Dancing: a vertical expression of a horizontal obsession
Wednesday, April 06, 2016
Today's Hero
There was a similar phenomenon when the whole TeaBagger thing erupted in 2010, but that was an astroturf operation that was fomented and nurtured and financed by guys like Chuckles Koch to make it look like some kinda populist uprising.
This woman didn't plan anything like showing up at a town hall meeting deliberately to disrupt the process - she saw her chance to make her voice heard and she took it. Good on her for that.
What she did seemed organic and spontaneous. And it was obviously not what Gov Scott was expecting or hoping for. But the best part is when she totally shuts down the staffers, and they all parade out of the joint looking very very glum, while Scott can't figure out how to react in any human way so he freezes that phony condescending Pageant Queen smile on his mug trying hard to pretend he was OK with it. He wasn't. That one stung pretty good, and it needs to happen a lot.
That young woman is a hero.
Tuesday, April 05, 2016
Panama & Meh
Between $21 trillion and $32 trillion are sheltered in tax havens according to the Tax Justice Network. pic.twitter.com/8H0ts59qx1— The Int'l Spectator (@intlspectator) April 5, 2016
OK so I'm wrong a lot, and I'm hoping I'm real wrong on this one. But I don't see much changing because of the outrage over what's being "revealed" in The Panama Papers about a really fucked up system.
Maybe we'll see a lot more about how bad and illegal all this shit is, and maybe we won't.
Maybe we'll get all het up over it and demand something be done, and maybe we'll just shrug it off.
We've been conditioned to accept a coupla things. First, if you're rich enough, then you're well-enough connected to political power, which means you can do just about anything you want and not have to worry about "the law". We see this shit every time (eg) when some Wall Streeters get caught dirty dealing and then negotiate their way out of it - "agreeing" to pay some skimpy little fine - which may sound enormous until you notice it amounts to about 1/80th of what they fucked us all over for - and which was factored into the cost of doing business from the start.
Second though is a perversion of the Zorro / Scarlet Pimpernel thing. The noble scamp plays at being loyal to the crown while doing everything he can to countervail what he sees as the evil-doings of a corrupted king.
We've accepted the conditioning that Da Gubmint is rotten and that spending Federal Revenue on anything but Defense and Relieving The Tax Burden of The Rent Collectors is nothing but theft, so everything you do that can plausibly be tied to "fighting back" is not only understandable, it's the right thing to do. Tax Evasion is the right thing that all the smart guys are doing. And all the smart guys are rich because they're smart because they're rich. And I wanna do what's right for them because I'll be rich and smart some day too, and I'm sure they'll be eager to return the favor.
I'm not advocating anything other than solidly passive and peaceful political resistance - please, nobody do anything stoopid - but I do have to wonder when we can expect to see the first wave of kidnappings and assassinations.
It goes on like this and it's all but guaranteed not to end well for anybody.
Monday, April 04, 2016
Sunday, April 03, 2016
Seems Like Good News
From Juan Cole:
Baby steps.
Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman announced Friday that Saudi Arabia would use its oil assets to back a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The move suggested to many observers that the kingdom is preparing for a likely end of the petroleum business and transitioning to being primarily an investor. While it is true that the money for the sovereign wealth fund is expected to come from petroleum sales, it also seems clear that the kingdom recognizes that it has a stranded asset that won’t be nearly as valuable in a decade or two as it is now. It could even end up, like coal, being regulated out of existence in many countries.
Here are 3 reasons Saudi Arabia is likely making this massive change in economic strategy:
1. Climate change denial, which the Saudis pushed and helped fund, has failed. A majority of Americans now accepts that humans burning fossil fuels is causing global warming. And that’s in anti-science, capitalist-ridden America. Everywhere else in the world it goes without saying. Since the impact of global warming will become increasingly apparent in the coming decades, likely pressure to abandon burning fossil fuels will grow. Already, most new investment in power plants is in renewables,not coal and gas.
2. Another fossil fuel, coal, is being quickly phased out and will likely be illegal in fifteen or twenty years. It is being phased out by the Environmental Protection Agency because it puts out pollutants, including CO2. The writing is on the wall for coal and petroleum.
3. More affordable, longer-range electric cars are now coming on the market, with the Chevy Bolt due next December and Tesla 3 the following year. Most petroleum is used for transportation, so electric vehicles are deadly to that market. The new generation of electric cars is less than $30,000 in the US after tax rebates. And it typically can go 200 miles on a charge. Tesla is putting fast recharging stations everywhere it can, and people have already gone across the country in a Tesla. Battery costs are falling and batteries are becoming more efficient, so the writing is on the wall for the combustion engine. Consumers are combining electric cars with solar panels on their houses, getting free fuel. Low gasoline prices won’t impede solar car sales because prices would have to fall another dollar US before EVs would not be worth it.
