Music and Texts of GARY BACHLUND
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Collected Poetry
VOLUME SIX
Original materials - Copyright © 2011 by Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved
"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth." William Faulkner (1897-1962)
"The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way." Josh Billings, American humorist (1818-1885).
Do it your own way;
I'll bet against you, sure.
Do it the wrong way;
Perhaps there's no cure.
Foolishly strike out,
All on your own;
Time comes you'll shout
You should have known.
Proof's in the pudding;
A wheel's not a square.
The old "should" thing
Doesn't prove life is fair.
Reinvent wheels,
Reality circumvent?
Invest in such deals
Where everything's spent?
Have it your own way,
From teeter to fall;
Someone must pay
For the waste of it all.
Do it your own way,
But I'll wander off;
Comes debt to pay,
You'll weep. Shall I scoff?
Envoi: "You can get discouraged many times, but you are not a failure until you begin to blame somebody else and stop trying." John Burroughs (1837-1921)
Addendum: "When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Addendum: "Too many moralists begin with a dislike of reality." Clarence Day (1874-1935)
See: Ninety-nine
and Grasshopper
"World leaders are actively considering mandating the International Monetary Fund to print more of its special currency to help solve the euro-zone crisis, according to several people familiar with the matter. Asking the IMF to print more of its Special Drawing Rights—essentially an IOU that countries can exchange for cash—is one of the ways the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries is considering supplementing European efforts to stem the debt crisis that is threatening to spark a global financial meltdown and another recession." In "Special IMF Money Considered," Wall Street Journal, 4 November 2011
Borrow more money to give it away,
For that's the charitable game today.
Then print yet more for the money store,
And loan it out as if not keeping score.
Give more and give more by piling up debt,
Then borrow yet more, and then more yet.
The handlers then siphon a share for themselves
And leave yet more debt on emptying shelves.
Charity no longer begins at home,
When so many bureaucrats wander and roam
To give away money that is not theirs,
Urging others to debt while setting their snares.
The game is gamed by the gamers' own rules
And games like this are for con men and fools.
Borrow printed money to toss it about;
Pretend not to know when steep losses all mount.
Give and give more by pyramids' debt,
Then borrow and borrow, ignoring the threat.
The handlers can pocket a chunk for their work,
And hector whole nations with a smile and a smirk.
The game is built to keep handlers in cash,
Until the game's all over, with a thump and a crash.
Envoi: "There are but two ways of paying debt: Increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out." Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Addendum: "A tax is always a sacrifice which the government demands of individuals. While it only lessens every one's personal enjoyments, it only shifts expenses from one to another. But when it encroaches on productive consumption it diminishes public riches. This power, which is called public credit, speedily conducts all the governments which use it to their ruin; has none of the advantages which are attributed to it; and rests on a false principle." In " A Treatise On Political Economy," by Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy, (c. 1817)
See: Ponzi states
"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win." In "Manifesto of the Communist Party: Chapter 4, 1848. [ 1 ]
Gimme that ole time religion,
Where I take of what you got.
I won't take just a smidgeon
When I can take a lot.
As I, with you the pigeon,
Pluck feathers when you're caught.
Gimme that ole unswerving doctrine
Where I force you to my will;
With property owners tremblin'
For my revolutionary skill.
Some'll take it on the chin
And a little blood might spill.
Gimme that ole and thieving screeching,
Impassioned, righteous, reaching.
Gimme that openly pilfering teaching:
Piqued Communistic leaching.
Property rights they would be breeching,
And other rights quickly impeaching.
The manifesto published
such clearly clear admissions --
The forcible overthrow
of existing social conditions.
Petite bourgeoisie?
Have you savings or a home?
It would perhaps do you well
To read their pompous tome.
Envoi: "Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association" (March 21, 1864), pp. 259-260. [ 2 ]
See: Totalitarian
NOTES
[ 1 ] One might heed a lesson from a legendary Christian: "This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." In "Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story," by Martin Luther King, Jr., Harper & Brothers, 1958.
[ 2 ] While Lincoln saw "property as desirable" and King knew that "man must never be treated as means to the end of the state," one reads this obvious but often ignored statement: "You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore, with intending to do away with a form of property, the necessary condition for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society. In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend." In "Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists," by Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto, 1848.
"'What’s so troubling is that politics seems to be the dominant factor,' said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group. 'They’re not talking about what the taxpayers are losing; they’re not talking about the failure of the technology, whether we bet on the wrong horse. What they are talking about is 'How are we going to manage this politically?'" In "Solyndra: Politics infused Obama energy programs," by Joe Stephens and Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post, 26 December 2011
They're not talking
Except about themselves;
Even green boys and girls
Think the whole things smells.
Political thinking worries
How to manage all the fuss,
Without first considering
The loss to the public -- us.
This is how our servants serve
Themselves above their land,
It seems simply too absurd,
But one concludes it is planned.
They're not talking
Except about themselves;
Even green boys and girls
Know the bankrupt mess smells.
Looking back: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. ... I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit." Senator Barack Obama, floor speech in the Senate, March 16, 2006
See: Bankrupt green
"Cuba says it is expanding free-market reforms, opening more of the retail services sector to private business. From 1 January workers including carpenters, locksmiths, photographers and repairmen will be allowed to become self-employed. They will be able to set their own prices, while paying taxes and leasing their premises from the state. The measures are the latest reforms aimed at reviving Cuba's socialist economy by boosting private enterprise. President Raul Castro, who took over from his brother Fidel in 2008, has said the changes represent an effort to update rather than abandon the socialist model." In "Cuba expands free-market reforms," BBC, 26 December 2011
To update failing A, you add successful B;
To fix what all is broken, you change the alchemy.
To right the listing ship, the ballast is set right;
To affect most any cure, one attacks the parasite.
To acquire even a little, one must begin to save.
You free your people, friend, or else you re-enslave.
The socialist aristocrats all say they will reform,
And why? Because freedom becomes the modern norm.
To update social's "ism," allow private enterprise?
It was this the revolución tried to centralize.
Alas six decades passed, and yet again socialism fails,
So now each aging socialist buckets up and bails.
Boosting private enterprise is decades late for some,
But revolutionary fervor suppressed it; yet it's come.
The fort - castro in Spanish - has its walls now breached,
Which says it was a lie, all that those Castros preached.
Private enterprise updates the creaking central state?
Market forces have been at work, before and as of late.
To update failing A, you add successful B;
To fix what's broke, you change the alchemy.
In changing sails you trim and tack to steer a new-set course
And admit it's coming time to abandon the decrepit Castro force.
Envoi: "Cuba remains the only country in Latin America that represses virtually all forms of political dissent. In 2011 Raúl Castro’s government continued to enforce political conformity using short-term detentions, beatings, public acts of repudiation, forced exile, and travel restrictions." In "World Report 2012: Cuba," by Human Rights Watch, January 2012
See: Errors
Government policies to “stimulate” growth have not done so. Everyone except flacks for the White House knows that the 2009 stimulus package failed miserably to produce the promised results. But even if you buy the White House’s argument that the $800 billion package created 3 million jobs, that works out to $266,000 per job. Taxing or borrowing $266,000 from the private sector to create a single job is simply not a cost effective way of putting America back to work. The long-term debt burden of that $266,000 swamps any benefit that the single job created might provide. In "The Sharp Pencil Test," by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Standard, 13 June 2011
The Blackwing numbered Six-O-Twohas a cult which loves it dear and true,
But this "best" could never, ever writea figure so large enough to indict
The folks who'd spend a hefty sumto buy one inexpensive little crumb.
Pencil in your favorite line,but prepare to erase your sketch so fine.
The Blackwing numbered Six-O-Twowill never draw lost revenue.
See: Doses of Delusion
"Real estate can be a rough business, but music is rougher, he said. 'Music is a very cruel mistress -- she takes everything, leaves you high and dry, and moves on to the next one,' he said. 'It's tough.'" In "The Sound Of Music Stirs Manhattan Broker," an interview with Dan Danielli, by Mary Umberger, Inman News, Halstead Properties, 10 May 2010
A cruel mistress, some have said,
Still she is mine, past my death bed.
Rough or tumble, aching sweet,
Mistress Music plays discrete.
Most can see and hear and feel
While fewer all her depth reveal.
Mistress Music, sometimes cruel,
Is both gentle art and tool
For honing sound and time as one.
It is this that's all the fun.
Mistress Music seduces, loves,
Leaves, deceives and even shoves
Its many johns and many beaus.
But, ah, such joys she still bestows.
A cruel mistress, some have said,
And I have trod where many tread.
Rough and tumbled, arching sweet,
Mistress Music, I entreat
To tumble roughly, softly, wild
And I shall ever be beguiled.
Envoi: "The artist must forget the audience, forget the critics, forget the technique, forget everything but love for the music. Then, the music speaks through the performance, and the performer and the listener will walk together with the soul of the composer, and with God." Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007)
See: A song setting of Walter de la Mare's Music - (2006)
and also Humoresque and Fugue in E flat minor - (2012)
"'Politicians are sh*theads,' he said in an interview that appears in the January edition of the magazine, which is on newsstands now. 'That’s how they become politicians, even the good ones. We’re actors, we’re artists, we’re very nice to each other. They’ll turn around and stab you in the f**cking back." An asterisk-laden quote by Daniel Craig, in "Daniel Craig: Pols are 'sh**heads'" by Tim Mak, the Politico, 26 December 2011
Asterisk is a three syllable noun
through Middle English from Late Latin.
Linguistically sometimes it's a frown,
the mark hatching down to batten.
A transitive verb it oft might be
when used, marking letters as stars,
Or absenting wrong with brilliant right,
or hiding vocabulary's scars.
I prefer no asterisk at all,
saying politicians are shitheads,
Because it's plain and true and right;
most should be taken to the woodsheds.
See: Politics
“The stimulus bill, which was under the other administration, was put together because we didn’t know what the hell was going on and you know, and we were trying to do things that we thought might help stimulate the economy. We set aside quite a bit of money for what we call ‘shovel ready projects’ which we thought would create jobs right away but it didn’t." Representative Mike Honda, D-Ca, in an interview with The Daily Caller, December 2011.
Trying, we thought, would help a bit,
So try we did without much wit.
It didn't work, those billions spent,
But trying is the way we went.
The trying, we tried, didn't quite work out,
So we'll try to try, as trying we pout,
We'll try and try and try again,
Because we might succeed somehow. Amen.
See: Shoveling
"An EU official said Britain was still expected to contribute €30.9 billion (£25.9 billion), leaving the country as the second biggest contributor to the new IMF fund behind Germany and equal with France." In "EU demands £25bn lifeline from the UK," by Tim Ross, and Bruno Waterfield, Telegraph UK, 18 December 2011
I squeezed the golden goose
for one more little egg,
But for that I also ended up
breaking its little leg.
My work done, egg quick consumed,
I had a thought for more.
And so I beat the golden goose
till it was bruised so sore.
Just one more little egg
is really all I need,
Though some will say my want
is really truly greed.
But need is like the omelet
for which one cracks such eggs;
I'll squeeze the golden goose again
until the goose reneges.
But, oh what horror is this,
to find the goose stone dead?
The answer is quite obvious:
I'll seek some other goose instead.
What say you, evil fiend?
You squeezed yours unto death?
But that was to be mine, all mine,
I growl under my breath.
What folly was it, stupid fool,
to kill your golden goose?
Yours was to have soon become
my next one to seduce
With squeezing and with battery,
with spirited urging strong.
But you have stolen this from me!
Reality tells erelong
That golden geese grow not on trees
nor in confinements hard,
But in the airy freedom
of a freely open yard.
Oh where, oh where is my goose now
that I had cooked so well?
Omelets gone and feathers plucked,
hunger comes to sit a spell.
Just one more measly egg
is really all I need,
Though truth might tell my want
was always simple greed.
