Overweening Generalist

Monday, July 4, 2011

Independence Day in Unistat, 2011: Rant! (?)

It would be just olde fashioned rhetoric of "gross understatement" if I said I thought Unistat was broken, and possibly unfixable. I hope it's fixable; I never give up hope. But, as a Generalist who has looked at the problems from multiple angles, from a personal value system that seems to be quite underrepresented in our kleptocracy, I feel alienated from the (m)asses. But I know there are people like YOU out there and hold that there is an almost invisible, true aristocracy in our midst, one that advocates taking care of the poor so that they're not poor anymore; of real liberty (not just words), of corporate accountability and an assertion that a corporation is not a "person," that money does not equal free speech, that just because you're poor it doesn't mean you should be denied decent health care, and - to quote the late American social philosopher Robert Anton Wilson - that "the Constitution admittedly has its blemishes and defects, but it's a hell of a lot better than the system we have now," where the President doesn't even try to lie to Congress or the public anymore: he just starts bombing...you know: the kinds of things a guy like Jesus would have agreed with me (us?) about.

Anyway, know that we are almost invisible in the corporate media, and we...have no political party, really. But we do party, we do celebrate being with each other. From Walt Whitman:

I have perceived that to be with others I like is
    enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is
    enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing,
     laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my 
    arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a
    moment - what is this, then?
I do not ask any more delight - I swim in it, as in 
    a sea.


-from Enfans D'Adam




Here's the flag waving, to get in the mood: 12 secs:


Here's America's health care.


Here's America's war spending, compared to other countries!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

Here's something on unemployment in the American state with the largest economy

Here's something on the rapidly growing gap between rich and poor

Our infrastructure is crumbling; Bush bailed out the banks, and they gave themselves bonuses, didn't lend, and the cities are falling apart: far too little of the stimulus money was spent on jobs fixing our cities, bridges, roads, schools, hospitals, etc:


“America’s unwillingness to confront its infrastructure challenges is undermining the ability of our urban areas to compete globally. If we persist with short-sighted decisions, we will lose talented workers and companies to nations and cities overseas that are committed to infrastructure as a vital component of livability and economic viability,” McAvey said. “Infrastructure as a national priority is not political rhetoric. It’s a must to keep America’s standing as a global leader in innovation.”  

In a very real way, white-collar banksters/gangsters Goldman Sachs are the US government. Check the links:

(I could've listed hundred of links there...)

The homeless problem is a national shame, and growing rapidly:

Intellectual-Comedian Harry Shearer says a lot here, on the eve of Independence Day in Unistat:

This blog post brought to you by the good folks at Fox "News":


"Those who own the country ought to govern it."- Attributed by son William Jay as a "favourite maxim", in Life and Opinions of John Jay (1833)

John Jay was the first Justice of the Supreme Court and president at the Constitutional Convention.

6 comments:

Loba said...

Thankfully we are able to expand our community through this medium, which means more opportunity to speak out. Here is a link provides information suppressed by our Conservative government and corporate executives. A very small indigenous community suffering as a result of our thirst for oil.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2011/06/20116227153978324.html

keep speaking up and out!!

michael said...

I've found al-Jazeera to be one of the better sources for news in the electronic spectrum.

I wonder how many "Murrrkins" have any idea how non-progressive things have gotten in Canada lately? I've been reading your blog and wincing: like many romantic Unistatians I somewhat secretly cherish the idea there are places where there's still a measure of sanity and equanimity. I think it's still alive in Northern Europe. I still think Canadians can modify their course, but I fear that the tentacles of the multinationals/Fortune 500/banksters are forcing their beyond-deplorable Zero Sum Game (apart from their rhetoric of opening up "markets" being good for "democracy"). Although the Total System is always, by definition far more complex than the best groups of FFUIs (not to mention "think tanks") to prognosticate accurately about, the closest I get to "blame" is We The People. We have the numbers. We should know better. If We were paying attention We wouldn't allow "all this" to happen. But there seems not nearly enough of us paying attention. Indeed, the 5% that own everything have a very well-oiled machinery with multiple mouthpieces that have a significant number of downtrodden actively rooting for their own demise...in the name of "liberty" or "freedom" or the epic cluelessness of "keep your damn gummint hands off my Medicare!"

ARW23 said...

Happy Dependence Day!

From Chinese colony.

ARW23 said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g907n_kCmw

ARW23 said...

I guess, Revolution will not be televised.

Eric Wagner said...

Your viewpoint in this blog does remind me of Elizabeth Warren. Perhaps we have a somewhat golden age on the way. That would have pleased Bob Wilson.