As The Cookie Crumbles (11/11/11):Pale Chartreuse

It's been over 18 months since BP and Halliburton presided over the worst environmental catastrophe in the HISTORY of the USofA, and the world watched in dread fascination as the civilization's heedless need for fuel delivered yet another blow to the global ecology as a whole.

Why is no one asking St. Barry, the Hopeful, the necessary, relevant questions, "even as he plans to grant NEW licenses to commit MORE ecocide?

Questions like: How will it be possible to prevent what happened in the Gulf of Mexico from happening in the Beaufort Sea, when all the same players are in place, again?

Where are the DoJ/EPA criminal prosecutions of the major corporations responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Shouldn't that be settled before you grant the same miscreants MORE chances to fuck up?

Where are the prosecutors and investigations, and grand juries around the deaths of the workers?

Why is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not seeking prosecutions of the major polluters?

What are they doing, Instead??

Echo answers: Well, for one thing, they're coming down on whistleblowers like they were Arab terror cells. And those who support whistleblowers. And silencing the science. And buying off critics, or impuning their motives. Helping the polluters, in some cases to shut-up unruly locals and experts by threats and intimidation, where bribery won't stop it.

Meanwhile, the corporate miscreants--the liars, and corner-cutters, and late-night dumpers-- are still unfettered by anything like a social conscience, or any new, significant regulation, and they have set out to do once more in the delicate, fragile, vital Arctic oceans and permafrosts--with ENTHUSIASTIC Presidential support and endorsement--what the fuckers so baldly and blandly did in the Gulf of Mexico last year, and in the S. Timor Sea, in 2009. They're the same fuckers.

I believe that when St. Barry, the Capitulator, abstained from putting in even a pro forma appearance while the 12--15,000 conservation voters were encircling the WHite House, it should have told you ALL you need to know about Shamwow's "green" sympathies.

The world runs on carbon-fueled energy.

The carbon-energy corporations hold the whip-hand.

Obamster has no more discretion about such matters than a crossing-guard can control traffic: He can wave a sign but if they don't slow down, there's not jack shit he can actually DO,even if he WANTED to, which he DOESN'T.

St. Barry, the clean, wasn't chosen for his current position because of his 'bravery,' or 'initiative,' or 'imagination.' He was (s)elected because he was/is RELIABLE to the OWNERS." The CorpoRat Apple-Carts are safe with him, or he wouldn't BE there.

So save your breath. They're gonna drill (and spill). They're gonna build that big, filthy pipeline, and it's gonna fuck stuff up, good. They're gonna build more nuclear plants.

Hey, it's MODERN TIMES, hippiez!

As the Cookie Crumbles: Pretenders

I sher do wish Krugman and Reich and all the other MSEz (MainStream Economistz) would stop PRETENDING to be 1) surprised! or 2) shocked!, or 3) dismayed!, or 4) upset!, or 5) disturbed!, or 6) otherwise confused! when the GOPhux AGAIN refuse to act or negotiate or bargain in "good faith." There was a perfect example of the art in on Krugman's blog at the NYTimes, recently.

By NOW, this appallingly transparent duplicity CANNOT come as--or be represented as--some fucking "SOO-PRAHS!" anymore. It strains credulity to the snapping point. The GOPhux have NOT given ANY indication AT LEAST since 1981 that they have ANY intention, whatsoever, of EVER acting in "good faith" with the Dumocrats, as equal, co-governors, ever again.

The deal that once prevailed--where everybody at least pretended the other guys were just as able as they were to govern--was abrogated, consciously, by the GOPhux, beginning probably with Nixon; but it became official policy under the Raygunners. It was a coup d'etat, and it's over.

Krugman and Reich, and the rest of the MSEz still HAVE to pretend to NOT see the pretense they're paid to preserve, and maintain the necessary illusions. That's their job, for which they are handsomely remunerated.

But don't YOU be deceived, hippies...

