It's that Time of the Year!

And I"m not talking about either Christmas or the Beginning of the School Year. No, It's Election Time! Or as I refer to it as, time for Electile Dysfunction! And only the Red Pill will cure this one, not the Blue Pill (in either Matrix or Erectile Land).

NO. Elections are rigged. There, I said it. No matter whether you vote for Obama or That Other Guy, guess who is going to win?

Obama was allowed to win the last time, because... Well, because the economic shit was about to hit the fan, and they needed Somebody To Blame. Enter, Barack Obama. Not only a Democrat, but a Democrat of Color. ("See, I told ya one of Them would get us in trouble!") Can you spell Set Up?

So now they want one of Their Own back in office, and, enter Willard "Mitt" Romney. (Why are all the Mormon Higher Ups called "Willard?") Sorry to be blunt. (And I hope I'm just being paranoid.) Just like I predicted pre-Bush in 1998, I think that no matter who the "Popular Vote" comes in for, The Electile Dysfunction College with install ROMULUS into office instead of POTUS.

Just saying. And hope I'm wrong.

The Internet and the Money Net

Hurricane Sandy is now history, and I'm sure living in New York City has not returned to anything approaching 'normal.' But what is the current condition of the City that Never Sleeps? Goddamned if I know, because no matter how I phrase it, it comes up with one 'current' condition -- you can't get any real information on the Internet, because everything is 'Monetized.' In other words, you only get what Those Who Pay Gobs of Money want you to see. Forget any real information. Google doesn't want to you to see any real information, but only what their Paid Advertisers have paid Lots of Gob Googly Money for you to see.  It's pitiful, shocking, and God help us, the way the world works now. Nothing's (almost) free these days. Some Body's Got To Make Money on It.

Fuggedabout it!

Do You really feel Safe?

I live in Hollywood, a half a block off of The Boulevard and about two blocks away from The 101 (or for those of  you who don't live in LA, Interstate 101). I hear helicopters -- circling, standing rock still hovering in the air, zooooooming past -- what seems like 24/7 these days. There have been nights here where as many as 5-7 chopper flyovers happen in a single night. Chasing Bad Guys. Spotlighting Getaway Vehicles. Sometimes... Doing I don't know what. The LAPD have grown quite reliant on the use of helicopters, even though (from what I've heard) it costs $16,000 (Yes, that's $16k) per minute to keep them there. They better be really Bad Guys to justify that, to my mind.

But it also brings up the whole idea that We The People have tacitly agreed to be constantly surveilled, for our own protection, ever since 9/11. 'It's the cost of Freedom!' someone wrote on Facebook, to protect us from BAD GUYS like Al Queida. Never mind that the former President (well, ok, technically he was called the Vice President) of the United States, Richard Cheney said, "Freedom is a luxury we can no longer afford." That's right. Forget that whole Constitution thingy. Bad for business, and won't let Us keep You Safe.

Technology always seems to rule us. I saw an article a couple of weeks ago (centuries, in Facebook time) showing the latest micro-technology -- Drones the size of mosquitos, fully equipped with both video and audio components, capable of flying in the front door with you, attaching to your clothing to be allowed entrance, etc. All once again, To Protect Us. Are you planning a terrorist operation in your very home?! (Sorry for all the italics and bolds, but this sort of thing does seem to call for shrill editing tricks.)

And on the larger Drone front, the (passed last year by Obama) NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), allows by Presidential fiat, surveillance of All US citizens, without any need for justification or need for a messy wiretap warrant (Habeas Corpus). Just in case...

Now, I'll ask the question that formed the title of this blog once again. Are You Really Feeling Safer?

"Damn I'm rich! $$$$"

This was the post of someone I know on Facebook regarding a web site he went to on the relative wealth of most Americans. I know it was meant to show that We The People aren't really doing so badly compared to the rest of the world. I also know it was meant to engender gratitude for what We have. But it still is a gross over-simplification of what the real issues are (and to the conspiratorial mind-set, perhaps is meant to calm and mollify those of us in the 99% of this country).  

But the real issue is in all of this, that however much We Americans have (once again, at least in the 99%) more than the rest of the world, poverty is relative. If you only make a dollar a day and subsistence is $1.25, that's much better than making $6 an hour when you actually need $8 to truly survive. These sites and 'meters' don't take into consideration a great many things. For an increasing many in this country, they are skewing more towards Third (and Forth) World living every day. 

