Saturday, March 07, 2009

Our Cartoonish Democracy . . .



I'm sick and goddamn tired of stupid fucking people who are of the belief that making the extraordinarily super wealthy pay a larger share of taxes is a bad thing -- or even worse -- an evil, communist plot to destroy America. Grow up and wake up you fools!

While the stock theory of "trickle down economics" was something borne out of the Great Depression, it took a B-grade actor turned conservative politician named Ronald Reagan to pull off the ultimate con job and convince Americans into believing the preposterous idea that if all the hard working, blood sweating little people would just offer up a little more of their meager earnings and benefits to a very small percentage of already insanely rich people, those insanely rich people would then take that free wealth and create even vaster numbers of decent paying jobs and everyone would then have a shot at that ever elusive American Dream.

Sigh . . . the relationship that average Americans have with the one quarter of one percent of the people who control 90% of the wealth in this country reminds me of the classic Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoon "Rabbit's Kin" (see video in this post). In the cartoon Pete Puma represents your average working American, just trying to survive and get a meal. Bugs represents the controlling faction who repeatedly dupes the hapless Pete into taking a lot of stupid, unnecessary punishment. In the end Pete has an anti-intellectual moment of inspiration and decides he'd just be better off giving in and delivering the beating to himself - and he never does get his meal. Now -- I'm not saying the creators of that cartoon deliberately attempted to impart that specific message, but if you watch that cartoon, you'll see what a perfect metaphor it is for the abject stupidity we Americans have for allowing ourselves to be cunningly manipulated into constantly kowtowing to a very small cadre of selfish individuals, who do not in any damn sense whatsoever, have our best interests in mind and who ultimately have swindled us all out of the unalienable rights our founding fathers promised us -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

So -- back to this contemptible and callous con job known as "trickle down economics." I challenge anyone who believes in the efficacy of this concept to provide one fucking shred of evidence that it has accomplished it's deceitfully hyped intent and bettered the lives of Americans as a whole and our society as a whole. I know that challenge will go unanswered because an honest assessment of the appalling effects that this bastard theory has had on America and it's society cannot be sufficiently supported without the usual accompanying lies and apologist rhetoric.

For the past 30 years we've been told endlessly and menacingly that taxing the rich will prompt the instant demise of America as we know it. Yet look at what's truly happened people - we fell for the con, we lowered taxes on the elites, transferred that burden to the backs of the middle class and the working poor and what has the result been? Look at the shape America is in today folks -- open your fucking eyes for once. We gave the elites everything they wanted - lower taxes, less regulation of their financial dealings, an open door policy for their lobbyists in Washington and eventually government power to their bought-and-paid-for foot soldiers. And our reward has been -- good paying American jobs shipped overseas to cheap foreign labor. Corporations hoarding money in unregulated off-shore subsidiaries and bank accounts to avoid taxes. Endless, unneeded wars that benefit nobody but the military industrial complex and greedy private companies. A neutered media that is afraid to tell the truth about the crooks and and con men running this country because those very same crooks and con men now own their media conglomerates and sign their paychecks. A crumbling internal infrastructure, that due to disaster by neglect, is killing Americans. And last but not least, a once vibrant economy trashed and shattered by unbridled greed, arrogance and selfishness and on the brink of collapse. Yes America -- this is the true legacy of conservatism's "trickle down economics."

Now -- because I've dared to question the wisdom and motive of the conservative ideology and it's practitioners and promoters, I have been labled a communist, an America hater, a filthy liberal, a terrorist appeaser, French -- funny, all the same imbecilic labels conservatives tossed at Barack Obama during his Presidential campaign -- but it doesn't bother me anymore. Name calling is all the conservatives have left. They are intellectually, morally and spiritually bankrupt people who childishly believe that patriotism is something that can be had by simply putting a flag pin on their lapel, or pledging loyalty oaths to their political party without question, or threatening those who have differing views that they ". . . need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

The truth is much simpler -- conservatives have absolutely no positive vision for a future healthy, incorruptible Democracy that benefits all of our citizens equally -- none, nada, zilch. Their sole ambition seems to be some form of perverted combination of autocracy, theocracy and military dictatorship. Evidence of this can be found in the secret legal rulings of the post-9/11 Bush administration that were declassified last week showing just how close America came to becoming a police state run by a dictator --- you know just like that guy named Saddam that we went to war against. Several well-respected Constitutional scholars have analyzed those documents and have been horrified by them. And dutifully, our cowardly and equally corrupt press eunuchs have swept this collossally important story under the rug in favor of Octo-Mom and Rush Limbaugh "news."

In closing folks -- we had best come to our collective senses soon. The ruling elites don't give a rat's ass about the future of you, your kids, your grand-kids or this great Democratic experiment we've all had the privilege of being part of -- they just don't care. Therefore it's up to us, WE THE PEOPLE, to take this country back -- lock stock and barrel ... and speaking of barrels I'll close with a little quote:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR TO ABOLISH IT, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

----k

Friday, March 06, 2009

Friday Nite M-Vloggin . . . .



The 1970's were my golden music discovery years. That thought may induce horror in the psyche of some prissier music aficionados, but I don't give a shit -- it's my era and you can suck monkey balls if you don't like it - lol.

Anyhow, this song was one of my favorite 70's one-hit wonder hits. It was also probably the first time I recognized that the saxophone could actually make an otherwise mediocre song sound pretty damn cool.

Enjoy.


----k

Regulate, Regulate, Regulate, Regulate, Regulate...


Let's get to the crux of the issue folks. This article in the NY Times about the Merrill Lynch/Bank of America love story ought to be the fucking poster child case for why vigorous regulation -- AND NOT ENDLESS, UNACCOUNTABLE BAIL OUTS -- is needed of this country's financial industry. And if anyone wishes to dispute that assertion how about we shove these words up your ignorant ass:

Bear Stearns
Lehmann Brothers
AIG
Bernie Madoff
Sir Allen Stanford

And if that igno-enema isn't enough to open your droopy eylids enough to realize that in some instances government regulation is a good thing, then suck on these stories:

GM near bankruptcy
Unemployment at 8.1%
Citigroup stock less than a dollar

You constantly hear conservatives bitching and moaning about government regulation of major U.S. industries. Their unproven argument is that industries left to run their businesses without pesky government interference or oversight will foster more marketplace competition and therefore Joe and Jane Sixpack consumer will benefit by being provided with better products and services at lower prices.

B~U~L~L -- F~U~C~K~I~N~G -- S~H~I~T !!

I dare my conservative pals to show me a single godammn industry that has been de-regulated in the past 30 years that is now in better shape than ever and has benefited American consumers. Just one. Here -- I'll even provide you a few examples -- Airline industry? Energy industry? Telecommunications industry? Financial Industry? [sound of crickets chirping]

Yeah -- that's what I thought.

There's a very uncomplicated moral to this story. Greed is a primitive human trait. And the very concept of allowing people who are in the business of amassing wealth to oversee their own industries is so fucking asinine on a very elementary level it bewilders me beyond belief - and I have no patience for people, friend or foe, who have no grasp of the wrongness of that.

----k

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Running Away . . .



Another song stuck in my head since I first heard it as a kid. It's in the current song playlist that's running on krazeeRadio (see link on side bar to the right).

Cheers.

----k

Jon Stewart Expose' On 'The Wizards of Wall Street' . . .



This is why I long ago stopped having faith in network and cable news to tell me the truth about what's happening in this country. I get more honest reporting in watching one day of Jon Stewart's Daily Show than I do in watching a month's worth of news on Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FBN, etc. And that folks is a sad fucking commentary on the state of the corporate-whore owned media in this country.