February 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections
A crowd of more than a thousand people met alongside the Washington Monument Monday afternoon and marched to the White House in a demonstration of support for Ron Paul. With an “about face,” veterans and active duty service members turned their backs to the White House and sent a message to the President: Ron Paul is the choice of the troops.
February 21, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
And that includes the USA.
Europe is already showing those signs.
Sarkozy a pro-corporate centrist is on the ropes in France and last week, Germany elected a new president –
According to Der Spiegel: Joachim Gauck, 72, a civil rights activist in former East Germany who already had the support of Germany’s center-left opposition. While Gauck has broad backing among the German populace, Merkel’s conservatives had torpedoed his candidacy once before — during the election of Wulff in 2010. Accepting Gauck this time around was an extremely difficult political pill to swallow.
The potential consequences of not accepting him, however, were even worse. Had Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), together with their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), put up a competing candidate and lost, her government would have been left in shambles.
February 8, 2012 in 2012 Elections
Cicero, in the first century BC, in his De Legibus created possibly the precursor to the modern expressions, “Gratidius excitabat fluctus in simpulo, ut dicatur”, translated: “Gratidius raised a tempest in a ladle.
The French referred to the popular uprising in the Republic of Geneva near the end of the 17th century as “une tempete dans une verra d’eau” (a tempest in a glass of water).
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You may notice that the media leave out an important feature of many of these turnouts: the percentage of voters who actually showed up to vote in these Republican primaries. That says a lot about the true interest. For example, I don’t know the actual percentage of Republicans who showed up to vote in Colorado but yesterday afternoon I heard on the radio that the percentage was estimated to be as low as 10% of the registered Republicans. Then, if you will consider that the registered Republicans are a minority of registered voters in many of these states. . . Well, you get the big picture, don’t you?
Romney gave a small taste as to how he will be responding to his defeat in the coming weeks. Looks like he plans to hit Santorum, Gingrich and Paul hard as being Washington insiders. That’s a smart tactic and it will work against Obama too. When it comes to Washington DC, that is Romney’s unique claim–he is an outsider. However, he forgets that when it comes to being a Wall Street insider, he may be the champion.
“Washington will never be reformed by those who have been compromised by the culture of Washington. This is a clear choice. I’m the only person in this race, Republican or Democrat, who has never served a day in Washington. And where I come from, leadership is about starting a business, not trying to get a bill out of committee,” Romney said.
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We have Maine this Saturday February 11 and then Michigan and Arizona on February 28.
Maine is up for grabs, but I would expect Romney to win Michigan handily. Arizona is another toss up. And the wagons will grind on bringing the greatest show on earth to its next stop where, instead of addressing the real issues of lack of jobs and the poverty in these states, these politicians will be spending millions to advertise promises as thin as air while extracting the price of a ticket in the form of a “donation” to continue their fabulous hot air machine.
Few seem to notice that the crowds are thinning out and the Circus Masters, with a few of their close friends are the only ones who seem to be attending their show.
February 8, 2012 in 2012 Elections
February 7, 2012 in 2012 Elections, Class War
The graphic above is one that I created over a year ago when I wrote an article on this same topic titled: ”As the Queen has repeatedly said, “Americans need an education in propaganda.”
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. Orwell included an essay about it in an appendix in which the basic principles of the language are explained. Newspeak is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suits the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim is to make any alternative thinking—”thoughtcrime”, or “crimethink” in the newest edition of Newspeak—impossible by removing any words or possible constructs which describe the ideas of freedom, rebellion and so on. One character from the book named Syme speaks admiringly of the shrinking volume of the new dictionary: “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
The whole purpose of Newspeak is to control thought by controlling language and by reducing all nuances of comparison to simple dichotomies such as pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, goodthink and crimethink etc.
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I’ve been thinking of Newspeak for the past week after reading a few days ago an article about Newt Gingrich using simplified language and speaking in dichotomies of good and evil–reserving, of course the good words for himself and the bad words for any who disagree with him–from President Obama to Mitt Romney. The article also referred to a topic I wrote about over a year ago: a GOPAC memo entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” Distributed to GOP candidates across the country, the memo’s list of words for Democrats and words for Republicans was endorsed by Gingrich in a cover letter: “The words in that paper are tested language from a recent series of focus groups where we actually tested ideas and language.” Next time you hear Gingrich complain about media focusing on the negative, refer back to these lists. Why do you think that the right-wing are so bent on English as the only language. It has nothing to do with freedom and patriotism and everything to do with control. Every American should learn at least one other language and speak it 50% of the time if they are interested in protecting democracy.