Interestingly, and speaking of deceit...Jack Abramov, the uber-lobbyist whose eye for corruption finally o'er-spanned his ability to disguise it, and who subsequently spent some time in jail for his appetites (a fate which I'm sure others of his ilk--Luntz, Ralph Reid, Grover Norquist, among them, would find salubrious) has broken the omerta-like silence about the operating conditions and operant understandings and arrangements in your typical, well-financed, well-connected, right-wing K-Street bribery...I mean, "lobby" shop.

The trick, apparently, when you're a lobbyist trying to secure the sympathies of any given Congresscritter--was then (and presumably still is), to recruit a key members of the Critter's staff as FUTURE employees of the lobbyist's multi-billion-dollar-booking operation.

And NOT to exchange anything but telephone numbers, as long as the recruit was still in "public" service, along with the "understanding" that the career of the Congressional flunky who played along was secured when they went out the revolving door.

Deferred compensation, I guess you'd call it, by the lobbyist; an "investment in the future" for the staffers.

It was SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), and an EVERYDAY occurrence in Abramov's shop, which was one of the most successful, and wealthiest, and therefore would have been a MODEL for all the other wannabes on K-Street.

How does one cleanse such Stygian filth? The Potomac doesn't run swift or full enough to flush away the accreted SHIT in Congress and the industries designed to control it.

Napalm?

Like Stokely said, the fire next time?

Whadda you think hippies. We can talk about it when I see you at the beach.

Oh, yeah: The so-called "giving season" is fast upon us. The WWH comp'ny store has cool stuff with which to assuage your potlatching impulses.

As The Cookie Crumbles: The Capacity for Mendacity

A lot of folks will remember a song, or at least the sentiment, that "it's a sin to tell a lie."

It's not lying, per se--or, at least not ALL lying--which the world's 'great' religions forbid.

It's one special kind of lying, at least in the 10 Commandments...

"Thou shalt NOT bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Says nothing about denying you're banging your sister-in-law, or the pool-boy, or lying on your tax returns.

It does prohibit SLANDER, however; That's the "bear false witness against a neighbor" part...lies about others.

Which makes sense, as a social condition.

Nobody can prevent or prohibit most lies.

But lies about others are a danger to social cohesion.

So we deplore liars. Don't want anything to do widdem. Check the "Personals?" Folks don't want liars calling 'em. NO LIARS NEED APPLY!

So why does the "Big Lie" --the "Jewish problem," WMD in Iraq, Hope&Change, indeed, kapitalism in general--work?

The "Big Lie" propaganda mechanism is based on the central insight that despite our ostensible socialization to tell truth, everybody DOES lie, sometimes. And that they mostly are reluctant to be caught at it, so they only lie about little shit, lies they can walk away from, trivial shit--age, weight, spouse?--which is what everybody lies about.

Goebbels (reading Bernays, 1928) reasoned--rightly, as it turned out--that folks who are socialized with contempt and disdain for lying--no matter that they themselves lie--would be inclined to BELIEVE--or, not at lezst to immediately disbelieve--truly enormous lies on the grounds that the people hearing the the BIG LIES would believe that those telling the lies would have the same hesitation about lying that prohibited THEM from egregious untruth-telling. The bigger the lie, the greater the shame and opprobrium upon discovery.

The "lie," its perpetual repetition and by 'credible' speakers, are the keys to the success of the method--and NEVER doubt its success. The tenacious "Brand loyalty" to "St. Barry, the Capitulator," is one of its indisputable products.

At present, we are in the grips of the propagandistic 'perfect storm' for Big Lies. There are, first, interests and powers which will not and do not scruple to tell them, and employ many, many adepts--Frank Luntz, and/or Grover Norquist--to create them. So there's the message.

Second, we've recently been present at the indisputable "maturation" of the culture of celebrity. The capacity to BE known--which is what a celebrity does--has become the warrant for 'credibility." Being known for being known, alone, is enough to imbue the dreariest, slobbering banalities with the authority of the Mass. The mega-hyper-multi-plex of screens screams to be filled. They don't call it "dead air" for nothing. That's the 'credible voice.

