Even More Reality. . .

Why Does My Nation Keep Proving The Thieves Correct About Us...?
by The Old Hippie Because So Many, Way Too Many, Are Still, Insanely, “Allowing”...

-  Frozen Food’s Newest Ingredient       Contamination has become so widespread that major frozen food corporations       admit they can no longer ensure the safety of their products.   -  “They Are In Total Terror It’s Going To Come Out.”       “Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay?”   -  “Getting Through The Coming Depression”       Millions of jobs lost in just a few months -- and a coming Depression...

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A“Below The Fold” Bonus (Video) Article -

Torturing Democracy
by Bill Moyers, aired May 29, 2009 on PBS

The documentary TORTURING DEMOCRACY tells the story of how the United States government circumvented tradition and law to adopt torture as official policy.  The film, produced by award-winning filmmaker Sherry Jones, draws on interviews, archival footage, and recently declassified documents to piece together the development and dissemination of torture tactics from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib -- and the document trail leads right to the top of the chain of command.

[ Above title is the direct link to the full video documentary. ]

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Your Moment Of Zen. . .

One Of Jon’s Better, If Not Surreal, Reports...
by Jon Stewart via The Daily Show, and his writers.


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Not a lot one could add to that - Right?

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Just A Few Thoughts...

Nothing Fancy, No Links, No Videos Or Pictures.  Just Thoughts.
by The Old Hippie Because Sometimes Even “Allowing” Americans Have To Stop And Think.

 - America is the only 1st world, or 2nd world, or westernized, nation that uses a for-profit healthcare system, and yet its quality is rated far below almost all of the others.

 - At least 89 humans were killed, most while being tortured in American military prisons, verified by the Pentagon.

 - Almost all available guns, and their ammunitions, have been sold out nationwide.

 - Billions of dollars from life insurance policies on the “lowly” workers are being used to pay the corporations’ “elite” executives’ incredibly outlandish pensions, even if the corporation is losing stock value, or even going bankrupt.

 - Others are being paid directly from the taxpayer funds given to the corporations to “save the too big to fail” company, not to pay undeserving outlandish executive pensions.  And, so far, absolutely no one has done anything “real” to stop them.

 - Credit card percentage rates are now reaching almost 40%, on most citizens, even those that responsibly pay on time, not that paying late would in any way justify an almost 40% apr... and this usury is being not only allowed by “our” representatives, but it is even being supported by the laws they vote in, even as they publicly speak out against such practices by the corporatists.

 - “Free-Speech Zones” are still legal...  In America...  The land of the free.

 - America has the highest percentage of its citizens in prisons, and the highest actual number of its citizens in prisons, more so than any other nation on this planet, and more so than in the entire written history of the planet, and almost all are in for-profit private corporate prisons.

 - Absolutely no one has been even “investigated,” much less punished, for any of these criminal, and purposefully created, and profitably manipulated mess of crimes...  At least so far.

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Are you “thinking” about those facts, and many more that you know you know about, and that you did allow.  In many cases, like the global warming “debate,” (“...our product is doubt...”) or the fact all of the “criminals” ... political and corporatist and the-very-few ... are living in abject luxury at such an insane level that it is completely beyond even the wildest imaginings of almost
all Americans in the lower 99% bracket of “income.”

What part of the wealth-transfer theft, the largest theft, (by a very small group of people,) of an entire nation’s wealth, do you just not understand?

Is it that you believe you are part of them, or is it that you think that you will benefit somehow from their theft, or that you actually think they will allow you into their protected enclaves when the destructive effects and affects of their theft, and their criminally greedy short-term-profit-taking, and criminal war-profiteering, reach you and yours?

And now, even our “audacity of hope and change” president, is turning out to be a “continue the protection” politician.  and yet, as far as I can tell, (and I am seriously no one special, but I do pay attention,) the “allowing of the allowing” by my fellow “citizens” continues to continue, without real protest, without revolt, without...?

All of the founders of this nation, that openly worried about this worst case scenario of national destruction of the democracy from within...  Were correct to worry after all, for it has happened, and it is still being allowed to progress as I type this.

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Says It All...

Some Can Nail It With “Jest”, Some Just Nail It.
by Tom Tomorrow



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Nailed it for me.  How about you?

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Yeah, Right...

