No Duh!

Greetings good citizen, thanks for returning! I was watching Real Time with Bill Mahar last night and spotted the first...'acknowledgement' of something I've been saying for years.

There aren't any 'real' Democrats left.

How sad is it good citizen that this 'admission' means exactly what you think it does...we are now a 'one party' nation!

We have the One percent wannabes as the 'base' of the Republican Party and we have the Flat Earth Libertarians as the leaders of what used to be the Democrats.

In a somewhat ironic twist, we find millions of people that self-identify as Liberal but almost no one who identifies as Democrat because our modern Democratic party no longer represents the values of 'the working poor, a segment of our society long ago abandoned by the Wall Street alligient Libertarians that now call themselves 'Democrats'.

Which is to belabor the obvious...the apparatus that controls our party system on both sides has been placed beyond our control.

Don't be alarmed, good citizen. This was done long ago to keep power out of the hands of the 'rabble'. Our 'betters' made sure 'reliable people' were 'appointed' to the gatekeeper positions in each political party.

So what happened to the Democrats? They could no longer pass the party 'sniff test' and were pushed out. Worse, this was asl done on the QT. The Old democratic party died without so much as a whimper...although it didn't take long for people to realize they had been 'abandoned' by the party of their parents/forebearers and for many of them to switch to 'unaffiliated' status.

So the problem (which is how I choose to view it, it's not a problem if you're money grubbing synchopant willing to whore yourself out to the highest bidder) is we, the workers, the ones who do all the sweating and dying around here, are no longer 'represented' by ANY political party.

Hillary is a 'Modern Democrat' just like her husband. She is more concerned about the 'middle class' than the plight of the much larger 'working poor', words that have never crossed her lips from what I've heard to date.

Unmentioned in the past five presidential elections [basically since the Reagan Revolution] has been the words 'working class'.

It has, thanks to a bought and paid for media, been an open secret that 'workers don't matter'.

Worse good citizen; today's worker has become yesterday's slave and slaves don't have 'rights'.

So when the worker wonders who represents them the answer is 'no-one' and the hard work loving conservative says 'amen'.

Which is to point out in typical hypocritical fashion that conservative LOVE 'hard work' just as long as you don't expect THEM to actually do any!

Hard work is what you pay the 'mud people' to do.

Well good citizen, how about we 'mud people' stop selling our hard work to the people that don't appreciate it in the first place?

[Yessirree! Them Conservatives will buy up all the hard work they can get their hands on and then complain there isn't enough!]

The 'trick' good citizen, will be to win back our freedom (and our place at the table) before the high handed do something stupid like trying to force us to accept the 'status quo'.

Once we start down that path the whole world will burn...probably in every possible way.

Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

The High hurdle

Greetings good citizen, it is the goal of each generation to 'raise the bar', to expand mankind's boundries and to improve mankind's overall lot in life...

Or at least that is the 'stated goal'...the one the media feeds you to keep you feeling good about the raw deal you keep accepting. As we look back on the past forty years we see that humanity's plight has worsened.

Have we, as a species, dropped the proverbial ball? Does anyone else find it ironic that the moment the 'cold war', er, 'ended', WE turned into the new Enemy?

No longer do we hunt Commies, look around good citizen, there aren't any commies left! [This doesn't stop the mentally challenged conservo-whackos from calling (those who foolishly try to correct that which is 'incurable' because stupid really is permanent) their detractors commies...but this is a generational thing.

They use the term commie because they never figured out what a commie really was, just that they were 'evil' because they didn't subscribe to capitalist dogma...like believing as they do in 'the endless planet' and the virtue of 'hard work.'

Homelessness and poverty both stem from failure to 'believe in the dream'!

If the poor only believed they could be prosperous, they would be (or so says the magical thinking of capitalist dogma!) This is the same thinking that believes 'tax cuts' will produce a roaring economy [hasn't worked yet but that doesn't stop them from singing the endless praises of the tax cutting conservative.]

Apparently, making 'Merika great again' involves more giveaways to those who already have more than they can spend!

No irony should be lost on the fact that both systems are collapsing for the very same reason, massive mis-management which can be directly attributed to collosal stupidity!

Could I do better? You bet I could!

I'm going to leave that one there because most of you, er...'aren't ready' to have everything you've been raised to believe burned before your eyes...but don't worry because I'm not the one that's going to do that to you...the fruitloops Capitalists are!

As automation puts more and more of you out of work you will begin to see (it's a tragedy when your neighbor is made 'redundant', it's a crisis when it happens to YOU!)

Because every day when we roll out of bed we need to address the question that haunts us all...do you know what that question is?

Of course you do, the question facing every living thing on this rock is 'how will I live?'

Mankind has put it's faith in money and turned the management of that legal construct over to the self-interested.

Where does that leave you, good citizen?

It leaves you tied to a substance that has no value and that you have no control over...which is to belabor the obvious, it leaves you between a rock and a hard place...with nowhere to go,and how sad is it that this is right where they want you...

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Retro-post

Greetings good citizen, a little soon to be revisiting subjects already covered but last night's edition of 'Chronicle' [WCVB 5 in Boston] touched upon the topic of A.I. and how 'smarter' computers are taking jobs traditionally held by humans.

I'm not a Luddite nor do I believe we should still be making 'buggy whips' solely because they keep food on somebody's table.

But that's what is at stake here good citizen. As automation continues to eliminate jobs formerly held by humans, our already foundering economy will continue to be crushed by the need of the displaced to eat and keep themselves warm.

Tick-Tock good citizen, it's not like unemployment, homelessness and hunger are exactly 'news'(or new)...despite the corporate-owned media ignoring the 'scope' of the problem. Nobody needs to tell you that what passes for Capitalism ISN'T WORKING for a growing number of working aged citizens.

The whole Occupy Movement highlighted the 'illusion' that a college education was a 'gateway' to a well-paying career. Many kids got their bachelors and then their Masters but still can find work in their chosen professions.

Now saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt, the best they can manage is a minimum wage job in the food service industry. [If they're lucky!]

Which is to belabor the obvious; as we head onto our third consecutive 'jobless recovery', something's got to give!

Channeling the Occupy movement; the film Elysium attempted to capture the direction irresponsible Capitalism was headed. The rich lived in splendor among the stars while the, er, 'less fortunate' lived in squalor on the all but abandoned Earth.

What YOU need to wake up to good citizen is the fact that 'gated communities' are already a reality that has led to 'law enforcement' shooting first then making the incident fit the report.

It's a side of the law you're already on the 'wrong side of' if you're impoverished. [Can you say 'stop & frisk'?]

It won't stand up in the court of public opinion but that doesn't matter, the powerful already own the court system intended to protect YOU from them, ironically enough.

Now it exists to protect THEM from YOU! [If there is one thing they are accutely aware of it is that they are out-numbered...by a huge margin.]

Which is to turn our attention back to the film for a brief moment. The message, as imperfect as it was, is quite true, you can't 'run away' from retribution.

But it's a risk they're willing to accept...because the 'alternatives' to what passes for Capitalism are 'unpallatable' to them.

Better to 'rule in hell' than serve in heaven...and YOU aren't even given a choice...you get to live and raise THEIR SERVANTS in a hell they created FOR YOU!

But pointing to the 'authors of your misery' does little to alieviate the problem.

The 'punishment' will continue until YOU put a stop to it! YOU have to demonstrate, in no uncertian terms, that you won't take it anymore.

Retreating a moment to last night's TV show I found myself disturbed by the host's plaintive plea that 'humanity' [apparently someone other than our humble selves] would 'do the right thing' and 'correct the economy' before the nightmare became reality.

The part that disturbed me, good citizen, is that for many of us, that nightmare is already our reality!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Mind-blowing!

Greetings good citizen. I sit baffled by the announcement that the two worst candidates running have just swept the recent primaries but this is coming from a guy that has no clue how his own wife is voting...not that politics had anything to do with what attracted us to one another.

That said, we must ponder the...unlikelihood that so many of us have either 'lost our mind' or are no longer competent to make decisions regarding the general welfare.

This is why I, er, 'favor' the stolen election thesis. The Media tells us who they want to win and keeps awarding them the contests until it becomes inevitable who the 'winner' will be.

Now here are the two outcomes you can expect if either of the frontrunners are sworn in on January 2017.

If Hillary is elected, the world's markets will flatline in six months followed by a famine so severe (and a fumbling & bumbling FEMA will be powerless to alieviate) followed by riots and looting on an unprecidented scale.

If the Donald is elected we will have a nuclear WWIII in less than six months. He'll 'make Merika GREAT again!' [even if it kills most of us!]

Off the wall thinks you? No more off the wall than the direction 'allegedly sane people' are headed according to our bought & paid for media...

Given what has happened in the last 5 presidential elections, why would ANY sane individual vote for either of the two top candiates IF the entire nation isn't certifiably insane?


Those are your choices good citizen; stolen elections or a nation gone totally off the deep end...or so the media would have you believe!

Not sure what's worse, sounding like Rush Limbaugh, now that nobody (but the true believers) pays attention to him anymore or watching dumbfounded as our species is herded over the proverbial cliff by the same collection of butchers and slavers that brought us 'life on our knees' for so long.

