Pick your poison

Greetings good citizen, you can find all manners of drivel on the net, including this so no one should be surprised when the 'one step removed from Faux News' [MSN] publishes this 'infotainment' piece.

The headline promises you are ignorant of why MOST college 'grads' move home with Mom & Dad...although it DOES point to the 75 year high which the 'failure to launch' rate has risen to. The last time it was this bad was during the 'original' great depression.

We are now experiencing the Greater Depression but, politically speaking, the Republicans were banished from congress for forty years for causing the first one.

What do you suppose would happen if it was discovered they 'crashed' the global economy twice in a single century?

What do you suppose the big 'secret' is behind college aged children moving back in with their parents?

This article is about the 'flunkies', the DOUBLE failed to launch that get thrown out of school and where the heck else are they going to go?

Then it goes on to drag the 'racial divide' into the mix...so poor white children, all PROMISED that a college degree would ASSURE them a successful future, wouldn't feel 'victimized' by a system set up to pillage them from an early age.


Like many 'infotainment' pieces, it merely belabors the obvious rather than broadening your horizons.

Some of you [rare as you are] view my pieces with similar disdain...sometimes because you already know and other times because you could care less. Sure it's occurred to you but 'one guy' can't fix it.

No, but if ENOUGH guys and gals are motivated we can fix the whole bucket of worms in one swoop!

Funny how an(d)[damn autocorrect!] article about one topic can pinwheel to another and that would be the 'predatory nature' of our, er, 'economic system'.

Most of you don't think it needs fixing and the few that do KNOW you can't do it alone...so it starts here, with 'talking about it'.

I'd LOVE to think you all agree with me 100% and my solutions are 'perfect' but then I'd be wondering what branch of hell I had slipped into...

[excuse the pause, just got a snow shovel shoved up my backside!]

I soon have to go do my 'gig' so I'll be brief.

If not us, who and if not now, when?

Something to ponder as the changes are about to come faster and more furious than before...won't do to let you get your feet under you, especially when you have finally realized who has been poking you in the eye with that damn sharp stick!

Thanks for letting me inside YOUR head,

Gegner

Redux

Greetings good citizen, I'm guessing whoever 'blocked' my e-mail acct doesn't possess the talent to keep you from reading my posts.

MAYBE the incidents are unrelated but you get a little paranoid when you speak truth to power.

Obviously an 'amatuer', a pro would have me tied up in knots worse than just being unable to log onto my e-mail account.

Still, the timing is suspect.

Most times I figure folks don't pay much attention to my rants...partly because everyone is doing it and mostly because people who rant about our broken political system are few and far between.

You don't find folks with national forums or even name recognition pointing to the 'irregularities' that are right there in plain sight!

Why people with national forums don't address the issues I regularly rant about? Probably don't want to get hacked...or worse...but I'm still at DILLIGAF.

The ONLY reason I'm telling you about this is because I have obviously pissed somebody off and got them mad enough to 'retaliate'. [You wouldn't be wrong if you surmised I'm actually enjoying this! While I'd really enjoy 'engagement' I'll take 'trolling' because it means I'm have an effect!]



So what part of my most recent rant do you suppose they took exception to? The part where I point out how capitalism is better than slavery [for the slaver] because the 'owner' of your labor is no longer responsible for your 'well-being'?

That must really get the goat of most 'job creators'...they don't like the idea that their 'magnanimity' is being exposed for the 'pillaging' it really is.

Perhaps pea-brain thinks I'm on the other side of the media's DIVIDE

Would that it were she/he is part of the 'true divide', a card carrying member of the One Percent!

Although that would be very unlikely...for a variety of reasons.

Still, the pool of 'targets' is too large to single out specific type...although I do know which has the 'thinnest skin' but that comes with the turf.

What taunts the imagination, good citizen, is what would such a coward say in their defense?

Would they call you all Commies [proving they wouldn't recognize one if they were being bit on the posterior by one.] Or would they defend this land of thieves, draping themselves in the flag while muttering something banal like 'my country right or wrong'?