The “Allowed” Thieves Are Still Free, You Still “Allow” Their Freedom.
Because The Corporatist War-profiteers, And The Banker-Thieves, Know They’ve “Won.”

-  “Let's Get It Back”       Corporatist tax dogers use the Cayman Islands, they are parasites       that weaken the United States and other developed nations - They       must be brought to justice, our government must be forced to do it.   -  They Oughtta To Be Ashamed, But They Aren’t.       Lobbyists for large companies – and polluters – like Shell, Boeing,       3M and Chevron are signing up at a rate of one per day.   -  Again - Can't Say We Weren’t Warned...       The “Allowing” May Possibly Not Be “Allowed” To Stop.

“As long as the greatest crime of the 21st century remains unprosecuted,
we all...  can only blame ourselves, and deserve our collective fates.”

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A“Below The Fold” bonus Article - Speaking of damage already done...  That you did allow...
[Reprised in case you missed it, or forgot about the ongoing “allowed” wealth-transfer.]
EFCA Setbacks: A Familiar Story of Corporate Power vs. The Middle Class
by Amy Traub, via DMI Blog, April 23, 2009

The Employee Free Choice Act is key to rebuilding the American middle class – news of Senators wavering in their support for the bill revalidates a key truth about Congress: the main stumbling block to strengthening and expanding the middle class is corporate power.

The same pattern emerges every year on TheMiddleClass.org.  Throughout the year, DMI uses the site to share analysis about the impact of Congressional legislation on Americans’ ability to gain – and hold onto – a middle-class standard of living.  Once a year, we take a step back and look at the big picture.  It often looks depressingly familiar: fiscal conservatives notwithstanding, Congress does fairly well when it comes to measures that simply involve spending more, but falls short – often far short – when powerful corporate interests clash with the wellbeing of the nation’s current and aspiring middle class.

In 2008, for example, Congress stood up for the middle-class on issues like providing more funds to higher education and passing a consumer safety bill that’s even been endorsed by the industry its regulating.  Virtually all Democrats voted for these bills, and most Republicans as well. Similarly in 2007, college aid did well and majorities from both parties in the House voted for common sense contracting reforms.

But Congressional support for middle-class Americans falls off precipitously as soon as major corporate interests are at stake.

In 2007, the Peru trade bill was the skunk at the garden party, provoking 64 percent of Senate Democrats and 48 percent of House Democrats (along with nearly every Republican) to vote for multinational corporations and large investors at the expense of their middle-class constituents.  Last year, it was a willingness to put banks before struggling homeowners, telecommunications companies before consumers, and those @%$& banks again before taxpayers.  These weren’t the only policy disappointments of the year for middle-class Americans, but they were the main cases where significant numbers of Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in selling out the middle class.

This year, I fear Thomas Frank is right when he predicts the same fate for EFCA. Sure, Congress will approve health coverage for low-income kids (an important boost for aspiring middle-class families in its own right) but when it comes to standing up for middle-class Americans against a full-scale corporate lobbying campaign, Congress may not have the guts.  That's terrible news for the middle class.

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Best Article Of The Week...

Some Articles Just State Facts, This One Does That, But Also Gives Perspective.

“The NYT Sums up Obama's Civil Liberties Record in One Paragraph”
by Glenn Greenwald via CommonDreams.org

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There is a second article well worth your time - I just finished reading it myself...

“Caught in a Lie:
US is Using White Phosphorus in Afghanistan as a Weapon”
by Dave Lindorff (also) via CommonDreams.org

Truth, like reality, is sometimes a cruel taskmaster, even for exceptionalist Americans.

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Says It All. . .

Some Can Nail It With “Jest”, Some Just Nail It.
by Drew Sheneman



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Others, like David Horsey, are a bit less subtle...



...and France, and Spain, and Italy, and England, and Canada, and Cuba, and Norway, and Sweden, and Iceland, and Belgium, and Austria, and Costa Rica, and Australia, and Venezuela, and Brazil, and China, and Argentina, and Peru, and Egypt, and Turkey, and... and... and...

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Okay...

Let Me Try And Get This Straight, Just So I Can Understand...
by The Old Hippie Because I Thought Seeing Truth Would Help, Obviously Not.

