Social Security,like the Postal Service, is under attack, perhaps the most deadly such attack in its history. Where Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush launched a full frontal attacks, President Obama is more clever. Reagan’s defeat was so sound that he, for perception’s sake, became a supporter of the program. George W. Bush merely changed the subject, but each attack took its toll.

Obama is working behind the scenes to undermine Social Security by defunding it, claiming that in so doing he is providing a tax break for the middle and working classes.

(OK guys. Democrats have left the room now. We can speak freely.)

The ruse is easily uncovered. If Obama wanted to provide a tax break for the middle and working classes, he could do so without tapping Social Security revenues. It’s a choice he made, and so exposes him as yet another enemy of the program.

The American tax system is a mystery to ordinary people. It is neither simple nor transparent. The owning classes, now known as the 1%, understand it well enough to play it to their advantage, and so have a huge advantage over the rest of us. Obama could not pull his defunding stunt in an informed environment.

What follows beneath the fold is intended for readers who are interested in the actual workings of the Social Security program – non-partisan people of curious mind.

Continue reading “The Social Security program explained …” →

WARNING!!! This article contains shrill language and images. Parental discretion is advised.

I never cease amazement at the despicable ruin our country is falling into, institutions one after another succumbing to our owning/investing class. These are the rent seekers. They provide a useful service – reallocation of capital – and otherwise live quite well off the efforts and savings of others. They call themselves “investors,” “job creators,” “hedge funds,” “capital management firms,” and have even absconded with the honorable word “entrepreneur.” In normal times they are useful to us, but given too much power become predators rather than servants.

Wall Street banks have fallen. Financial ratings agencies wear tarnished badges, and can no longer be trusted.* Poor people have been targeted with credit card debt, and home owners saw their savings disappear in the 2007 meltdown. Even college students are now an indentured class, owing mountains of debt for which there is never, ever an escape clause.**

The latest institution targeted is the Postal Service.

Continue reading “The game is afoot” →

Nice letter, link given to me by Matthew Koehler

A bomb exploded on a bus in Bulgaria, killing six seven Israeli teenagers and wounding many more. No one has claimed ‘credit” but Israel is busy charging that Iran is behind the attack.

It bears watching. One thing I know – it was not Iran, nor Hezbollah. Contrary to various demonization campaigns, neither is in the business of deliberately blowing up civilians, much less children. That is an American/Israeli calling card. Beyond that, Iran’s leadership is not insane, nor is it suicidal. An act of no strategic value done at a time when the US is showing the flag and rattling sabers would be insanity.

I have my suspicions, if indeed this is an act of terrorism. I would immediately suspect either American or Israeli intelligence agents/provocateurs/terrorists. The reason is as old as time itself – when there is a need for war, there is a need for provocation. That’s why Hitler did Reichstag, and why the US attacked itself at Tonkin. If the reader might think that Americans and Israelis don’t kill children, millions of people would beg to differ. Start in Iraq.

Watch what follows: If the US resists the call to attack Iran, then it is Israel acting alone, trying to provoke the US. If the US jumps at the opportunity to attack Iran, using the bus explosion as casus belli, then it was likely American agents that planted (or authorized Israel to plant) the bomb.

Which reminds me – there was a suicide bombing yesterday in Syria, and several high-ranking officials were killed, including the defense minister. What I am looking for now are any American news sources who refer to this incident as “terrorism.” Glenn Greenwald did reproduce the tweet on the left from Keith Urbahn, Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff at the Pentagon.

As I’ve said many times before, I’d be content if the US would limit itself to mere double standards. Three, four, five standards are too hard to track.

TORONTO, June 26 /CNW/ – Like the perpetual little brother, Canadians have always lived in the shadow of our American neighbours. But it turns out that while America was out conquering the world, Canada has been quietly working away at building better lives. Now we’re the ones on top: Compared to the U.S., we work less, live longer, enjoy better health and have more sex – and believe it or not, we’re now wealthier.

Read the whole article here.

No surprises here: Set up an equation. One one side, take the gross income of a typical Canadian household, and subtract from that taxes at all levels, federal, provincial, and local.