Or will they snicker in the darkness, nodding along as their badge wearing, pistol packing relative sits there and grumbles about being 'unappreciated'.

Where are YOUR thanks good citizen? Who appreciates YOU for following the rules and doing your job, day in and day out?

Sure ain't the pecker-head that cuts your paycheck and reminds you at every opportunity you could be replaced in a heartbeat.

The world isn't a 'respectful' place and that good citizen, starts at the TOP.

Crap rolls downhill...those of us sitting here in the cesspool just scoop it up in buckets and pass it back uphill so the boss has something to throw when he/she gets aggravated [talk about 'job security', eh?]

Snowing here in by the frosty North Atlantic, you'd think the supermarkets were going to be snowed in for a month the way people were acting today.

I've dawdled long enough, time to post this and get back to what I was doing [snow removal]

Thank you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

T.G.I.F! [Problem solving edition]

Greetings good citizen, being old I find myself 'trapped' in a world I was raised in; one that no longer exists. Once upon a time the majority of working folks were thankful for Friday because it meant the weekend was here.

Nevermore.

In fact, thanks to the ever-present Internet, many can't get away from work no matter how hard they try. Worse, the same cause is also making jobs 'dry up'...albeit, an insignificant number but even one less is felt in a world where the workforce is growing MUCH faster than the job market.

Most of you don't give this logistical fact a second thought despite having personally been 'bit' by it [often more than once.]

The Epidemic of our age, not enough jobs [that pay a living wage]...not that ANYBODY is doing anything to fix it.

Is this dilemma unsolvable? No, I'll solve it right here and now, I solved this problem decades ago but [apparently] those with degrees in finance STILL can't figure this out.

Cut the work week in half.

Stupid idea, right?

That's only half of it.

Most of us are sinking [financially] on forty hours a week. Joe/Jane employer are trying to solve the 'unemployment crisis' by ending overtime...hiring more people BUT this is a two edged sword and results in the same problem as reducing working hours [and by extension, paychecks]

If you reduced income you MUST also reduce EXPENSE.

Want to EXPAND the workforce geometrically? Make housing EVERYONE'S LARGEST SINGLE EXPENSE...FREE!

Besides, what's more important, banking or social harmony?

We already know how a feckless capitalist would answer but we're not all LAZY and stupid...like they are.

[Capitalism exists so they don't have to do ANY of their own Heavy lifting. The 'hired help' does all of THEIR grunt/drudge work!]

IT'S LITERALLY 'LEGALIZED SLAVERY'...made 'better' because their 'obligation' to you ends at the paycheck!

Anyone else see the [dire] NEED for the Human anti-exploitation law? [and the corresponding return of Exile...]

Another expense that needs to go away is transportation. Using a 'Zip Car' model [you know, wheels when you need them?] we eliminate the SECOND largest expense on everybody's balance sheet.

How do we stop the rabid capitalist from sponging up as much of this newly freed 'economic wiggle room' as they can grab, returning us to our starting point?

PAYCHECKS ALL AROUND!

Worried about all those banking, insurance and investment jobs disappearing? There are twice as many job openings created by making home maintenance FREE!

Wonder how/why our economic system DOESN'T WORK? It's because we allow the shiftless among us to keep what isn't intended to remain in the economy!

Our primary puzzle is it costs the same to feed, clothe and shelter a Billionaire as it does a BUM. That's why Billionaires have bulging bank accounts that do NOBODY ANY GOOD while bums commonly STARVE TO DEATH!

WTF, good citizen?

It's not that the problems are 'unsolvable', the 'will' to solve them doesn't exist!

Now go spank yourself silly, that's it for today...

Gegner

Who's on First...

Greeting good citizen, does one come away with the impression that the 'barbarians' aren't at the gate, they're in your living room?

We just finished a four year political campaign that had an, er, 'unusual' outcome...and all of a sudden the taking heads are telling us Congress is ready to 'dismantle the legacy' of the (not yet gone) departing president [while a vast majority of us don't know what, exactly, that legacy even is.]