I squeezed the golden goose
for one more little egg,
And after all was cracked and done
I was reduced to beg.
Will someone spare their golden goose
that I may once more break
A golden egg? Well, tomorrow
I'd make the same mistake.
I'd squeeze that golden goose....
Envoi: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." Adam Smith (1723-1790)
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"According to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on penis pumps for elderly men over the past decade, and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001. The cost to taxpayers for the pumps more than quadrupled during that period, from a low of $11 million in 2001 to a high of more than $47 million in 2010. And these represent only the costs for external devices, technically classified as 'Male Vacuum Erection Systems,' not implantable devices or oral drugs such as Viagra." In "Quarter-Billion Taxpayer Dollars Spent on Penis Pumps," Benjamin Domench, Health Care News, 6 December 2011
The twentieth century gave us a phrase
By which to say a mess is a mess;
Cock-up is that once Brit-bred praise
When something is not even close to success.
A failure is a cock-up, one might well say;
Bankruptcy's a cock-up, as a rule of thumb.
But in government's cock-up, millions may
Be laid out for screwing at a costly sum.
The humor of language is just this:
Double entendres arise with glee,
And cock-eyed world taxes its folk
As limp government hardens its lunacy.
Envoi: “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.” Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
See: Passed on to you
“If you say that this is how our culture is and then you send your child to a Swiss boarding school — you know, this is what happens with communism. It’s a great concept. On paper it makes perfect sense. But once you put a human being in power, it shifts. We saw it in Russia, we’ve seen it all around the world. It’s nuts. But, I keep my fingers crossed.” Whoopi Goldberg on the US television talk show, "The View," 20 December 2011
It makes perfect sense
Until people are involved,
Say the nicely perfect folks
Of the nicely perfect crowd.
If it weren't for damn people,
Such fine bright concepts all
Would work out in utopia
If folks didn't drop the ball.
A great-on-paper concept,
Perfect sense suggests,
Fails merely, or just simply
For it failure manifests.
A great concept, so she says,
Makes paper-perfect sense?
What about this argument
Where man is the offence?
Keep your fingers crossed?
It's nuts, some comic said.
Inanity makes perfect sense;
Ask the gulag's many dead.
Ask the bones in piles
Left by the Khmer Rouge.
Ask dead Chinese millions,
Or ask the Nazi's Jews.
Ask some dirt-poor Africans;
Or ask the North Koreans.
Ask the Russians freed at last;
Ask of Che's murdered peons.
It makes perfect sense
Until people are involved,
Say the nicely perfect folks
Of the nicely perfect crowd.
It's nuts, she says, but comics
Hold out such hope ideal
While generations prove the error
Which sensible comics feel.
Envoi: "The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens in an act of partial decentralization of the economy and democratization. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech and travel. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected the First Secretary of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and continued until 21 August when the Soviet Union and all members of the Warsaw Pact, with the notable exception of Romania, invaded the country to halt the reforms. With the fall of socialism in 1989, Dubček became chairman of the federal assembly under the Havel administration." Wikipedia on The Prague Spring
See: Put the past to rest
"'A distinction should be made between traditional anti-Semitism, which should be condemned and Muslim hatred for Jews, which stems from the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,' Gutman reportedly said, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. 'He also argued that an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism.'" In "Obama Fundraiser and Ambassador Blames Israel for Anti-Semitism," by Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard, 3 December 2011
A distinction should be made
Between an idiot and a fool.
Between an ass upright on two legs
Or a corrupt yet useful tool.
A distinction should be made
Between hatred then and now,
For that's the view expressed
By folks willing to deeply bow.
A distinction should be made
Because it serves some greater cause
Like serving one side more and more
And loving their applause.
A distinction should be made
Between hatred and hatred bare,
Because such distinctions might not be
Considered as so stupidly unfair.
The game is simple yet complex
As such distinctions weigh
Hatred against a hatred,
And then throw the half away.
Judenrein says Hamas,
Yet ambassadors won't hear,
Perhaps because it rightly proves
They are also condemned kafir.
A distinction should be made
Between an idiot and a fool.
Between an ass upright on two legs
Who's a corrupt and useful tool.
Envoi of Anti-Semitism: "The essence of antisemitism is the bigoted claim that if there is a problem, then Jews must be its cause. Hitler started by blaming Jews for Germany’s economic downturn. Today, many hard-left activists explicitly or implicitly blame Jews and Zionists for many of the evils of the world. All decent people must join in calling out intersectionality for what it is: a euphemism for anti-American, antisemitic and anti-Israel bigotry. Exposing and condemning 'intersectionality' for the bigotry that it represents is critical to ensuring that those repressive extremists who falsely claim the mantle of progressivism are not able to hijack important liberal causes in support of their own bigoted agenda." In "Alan Dershowitz: The Bigotry of 'Intersectionality'," by Alan Dershowitz, Algemeiner, 30 March 2017.
See: The same old story
"It's not greed, it's politics. I'm talking about the redistribution of wealth." "Well, burglars do that!" in "Labour of Love," from the BBC series, "You Rang, M'Lord?" November 1990.
The favorite game of some favorite folks
Is to spread the wealth; like all good jokes,
This one steals to break in, in its day,
As somewhere some wealth is burgled away.
Tribute once paid acknowledged submission,
Which showed the cudgel created contrition,
As tribute was paid from each vassal to lord,
And often it was in fear of the sword.
Distribution undid payment perforce,
As distributing toppled each lord from his horse.
Distributing morphed into another dimension
Wherein making and selling lessened the tension.
Comes along redistribution, ah yet once more,
As those who'd be lords behave as before.
Tribute -- re dis -- comes from those who have
To those who have it not but desire such salve.
Re dis, as suffixes, clutter the word,
Such that its history might seem quite absurd,
But this is its structure, its grammar, its thought
Which want-to-be lords again will have wrought.
Pay tribute again, that is, redistribute say men,
Flowing from each lord and each lordly pen.
Burglars take tribute, which most think a crime.
Redistribution demands it all of the time.
Yes, burglars do that, quips a comical line,
But oh it tells truth, as mere words will define.
From those to those by some politics' creed
Ends finally up with folks stealing in greed.
Lincoln and Lenin, Paul's epistle too,
Say men who won't work should not eat off of you.
This hardened truth gleams from out the past,
While the burglars and thieves play always aghast.
Tribute must be paid, so it's coerced away,
Redistribution is tribute, swathed in "naïveté."
See: You toil
"Vegetarianism is harmless enough though it is apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness." Robert Hutchison, address to the British Medical Association, 1930.
It's a gas,
So they say,
On a windy sort of day.
It's a gas
So to pass,
If the sound does not betray.
It's a gas
When no impasse
Should block the passageway.
It's a gas
Out of the ass,
And the scent? Communiqué.....
"The world's central banks have pumped £3 trillion into the global financial system since the crisis, the equivalent of 8pc of the world economy, according to new analysis by Fathom Consulting." In "Central banks pump £3 trillion into world economy," The Telegraph, UK, 26 April 2011
Lift the lever and pump away,
So clever is government, as they'll say.
Pump rhymes with sump,
That's the lowest point
Where drains sucks away
The savings of the average chump,
The earnings from the average shop,
As inflation get underway.
Lift the lever and pump away,
All becomes debt someone then cannot repay.
Pump rhymes also with dump,
That's where refuse and decay
Are gathered deep and far away,
As earnings of the average chump,
And sales lost to the average shop,
Taste inflation this very day.
Lift the lever and pump away,
As much becomes lost in the blight of day.Central banks mint realms' many coin,
To press upon the greedy world;
With virtue's vice they then will say,
"Chumps' earnings we will purloin;
Shopkeepers' income, the farmers' crop,
Will fall to us as we pump away."
Lift the lever and pump away?
Learn liberty 's lost by this giveaway.
See: Spend what you don't have
The new, wonderful good society
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions and laughed delightedly at his licentiousness and thought it very superior of him to acquire vast amounts of gold illicitly. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the 'new, wonderful good society' which shall now be Rome's, interpreted to mean 'more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.' Julius was always an ambitious villain, but he is only one man." - Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106 BC-43 BC)
Slogans come and slogans go,
They come back, and then -- oh no --
The same old, same old says again,
We've something new and wonderful for men.
Slogans slum and slogans low,
They're glum when one looks back to show
The same old finds its same old pen,
And the whole damned thing starts o'er again.
Slogans come and slogans go,
They come back and then -- oh no --
The same old, same old says again
We've something new and wonderful for men.
Envoi: "Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
Addendum of the Wonderfully Limited Society: "Deliberately limiting growth would be difficult, but not impossible." In "The Limits to Growth: a Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind," by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, William W. Behrens III, Universe Books, 1972.
Addendum of Limiting Wonderful You: "Rationing paid work, by allocating to each inhabitant the right to an equal number of paid hours of work per year, could make this possible." In "Should paid work be rationed?": by Jørgen Randers, Guardian UK, 19 February 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Same Old Wonderful Nothing New: "...a collapse will occur. But it would be nothing new, of course. Societies rise and fall. They have been doing so for 300,000 years." In "'Limits to Growth' Author Dennis Meadows: 'Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself'," Interview conducted by Markus Becker, Der Spiegel, 7 December 2012. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Real Limits: Donella H. "Dana" Meadows (March 13, 1941 -- February 20, 2001) was a pioneering American environmental scientist, and reached her "limit."
See: You Topia
NOTES
[ 1 ] One might take notice that such "rationing" suggests to be consistent that Dr. Randers' work should be rationed and limited. One also might note that to enforce such "equality" would require enormous state coercion. Ah, fascism once again rises.
[ 2 ] One notes the odd and very Cassandra-like end of society and social collapse scenario is confessed by this Cassandra-like prophet of modern doom to be "nothing new." Indeed, societies rise and fall, as he notes, including the small societies of Malthusian proponents of many last generations who have prophesied an end to things in each age.
See: Apocalypse sometime
"Cook County property tax bills will go out next month, and homeowners will be asked to pay more for having less. Even though most property values have dropped over the past three years, most property tax bills will be going up again. Falling property values and rising property taxes have turned the American dream for many into a nightmare in virtually every county in the state. Nowhere in Cook County have home prices fallen more dramatically than in the northern and northwestern suburbs -- anywhere... " WLS-TV, Chicago, 25 September 2011.
More for less is what you pay
as government's debt demands its day.
More for less is what you get
for government has grown so soviet.
More for less is what there's not,
cooking fraud up with tommyrot.
More for less inflates itself
and shows as prices on each shelf.
More for less is taxing folks
who weary of political jokes.
More for less is obvious
when government inflates, felonious.
Addendum of Suffocation by Government: "During the past 20 years, the typical homeowner in Chicago’s Cook County saw his property tax bills grow faster than he can afford — at least five times faster than his income. Many Chicagoans can rattle off the annual shocks at opening property taxes bills thousands of dollars higher than a few years before. Depressed housing prices should at least mean that property taxes go down, too. But that would be in the regular world and not in the rare atmosphere that Illinois has created for itself by sacrificing public services, the state’s economic stability, and residents' personal finances, all in the service of a public pension monster that cannot be sated." In "Chicago homeowners are suffocating under pensions and property tax hikes," by Orphe Divounguy, Washington Examiner, 23 August 23, 2019.
See: Let's all gorge
Ninety-nine fattened, hungry ticks
Voted to leech off one dog.
The dog's one vote carried not
In the election nor its epilogue.
The sucking sounds grew like thunder
Until the time was full nigh
For the host to yield all to the parasites
And through them simply to die.
It was then hungering ticks first saw
That they all had come to their end,
As they flailed and raged and searched
For another host to apprehend.
The carcass, alas, lay rotting,
And stench warned all others, "Away!"
The fattened, yet voracious ticks
Sought their circumstances to downplay.
But fattening no longer could continue,
For all parasites need lively hosts.
Rather, ninety-nine ticks that once fed
Starved into hungry, gossamer ghosts.