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Now this morning I was reminded yet again of this insidious and intentional plot to control the masses by controlling our language and grammar. Andrew Cohen has written an article titled “The Torture Memos, 10 Years Later.”
Today, February 7, 2012 is the tenth anniversary of the day that George W. Bush signed a brief memorandum titled “Humane Treatment of Taliban and al Qaeda Detainees“. The title of the memo was a perfect example of the deep elitist cynicism of George Bush and his administration. The memo had nothing whatsoever to do with humane treatment. Instead the memo authorized and directed the soulless formal abandonment of the USA’s commitment to key provisions of the Geneva Convention.
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George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One–a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, and incessant public mind control, accomplished with a political system which is administrated by a privileged Inner Party elite.*
*This description should make the scalps creep on all Americans who are paying even the slightest bit of attention as it so rings familiar as a description of the USA today.
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WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?
You can stop voting for members of either party as both parties represent the same oligarchy.
Vote for Independents. Vote for non-millionaitres. Remove at least 44% of Congress from office in 2012–those would be the multimillionaires who consistently choose their stock portfolios over you year after year.
February 6, 2012 in 2012 Elections
No better example than their references to Saul Alinsky–as if he were some evil communist who tried to overthrow the country. They should be ashamed of themselves but it should come as no surprise that these enemies of the poor should pick on one of the largest heroes of the poor–Saul Alinsky.
If you are among the ignorant and listen to candidates like Newt Gingrich (who definitely knows better) you would think that Barack Obama personally knew Saul Alinsky.
Saul Alinsky died in 1972 in Chicago. Barack Obama was 11 years old at the time and living in Hawaii.
Saul Alinsky, as I’ve pointed out was no Communist. He was not even a socialist. But these days, anyone who is not a right-wing Tea Party fanatic is a Socialist to most members of the Republican Party and they are certainly painted that way by the Republican candidates. Saul Alinsky’s “crime” (like that of ACORN) was helping the poor to organized their communities. Saul Alinsky has been compared to Thomas Paine as being “one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left.” MORE
As Bill Moyers pointed out in a recent Truthdigg article, Saul Alinksy was ”. . . A patriot, in a long line of patriots, who scorned the malignant narcisism of duplicitous politicians and taught every day Americans to think for themselves and to fight together for a better life. That’s the American way, and any good historian would know it.”
Believe me, people like Newt Gingrich and the leadership of BOTH parties are scared out of their wits about the uprising of the middle class of America against them and they are doubling down on their efforts against the majoirty.
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Dick Armey, whose FreedomWorks organization helps bankroll the Tea Party, gives copies of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals to Tea Party leaders. Mitt Romney’s own father fraternized with Saul Alinsky.
BuzzFlash recently dug up photos of George Romney meeting with Saul Alinsky to discuss ways to help the urban poor. Imagine that! A time in American history when politicians dared to discuss poverty instead of pretending that that the poor are lazy good-for-nothings who don’t want to work–as it comes today from the mouths of the investor class and the ignorant fools they convince with their lies.
But before you start thinking that the leadership of the Democrat Party are any different from the leadership of the Republican Party, you need to remember what a Democrat majority in BOTH houses of Congress did to ACORN. They voted to cancel funding to ACORN–an organization whose only crime was to empower the poor by registering them to vote and organize in their communities. That is the last thing that the plutocrats in charge of Washington want the majority of people in the USA to do–organize. That’s why they have called out their attack dogs on Occupy.
A Democrat majority in BOTH houses of Congress destroyed ACORN and the sole proof? A highly doctored video created by a known right-wing operative by the name of James O’Keefe. It took ACORN a year, but they finally cleared their good name in court. It was too late. Because of all the negative publicity of the vote of the Democrat majority in BOTH houses ACORN lost almost all its funding. They had to declare bankruptcy.
SHAME ON THE DEMOCRAT AND THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. THE PLUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP OF NEITHER PARTY DESERVES OUR SUPPORT. It would be closer to the truth to say that the leadership of both parties are right-wing fascists who fully support a global war against the middle and working class.