Well, to be sure, nobody is going to cry too hard seeing the behind closed doors gift to the insurance industry go up in smoke. Obamacare...which is IN FACT ROMNEY CARE![but it wouldn't do to label it after the original 'collaborator' a Republican...Romney/Obamacare really is an insurance company's wet dream, just as any type of mandated insurance coverage is. [But taking it away without anything to replace it is both reckless and foolhardy...because the alternatives are even MORE EXPENSIVE!]

Make them buy it whether they want it or not...we'll weed out the poor risks and keep the profitable stuff.

That is how 'for profit' insurance works.

Well, the public doesn't like 'mandated insurance' so Republicans across the nation are uniting to dismantle THE ONE THING PRESIDENT OBAMA MANAGED TO ACHIEVE.

How many people are 'fooled' by the label switcheroo? Enough of 'em so even 'progressive' legislators have adopted the term Obamacare...without being able to cite how it differs from Romneycare. [Just one more reason to distrust these 'pretenders'...]

Let me remind you again, good citizen. THERE ARE NO DEMOCRATS IN POLITICS! They were all 'defunded' when the Reagan Revolution set up camp in Washington. [Factoid number two, they aren't 'Republicans' per se...they are One Percenters...every last one of them!]

Understand, You have neighbors that are [lifelong] Democrats. These Spineless surrender monkeys don't even identify themselves as Democrats anymore. I get e-mails from Bold Progressives and have no clue A.) who these people are and B.)what part of these spineless surrender monkeys they're calling bold?

Don't get me wrong, I have ZERO love for the mindless Conservo-whackos who 'hate' liberals SOLELY because they question/disagree with conservative dogma!

If you hate those who don't agree with you, you've got bigger problems than just ideological ones going on upstairs.

Having eliminated the ONLY TWO players on the US political field...where does that leave us?

At the 'true/real' political divide.

Do I need to draw anyone a picture?

Probably do because far too many of you mistakenly believe that they are part [as in some 'subset'] of the Middle Class...even if that is the part that is a single paycheck away from a homeless shelter.

[Sidebar] The 'true' political divide is between the 'haves and the have nothings', the One Percent and the rest of us...which is ironically a number greater than 99%

People don't admit to being impoverished even when you can smell it on them!

Yup, Middle Class alright!

Doesn't help that the popular sitcom 'the middle', set in the 'Mid-west' depicts a family living in a run down house, driving old beaters while putting two kids through college serves as most people's 'touchstone' for what the typical 'middle class family' is like...

Did I mention we're neck deep in STUPID around here?

No irony should be lost on the fact that those living a hand to mouth existence regularly vote conservative. [Not that voting for the what passes for the opposition would do them any good as evidenced by the Wall Street centric platform Hill-Billy ran on.

Why is it the clueless media doesn't point to that empty vessel and hang her trouncing on it?

Did I mention the Barbarians aren't at the gate, their in your parlor?

Which brings me another point of today's post. Read the news and you are guaranteed to find something that will set you off/offend you. Instead of 'keeping you informed' the media seems to take it's role as 'divider in chief' very seriously! [Don't forget to add the refrain: Hey, we can't help it if they're too stupid to see they're getting played!]

And make no mistake about it, we're divided because the media goes out of its way to insure it hits the hot buttons of people on both sides of the fence with frightening regularity!

Um, circling back to the 'who's on first' part of the puzzle...our new POTUS hasn't even taken the oath of office yet [although I think newly elected members of congress are 'sworn in' earlier] we have to wonder why they are so 'anxious' to start ripping down the previous administration when that guy hasn't even left office yet?

USUALLY there is a 'honeymoon' period where the incoming president 'dazzles' his supporters with bold new initiatives demonstrating his leadership and his firm grip on the tiller of the 'ship of State.'

However, coming off an EXTREMELY UNLIKELY conservative win [not that the opposition offered us a compelling reason to vote for them] but because this whole mess we find ourselves in today was brought to us by, conservatives [ta da!] so it is 'counterintuitive in the extreme' to think voting for more conservative government is going to produce anything but 'more of the same'.

