Success Warrior: The Blog That Embraces ADHD

Hammers and Nails

So,

Here I am with a blog post.  Amazing, I know.  College took more than even I expected this last term and the next one, which starts tomorrow, doesn't look like it will be any lighter.  I haven't been able to stay up to date with current events in the depth that I prefer and have been reduced to scanning headlines most of the time.  A recurring theme I have heard is that when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

I saw a video (posted below) about the Quebec student protests that brought this to mind this morning.  Students in Quebec (and around the world) are upset about the escalating cost of higher education and are letting the government know about it.  Someone with half a brain would think that an appropriate response would be to work on some way to lower the cost of education.  Unfortunately, we are talking about politicians. 

The truth is that the hammer *is* the primary tool in the government workbelt but the reason that it is finally getting so much press is that it's been used more transparently, more often, and predominately against the 99%.  The Internet has been effective enough at reducing the other major tools (propaganda and indoctrination) that the hammer is being used liberally while the 1% tries to find a way to gain control over the world wide web.

Instead of looking at reducing tuition costs for students or even *saying* they will look at reducing tuition costs for students, the rocket surgeons wielding the hammer passed a law making it illegal to protest without permission from the police.  That's like a patient going in to take care of an itchy rash on his right arm and the doctor tying down the patient's left arm to keep him from scratching it.  Actually it's worse than that because, in this case, it brought extra people into the fight on the students' side.

People who were not protesting tuition hikes came out to protest the new anti-protest law.  Shortly after the law was passed, 700 people were arrested for illegally protesting.  This just brought more people out to protest the arrests and the heavy-handed tactics used by the police.  The response to the hammer seems to be such a no-brainer that it leaves me wondering what game the lawmakers are playing.  Have they painted themselves into such a corner that they are powerless to do anything else?  Wouldn't it have been better to do nothing than fan the flames? 

What do you think?  Why are lawmakers around the world making symptoms illegal instead of dealing with the disease?

WTF Has Obama Done So Far?

So,

I've been encouraged to visit the cult website a few times because this will somehow cultivate an acceptance in using violence to jam my opinion down someone's throat and kill or imprison anyone who doesn't see things my way.  I believe that I did visit the site a year ago or so but I have to admit that if I did visit it, it was so unmemorable that today, when I finally decided to see if I was missing something, I did not recognize the site at all.

For those of you that haven't been and have no desire in tazing anyone who disagrees with you, I'll give a quick description (admittedly based on the small part that I saw).  It's a collection of pages with one-liners of "inspirational" things that Obama has done.  There is one little, teeny, tiny, string attached to how inspirational the statements are.  The level of inspiration received from the statements is inversely proportional to the reader's level of morality, knowledge, and willingness to seek the truth.  Cult members eat this shit up.

What are you inferring?

I thought it was clear.

The first statement that popped up for me was that Obama has cut Medicare drug costs by 50%.  First off, the law is unConstitutional but at this point, that's Standard Operating Procedure for The Great and Powerful Oz.  From the cult member perspective, I think the Constitution is irrelevant when it's something that they want.  Not that they wanted this bill.  None of them have probably read it but they do want to support their prophet and gawd's laws are above man-made laws like the Constitution.  Tossing that aside, let's look at this claim.

Now, the thing about Obama's lies is that there is usually some bit of twisted truth in there somewhere.  It seems obvious that he's lying but I like to dig to find out what he's using for the basis of his lie.  What can he point to and say, "See?"

Certainly not his leadership abilities.

Or his very own set of balls.

After someone on Medicare spent over $2,700 in the year 2010, Obama send them a check for $250.  No one has yet claimed that Obama knows anything about math.

Or economics.

Or ethics.

Under the old law, grandma had to pay 100% of drug costs from then on until she had spent $4,550.  This crippling financial gap where grandma is more likely to die than cross the finish line is lovingly referred to as the "Donut Hole."  If she can survive on cat food and saltines until then, she only had to pay 5% of the drug costs until the new year started.

Under this great new law (which imposes a 10% tax on fake baking, oddly enough - and I'm not going to mention the other stuff in this bill), grandma only has to pay 50% for prescriptions after she passes that $2,700 mark.  Don't get me wrong, that's better than 100%, especially since Obama and his predecessors have created a system where drug companies can charge $150 for a pill that costs $.02 to make.  If you could escape their protectionary "laws", you'd cut grandma's prescription costs by more than 50% on all her prescriptions, even saving her from that initial $2,700 gouging.