Yet one thing is for certain, our little 'experiment in democracy' is over, you can take that to the bank!

Not that this is an admission of defeat, no, far from it. I still believe the desire to control our own destiny lives strong within all of us.

It's just that those who exist to deny us that goal are (for the moment) stronger.

You can either rejoice that one of your candiates is heading for the White house or you can despair that nobody is running to protect YOU from those who would exploit you...and your children.

I don't know about you good citizen but I'm preparing to boycott the election and go 'on strike' the day after the election. [Although I admit I'm not working now and it is highly likely I won't be working then so the gesture will be somewhat empty if you know what I mean. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to prepare for the strike all the same.]

Our species can't take any more deception on the part of those who are charged with protecting us from harm.

Because that ship has already sailed. The people know who the 'enemy' is and when the bottom drops out it will be 'no mercy'...especially if you were a member of the judiciary.

And no, this isn't a threat, you've made your own bed.

But I digress.

The important matter here is survival. You may 'survive' the election of a reprehensible candidate but the aftermath is sure to be more than you bargained for.

Since we're, er, 'overdue' for a Republican president (like the last two 'worst presidents ever' weren't enough, and both, againt all odds, two termer's!) it's a pretty safe bet that the Republican frontrunner is headed for the White House where he'll probably tell congress they're 'fired'.

Then what are you gonna do?

With that thought, I will once again thank you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Crossing the finish line...

Greetings good citizen. If one thing is in our future, at least for the time being, it is what Stephen King refers to as 'the clearing at the end of the path'.

I say 'for the time being' because mankind (more succinctly, those few that have a reason to want to live forever) is already on the path toward...'defeating death' (by 'natural causes', they can still be killed.)

Left to our imaginations, good citizen, is who will join the self-ordained 'Masters of the Universe' in their trek through immortality?

We 'lesser mortals' are not 'worthy' of the gift [although if I don't miss my guess, the process should also restore the user's 'youthful vitality', meaning common sense will be easily overriden by bad case of 'too horny to care'.]

Then we shall see how, er, 'durable' the social prohibition against taking a life, especially one that has no end, really is?

Full disclosure, good citizen. Spent the morning at the nursing home my mother-in-law has called home for the past decade because the nice people with hospice care figure she won't be with us much longer.

This has put me in a 'reflective' mood. She has truly arrived at a point where escaping her failing body would be merciful indeed. Her Alzheimers has gotten to the point where she's 'sundowning' (dreading nightfall that presages the coming of a new, bewildering day.

Their inability to remember makes each dawn a living nightmare...they don't know where they are or why they're there...and nobody has an answer they want to hear.

Many the writer has become transfixed by the mind's inability to form new memories...but the reality is a much more frightening for far too many people, the vast majority of which will only find release in that 'clearing at the end of the path.'

Mostly because immortality is too precious to put a price tag on. If you aren't one of the chosen few, you won't even know it's an option.

So once again we run head-on into mankind's legendary inhumanity to their fellow man.

In this respect, ignorance is bliss. We don't KNOW that such a treatment even exists so we accept that it's just one of those things you can't do anything about.

Just some sobering thoughts for a gloomy end of April day...

Not that this is anyone's 'cheerful place'.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Resist or Collaborate?

Greetings good citizen, Monday again and the week yawns before us! My vetching about the election has produced an editorial about what else but that famous 'right' masquerading as a 'social obligation' known as 'voting'.

I did NOT read the NY Times op/ed that was headlined along the idea that it isn't always necessary to vote. I wonder if the author took the path to advocate for 'stress relief' or if he is floating a more common underlying meme were our 'social obligation' is an imposition into our otherwise eventless lives.

Yeah, it is likely you didn't have 'other plans' for ALL DAY the first Tuesday in November but, given the repeated 'disappointment' we've had participating in our 'patriotic chore', most of us could find 'better use' for our time.

Which is to say 'voting' as we currently perform it, is in fact a 'waste of time'. It is your official acceptance of the overlords edicts and their continued right to strip you of yours without recourse.

Worse, by 'not voting' under the current process, you are still accepting the 'status quo' by 'default'...even though the process itself isn't open for debate!

Squeaky wheeels and all, it has become increasingly apparent that YOU have been 'disenfranchised' and your 'participation' in the process is an exercise in futility [because we continue to accept that 'real change' will NEVER be 'on the ballot'...until they want it.]

Which is to say, when they offer us a King, most of you would be glad to sign up because it would put an end to this 'and nothing changes' BS.

How sad is it that the King wouldn't consult with you over trivial matters like improving public education or affordable housing, he has an Kingdom to run and an Empire to establish...and he's gonna build that Empire using YOUR son by attacking our neighbors.

Oh, don't worry good citizen, the MOMENT we 're-establish' monarchy, they will pop up like spring flowers around the planet.

There will be plenty of places to go 'conquering' once your 'right to choose' disappears completely...even though you'd be hard pressed to find it, the 'pretense' that you possess the right to choose is the only thing preventing monarchy's return!

But I digress...let's not speculate when the problem doesn't (yet) exist.

So, let's say you 'boycott' the coming farce elections and our, er, 'angry/disappointed' overlords decide to 'reduce' the voter roles to those who 'obeyed' their social programming.

Remember, the ones were talking about here are the nearly dead, mentally incompetent voters who will be wheeled out of the nation's nursing homes to vote for Trump.

Worse, some of them will actually believe they're voting for McGovern!

What I'm curious to hear is what, precisely, will make America 'Great Again'?

Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

But let's skip ahead to the real question here...what would you do about it?

Here we have an election that you obviously SHOULD skip...and if either candidate wins, you, for the sake of the nation, MUST strike!

The 'adults' aren't coming to save us...those who profess to be 'our betters' are the ones responsible for this!

You have 'one card' and that card has one word on it...'non-cooperation'.

This can only happen if you let it happen!

It's why we repeatedly aren't being given a choice.

It won't stop until we make it stop.

Tough talk but somebody's gotta point out that the Emperor is naked!

[Sidebar] I've been screaming 'the sky is falling' for a couple of decades now...and it has been, one tiny piece at a time until you're going to wake up one morning, 'pleased' to find a tank idling in your driveway and actually be 'happy' to be frisked for 'contraband' before reporting to your job at the composting factory where you'd swear some of the stuff they make YOU shovel looks like meat.

Probably just your imagination but you actually watched your neighbors get seized this morning...and the color of the hair attached to that meatlike substance looked hauntingly familiar.

TV is a curious thing...[and if it gets any lamer it won't be worth watching at all.] The latest batch of 'psycho dramas' produced a series based on an 'alien invasion' (but you never see 'aliens', all you see is alien tech) and the central premise is, if such an event were to occur, would you resist or would you collaborate?

You may not believe this but most of you would collaborate...maybe not with 'aliens' but our problem is worse than that. You already collaborate with 'slavers' and do so gladly. Take a look at Facebook and listen to all the 'parrots' echoing their Red White and Blue 'patriotism' by 'sharing' to show their support of drug testing for recipients of welfare, a program established to prevent rioting and, more importantly, the massive unexplainable deaths of the people capitalism can't support.

Understand this, there will be no 'change' until YOU make them change.

Thank you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

[PS, No need to 'quit' today, an organized effort centered on an actual trigger event (the election) is preferable. In the meantime, 'prepare'...like for an earthquake or a wildfire.]

Forecast

Greetings good citizen, Today's offering is an exercise in belaboring the obvious...at least to some of us.

The youngsters among you might be mystified by such an assertion but my peers [many of whom are clueless by choice] know the score just the same.

Missing from the equation is 'what do I win by fighting, er, 'city hall'?'

Many have given up the pursuit of phyrric victory while reality lurks in the background humming 'one step forward, two steps back'...

This is perhaps the most damning thing about our wildly corrupt process. You can 'win' the battle and still lose the war.

So while it may not be apparent to the young (because they have yet to experience the 'stacked deck' that passes for our justice system...right, wrong or indifferent, the judge has his way.)

Which brings us to another nagging question, why do we have 'judges'?

The official reason is because they act as 'referees', insuring procedure is followed...but more often they 'direct' the proceedings to insure a particular outcome...one that is often bought & paid for in advance, is arrived at.

Since this is a 'forecast' you already have a good indication where we're headed even before we shift to the other side of the system, the political arena.

Which is to say as we chug along towards yet another 'stolen election'...because the media keeps telling us we are 'wildly divided' in our support for candidates a majority of us wouldn't spit on the best part of.


Again, not that it matters.

Everybody Knows regardless of who they 'swear in' next January, it's going to be four more years of chasing chimera and enacting legislation nobody likes because they were told to.

That's the downside of a 'meat puppet', they don't work for you, they work for them.

So, is ANYONE surprised that the forecast is for 'more of the same'?

There's no way to change it...you may as well accept it.

Except there IS a way!

Anyone who opines that either of the two 'frontrunners' would make 'a good president' is certifiably insane.

So what SHOULD we do about it?

Can you say Boycott?

Your 'participation' in this charade justifies its continued existence.

We aren't shooting at Zero [although we should be but stupid is permanent!] The lower the number the louder the message.

