boxes of talk

Guest Editorial
By Lotta Questions
4.17.2010
EarthBlog News©
Tiny URL http://wp.me/pOhuI-d8

boxes of talk

Editors note: This post is being regularly updated with new footnotes

Turn on the TV, turn on the radio, plug in the internet…big box of talk. Label after label after label. Talk, talk and more talk. I have a lot of questions, and some ideas regarding why according to recent polling data a staggeringly low 4 percent of the public supports the establishment political class[10], why only 8 percent would re elect an incumbent lawmaker[11], why just 21% believe U.S. Government has the consent of the governed[12] , why 4 out of 5 Americans don’t trust Washington[13], and why nearly one out of three Americans view the US government as a “major threat” to their freedoms[14].

With the government, big business, big banking and big media all seeming like one in the same today, some analysts have argued this is Mussolini’s definition of fascism[2]. It is clear that the same small group of faces rotate into one position from out of another position and no matter how bad any of them screw up, you still see the same faces. There is no debate about that.

These elite are free to break laws and commit crimes right out in the open and nothing bad ever happens to them. There is no accountability, there is no punishment [21]. Public elected officials break laws and change laws and embezzle money and slosh taxpayer money back and forth among themselves and their friends and no matter how egregious the crimes,  no matter how on the record and absolutely wrong they have been, no matter how many people they have killed or how many lives they have wrecked or how fabulously wealthy they have become in the process of doing so, they are still the same people in and out of a revolving door all smiling and patting each other on the back while congratulated and treated with the utmost respect by the corporate media [22].

Other labels being thrown around in the past few years to explain this transformation are oligarchy, plutocracy, kleptocracy, aristocracy, socialism, totalitarianism, empire, and more[3,4,5,6,7,31]. The defective establishment media mirror uses the implausible argument for everything being different  “it’s the same as it ever was” or “what are you even talking about?”. It’s almost like a corporate media induced mass hypnosis is in effect and has gripped the entire nation.

“Just move on nothing to see here”.

With the government takeover of housing and now owning many of the largest public corporations, some have argued a tilt towards communism, although no one seems comfortable using that label. No two situations are ever the same however, and none of these labels seem to completely capture the transformation taking place in the United States over not months or years but over decades and accelerating during the past decade.[9,23]

The people of the United States typically call themselves one of two labels, either republicans or democrats. The interesting thing about that is that nationwide, for the past decade now under the stewardship of each of the labels, the public approval ratings of congress and the administration have been arguably about as low as they can be and recently dipping into the single digits for public approval for the first time ever[11]. Something is definitely wrong and no one seems to know what to call it[23,25].

WTF?

So despite what everyone is calling themselves, according to the polls, the citizens themselves don’t seem to be very happy about how things are going. Is there a label for that?  Is it a disaffected-detached-ocracy? Maybe it is a so-busy-trying-to-get-by-you-can’t-keep-up-ocracy? Maybe it’s a

knuckleheadsarguingamongthemselveswhilethecountryistransformedandlootedocracy? [30]

What kind of ocracy is this????

When did we cross the threshold from where there was any party or politician which stood for small limited government, small government spending, free enterprise and a government like the US had decades ago that mostly stayed out of the way of it’s citizens? What about a government for the people? There is apparently no one for the people today. Today it seems to be an all out contest for who can suck up the most to the most special interest payola while simultaneously lying their asses off to the people they are supposedly representing[10].

There is no one who will be allowed to be a legitimate contender by the established media, party, and banking system who doesn’t support the status quo. You can even be elected on a platform of change people hope for, and then completely ignore everything you said. How convenient. What kind of a message is sent to the people when someone is elected on a platform of lies? Exactly what point was it where lying about everything to the people became ok and even necessary[1,9]?

Politicians in DC will blame things like a “bad economy” for their current record low approval ratings. It seems obvious that when a candidate is elected on a platform of change the population was desperately hoping for,  they expect delivery. After the systematic dismantling of the constitution by the previous administration, the new administration turned out to be more or less exactly the same. What happens when only 4% support the status quo[10], and you get more status quo no matter which handle you pull? Do they lose another 50% of their base and go to 2%? That could continue until you need scientific notation to express their percentage of support. Then what?