They have different rhetoric, but when it comes to their votes, there is no difference whatsoever between a Democrat and a Republican member of Congress. For example, many would call Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold “liberals”. Yet both of these “liberals” voted to defund ACORN solely on the flimsy testimony of a known right-wing operative.
February 5, 2012 in 2012 Elections
Ron Paul – in office for 15 years With a net worth of $5,064,000 in 2009
To listen to some Ron Paul fans, one would think that he is a kind old country doctor in line right after Jesus and the Virgin Mary. “Taint so” folks. Ron Paul is no different from the 44% of our Congress who are Wall Street multimillionaires. Like them, he too has gotten rich off the lives of workers from the 99%–not only in the USA, but the world. But don’t take my word for it. Look up Ron Paul and his Wall Street investment in Open Secrets.
Ron Paul increased his wealth from $3,930,000 in 2008 to $5,064,000 in 2009 – over a million dollars richer. Yep, Saint Ron Paul made over a million bucks in the Wall Street Casino at a time when millions of Americans were losing their jobs and homes. Ron Paul is no different from any other greedy millionaire Wall Street shystet that we have “representing” us in Congress.
In fact, I think that Paul may be the biggest hypocrite of all. He doesn’t vote for trade agreements and the rails against the war on drugs, but he profits from both of them.
Do you think Ron Paul cares about people? Think again. If he did, he would not invest in corporations known for murdering their workers. Mr. Paul, a millionaire at least five times over, has several million of his assets invested in numerous mining corporations including three of the worst mining corporations in the world: Anglogold Ashanti Ltd $250,001 to $500,000 According to Forbes AngloGold Ashanti was accused in 2007 in Colombia for “murders of trade union and community leaders who opposed the company’s activities in the region”.
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Here is an excerpt from a letter that was sent on Jan 30, 2012, to M. Amadou Cisse, Ministere des Mines in Mali.
“. . . The Malian government and the International Labor Organization have estimated that there are approximately 100,000 to 200,000 individuals who work in artisanal gold mines in Mali, among whom an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 are children. Many of these children perform hazardous child labor, in contravention of Malian labor law. While artisanal mining represents an important source of income and livelihood for adults, there are serious health risks for children who dig pits, work underground, carry, pan, and crush ore, and use mercury to extract gold. As you know, the use of mercury in mining is highly toxic, particularly to children. Our research found that children in Mali start working as young as six years old. Many child laborers are denied an education or drop out of school. Some children come to the mines without their parents and suffer economic or sexual exploitation. .. .” Source
February 4, 2012 in 2012 Elections
Most Americans who would scoff at the notion of Neptune nonetheless buy the myth that the leadership of the Democrat Party is different from the leadership Republican Party. The truth is that the leadership of BOTH parties are plutocrats and they all have a disdain–not only for the poor, but also the middle class.
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We are a democracy with free elections and year after year we choose to be governed by a plutocracy that supports an outright police state as our form of government. One of the great ironies of the Republican myth makers is that they have us convinced that the Europe of today is the Europe of three hundred years ago. The truth is that most European nations are far more democratic than the USA. The USA is looking more and more like a large banana republic ruled not by one, but several right-wing dictators.
It never ceases to amaze me–year after year. But i have to admit that until the end of 2007 I was a member of the duped. I believed in the two-party system. I thoroughly bought into the polarized notion of Democrats and Republicans. I was a member of the club called “Democrats”. I was sure, although looking back, I cannot give you one rational reason why, the Democrats were the ones for the working people. They were the ones against the war. (Really? Truman is the one who ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima. Kennedy got us into Vietnam and Johnson kept us there.)
Perhaps it was the other face of Lyndon Johnson–his visions of the great society that I saw during my formative years as a young adult that made such a lasting impression on me. There was Medicare and the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964–which by the way, even with MLK’s efforts and legacy–would never have passed Congress without Johnson’s talent for marching up the hill and banging heads together.
In 2006 the American people elected a Democrat majority in both houses on the mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring all the troops home by the end of 2008. And what did this Democrat majority in both houses do? They continued to approve George Bush’s unfunded allocations for war, just like the Republican majority before them. Then, before they had even been in office a year, this Democrat majority in both houses voted not to end the war but to send 100,000 more troops to Iraq! That was an outrage and a direct insult to the majority of Americans who had elected them.
