, the presidency.

This last is truly crushing.  We seemed to have a friend on the side of reason, intelligence and up-rightness.  But we forgot something huge:

Obama's background as a racketeer in Chicago.

When his buddy-buddy bromance with Rahm Emmanuel, now, mayor of Chicago, threatened to be exposed, he cast off Rahm like a soiled pair of shorts.  There was an expose of their exploits on the Internet oh, about 3 years ago.  It isn't there now.  But it cast serious shadow on their adventures at a certain gay bath house.  And let us not get into how corrupt the politics of Chicago is, historically.  Suffice it to say that the office of mayor under Rahm is a touch and go affair.  Even given the scalding corruption of Chicago's City Hall, the voters in that city deem Rahm one of the worst mayors ever.

Yet knowing all of this I voted for Obama again.  I don't care if the two of them fucking lived in bath houses.  I care only about the welfare of this country.  And the gay/str8 duality or polarity has no bearing in foreign policy. Or domestic policy at that.  In fact, I would welcome a gay president with open arms.

But it seems a very difficult battle.  Here is a quote from Bill Moyers blog:

Simply put there are huge corporate forces with a vested financial interest in making sure the debate over security is tilted toward the surveillance state and against critics of that surveillance state.  In practice that means when those corporations spend big money on campaign contributions, they aren't just buying votes for a particular contract.  They are also implicitly buying those politicians rhetoric to push the discourse in a pro-surveillance, anti-civil liberties direction -- that is, in a direction that preserves the larger political assumptions on which the profits of the entire surveillance-industrial complex are based.
The overweening success of that pressure is exemplified by the title of yesterday's congressional hearing with the head of the NSA, Gen. Keith Alexander.  The hearing doesn't ask why Alexander lied to Congress or whether the NSA has engaged in illegal acts.  No, a Congress bankrolled by by corporations like Booz, Allen predictably calls the hearing "How disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans & Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries"

The two lies, by now, have assumed the proportions of unspoken assumptions in the national discourse are these:  1. That surveillance by firms such as Booz, 1) protects Americans.  and 2) Ensure that anybody who criticizes that Security State is hurting Americans and Aiding and abetting our enemies.

Thus, it finally becomes clear why politicans have been so vocal making such outrageous statements about Edward Snowden.  Even more than the furor over the expose of the fact that the entire war in Viet Nam was based entirely on lies, by Daniel Ellsburg.  We can begin to understand that the most outspoken of these, Peter King, and John McCain, among many voices, including the Obama White House, the louder more scurrilous the invective, the more deeply that person is indebted to Booz, Allen and their ilk.

Do you see now why it is absolutely imperitive that the Federal government interfere with and ultimately through the classified provisions of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership assume the role of Big Brother.  And please feel free to question why such provisions are so classified!   Even Alan Grayson, who finally twisted enough arms that he was allowed to read through the highly classified documents of the TPP, was sworn to such secrecy that he would go to jail if he divulged a word of what he found.  Suffice it to say, he thought it so anti-public interest that he vowed to fight it all the way, tooth and nail, as is said.

So why is the rest of Amerika so easy to put to sleep.

Where is the fight?  

The Military's Humiliation: Railroading Bradley Manning

A Kangaroo Court is a "mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted."  It is essentially where the defendant has already been deemed guilty and has little if any opportunities to object or defend himself. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  

For a definitive demonstration of how corrupt our government has become, along with the NSA's data collecting of private citizen's communications, NDAA, (National Defense Authorization Act) and the equally infamous PPT (Pacific Partnership Treaty), we need only to view the "trial" of Bradley Manning.  The military has always been famous for its affinity for kangaroo court style of justice.  But in this trial with the entire world watching, the military seems downright proud of its stupidities, its mandacity, or lack of truth, and its perversion of real justice.

Whereas in real life anyone in a position of power would be embarrassed to allow it known how truly similar its court, lawyers and especially the judge is to Killer Klowns, the Manning trial officials strut their nonsense with aplomb.  As if they were genuine human beings instead of the pigs they actually more truly resemble.

The fact that Manning may have set off an unstoppable series of events in which Honest to Buddha's truth has come to be known to the American people instead of the entire multi-layered tapestries of lies we've become accustomed to.  In our blithe naive way.

After all, the public has been groomed to lay down and roll over by the corporations.  The fact that they might stand up and begin to demand change is threatening to our government.  And NO! The president is not our friend.  Barry is little more than the delivery boy for the corporate state.  When Monsanto et al says jump, he wants to know "How high?"  So naturally they hate whistleblowers.

But what they forgot is that Everything Changes --- all the time.  Especially when your aim is Profit at the expense of humanity, the planet earth, Truth, Decency, and the entire Universe.

I am here to tell you, if you didn't know, whatever happens to Bradley Manning, he is a hero to us all.  And to the corporate state.  And the military courts.  They will ultimately have to look at them selves in the mirror of history.  Let us hope that they care to see beauty and freedom and Justice.  And not rejoice at the sight of themselves as the envoys of the animal kingdom.

Spiders In Your Food

enetically Modified Foods.  The very phrase, which speaks of spiders' DNA being inserted into soybeans, or fish DNA into corn, to name two methods, strikes terror into the heart of knowledgeable consumers.  No wonder science itself, is losing its once inviolate name to draw back the curtain of ignorance, to reveal truth upon greater truth, is now being stained by "scientists" whose every work brings further betrayal upon humanity.

Eight bills dealing with the highly volatile GMO issue are about to be debated in the Oregon Legislature.  True, there was a big moment in California, when voters suddenly turned in upon their own best interest and defeated the motion to label GMOs.  But then too, there was Monsanto spreading huge amounts of money, buying everybody with the smallest amount of legislative power.  Not to mention the fact that the vote count was polluted and that issue, too, has never been satisfactorily resolved.  The polluters counted on time and distance to let the issue pass out of public scrutiny.

Monsanto is known to be extremely liberal in its buying of legislators and judges.  Beginning back with Canadian Farmer, Percy Schmeizer who attempted to sue Monsanto for polluting his crops.  The judge not only found for Monsanto but ordered Schmeizer to forfeit to Monsanto, his heritage seeds; seeds which had been cultivated for generations by his family.  Fortunately, Schmeizer had the good sense to fight the decision all the way up to the Canadian Supreme Court.  Unfortunately, Monsanto had not only fouled Schmeizer's crops, but had paid off every judge along the way to the Supreme Court.

The fouling of Justice is one of most tragic results of all this.

I am not so sure Schmeizer would have won were his case to come before the United States Supreme Court as the court is now structured.



It is simply not possible to be a thinking person, and do just a modicum of research on the subject of GMOs and still come down on Monsanto's side.  Consider: it is Monsanto, alone, which is responsible for the suicides of thousands of farmers in India.  That gross tragedy will have to be discussed in another essay.  Suffice it to say,  India has had to ban Monsanto from dealing at all in that country.  It is a sign of the corrupt era we live in that the American State Department has made sure that that story has never surfaced in America.  That is one of the more embarrassing stories posted on the whistleblower site, Wikileaks.  It also explains why so many at the top of the Obama administration want Julian Assange dead or alive.

If this vital issue should happen to lose in the Oregon legislature, we may soon be reading of bills in Congress which seek to protect the rights of rich people to buy legislatures and congresses.  Not to mention judges and newspapers.