It's close enough to the truth for cult members to get goosebumps.

It's really important for cult members to pretend like they care about people.

There's some truth to it and if you ignore the rest of the bill, you could say this was a "win".  I was thinking that I may be persuaded to the use of violence to solve any desire that I had after all.  I clicked to the next one.  It was about how Obama pays travel expenses for families to fly out to see the body of their dead son/daughter/husband/wife who died trying to make sure that Exxon and BP keep making record profits.

I threw up a little in my mouth and went out to play basketball with my son.

One thing, skipping back to the first wtf page that I read, that I have often wondered about is the possibility of some agreement, implicit or expressed, between cult members and minions.  Democrats and Republicans are constantly battling each other using talking points handed to them by talking heads, who most likely also have not read any of the bills. 

At this point, I probably don't have an cult members or minions as readers, which is unfortunate because I'd like to hear the rules of engagement for their arguments.  From what I've seen, there must be some sort of pact where they are only allowed to use propaganda from their team in these arguments.  My guess is that anyone who uses truth or morality is red-carded.

Anyway, if you want a chuckle, go visit the website.  You won't learn anything useful there but if you ever find yourself in an argument with a Republican minion, you can zing these statements at him like they are deadly ninja stars.

Made out of origami paper.

Folded by a three year old.

Highlights

So,

I unintentionally took two days to write my "Summer is coming" warning post and then the weekend hit where I have to work my day job instead of working on my dream job of being a professional blogger.

I'd rather work at Victoria Secrets helping women try on bras.

Smartass does have a point this time.

Anyway, the world just keeps on moving so today you're going to get highlights of things that I have run across over the last few days that have not made it onto this blog and are not going to get their very own individual blog post.  Here's what been happening, in no particular order:

The Euro Zone has officially entered its second recession in three years, according to the European Commission who lied about the first recession ending.

Maybe the recession ended because it went into depression and now it's back up to recession.

I don't think it works that way.

This was in the pile but it's actually from last November.  It's a chart of the Criminal Financial Institution Fraud Prosecutions over the last 20 years.  It looks like the financial institutions are playing by the rules now and aren't committing as much fraud.

They're probably afraid of Obama's tough stance.

Or the 1% has gotten rid of most of their competition so there's no one left to persecute.

The Great and Powerful Oz trotted out the fact that his plan is working and the United States has reduced its dependence on foreign oil.  Huzzah!

Wait!  Were his lips moving?

Why do you always think he's lying?

What he accidentally failed to mention in his "Silver Bullet" speech is that US dependence on foreign oil increased from 37% to 40% but US demand for oil has dropped off so much because of the depression that US use of oil has dropped enough that even though foreign oil is a bigger percentage, it's at a lower overall quantity.

If his plan is working, does that mean he's working to keep the economy crippled?

The depression does lower usage of foreign oil.

Here's a side thought that I have when the president, any president, tells outright lies like this.  He obviously does it because enough people are stupid enough to believe him or too lazy to check into the facts.  It's something that I stated previously.  If Obama told this lie and all of the media ran headlines of "Obama Lies About Foreign Oil Dependence," he would probably stop.  Of course, the establishment media supports the 1% and won't do that.  Plenty of us bloggers do but sometimes it just seems like breaking through the spoon-fed ignorance is such an uphill battle.  I just read an article about people being too stupid for Democracy to flourish and I look around at the world and say, "Duh!"

Chicago is bringing out the big guns for the G8 and NATO summits where leaders will get together to decide the fate of their subjects and if there is one thing that these leaders don't want, it's input from their subjects.  To this end, Obama is moving the G8 summit to Camp David and Chicago camps are bringing out a historic law to deal with NATO protesters.  It's a Class 1 Felony to audio record someone without their consent.  Any video with sound (and let's be honest, it won't matter if there is sound or not) of a cop beating down a protester will land the videographer in prison.  It is illegal in Chicago to hold public employees (you know, people who supposedly work for the public) accountable.

It does cause problems for the government when these videos go viral.

They should pass a law making it illegal for videos to go viral.

The TSA, my beloved TSA who I have not mentioned recently despite some horrendous actions on their part, have started doing vehicle checkpoints and plan on expanding them.

