So this is the dawn of a new day. A new age of ultra-recession blesses us all. Millions without jobs, millions on public assistance. But hey, good news! Inflation is not a problem!  Everybody knows we’re into the second dip. Oh, this is a double dip, baby, and we’re dippin’ hard.  And it seems Obama consistently inspires me with every speech and angers me when the substance of that speech is finally revealed.  What can he say. He’s a company man. I think he really believes in master plan of his to dawn a new age of “Master Government” which operates efficiently and is always at our side like a fairy godmother who just wants to help us do what’s right. It’s too much of a stretch to go the other way and buy into the theory that he’s an evil mastermind who’s hell bent on destroying America. Oh, he’ll screw it up real proper but I think it’s mostly because he’s bought into an ideology that allows him to think that partnering with all the shadiest of “high class” characters will actually help realize his utopian vision for some kind of a Star Trekian futuristic love fest that just isn’t going to happen within the next 200 years under any circumstances.

According to polls most of the country despises congress and is pretty unhappy with Obama.  This actually sets the stage for disaster.  This means that a very moderate candidate from any party who makes sense and possesses the “cult of personality” can swing in like Tarzan and steal this election.  The republicans don’t have him/her.  I can say that because it’s obvious if you aren’t far right.  The democrats only have their tarnished angel, Obama, who can’t (at this point) be counted on for a win.  Not after the mid-terms.  And they aren’t letting any other faces obscure the view of their one time Superman.  That means we have a deep vacuum waiting to fill the space for what is, in many people’s opinion,  the largest voting block in America – the moderates.  With all the extremes flying around us like a tornado, maybe we need a “Moderate Party candidate”.  Maybe we’re all sick of the game.

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference was SO over the top and foaming with crazy that I doubt they have a snowball’s chance in Hell (how appropriate) of gaining a huge following in either the mid-terms OR the Presidential election at this point.  That being said, in this 1 party system which we find ourselves subjected to, how can we put the focus on the hypocrisy and corruption rampant in the Democratic party?  I’m pretty sure the evidence is there already, and due to the self-congratulatory nature of the party right now I’m sure that more evidence will arise due to their own hubris.  If all works out in the people’s favor we will eventually have 3rd & 4th party contenders which are NOT controlled by the 2 major parties behind the scenes (like the Tea and Coffee parties).  Honestly, everyone should be an independent and refuse to settle for corruption and lies from their representatives.

The topic of unions has been coming up quite a lot over the last few months.  It seems to be really hard to get someone to agree to the logic of how modern unions operate.  Don’t get me wrong, most of the ideas and goals of unions are completely virtuous.   They strive all manner of benefits, safety in the workplace, vacations, fair hiring, everything an employee could be concerned about.   BUT, (and this is a huge but)  there is a point at which the union becomes a cancer upon the host company as well as the employee.  But let me back up here, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s look at corporations (as I see them).  It becomes apparent to me that as a corporation grows and develops, makes money, provides for its employees, provides a tax base for the community, etc…   there comes a point at which the tables turn and the government starts to serve at the pleasure of the corporation.  At some point things start working for them in the government so it becomes easier to make money.  They hire lobbyists, politicians take the money and write helpful little clauses at the end of bills that really mean a lot to a corporation.  Or they deregulate.  It’s not usually in the best interest of the public, but that’s what happens.  Now the posture of the corporation has changed just enough to have conflicting interests with the public good and so begins the battle between corporate entities and the people that sustain them.

So we have unions to balance the power.   Now, anyone who has become familiar with union relations will gladly tell you an earful about them.  If you’re in a union, you feel reluctantly grateful.  You work hard.  You make really good money when you work, but the problem is (problem #1, at least) that you might work 2 weeks and be off a week or 2.   So half that money is your real wage.  Everyone is familiar with the horror stories of union waste.

In the same way a corporation feeds off the public with ever increasing intensity, it seems (to me) that the unions have become just another layer of corruption that feeds off the employees.  Essentially, both the corporations AND the unions are taking a dollar and giving a nickel.  Now I’m no economist, but I’m not happy about Clinton and Bush dragging our country into the global economy.  I couldn’t see the logic at the time, nor do I see the benefit to the public now.  The only benefits go to those who buy goods from China and sell them here.  Specifically, non-union Corporations (i.e. Walmart).  Whether I’m right or wrong about that doesn’t matter any more, so who cares.  The point is that by doing so we took a high standard of living and equalized it with the rest of the world, thereby making it a medium/low standard of living.  It is indeed reasonable to speculate that our society will soon mirror the corporate structure of a company like Walmart.

We are turning into a service based economy.  We don’t build anything anymore because there’s no way that an industry can pay union benefits and wages and compete in the world economy, where the exact same job is done in China at a rate of $5 a day.  There is no way a car company can survive if they have to pay union wages to build a car.  The car would cost $350 thousand dollars by the time it was over.   They hire a modest work force to “assemble” parts of cars which are made off shore and shipped over.  Then they can say they have provided quality union jobs and sell cars.  But even this modest gesture of good will can only last so long.  In a world where labor is a “human resource” and government corruption allows corporations to do as they please there is no room for a wasteful, corrupt union.  GM went bankrupt for a lot of reasons.   One of them was an “unaffordable work force”.  They knew they couldn’t pay those benefits and still survive.  They also knew if they sent all of that labor overseas it would seal their doom in the public relations arena.