{-The Way Many Picture Me-}

The political right-wing is experiencing an unexpected power vacuum, and the extremists are moving in with gusto, with the help of FOX, who after openly, sneeringly, blatantly, profitably, backing the losers for the past eight years, are now so desperate they will, and are, through the sycophantic likes of Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, Cavuto, Baier, et al, say anything, no matter how dangerous to this nation, to keep their ratings up.  (Profits before country, before life...) To gain a deeper understanding of the increasing dangers of this uncontrolled power vacuum that is now filling fast with far-right extremists, see this excellently researched article.  Also see this article concerning the DHS report on increasing domestic extremism.  Both articles are worth reading.

This situation of the observed growth of dangerous manipulations of far-right extremists' paranoia, by FOX, and other financial, and ideological, profiteers is not just going to go away.  It is with us now.  It is much more dangerous to our “way of life” within this nation than even the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are, and I am not diminishing the danger they pose either.

The planet is more crowded than ever, the global corporations have more power than ever, and “the-very-few” have more money than ever, and its inherent manipulable power that this stolen wealth possesses.  There is much less fresh water available to fewer people worldwide, and the supplies of it are diminishing with the melting of the glaciers planetwide.  Food supplies are short in many areas, more so than ever, and global ag-chem corporations are making the situation far worse, just for the short-term profits to themselves.

We are in a bad situation on this planet right now, a very bad situation indeed, and it is getting worse each day from many complex, and mind-numbing, and varied directions... Fundamentalism, ideology, corporatism, “opportunistic profiteering” of every conceivable kind, not to mention commodification of supplies of food, and water, and healthcare... are destroying much more than “just peoples lives” on this planet, which has been accurately described as... “Spaceship Earth.”

When the revolt comes, whether from the left’s reality-based reaction to the insanity, and/or from the right’s manipulated paranoia, and/or from simply people “refusing” to starve and thirst for someone else’s profits - It will be ugly.  Possibly more than just ugly.  I seriously hope I am long gone from this mortal coil when it finally happens.

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The following is reprised, because not much has really changed as far as the ongoing denial of the insane “allowing” of the theft by the-very-few is concerned...  I will continue to reprise this... as long as the 'citizens' of my nation continue to “allow the allowing.”

It, the insanity, of the “allowing,” is getting worse, in fact it is much worse already.

Go look at all of the MSM’s headlines, at their websites, then compare what you see there with the reality as rationally reported by reality based independent news sites.

If that simple comparison doesn’t open ones closed eyes of denial, nothing will.

To help you remain sane, and not too deeply depressed, you should end your “session of reality” by stopping in at some of the better editorial humorists’ websites - It couldn’t hurt.

That is my main personal method of doing research for this blog - Check in with the right and the right’s insane, then study as much of the reality-based news sites as possible, then check in with the humorists.  I then sleep on it, do it again, and then post what I have learned, observed, or was stunned by, to first, share it, and second, to get it off my chest so that I can remain sane myself.  All the while, trying my best to keep a reality-based perspective in these historically insane times.

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Even More Reality. . .

Why Does My Nation Keep Proving The Thieves Correct About Us...?
by The Old Hippie Because So Many, Way Too Many, Are Still, Insanely, “Allowing”...

-  Enraged About Corporate Greed?       In answer to their own economic crisis, the French have taken up       “bossnapping.”  ...to protest economic unfairness.   -  “Bernie Madoff, Scapegoat” by Michael Moore, via Time magazine.       Elie Wiesel called him a “God.”  His investors called him a “genius.”   -  Chrysler has Filed for Federal Bankruptcy Protection.       Democracy Now! with Ralph Nader, concerning this.  (Worthy P.O.V.)

Who's Your Daddy?  Corporate Senate Dems (Again) Do Banks’ Bidding
[ direct link to full article at Crooks and Liars ]


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A“Below The Fold” Bonus Article -

Dare We Use the S-Word?
by Scott Tucker via truthdig.com, May 1, 2009

...now that we’ve got the son of a Kansan mother and a Kenyan father presiding in Washington, the right-wing guttersnipes have gone back to an old game.  They have set up Barack Obama for target practice as a socialist.

May Day, 2009 is therefore a good day to remember Obama’s repeatedly stated faith in a capitalist economy.  For the true believers on the right, that is not good enough.  Obama sometimes suggests that freedom should not be reduced to the free market.  Likewise, he has suggested that big banks and big business require public oversight and regulation.  These deviations from four-square gospel capitalism are sufficient for the heresy hunters on the right to find reds in the White House beds.

[ Above title is the direct link to the full article. ]

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