Finally, there is the wonder of the 24-hour news-cycle, 24/7/365, endlessly, on the cabloids and/or the Netz. Repetition. I wouldn't recommend this, I believe it cause your brain to curdle; but people who HAVE watched CNN/MSNBC/Fox/HNN'ETC for 24 or 48 hours report nearly endless repetitions of the same stories, the same themes, the same narratives. If I were a propagandist specializing in the Big Lie, and the technology existed to support it, I'd PAY somebody to build the Internet.

No, really. But I betcha you've heard all this a thousand times, huh, Hippies? We'll compare notes when I see ya at the beach...

HN&S, 11/7/11: Candid Chimeras...

"Thanks, Winstone! Hangin' Bugs, hangin' by a thread...Hola hippies: Didja ever think about "free will?" Well, I got on the cap with the tassel (and not the vessel with the pestle or the flagon with the dragon, so beware: Philosophy comin'!

As the conditions under which success in this culture becomes more and more a MATTER OF SHEER, DUMB LUCK, I am growing weary of listening to folks who are well, or better-off criticizing other folks who are less well-situated, less "well off," as if the less-fortunate were somehow deficient in industry, or had abused their opportunities. And then proceed to blame the less fortunate for their beleaguered situations because they "made bad choices."

Man, that one pisses me off. And not because I, too, made bad choices. Of course I did. Everybody's made 'em. They're just less catastrophic for some than for others, depending on your social position, usually, and that's just the fucking luck of the draw.

So, you'd be right un thinking I'm not one of those who clings to the arcane notion of "FREE WILL" within his epistemological framework.

"Free Will" is one chimera. In mythology, a Chimera (capitral "C") is a fabulous monster of disparate, unmatched parts; in literature, poets use the word to refer to "an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially : an unrealizable dream. Free Will is a chimerical component of the dominant "myths" of civilization.

As such, the myth of "free will" mainly serves the Owners by preserving the status quo without appearing to do so. Because "free will" makes it possible for the Bosses, who DO control the destinies of the rest of us, to assign blame to the us proles for NOT surmounting the leaden lots allotted them at the bottom of the social pile and dragging ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

It's part of that whole "you had choices" condemnation process that relegates the littler folks to their positions and provides an explanation for why we/they're still on the bottom when we had those "choices."

AND Which has additional virtues: Not only does "free will" NOT implicate the Owners in the forces keeping people down, but it also actively excuses their predations, since the idea oif free will implies we might somehow resist them.

One has no more "free will" than one has choice of one's parents, or of one's native language.

Ich wird Ihnen am Strand sehen! Back to Hippie Central, Win-Stone!

As the Cookie Crumbles: Downing Thomas

Is Coke-can Clarence Thomas above the law? Can "Ol' Curley-on-top" flout his turpitude, his dishonesty, his contemptible corruption without ANY public consequence?

We'll see. There appears to be at least one plausible avenue through which to attack his corrupt, venal ass. As with Capone, the issue is via taxes.

The Thomases, asserting the privilege of their rank and position, apparently failed--neglected? disdained?-- to report ANY income for her for 12 years, from 1997-2009.

Funny thing: This coincided with when he apparently positioning himself as the foremost ADVOCATE OF THE corpoRat AGENDA on the Court; meanwhile "Ceasar's" wife was making big bux as a high-dollah, Conservative 'rain-maker,' lobbying, fundraising and policy-wonking with the Kochs, and Karl Roves of the world, on issues that (No, REALLY?) JUST MIGHT come before the Court.

Called on it, finally, in 2010, THOMAS grudgingly filed amended returns, claiming it was all just a "misunderstanding." He'd simply misinterpreted the instructions.