In the hopes of catching someone driving a Chevy Volt into a skyscraper?

Papers!  Papers please!

Representative Charles Dent, a Republican from a state where late-term abortion should be legal and they should start by aborting Rep. Dent, has come up with something that I actually find to be stunningly ingenious and thinking outside of the box.  I am an expert at thinking outside the box and I found this tactic surprising.

One of the biggest problems that Obama, his band of 535, and the 1% have is all this clamoring about Americans having Constitutional Rights.  It seems like just about every law passed lately violates the Constitution in some way and Americans are actually starting to take notice.  Everyone also knows that Occupy Wall Street is going to come back bigger than ever and that it will be a long time before December snow quiets things down again.  Not to worry, Dent has solved the problem.

He has introduced a law to fix all this cry-babying about the government completely ignoring the Constitution.  Here's the summary of bill HR 3166, The Enemy Expatriation Act:

"To add engaging in or supporting hostilities against the United States to the list of acts for which United States nationals would lose their nationality."

It doesn't even list suspected terrorism like NDAA did.  All you have to do is engage in or support hostilities to the government of the United States and they will revoke your citizenship.  It's hard to whine about your Constitutional Rights as an American if you aren't an American.

You can't scare me with this gestapo crap.  I know my rights.  I want my phone call.

And tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call if you are unable to speak?

***

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NOW DC Should Be Seen and Not Heard

So,

Occupy Wall Street never stopped and is picking up steam again as we head into spring.  The group that will be occupying DC may be adopting a new name, National Occupation of Washington DC or NOW DC.  I believe there is supposed to be some big kick off event at the end of March.

Here's a weird coincidence in timing.  Guess what's about to become a new law?  Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011.

Well that sounds like a good cause.

Just remember that laws are named opposite of their intention**.

This law to improve buildings and grounds doesn't do anything at all to improve buildings and grounds in the way that the 99% would think of as an improvement.  If you are one of the puppets for the 1% though, this is going to be a vast improvement.  Here's what the law will do after President FuckTheConstitution signs it:

You will no longer be allowed to protest in proximity to anyone who is being guarded by the SS.

This obviously applies to the White House . . .

. . . but wait, there's more.

Act now.  Callers are standing by.

It applies to anyone that has Secret Service protection and applies to temporary sites of that person.  Obviously, no more mic checks at one of the Great and Powerful Oz's "I'm so full of shit" speeches but maybe not so obviously:

• Mittler Romney has had SS protection for some time now - no more glitter bombs
• Rick inSanitorum has recently started getting SS protection
• Foreign dignitaries are routinely guarded by the SS
• The G8 Summit in Chicago - fogedaboudit
• The Republican National Convention - the Ron Paul Revolution will be federally charged
• Even the Superbowl is guarded by the SS

After NDAA, striking down the First Amendment isn't shocking and it's actually quite a tribute to how effective Occupy Wall Street has been.  This is a sign of fear from the puppets.  They want to sit in their big white domed buildings pissing on the 99% and they don't want to hear any complaining about it.  They don't want people confronting them with their lies and corruption.  They want people to play within the ever-increading rules of the system that they control because they know that anyone dumb enough to try to change the system from within the system is easy to control and anyone daring enough to challenge the system is a threat. 

Sit down and shut up!

You should run for Congress.

I'm sure that Obama will regretfully sign the bill into law and maybe even jot down a signing statement saying that he doesn't think that this bill is right but he's really got no choice in the matter.  After all, the people voted for these lawmakers who are acting as representatives of the people and the vote was 388 for and only 3 against so it is the will of the people that they not be allowed to voice their displeasure with their representatives.  And even if Obama wanted to veto this and I'm sure that he does because he cares so deeply about the American people and he is well versed in Constitutional Law, the cult member apologists will surely point out that with a vote of 388 to 3, any veto from the well-meaning puppet-in-chief would just get over-ridden anyway.  And so, sadly and with a heavy heart, Goldman Sachs' MVP will sign this into law and continue on his path to destroy any trace of freedom in the United States of America. 

We're going to have to change the national anthem about "land of the free".

You're an idiot!  They'll pass a law making it mandatory that everyone sing it.

And smile.