The story is old as the ancient of days,
And lingers to this moment, because
We see not ourselves as ticks who would feed,
For denying ourselves and our flaws.
But ticks like to feed off of others' fair shares,
While nestling deep in their host's sheltering hairs.
Envoi: "Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses." George Washington Carver (1864-1943)
Addendum: "One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests." John Stuart Mills (1806-1873)
See: Whose gonna pull the welfare wagon
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)
I prefer a vital God
Whose place gives not way
To all the ego of all the men
Whose ruling force must sway
Those who would not believe
In foolish, pride-filled man,
But rather in a vital God
And in a godly plan.
I prefer both vital force
And vital pleasure too,
But neither of them above
The vital God and true.
Vital force and pleasure too
Are part of worldly life,
But when they act the part of God,
They tear this world with strife.
I prefer a vital God
Whose place lies far above
All such ego of all small men
Whose ruling force will shove
Those who would not believe
In puffed-up, haughty man,
But rather in a vital God
And in a godly plan.
Envoi: "Poor God, how often He is blamed for all the suffering in the world. It’s like praising Satan for allowing all the good that happens." E. A. Bucchianeri, in "Brushstrokes of a Gadfly."
Addendum: "Urbanity obscures the mystery,..." Harvey Shapiro (1924-2013)
Addendum of the Positive: "Many studies have tried to probe this possible relationship but suffered from a variety of shortcomings, Dominic D. P. Johnson of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the paper, wrote in a commentary. 'Empirical evidence that supernatural beliefs promote cooperation is mounting, but has tended to rely on qualitative, society-level or proxy measures of beliefs,' Johnson wrote. 'Study participants have also typically been university students in developed nations, thus omitting the small-scale societies most relevant to the evolutionary problem at hand: how human groups achieved cooperation and made the transition from small to large societies in the first place'. 'Whenever the threat of exploitation or warfare is present, the best protection is larger and more-cohesive societies, which are better able to deter or defeat rivals,' Johnson wrote. 'Religion’s positive role in reducing self-interest and promoting cooperation may therefore reflect the costs of competition as much as the benefits of generosity'. "In "Belief in all-knowing, punitive gods aided the growth of human societies, study says," By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times, 10 February 2016.
Addendum of the Idea: "The idea of the ultimate benevolence of nature and God is the most potent of man's survival mechanisms. Without it, culture would revert to fear and despair." In "Sexual Personae, Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson," Camille Paglia, Yale University Press, 1990.
Addendum of the Difficult Challenge: "30. 'And what would you do,' the Master said unto the multitude, “if God spoke directly to your face and said, ‘I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.’ What would you do then?” / 31. And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood." In "ILLUSIONS - The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah," Richard Bach, Creature Enterprises, 1977.
See: The One God, Praise - (2001)
Words are slippery,
Words are slick.
Words change meanings
Double quick.
Words are cunning,
Words are sharp.
Words hook meanings
As they carp.
Words speak easily:
Think, sharing sacrifice,
Meanings catch on
Like cats catch mice.
Words can share,
Wherever they lie.
Words can sacrifice
Some other guy.
Folks with lots
Urge sacrifice
As they calculate
Someone's else price.
Folks with little
Seek sacrifice
As they pillage
And declare it nice.
Words stay slippery,
Words slip slick.
Words queer thinking
Thin and thick.
Envoi: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." George Orwell, 1984
See: Topsy Turvy
"The Boko Haram Islamist sect has claimed responsibility for multiple gun and bomb attacks in the city of Damaturu Friday in its deadliest attack yet, which left bodies littering the streets and reduced police stations, churches and mosques to smouldering rubble." In "Nigerian forces hunt killers, locals demand security," Reuters Kano, 6 November 2011
Save me from those who would save me,
To correct me of their every sin.
It is such as these who would be able
To flail me, raking muscle from its skin.
Save me from those who would help me
To correct me according to them.
It is such as these who would be able
To fault my life, then it condemn.
Save me from each who would free me
From my errors in each breath.
It is such as these who would surely
Repair me through liberating death.
See: Islamophobia
Mister, I've seen your pony show,
And now that I have, I don't want to go.
Lady, I've seen your poodle acts,
And now that I have, I'll take mundane facts.
Folks, I've seen your song and dance,
And now that I have, you stand no chance.
Lately, your shows are hollering loud,
Come watch and be part of our hollering crowd,
But now that I've seen you, foolish and proud,
I just don't need to again be wowed.
Mister, I've seen the circus and bread,
And now that I have, I'll go elsewhere instead.
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” My Larger Education," Booker T. Washington (1865–1915) (p. 118)
Grieve your grievance.
Grieve it loud.
Grieve it long, in dark grieved shroud.
Grieve it after
Grief is past.
Grieve it hard, to make it last.
Grieving although
Grief decays,
Grieve it just to pass your days.
Grieve your grievance,
Palm outstretched.
Grieve it even if farfetched.
Grieve because it
Might well pay.
Crossing palms' the game today.
Envoi: "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
See: Ice Cream
"International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. was paid a base salary of $294,285 in 2010, according to the labor union’s financial disclosure forms." In "Teamsters’ Hoffa Made $300,000 in 2010," by Matt Cover, CNSNews, 7 September 2011
A fat cat's fat
Is a measure of that
Which kneads then rakes
In the cat's fat dough.
A fat cat's chat
Falls plop-populist flat
When aristocrat truths
In fattened numbers show.
Addendum of Fat Cat Leadership: "...figures reveal that 131 AFL-CIO officials and staff were paid $100,000 or more, not counting the generous benefits each received. In fact, 17 of these had a total compensation package of more than $150,000 per year. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has a salary of $264,827, plus $18,513 in additional compensation, for a total of $283,340. Trumka attracted criticism when it was disclosed that, as AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, his annual salary was increased by $74,000 from $165,000, amounting to a 44 percent wage boost, plus a 60 percent pension when he retires." In "131 on the AFL-CIO Payroll Earn $100,000 or More, Plus Benefits," by Harry Kelber, Labor Educator, 10 June 2011.
See: Income Inequality
"Bees works tirelessly, without ever taking orders or varying their routines, only to be unceremoniously shoved out of the hive when they become useless to the collective." In "The Wage Slave's Glossary," Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell. Emeryville, Ontario. Biblioasis, 2011. 136 pages of commentary about "how the language we use continues to keep us in chains," and a book among Biblioasis' many sold that are sold for profit while complaining about the profit motive of capitalism.
Busy as a little bee,
A worker or a drone,
Even waddling Queenie bee
Stuck in a fecund throne,
Each will play a part and thrive
Because a part each must
All serve within some living hive
In which all place some trust.
Busy as a little bee,
And yet some doth complain;
Such is life's dark augury
Who would a hive disdain.
The sin of social hives so deep
As seen by those who rage
Is that collectives seem asleep,
A dead and deadly cage.
Busy as a little bee,
Some bees just bellyache
For they would play some other bee,
Some other's part to take.
For these who would be other
Than they find they are
Must shove aside another
And force some door ajar.
Busy fomenting little bees,
To not be worker or drone,
Must all aspire to be the queens
And all demand their thrones.
When thrones abound and fill a hive
No workers pollen fly,
And by this all the busy bees
Will see the hive soon die.
Wages make not slavery,
But phrases ring aloud
With such as this unsavory
Lesson for the crowd.
Shall all be queens anointed
Upon their honeyed thrones?
Attempts always disappointed
As stories' ends bemoan.
Busy as a little bee,
Be it worker, drone or queen,
When all the parts make harmony
The hive will seem routine.
Those who hate their lot, their hive,
Have all too often learned
That hunger for some other jive
Is hunger fast returned.
Dazzling - not economically frazzling
"Prepare to be dazzled. We spent less than we took in." Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, in response to a question about how the state managed to balance its budget.
The waves of the future
are washing our sands,
The simplest of notions
are shaking the lands.
The old commonsense
floods banks in bands
Of dazzling brilliance
o'er washed-weary strands.
The waves of the future
once were wisdom's hands.
Losing one's way
for modernity's stands
Was awaiting and suffering
numbered reprimands.
The failing new ways were
the real fairylands.
Addendum of California Not Dazzling: And as to "the real fairylands," one reads of a clear example -- "The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state's negative status -- all of its assets minus all of its liabilities -- increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue. During the 2011-12 fiscal year, the state's general fund spent $1.7 billion more than it received in revenues and wound up with an accumulated deficit of just under $23 billion from several years of red ink. Gov. Jerry Brown has referred to that and other budget gaps, mostly money owed to schools, as a 'wall of debt' totaling more than $30 billion." In "State auditor: California's net worth at negative $127.2 billion," Sacramento Bee, 28 March 2013. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Addendum of Connecticut Not Dazzling: "The city’s $49.6 million budget hole and the impending departure of one of its biggest employers, Aetna Inc., have shined a light on its unusual predicament: Half of the city’s properties are excluded from paying tax because they are government entities, hospitals and universities. It has less taxable property than the neighboring suburban community of West Hartford, which has less than half of the population than its urban neighbor. And Hartford’s total property-tax receipts are about 25% below that of tony community of Greenwich." In "Hartford’s Finances Spotlight Property-Tax Quandary, Despite top property-tax rate in Connecticut, the state’s capital teeters on bankruptcy," by Joseph De Avila, Wall Street Journal, 6 June 2017. [ 3 ]
See the inverse: Too much debt
NOTES
[ 1 ] Actually Table 5, titled "Long-term obligation, year ended June 30, 2012," reads in part as "Government-wide noncurrent liabilities -- Total long-term obligations - $167,946 (amounts in millions)," found in "State of California Financial Report, Year Ended June 30, 2012," page 17.
[ 2 ] As counterpoint to California's state budget news of increasing debt one reads of Alabama: " 'Today, I'm honored to announce that we have found over $1 billion in annual savings that will allow us to be better stewards of taxpayer money and operate state government as efficiently and effectively as possible'." In "Governor Bentley Announces Over $1 Billion in Historic Savings for State Government," by Deidre Johnson, WRBL News, 23 December 2013.
[ 3 ] The simple situation which "modern" government refuses to accept is that taxpayers are an endless source of incerasing funds. The article notes: "Since 2000, Hartford has increased its property-tax, or millage, rate seven times. The rate is now more than 50% higher than it was in 1998. The city must pay nearly $180 million on debt service, health care, pensions and other fixed costs in the coming fiscal year beginning July 1. That’s more than half of the city’s budget, excluding education."
Debt service is simply paying for yesterday, while public pensions when over-sized in comparison to a medium income of a taxpayer in that locale is scandalous. That a city as well as state and federal government are involved in "health care" seems an oddity. Nearing bankruptcy seems an inevitability when one spends more than one has.
I want to spend - drowning in the deep end
"Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, is drowning in debt. City officials have known for more than four years that they'd have to deal with the fiscal mess, but they punted." in "How Harrisburg Borrowed Itself Into Bankruptcy," by Steven Malanga, 28 October 2011
I want to spend
more than I've got.
This is my sad and
unhappy lot,
but credit me this,
then credit me that.
I've spent what I want
on credit fed fat.
I don't want to pay
more than I've got.
This is my sad and
unfortunate lot,
but credit rides in
on a charger each day
to make my payment
so I can still play.
I cannot pay
more than I've got.
This is my sad and
misfortunate lot.
Credit dissolved
in the harsh light today
and now I am stuck
and unable to pay.
I cannot play
for I cannot pay.
This is my sad
and disastrous lot.
All that I owe
someone should pay
for this is how
my wants all bray.
I want to spend
and spend even more.
Am I a sad
and unhappy boor?
I want to spend
but haven't a clue.
It somebody's fault.
Most likely it's you.
