now you see it now you see it-

here's another good article by chris hedges:

At Least the Greeks Are Rioting in the Streets

the brunt of the story is about why we should resist the World's Wealthiest Wedgie Wranglers- [also mentioned in my previous rant]- but in this and David Sirota's article [previous post] are couple facts about BP contributions to both Obama & Salaazar that i'd like to juxtapose with some quotes by these two that i lifted from Democracy Now.

you know. for kicks.

"BP and its employees handed more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics." [Hedges]

says the Prez: “If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such an oil spill, or if we didn’t enforce those laws, I want to know it. I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down. We know, for example, that a cozy relationship between oil and gas companies and the agencies that regulate them has long been a source of concern.” [D.N.]

and then:

"Somehow, there have been almost no calls for the resignation of Salazar, who oversaw this disaster and who, before that, took $323,000 in campaign contributions from energy interests and backed more offshore drilling as a U.S. senator."[Sirota's article]

working for us, here's Ken Salaazar:"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this well from leaking and to stop this pollution from spreading. We are thirty-three days into this effort, and deadline after deadline has been missed." [D.N.]

meanwhile over 700,000 gallons of Corexit Dispersant have been poured into the gulf- [don't get that on your skin, but do put it in the water] -against orders from the EPA and right past our noses. how much was the Corexit manufacturer paid? what kind of world do we expect to to inhabit considering these kinds of actions?

Oil Company Calls the Shots While Playing by Washington Rules

there so little charade left in our little charade- but enough of my mouth-

let's let Fred Hampton carry this one home from 1969:

"Now, let me show you how were gonna try to do it in the Black Panther Party here. We just got back from the south side. We went out there. We went out there and we got to arguing with the pigs or the pigs got to arguing-he said, "Well, Chairman Fred, you supposed to be so bad, why dont you go and shoot some of those policemen? You always talking about you got your guns and got this, why dont you go shoot some of them?"

And I've said, "you've just broken a rule. As a matter of fact, even though you have on a uniform it doesn't make me any difference. Because I dont care if you got on nine uniforms, and 100 badges. When you step outside the realm of legality and into the realm of illegality, then I feel that you should be arrested." And I told him, "You being what they call the law of entrapment, you tried to make me do something that was wrong, you encouraged me, you tried to incite me to shoot a pig. And that ain't cool, Brother, you know the law, dont you?"

I told that pig that, I told him "You got a gun, pig?" I told him, "You gotta get your hands up against the wall. We're gonna do what they call a citizens arrest." This fool dont know what this is. I said, "Now you be just as calm as you can and don't make too many quick moves, cause we don't wanna have to hit you."

And I told him like he always told us, I told him, "Well, I'm here to protect you. Don't worry about a thing, 'm here for your benefit." So I sent another Brother to call the pigs. You gotta do that in a citizen's arrest. He called the pigs. Here come the pigs with carbines and shotguns, walkin' out there. They came out there talking about how they're gonna arrest Chairman Fred. And I said, "No fool. This is the man you got to arrest. He's the one that broke the law." And what did they do? They bugged their eyes, and they couldn't stand it. You know what they did? They were so mad, they were so angry that they told me to leave.

And what happened? All those people were out there on 63rd Street. What did they do? They were around there laughing and talking with me while I was making the arrest. They looked at me while I was rapping and heard me while I was rapping. So the next time that the pig comes on 63rd Street, because of the thing that our Minister of Defense calls observation and participation, that pig might be arrested by anybody!

So what did we do? We were out there educating the people. How did we educate them? Basically, the way people learn, by observation and participation. And that's what were trying to do. That's what we got to do here in this community..

A lot of people get the word revolution mixed up and they think revolutions a bad word. Revolution is nothing but like having a sore on your body and then you put something on that sore to cure that infection. And Im telling you that were living in an infectious society right now. Im telling you that were living in a sick society. And anybody that endorses integrating into this sick society before its cleaned up is a man whos committing a crime against the people. "

right or left, we're hanging by our underwear

whether we want to believe we can 'return' to prosperity by reversing social progress & turning our backs on each other- or that we can move forward towards it by expecting our government to bootstrap a whole new healthcare, banking, infrastructure, education, foreign policy or energy paradigm with us: no matter what we want to believe, we're all in effect receiving a giant atomic wedgie from the powers that be.