** Update: I ran across a video today that fits perfectly with the statement made by one of the voices in my head.  The topic of the video is what the GOP primary actually looks like compared to what is being reported in the news.  It's the last quote from Ron Paul that fits today's post:

Interchangeable Parts

So,

The mafioso president at the World Bank has stepped down and the rumor goin' 'round is that Hillary Clinton is going to get the job.  Her people are denying the rumor which is political speak for, "Hillary Clinton wants the job but needs a referral from the Great and Powerful Oz and isn't sure she's going to get it."  If she acts too confident and the job goes to someone that is better at sucking the cocks of the 1%, she could lose face.

Is that possible?

Seems like getting a 1% facial is the height of losing face.

A couple of months ago, the vice president of the EU bank gets appointed to be the prime minister of Greece.  In true political nature, prime minister Lucas Papedemos had this to say about his appointed subjects setting fire to Athens, "Violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country."

I suppose the obvious question is, "What does your statement have to do with the fires in Greece?"

Speaking of pretend democracies, I read an article tonight about Chicago Gangster Mayor Rahm Emanuel getting ready for the G8 summit.  In a new "law", Emanuel can purchase stuff without the city council's approval and without submitting the purchase for bids.  He can choose the person that offers the most in bribes and award contracts to that person.  Handy, n'est pas?  He has used this new power to buy new helmets for the police with face shields designed to allow officers to wear gas masks.

So they can't smell the stank of corruption?

Do they make gas masks that strong?  Might I suggest SCBA's?

Additionally, there will be aerial surveillance and snipers in place to deal with anything remotely looking like democracy.

Snipers are harder to catch on video.

The whole world is wat . . . BANG!

Back to the theme of this post . . .

It has gotten to the point where the parts between Wall Street and other large corporations are interchangeable with politicians.  It's like watching tag-team wrestling.

"Z-Man Zoellick reaches out and tags up with Battle Kat Klinton who takes Blankfein's dick out of her mouth and jumps in the ring."

Can you smell what the crock is cooking?

In the near future, it's going to be like watching hockey.  If a politician gets tired of Occupy Wall Street doing mic checks on him, he'll just head for Goldman Sachs in the middle of his term and someone from Goldman Sachs will jump the barrier and take over for him.  Like Papedemos, they won't wait for the next election, they'll just appoint senators to seats and call it democracy.

Will there be fires in Chicago?

Violence and destruction have no place in a demo . . . BANG!

Speaking of Chicago-style politics, Obama came down hard on the big five banks who have to pay about $40 billion in a settlement for foreclosing on people illegally.

See?  He's not Wall Street's bitch after all!

Wait for it.

As part of the settlement agreement, the banks can use tax payer money to pay the settlement.  The home owners lost their homes illegally to the banks and if they still have a job, they have to pay the settlement for the banks.  As good as I am with words, I really can't think of anything strong enough to describe how truly evil the 1% and their bitch puppet president are.

Not that the 1% care in the least what I, or anyone else, thinks of them or their parasitic spokesperson.  If the people get tired of Obama, the 1% will just sub in someone else.

Stepping On Toes

So,

Toad Gingrich's, uhh, toadies decided to make life rough for a Ron Paul supporter.  A lone Ron Paul supporter was out with his sign showing is love for the revolution when Toad's bus stop for a press moment, which the smacktard held in front of the only Ron Paul sign in a 20 mile radius.  Someone finally figured it out and also figured out that the Ron Paul supporter in Florida was wearing flip-flops.  Toad's henchman stepped on the poor guy's feet in order to make him want to leave the area. 

I was going to add something to yesterday's post . . .

Because we can't ever just tell a story in a straight line.

If you look out the window on the right side, you'll see the Grand Canyon.

. . . and this seems like a good place to throw it in as being slightly relevant.

Since I know that you have all read yesterday's post, I'm going to go into more than saying that the United States government is putting the hurt on journalists who dare expose the truth.  One thing that I have seen up close and personal and which is very apparent in the machinations of the government is this theme of attacking people who have the audacity to tell the truth. 

When the cops kick the snot out of peaceful protesters, there are a couple of options available.  One would be to apologize and take steps to see that it doesn't happen again.  The other is to expand the violence to include journalists so that you can keep kicking the snot out of humans but not get the negative publicity.

Toad's people could have stopped the bus somewhere else.  If they somehow missed the bright blue sign and still started the conference, they could have moved.  They could have asked the guy politely to put his sign down for the interview.  Or, they could have resorted to violence in an attempt to force the guy to move out of the public space that he was occupying.