The Judicial branch. Their contribution was to officially terminate the republic in 2010 by allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions. It’s hard to say if that bothered people because most people still don’t know about it. The corporate media didn’t talk very much about allowing their unlimited corporate contributions for their sponsored choices.  So the same wars are still going on, the same policies are in place, and the same people are running things.  So maybe some people are disappointed about that? It is certainly possible.  Could this explain the hopelessness citizens are recording in surveys? If so what do you call that?

Could mortgaging the country’s future to bail out some arrogant bankers who lost all their money have caused some loss of trust? I don’t think bailing out the banking system so they could then in turn make record profits was the kind of change people were hoping for. I could be wrong about that. People can understand how things have improved dramatically for the bankers on wall street with now record profits and bonuses, but the people who are home unemployed because their factory shut down aren’t buying it. They aren’t buying anything because they have no money. What is that called? Can we throw a label and a sound bite on that….please?

You can’t just “run” for office today. Lets be serious. The corporate media would have you believe you can just throw your hat into the ring and off you go. You need this giant political machine behind you to grease every palm along the way. You have to be sponsored and vetted by the media before anyone even hears your name. If you cross any of the medias agendas or sponsors you are political toast within 48 hours. Votes are bought and sold like trading cards. As a citizen,  you basically have to be for someone who is more or less the same as everyone else with an expertly crafted public persona. What is the word for that? The label oligarchy doesn’t seem to do justice to that much concentration of wealth, power and deceit. A so called two party system with no real choice is totalitarianism in drag[6]. Please vote for your favorite candidate. Then expect the same thing no matter which lever you pull. You get vanilla or french vanilla with sprinkles. Take your ice cream cone and move on.

Maybe it’s a one-big-vampire-thing-ocracy?

Regardless of political parties, one thing is clear to every person who has been living in the US for more than a few years. There are ever more rules. they keep making new rules, and they never take any of the old rules away. There are more fees, and more taxes, and more things that used to be free that are no longer free, things that now require a license, a certification, an approval, something you used to be allowed to do but are no longer allowed to do,  or some other kind of relinquishment of a former right. There is a nanny state which dictates to you what where when how and why to do just about everything you are supposed to do.

You got a problem with that?

Well then, apply for a permit and after paying the necessary fees and getting the necessary approvals you might be able to hold up a sign in a pre defined fenced off area back there by the dumpsters that says “I do not approve of all of this, I think I’m starting to know how people living in the soviet union felt”. Maybe. Storm troopers in riot gear would be deployed to stand next to you to ensure you didn’t wave the sign or otherwise cause any hazard to the public who needs protecting.

What is it called when a country goes from being a decent place to live to some sort of paranoid, locked down disneyworld where nothing is real and all the people are making less, paying more, requiring permits and fees and approvals to do anything? What do you call that?

This vampire squid nanny state tells you what to do, and how much it will cost you in fees, fines, or whatever if you don’t do it exactly that way. It assumes you cannot think for yourself and you need to be protected from yourself and everyone else. It means you are not competent to run your life so the nanny state will run it for you. It prohibits and inhibits small business due to taxation, regulation, barriers to entry and cost of operation. It destroys the simple civil rights Americans used to take for granted one by one and little by little like breaking rocks until nothing is left but a pile of dust. It gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger until it runs out of food which is in this case money[15].

The book of rules have become so large and so onerous that the only thing you can be sure of is that despite your best intentions, you are probably breaking some rules right now that you don’t even know about. At the same time you will be considered negligent if you don’t know what they are.  The only constant is ever more rules and an ever larger government required to enforce and update them.

You are still free to go to work, pay your fees, taxes and watch their corporate programming and sports entertainment or whatever. You can pay only a couple of days salary to watch some corporate whores toss a ball back and forth at corporate field and whoop it up for one color or the other with your fellow buffoons.

This is all true whether you are short or tall, uneducated or educated, higher or lower income, white, black, red or yellow, left or right or anywhere in the middle. It is true whether you worship any god or all gods or no god. Any political or special interest hacks who argue otherwise now sound like a cartoon.  No one can legitimately argue the ever increasing number of rules, fees, permits, restrictions, taxes and regulations and loss of rights[12].

So the government and the politicians are all for one thing. An ever larger government who is your nanny. What is that called? Maybe it is the world takeover by nanny statists? For this reason or that reason or to protect you from bad guys or from your own self, you need a huge book of rules and regulations and it needs to keep getting bigger all the time.