Myths We Try So Hard to Believe

david sirota riffs on the recent gulf oilpocalypse-

"We know that before the disaster, President Barack Obama recklessly pushed to expand offshore drilling. We also know that his Interior Department gave British Petroleum’s rig a “categorical exclusion” from environmental scrutiny and, according to The New York Times, “gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf without first getting required [environmental] permits.” Worse, we know that after the spill, the same Interior Department kept issuing “categorical exclusions” for new gulf oil operations, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar still refuses “to rule out continued use of categorical exclusions,” as The Denver Post reported (heckuva job, Kenny!).

Undoubtedly, had this been the behavior of a Republican administration, “The Left’s” big environmental organizations would be scheduling D.C. protests and calling for firings, if not criminal charges. Yet, somehow, there are no protests. Somehow, there have been almost no calls for the resignation of Salazar, who oversaw this disaster and who, before that, took $323,000 in campaign contributions from energy interests and backed more offshore drilling as a U.S. senator. Somehow, facing environmental apocalypse, there has been mostly silence from “The Left.”"

redplumjam project garden sequence initiated

i made a tiny raised bed for my garden this year- with some scraps leftover from renovating my garage space into a workshop. my neighbors allow a common compost just on the other side of a waist high fence- which keeps my dogs out & the birds well fed-

another step toward a more sustainable self- that happens to also be part of a much larger unsustainable culture.

The Drones Delivered by Democracy

speaking of this culture, mine- sustained on massive weapons sales & brutal, hi-tech military action abroad- and domestically we've outsourced everything but exotic economic shell games, catering to the rich and entertainment-

so- speaking as a lover & connoisseur of conflicted self-cancelling sensational urges: i propose this reality television series:

Gangsta Rules Texas Shark Cage Death Match Over a Pit of Vipers Hidden by Mustard Gas.. MILITARY SHOWDOWN!!

superdicktacular right?

we could break it down to individual units- black ops death raids specialists for instance- we could pit them against 'some dudes' from blackwater in a control room with livefeed drones..

you see where i'm going here. get all the military branches & subunits involved as well as the contractors. there could be a big prize they're fighting for or not- really it doesn't matter too much. there will be interest & viewership & therefore good sponsorship- ensuring continued military funding, research & no-bid contractor royalties. super-kick-ass all around.

think of how peaceful the rest of the world might become.. shoot, we might even be able to get Israel or Iran on the show, maybe North Korea- aaww yeeeah. they could flex some muscle, be cheered on & paid all at the same time: in a 'controlled remote arena' of some sort- perhaps a space station to add to the potential risks. Virgin Mobile might sponsor that now- anyhow, still working out those bugs..

i'd much rather see that scenario play out than for those drones to become used by police forces domestically- yikes.

i'll leave you with a couple of viewpoints about our future as collections of much smaller and sharper-witted sustainable communities- which is probably more likely to come to bear than the Military Showdown Show:

A Mindset to Start Adopting About Local Relationships

Videos: Building a Small Sustainable House

the eichmannization of culture

'what?'

radio voice: as a citizen of the USA you have a lot of say in what happens in this world! but you know, there are some that feel overwhelmed, ineffective, or powerless with regard to what happens in our name. are you happy with or do you give much thought to the way we deliver democracy to ourselves? how about our military role in the middle east? do you think it will bring those countries a good democracy like ours? with the 2010 elections coming- these will be the first bonafide state sanctioned corporate owned elections- do you still feel empowered and in control of your country's destiny? of CIA operations, of rendition flights, of drone attacks, of guantanamo or baghram, or your own citizenship? do companies like Blackwater, Chevron, Coca Cola, or BP keep our best interests in mind when making operational decisions? does your authority over these matters give you comfort and a clear vision of an environmentally & economically stable future for your children?

'look: i'm tired after work, my kid's a diabetic, i've got heartburn from my dollar menu meal, i'm trying to enjoy this can of PBR before i make dinner, clean the kitchen, pay bills & fold laundry. get it, weird radio voice?'

radio voice: ha ha! so nihilism & schizoprenia have become the norm in the USA for anyone with enough time or energy to pay attention. instead of dealing with this directly, may of us seek continual distraction. these conditions, along with the accompanying low regard for 'society' have been fertile ground for [myopic, self serving, resource consuming, population exploiting, environmental hazard creating, & now with free speech-$] corporations to bloom and flourish.

radio voice: ..so perfectly seamless- see, there's no disconnect because we're all disconnected now!