For those that lack morality, force is by far the easier answer when dealing with people who hold different beliefs.  A person could choose to use reason, rationality, logic, persuasion, and sexual favors in order to gain support for an idea but these take a lot of effort and patience.  Believe me when I tell you that I know and I can see how tempting the shortcut called violence could be for people. 

And that's for people who have "good" intentions.  Sociopaths like Newt and Obama know that they would never get the people to throw their support behind the 1% because their is no convincing argument and that leaves force as the only option.  Americans will bail out anyone that the truly corrupt and evil choose to bail out, start war after endless war, and accept a tragic decline in their quality of life because they have no choice. 

Newt's attack on a lone Ron Paul supporter demonstrates what happens when violence becomes that ingrained in a person.  Rationality is gone.  Never mind things like respect or compassion or human rights.  Those concepts are so far out of the reach of people like Newt that he would have to respond with a hearty guffaw and words of mockery for such "naive" ideals.  Violence is how the game is played and if you don't like how "elected officials" are using the violence then you should get involved so that you can decide how to use the violence.  That's the trap, isn't it?  People get sucked into lowering themselves to a moral level equal with the sociopaths responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.

You'll be happy to know (unless you killed your brain huffing glue to the point where you are a Newt supporter) that the Ron Paul supporter didn't give up his position.  He has bruises and a cut on one of his feet but he, quite literally, stood his ground. 

Being peaceful doesn't mean being a doormat but that's a topic for another day.

Violence begets violence and peace brings peace.  It's hard.  It's slow.  It feels impossible.  It's going to take a lot of education in things like respect, morality, and thinking.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!  I was with you until that last one.

Just grab some cheezy-puffs at the next commercial and you'll feel better.

The transition is not going to be pretty.  It already isn't and it's going to get worse.  For me, the vision of what's on the other side makes it worth it.  Humans are going to take a big step forward in the next little while and while some may see it as scary, I think it's exciting.  I believe that we will see some very amazing things when humans are allowed to cooperate around the planet.  So amazing that at this point in time, we can't even imagine what some of those things are going to be. 

Bullies who step on toes will be outcasts and the idea of voting to give sociopaths unlimited violence potential will sound as outlandish as the idea of owning people sounds to us now.  It will be a bizarre idea read about in history books with students shaking their heads in absolute wonder about how people could ever take part is such an absurd ritual.

Some of us are already there.

Freedom of the Press

So,

I read an article today from Reporters Without Borders about their Press Freedom Index for 2011 - 2012.  No surprise but the United States dropped in ranking going from number 20 to number 47.

Damn you Occupy Wall Street!

Maybe they put too much importance on things like beating journalists with night-sticks.

"The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them."

Suppressing the blatant disregard for civil liberties is obviously a big part of the equation but I think there are a couple huge chunks that may have played roles in the plummet in the US ranking, with OWS acting as the catalyst to bring these things to the surface.  The article is big picture taking in the entire world in one article but in the case of the United States, it's vital to include the changing face of "media" and who the spotlight is pointed at when Occupiers start chanting.

The fact that anyone and everyone can be a journalist (although cities are going to be much more strict with press credentials from now on - to keep the riff raff out, doncha know).  When there were only 6 major media corporations controlling the release of information, it was safer to allow journalists near the action because it was easier to tell them which stories to cover and maintain control on what was eventually released to the public.

Similar to watching the Great and Powerful Oz do a "press release", only people who will go along to get along are allowed to participate with a camera.  Anyone allowed to ask Obama questions has to sign a "Softballs Only" agreement.  Before Obama declared himself a third world tyrant, anyone asking a question seeking real information would be banned from any further presidential "press releases", fired, black listed, and called names by the lapdogs still allowed to sit in the same room as Oz.  Today, armed with NDAA, JSOC, and other "laws" repealing the Constitution, any journalist with the balls to ask Obama a question of any informational value will find themselves in Gitmo with electrodes connected to said balls with no legal means of getting released.

Ohhh, the Monica Lewinsky presidential media contract.

To get close to the prez, you have to suck His dick?

Your self-esteem has got to take a hit when you suck the dick of Goldman Sachs' little bitch.

The Great and Powerful Squeak?

Sounds about right.