Americans need to simplify their lives for the most part. And they can do with a lot less in the material realm than they think they can. Americans have been led into thinking that they Need To Have so much, because... well, because They're Americans, dammit! The Country has been marketed into excessive material to prove how well We Are as a country (and to feed the 1% 's insatiable need to OWN EVERYTHING). Americans are now as a People being forced to cut back their expectations because those said expectations were not anywhere approaching reason (that's why most Americans are up to the tops of their increasingly disappearing hairlines in DEBT [called the "Sweet Spot" by the Credito-Industrial Complex]).

But that said, the incidence of homelessness is increasing exponentially in this country. I for instance was homeless for almost three years (living on the couches of friends, etc. with no money coming in). And I had these resources to keep me from the worst of it. According to this sites scale, I'm filthily wealthy -- and believe me, that ain't the case.

So, yes. I am relatively well off. I now have enough money to eat, and to pay my (adjusted due to disability) rent. I don't have a car still (in LA, that's sacrilege!). And here it is, yet another holiday, and I didn't have enough 'spare cash' to do anything besides go to a pot-luck party later today. In the meantime, I'm 'working' (writing). I hope someday soon to at least have a car to go for a (small luxury) scenic drive for a holiday. Perhaps soon, I'll have even more available funds to do even more.

But right here, right now, I'm grateful for what I have. I wish everyone else that gratitude as well. 

And I also wish that the World some day comes into more of an equitable equal distribution of quality of life. We're not there yet though. Don't let the truly Wealthy mollify you into believing that this is 'all right' (cause it ain't).

"Class Warfare" vs. Crass Warfare

So. President Obama calling on Taxing The Rich is "Class Warfare," as if the Rich don't know a thing or two about Class Warfare.

When did things get so crazy that the Poor and the Middle Class have to pay full taxes, but for some reason, The Rich need to be exempt? The reason usually given is that; "The Rich are creating jobs for Americans, and that's why..." Nonsense (and my language is cleaned up here for a general audience). The Rich don't create jobs for Americans, they create jobs for their companies. And when it suits them to ship those jobs to foreign shores for slave wage employees, they do it. In a heartbeat. Except for my mind, their having a heartbeat is questionable.

The Rich make often many times (millions to billions of times) the amount of the average American Worker. And to top it off, many of their industries would not exist in this "Capitalistic" society if they hadn't received massive subsidies to build those very same industries (the most egregious examples being the Oil and Nuclear Power companies). And to top even that off, not only do they pay no taxes on their massive incomes, most of these "Captains of Industry" continue to get major subsidies.

Which never, by the way, get talked of being cut by the lackies of The Rich from the US Budget in any way like those elements of/programs for "...the least of these" -- "The Poor will always be with You."

Yes, it's time for The Rich to pay their fair share of taxes. And while we're at it, let's cut their entitlement programs. Let their  business rise or fall by their economic standards, losses, and gargantuan egotistical mistakes. If we need to rise and fall by our personal capitol and mistakes, then so should they.

Tax The Rich and Cut their subsidies, Mr. President. No more Entitlements for those who don't 'need' them becasue of their business expertise (or lack thereof).

The Battle Against Public Broadcasting

Sarah Palin said while discussing the issue on Fox News: "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of 'frivolous' [quotes and bold bloggers editing] things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars — those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that we're going to hand to our kids and our grandkids ... Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut."

Yes. Those are the types of things that need to be cut. Like the influence of the Billionaire Kock Brothers who are behind the Tea Party and all their Minions. Like the fact that Corporate America owns America, and the intellectual giants of the Tea Party someone think that if the Billionaires are spared from paying taxes, eventually they will be too. (Or more ridiculously yet, that when They, the [Tea party] People become million- and billionaires, then they won't have to pay taxes.) Other People (the Liberals, the 'Coloreds' and everybody else but Them) will take care of paying the way for "Loyal Americans." This is the heartless and souless beliefs of the so-called "Legacy" People: i.e. the "Original Americans" meaning White Landowning Gentry.

Yes, the Far Right believes that Everybody Else (but Them) should pay taxes so they don't have too.

So, taking away NPR/PBS is about not funding "frivolous things." Right?

No. it's about trying to make NPR defunct so that the "frivolous" broadband radio and television blocks currently 'misused' by Public Broadcasting can then be bought up and used for 'usefull' purposes: like andditional channels for FOX News and other Right Wing Media Outlets.

It's about castrating investigation into the highjacking of democracy by the Billionaires, deleting any 'unnecessary' investigation of Right Wing activities, and last but not least, "fair and balanc[e]"ing the rest of the news waves for Right Americans.

Hold on to your freedoms, because they are about to be annulled.