Back to Barbarians in your parlor. They think YOU'RE STUPID...and every day you don't head down to the local network affiliate and run the lead anchors up the flagpole, YOU PROVE THEY'RE RIGHT!

Once again I advise you to lay down whatever you preform your 'job' with, go home...and stay there!

Either they'll admit defeat OR the lights will go off and then it's time to 'take it to the streets'...not to protest but to burn shit down! [Hint, courthouses and police stations FIRST! EVERYTHING WRONG STARTS THERE! Then move on to CITY HALL.

Every one of these 'institutions' has failed you. See anyone sporting a badge, shoot first because you won't survive being 'arrested'.

Once the burning starts 'civil authority' ceases to exist.

I'm currently writing the guide to what comes next although one of the posts in A Simple Plan is the whole deal in one place so you can go there and read what to do once the criminals have been run up the light poles by the neck.

A tad medieval but we don't have the luxury of 'taking prisoners'. In the 'flux', you'll be on your own. Surround yourself with people you trust and play your hand wisely.

I hate writing posts like this but given what's coming, if you don't strike you're really gonna wish you had! Take a look at where things are headed and we haven't even gotten to the inauguration yet!

Time is short, act or prepare to be acted upon!

Bon chance!

Gegner

Ethics

Greetings good citizen, while most of you can feel your eyes glazing over whenever you see the word 'ethics' written in your line of sight, most of us wonder if such a thing actually exists...or is it just the 'sensibilities' of those with a 'weak grip on reality'.

To make life happen, ya gotta crack a few 'eggs'.

If we were to take a poll [a patently bad idea regardless] we'd discover that 'ethics' don't matter so long as YOU aren't being treated 'unethically'.

Start a conversation about 'fairness' and the next thing you know you're screaming about clubbing baby harbor seals to death (so wealthy socialites can have harbor seal collars on their Ermine evening coats, allegedly to keep them 'warm' in the frigid winter.)

Haven't they ever heard of Thinsulate? A rhetorical question to be sure, Thinsulate is for peasants!

Yes good citizen, We live in an 'ethically challenged' world, which explains much when you think about it.

Millions homeless, hundreds of millions unemployed, an epidemic of opioid addiction that is driving suicide rates off the charts of those this, er, 'economic system' can't profitably employ.

Heck, we have an ENTIRE GENERATION that can't get its feet under them thanks to the 'malfeasance' of the greedy few.

Why? [ahem, 'Morning in America' anyone?]

Ethics is as good a place to start as any.

I'll jump on my 'hobby horse' and point to the real problem first despite the fact that many of you find such talk 'disturbing'. Ethics are a 'learned thing' and the STUPID among us aren't too keen on learning.'

While we instinctively know about 'fairness', we are 'taught' [by the self-interested] that this life is filled with 'winners and losers', in order for the successful to prosper, some people HAVE TO LOSE!

Bizarrely, this isn't taught in school or in church, it is something we learn at our electronic babysitter's knee.

So it is we find ourselves living in a society that only pays lip service to the concept of 'ethics'. In case you 'can't remember WHO precisely taught YOU about 'winners and losers' let me give you a hint...the guilty party goes by the unflattering nickname of 'the eye that never blinks'.

While I keep pointing to 'Morning in America' and it's plowing under of long held 'ethical standards' it is a disturbing non-coincidence that the utter collapse of ethics in our society matches the arrival of the 'Age of Television'.

The Barbarians aren't at the gate, the mo'fo's are in the damn living room [and in many cases, the bedroom!]

Weirdo that I am, I don't have a TV in my bedroom. Bedrooms are for sleeping and other, er, activities commonly engaged in by consenting adults. If I want to watch TV I know where to find one.

Now that I'm old enough that I sometimes find myself nodding off in front of the set, it's still not a reason to move one into our sleeping quarters. I fall asleep just fine without one.

But I digress.

Still, if you want to know where the F U attitude comes from, the main reason is usually staring at you with its one unblinking eye...