What else did this Democrat majority do? They voted to defund and thus bankrupt ACORN–an organization whose only crime was to empower poor people by registering them to vote. Their “proof” of ACORN’s “wrong doing”? it was all based on a heavily doctored video tape created by a know-right-wing operative and utter jerk by the name of James O’Keefe. But this Democrat majority Congress did n’t stop there. They passed a healthcare bill that helps Americans who work for a corporation that at least supplements workers health insurance and forces the 50 million Americans who can’t afford health care to purchase it from a Wall Street corporation.
Then as a parting gift to the rich, just before a Republican majority in the House took over in January of 2011, this Democrat majority voted to extend the Bush tax cuts. Eight years was not enough time to show them that tax cuts for the rich don’t do a damn thing for the economy but make it worse? Hell no. These people know that tax cuts for the rich don’t work for the majority of our nation, but they don’t give a damn because they belong to the 1% club.
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We are a nation of head bangers who keep voting for the same people year after year and wondering why things don’t change. Harry Reid has been in the Senate for 25 years. Mitch McConnell has been in the Senator for 27 years. Carl Levin has been in the Senate for 32 years. John Boehner has been in the House for 21 years. James Sensenbrenner has been in the House for 32 years. John Kerry has been in the Senate for 27 years.
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If you want a USA that is representative of the majority, you are:
1. Going to have to let go the myth that a Democrat is that different from a Republican.
2. Stop voting for the same bastards year in and year out.
Yes, it really is that simple. and if you don’t like the choices, then run for office yourself or draft your neighbor.
February 2, 2012 in 2012 Elections
Yesterday I reported on The Twitter popularity of Candidates. Today I decided to investigate other candidates and pundits and their corresponding twitter popularity
This is what I found:
President Obama https://twitter.com/#!/barackobama is the champion of the politicians with over 12 million followers: 12, 276, 394
But perhaps to put the president’s 12, 276, 394 into perspective. We might note that Kim Kardashian beats him by almost 700,000 followers. Ms. Kardashian has 12, 928,641 twitter followers. http://twitter.com/kimkardashian. Does that mean that she should be our next president?
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Newt Gingrich https://twitter.com/#!/newtgingrich has 1,433,224 followers
Sarah Palin https://twitter.com/#!/sarahpalin has 728, 895 followers
Jon Stewart http://twitter.com/thedailyshow has 622, 147 followers.
Mitt Romney https://twitter.com/#!/mittromney has 313, 472 followers (half as many as Palin and more than four times less than Gingrich.
Speaker Boehner http://twitter.com/speakerboehner has 272,846 followers.
Ron Paul http://twitter.com/ronpaul has 223, 309 followers
Nancy Pelosi http://twitter.com/nancypelosi has 152, 676 followers.
Bill O’Reilly http://twitter.com/oreillyfactor has 133,288 followers.
Bernie Sanders http://twitter.com/senatorsanders has 89,045 followers
Eric Cantor http://twitter.com/EricCantor has 58,054 followers.
Rachel Maddow http://twitter.com/maddowblog has 55,300 followers
Rick Perry https://twitter.com/#!/teamrickperry has 25,190 followers
Alan Grayson http://twitter.com/alangrayson has 24,404 followers
Harry Reid http://twitter.com/HarryReid has 7,553 followers
Chris Matthews http://twitter.com/MSNBC_CMatthews has 6,003 followers.
Green Party USA http://twitter.com/gpus has 2,462 followers
Jill Stein http://twitter.com/jillstein2012 has 1,866 followers
Justice Party USA http://twitter.com/justicepartyusa has 461 followers
It’s interesting to see who these people follow as well. While most of them follow several hundred people, there are some such as Eric Cantor, who only follow 20 people—what does that say about them?
January 31, 2012 in 2012 Elections
I think this may significant in terms of their audience.
Romney has 306,482Twitter followers. https://twitter.com/#!/mittromney
Newt has 1,431,242 followers. https://twitter.com/#!/newtgingrich
That’s a huge difference.
It could say that Newt’s audience is more computer savvy.
It could say that Newt’s audience is younger than Romney’s audience.
It could say that Newt has a larger national audience than Romney–in spite of the corporate network spin.
It most likely says that it “ain’t” over yet and we have months ahead of us before the fat lady sings.