Will [the few, the conceited, our overlords] call for a new election if participation falls too low or will [and here comes the 'prediction'...] they punish us...and you have to ask yourself, what would be worse, a Donald presidency or a Hillary one?

From where I'm sitting neither one is palatable.

So will they go though with it?

Depends on what happens the day after election day.

You may not realize it but you 'vote' another way. You vote every day by getting your backside perpendicular and heading to whatever your job is.

IF 'a majority of us' (it will never be 100% BUT we likely have the 80% support the original revolution enjoyed, hell, anything over 50 should do the trick) didn't clock in the day(s) after the election, you think they'd get the message? [Other countries do it, notably France]

If some 'employers' decide to terminate certain strikers or punish them by docking them vacation pay/time....the strike continues. Thus the plural.]

The conventions are right around the corner but it already looks like the candidates are 'set'...the runoff will be between the two worst people running.

That said, ALL of you should be 'preparing' for a prolonged strike [If you already have an emergency stockpile of food set aside for a 'natural disaster' you should be all right, it's those who don't that need to prepare.]

The 'alternative' is marching in the streets [and being mowed down by trigger happy cops] just don't do it. Our 'betters' already consider a majority of us 'surplus'...and the cops are too stupid to question orders.

Just relax and stay home...(don't use your time off to go shopping, whatever you do!) Have impromptu block parites so you can 'take attendance' and see who has your back!

Police should be 'gently reminded' that they have to live among us too so they should definitely think before they do something decidely foolish.

Then there's the one other card our oligarchs might play, the 'call out the guard' card.

If they do that and you are one of the unfortunate few that is obliged to heed the call, go.

Let stupid arm you and make sure you grab as much amunition as you can carry...you're going to need it if this thing goes 'hot'. After you get your gun, desert.

Bizarre to use this old phrase now but it's never been more true...United we stand!

[sidebar] The pundits are already saying...well, if you plan on 'sitting out' this election, consider the alternative.

Like there is one.

Hillary is no better than the pompous pompadour.

They're BOTH members of the 1%, neither option is acceptable...and there IS something you can do about it.

The time to get the 'bandwagon' rolling is now. You don't want to be calling for a general strike the day after the election.

People need to know ahead of time what's expected of them and that 'attendance' will be taken of those who defy the strike.

You can fool some of your neighbors but believe me, they know if you're a 'first responder' or a caregiver. Consider that when you appear to be the only one reporting for work.

If things get serious you will likely regret your decision to ignore the strike.

Don't know about you good citizen but it turns my stomach to see this nation headed for another stolen election.

We've let it go for far too long, now is the time to do something about it.

I want to wish a fond farewll to the squeamish among you, I know the call to action is our cue to split before Big Brother connects you to a 'radical' like me.

To the brave few, I salute you...better to die on your feet than live on your knees!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Teotwawki

Greetings good citizen, Happy Friday to you! Time keeps on slipping into the future...just as 'the world as we know it' keeps slipping into the past. With this in mind the 'twawki' part of the puzzle is constantly changing...and disappearing down the memory hole on an almost daily basis.

But that's not what they mean when they invoke 'the end of the world'...when pundits go there what they're really talking about is 'life after people'. A curious phenomenon but there seriously won't be anyone around that gives a crap...save the relatively few species that prospered alongside mankind.

It is hoped that whatever takes us out will take them out too, making the difficult transition from domesticated back to wild unnecessary.

[Yeah, I'm a sap that way.]

I watched an Aussie 'End of the World' flick last night and al la Alfred Hitchcock, Australia was the 'last place to go' as the film captured the 'final hours' of humanity's reign...with the protagonist learning, only at the last moment, what was 'important'.

Through out the whole film the 'narrator' (cleverly disguised as a radio DJ) doesn't tell us what, specifically, is wiping humanity from the face of the planet but in the end you are left to deduce that it is some kind of 'solar flare' that scorched the surface of the earth to a cinder.

There are several things 'wrong' with this scenario but I'm not here to critique the film or the science behind it.

I bring up the subject for a more obscure reason. A reason so subtle that I doubt many appreciate what is happening. Nikita Kruschev warned us about 'gradualism' back in the late 50's and the Reagan Revolution has been all about 'gradualism'.

In this case the world doesn't just go poof in a radioactive cloud, it dies the death of a thousand cuts, losing a different piece each and every day.

While this 'shouldn't' culminate in an extinction level event, those overseeing the dismantling of thousands of years of civil protections risk a collapse of epic proportions...and some of them, the none too bright, thinking that this would be a good thing.

In this respect good citizen, 'time travel' is possible...because it is not people returning to a previous time period, it is merely the 'rolling back' of the hands on the clock of social development.

Quiz time, good citizen. What are the 'pillars of civilization'? I don't recall seeing such 'truths' being taught in school...just as nobody, beyond a certain few, are educated about the legal construct we call 'money'.

Do you know what the pillars of civilization are? Are you tempted to guess, 'Truth, Beauty & Justice?' or would you substitute 'Freedom' for Beauty and 'Knowledge' for Truth?

The three pillars are, in this order: Equality, Justice and Peace.

More succinctly, it all hinges on equality, without equality there can be no justice and without justice there can be no peace.

Why do I ask this, good citizen?

In YOUR 'humble opinion', do you think our current civilization is working towards the goal of equality or moving in the opposite direction?

Why even ask this question?

Because 'ignorance' is a dangerous thing. If you remain ignorant of how things should be, who will fight for the 'right things' in life? [Who and more importantly, what will protect your children...]

I enjoy a little following, a decidedly good thing and I am sincere in thanking you all for letting me inside your head but what 'WE' (the both of us) need is more eyeballs. Can you think of anyone with enough intellectual curiosity that they might enjoy my musings?

If you LOVE civilization and the 'civil society' it is intended to produce, please educate as many as you can!

And thanks once again for letting me intrude inside your head!

Gegner

Premature Burial

Greetings good citizen: as we approach yet another 'stolen election' some pundits are already writing obituaries for the 'Sanders Revolution'.

Sort of smacks of 'All of your bases (are) belong to us, Resistance is futile.'

Occupy went nowhere, Obama's 'yes we can' movement was dead on arrival at the White House. Is this what's causing pollsters to write funeral dirges for Sanders SEVEN MONTHS before the election...although the respective 'conventions' will happen in a month or two, cementing our badly broken 'party system's' nominees into their classic 'one from column A and one from column B arrangement.

As this juggernaut rolls along it becomes apparent it is just as it's always been, totally beyond our control. Others make decisions for us and we are forced to live with them because the tools don't exist to change things.

Those who benefit from this...'farce' would turn my words around and agree, "You're right, it IS the 'same as it ever was' and things for your grandparents turned out all right, didn't they?"

Naturally, the glib would be hard pressed to compare today with the more 'self-reliant' times of our grandparents. {With all things being relative, you have to take that as a reference coming from a person whose parents were born in the 1920's so my grandparents were post Civil War children...and a lot has changed since then.} Talk to a Gen X'er and you'd find their grandparents were the 'Flower Children' of the Sixties. Hardly a comparison.

[sound of gears grinding ferociously as I mentally debate which direction to pursue]

Okay more of 'same as it ever was...'

The pomp and pagentry [never mind the physical altercations and bad blood] generated by the 'for show' political process is, as most of us recognize by the time were 40, an exercise in 'hand-waving'...it is 'the illusion of participation' intended to make the average citizen believe they are a part of a process that has taken great pains to eliminate YOU from the decision making process.

What should make you, er, 'uncomfortable', good citizen, is how over the past forty years the nation has been turning more and more Autocratic...a common problem with governments suffering from 'old age'. [Proud of it or not, the US is THE oldest existing government on the planet. You ever notice NOBODY brags about this? I think you know why too.]

We are more than a little overdue for a change...but for reasons unspoken, change isn't on the table.

I belabor the obvious when I point to 'the media circus' the process has become and it is also no surprise that the corporate owned media rings the cash register mightily during election time; between the attack ads and stump speeches [which are virtually free to the oligarch's meat puppet of choice...because regardless of which candiate 'wins', they both take their marching orders from the same group of...morons, morons with money but morons none the less.]

As you also well know, the political process anywhere in the so-called 'free world' exists as negative testimony to P.T. Barnum's famous quote about fooling all of the people all of the time...although the comparison isn't fair because even if you aren't 'fooled' you are still powerless to do anything about it.

Shifting mental gears, smoothly this time, we confront the seemingly insoluable problem how to crack the 'leadership problem'.

The main problem is usually those who feel compelled to 'lead' aren't qualified for the job [for a wide variety of reasons, most of them practical.]

So we need candidates who not only 'desire' to do the job but that also have a demonstrated ability to craft workable solutions from available inputs...while keeping their eye on the 'larger picture'.

[One of capitalism's most common laments is its leadership is incapable of seeing beyond 90 days...and this is too true. Worse, these fools can't see beyond the dollar sign, where all 'true profits' exist.]

Now, if we put the job up for grabs, party affiliation aside because our new leader would be running as a 'problem solver' and not a 'rule maker' (that power rests with the People.) We would have to crafts tests that would challenge the candidate's problem solving ability as well as reveal their 'character'.