In today's world though, anyone with a camera, smart phone, or blog is part of the media.  The whole world is watching.  It's impossible to control what goes on the Internet (although Obama is doing His part for the 1% and signed the ACTA Treaty - Yes, it's a direct violation of law for Obama to sign a treaty without Congressional approval but puppet dictators don't pay much attention to Congresses) so, at the moment, police are trying their best to restrict media from being too close when they start pepper spraying and tazing people for committing the crime of being alive.

Weird as it may seem with the bright colors and the voices in my head getting to say their piece, this blog is part of the media.  The old media used to control the release of propaganda information and, as such, were able to really lead people around.  Today, I (and many, many others) are able to talk about peace and freedom in a medium that can reach the entire planet.

Enemy combatant!  Enemy combatant! 

Smartass has been watching OZTV again.  All Obama, all the time.

With the Internet, it's not only possible to show video of the police shooting people in the head with tear gas canisters because the 1% told them to do it, we can also discuss solutions outside the one party, one percent, solution.

This is obviously motivation to suppress freedom of press and freedom of speech and Freedom in general, especially when you couple it with the fact that the alternative media is pointing its cameras at the depraved actions of the 1% and the government officials that they have bought.  The 1% owned the media and were quite happy to report on anything and everything from six inches of the dead body if it had no relation to them.  Now that the cameras are pointed at the 1%, journalists have to be miles away from where the cops are running over people with their scooters.

Freedom of the Press was a great saying while the 1% owned the press resulting in the fact that there wasn't actually any freedom of the press.  Now that the 1% are actually threatened with freedom of the press, their puppets in the United States government are coming down hard on anyone who dares speak or show the truth. 

This brings us back to the quote from Reporters Without Borders but in the case of the United States, the dictatorship isn't held by the government, it's held by the 1% that own the government.  It was so much easier for them before Occupy Wall Street and that's why the United States was mistakenly ranked at number 20.  Now that the 1% are losing control of information and people are starting to look at them, they are reacting violently and the United States press freedom index ranking is going to continue to tank.  Truth is the greatest threat to the 1% and their puppet government and must be suppressed at all costs (using tax payer money of course - don't want anything ruining this year's multi-billion dollar bonus).

Disempowerment

So,

I was reading articles today on piracy (copyright not Somalia) as part of my research into the topic I posted on Monday and I read something that I didn't give much thought to initially.  I was glancing over Obama's misStatement of the Union address later in the morning and I thought back to what I had read in the piracy article and felt like it had missed the actual key issue.  Here's that part of the article on copyright protection:

"The culture of the Internet also needs to be taken into consideration. Referring to the high rates of illegal downloading, Mr. Gurry said “In order to effect a change in attitude, I believe that we need to re-formulate the question that most people see or hear about copyright and the Internet. People do not respond to being called pirates…They would respond, I believe, to a challenge to sharing responsibility for cultural policy. We need to speak less in terms of piracy and more in terms of the threat to the financial viability of culture in the 21^st Century, because it is this which is at risk if we do not have an effective, properly balanced copyright policy.” (Emphasis mine - Complete Article)

The implication that I got from reading this paragraph is that by calling everyone who has ever used content that media corporations would deem as a violation of copyright, you run the risk of creating an adversarial environment.  Pissing everyone off will probably eventually come back on you but this isn't the true danger to media corporations of yelling "Pirate" every time a teenager shares a song with his friend.

What brought my mind back to the article and caused me to actually think about the problem with the pirate label were a couple of comments made by the Great and Powerful Oz in His delusional speech that is supposed to set the tone for His re-election campaign.

What tone is that?  "Ride the crazy train with me!"

Right off a cliff.

In this case, it was nothing that he directly said but something that I thought was telling, which lead my mind down a path that eventually took me back to the thought about labels.

His mind is like a mouse maze.

If he gets to the point, do we get some cheese?

Here's a couple of those innocuous sentences:

"What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values."

"One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn't matter."

For those of you who are Republicrats, it may not be obvious but for me it just jumps right up in my face.  Patriots, heroes, and people with values only come in two flavors, Republican or Democrat.  Independants, you're probably okay as long as you keep flip-flopping between voting for Republicans and Democrats.  Should you ever stop though, you will lose your status as an appropriately obedient part of the one percent's plan and will be an outcast.