Of all the laws that got repealed when the posse behind the Reagan Debacle took over, removing the media's 'obligation' to program responsibly is perhaps the most damning.

In one fell swoop we lost the Fifth Estate.

Let those who own the media broadcast as they see fit...now take a good look at what forty years of THAT has produced.

You are, once again, soaking in it. Don't mind the stink, it's supposed to smell like that!

So the next time you find your eyes glazing over when somebody brings up the subject of 'ethics', do yourself a favor and kill your TV!

Thank you for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Oz

Greetings good citizen, one of the 'lessons' behind Frank Baum's tale of witches and wizards is nothing is as it seem, even the Wizard was a fraud.

On any given day, this existence can be compared to Oz and it's many frauds.

Anyone else caught up in this OMG, they're going to 'repeal Obamacare' shakedown? The only thing most of us know is it isn't what we wanted [single payer] and apparently repealing it won't change much.

So we return to a world where the media quizzes you on your grasp of reality.

Another WTF moment in a life chock full of WTF moments...WTF?

Probably hasn't occurred to you [YET] but you are living out your life in SOMEONE ELSE'S FANTASY! A world where not only is the Emperor naked but so are you...(until you arrive at that age where covering up is considered a 'public service'.)

Which is neither here nor there because it's someone else's fantasy! The fact that it's YOUR REALITY has no bearings on the subject! They make up the rules and you have only one choice, comply or die!

Welcome to Oz, good citizen!

It would make quite a humorous 'thought experiment' if it weren't the truth!

How can you be expected to make rational decisions if you have no freakin' clue which end is up?

In order to 'get along' in our current state of existence you need to have your head packed full of a great deal of nonsense!

For Example.

You need to work to make money so you can buy the things you need...but does anyone have any clue where Mother Nature's cash register is?

EVERYTHING YOU USE IS FREE FROM NATURE. MONEY MAKES IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF [so why do the giant douches get to keep it?]

Again, I welcome you to OZ!

The ONLY Answer to our 'rhetorical question' is the now infamous 'because I said so'...

We may never uncover WHO said so but that doesn't alter the fact we are stuck with this dictate because this nonsense has been going on for time out of mind...so long that most of us are convinced it's the way things SHOULD BE! [How's that for Stupid? It gets better, when pressed for an answer the truly moronic will default to God!]

Don't look at me, YOU'RE the one who blindly believes it!

Down Tiger...I know what you're thinking...guys like me end up worm food for pointing to naked Emperors while everybody else plays along. Once again the line between clever and stupid proves too tough to call but I stand by my original 'defense'...DILLIGAF?

I really don't.

But this isn't about me, it's about this existence we, er, 'share' [with some truly bizarre motha' truckers!]

Dance until your legs fall off cuz if you stop dancing they pick up your lifeless corpse and chuck you in the trash.

Which right about now would seem like a blessing!

Honesty time, how many of you fear 'the other place' will be worse...somehow?

I don't have an answer for ya, just the question...

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

Dammit, the lights are out again! WTF!

Welcome to Richistan!

Greetings good citizen, everybody knows the incoming administration will be different. The question is 'how different'?

Well, the STUPID among us believe the 'billionaire cabinet' the Republican congress will 'rubber stamp' is going to make America 'Great' again.

These are the very same people who believe if you can't live on your paycheck it's not their problem, it's YOURS!

It's no mystery that these people are rich BECAUSE OF YOU! Their staggering personal wealth represents all the overtime you were never paid, all of the vacation days you never took and all of the sick time you sacrificed to keep yourself in your immediate superior's 'good graces'. Well, all those department budgets that were successfully trimmed and all that money they didn't spend to keep you [let's us be mindful of raises you never got because, hey, where were you going in this economy?] all translated into PROFITS that were used to buy back company stock, driving up the share prices!

In many cases, the companies that 'did well' in the markets were 'their own best customers!'

WHICH WILL DO ZERO TO CREATE 'WIDESPREAD PROSPERITY'... Truth is people who are good at lining their own pockets ARE THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION!