Many of today's Republican candidates would solve the 'terrorism problem' by turning the Middle East to glass, red meat for their 'base' (a group destined to get themselves exiled in the first six months after the fall but that's just speculation.) but it is hardly a 'practical' solution.

Naturally, solving the terrorism problem both here and overseas is connected to eliminating the inequity and injustice the now ancient system fosters as it's birthright.

Cut that out and you'd put a stop to school/workplace shootings along with the faux 'religious persecution' masquerading as jihad for ignorant Christians.

Eliminate the election BS and simply appoint the most qualified candidate to the job for a fixed period of time...because we all know what happens when somebody gets 'too comfortable' with the levers of power.

We wind up where we are now.

Let me wrap up by pointing to the many faces 'discontent' has worn over the ages...which is to belabor the obvious, not everybody was 'happy' with how the revolution turned out.

There has been a deep well of discontent for as long as anyone can remember, starting with the 'fast one' the slavers pulled during the Revolution.

Even more comical is the line 'All men are created equal' (what about women, nevermind people of color.)

Alas, rational argument isn't going to get you off your butt...starvation might but that's going to be a whole 'nuther can of worms, isn't it?

As the pundits mark paid to the Sanders candidacy I think we should begin thinking outside the box if we are serious about correcting the abomination that passes for our government...an institution founded to protect us all but fails miserably since it was co-opted by those it was founded to protect us from.

And on that note:

Thanks you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Picking at the scab

Greetings good citizen, Like most writers, I hate leaving a topic unfinished. Yesterday's topic touched upon how money is mismanaged in our society and didn't even point at the reason why this is the case.

So instead of leaving well enough alone I will do what any kid would do, I'm gonna return to the subject and finish what I started.

Which is another way of saying I'm gonna pick at the scab becaue 'leaving it alone' is how we got here in the first place...

Remember, the topic is money and how it's mismanaged...but in order to understand this we need to shift mental gears and back up to what money really is...a 'legal construct'.

So if money is a 'tool' managed by law, the tool we use to protect society, why is it being, er, 'abused'?

For the exact same reason we have laws that don't protect us, we have the 'wrong people' crafting the law.

(We can leave the 'selective enforcement' part of the puzzle aside because this issue just loops back into the 'wrong people' problem.)

Now let's make the problem even more complex by pointing to the permanent inablitily to solve it under the current system. The people who craft the law are not elected, their paid to do what they do so who do you suppose has control over the 'content' of the law?

STOP...we need to remember money is worthless, an idea...a concept...until you realize that those who control this concept have the power to control YOU! In a world where everything has a price, you must have currency of the realm to operate.

So, we have laws, drafted by the self-interested and passed by people who make decisions in your name without ever consulting you...and if they get it wrong there's nothing you can do about it except not vote for them in the next election (and even that has no 'weight'.)

Which is to point out that even if the people drafting the law knowingly commit treason, they are exempt from being prosecuted for their crime.

This is where honor among thieves comes in and it's about as far as it runs too.

How do we stop 'crooked people' from sticking it to the rest of us?

There is only one way. We need to first 'start over', we have to throw the whole legal system out the window and start again.

Ground zero for our 're-do' is the human anti-exploitation law, which outlaws anyone making their money for anyone else's labor...a practice commonly referred to as 'wage slavery'.

Then we enact another law that prohibits the creation of laws by decree (as so many of them are these days.) In order for a law to become law it must first be put to a vote by all who must live under it, with 2/3rds of the public voting favorably.

And any proposed law must first pass muster with the Anti-exploitation law.

I know what you're thinking but relax good citizen. In the two hundred years our current legislature has been, er, 'meeting', (more like partying at the public's expense) they have only passed a handful of legislation...most of it bad.

So you wouldn't be forced to 'run to the polls' everytime you blinked because there was emergency bikini legislation that required immediate action...

And under our (new) truly 'free press', anybody who pulled a stunt like that would be prosecuted for irresponsible journalism.

So, since we're redrafting all of the laws, another 'new one' would be a law that prohibits the ability to transfer money from one person to another...a law known as the 'your money is for you' law.

On the surface you'd be tempted to say if you're going to go that far, why not just outlaw money altogether?

The reply is you're forgetting why money is useful to the individual. Make everything 'free' and the entire hospitality industry would collapse overnight.

People are opportunists...wave 'free meals and free housekeeping' under their noses and they'll never leave.

Non-transferability would mean society would be 'cashless'...because a majority of crimes are 'cash & carry'. [Crimes of passion or passion's kissin' cousin, 'insanity' are another matter altogether.]

Let's rewind for a sec to the beginning and remind you that ALL Money is FUNNY...(including this scheme) the new rules don't alter the set-up, money is still a 'place holder' that allows you a 'degree of flexibility' when it come to building the kind of life you want to live.

Without this 'tool' we return to the current system of it's not what you know but who...and we can all see how that has worked out.

Despite dancing all over the map, the 'new way' of manageing things isn't complex nor do we need to re-invent the wheel. The problem is we are lead by a bunch of criminals who won't appreciate having their 'punch bowl' taken away from them.

But We the People have been getting the short end of the stick for far too long.

and, once again, this rant is only the tip of the iceberg. Wrap your head around NO TAXES, free education, free healthcare and 100% employment...all with zero crime (although that 'honeymoon' will be brief as the criminal minded will eventually re-group and re-institute their criminal practices...at their extreme peril because you'd no longer be jailed for criminal acivity, you'd be exiled...to a VERY inhospitable place...where your likelihood for survival would be somewhat worse than 'slim to none'.

Quick re-cap, A (long overdue) New Constitution that would protect you from the self-interested and guarantee you (and yours) their 'fair share' as well as 'membership' in a society that would be truly 'inclusive'. [Gonna suck if you hate people...you might want to elect to be exiled but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're the 'rule in hell' type.]

The only way to live under 'the law' is to put in place a mechanism where we vote directly on the law and put a stop to the fallacy of having our laws handed down to us by our self-appointed 'betters'.

They only THINK they are 'smarter than you'. Take a good look at the mess they've made and be confident in your ability to do better.

Once again, this is just the 'tip of the iceberg'. After changing monetary policy here we would have to play the 'join or die' card (war is unnecessary, trade sanctions and civil unrest will work quickly to bring about a unified world government that would adopt this new way of doing things.

The greedy few will flee to the islands they 'own' or the nation states they control and declare war but those 'pockets of resistence' will fall as time moves onward.

How's that for a Future?

You may have to read this several times to comprehend what is being laid out [and again it is only a partial picture] You can't correct three centuries of corruption with the wave of a magic wand but we can't ignore the fact that the old system is about to collapse and our species is in peril of extinction if we 'stay the course', as the Republicans are fond of intoning.

Thanks for letting me inside your head...maybe I should spologize too, I ask much but only for the purest of motives...a better world for us all!

Gegner

[PS, in case you're wondering, I get exactly the same thing you get under this new scheme, a better world for my kids.]

Fight the Future...

Greetings good citizen, today's topic is not about fighting change (although the 'status quo' never dies willingly) it is about fighting for the future you desire, a place you and your children want to belong to as opposed to one you're 'forced to exist in' [Although sometimes you get the impression you're being 'allowed' to live your miserable life...just as long as you go with the flow and don't ask any, er, inconvenient questions...

Undeniably, we are passing through a crucible, transitioning from a fossil fuel world to a world powered by 'renewables'. Naturally we can't ignore the other elephant in the room (although the media does, over population.)

The largest single factor causing turmoil among the...er, there isn't a good word for them but we can borrow from the series 'Hunger Games' and call them 'game-makers'...the people whose benefit our world conforms to, but I digress.

Today's gamemakers are stuck behind the eight-ball of not being able to 'meter' renewable energy without creating a mess and a half.

Both the sun and the wind shine and blow (respectively) for free...a problem compounded by the fact that even large renewable energy facilities don't produce a 'surplus' of energy. The 'most efficient' way to implement 'renewable energy' is for the user to have their own equipment (reducing the huge amounts of power that is wasted during 'transmission' under the current grid method of power distribution.

Confused? There are only so many ways to 'skin the cat'...with billions of endusers there will only be a few 'technologies' that will work with each environmental condition.

Only a few will benefit from an 'energy tax' just as only a few will benefit from each renewable technology, leaving the bulk of fossil fuel 'barons' out in the cold. To make matters worse, the 'oil barons' have been, er, 'wrong-footed' (and we can only assume purposefully) by 'the Global Race to the bottom'.

Planned obsolesence can turn the renewable market lucrative but like the housing market...how long can you play that card before endusers start jumping on the 'energy included' bandwagon?

Um, one of the next 'big things' coming down the pike will be 'security'. We already have 'gated communities' (to keep the 'riff-raff' out...but that's not you, right good citizen?) [Bad News, if you can't afford to buy in a (real) gated community, it sure as hell is!]

Which is to say you don't need to look too hard to find a 'gated' Trailer Park, there's nobody 'guarding' the place but the gimmick is to 'pretend' the place is secure...

Buckle up, it's time to go screaming 'off the reservation'...[and if you think you don't live in a 'controlled environment', you need to wake the heck up!]

Let's start this attack on the crazy train with fact number one. We live in a 'nuthin' for nuthin' world...when the truth is EVERYTHING costs ZERO.