On the other side, take a typical American’s household, assuming he is employed, and subtract from income not only federal and state taxes, but also health care and education costs, including student loans.

Who is better off? I’ve not seen any studies, but the article above is evidence, at least, that Canadians are better off than Americans.

Conservatives, previously silent about President Obama’s executive orders claiming the right to arrest, detain and assassinate American citizens without due process, are up in arms today about the latest executive order. The president has invoked medieval droit du seigneur, or right of first night with a maiden, for any marriage happening within forty-nine states, except Idaho.

Bill Kristol, founder and editor to the Weekly Standard, denounced the move. “This president has surely gotten upper tier in terms of power grabbing,” said Kristol. While he said that he understood the lack of interest in Idahoan maidens, he also suggested that if the president is going to exercise the right, he ought to be democratic about it and include all states.

Democrats were more circumspect. Edward Gresser, head of the Democratic Leadership Council, mentioned to supporters in a weekly newsletter that the President would probably not use the right to excess, and anyway would surely use protection.

Democrats overwhelmingly support the president on this matter. In an overnight Gallup poll, 77% of Democrats expressed “go-for-it-man” approval, while an additional 16% expressed mild envy. 4% expressed uncertainty about anything involving the French, but said that they would vote for the president in November anyway. 1% disapproved but felt the president might be “overdue” and said that they would vote for the president in November anyway, as Romney could not be trusted. 1% had no opinion but said that they would vote for the president in November anyway. The remaining 1%, said Gallup, is a rounding error, but that it too would vote for the president in November.

It was not clear at time of this writing how the president would interpret droit du seigneur in light of his recent statement in support of gay marriage.

If you are given a choice, you believe you’ve acted freely. This is one of the darkest of all psychological secrets. This idea of having a two-party system is much like having fifty-two cards using the same three cards.

I transcribed the above quote, by Teller (of Penn and Teller), from a podcast called “Stuff to Blow Your mind.” Oddly enough, despite the name, the podcast is indeed interesting. The one I listened to is about the art of magicology, which is almost entirely based on psychological manipulation of audiences.

It reminded me of the 2000 election where we were given a “choice” of Gore or Bush, with a real choice, Nader. Democrats screamed bloody murder. Why? It probably had to do with the darkest of all secrets, that by limiting us to two (virtually identical) choices, we imagine we are acting freely.

That, then, is the purpose of elections, and why we even have them. I suggest to the reader that if you want to understand our choice in the 2012 election, do not look for differences between Obama and Romney. Look for similarities. It is far more illuminating.

Wikileaks has gotten hold of maybe a quarter million internal communications of the Syrian Assad government. The communications will be released over the coming months by the organization, and its spokesperson has emphasized that none of the actors on that stage are telling us the truth. The first batch is about an Italian firm that sold high-security communications equipment for use by the Syrian police.

This, from Jim Maceda of NBC news:

However, this release is striking in its broader, more neutral approach, without the trenchant ideology or politics associated with previous data sets.

Translation: It’s about one of our official enemies, and not about the United States government or its corporations. That makes it “neutral” and free of “ideology.”
Continue reading “Coffee-spitting American journalism” →

Thomas Ferguson has developed an interesting take on American politics. In this short clip (audio is poor, so turn your sound up) he briefly explains the difference between the two parties. Contrary to my contention, he says there really is more than a dime’s worth of difference between them: Each party is backed by different investors.

I have seen evidence to undermine this theory – the switching back and forth that Wall Street investment houses do. They ride the tide, going with whichever party is likely to win, or both in uncertainty.

Nonetheless, his theory is well-developed and goes back many decades in time. It is explained more fully in this clip.

A German court has ruled that religious circumcision is a crime. It’s about time! The practice, irreversible, ought to be delayed until the boy has all the facts and the judgement needed to make his own choice.

I’d go a step further and insist that religious organizations be prohibited from entering a child’s mind until the child is of age to make informed choices. I still haven’t forgiven the Catholics for invading my six year-old head and filling it full of images of demons and burning flesh. This was given to me as the alternative to believing what they told me I must believe.

That is barbaric. But then we all know that if respect for youth was the accepted practice, religion as we know it would disappear, to be replaced by even crazier shit. Like Scientology.