BP Annointed Eichmann of the Moment

And Have a Great Day!

virtual living without cerebral interference

this article had a great point, but for the life of me i can't think of a single related anecdote. i will likely forget this completely by the end of the day.

"Simply put, our culture is hostile to thinking and talking. About the only American environment where discussions are encouraged, or just made possible, is the university, but these are conducted mostly by people without dirt under their fingernails, hence the gross disconnect between the academy and the rest of us.

In Italy, there's a quaint custom known as the passegiatta. For a couple hours before dinner, people actually hang out or walk around their local square. This bonding and soothing practice embraces even foreigners. This is not possible here because we don't have the proper spaces. Our few squares are landscaped, with paths dictating traffic, unlike an open piazza that encourages congregrating and loitering, that allows free movement and wide vistas. In most American localities, there are no squares at all, only shopping mall food courts."

Marketers Made Me Into a Meathead

gallup poll interested in my banking experiences?

my bank was concerned about whether or not my teller was obsequious enough: if she laughed hard enough at my jokes, if she made me feel like 'one of us'.

"can i talk about the goons they sent to strangle kittens in front of my children?"

"sir, while your concern does seem legitimate, that's not in the scope of this poll..

now can you tell me on a scale of 1 to 10..."

she did get frustrated with me and let me go eventually. i felt just barely vindicated somehow even though this poor woman had nothing to do with banks really. hell, she probably had to take that job for one monetarily hamstrung reason or another too.

the fact that a board meeting takes place in a room with paid executives & marketing directors- they decide on this plan to search for just a narrow band of customer feedback to see how they're doing in our eyes:

-did the teller kiss your ass?-

shows such an obvious disconnect between corporate self awareness and everyday experience. they don't know that it's bad to kill kittens in front of children, and then they think that a good nose in the butt from a stranger will fix things right again & even make me loyal.

"does this office ever get cleaned? my wastecan is almost full."

you're changing the subject.

everything you can think about yourself is not you at all

when we get down to it, we are the experiencers of many thoughts or activities or feelings. many of these are disconnected little pavlovian circuits that we perform at given intervals or circumstances or stimuli- yet some are connected in intelligent, cultural or maybe spiritual ways. and in some of these matters we are given enough positive feedback to start to identify with these external things or concepts- and before you know it, we start to think we know what we're doing in this little personal, fictional, conditional, insular world.

it's a good thing to get back in touch with this experiencer, this detached witness- that will still suffer & hunger like the rest, but with less whining & self-absorption. these will be good traits to adopt because soon you're going into the first grade, and your little world is getting bigger & weirder. i made you these cliff's notes to get you up to speed:

No One Cares We Are At Perpetual War or that Our Government is a Corporation

emergency rations for wars that go nowhere in 2010: 33 billion. any rations for infrastructure, transportation, social services, green jobs, real public education: none sorry.

Cover Up What We Do in Afghanistan, etc-

dead bystanders & innocents are always much cooler in video games. remember to dehumanize your enemy. keep your military milestones vague & far enough out that they never materialize.

Seems Obama Doesn't Want to Mess Up a Good Thing

citizen wiretaps & indefinite detention become totally necessary once one becomes the president evidently.

Did Good ol'No Bid Haliburton Blow up the Deepwater Horizon?

the posterchild of F squad performances. let the market take care of the world. outsource intelligence. let us finally become a nation of boobs.

and yet i digress again, but see i told you first grade was going to be a shocker.

please remember that even though all of this happens in our name {USA}- whether by choice, apathy, or squirming regret- even though we are the richest and we use the most- even though our democracy has 30% voter turn out when it's lucky- nobody knows what a dollar is worth or what is really in our food or recognizes our institutional racism or classism- we don't even notice our growing wealth disparity. [is it not polite to mention?]

but as we were saying earlier, even though all of this is a caricature of you [of us]- none of this is you or even comes close. this happens to be the scene you find yourself observing on the first day of first grade: and here you have some ethics choices to make- the easy path is least rewarding. remember about the whining & self-absorption. i'll be back to pick you up after-