Okay, you might say. It's a piss-poor, dumb-ass, shit-heel excuse, but okay. You've seen him. He could be that fucking stupid.,

But now it's turned out he's not stupid. Not JUST stupid. He's crooked, too. Seems the records show the Cunt-hair Clancy Thomas family accurately and correctly filled in the necessary informatiuon for his wife's employment in EVERY YEAR, IN every position he held in GUMMINT until 1997. Thereafter, for the next TWELVE YEARS, the motherfucker lied.

Every year. It does make ya go, hmmmmmm, donit, hippies?

So a progressive congresscritter has blown the whistle to Chief Roberts, not as Chief Justice, per se, but as the presiding officer of the gummint's Judicial Council, the top oversight board for the whole federal bench. And CREDO--the phone folks--are soliciting signatures from citizens to bolster their complaint to Roberts. There's a web-site, on the screen below, where you can go to sign up.

The problem is, of course, that this path requires that Chief Justice Roberts take the information to the DoJ and that the DoJ do something with it in the way of investigation and indictment.

For which eventuality I judge the probability as somewhere between nil and minus 20.

I'm not a lawyer, nor a legal ethicist, but I do NOT see how, legally, Roberts can decline to proceed and still maintain even the most fragile, most tenuous ascription of legitimacy for himself and his whole Court, indeed to the whole Federal Judiciary.

At a minimum, Roberts should summarily ORDER Thomas's recusal from ALL pending cases.
"Cert" --short for "Certiorari", a place on the docket--on which he voted affirmatively should be revoked and be required to resubmit.
Indeed, I betcha a case could EASILY be made that ANY decision to which Coke-can Clancy's vote provided the determinative margin, or on which he wrote a majority decision, should be immediately vacated, and the entire case should be re-argued.

Clarence Thomas' every breath on the Bench of the US Supreme Court does nothing but further contaminate what is already--at least sinece Dec. 2000--a hellish mash of corporate mendacity and moral vacuity. Til further notice, Ol' Curley's apparently above the law, but he is undubitably beneath contempt, and he drags the rest down with him

Sign the letter, hippies. We'll send 'em from the Beach.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/thomas_2/index2.html

As the Cookie Crumbles(11/3/11): Scandalous, Dahling

In an article that lowers the "Presidential Achievement" Bar to ever-more ridiculous levels, the fawning, fatuous, ever-obsequious, O'botic O-pologist Jonathan Alter last week joyfully proclaimed the "miracle" the Obamanista regime's of moral purity, preemptively declaring it to be sin-free and "without scandal."

What Alter meant, of course, was that the O'bots had so far managed to conduct themselves without the taint of salacious rumor and/or embarrassing DNA-spots on the odd, young, female intern's simple blue dress.

I guess "scandal," like beauty, is a matter of taste.

Cuz, no, Shamwow hasn't yet been discovered dipping his wick in some willing intern.



But what do you call peremptorily assassinating US citizens without trial, by remorte control?

What about renewing the Bush Tax breaks for the wealthy?

What about the whole-sale, full-frontal attacks on Social Security and Medicare "entitlements?"?

For WHOM would these not be a scandal, except for the "first Black President?"

How about the scandal of the patently unconstitutional "Super (We're REALLY Gonna Fuck YOU Up) Debt/Deficit Commission"?

Isn't it scandalous to be planning for and promoting MORE nuclear plants, even in the light (or "glow?") of the Fukushima disasters in Japan?

Isn't that a scandal that there are 20 MILLION willing workers in Murka who cannot find jobs?

With stratospheric unemployment, what do you call three new "Free trade" agreements? I'd call it the return of the gigantic sucking sound of USer jobs flying off-shore.

Shall I go on?

I'd call it a scandal that he twice extended and once even STRENGTHENED the so-called PATRIOT ACT, which during the campaign he said he meant to soften.

Does no scandal attach to putting back in charge of the economy those very szme folks who so totally fucked it up? Summers? Geithner? Bernanke? Is there nothing even a LITTLE stinky about them?