In as little as fifteen to twenty years, petroleum may be illegal in some places; and will be in retreat everywhere. Saudi oil is a stranded asset. So they are attempting to create a revenue stream from investments. As for fossil fuels, their business model is under severe pressure.
So, if I look past the part about The House of Saud becoming even more parasitic than they are now - at least they're making some attempt to move away from literally burning the place to the ground trying to milk every last dime outa the suckers, to a new and exciting career as straight-up Rent-Collecting Leeches. Which somehow seems bizarrely logical in that it means they're being more "honest" as to the total buggery of what they're all about(?)
Baby steps.
Opening Day
I don't much care about baseball, but there's something about Spring that's just not Spring until they're playin' ball.
Saturday, April 02, 2016
Be It Resolved
I've always had a tough time getting straight with some of the minutiae of Church-State Separation.
There's no doubt in my mind about making sure religious dogma is kept out of the law - that the law can only be about what's provably true, and so the magical mystery bunkum has to be put aside. I'm good on all that.
So, kinda cutting to the chase, my last item is taxation. I've been reluctant to advocate in favor of taxing churches because it seemed like an opening for Government to meddle where government doesn't belong. But I've come to view that thinking as more of a rationalization. It's politically expedient, but mostly commercially prudent for churches to try to "protect" themselves from "government meddling"; it's not really a question of Separation so much as it's a question of a business interest lobbying for exemptions.
A church is a business. We have a reasonable expectation for every person and every business to pay a share of the taxes necessary to maintain a functioning society. If you enjoy the benefits of police and fire protection, and roads and snow plows, and all the other goodies, then you need to throw a few bucks in the hat for it. Not to be too obvious, church guys, but it's not a lot different than somebody sitting thru the service and getting the "benefits" of your sermonizing, and then not kicking in when you pass the collection plate.
So why not churches? We require all the other Mumbo-Jumbo Peddlers to pay and to be appropriately regulated. The palm reader pays taxes. Crystal Gazers pay taxes. The Reiki Master pays taxes. Etc.
When we decide this "religious" organization is exempt from the law, but that one isn't - and we base the decision on the organization's "religious beliefs" - it just seems like we're doing exactly what the 1st amendment says we're not supposed to do.
We should stop doing that.
There's no doubt in my mind about making sure religious dogma is kept out of the law - that the law can only be about what's provably true, and so the magical mystery bunkum has to be put aside. I'm good on all that.
So, kinda cutting to the chase, my last item is taxation. I've been reluctant to advocate in favor of taxing churches because it seemed like an opening for Government to meddle where government doesn't belong. But I've come to view that thinking as more of a rationalization. It's politically expedient, but mostly commercially prudent for churches to try to "protect" themselves from "government meddling"; it's not really a question of Separation so much as it's a question of a business interest lobbying for exemptions.
A church is a business. We have a reasonable expectation for every person and every business to pay a share of the taxes necessary to maintain a functioning society. If you enjoy the benefits of police and fire protection, and roads and snow plows, and all the other goodies, then you need to throw a few bucks in the hat for it. Not to be too obvious, church guys, but it's not a lot different than somebody sitting thru the service and getting the "benefits" of your sermonizing, and then not kicking in when you pass the collection plate.
So why not churches? We require all the other Mumbo-Jumbo Peddlers to pay and to be appropriately regulated. The palm reader pays taxes. Crystal Gazers pay taxes. The Reiki Master pays taxes. Etc.
When we decide this "religious" organization is exempt from the law, but that one isn't - and we base the decision on the organization's "religious beliefs" - it just seems like we're doing exactly what the 1st amendment says we're not supposed to do.
We should stop doing that.
Today's Tweet
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.— Novelicious (@noveliciouss) March 19, 2016
— Sarah Williams#poetry #writing pic.twitter.com/yAY7JUKxDf
Friday, April 01, 2016
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Gone But Not Ever Really Gone
From HuffPo:
Reince Priebus prob'ly won't stay in the Chair for very long after November 8th, but the guy's not gonna be sellin' shoes or baggin' groceries. The Wingnut Welfare System will kick in almost immediately to make sure he doesn't fall too far. He'll write his book, and he'll pop up in all the ususal places as "a contributor", and eventually, he'll land in some sweet little gig that one of the "Think Tanks" has had custom-made just for him - and it'll pay him plenty as long as he spins his work in favor of the Daddy Mega-Bucks Patron du jour.
Our "leaders" keep preaching "Accountability", but it doesn't apply to anyone with the right connections to Money & Power. When I start seeing a few dozen Political Leaders and Press Poodles and Military Brass and Wall Street Bosses (et al) "running onto their swords", then maybe I start to think we're getting back to where we need to be.