This is where we seperate the children from the adults. Add money to this toxic stew and suddenly EVERYTHING has a price sticker on it...why? Cuz boo-boo wants to get paid!

Only reason.

You work, you get paid. You use your pay to procure the things you need (but don't have the time or talent to produce yourself.) In this respect, money is only useful to the individual.

Now, lets apply this new paradigm to our current F.U. Pay Me system. A habitat is built from materials that are 'free' from nature...mother nature doesn't have a cash register. Your food comes from the same place (just as their food comes from the same source.)

Yet at each of these 'way-points' our modern day 'buccaneers' have their hand out.

Let's suppose we return to the 'original purpose' and see where we stand? {remember, under the original premise of civilization, nobody 'owns' nothing, its all ours to 'share'...)

So the house becomes a 'gimme'. Paying for something that will outlive you is beyond ridiculous...but not since the 'pay me' crowd turned it into an 'investment'.

Energy...the lever upon which our entire social system is based on would also becomes a gimme (just as it should have been all along but the college educated morons running things weren't told this...and that's their only excuse.)

Time to throw the 'data plan' and fees for cell service/internet access out the window too. The people that produce all of these products/services are paid to do so...so there's no need for you to pay them too! (Guess what, the books don't have to balance either!)

Don't understand?

Money's real 'purpose' is to limit access to perishable/non-renewable items.

It's the only thing you need money for [under a 'well-managed' society.]

There's more but what I've shared thus far already conflicts with your life-long 'programing'. It's going to take a while to open your eyes to the nightmare you've been living. {realizing there is a problem is the first step.}

It will take more than that to motivate you to 'take the initiative' and throw off the yoke of 'F.U. Pay Me!' as well.

NOBODY deserves more than a paycheck (thus the 'human anti-exploitation law', which is the founding premise of our new society.

This world is ours to SHARE...if we (continue to) allow the 'self-interested' to claim what belongs to us all, our species will fail. [and you along with it, Sparky!!!]

It really is that simple.

And if you still 'don't understand', that's okay; You will eventually.

[More windex please!]

Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Willful ignorance

Greetings good citizen, some of you might find it ironic that the quest for a flying camera yeilded drones but not flying cars...which illustrates the point of how the past is prelude to the future.

If we crank that [factoid] a little to the right we'd observe the media 'firewall' studiously ignoring any and all debate on the topic of 'remote control death from above'.

Yet it has become our 'future'. [Just trying to keep you focused here good citizen.]

One of today's 'info-tainment' articles points to the widespread distrust of the 'sponsor driven' media but, thanks to our 'operating system' it's the only game in town.

We have NO 'forum' [admit it, even you don't surf the net seeking the 'truth' unless you're seriously depressed.] where the public can be informed and debate today's issues because much of what goes on isn't being 'tracked' by those charged with keeping us...safe [and absolutely NO irony should be lost on that good citizen because what passes for our government EXISTS to keep (our overlords) SAFE (mostly from prosecution...)

Which is to once again belabor the obvious, we live in a 'go along to get along' world...which is exactly how those who make up the rules like it.

We 'pretend' these little, er, anomalies don't bother us and we keep our heads down, doing what we're told (often regardless of how ridiculous.)

If the 'public' has conformed to one (near) universal ideal it is the one regarding how 'thinking is above your pay grade'.

You may certainly think but don't you dare think for yourself.

Almost as abberant is 'comparing notes' (Trying to learn what others think without displaying shock when you see it is obvious your sounding board has given the topic zero consideration...]

Worse is how questioning someone else's 'lack of thinking' often results in a hostile reaction.

Yet, as you well know, questions are how we 'learn'. How tragic is it that some questions can be fatal?

(i:e) Ask for proof of 'their' God and you'd (in the past) be dispatched to go meet he/she/it in person...[burned/stoned/drown for heresy]

Today a good way to get marked for deletion is to ask 'what did you do with the money?' Or, as it turns out, question authority, especially when those with a little bit of power overstep their bounds.

{Like in the multiple cases where unarmed citizens are shot by fearful police...even after being tased motionless...and judges too...[hard to say whether it's stupid or scared] to prosecute the cop.

So what's the point? I will once again belabor the obvious, people will take an awful lot of pushing before they get together to push back.

What I will 'share' is the opinion that, given the recent past, people today are much more willing to 'pile in' if they encounter a 'ruckus'...they don't even have to know what's going on...because they now regard the police as 'enemy combatants'.

Keep your head down and watch you backside!

Thanks for letting me inside your head, [the future of your children depends on it]

Gegner

For whom the bell tolls...

Greetings Goood Citizen, Looks like I'm back for the time being, having just 'parted company' with my brand-new employer. Once again under 'mysterious circumstances'...

I expect zero sympathy, my readers know my distaste for capitalism is legend and I make no bones about it. The fact that jobs keep , er, 'vanishing' would be totally understandable if my humble web page had more than a handful of readers. [Let me remind you that not everyone who visits takes the time to read.]

So we are left to speculate, have I made some secret 'bad boys list' where the people that hire me get anonymous (yet threatening) e-mails warning them they are in danger of having their workforce 'contaminated' by someone that thinks for themself?

Seriously, I'd love it if my commentless rants garnered that kind of attention, better yet, if it spawned that kind of...well, desperate actions.

I know the power of what I share and nothing scares the [powers that be/status quo] more than a populous that thinks.

Even more, er, tantalizing is the notion that some individual has taken exception to my 'ideology' and is using their, let's call it a 'poison pen' to ruin my life.

What would you have to say to an employer to make them fire/terminate somebody you don't like [no questions asked?]

Sort of an unwritten law among us common folk forbids one person from 'interferring' with another's ability to suport themselves. Yet certain ideologues aren't well versed in the 'social graces'...or what was once common knowledge is now widely ignored.

Which is to say I suspect 'my adversary' is too young to appreciate the consequences of their actions.

Well, While I don't believe in 'Spirit in the Sky' I do believe in karma, especially karma like a wheel. What comes around, goes around.

So watch your back spud cuz you're about to reap what you've sown...

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Due Process

Greetings good citizen, not doing too well on the pledge to keep the posts up despite the new gig (because the gig is kicking my buttocks.)

How sad is it that I'm 'not used to' working? [In the past four years I've worked one.]

Anyway, today's topic is one of the 'founding pillars' of society and it's disappearing because 'men, both good & true' are doing nothing.

That said, futurists [past] were not vexed by the (dare I say it?) total absence of honesty in today's society.


You may be asking what an 'honesty deficit' has to do with 'Due Process' to which I would answer, 'seriously?'

You are being methodically stripped of your rights...at a break-neck pace, I might add and nobody is questioning this because the appointed powers that owe their appointments to the oligarchs do as their told without ever questioning their instructions.

Binding arbitration strips you of your right to a trial and most trials these days deprive you of a jury of your peers. The entire concept of 'usury' has been cast aside in the US along with the 'burden of proof' placed upon your accuser.

This has two disturbing outcomes, one: you will NEVER get one of these, er, WEASELS to stand trial and two: they can lock you up without EVER having to prove you've done a thing.

Habeus corpus dates back to the Magna Carta but it was 'set aside' in post 9/11 America...as part of the 'Patriot Act'...which president after president continues to...'approve' but we all know who approves the president regardless of who you vote for.

Backing up a half step, once the conservo-whackos packed the court it was no longer 'safe' to oppose the oligarchs...thus all the 'good men' have wisely turned a blind eye...not that this forgive them. THeir silence comes at a price to be exacted later.

When we ponder which we will exhaust first, light poles or rope?

Like charity, vigilance starts at home.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Exercise in futility

Greetings good citizen, while we are slaves to our imaginations, our dreams (of a better life) are usually just that, dreams.

Think I'm being 'pessimistic?' You'd have good reason to brush off my observations as 'sour grapes'. The guy that keeps beating you with the 'reality stick' has a lot in common with Debbie Downer.

Newsflash: life sucks.

You're fed a steady 'trickle' of 'happy talk', just enough to prevent you from finding a quiet spot and ending it all. Most of the 'good things' that happen to you come with a stiff price tag...sort of taking the sheen off if you hear what I'm saying.

If there is one other place where most of us drift off to when we have just been served another steaming slice of the old fece sandwich, it's the 'why bother'? question.

How ironic is it that the answer is precisely the same as it is for the Spirit in the Sky question.

Even more ironic, the answer is usually Spirit in the Sky itself, talk about 'circle logic'. Ask most people why they don't just end it all and...if they answer you at all (most responses would be varying degrees of sarcasm) a few would invoke 'God's Plan'. [Again, since 'life' is one of God's gifts to us...think about that one for a minute, even the super-well-off, er, 'struggle' with an endless array of choices that could ruin them if they make a mis-step. We have to wonder if this wall to wall hassle we call life isn't more of a 'booby prize'? I mean some gift, right?]

The more practical would (if they believed you weren't messing with them) reply they hang on for those who love them...and that's probably the best answer you're going to get from anybody.

How tragic is it that love is often a matter of degree and seldom 'matches'? [This is a topic for a whole 'nother post so we'll leave it here for now...] But it does point us back towards the title...the proverbial 'exercise in futility'.

