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The six who control how you see the world
May. 5th, 2012 | 08:13 am
A graphic illustration of the fact that six corporations -- that's SIX -- control 90 percent of what we read, watch or listen to. Read all about it here.
But they show us everything we should know, of course -- celebrity sex scandals, for example -- without all that boring stuff like wars and budgets and global warming and what the 99 percent are doing.
But they show us everything we should know, of course -- celebrity sex scandals, for example -- without all that boring stuff like wars and budgets and global warming and what the 99 percent are doing.
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War: noun, welfare for the 1 %
Apr. 20th, 2012 | 05:57 am
"We spend more on the military than all other nations on earth combined, and the only thing it's gotten us has been some pretty consequential blowback and a mountain of unsustainable debt. So what's the upside?
"Well, there isn't any – unless you're a military contractor, or a politician on the take from the military-industrial complex. If you're an "analyst" who works for one of the pro-militarist Washington thinktanks, you have a lot to gain from this 'forward stance' foreign policy: however, if you're an ordinary American – not so much." - Justin Raimondo, AntiWar.com
Read the rest here.
"Well, there isn't any – unless you're a military contractor, or a politician on the take from the military-industrial complex. If you're an "analyst" who works for one of the pro-militarist Washington thinktanks, you have a lot to gain from this 'forward stance' foreign policy: however, if you're an ordinary American – not so much." - Justin Raimondo, AntiWar.com
Read the rest here.
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Voting for the illusion
Apr. 10th, 2012 | 11:42 am
The Republican Party is dead, taken over by fundy lunatics.
The Democratic Party is dead, taken over by conservative and reactionary Republicans.
Democracy is dead, its corpse propped up by corporations, the corporate media and the rest of the 1% in a desperate attempt to fool the 99%.
The illusion is working.
So far.
The Democratic Party is dead, taken over by conservative and reactionary Republicans.
Democracy is dead, its corpse propped up by corporations, the corporate media and the rest of the 1% in a desperate attempt to fool the 99%.
The illusion is working.
So far.
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How could we do any better
Mar. 31st, 2012 | 07:31 am
A friend is appalled that I'll once again vote for a third party candidate. "Don't waste your vote," he exclaims. "Vote Obama 2012. "
Yup.
more and bigger wars and more
mass murder by drones
fewer civil rights
more banker bailouts
fewer people with jobs or homes
more secrecy in govt
fewer whistle blowers who dare point out ripoffs
more bankers pulling the levers in govt
no bankers going to jail for massive fraud
more health profits for drug companies
less heath care for the people
more help for oil companies and bomb makers
no help for the victims of global warming they foster
how could we possibly go wrong!
Yup.
more and bigger wars and more
mass murder by drones
fewer civil rights
more banker bailouts
fewer people with jobs or homes
more secrecy in govt
fewer whistle blowers who dare point out ripoffs
more bankers pulling the levers in govt
no bankers going to jail for massive fraud
more health profits for drug companies
less heath care for the people
more help for oil companies and bomb makers
no help for the victims of global warming they foster
how could we possibly go wrong!
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Taxes and other lies
Mar. 23rd, 2012 | 09:17 am
A friend sent me an email essay on why Obama will win a second term by someone who fears and loathes it. It contained the standard right-wing lie about "the nearly one-half of all adults who do not pay any taxes."
That, of course, is pure bullshit..
It is not true that nearly half of all adults pay no taxes. The author was playing games with the income tax and totally ignoring all other taxes -- Social Security tax, sales tax, gas taxes, and 100 others. And the poorer you are, the more you pay - the poor pay a much greater percentage of their income than do the middle-class, the wealthy, or the 1%, who pay practically nothing.
But he is probably right about Obama winning. The Republican candidate will be a dangerous Neanderthal, so Obama will manage to look fairly sane, no matter that he is a dangerous lunatic in its own right who will almost assuredly get us into war with Iran while shredding the rest of our civil rights.
I won't throw my vote away on either of the candidates for the War Party. As I have now for 20 years, I will vote for a third-party.
That, of course, is pure bullshit..
It is not true that nearly half of all adults pay no taxes. The author was playing games with the income tax and totally ignoring all other taxes -- Social Security tax, sales tax, gas taxes, and 100 others. And the poorer you are, the more you pay - the poor pay a much greater percentage of their income than do the middle-class, the wealthy, or the 1%, who pay practically nothing.
But he is probably right about Obama winning. The Republican candidate will be a dangerous Neanderthal, so Obama will manage to look fairly sane, no matter that he is a dangerous lunatic in its own right who will almost assuredly get us into war with Iran while shredding the rest of our civil rights.
I won't throw my vote away on either of the candidates for the War Party. As I have now for 20 years, I will vote for a third-party.