Addendum of 499 Criminal Counts: "The former mayor of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who ended his 28-year tenure in 2010 with the state capital near financial ruin, was charged on 499 criminal counts on Tuesday for theft, bribery, evidence tampering and other charges. Stephen Reed and unnamed associates issued municipal bonds for legitimate purposes but allegedly used some of the proceeds to buy a bizarre list of artifacts in which Reed was interested while creating fees payable to 'a coterie of professionals,' a grand jury said in its indictment. Reed, 65, who served as mayor from 1982 to 2010, allegedly used some of the bond proceeds to travel the country and buy about 10,000 artifacts, including a sarcophagus, a suit of armor and a "vampire hunting kit," that he said were destined for museums." In "Ex-mayor of Harrisburg charged in probe of city debt crisis," by David DeKok, Reuters, 14 July 2015.
Addendum of Avoiding Most Charges: "...Mr. Reed, whose political career ended in 2010 after he lost re-election, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of theft by receiving stolen property, including two felonies. All other counts were dropped under a plea agreement. Until now, Mr. Reed, 67, had publicly maintained his innocence." In "Former Harrisburg Mayor Pleads Guilty to Stealing Artifacts," by Daniel Victor, New York Times, 23 January 2017.
Addendum of Paying the Price for Generations: "Papenfuse called the end result a 'fundamental miscalculation' by the prosecutors and vowed that the city will continue to fight. He said he believes others from the Reed era will face criminal and civil cases in the coming years over the city's past debt woes tied to the incinerator, as well as the historic artifacts purchased by Reed, who hoped to include them in a Wild West museum. 'We will be paying the price of these actions for generations to come,' Papenfuse said." In "Former Harrisburg mayor Stephen Reed gets probation, small fine in stolen artifacts case," by Jason Scott, Central Penn Business Journal, 27 January 2017.
See: Let's borrow
"Private owners of Greek bonds will accept a 50 percent writedown on their investment, enabling both a 100 billion euro cut in Greece's sovereign debts and allowing a new Greek programme of aid of 100 billion euros, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday." In "Merkel: 50 pct haircut to cut Greek debt by 100 bln euros," Reuters Brussels, 26 October 2011
The strategies all left
end the cleverest game;
The moves which remain
all lead to the same.
Consider and ruminate
and all thought exhaust,
But understand this:
what is lost is just lost.
In the rules of a game
with moveable men
There comes a moment
in time, just when
The end of the game
is known well before
The game actually ends
and tallies the score.
Cliffhangers excite
and stories tells lies,
But moves from an end,
one should open one's eyes
To see that the checkmate
to come is assured,
As remaining options
are not longer obscured.
The strategies all left
end the cleverest game;
The moves which remain
all lead to the same.
Consider and ruminate
and all thought exhaust,
Then understand this:
what is lost is just lost.
See: A clip job
A clip job - the way to legally rob
"Among three scenarios it examined, the only one that would reduce Greece's debt pile to 110 percent of GDP -- a level still regarded as high -- was one in which private bond holders agreed to a 60 percent haircut." In "Greece may need 60 percent bond write down; EU at odds," Reuters, by Annika Breidthardt and Daniel Flynn, 22 October 2011.
A clip job is a haircut
That cuts down to the quick.
It rewards the profligate
Whose finances sunk, so sick.
A clip job is theft outright,
But said in prettier terms.
It rewards the theft by sleight
But theft, it reconfirms.
A clip job is a haircut
That hacks away at trust.
Government is always favored,
As is the clip job's thrust.
A clip job is a favored way
To rob men of their cash
By law, rather than by swordplay,
Downplaying a cut's deep gash.
A clip job is what was planned
Before the game commenced,
And sold in a fiscal fairyland
Where danger was not sensed.
A clip job is a haircut
That cuts and hacks away,
And politics is just its slut
Abetting in the getaway.
Envoi: "PLUNDER, v. To take the property of another without observing the decent and customary reticence of theft. To effect a change of ownership with the candid concomitance of a brass band. To wrest the wealth of A from B and leave C lamenting a vanishing opportunity." From Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary" (1911).
Addendum of the Massive Pila: "After five straight years of recession, the eurozone's weakest link moves into 2013 with an economy set to further contract, unemployment at a record 26%, one in three living on or below the poverty line, and the worst of austerity yet to come. In the runup to Christmas, even the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, felt fit to admit that despite being the recipient of €240bn in EU and IMF rescue funds – the biggest bailout in global history – Greece could still default on its massive pile of debt, a move that would result automatically in exit from the 17-nation bloc." In "Greek debt crisis 'far from over'," by Helena Smith, The Guardian, 2 January 2013.
Addendum of Loan Losses: "Why it's in trouble: It lost 1.6 billion euros on Greek bonds in 2011. Provisions for bad loans more than doubled to 800 million in the first nine months of 2012 as non performing loans shot up to 17 percent of its total book. Greece was the main driver of 2012's higher loan losses, with 436 million euros of provisions booked there." In "Factbox: The Cyprus banks that have transfixed the world," by Laura Noonan, Reuters, 23 March 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Breaking the Cardinal Rule: "'This will probably go down as an ill-thought-out rescue plan with consequences for peripheral Europe,' says Galy. 'It breaks a cardinal rule — namely, public trust on which money relies.'" In "The Cyprus Deal Could Be The 'Trigger' We Were Waiting For In Europe," by Matthew Boesler, Business Insider, 17 March 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Plundering Capital: "This is the first time in the eurozone that a levy has been imposed not on the interest of bank accounts but on the capital itself." In "Shock in Cyprus as bailout brings bank account haircut," ekathimerini.com , 16 March 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Imposing Plunder: "This is described as a 'wealth tax,' except that it's not a tax. A tax is a regular rule that operates uniformly according to a pre-determine formula. A one-time, ad hoc seizure of money isn't a tax. It is confiscation. Or we can use a plainer word for it: theft. The big news isn't this bank heist, but who is pulling it off. The plan was imposed, not by some wild-eyed revanchist Communists, but by the finance ministers of respectable European countries, who thought up the idea and imposed it on Cyprus." In "Cyprus and the Death of Deposit Insurance," by Robert Tracinski, Real Clear Politics, 19 March 2013.
Addendum of a Deal: "The revised accord spares bank accounts below the insured limit of 100,000 euros. It imposes losses that two EU officials said would be no more than 40 percent on uninsured depositors at Bank of Cyprus Plc, the largest bank, which will take over the viable assets of Cyprus Popular Bank Pcl (CPB), the second biggest." In "Cyprus Salvaged After EU Deal Shuts Bank to Get $13B," by Rebecca Christie, James G. Neuger & Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg News, 25 March 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum from out of US History: "In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared a national bank moratorium (he closed all banks.) Then, via Executive Order 6102, the government confiscated all gold and gold certificates, exchanging them for paper. Consequently, if you didn’t surrender your gold, you went to jail. The price of gold was set at $20.67 per ounce. Yet, within a year, the government reset the price to $35.00 per ounce, effectively fleecing the American public by 69%." In "Don't Worry About Cyprus, It Already Happened Here," by Bill Tatro, Townhall Finance, 22 March 2013
Addendum via a former KGB officer: "Forfeiture of investors' funds, including of Russian origin, wherever it happens, in Cyprus or in other places, undermines credibility of the banking system of the entire Eurozone.:" In "Interview to the German ARD," quote of Vladimir Putin, as found in President of Russia page of the website eng.kremlin.ru, 5 April 2013.
Addendum of Skipping Paying for the Next 24 years: "The International Monetary Fund is pressing the eurozone to let Greece skip paying interest or principal on bailout loans until 2040, say officials familiar with the talks. The IMF wants the loans to Greece to fall due gradually in the following decades, and as late as 2080, according to the IMF's proposal." In "IMF Wants Eurozone Debt Relief for Greece Until 2040," Dow Jones Business News, 17 May 2016. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Planning for the Next Clip Job: "Andrea Enria, head of the European Banking Authority, has been one of the most vocal proponents of allowing state aid for banks that incur losses in the course of selling bad loans. He told EU lawmakers in April that state aid could be used to 'deal promptly and decisively with the significant legacy of asset-quality problems in the European banking sector, which remains a drag on the EU economy.' Freeing up public money to offset banks’ losses could help to chip away at the 1 trillion-euro ($1.1 trillion) bad-debt mountain and could smooth the way for bailouts in the EU’s hardest-hit countries, including Cyprus, Portugal and Italy." In "EU Sees Taxpayers Funding Bank Bad-Loan Fix Within Current Rules," by Alexander Weber, Bloomberg, 2 June 2017. [ 6 ]
Addendum for Humorous Relief: "A retired sailor said, 'I take offence at saying politicians spend like drunken sailors. I was a drunken sailor and I stopped spending when I ran out of money'."
See: Now how does that seem to a lender like you?
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Germany and the leaders of the Eurogroup opted for this lunacy, calculating that Cyprus is too small and inconsequential for the haircut on its bank deposits to cause contagion in the eurozone. Of course, the markets could view the decision differently, perhaps not when they open on Monday, but a few weeks later as it becomes apparent that not even deposits in European banks are safe from raids by the Eurogroup." In "Our View: The ‘rescue package’ designed to destroy the economy," Cyprus Mail, 17 March 2013.
And this is the image now reported from Russia: "Russia has sharply criticized the bailout deal for Cyprus, with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accusing the EU of theft." In "Cyprus Fallout: Moscow Accuses Euro Zone of Theft -- and Worse," by Benjamin Bidder, Spiegel, 25 March 2013.
[ 2 ] While only a week earlier this Cyprus confiscation of capital was termed a "one off" situation, one rather quickly learned it is not. "'If there is a risk in a bank, our first question should be 'Okay, what are you in the bank going to do about that? What can you do to recapitalise yourself?',' he said. 'If the bank can't do it, then we'll talk to the shareholders and the bondholders, we'll ask them to contribute in recapitalising the bank, and if necessary the uninsured deposit holders.'" In "Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief," by Bruno Waterfield, Telegraph UK, 25 March 2013.
This vision of trust in government echoed in other ways: "Nearly half of all Germans fear for their savings -- and with good reason. At times like these, the only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. Not even savings accounts are safe, as was recently seen in Cyprus. Such deposits are actually guaranteed to up to €100,000, but the euro rescuers cared little about this as they desperately searched for funds." In "Euro Bailouts: Savers Be Warned - Your Money's Not Safe," a Commentary by Armin Mahler, Spiegel, 25 March 2013.
[ 3 ] By stripping away depositors' capital, the EU-IMF-ECB "troika" and current Cypriot government have announced that they may confiscate portions of deposits, and as above the statement by a "Eurozone chief" suggests this an option now openly stated for other European nations, as it has been a historical phenomenon in such other nations as Argentina recently confiscating liquidity in private pension funds, another "clip job." This evidences no conscience by such political leadership, as has been noted throughout history.
"By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more." Albert Camus (1913-1960) Lest this seem modern, one finds quite a similar sentiment from centuries before: "No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill." Cornelius Nepos (100 BC-24 BC).
{ 4 ] "Capital has its proper place and is entitled to every protection. The wages of men should be recognised in the structure of and in the social order as more important than the wages of money. No duty is more imperative for the Government than the duty it owes the People to furnish them with a sound and uniform currency, and of regulating the circulation of the medium of exchange so that labour will be protected from a vicious currency, and commerce will be facilitated by cheap and safe exchanges." Abraham Lincoln, in his Monetary Policy Statement (1865).
By suggesting confiscation of small savers' deposits, those who have dealt with this crisis have proven that they care less for "the social order" than for their own policies, a reflection of Camus' observation just above.