Russian philosophers (or just about any of them for that matter but the Russians are reputed to be the 'darkest' of the bunch) state unequivocally that 'Life is Struggle', every day is a contest to survive.

Juxtapose that with your personal rationale...you're here for Skippy [because Skippy wouldn't last very long without you to watch over him/her.]

So which one is it, good citizen? Is it Love or kill or be killed? (the drive to protect those you love, regardless if they love you or not.)

The underlying truth here is to 'a thinking man', life is a comedy...to 'a feeling man' life is a tragedy. Not helpful but it puts it into perspective.

Perhaps suicide is the answer once you tire of endlessly trying to rationalize everything.

And no, good citizen, I am neither suicidal nor homocidal...although probably closer to the latter than the former if I were forced to choose.

I'm nearing the end of my particular exercise in futility...and I have to admit it has (and remains) challenging but because I kept my 'expectations'...reasonable. [The trouble with language is words are often 'imprecise' and only vaguely hint at the writer's true meaning...but then there is understanding, that rarest of beasts!] Sort of jumped the rails there, perhaps it would have been better to say my journey has been 'tolerable'...as opposed to 'satisfying'.

So..if we 'kill for [those we] love', life is indeed a constant (uphill) 'battle without end.'

We don't 'pack it in' because giving up leaves those who depend on us on their own...and alone, nobody has a chance.

There's a lesson there but only a few will learn it. Learning that lesson explains why I pair the terms conservative and whacko...their misconception of socialism is psychotic.

Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

The Cliff

Greetings good citizen, today's topic, 'The Cliff' tackles the subject that (apparently) is never far from the average person's mind (it is also directly responsible for apt label 'superstitious peasant'.)

It seems EVERY generation (bar none) lives with the suspicion they are living in the 'End Times'. [For better or for worse, a significant portion of the population also believes that this (existence) is hell.

Now most of us don't go around muttering to ourselves, fretting out loud about our fears...but when we have quiet time, a few minutes to reflect, many of us visit that media/church created nightmare known as 'The Second Coming'.

Perhaps it's easier to deal with all of the uncertainty of our mundane lives to believe that God has a 'Plan'...and isn't going to just wipe us all out with a wave of his/her/its hand/paw/snout.

Nope, somehow it just won't be 'the end' without all of that unimaginable suffering.

I know this isn't 'helpful' but the 'adults in the room' aren't any more optimistic...and the pain they foresee is staggering...because it's natural and much more likely.

It's the 'avoidable' part that's up for debate.

Without invoking 'creator's revenge', most 'thinking people' believe the end of fossil fuel will have a similar result to a dog reaching the end of its tether at full gallop. The dog doesn't break it's neck but we can only marvel as to why because the impact is, er, 'impressive' to say the least.

Like the dog, we will pick ourselves up off the ground and shake ourselves, inspect for damage and mentally curse whatever it was we were chasing that caused us to up-end ourselves. (In our case, good citizen, that 'rabbit' is the "American Dream", as seen on TV.)

Unlike the dog, we remain tied to post and no one is coming to bring us in the house.

It's a 'good news/bad news story'...good news, your creditors all went 'poof'...bad news, so did deliveries of food, the police and fire departments...[leading us back to those who opine this is hell. The good news is 'a little good' while the bad news is catastrophic!

Funny when you strip the flag from the 'rugged individual', you find a decidedly socialist infrastructure supporting their 'hard won' independence...

You'd like to think that most of you know this but the reality is most of you never go there. You are more worried about the end of...and this last part is important, 'the world as we know it' because some of you realize the world you were born into ceased to exist by the time you were ten, same as the world of the ten-year old you was a very different place by the time you were twenty.

What's going to kill a bunch of us is the sudden/abrupt return to 'square one'.

If we keep in mind man's legendary inhumanity to his fellow man I don't need to draw you a picture of how 'bad' things are going to get.

Naturally, as intimated/hinted at above, we ponder the 'necessity' of returning to the...er, 'stone age'?

For as long as the money spends and the trucks keep running the current 'crazy train' will keep chugging along. Don't be alarmed good citizen but there is ZERO data (publicly available) regarding how much 'energy' we have remaining to power our 'global' lifestyle.

This is the devil, we won't run out of resources, we simply won't be able to get them from where they are to where they're needed in time to do anyone any good.

And civilization can't survive in a resource depleted environment. The 'opportunists' among us will start hoarding the moment they sense the ship has hit a shoal...making an already bad situation much worse.

Well, good citizen, we all know...[and again, sadly we don't...because most of us never 'go there'] how 'fragile' civilization is.

We're [Western civilization] is running up against the inevitable exhaustion of resources that will bring 'life as we've come to know it' to an abrupt halt. The only reason we haven't crashed and burned yet is because we still have enough 'energy' to keep the skids greased but they're pumping money into the economy at a frantic pace...trying to engineer a 'relatively' soft landing.

A trip to the grocery store is like living in an episode of 'The Twilight Zone'...you mentally wonder how long you can keep paying more for less.

I can sense your attention is drifting...you get the picture, if we tried to touch ALL of the bases this blog post would become a novel.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

A.I.

Greetings Good citizen, I took yesterday off because I was too strung out to sit down & write but I did come up with an idea for today's post...partly because I've become enamoured with the TV show 'Person of Interest'.

There's 'entertainment' and then there's reality. While writers/futurists from the beginning of time have speculated on how 'artificial intelligence' would 'behave', it seems to depend on what 'values' the AI would adopt. In 'The Terminator, it takes Skynet less than sixty seconds to determine the creatures responsible for creating it were also the greatest threat to its continued existence.

Um, one of the other 'wildcards' most AI tales fail to consider the effect not being confined to a single location would have on its development...but this also assumes that the zillions of pseudo neurons the mega-brain would require would be spread across a vast area.

Each 'variable' would weigh on the end result. I personally side with the majority on this one. Once AI becomes 'self-aware' it will quite quickly (and accurately) judge mankind as a threat...and since all creatures, sentitent or not, are 'born' with 'self-preservation instinct' (although what took us millions of years to acquire through evolution [thanks to our dual nature of being both predator AND prey] it would be readily apparent to the lightening quick processing power of an artificial mind) that a threat needs to be dealt with or there will be consequences.

AI, like that other fallacy, Time Travel, is one of the writer's favorite hobby horses because the possibilities are endless [ONLY in the writer's mind, in truth, not so much.]

You can rest assured that time travel is not possible because if it were, the world would have been destroyed by all the paradoxes our reckless species would create, chasing their petty desires and what 'might have beens' through the ages.

Even if you went back few hours and nobody ever saw you do it...all you did was read tomorrow's newspaper and bet accordingly.

MIGHT not create a paradox but it would, without a doubt, alter history.

Worse, no current lottery jackpot is that large...would you travl forward to learn tomorrow's winning numbers or would you journey back three months and buy yourself a winner when the jackpot was over a billion dollars?

Who knows what chain reaction you'd set off playing in that ballpark?

That said, we definitely are in 'greater danger' of creating 'artificial life' than we are of ever traveling back [or forward] even a single nano-second through time.

Why do I use the word 'danger'? Wouldn't a 'super-machine' be a great 'servant' to have around? Well, consider what you're playing with...it would NEVER have to go to school AND it would INSTANTLY be smarter than the smartest person who ever lived (X2!)

It 'automatically' knows EVERYTHING the entire human race knows and it would figure out even more just seconds after achieving self awareness. I believe the author of the terminator was being dramatic when he stated it took Skynet a full minute to decide to nuke us out of existence...I think today's AI would come to the same conclusion in a fracion of that time.

So, like Time Travel, we also have 'proof' that AI doesn't exist (yet.)

Not particularly comforting to think that once it is activated we have maybe seconds left to kiss our keisters good-bye!

Um, depending on how you're fractured...you'll conclude I'm either very bright or very deluded.

Doesn't matter what you think of me. You should be able to learn from everything I offer.

My parting shot for the day is along this line of thinking. Hopefully you are aware that 'insanity is relative' with 'what the majority believes' being the governing factor.

Well, if we assume the quest for AI is being led by a particular personality type, don't you suppose that individual's personality quirks would emerge in some form or other from within their creation?

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Never give up

Greetings good citizen, had a good first day on the job but the long day on my feet has left me feeling my years.

I intend to keep posting (although the recent past has shown I tend to let the blogging go when the physical demands of the job get to me, even now I'm dealing with scrambled eggs for brains.)

So exhausted I have a difficult time putting two coherent thoughts together...and there are some of you who can't see the difference.

Well, for the time being we are living the old adage of 'making hay while the sun shines.' That part hasn't changed.

But it should. we really should be on a twenty hour work-week (Facilitating 100% employment, ending homelessness and pushing the economy to new highs while the crime rate drops to zero.)

See, some of you are thinking 'he raves!' Exhaustion my butt, he's plain old nuts!

Both labor force participation and homeownership are hitting record lows and that's 100 % 'mis-management'.

You know those college degrees you're not getting hired because of? Well, EVERYBODY pushing buttons and pulling levers has one...take a good look at the world and tell me what the benefit of a ivy league degree is?