Now you need to get scanned by Acme Corporation x ray scanners to get on an airplane.

Being a good citizen however, you recognize that all of these new rules and regulations and fees and taxes have all been instituted for your own protection and well being. You feel so much better knowing that you need to be protected from enemies of your government that you are willing to relinquish all your former rights and privileges and put up with endless new hassles. It’s all being done for you on your behalf and you appreciate that. It is necessary. That’s what you keep being told at least. Just say duh thanks.

Some have used the term vampire squid to depict an over reaching banking system but it is pretty easy to argue after living here for a few years that the entire thing is a vampire squid.

Post 911 has ushered in new departments and new regulations and new and more of everything that restricts what is permissible or not because now you need to be protected from people living in caves, or something like that. The general idea I think was that some hard drinking devout muslims who liked strip clubs and Jack Abramoff’s casino??? came out of their caves and went to flight school, became marginal pilots and on their first attempt defeated the entire NORAD air defense system, all airport security, and flew two sophisticated jumbo jets perfectly into the sides of buildings pulverizing them into dust and defying a whole host of laws of physics in the process. Following that, the only thing remaining were passports from the hijackers, which somehow did not turn to dust but instead fluttered to the ground intact, were picked up by an anonymous passer by and delivered to the NYPD. The whole mess was then hauled off to China in the blink of an eye violating every written rule regarding a crime scene investigation. A bunch of still unidentified parties made a fortune in the options markets from foreknowledge[29], the building owners were generously compensated and I lost track of the rest of the story line a while back. It was getting too complicated.

The main character was a guy with a name I couldn’t pronounce popping in and out of caves and issuing death threats every time the population needs a good scare. I don’t know if they ever caught him or not. I have heard also that we are still in two wars as a result of all of that, one now being the longest in US history. I’m not sure. They don’t talk about it on TV any more.

So to the best of my knowledge, you are supposed to see a Hollywood style demolition which changes every aspect of your life as a citizen for the worse, and not ask any questions. Sort of like in China you can’t talk about Tienanmen square and in the US you can’t talk about 911 because even if you ask a question, it somehow makes you the enemy or a sympathizer or something along those lines. I don’t know exactly what the rules are regarding that. So what I do is if anyone mentions 911 I just close my eyes and put my fingers in my ears. I don’t want to let any sympathizers in[20].

I-need-so-many-rules-and-regulations-that-I-can-only-be-sure-I-don’t-even-know-what-they-all-are-ocracy?

After using a Pentium class computer and performing billions of calculations to compute your taxes, you have no idea exactly where the money goes, but I know it isn’t nearly enough to feed it, as the national debt accumulates by more than the average individual net worth every second of every day.

So where does this end? Is it tyranny when a population are told exactly how to do everything they have to do in life, or is it only tyranny if what you are expected to tolerate is really bad? If so then who gets to define what “really bad” is? At what point is it, ok, just a pain, really a pain, or really bad?  For example right now, traveling on an airplane is just a pain, compared to say, a root canal. It is however really bad compared to say 1970. So we are dealing with a set of relative issues here and static labels aren’t particularly useful.

Currently, as by every statistic known, the wealth is transferring from the many to the (very) few. How and why exactly is that happening? I’m not talking about lower to higher income either for the political hacks out there reading on the ethernet. No one reading this essay will fall into the group where the wealth is being transferred to. The wealth is being transferred to people whose portfolios contain shares of say, the FED and the Bank of England[15].

Is this wealth and power consolidation all a big accident? It isn’t happening by democrats OR republicans.It’s happening over each so called “party” presiding. Is that related at all to the changes we have seen in government? What is that called?  Some people call it an oligarchy when the many are controlled by the few, but how does the oligarchy get and maintain it’s power? Is that what we have? Is that the reason for all the rules? [24].

Does the vampire squid nanny state power reside in levying so many rules, fees, permits, taxes and regulations that it is the sum total of it all at the root of the increasing oppression? Is that how the vampire squid attacks? Death by 1000 cuts? How does that end up? What is a good name for that? [26]

What should you call it when every thing that comes from the corporate media looks like it was created by the largest growing segment of business in the US, a PR firm?

If the government has already issued debt beyond the people’s capacity to earn enough to repay it, then what does that mean? Does that mean like bankruptcy but you just haven’t filed yet? Do you think everyone soon will be able to add a zero to how much they make creating a remote possibility that the debt could be repaid? So what is it called when a nanny state empire goes bankrupt? What is the name for that?