This major bank insolvency hides a telling reality, for ""It is 84% state owned since 30 June 2012 and is as of March 2013 being dismantled as part of the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis." Wikipedia article on Cyprus Popular Bank, accessed March 2013. Additionally one learns of the seeming favoritism applied: "In this case, bailing in creditors had to mean bailing in depositors. But this fails to explain why senior bondholders were excluded from the deal and above all why the levy was applied to insured, and not just uninsured, deposits. It’s the very opposite of what makes sense." In "In Cyprus, Europe Sets a New Standard for Stupidity," by Clive Crook, Bloomberg, 19 March 2013. Of course, this makes enormous sense from the possible perspective of corruption and backroom deals. Investigations are ongoing.
But as with all debt, the so-called experts are brought in, and it is they who further withdraw funds which create more indebtedness....
One reads: "The scandal erupted in October this year, when Cypriot media reported that Demetriades awarded Alvarez and Marsal another, whopping, fee of €15 million without the board's knowledge. The bonus amounts to 0.1 percent of the total worth of the recapitalisation cost of Cypriot banks (€15.7 billion). According to internal correspondence and draft contracts dating back to March 2013, the consultancy's executive director, Hal Hirsch, and Demetriades, in principle agreed to payment of the fee "by whatever means" the recapitalisation was to be carried out. Following messy talks in Brussels, the final bailout agreement included the seizing of private savers' deposits over €100,000." In "Troika consultancies: A multi-million euro business beyond scrutiny," by Valentina Pop, EUObserver, 16 December 2013.
So as one sees as a matter of reported fact, the seizure of private savers' deposits in part go to make more wealthy the debt managers. It would seem that many of the politically connected plunder from the politically unconnected as many in the politically connected media avert their gaze.
[ 5 ] This is, of course, merely the same old game one calls Kick the can
[ 6 ] One notes the notion of "public money," yet money from taxpayers used to pay banks for making bad loans is the transfer of "public money" to a far smaller number of private hands. as with past clip jobs, the "seizing" of money seems a central task of government. The morality of this cannot be found either in free market capitalism nor in strict socialism, but in criminality with the exception that apparently when governments do it, criminality becomes legal. Or so it seems.
"These days, the left-wing scene has even become confident enough to openly discuss its clandestine actions. For example, at a "congress for autonomous policies" held in June in the western city of Cologne, participants admitted to "practicing and executing … liberating" violence. One of the items on the agenda for discussion at the meeting also read: 'Militancy -- We Stand By It.'" In "'A Dramatic Wake-Up Call', Berlin Rail Attacks Fuel Fears of Left-Wing Extremism" by Sven Röbel, Jörg Schmitt and Andreas Wassermann, Speigel Online, 17 October 2011
A jackass by any other name
Is a jackass, just the same.
Party names and rhetoric,
Movements' claims plethoric
Clutter, bunch, amass, bewail,
Argue, rage and still turn stale.
Jackass claims that ne'er turn out
Are the same old ones they spout.
Revolution revolves again,
Revolving doors crushing men.
Revolving speeches much ado
Demand attention from little you.
Jackass thinking parades around
And covers the same old ground.
Manifestos newly scrawled
Fire off fodder canon balled.
Though it's all be tried before,
There's always time for blood and gore.
Jackass hobnails clop and strike
As once in a Third dark Reich.
Envoi: "We asked for freedom of the press, thought, and civil liberties in the past because we were in the opposition and needed these liberties to conquer. Now that we have conquered, there is no longer any need for such civil liberties." Nikolai Bukharin (1888-1938)
The same old story - a tale grown hoary
"Here's your final exam question in Middle Eastern studies: A mass of Coptic Christians marches through Cairo to protest the military government's failure to protect them from Muslim radicals. They are attacked by stone-throwing, club-wielding rowdies. Armed forces security personnel intervene, and the Copts fight it out with the soldiers, with two dozen dead and scores injured on both sides. Who is to blame? The full credit answer is: Benjamin Netanyahu, for building apartments in Jerusalem. If that's not what you wrote, don't blame me if you can't get a job at the New York Times." In "Never have so few been blamed for so much by so many," by David P. Goldman, Asia Times, 12 October 2011.
Coptic Christians slaughtered in Cairo's civic square?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
A dud of a bomb goes off in a Muslim's underwear?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
The Holocaust's a fairytale, denying idiots declare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Syrian protestors shot again on a Syrian thoroughfare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Honor killings, forced marriages intrude in the media's glare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Planes fly into buildings, as buildings drop from the air?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Bamiyan Buddhas blown to smithereens? How and why and where?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Arab spring gropes that reporter lass? A mob's cultural affair?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
A Saudi ambassador targeted in the states is maybe so unfair?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
China intervenes, propping up its banks' fragile chinaware?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Wall Street bail outs come and go for every billionaire?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Venezuela grabs homes and property? Cuba is crumbling, bare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Harrisburg's gone bankrupt, Detroit revolves the old nightmare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Corporate greed and rising costs are spreading everywhere?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Housing meltdowns trap, as inner city blues ensnare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Duds are wearing out too fast and threads are going bare?
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.Even funny men and comics laugh to spout the same old line:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
When socialism round the world lights its brilliant flare:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Its consistency is consistently and ever doctrinaire:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
For every rage, for every rant, for all forms of despair:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
The same old story circulates, revolutionary then and there:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
This one answer fits most every form and questionaire:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
So many sing the old refrain and loud declare:
Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze.
Envoi: "A senior figure close to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi provoked outrage today after claiming the Holocaust was a myth invented by the United States. Fathi Shibab-Eddim, who is responsible for appointing editors of all the state-run newspapers, claimed the six million Jews killed by Hitler had actually been moved to America. His comments came as the world marked Holocaust Remembrance day on Sunday and little more than a week after it emerged that President Morsi himself had once described Jews as 'descendants of apes and pigs'." In "'Holocaust was a myth invented by U.S': Aide to Egyptian President Morsi triggers outrage with claim six million 'dead' Jews had simply moved to America," by Simon Tomlinson, Daily Mail UK, 30 January 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum from a Christian's Perspective: "...during a special debate on racism at the Council’s 27th Regular Session, Father Naddaf discussed the violent oppression facing Middle Eastern Christians and their widespread flight from the region in recent years. 'Across the Middle East, in the last ten years, one hundred thousand Christians have been murdered each year. That means that every five minutes a Christian is killed because of his faith. Those who can escape persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists have fled. Those who remain exist as second if not third class citizens to their Muslim rulers,' Father Naddaf pointed out. 'In the Middle East today, there is one country where Christianity is not only not persecuted, but affectionately granted freedom of expression, freedom of worship and security. It is Israel, the Jewish State. Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe,' stated Father Naddaf. 'It is time the world woke up to the fact that those who want to destroy the Jewish State are signing the death warrant on the last free Christians in the Holy Land'. In "Israeli-Arab Priest at UN Human Rights Council: 'Israel is the only place where Christians in the Middle East are safe'," by Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency, 23 September 2014.
Addendum from an Israeli Muslim's Perspective: "Mohammad Kabiya, a University of Haifa political science major and commander in the Israeli Air Force, whose sharp exchange with his peer about Israel’s moral standing has been circulating on social media, explained, 'It is so wrong, and embarrassing, for a Jew to spread such lies about the one Jewish state in the world. Israel is not perfect but it’s far from how these people are describing it,' Kabiya – a Bedouin Muslim — said in Hebrew, referring to the crowds participating in 'Israeli Apartheid Week' (IAW) events. Criticism of the Israeli government and policies is legitimate, he added, 'but it’s like when I fight with my brother; the whole world doesn’t need to know about it'." In"Muslim Bedouin IDF Veteran: Wrong, Embarrassing for Jews to Spread Lies About Israel," by Rachel Frommer, Algemeiner, 5 April 2017.
Addendum of Demonstrable Double Standards: "...it is now official that the Times Op-Ed pages are not interested in Palestinian racism, incitement, discrimination and ethno-religious purity. As stateless victims, they are beyond scrutiny. Even their blatant acts of belligerence are downplayed, including in the news pages. A particularly euphemistic headline (later changed) this summer: 'Rockets Said to Be Fired from Gaza Strip Puncture Latest Cease-Fire.' 'Palestinians are not taken seriously as agents of their own fate,' observed former AP journalist Matti Friedman. 'The story mandates that they exist as passive victims of the party that matters'." In "New York Times editor admits holding Palestinians to a lower standard," by Tamar Sternthal, Times of Israel, 29 October 2014.
Addendum of the Same Old Same Old: "Nothing is as boring as anti-Semitism, at least for Jews. You rule the world, they have heard non-Jews telling them for the last 2,000 years, even if none of you has yet made it to the status of a Roman emperor or a U.S. president. Your religion gets on our nerves, they are told, because you won’t share it with anyone. Although most of you are not observant, you are aware of your Jewish identity all the same, and what the hell does that mean? You’re better than us in bed, and you steal our women. You manage money as well as we wish we could manage it ourselves. You’re so damn clever because you have none of you been illiterate for a hundred generations, which gives you such a head-start on us in life that we can never catch up." In "A German-Jewish Zionist Explains Why Anti-Semitism Is All the Same," by Maxim Biller, Tablet, 10 November 2014. Originally published as "Antisemiten sind mir egal," Die Zeit, 18 October 2014.
Addendum of Subtle Jew Hatred by Nice Media Types: "...when Israel flares up, as it did this summer, reporters are often moved from deadlier conflicts. Israel still trumps nearly everything else. The volume of press coverage that results, even when little is going on, gives this conflict a prominence compared to which its actual human toll is absurdly small. In all of 2013, for example, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict claimed 42 lives—that is, roughly the monthly homicide rate in the city of Chicago. Jerusalem, internationally renowned as a city of conflict, had slightly fewer violent deaths per capita last year than Portland, Ore., one of America’s safer cities. In contrast, in three years the Syrian conflict has claimed an estimated 190,000 lives, or about 70,000 more than the number of people who have ever died in the Arab-Israeli conflict since it began a century ago. News organizations have nonetheless decided that this conflict is more important than, for example, the more than 1,600 women murdered in Pakistan last year (271 after being raped and 193 of them burned alive), the ongoing erasure of Tibet by the Chinese Communist Party, the carnage in Congo (more than 5 million dead as of 2012) or the Central African Republic, and the drug wars in Mexico (death toll between 2006 and 2012: 60,000), let alone conflicts no one has ever heard of in obscure corners of India or Thailand. They believe Israel to be the most important story on earth, or very close." In "An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth," by Matti Friedman, Tablet, 26 August 2014.
Addendum of Comparative Numbers: " 'Twelve million Muslims have been killed by other Muslims since 1948,' Lapid said. 'The number of people killed during the Arab-Israeli conflict is 0.3 percent of this.' Lapid said that while even this number is too high, most of those killed were part of Arab armies that tried to invade Israeli territory, or terrorists who tried to harm innocent Israeli citizens. 'However, still, the UN, international organizations and the world continue to unhaltingly condemn Israel and are extra careful about any condemnation of Islamic violence,' he added. 'They are careful like it's fire, until the fire burns them'." In " 'Muslims killing Muslims in droves, but Israel the one being condemned'," Jerusalem Post, 29 June 2016.
Addendum of Cop Killing in the US: "As demonstrators in the United States protest against recent incident in which police officers killed African American men, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has found a way to blame Israel. New York University's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine shared a post on its Facebook page claiming that 'the same forces behind the genocide of black people in America are behind the genocide of Palestinians.' Aside from the extreme hyperbole in describing growth from 1.3 million to 12.3 million over the past 70 years as "'genocide,' the accusations bring to mind anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world." In "Pro-Palestinian group: Israel behind US police killings" by Matt Wanderman, Arutz Sheva, 9 July 2016.
Addendum of Germany's Far-left and Extreme Left: "A study from the Free University Berlin (FU) suggests that anti-Semitic attitudes among the German far-left are more widespread than is generally believed. Thirty-four percent of those categorized by the research group as 'extreme left' agreed with the statement that Jews had 'too much influence' in Germany. Even among the radical left - which differs from the 'extreme left' in the definitions used by the study in that extreme left attitudes are incompatible with democracy and the German constitution - the figure of those agreeing with the statement was worringly high, at 16 percent." In "Anti-Semitism 'widespread' among German extreme left," TheLocal.de, 18 July 2016.