And if you aren't with 'em serving them, you're agin' 'em a terrorist.

Here's where the 1% and their mouthpieces, Bush and Obama, make a mistake.

In 2001, the word "terrorist" had a very clear and powerful meaning.  People that blow up buildings with innocent people in them.  A level of evil that is hard to even fathom.  Terrorists were feared and hated because they were terrorists.

Since then, what have Bush and Obama done with the clear and powerful definition of terrorist?  Well, here are some of the things off the top of my head that can earn you the much-feared brand of "Terrorist":

• Not voting for a Republican or Democrat
• Worse yet, making you a level 2 terrorist, is not voting <gasp>
• Displaying a "Don't Tread on Me" flag
• Carrying Ron Paul bumper stickers
• Owning a gun
• Having more than 7 days of food storage

Hell, I live right next to a whole state full of terrorists.  In fact, Mormons in Tennesee had federal agents visit a food storage facility attempting to get a list of names of people who used the facility. 

Now, in branding people as terrorists, the hope of course is to get people to cower to perceived peer pressure and remain obedient to the system.  No one wants to be labeled a terrorist, right?

That may have been true 10 years ago but today, it has become a joke.  Everyone who isn't one of Obama's cult members or who doesn't get their "news" spoon-fed to them by Fox is a terrorist.  The word has lost all of its oomph.  It's meaningless.  Now, if someone tells you something about a terrorist, you have to ask for clarification.  "Do you mean Al Queda terrorist or do you mean Occupy Wall Street terrorist?"

The tactic used to be one of trying to get everyone to aspire to the label of "Patriotic".  As that failed, people were labeled as terrorists or, at least, potential terrorists.  That tactic has been played out as the context of the word has been watered down into uselessness.  The result of this failure to control people mentally and emotionally is obvious in things like the creation of NDAA.  If the one percent can't rely on psy ops to control the public, they'll use the military to keep all the terrorists ordinary citizens in line.  Obedience is the only acceptable behavior.  Anything else is terrorism and must be destroyed.

Attempting to change the behavior of people by applying a negative label to culturally acceptable behavior doesn't change their behavior, it changes the meaning of the word used for the label.

State of the Union 2012

So,

After a 15 minute speech with 30 minutes of rah-rah applause at how well the Great and Powerful Oz can read from a teleprompter, it will probably all boil down to this:

If you aren't part of the 1%, you're fucked.

PS - I'm listening to it as I type this and I am absolutely amazed how full of shit this guy is.  Unless you're paid to applaud, you're probably shaking your head just like I am.  I'm going to have to get the transcript tomorrow just because it will provide humorous blogging material for me.

Constitional Protection

So,

Before I started in on this accounting stuff, I had a law class for which, as a first assignment, I had to write a paper that dealt with the protection offered by the Constitution.  My argument was to dismiss the entire question because the Constitution is just a god damned piece of paper and offers no protection whatsoever.  As a DIY litmus test, I suggested holding up a copy of the Constitution the next time a cop was going to violate your "Constitutional Rights" and see if it was actually able to stop the tazer barbs from shocking the shit out of you.  Next to the 100% grade for the paper, the instructor added a comment to the effect of "me no-likey".  Since I'm in this to get my degree and, at this point, I'm not willing to sacrifice my 4.0 gpa, I toned back all further writings in a way that got my point across but without evoking as much of an emotional response from the instructor.

That was back in August.  What has happened since then that I haven't blogged about because ACCOUNTING SUCKS OUT LOUD?

Occupy Wall Street happened and the media blackout ended when the police trapped two women on a public sidewalk with their bright orange kettle netting and then pepper sprayed them for the apparent crime of letting themselves get caught in the bright orange kettle netting on a public sidewalk.  Later, 20 or so college students were pepper-hosed (spray is much too kind of a word in this case) for the violent crime of sitting down in a public area. 

Bit of the ultra-violence.

Clockwork, it ain't.  Or were you talking about the cops?

The Great and Powerful Oz made good on a speech that he made, in a level of irony to match his level of arrogance, in the room that holds the original Constitution.  In that speech, he announced that King George (George W. Bush for those of you that aren't long-time readers) was a bastard for violating the Constitution in the way that he had.  Obama said that He would never act in such a way because of his Constitutional Law background.  Then, without pause and within the exact same damning speech on bastards violating the Constitution, he announced his intention of passing a law allowing the indefinite detention of non-criminals anywhere in the world.  "God help you if you get in the way of the 1% because I will make your ass disappear, Constitution-be-damned!"  In December, without fanfare or ceremony or media coverage, Oz signed it into law.