Is there no scandal in abandoning the labor constituency? How about stonewalling the Employee Free Choice Act for workers who want to organize their work-places? Labor REQUIRES a supportive State to face-down the greedheads and other butt-fux in the boardrooms. But St. Barry's no friend of the working man...

Wouldn't it make you blush a little if you allowed secret domestic surveillance or hadn't restored the principle of habeas corpus, even though you were a Constitutional fucking law professor???? Not St. Barry, apparently. Nope, no 'scandal' there...

What about if you didn't back your OWN Environmental Protection Agency on mountain-top removal, and clean air and water regulations on industrial polluters? Nope. Nothing here, folks. Move along...

I guess there's no "scandal" in the murderous drone attacks which kill hundreds of innocents along with selected 'targets' thousands of miles away, in six different African and Central Asian, sovereign NATIONS? Nah. Nothing important there, folx, keep movin...

Mebbe you noticed, the promised restoration of the Superfund Clean-up tax on polluters hasn't materialized, either. Politifact calls that a "promise broken." But hey, what's another broken promise, anyway. There are so many...

Oh, and by the way: There is a MAJOR issue with Obomber's mortgage modification plan!!

That was the plan they touted last week, along with federalizing the interest on student loans, to help the working stiffs? Remember?

In the fine print, one discovers that if the borrower has one SINGLE delinquent payment over the LIFE of the mortgage, they're disqualified... No really!

Ah, but there haven't been any blow-jobs in the executive office, hippies. No cum-stains on the carpet...Three rousing cheers for that, I guess...

So grab yer megaphones, and we'll sing a couple of congratulatory choruses when I See Ya At The Beach, chers......

As The Cookie Crumbles (11/1/11): Circumstantial

Jolly little gnome, Bobbie Reich, joked about it recently, spoofing us all with the suggestion that the Obamster would start to put things aright by going to Wall Street next week and proclaiming a program to restore Glass-Steagal.

Just KIDDING!!!! Jeez!

Restore Glass-Steagal doesn't have the je ne c'es pas of Occupy Wall Street, but Reich's quite correct: It should be done.

But even he realizes it's naganahapun...The banksters are gonna get off scott-free, and the regulations that would prevent them from engaging in yet another round of economy-shattering bubbles are NOT going to be re-written and re-introduced; those that are (almost laughably) in place thanks to the Chris Dodd Platinum Parachute bill last year cannot be enforced because the FBI still devotes about 80% of it's man-power to "counter-terrorism."

One bankster got sent to jail last week, but that was for the entirely separate offense of insider trading: apparently the game wasn't satisfactorily rigged for this schmuck. But also, Reich wrote, "Just last week Citigroup settled charges (without admitting or denying guilt) that it defrauded investors by selling them a package of mortgage-backed securities rife with mortgages it knew were likely to default, but didn't disclose the hazard. It then bet against the package for its own benefit - earning fees of $34 million and net profits of at least $126 million. So what's Citi paying to settle this outrage? A mere $285 million. Its CEO at time (Charles Prince) doesn't pay a dime."

Woody reckons, okay: we can't prove, indisputably, that these skeevy mother-fux like Prince, Blankfein, Dimon, Rubin DID tank the economy AND fuck the People, for no more reason than for fun and profit. But since they're the only ones who COULD have done it, and the circumstantial evidence is at least as strong as that which convicted Troy Davis, and since they have prospered so handsomely by it, it is difficult to dismiss the near certainty of their intervention and impossible to grant them any clemency in the collapse.

So, since deterrence is evanescent, but recidivism is permanently prevented by the expedient, Dimon, Blankfein, Vikram Pandit, both Paulsons, Bernanke, Geighner, Rubin Summers, BOTH Koch Bros, and Phil & Wendy Gramm--at a bare minimum-- should be taken hence and their heads removed, and then be displayed atop Pikes in and around Zuccotti Square.
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Have you noticed? No more color coded alerts? Right. Who needs 'em when you get your Stiff-of-the-Month, the faux-terrorist entrapment schemes the Feds pull off about every 30-45 days.