Addendum of Germany's Arabic and Turkish Students: "...when the teenager’s classmates found out he was Jewish, they became abusive, with one saying 'Jews are all murderers'.The abuse then became violent, with classmates attacking and strangling the teenager. One even pulled a replica gun on him while the other kids laughed, the boy’s mother claimed. Aaron Eckstaedt, principal of the Moses Mendelssohn Jewish High School in Berlin, told the Jewish Chronicle that six to ten Jewish parents apply to switch their children to his school every year. The requests are generally 'in reaction to anti-Semitic statements coming overwhelmingly from Arabic or Turkish classmates,' he said." In "Outrage as Muslim students 'bully Jewish classmate out of Berlin school'," DPA/The Local, 3 April 2017.
Addendum of Respectable German Views: "...criticism of Israel meets the criteria of modern antisemitism when Israel is compared to National Socialism, the Nazi’s victims are turned into perpetrators and when Israel’s right to exist is questioned. The 300-page report states that non-Jewish Germans are suspected of using an exculpatory strategy to mitigate against the remaining guilt felt regarding of the crimes of the Nazis. The study cited a sarcastic sentence from Israeli psychoanalyst Zvi Rex, who, in the 1980s, said: 'The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz'. Petra Pau, a Left Party deputy in the Bundestag, said, “Antisemitism is a problem of the entire society.” She added that Israel-related antisemitism has become respectable." In "Study: 40% of Germans hold modern antisemitic views," by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, 6 May 2017.
Addendum of a Palestinian Cleric's Prayer: "Nadhal Siam: 'Do not think that some of the collaborators are right and some are wrong. They are all equally collaborators. Just as the Saudi regime is a lackey of the Americans, and is immersed in collaboration with them, the Qatari regime is a lackey of the English, and is immersed in collaboration with them. All these [regimes] are like riding beasts ridden by the superpowers. Oh Allah, enable us to slaughter the Americans!' Audience: 'Amen!' Nadhal Siam: 'And the Europeans!' Audience: 'Amen!' " In "Sheikh Nidhal Siam Prays in Al-Aqsa Mosque Address for Allah to Enable the Slaughtering of the Americans and Europeans," Transcript page, Clip #6098, Middle East Media Research Institute, 18 June 2017.
Addendum of Occupation: "UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee passed a resolution condemning Israel for its policies in the Old City of Jerusalem Tuesday. Ten member states voted in favor of the resolution, three voted against it, and three states abstained. The resolution refers to Israel 'the occupying power' in its capital and denies Israel's claims to the Old City and eastern Jerusalem." In "UNESCO condemns Jewish presence in Old City of Jerusalem," by Gary Willig, Arutz Sheva, 4 July 2017.
Addendum of Jew-Hatred in California: "The Islamic Center of Davis is under fire after a translation of a sermon posted online said it called for the annihilation of Jews. The Davis Imam’s two-hour long sermon is mostly in Arabic. According to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute, Ammar Shahin calls for the annihilation of Jews, and asks his higher power to liberate the Al Asqa mosque from their filth." In "Davis Islamic Center Under Fire After Sermon Translation Surfaces Online," by Lemor Abrams, CBS News, 25 July 2017.
Addendum of Jew-Hatred in California, a Justification and an Apology: "He initially, said he was taken out of context, a point he repeated, a day later in an on camera interview with CBS13. But that changed on Friday. 'I let my emotions get the best of me and cloud my better judgment. I said things that were hurtful to Jews. This was unacceptable,' he said." In "Davis Imam Apologizes After Fiery Sermon Draws Global Condemnation," by Lemor Abrams, CBS Sacramento, 28 July 2017.
Addendum of Enabling: "...acting on a tip, we logged into Facebook’s automated ad system to see if 'Jew hater' was really an ad category. We found it, but discovered that the category — with only 2,274 people in it — was too small for Facebook to allow us to buy an ad pegged only to Jew haters. Facebook’s automated system suggested 'Second Amendment' as an additional category that would boost our audience size to 119,000 people, presumably because its system had correlated gun enthusiasts with anti-Semites. Instead, we chose additional categories that popped up when we typed in 'jew h': 'How to burn Jews,' and 'History of 'why jews ruin the world.' ' Then we added a category that Facebook suggested when we typed in 'Hitler': a category called 'Hitler did nothing wrong.' All were described as 'fields of study.' Facebook’s automated system told us that we still didn’t have a large enough audience to make a purchase. So we added 'German Schutzstaffel,' commonly known as the Nazi SS, and the 'Nazi Party,' which were both described to advertisers as groups of 'employers.' Their audiences were larger: 3,194 for the SS and 2,449 for Nazi Party. Still, Facebook said we needed more — so we added people with an interest in the National Democratic Party of Germany, a far-right, ultranationalist political party, with its much larger viewership of 194,600." In "Facebook Enabled Advertisers to Reach 'Jew Haters'," by Julia Angwin, Madeleine Varner and Ariana Tobin, Pro Publica via MSN, 14 September 2017.
Addendum of Canada's Gaffe: "The federal government has removed a plaque inaugurating Ottawa’s new Holocaust memorial that failed to mention anti-Semitism or Jewish people. Conservative MP David Sweet raised the issue in question period on Tuesday, asking if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be correcting this “profoundly obvious omission. 'If we are going to stamp out hatred toward Jews, it is important to get history right,' said Sweet." In "Government hastily removes Holocaust plaque that doesn't mention Jewish people," by Stuart Thomson, National Post, 4 October 2017.
Addendum of an Israeli Muslim's Question: " 'Israel is not an apartheid state and anyone who believes this should be ashamed of himself,' a Muslim citizen of the Jewish state declared in a recent media interview — a video of which has gone viral online this week. Appearing on an Arabic-language news channel, Dema Taya — a resident of the central Israeli city of Qalansawe — told the program host, 'You live in this country and enjoy the full benefits of its citizenship. You are free to work, study, express yourselves and whatever you desire. You lead and educate the next generations in a state that respects you. Look at Syria, Iraq, Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries. What have they done for the good of their people?' " In "Muslim Citizen of Jewish State: Israel Is not an Apartheid Nation, I’m Proud to Speak on Its Behalf," byStaff, Algemeiner, 18 October 2017.
Addendum of the Influx of Foreign Jews: "Prince Charles has come under fire after it came to light that he blamed the 'influx of foreign Jews' for causing unrest in the Middle East and called on the US to 'take on the Jewish lobby' in a letter penned in 1986. Writing to his friend Laurens van der Post, the Prince argued that the exodus of European Jews in the middle of the last century 'helped to cause the great problems' in the Middle East. 'I now appreciate that Arabs and Jews were all a Semitic people originally and it is the influx of foreign, European Jews (especially from Poland, they say) which has helped to cause the great problems,' the Prince wrote...." In "Prince Charles blames ‘foreign Jews’ for Middle East turmoil in 1986 letter," by Chanta Da Silva, Independent UK, 12 November 2017.
Addendum of Death Threats for Being Sociable: "The family of Iraq's contestant in the Miss Universe Pageant have left the country due to threats to their lives over her modeling in a bikini and posting on social media photos taken with Miss Israel. Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, lives in the United States and the rest of her family has now fled the country, Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman, told Hadashot news. Gandelsman said she has been in touch with Idan since the pageant and that the two women have a special relationship." In "Family of Miss Iraq flee country after photo posted with Miss Israel," Jerusalem Post, 14 December 2017.
Addendum of an Iranian Mosque as a Zionist Conspiracy: "Iranian sources blamed the architect of a recently-built mosque for having a an affinity for 'secular Judaism' and participating in a 'Zionist plot.' The new mosque, built in Tehran, follows a minimalist design which according to the architects is symbolic of 'early Islam's modesty.' However, more conservative voices have criticized the mosque's design for the fact that it differs from traditional mosques around the world." In "Iran: Mosque's design is a Zionist conspiracy," by Haim Lev, Arutz Sheva, 7 March 2018.
Addendum of the UN and Continual Condemnation: "US Ambassador to the United Nation Kelly Craft slammed Iran and supported Israel at the United Nations Security Council debate on the Middle East last Tuesday, as reported by the Jewish News Syndicate. ... 'While the world criticizes Israel, Israel is making the world a better place. The council should not lose sight of this fact,' she said." In "US ambassador to the UN slams Iran at Security Council," by Deborah Dahan, Jerusalem Post, 24 January 2020. [ 6 ]
Addendums aplenty of Anti-Semitism:
"'They came with their clubs, with their arms, one had a knife, one had a pistol -- they came ready for this,' Gazit said. 'It was not a political demonstration ... this was violence for the sake of violence.'" In "Anti-Semitic violence stirs concern in Argentina," by Javier Doberti, CNN, 18 May 2009.
"Last year the University of Bielefeld published the results of a survey across Europe which looked at attitudes not just towards Jews but Muslims and other victims of what it called 'group-focused enmity'. It concluded: 'Group-focused enmity is widespread in Europe. It is weakest in the Netherlands and strongest in Poland and Hungary.' On anti-Semitism, the researchers said it was strongest in Poland and Hungary. 'In Portugal, followed closely by Germany, anti-Semitism is significantly more prominent than in the other western European countries.'" In "Anti-Semitism still haunts Germany," by Stephen Evans, BBC News, 26 January 2012.
"Those of us who continue to care deeply about the fate of Venezuelan society and democratic rule are disturbed by the stepped up anti-Semitic rhetoric, a favorite political tool in the arsenal of Hugo Chavez supporters. Venezuelan media outlets -- 70 percent are owned by the State -- have during the past six years systematically produced attacks against Jews, Zionists and Israel. The intensity of the anti-Semitism often turned up at certain times to disparage and intimidate." In "Official Anti-Semitism Subverts Democracy in Venezuela," by Dian Siegel Vann, Huffington Post, 28 February 2012. [ 2 ]
"When asked if violence against Jews is rooted in anti-Jewish or anti-Israel sentiment, four in 10 Europeans (39 percent) responded that it was the result of anti-Jewish sentiment." In "Anti-Semitism On The Rise In Europe, According To Anti-Defamation League Report," by Lauren Markoe, Huffington Post, 21 March 2012. [ 3 ]
"A report published this week by the Community Security Trust (CST) shows that anti-Semitic incidents in the UK have risen in the months January- June 2012, compared with last year’s figures." In "Anti-Semitism on the rise in the UK," The Commentator, 29 September 2912. [ 4 ]
"...European governments may now be waking up to a problem that has been festering in parts of their societies for quite some time. Yet as they attempt to make sense of this growing source of public disorder, one wonders whether Europe’s political elites will reflect upon their own role in manufacturing this fiercely anti-Israel atmosphere." In "Europe Confronts its Anti-Israel Extremists," by Tom Wilson, Commentary Magazine, 21 July 2014.
"Al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas TV channel, aired on Friday, July 25, 2014 a sermon from a Deir Al-Balah Mosque, in which an unnamed imam called for the extermination of the Jews. 'We will not leave a single one of you alive,' declared the imam. 'Our doctrine in fighting you (the Jews) is that we will totally exterminate you. We will not leave a single one of you alive, because you are alien usurpers of the land and eternal mercenaries. You are the mercenaries of all times. Research the history, my brothers. Wherever the Jews lived, they spread corruption. Oh Muslims, didn't you notice that Allah said: 'They spread in THE land...' The definite article in 'THE land' means the entire land. 'They spread in the land corruption, and Allah loves not the corrupters'.'" In "Hamas Sermon from the Gaza Strip: Our Doctrine Entails Exterminating the Jews," Transcript, Middle East Media Research, 25 July 2014.