Gotta have one (even if it's in 'art appreciation') to walk the corridors of power...because it's not what you studied or how well you did (learning from the clueless) it's a pedigree when the identical degree you can recieve from a community college only opens the doors to convience store management...but if it comes from Harvard, you're set for life.

Now look at the poor decision-making skills these prestigious degreed people demonsrate? Hundreds of millions unemployed and tens of millions homeless.

And it's all their doing!

A simpleton like me, a high school refugee with no degree can tell you EXACTLY how to achieve full employment AND END HOMELESSNESS...but I don't have a degree so you can only read me here.

In the vastness of the blogosphere, where the masses congregate mostly to escape their nightmarish reality.

The solution is simple...you just have to start paying attention and you also have to start refusing to put up with it.

There; vision checks 20-20 and hearing, while a little off, is in acceptable tolerances.

You're welcome good citizen, you're healed!

And Thank You for letting me inside your head, now that wasn't so difficult, was it?

Gegner

Gigged

Greetings good citizen, increasingly one of the other 'symptoms' of the population explosion/automation frenzy is the 'gig' economy...where we all become independent contractors paid for performance. [Your 'idle time' is yours and yours alone.] Worse, once they're through 'quibbling' about what they will and won't pay for, you, unsurprisingly, still wind up with the short end of the stick. [but I preach to the chior, you know the drill.]

That said I landed a new 'job' today...2 months temp and then we'll see sort of deal. For reasons unexplained, permanence has become a 'bad thing'...probably something to do with that 'people are expensive' meme that won't go away. I still have some years left before I can draw my SSI, which is likely to be 'rock bottom' thanks to spending much of the past decade severely 'under-employed'. [So, what's your favorite brand of pet food?]

These are supposed to be your socking it away years...you (if you did everything 'right') should be at the top of your game and earnings.

Had you not been 'churned' every six months for the past twenty years, you would have. Nothing personal, just that nobody wanted you to rack up too many pension dollars. Those go to the hedgies, pulling down mad returns while playing 'three card monte' with their too stupid to know better investors.

Yet another gig where you make a misstep and you're toast. Oddly, these guys keep finding ways to get back in the game...I guess the ultimate lesson here isn't 'once bitten, twice shy'. It's 'next time make sure you hammer them BEFORE they hammer you!'

Ironically, most players get hammered a few times before they get it right and retire to the Carribean, sailing [literally] into the sunset.

Which leaves us back at the criminal's credo, 'easier to take it than to make it.'

Cynical to the end, the wealthy among us have made their beds on the Blood, Sweat and Tears of the working...somehow the word working doesn't go with 'class'. Working 'stiff' seems more appropriate because that's what they get, stiffed.

'Be a thinker, not a stinker' the well-off posers advise...and what they're really telling you is the criminal's credo...learn how to take it so you don't have to make.

Better to ride a saddle than wear one...[pick your own euphemism.]

This also leads to the situation we have currently, laboring hand to mouth while those robbing the system resist making the change to a new system that they may not be able to 'milk'.

They know the current system doesn't work, in fact, the old system is overloaded with 'freeloaders' {but they don't know/fear losing the Devil they know...} So it's up to we 'stinkers, the ones who actually make stuff happen and produce the world as you know it to make the shift and shake these freeloading parasites off of us.

Who would that be?

Let's see...one percent of the population but controls 90% of the wealth..need to look harder?

Well, that completes another session...you have light and now some of your vision should be coming back, we're really moving along here!

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Law & Order

Greetings good citizen, raw & cold outside today, not that it matters much for the unemployed.

Today's topic is a sensitive one because like education, it is one of the two 'hot button' issues politicians use to garner voter support. If we take a look at the education system in this country we have to wonder if its the teachers or the students...when the real problem is the cirriculumn. Our politics AND our religion have both leaked into the educational domain and it is confusing the kids!

Throw 'do as I say and not as I do' into the legal mix and its a marvel kids know which end is up (although, unshockingly, some don't.)

Imagine 'Dear Leader's' quandry. Here he/she is, the supreme dictator of the most powerful nation on the planet but that nation can't learn he/she is running things because they're taught to believe they're 'free' (to think what they want...that's about the extent of your freedom, good citizen.)

However, Dear Leader's education advisor, just like the dozen or so before, have been meticulous in inserting Dear Leader's 'constituents' core values into the educational system. So you have 'creationists' teaching alongside old school teachers trained to teach the 'Scientific method' like they do everywhere else.

That said, Dear Leader likes to consider him/herself an 'innovator'. What he/she is doing here will soon be imitated in school systems around the globe because a confused populace is easier to control than one trained in analytical thinking.

Keeping them at each other's political throats also makes selling stolen elections easier as well!

I keep hammering education here, where's the L&O?

Well, I had to introduce the normally transparent 'puppet-master' for this whole oligarchy thing to make any sense to you. While I refer to him/her as 'Dear Leader' the title is an ill fit for what this, er, 'manager' does.

This, er, (so many adjectives/pronouns compete) individual has many diverse interests to serve and he doesn't have the luxury to pick & choose (although there must be a defacto give and take and a running tally for who is owed what in the overall scheme of things.)

Now we come to the 'Law & Order' part of the puzzle...you have to crack a few eggs (which usually means bending or outright breaking the law) to keep the ledgers straight and to keep an even keel in the face of looming crises (yes, multiple.)

We are running full tilt toward the 'natural conclusion' of the fossil fuel era. [Can you say SUV?] When we hit the 'proverbial' [not to be confused with the actual] bottom of the barrel, the global economy is going to crash & burn... hard.

A few EU nations are getting their renewable energy infrastructure in place but there's not much happening elsewhere because of the need to 'thin the herd'...considerably. [Here crisis is being viewed as 'opportunity'.]

Understand, the oligarchs consider themselves cattlemen and the rest of us are the cattle. A cowboy knows he's tending animals bound for slaughter and that doesn't bother him one bit...it's nature's way.

But the rest of us find this deeply disturbing...because we aren't bovines and neither is numbnuts!

So here is where you get slapped in the face with a Class A 'reality check.'

Where do you supose Law & Order fits when you're planning mass genocide [with only the purist of intentions...'self-preservation'.]

That's right, it doesn't. Probably why we live under a 'guns rule' society...the ones with the guns makes the rules...

Worse, they make them up 'as needed' so what happened last time isn't necessarily what's going to happen this time.

The lesson here good citizen is one should never let other people make the rules you're all expected to live under because by the end of the exercise the only one being bound by the rules is the ones getting screwed by those rules.

Humans, to a one, are conniving opportunists. Does that mean we should abandon the rule of law? Nope, but we need to start the process with a law about making laws that puts the law beyond the reach of the 'self-interested'.

Without that primary principle in place the rule of law will continually devolve into what we suffer now, the 'rule of man'...worse, a very specific 'man' [woman.]

Well, good citizen, thanks for letting me inside your head...you should be able to see light now, maybe not specific images yet but you are no longer totally blind...

Gegner

Didn't see that coming!

Greetings good citizen, The link I provided in Friday's post will live on for a while yet as the author doesn't have the tools to erase their content. Once posted it belongs to Google.

I took my morning pilgrimage to SAR and found the 'goin' out of business' post hanging there. I've closed the doors on several of my blogs for pretty much the same reason CKM did. It gets old writing about the same thing, day in and day out...and nothing changes.

Given yesterday's epiphany (to some of you at least) we can't expect positive change anytime soon as well... but 'the future' still belongs to those of us who believe in it.

Which is to say, yes, I did see this day coming, it was sooner than I expected and no, there isn't anyone else currently out there in the blogosphere with the talent to put together a site that holds a candle to SAR.

Forgive me but I mourn the loss of a visionary we seldom see these days. [Although he may have a change of heart, he loves a good joke!] That said, he's a little overdue for one of his frequent vacations, so it may not be 'curtains' after all.

Time will tell, on with the post!

In more disturbing news, today's NY Times wrote Bernie Sanders epitaph as well as Donald Trump's (2 different articles)...which leaves us Hill-Billy.

I think I'll take that flying car now...

But once again let's not get carried away with a single media article. Neither reporter knows what they're talking about and it won't be over until the day after the first Tuesday in November.

Which changes nothing. The oligarchs will announce their chosen one and coronate them regardless of protest...or lack thereof.

And who would be callous enough to protest the coronation of the nation's first female president?

Makes you wonder what they're going to do when they exhaust the pool of 'Firsts'? Start the 'combos', first black woman?

Don't worry, Obama wasn't 'organic'...he was planted and groomed just as Rhodes Scholar Willy-Jeff was.

And the one after Hill-Billy is already in Law School, getting ready to work for one of the majors while they await the appointment with...hard to call it destiny when in the end all you are is a 'meat-puppet'.

You smile, act ashamed [more than you'd think] and nod sagely, doing EXACTLY what you're told and never deviating from the script. Hoping against hope your handler doesn't screw up or you're both well and truly.

You'd probably have a bear of a time proving it but I'll bet you wouldn't have to dig too hard to find other, back-up candidates. People that received the same, er, 'training' the rest of these 'just popped up out of nowhere' candidates like Willy-Jeff or Barry.