Maybe it really doesn’t matter what the name is. Maybe it only matters what it is. Maybe you are living through the decline of an empire and the decay associated with that[19]. Empires don’t fail overnight. It can happen so slowly that you fail to see it. The politicians are failing[12], the institutions are failing[18], the society is failing and the economy is failing. The empire is entirely bankrupt both economically[16], and morally[17].

What it is will continue to self destruct on it’s own without any further assistance. It doesn’t require a label.

Filed under: corruption
[1] Ratigan Deconstructs Goldman, Connecticut AG Blumental Wants Criminal Charges Filed
by Tyler Durden
04/16/2010
Address

[2] Modern History Sourcebook: Benito Mussolini: What is Fascism, 1932
Address

[3] Socialism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[4] Oligarchy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Address

[5] Plutocracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Address

[6] Totalitarianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[7] Political spectrum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[8] Organized crime
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[9] Video: 7 Lies In Under 2 Minutes
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Address

[10] Rasmussen: Mere 4% Support Establishment Political Class
Rasmussen Reports
April 14, 2010
Address

[11] Poll: Only 8 percent support incumbents
By Jordan Fabian
02/12/10
Only 8 percent of adults would reelect incumbent lawmakers, according to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll.
Address

[12] Only 21% Say U.S. Government Has Consent of the Governed
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.
Address

[13] Poll: 4 out of 5 Americans don’t trust Washington
Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don’t trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America’s ills, the survey found.
Address

[14] One third of Americans say own govt a threat: Poll AFP
Mon Apr 19
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly one out of three Americans view the US government as a “major threat” to their freedoms, and four out of five say they don’t trust Washington to solve their problems, according to a new poll out Monday.
Address

[15] who owns the Federal Reserve and why don’t you know?
By Antecedent Insider
2.24.2010
EarthBlog News©
Address

[16] The US debt is too large to ever be repaid
January 5, 2010 earthblognews
By Charles Ponzi
1.06.2010
EarthBlog News©
Address

[17] U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, April 20, 2010
the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.”
Address

[18] The divorce rate in America for first marriage, vs second or third marriage
50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.”
Address

[19] US Joins Ranks of Failed States
by Paul Craig Roberts
Address

[20] absolute proof of the controlled demolition of WTC7
Address

[21] Downing Street memo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[22] Cheney/Halliburton Chronology
Published by CitizenWorks.org and HalliburtonWatch.org
Address

[23] Poll: Americans’ distrust of federal government is deepening
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
A new study released Monday shows Americans have grown more critical, less trusting and even fearful of Uncle Sam since Barack Obama took office. The Pew Research Center poll found Americans reject the idea of an activist government, and a growing number urge its power be curtailed.
Address

[24] Senate Leaders Trade Charges of Improper Relations With Wall Street
Updated April 21, 2010
FOXNews.com
As the debate over how to reshape federal oversight of the nation’s largest banks heats up, the top Senate leaders of both political parties are finding themselves in a war of words, charging each other with being in bed with Wall Street executives. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, of holding “backroom negotiations” with financial executives in New York earlier this month when they held a private meeting to discuss the impact of the financial overhaul bill. Republicans have returned fire at Reid for holding a recent fundraiser in New York City that was set up by Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn, a longtime Democrat.
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[25] Americans going mad with anger
By LISA VAN DUSEN, QMI Agency
April 21, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Maybe Howard Beale was right. Maybe when Peter Finch’s tele-ranter urged his viewers in “Network” to go to their windows and yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” into the evening void, he was ahead of his time on the primal scream therapy front. These days, anger in America is such an epidemic that there’s a chat show running on MSNBC this week actually called America the Angry. It’s a good week for it.
Address

[26] Collapse of the Standard of Living in the USA
Studies Reveal Declining Living Standards and Increasing Anger
by Hiram Lee
Global Research, April 24, 2010
Address

[27] Ron Paul Discusses America’s Moral Decline & Economic Collapse (1/2)
Address

[28] Marc Faber – Governments are Going Bust!
Address

[29] Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge
Address

[30] the left vs right smokescreen
Address

[31] Kleptocracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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[32] CNN Co-Founder: CNN Is at Risk of Becoming a Bad Joke
By P.J. Gladnick
Wed, 04/28/2010
Address