"Across Europe, the conflict in Gaza is breathing new life into some very old, and very ugly, demons. This is not unusual; police and Jewish civil rights organisations have long observed a noticeable spike in antisemitic incidents each time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flares. During the three weeks of Israel's Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 and early 2009, France recorded 66 antisemitic incidents, including attacks on Jewish-owned restaurants and synagogues and a sharp increase in anti-Jewish graffiti.But according to academics and Jewish leaders, this time it is different. More than simply a reaction to the conflict, they say, the threats, hate speech and violent attacks feel like the expression of a much deeper and more widespread antisemitism, fuelled by a wide range of factors, that has been growing now for more than a decade. 'These are the worst times since the Nazi era,' Dieter Graumann, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told the Guardian. 'On the streets, you hear things like 'the Jews should be gassed', 'the Jews should be burned' – we haven't had that in Germany for decades. Anyone saying those slogans isn't criticising Israeli politics, it's just pure hatred against Jews: nothing else. And it's not just a German phenomenon. It's an outbreak of hatred against Jews so intense that it's very clear indeed.' Roger Cukierman, president of France's Crif, said French Jews were 'anguished' about an anti-Jewish backlash that goes far beyond even strongly felt political and humanitarian opposition to the current fighting: 'They are not screaming 'Death to the Israelis' on the streets of Paris," Cukierman said last month. "They are screaming 'Death to Jews'.' Crif's vice-president Yonathan Arfi said he 'utterly rejected' the view that the latest increase in antisemitic incidents was down to events in Gaza. 'They have laid bare something far more profound,' he said. Nor is it just Europe's Jewish leaders who are alarmed. Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, has called the recent incidents 'an attack on freedom and tolerance and our democratic state'. The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has spoken of 'intolerable' and clearly antisemitic acts: 'To attack a Jew because he is a Jew is to attack France. To attack a synagogue and a kosher grocery store is quite simply antisemitism and racism'."" In "Antisemitism on rise across Europe 'in worst times since the Nazis'," by Jon Henley, Guardian UK, 7 August 2014.
"...anti-Semitism is surely a fact — and recognised as such by plenty of the more, um, enlightened Muslim writers, such as Mehdi Hasan. Here’s what he had to say on the issue: 'It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism isn’t just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it’s routine and commonplace. Any Muslims reading this article — if they are honest with themselves — will know instantly what I am referring to. It’s our dirty little secret. You could call it the banality of Muslim anti-Semitism.' Remember, it is only three or four years ago that our most moderate and amenable Muslim organisation, the Muslim Council of Britain, refused to take part in Holocaust Day, so great was its animus toward Britain’s Jewish community. To refuse to tell the truth when you know what the truth is constitutes bad journalistic practice, to my mind. But it is also deluding and utterly gutless." In "Who's responsible for these anti-Semitic attacks? Give me one guess...," by Ron Liddle, The Spectator, 16 August 2014.
"The private Jewish school Carolineskolen in Copenhagen’s Østerbro was extensively vandalised overnight between Thursday and Friday. Windows were smashed and anti-Semitic graffiti was written on the school’s walls. 'We are the world’s second-oldest functioning Jewish school and we have never before in our 210 year history experienced something like this,' school leader Jan Hansen told TV2 News." In "Jewish school vandalised in Copenhagen," TheLocal.de, 22 August 2014.
"The question of Jewish safety in Germany became the subject of public debate on Thursday after Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, wondered in a radio interview whether it 'really made sense' in 'problem neighborhoods with large Muslim populations to make one's self recognizable as a Jew by wearing a kippah?' He suggested that it 'might be better to choose a different head covering' in such instances." In "'Risk Has Gotten Greater': German Jews Advised Against Wearing Kippah," by Peter Maxwill, Spiegel International, 27 February 2015. [ 5 ]
"According to Francis Kalifat, the president of the CRIF federation of Jewish communities of France, antisemitic harassment has made public schools unsafe for Jews, leading to a sharp drop in the number of Jews attending them. In the past, a third of Jewish parents enrolled their children to public schools but now 'no one does it,' he told JTA last year. In the incident involving antisemitic graffiti, BNVCA said it was part of a campaign of intimidation against the family that owns the building targeted. This time, they wrote 'screw the shitty Jews, death to Jews, long live Palestine.' In recent years, the same family found in their mailbox an envelope featuring the words 'Allah hu akbar' – Arabic for Allah is the greatest — with 9-milimeter bullets inside. They later received another envelope with a bullet for an AK-47 assault rifle and the words: 'The next one is for you'." In "French girl hospitalized following classmates' antisemitic attack," JTA, Jerusalem Post, 7 October 2017.
"Many protestors yelling in the hallways to 'Free, Free Palestine' physically attacked ethnically Jewish people despite stating to be only against the Israeli government. ...Among the chanting protestors was Holocaust denier Nazih Khatatba, who has in the past glorified the 2014 massacre at the Jerusalem synagogue and considers Judaism a 'terrorist religion.' It is not known whether or not Mr. Khatatba was specifically invited or not at this time." In "Anti-Semitic violence erupts at Toronto university," by Wyatt Claypool, Post Millennial, 21 November 2019.
"There are many kinds of anti-Semitic hate crimes. Muslims attack Jews. Neo-Nazis attack Jews. Far leftists attack Jews. Right now, in the New York region, the problem is overwhelmingly black New Yorkers attacking Jews." In "The Media Can’t Keep Ignoring The Racial Element Of The New York Pogrom," by David Benkof, Daily Caller, 31 December 2019.
"Mayor Bill de Blasio had already engaged in blatant antisemitism with his infamous tweet. 'My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed.' Now it's Governor Cuomo's turn, ranting at a press conference, 'I have to say to the Orthodox community tomorrow, 'If you're not willing to live with these rules, then I'm going to close the synagogues'." In "Cuomo: 'I'm Going to Close the Synagogues'." by Daniel Greenfield, Jewish Press, 7 October 2020.
See: Pogrom, a song setting to a text of Klabund (1890-1928)
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Israel is behind the removal of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi by the Egyptian military. 'Israel is behind the coup in Egypt, we have evidence,' Erdogan declared to members of his party meeting in Ankara on Tuesday, according to the Turkish Today's Zaman." In "Turkish Prime Minister: Israel Behind Egypt Coup," by Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva, 20 August 2013. That Egyptians Muslims are killing Egyptian Muslims as well as Coptic Christians seems of less interest to the Turkish Prime Minister than his strange perception that Israel is responsible.
Of such anti-Semitism as a political strategy of shifting accountability, one reads: "First, for the nations that lost the war, the dreadful carnage on the battlefield—Europe's first experience with mass man-made death—seemed to be a sacrifice made for no gain. It seemed inexplicable except by insidious internal betrayal. A stab-in-the-back legend attributed the German and Austrian defeat in World War I to internal traitors working for foreign interests, primarily Jews and communists. This legend was widely believed and deliberately disseminated by the defeated German military leadership, seeking to avoid personal consequences for their policies." In "Anti-Semitism in History: World War I," United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
[ 2 ] "That something was the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had been gravely ill for months and had recently returned from months-long treatment in Cuba. The announcement sent many in Caracas into panic mode, fearing that the death of this larger-than-life figure -- alternately loved or reviled by millions in his country -- might lead to chaos in the streets. Stores were shuttered, meetings were canceled and Venezuelans braced themselves. As the government announced a seven-day national mourning period, Jewish schools and the Jewish community center in Caracas all closed." In "Venezuelan Jews mourn loss of Chavez, brace for days to come," by JTA, Haaretz, 7 May 2013.
One looks back: "Attackers broke into the Tifaret Israel synagogue on Jan. 30, shattering religious objects, spray-painting anti-Semitic slogans and stealing a computer database with the names and addresses of Jews in Venezuela. Investigators believe the assailants planned to steal a large amount of cash they thought was inside. The vandalism, authorities say, could have been aimed at turning attention away from the true motive behind the crime." In "11 accused in ransacking of Venezuela synagogue," Huffington Post, 26 March 2009. The trend has continued, as three years later one sees: "An enraged mob, chanting anti-Israel slogans, launching firecrackers and burning Israeli flags, attacked the Maripérez Synagogue in Caracas on Thursday for the second time since January of 2009. The crowd swept through the streets shouting 'Jews are murderers, damn Jews, stop killing innocent people', in the most recent hate crime to plague the Venezuelan capital. 'Where was the police protection promised by Chavez?' demanded the Center’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels. 'The circumstances are too reminiscent of Hitler’s Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938'." In "Attack Against Caracas Synagogue 'Reminiscent of Kristallnacht'," by Rachel Hirschfeld, Arutz Sheva, 25 November 2012.
[ 3 ] One learns of an émigré from France: "...her husband and their two sons faced a hail of rockets from the Gaza Strip. Nevertheless, Linda, who doesn't want to be identified by her last name, is delighted to be living in France no longer. 'It's much safer here than in France,' she says. 'Anti-Semitism has become unbearable there,' she says. 'Children are harassed on their way to school just because they're Jews.' She adds that she was also the victim of such harassment in the middle of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. 'I was wearing a necklace with a Star of David attached to it,' she recalls. 'Someone barged into me. I said to him: 'You ought to excuse yourself!' All he said was that he didn't apologize to Jews' According to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, about 2,000 French Jews are currently resettling in Israel each year, and a total of 100,000 have already made the move." In "Fears of Anti-Semitism: More and More French Jews Emigrating to Israel," by Gil Yaron translated from the German by Christopher Sultan, Der Spiegel, 22 March 2012.
On a sadly parallel European theme: "A group of Muslim teenagers in Hanover attack an Israeli dance troupe, reportedly yelling 'Juden raus' as they hurl stones at them. German leftists march in Berlin with Muslims to protest the 2008–2009 Gaza military conflict. 'Death to the Jews!' the marchers chant. At a soccer game between teams from the St. Pauli section of Hamburg and the city of Chemnitz in eastern Germany, the Chemnitz fans shout 'Sieg heil' and wave imitation Nazi flags. 'We’re going to build a subway from St. Pauli to Auschwitz,' some chant — not because the St. Pauli team is Jewish, but simply as a way of expressing contempt through casual use of Holocaust imagery." In "Why Anti-Semitism Is Growing in Germany," by Donald Snyder, Forward, 22 December 2012.
And: "Armed security guards and security checkpoints watch over Jewish life in Berlin; they stand guard outside the synagogues and the Jewish school. Alter is not happy with the situation, but he accepts it. He has taken to wearing his skullcap hidden underneath a black woolen hat since four young ethnic Arab men last year beat him so badly he was taken to a hospital. Ahmed Mansour says many ethnic Arab and Turkish people in Germany think like those four young men: he describes them as 'latently anti-Semitic.' Mansour is an Israeli Palestinian who has lived and worked in Berlin for nine years. He works in an outreach program and gives workshops on tolerance. Mansour says the families are to blame for the current mood. Many Palestinians fled to Germany during the Arab-Israeli wars, he says: 'They are highly traumatized.' They pass on to their children a warped view in which they are the victims and Jews are the offenders, he told DW. 'They do not discern between Jews and Israelis. All Jews are held responsible for the Middle East conflict'." In "Anti-Semitism: an everyday phenomenon," Deutsche Welle, 30 January 2013.
[ 4 ] " 'I sometimes fear not enough recognition is given to the role of the faith communities in the life of our country in promoting such a critical principle, and I join with you, in mounting anxiety, at the apparent rise in antisemitism, along with other poisonous and debilitating forms of intolerance." In "Prince Charles warns of rising antisemitism," Guardian UK, 24 June 2013.