Tuesday night, during a televised town hall interview on CNN, Stygian homunculus and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was asked if he still planned to honor a pledge he made some months prior, in which he promised to support the eventual GOP nominee. As you might imagine, given Trump’s famous flexibility toward concepts such as “honor” and “promises,” the candidate answered that no, he had no intention of following that pledge’s directive, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “No, I don’t anymore.”
So now, everyone in the political universe is coming to grips with one of the most foreseeable events in the Western hemisphere finally coming to pass — Trump’s explicit abrogation of a contractual obligation he made with Republican National Committee head Reince Priebus. Now, the remaining competitors for the nomination — Ted Cruz and John Kasich — are slowly coming around to the notion that they might want to similarly withdraw their tacit offer of support for a candidate they have long despised. Perhaps the most shocking thing about this is that it’s only now that these men have decided to embark on a spree of thinking for themselves.
But the failure of this pledge should stun nobody. Priebus’ pledge was always a catastrophically dumb idea and its utter collapse was always just a matter of time. It was a bonehead gamble from the outset, tying the hands of the very people it was ostensibly designed to protect, and empowering a serial con artist to run roughshod over the Republican Party. It should end Priebus’ career.Does anybody really expect anybody to "lose his job" over any of this? As in "clean out your desk and stay the hell away from the GOP"? That is (and should be) the reasonable expectation on the part of every normal person with a living thinking brain - because that's how it works for everybody with a real job - but that's not how it works for an Aristocracy.
Reince Priebus prob'ly won't stay in the Chair for very long after November 8th, but the guy's not gonna be sellin' shoes or baggin' groceries. The Wingnut Welfare System will kick in almost immediately to make sure he doesn't fall too far. He'll write his book, and he'll pop up in all the ususal places as "a contributor", and eventually, he'll land in some sweet little gig that one of the "Think Tanks" has had custom-made just for him - and it'll pay him plenty as long as he spins his work in favor of the Daddy Mega-Bucks Patron du jour.
Our "leaders" keep preaching "Accountability", but it doesn't apply to anyone with the right connections to Money & Power. When I start seeing a few dozen Political Leaders and Press Poodles and Military Brass and Wall Street Bosses (et al) "running onto their swords", then maybe I start to think we're getting back to where we need to be.
Until then, all bets are off. Anything goes. Guys like you set the tone, Mr Priebus - the populace isn't behaving in any way that isn't in line with the examples you and your guys put on display almost every day - so go ahead and bitch about "Moochers" and "Free Stuff" and "Lawlessness" and "the degradation of society", etc - but you'd best be looking to yourselves first. This isn't terribly more complicated than Practice What You Preach - and in case you hadn't noticed, even the rubes are starting to figure it out.
You wanna be counted among the Nobility? (First, no, asshole - we don't do that here).
But yeah OK, Mr Priebus - here's the thing though: nobility carries some big-time baggage, not the least of which is a Code of Honor, and that code requires you to pay a very high price when you fail it. You've brought shame and dishonor on this country, and on your fellows, and on yourself. You're now expected to pay that price so the rest of us can have a better chance to get back to living in a nation of laws, and not of despots who would place themselves above the law.
Do you get it? Good. Now do your duty and fuck off.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
The Deepness Of My "Thinking"
One of many vexing questions: Do I move on, looking for another more beautiful place - or do I stay, and work at making this place beautiful again?
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
How Great I Art
About the best thing a blogger can hope for is getting mentioned (and linked to) by people he respects.
Thanks, Crooks & Liars - and special thanks to Tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors
Monday, March 28, 2016
Just One Question
On the near-total, and at least borderline dangerous silliness of our GOP-Branded (and ConservaDem) "leaders" who're constantly flogging the Fear-Bishop, may I just ask, "Please, can you let us be a little less stoopid on this whole immigration/terrorism thing?"
I really do understand that an awful lot of Federal Spending is going into the pockets of an awful lot of "Security" contractors, who then turn around and graciously donate big piles of campaign dollars to your SuperPACs (purely out of the generosity of their souls and their deep abiding sense of patriotism and civic duty, of course) and completely unrelated to the fact that you're pimping the paranoia every fucking day - but c'mon, guys, maybe leadership is about not treating us like we're all stoopid so we can have a better chance to stop acting like were all stoopid.
Best Guess Last Year
Americans dead because of "terrorism": 30
Americans dead because of "accident": 110,000+ (top 5 preventable causes)
If we actually have people in Congress who really are concerned with spending tax dollars appropriately, and wisely, and with the intention of doing the most with the least, we'd have somebody standing up to tell us to stop losing our shit every time some faithless chickenshit asshole (hiding behind a mask because his 'god' is so great, and his cause is so just, and he's so fucking courageous) - every time that asshole threatens to kill us all with his big scary knife - from 6200 miles away; with a fucking knife.
They preach this phony Gospel of National Security and then pass the collection plate, and it works every time. We all hafta stop doin' that.
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