So as the venerable Mr. Krugman aptly points out, these 'rich guys' intend to do themselves MUCH more good than whatever crumbs fall to you [if any...]

Don't kick El Trumpo too hard, we were going to get a One Percenter regardless of who won, one of the factors the media ignores is how that cost the now wealthy Ms. Clinton the election.

NO IRONY should be lost that she actually is a 'self-made' millionaire while Master Trump only 'brands' himself as being 'self-made' when he actually inherited his billions.

Did I mention STUPID PEOPLE?...Um, yeah, let's move on shall we?

UNDERSTAND, generosity is not how the wealthy 'acquire' their billions.

They legally 'candy coat' their 'theft' in terms designed to 'entitle them to it'.

Amazing what the skilled use of words can do, isn't it?

I will once again pose the rhetorical question of why nobody with a National Forum [yes, I'm looking at YOU, Mr. Krugman] Doesn't point to money's true purpose as a tool? One that is very much abused.

Tough as it is to be beholden to criminals, I doubt anyone will buy your claims of ignorance should you live long enough to be held accountable for your crime of remaining silent, essentially betraying the public trust.

In your defense, you dare much more than so many others and for that you are a credit to our species! You don't hear anyone else speaking 'truth to power' [despite pulling your punches]

Were our positions reversed, I can't honestly say I would not do likewise. [You are probably 'muzzled', you can't tell the truth, it would never make it past the editors.]

Sadly all that makes you is an excellent 'Devil's' Advocate'...who, make no mistake about it, still works FOR the Devil.

[Note to Stupid people: I am NOT accusing a beloved national figure of being a 'devil worshiper'. The term Devil's Advocate is one that takes a 'contrary position' but still works to re-enforce the Devil's position.]

As usual, the 'point' of these essays usually comes to a head beyond the point where the average attention span gives out.

For those of you still clinging to the [false] belief that our electoral system remains 'untainted' look at the choices this last election cycle produced?

For anyone paying attention, it was obvious we were taken for a ride. Even the comic series South Park parodied the contest as one between A Giant Douche and a Turd sandwich...and yet the Giant Douche still won.

But that's what happens when you're reduced to either this or that.

How do we 'derail' an electoral process controlled from start to finish by the very people the government was established to protect us from?

Talk about 'lost in translation', this is what the STUPID public fails to realize!

In passing, somebody pointed out that a large number of eligible voters DIDN'T...but the Corporate owned media doesn't want that fact being broadcast. They want you to BELIEVE that large numbers continue to demonstrate their FAITH in a system they have no hand in.

Is this nation on the 'wrong course'? We all KNOW IT!

How do we 'take it back?' By adopting a NEW SYSTEM that has proven safeguards against corruption and removes control of the law from the 'self-interested'.

No more judges and no more lawyers! Expert interpretation of the law is prohibited! If you NEED a lawyer to get you undone then the problem isn't YOU, IT'S THE LAW!

Laws should be 'simple and few' and understood by EVERYONE!

Is THAT too much to ask?

NO ONE is QUALIFIED to 'sit in judgement' of anyone else...so the whole practices of allowing 'referees' in courtrooms is forbidden!

Will there be 'trained officials' in charge of the justice system...you bet...but interpretation of the law WON'T BE THEIR JOB!

The 'Jury' will decide if the law has been broken as well as meting out 'appropriate punishment'.

That list will be very short...between freedom and exile. NOBODY will be awarded CASH for ANY REASON. The only way to get money is to work for it and that applies from top to bottom! Everybody gets a paycheck, NOBODY owns STOCKS or anything else for that matter!

But I digress, I am currently working on a book that explains how to conduct the revolt and what to expect afterwards [which assumes the rebels are capable of following instructions...and not getting caught up in the 'mincing' of words, a phenomenon lawyers 'specialize' in]

So the question remains, how do we 'restore' our republic, or perhaps more succinctly, how do we convince the Dummies among us it needs restoring?

Aren't you sick to death of living with the consequences of decisions made by the 'terminally stupid'?

Happy New Year, good citizen we have a lot of work to do!

Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,

Gegner