Generally speaking, we (most of us) understand the conservatives to defend the corporations (businesses & owners) and the liberals to defend the unions (workers & poor).  The problem is that both of these ideologies have made great strides to compromise the well being of the very people who elect them.  Not intentionally, but slowly, incrementally, over time with subtle shifts in the direction favoring corporations in exchange for campaign money – hoping that the electorate will either not notice or forget quickly.  And as a matter of record we have done both.

We believe we are recovering from a banking crisis and some day soon we will get a little breathing room and a few dollars in our pocket.  Not so.  The whole of the world economy is shaken up and something is going to become clear to all when the dust settles:  Like it or not, the global economy that Bush and Clinton so enthusiastically rushed us into consists of 2 classes: The Ultra-Rich and the Ultra-Poor, and there aren’t many spaces at the top.  Welcome to the New World Order.  Even with a liberal president and congress, the conservatives have already won and the liberals have lost.  How long will it take to realize this?

We can probably all agree that the left and right are in the midst of a propaganda war with the media as their battlefield and politicians, pundits, non-profits, scientific bodies as their warriors.  Cries of racism and militancy are just as much fear mongering as the right’s cries of abortion “baby killers” and a large, highly sophisticated and evil hoard of Muslims out to destroy America.  I understand why the assumption is made, because it reinforces our core beliefs and helps us feel that we have clear purpose in our lives- “They are evil and we are virtuous.”

We HAVE TO see through this propaganda war and realize that the only effect it has is to divide both groups, cause them to hate each other and render them more or less powerless to the REAL solutions.  My curiosity to explore multiple viewpoints has led me to read into this “patriot group” arena pretty extensively and I’ve got to say that the vast majority of these people have educated themselves about the REAL history of our country, are tired of being routinely deceived and are concerned for their own survival.

Other nations sometimes see us in a negative light because we TRULY do horrible things to other populations.  The actions of the CIA alone are responsible for the deaths of countless men, women, and children in the Middle East, Africa, and Central America.  Can we honestly say, after Watergate and the Nixon administration, after countless documents released through the Freedom of Information Act, after J Edgar Hoover’s control by threat of blackmail of anyone who threatened his agenda, after the drugs that were pumped into the African-American communities to fund our “Black Ops”, that we don’t believe it’s possible that we are currently being used and deceived?  The good news is that we can recover from this legacy through grassroots efforts to forward the careers of honest politicians who actually consider their job a public service instead of a game for personal advance and notoriety.

Former CIA Director William Casey once bragged: “We own everyone of any consequence in the media.”   This comment is used most commonly by the more paranoid among us.  That said, if there were even the tiniest possibility of truth to the implications of that comment, then shouldn’t we ALL be critical of the direction and content of the news, even if only to keep the corporate-minded news gatherers in touch with reality?  Should we be giving credit to articles with little or NO evidence cited or should we be asking what motivates a person or group to release such an article? We’re sailing the high seas, in the middle of a war of information, man!  And it’s getting pretty dicey.

VIDEO: Anthony Weiner Owns it on House Floor; Becomes My New Favorite Congressman « SpeakEasy.

I think Rep Weiner has taken off the gloves.  Let’s hope he draws some blood.  The Replublicans are under the delusion that they aren’t being watched or understood.  They also believe that if they stop ALL progress it will be percieved as an Obama failure and a Rebublican victory.  What  (I believe) they don’t anticipate is the fact that BOTH sides will be seen as a failure and the mid-term elections will be a slaughterhouse for incumbents.  I can’t wait to get my slice of the incumbent steak – and that applies to both sides of the aisle.  I don’t care if we have to lose a few good ones in order to oust the bad ones.  At this point there are far more bad than good and a clear and brutal message must be sent to the electorate in the form of mass evictions.  If you are in Washington, the clock is counting down and the people are pissed.  The rules and the game have changed.  We are awake and reading between the lines.

YouTube – Muse – Uprising [OFFICIAL VIDEO].

Let’s be clear about the reality of our world.   Until citizens organize in an unprecedented MASS protest there will not be justice OR peace in our society.   That’s why the political rhetoric, major media, and the huge corporations are so cunningly deceptive about dividing us into small factions that hate each other to a violent extent.   WE aren’t the problem.   THEY ARE.   But they trick us into tearing each other apart because it empowers THEM.   And people are starting to wake up to this fact.   Radical people who incite hatred of the groups they CLAIM to represent are tools of this repression (on BOTH sides of the isle). Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Hannity, Rush on the conservative side.   Olberman, Al Gore, Hillary, Michael Moore and a thousand news reporters on the liberal side.   All have varying degrees of complicity and a strong backing with SOME amount of logic at their core, but they are de-motivated to be honest about addressing real solutions because it would not further their careers nor empower them to do so.   It’s the “fake” left vs. right paradigm and if you step outside of it you realize that it’s a system of control and NOT a means to an end. There is no satisfactory end to this story when you consider the majority of players only serve themselves and NOT the society. If you view our world through this lens, then the current state of affairs seems a lot clearer.   Not easier to resolve, but clearer.   It will only become a resolution when (nearly) everyone becomes honest about the game, the players and overall goals of our society.  Our national protest must be soon and must be peaceful.  Violence begets violence, and honesty begets honesty.  Exercise critical analysis and learn to read between the lines.  The truth will set you free.

-AH