At the same time Obama was signing NDAA, I was reading about SOPA while thinking, "I should write on my blog while it can still be found."  On the surface, the act is supposed to protect copyright material but I haven't read anyone who believes either: 1. That's what it's supposed to do; or 2. It will work.  Some people do believe that the original intention was to protect copyright material but even they don't think it will work.  Maybe that's how it started but now it's more of a Trojan Horse to allow the government to make sites disappear.

I'm starting to sense a pattern.

Making stuff disappear or violating rights?

SOPA will act contrary to what many Americans think of when it comes to law enforcement.  If a person files a complaint against a web page, the entire web site will be disappeared (even if it contains 1,000 pages with no complaints).  The site owner then will have to petition or fight or bribe people to get the action reversed.  Guilty until proven you'll comply with what we say you're allowed to put on the Internets innocent will be the rule.

On the other side of the equation, it will be possible to use browsers that don't comply with the government restrictions or visit the sites directly if you know their address.  However, it will probably be a felony to circumvent government restrictions on websites.  Just like China, you could end up in prison for reading Wikileaks.

"Welcome to Alcatraz.  Whatcha in for?"

"Reading the news."

"Hardcore man, hardcore."

On the horizon, I just read that New York City is planning on taking TSA's radioactive nekkid body scanners and making them smaller so they can be installed on police cars and street corners next to surveillance cameras. 

Making clothes disappear.

And all semblance of a "Free Country".

To make this post a "They Really Said That?" edition, let me give you this quote from New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly:

"The scanner would only be used in reasonably suspicious circumstances and could cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street."

It might cut down on the stops but it's going to exponentially increase the number of frisks.  He talks like he's doing everyone in New York a favor.  "We know you're in a hurry and have places to go and how inconvenient it is when the police stop you to give you a quick feel-up.  Now you won't have to stop.  We'll just look at you naked as you walk down the road.  We will, of course, use anything we see to file criminal charges when we find violations of the law, despite the fact that what we found was the product of a warrantless search, Constitution-be-damned."

Text books will have to heavily edit their "Fruit of the Poisonous Vine" chapters.

It'd be easier to just make those chapters disappear.

Law books will start to look like a Jehovah's Witness's bible.

"Professor, why does my text book go from chapter 10 to chapter 12?"

"We didn't like chapter 11.  It dealt with archaic right to privacy beliefs."

The bottom line is that as governments continue to lose their relevance and completely trash any claim to being useful, restrictions are going to tighten.  Freedoms are going to be reduced.  What people are allowed to do, say, read, and think is going to be narrowed in an effort to keep them from choosing freedom.  The Constitution can't protect people from this.

Whether W actually said the line or not, it is true that the Constitution is just a piece of paper.  It does not grant rights as many people mistakenly believe or accidentally imply when they say things like, "I have the first amendment right to free speech."  Bzzzt.  Wrong but thank you for playing.  Johnny, tell 'em what they've won as a consolation prize. 

The rights that people are talking about are human rights.  You get them by being human (which rules out many politicians).  The Constitution doesn't grant rights.  The government doesn't give rights.  The government can only violate rights.  It does so in the name of protecting rights, which is an obvious self-imploding argument.  "We are going to violate your human rights so that we can protect your human rights."  Whu-uh?

The Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, was written as an agreement to set boundaries on how much the government was going to violate the human rights of Americans.  By itself though, it offers no protection.  Protection comes from the people.  People who stand up for their human rights and the rights of the people around them.  The Constitution, while just a piece of paper, was important because it set out the rules of the game and when the rules were broken, people took action to fix it.  As governance has moved further from self-governance to a central government and as that government has become incredibly powerful, the incentive for politicians to play by the rules has decreased to the point where it's okay to pepper spray people sitting on a sidewalk or disappear people who haven't committed a crime to secret prisons in Iraq or hide websites that dare speak the truth or expose people to radiation while getting a tax-payer funded peepshow out of the deal.

The Constitution isn't going to stop this escalating trend into a police state.  Only the people can stop it.

The Constitution doesn't protect human rights.

Humans protect human rights.