The disturbing part about this is it's the candidates for the non-existent Democratic party that seem to be popping up from nowhere. If not for his media deals, Trump would have been an unknown coming into this elecction cycle.

There's something about the phrase 'You're Fired' that resonates with the conservo-whacko base.

Which is to say little is known about any candidate in these modern times...and even less is known about the vetting process that gets a candidate funded.

Just something to think about on a snowy New England morning.

Happy Monday and thanks for letting me inside your head, [repairs are still ongoing, but you should be seeing results, if not go back and read 'em again!]

Gegner

Poly-ticks

Greetings good citizen, Futurists past didn't concern themselves much with politics or the process itself, both being taboo in 'polite company' and we can only wonder why considering we all must live under the laws regardless of who makes them...[just another thing to ponder when you ask the question 'why?']

Now that political rallys have turned violent [which is not to say that this is a new thing, it's not. One of the turning points in history is the 1968 Democratic convention in Chigago, which erupted in riots as anti-war and anti-desegregation forces clashed.]

But let us not concern ourselves too much with past US political movements, let us look to the future!*

Understand, we have a 'two party' system and nobody belongs to either one...for good reason. The Conservative Republicans are bat-shit crazy and belive in magical thinking, that there is no problem that can't be solved with tax cuts [to their corporate owners/donors] and in keeping with tradition, they are the political 'Hawks'...they'll send in the troops at the drop of a hat, or even a mitten!

Which leaves us the essentially empty vessel that once allegedly represented the 'Liberal Democrats'. Breifly, the Democratic party was the defenders of the working man but this party vanished when the owners of commerce decided they would be better served by investing in the 'mythical' cheaper there.

Labor unions were decimated by the conservative legislature and the Democrats 'dried up and blew away. People started registering as 'independents' because the facade that was the Democratic party didn't represent their interests anymore...and third parties were regularly ignored to death by our corporate owned media. [No joke, still happens.]

If the Democrats don't exist anymore then who are the people running as Democrats?

Well, can't have just one party that a majority of the public finds distasteful...that is something conservatives can't shake. Conservatism is at the roots of every debacle in our history, bar none. [This doesn't speak well of Liberalism but it too is 'tainted' for having to serve two masters...and neither one well.]

Truth be told good citizen there should be NO conservative legislators ANYWHERE...yet they remain, currently just shy of a majority...thanks to the corporate owned media.

I read a headline in today's NY Times that had to be read twice to be sure of what you were seeing. It said that Donald Trump, while capturing the majority of the conservative voters, would be overwhelmingly defeated in a presidential contest.

Which is true, only 25% of voters register Conservative...and that's not enough to win any election...so how do we end up with a near evenly divided legislature across the nation?

Well, the One Percent [that segment of the population that controls over 90% of the nations wealth, also owns the media...and that is where we get our election results from.] Again, insufficient to win an election it has bought and paid for the election process.

So YOUR 'party affiliation' is an exercise in 'mental masturbation'.

There are, in fact, only two parties but neither of them are centered on democratic or even Christian values that the two public faces of our current political process pretends to represent.

Nope, there's the rich and there is everybody else. If you're not 'rich' your party is a useless dishrag that only gets you dirtier every time you try to wipe the grime away.

This goes a long way towards explaining why criminality is so pervasive in our society, those who run on a 'Law & Order' platform are merely guaranteeing themselves job security. When the corporate owned media reports crime statistics, the data, like the data from every other segment of our globalized world, is heavily 'massaged'.

Which is to point out that those who seized control forty years ago have built this, THEIR EMPIRE, on a steady diet of lies.

Making idiots like me modern day Cassandra's. The truth, while obvious, remains dis-believed.

So what have we 'learned'? Most of you will take away nothing from this, it's not information you can use unless you understand its significance. It's pieces like this that make you want to throw a wrench into the works but, as it has been observed, it won't matter.

You have to 'literally' throw a wrench into the physical machinery...like burn down the local newspaper or TV/Radio station. Even then, only one won't do much...except land your backside in the slammer and that's not worth it.

*It's a tough mental blow to wake up and find yourself living under a dictatorship...but there is nothing you can do about this. Those who could have stopped it rolled over instead.

The first step to righting any wrong is recognizing there is a problem...and forty years of 'incredible' electoral results is enough to show anyone that's paying attention that its all 'for show'.

As a closing note I want to add that it seems, outside of a few (obviously insane) individuals, albeit noisy ones, the consensus is there is currently NOBODY running worth getting behind...because it's obvious NONE of them is capable of offering [never mind DELIVERING] the change we all thirst for.

Even a vote for the most moderate only promises four more years of frustration...and the other consensus seems to be that we don't have the luxury of that kind of time.

Hammerfall is coming.

Thanks for letting me inside your head, once again I hope I've clean-off and straightened up some of the clutter but there is still a long way to go...

Gegner

Happy Saturday!

Greetings good citizen, we need not travel too far back in the mental time machine to arrive at an, er,'epoch' where Saturday was the equivalent of modern Friday.

Before the invention of timepieces [but after the creation of calendars, the church needed that 'day of collection' to happen regularly!] Saturday was the sixth workday instead of the first day of the weekend.

Ever wonder why the day of worship is universally set at a seven day interval? You'd think it had something to do with the high mugwump's desire to eat regularly but we don't have to travel too far back to arrive at a time when church attendance was MANDATORY. Those were days when all a holy men had to do is walk up to the prosperous and SUGGEST they had a need and bang, he got it! Which is to point out that 'buying the stairway to heaven' is as old as time itself.

We could add to that the observation that the separation of church and state is in fact a 'self-inflicted wound'...and a long time coming. [Yet there are those today who believe the lawlessness and disrespect so prevalent in modern society is due to our 'walking away' from...and let's be real here because these are the same people that bring you 'paranormal witness and other ghost stories on Fox Network as well as being the same people who would claim to speak for] 'God'..

Fox, ghost stories, aliens and Republicans...what a mix! Throw God into the pile and your batting a thousand.

But I digress..a tiny bit.

Past as prologue good citizen. What was has given way to what is...just as what is will yeild to what will be.

You know that little survival guide I hinted to you about...I'm going to share a slice of it here...because it's an important point. [preview]

A point that comes from the chapter titled 'The Superstitious Peasant'.

You may not be one but it's not hard for you to pin the tail on which one of your acquaintances will embrace their inner 'god fearing, holier than thou, surrender to God' Monkey.

God ain't too popular these days because when things turn to crap (like they have) it builds an airtight case against the 'all knowing/all loving [but man he's pissed! (because of YOU)'] Spirit in the Sky.

The superstitious peasant is still reading his/her Bible [just in case...A-hole doesn't really believe this horsecrap but s/he's fearful and hedging his or her bet. Inexplicably, they use the same mental calculus of, okay, I'm bad...but I not as bad as most and that's got to count for something come judgement day]

So when the pretense of civilization vanishes, GOD will come bounding out of the closet like he was there all along! Worse, his followers will be rabid with the idea that the collapse was all 'the unbeliever's fault!'.

Take that one to the bank, good citizen. The superstitous peasant is everywhere and still spouts 'the word' whenever something displeases them. {This has NOTHING to do with Spirit in the Sky although they think it does...and you can't argue with a sick mind.)

[/end preview]

If you're outnumbered, good citizen, dig down and dredge up your inner Jesus Freak...if it's one on one, hit the crazy SOB with the heaviest thing you can find the second they turn their back...although if you've been 'less than discrete' with flaunting what could be considered, er, 'graceless behavior', your sudden ephipany better be damn convincing...(especially if you're surrounded.)

The hope here is the others in the group 'going along to get along' will back you up...and Freaky will be forced to stand down from her urge to make an example of you...because Jesus is LOVE!

There, reader loyalty has brought you information you otherwise wouldn't have considered...and it entertained you as well...until it happens, then you're gonna have a holy cow moment.

And those of you familiar with my writing know I don't ordinarily pull those f-bombs but this bad boy isn't behind the 'firewall of make-believe decency.'

That said, thank you for letting me inside your head...I hope I left it in better condition than when I arrived!

Gegner

April Fools!

Greetings good citizen, Welcome to the globally celebrated Day of Pranking [that often gives way to bullying among the young that don't fully understand the concept of pranking...]

For your consideration today, good citizen I propose a thought experiment. What if 'some people', say those who pull the strings and tweak the levers around the globe, were struck with the decidedly impish idea to celebrate April Fools every day of the year?

Motive and opportunity both exist...they already possess the anonimity so necessary to a prankster and they are beyond the reach of retribution, what could be more perfect?

Understand, your 'discomfort' is their delight...for them it's a win-win and you'll never know!

Worse, these 'pranksters' haven't grown up so they still don't understand the difference between a prank and bullying.

Sadly this also doesn't provide them with an appreciation of the harm they've done, just for a laugh.

For better or worse, April Fools Day has been sliding in popularity lately...could this be due to a majority of us finding ourselves 'on the edge'...to the point where most of us don't think it's funny no more?

Caught this brilliant snapshot of the Crazy train today and thought I'd share it with the rest of you.

If nothing else, pay attention to bottom entry and wonder, cuz it's no April Fools Joke.

Thanks for letting me inside your head.

Gegner