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A modest proposal
Mar. 18th, 2012 | 01:57 pm
"Perhaps President Obama should be forced to watch sonograms of the beating hearts of those he targets for extrajudicial assassination?" - Caroline Arnold
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/1
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/1
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Election by commercials
Feb. 23rd, 2012 | 08:38 am
"We are choosing our presidential candidates the way we choose our favorite television shows, by which one generates the most advertising revenue for the broadcaster." - http://bit.ly/wTxXeX
Back in the good old days when I was a newsman a century or so ago, newspapers and even TV used to cover candidates with some degree of depth, equality and even intelligence.
Today, the corporate media - newspapers too but mostly TV -- has stopped letting their news departments cover candidates, but instead rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars to run ads and commercials filled with lies, distortions and character assassinations.
All backed by money from a few billionaires.
Since elections are nearly always won by the candidate who spends the most money, the next U.S. president will be chosen by those few billionaires. The millions of real voters are just there for laughs.
Somehow I don't think that's what our Founding Fathers had in mind.
Back in the good old days when I was a newsman a century or so ago, newspapers and even TV used to cover candidates with some degree of depth, equality and even intelligence.
Today, the corporate media - newspapers too but mostly TV -- has stopped letting their news departments cover candidates, but instead rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars to run ads and commercials filled with lies, distortions and character assassinations.
All backed by money from a few billionaires.
Since elections are nearly always won by the candidate who spends the most money, the next U.S. president will be chosen by those few billionaires. The millions of real voters are just there for laughs.
Somehow I don't think that's what our Founding Fathers had in mind.
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When it's a police state
Feb. 5th, 2012 | 09:02 pm
You know you live in a police state when...
A powerful essay by Sherwood Ross that dares speak the truth, even though nobody is listening.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/41209/
A powerful essay by Sherwood Ross that dares speak the truth, even though nobody is listening.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/41209/
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Surrounded by pink
Feb. 2nd, 2012 | 10:01 pm
In 1983 I was working at the Miami News on the sixth floor of the Miami Herald building in Miami overlooking Biscayne Bay when Christo and Jeanne-Claude produced a fascinating art project, Surrounded Islands.
I happen to think of this the other day and was chagrined to find that I had no real memory of it. I was there, know what happened, had a ringside seat, but I don't have a memory of what I saw. I'm not a very visual person, and I guess I don't really appreciate art.
It's a pity I have no actual memory, because it was a rather spectacular sight. Eleven islands in Biscayne Bay were surrounded by pink.
Some 6.5 million square feet of floating pink fabric extended 200 feet from each island into the bay. The fabric was sewn into 79 patterns to follow the contours of the 11 islands.
If you want to know what I saw from the six floor of the Miami News, you can look here: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/major
I happen to think of this the other day and was chagrined to find that I had no real memory of it. I was there, know what happened, had a ringside seat, but I don't have a memory of what I saw. I'm not a very visual person, and I guess I don't really appreciate art.
It's a pity I have no actual memory, because it was a rather spectacular sight. Eleven islands in Biscayne Bay were surrounded by pink.
Some 6.5 million square feet of floating pink fabric extended 200 feet from each island into the bay. The fabric was sewn into 79 patterns to follow the contours of the 11 islands.
If you want to know what I saw from the six floor of the Miami News, you can look here: http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/major
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I have a dream...
Jan. 31st, 2012 | 02:54 pm
I have a friend who, for reasons unfathomable to me, disdains the Occupy heroes. He recently wrote me what he called "the creed and religion of the Occupy deadbeats" -- "I have a dream, that one day ALL bums, stoners, drunks, losers and creeps will be given the handouts we demand. So, my fellow unoccupied bums, ask NOT what we can do for society, ask instead what society can do for us."
I answered him thus:
Of course, the manifesto of the ruling elite is so much more noble:
"I have a dream, that one day all those who don't make at least $1 million a year will lose their Social Security, unemployment benefits, health care, public schools and parks, so that there will be more for us, the Wall Street bankers and the politicians we employ, the true Masters of the Universe. So, my fellow rich parasites, ask NOT what we can do for society, ask instead what society can do for us with the tax money it collects from all the bums, stoners, drunks, losers and creeps and the rest of the useless 99 %."
I answered him thus:
Of course, the manifesto of the ruling elite is so much more noble:
"I have a dream, that one day all those who don't make at least $1 million a year will lose their Social Security, unemployment benefits, health care, public schools and parks, so that there will be more for us, the Wall Street bankers and the politicians we employ, the true Masters of the Universe. So, my fellow rich parasites, ask NOT what we can do for society, ask instead what society can do for us with the tax money it collects from all the bums, stoners, drunks, losers and creeps and the rest of the useless 99 %."