From decades earlier, one finds: "There is more antisemitism in England than we care to admit, and the war has accentuated it, but it is not certain that it is on the increase if one thinks in terms of decades rather than years. It does not at present lead to open persecution, but it has the effect of making people callous to the sufferings of Jews in other countries. It is at bottom quite irrational and will not yield to argument." In "AntiSemitism In Britian," by George Orwell. He concludes his essay in the following way" " When Hitler has disappeared a real enquiry into this subject will be possible, and it would probably be best to start not by debunking antisemitism, but by marshalling all the justifications for it that can be found, in one's own mind or anybody else's. In that way one might get some clues that would lead to its psychological roots. But that antisemitism will be definitively CURED, without curing the larger disease of nationalism, I do not believe."One finds a new trend in making a moral equivalence between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. This is a tactic with only political substance, as one investigates what I consider to be our own era's great religious schism -- not between Sunni and Shia in Islam which began during the "succession to Mohammad:" period, but between the modern and ancient Muslim worlds, more a parallel to the era of Christianity's Papal Schism and Protestant Reformation, in which brother killed brother and both were happy to kill Jews along the way. One notes these "religious" wars were as much political as religious, and spanned centuries from the late 1300s to -- perhaps -- the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Similarly the "succession to Mohammad" itself remains unresolved for over a millennium. It is therefore not surprising that a suitable scapegoat should always be identified, and all too often the answer is "It's the Jews." From Mohammad's successors to the centuries of European Christian schisms to National Socialism and its European cousins through to today, and of course Pan-Arab Socialism and Turkish nationalism, it has been ever convenient to single out Jews as the perpetual culprits. This has so often proven easier than accepting responsibility in one's own religious or political house.
The notion of this crisis within Islam itself has noted of late, in the worldwide press coverage of a supposed "uproar" in 2006. "...it was precisely from the lecture in Regensburg that there came to life that sprout of Islamic-Christian dialogue that found its expression in the “letter of the 138 scholars” written to the pope by Muslim representatives of various orientation. Not only that. Also in that autumn of 2006, during his voyage to Turkey, Benedict XVI said clearly to the Muslim world that it was facing the same challenge that Christianity had already faced and overcome positively: that of 'welcoming the true achievements of the Enlightenment, human rights and especially the freedom of faith and its exercise'." In "In Cairo the Lecture of Regensburg Is Relevant Again," by Sandro Magister, Chiesa News, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso Spa, 20 August 2013.
One may well add to the argument that the centuries-long stream of socialist thought with its reliance on dictatorship as an interim step and policies of establishing stronger and more militant government is facing quite the same challenge. Among the accusers of Jews have been various European socialist and fascist political parties, so many of which brought only collapse and war to their own nations, while blaming Jews for their own destructive tendencies. This is the crux of Orwell's observation, as above. "So many sing the old refrain and loud declare: / Itsthejoozemanitsthejooze."
[ 5 ] The article's prose asks: "How anti-Semitic is Germany?" The recent historical question was once how anti-Semitic was National Socialism, which appeared in Germany and then throughout Europe. Today's question is how anti-Semitic are Muslims in Europe, when the wearing of a kippah generates accusations that such clothing is "provocation" all the while Muslim cultural dress of various kinds generates precious little accusations of provocation.
To some, inquiring about such is tantamount to proof of Islamophobia
[ 6 ] "As of 2013, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Since the creation of the Council in 2006, it has resolved almost more resolutions condemning Israel than on the rest of the world combined." In "List of United Nations resolutions concerning Israel," Wikipedia, n. d.
Given the murderous history of many nations around the world in recent times, it is a condemnation of the UN's "human rights" council that condemns one nation far more than any other. In spite of the official public media stance, this United Nations' bias may well be described as anti-Semitism, as anti-Jewish as anti-Israel.
Would it matter, anyhow? - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
A crystal wine glass sadly slipped
From off its pedestal, its base.
The marble floor beneath it quipped,
"I'll catch you, like that vase."
The shards of time are swept, then gone,
The shattered is discarded now.
What conclusion might be drawn?
Ah! Would it matter, anyhow?
Envoi: "Clinton was there to answer questions about an attack that left four Americans dead, embarrassed the United States, resulted in the dissemination of false information, destroyed the life of a now-imprisoned filmmaker, involved a suspicious cover-up of information, and called into question the Obama Administration’s ability to respond to foreign attacks. She offered no answers, dodged questions, and blamed others. She claimed ignorance over cables from one of the most important ambassadors in the Middle East. She contradicted her own assistant secretary of state in blaming Republicans for security cuts. She stammered over America’s role in shipping weapons from Turkey to Libya. And when asked about the cause of the deadly attack, she shouted, 'What difference, at this point, does it make?'" In "Hillary’s Little Helpers," by Matt Purple, The American Spectator, 25 January 2013
See: So wars - (2012)
"China is built on lies and its officials are hypocrites, the Dalai Lama said on Saturday, speaking via videophone after visa problems prevented him from joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu's birthday celebrations in South Africa. 'Some Chinese officials describe me as a demon,' the Tibetan spiritual leader said to loud applause as he put his index fingers either side of his head to mimic devil's horns. 'In reality, for the communist totalitarian system ... hypocrisy (and) telling lies has unfortunately become part of their lives.'" In "UPDATE 1-Dalai Lama: China is built on lies, run by hypocrites," Reuters, 8 October, 2011
Sands will shift as sands have done,
And men will lie for gain and fun.
That which is built up on the sand
Learns quickly, shifts were deeply planned.
That which is built up on lies
Lives for a time, and then it dies.
The modern age is as the old,
The same hard lessons being told.
Totalitarian dreams ever implode,
Excepting when they loud explode.
That which is born out of a lie
Is destined then to cruelly die.
This holds true both for man and state,
As true it was once, as it is of late.
Build upon a rock so firm
Builds something for the longer term.
That which was spawned by lying men
Is the old evil which ever comes again.
Totalitarians gag at freedoms' call
Because it means their castles fall.
But freedom is not the only game,
For castles fall by lies, the same.
That which is upheld by lies
The shifting sands in time excise.
See: Capital for Communists
What's a half a billion dollars
"Obama is defending his administration's decision to give a $528 million loan guarantee to a solar energy company that later collapsed." In "Obama defends loan to defunct solar panel company," Associated Press, 6 October 2011
What's a half a billion dollars
In the bigger scheme of life?
You lose a little bit of dough
And they give you grief and strife.
What's a half a billion dollars
When it's some else's dough?
Hey, it was a gamble, that's for sure.
Just easy come and easy go.
What's a half a billion dollars
For the people anyway?
Two bucks apiece from little folk
And that's not too much to pay.
You lose a little here and there
In the larger scheme of things;
The fat cats get to lick the cream
By siphoning off from underlings.
What's a half a billion here and there?
The piggies like to feed.
In other places, other times,
It would be called just greed.
But here it's noble intentions
That tilt the balance sheet,
And losing half a billion bucks
Isn't bad. Why, it's quite neat.
Envoi: "I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
See: Bankrupt green
One Dizzy Dent did rise to speak
In the midst of a bloody politick;
Speakers and Whips foresaw critique,
Fingering each cane and every stick.
Our Dizzy Dent declared their fraud;
The bodies of the politick crowd
Were fattened, ass and broad,
As dizzying views were spun aloud.
Dizzy Dent spoke of hide-and-seek
In facts, in proof, in verbiage keen;
The corrupt politick, abruptly weak,
Heard then cutting clarity clear careen.
When all was said and all was done,
Dizzy Dent was dented all the more;
Each cane and stick had all their fun,
Beating Dizzy Dent full, fully sore.
Dizzy Dent would shoulder on,
When shouldering seemed so right;
Such perseverance, such pro against con,
Gave the bloody politick a fright.
Dizzy Dent grew Hydra heads.
When one was beaten down,
The next arose, born from the shreds
Of a Dizzy Dent in every town.
Dizzy Dents shall speak their mind,
And the body politick shall rage;
There's always proof Dizzy Dents will find,
Convicting politicks to cell and cage.
One Dizzy Dent rose more to speak
In the midst of another politick;
The story turns, not once unique,
As body politick grows densely thick.
A Dizzy Dent must rise each day
To hack at overgrown knots,
And speak such truth to power's play
As connects its lies like dots.
Dizzy Dent's said to be terror bent,
When bloody politick is involved.
They mean more often their lies are spent,
And a Gordian knot is finally solved.
Dizzy Dent is cheered by some,
But never cheered by all;
It's all a matter of who's under the thumb,
And who is assigned to take that fall.
One Dizzy Dent will rise again
In the midst of a bloody politick;
Speakers and Whips, when corrupt men,
Will heft like Cain an Abel's stick.
Envoi: "They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth." Plato (427-347 BCE)
Addendum regarding Europe: "A specter is haunting Eastern Europe: the specter of what in the West is called 'dissent' This specter has not appeared out of thin air. It is a natural and inevitable consequence of the present historical phase of the system it is haunting. It was born at a time when this system, for a thousand reasons, can no longer base itself on the unadulterated, brutal, and arbitrary application of power, eliminating all expressions of nonconformity. What is more, the system has become so ossified politically that there is practically no way for such nonconformity to be implemented within its official structures. Who are these so-called dissidents? Where does their point of view come from, and what. importance does it have? What is the significance of the 'independent initiatives' in which 'dissidents' collaborate, and what real chances do such initiatives have of success? Is it appropriate to refer to 'dissidents' as an opposition? If so, what exactly is such an opposition within the framework of this system? What does it do? What role does it play in society? What are its hopes and on what are they based? Is it within the power of the 'dissidents'- as a category of sub-citizen outside the power establishment -- to have any influence at all on society and the social system? Can they actually change anything?" In "The Power of the Powerless," by Václav Havel, 1978.
Addendum regarding Saudi Arabia: "Saudi Arabia, rattled by regional turmoil that has destabilized the Middle East, is intensifying a crackdown on domestic dissent, raising fears that a more open space for public debate that emerged in recent years is under threat. Sunni Islamists, Shi'ite Muslims, liberal reformers, atheists and human rights advocates have all been targeted through a series of arrests and new laws in what one activist has described as an 'undeclared state of emergency'.' In "Concerned for stability, Saudi Arabia tightens curbs on dissent," by Sami Aboudi and Angus McDowall, Reuters, 15 April 2014.
Addendum regarding China: "A Chinese court has jailed a blogger for three years, state media has reported – the first person to be sentenced in a government-led crackdown on so-called internet rumours. Qin Zhihui, one of hundreds of bloggers reportedly detained in an official campaign to assert greater control over China's popular social media, was found guilty of 'slander' and 'picking quarrels and provoking troubles', state broadcaster CCTV said on Thursday. China has said the crackdown launched last year is aimed at maintaining social order, but rights groups have accused Beijing of limiting freedom of speech online to protect the ruling Communist party." In "Chinese blogger jailed under crackdown on 'internet rumours'," Agence France Presse, 17 April 2014.
Addendum regarding "free" America: "Should politicians and pundits who deny climate change be held criminally liable for the misinformation they spread? Gawker's Adam Weinstein—our friend and former colleague—thinks so, and has called for the arrest of outspoken deniers. "Those denialists should face jail," Weinstein writes. 'They should face fines. They should face lawsuits from the classes of people whose lives and livelihoods are most threatened by denialist tactics.' Predictably, the denier crowd isn't buying the argument. A post on the Heartland Institute's website links Weinstein to 'liberal fascism': 'Liberals who are that soaked in the ideology of catastrophic man-caused global warming are fascists. Full stop.' Even those normally on Weinstein's climate-change-believing side are pouring scorn in the comments section: 'I also want a unicorn. One that shoots rainbow-colored lasers out of its ass. Since, y'know, we're talking about wish-fulfillment that will never, ever happen.' So who's right? Much as we like the spirit of Weinstein's argument, ultimately, we disagree with its premise." In "No, We Should Not Arrest Climate Deniers," by Tim McConnell and James West, Mother Jones, 1 April 2014. [ 1 ]
Addendum regarding Russia: "Russia's upper house of parliament approved a law on Tuesday that will impose stricter rules on bloggers and is seen by critics as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to stifle dissent on the Internet. The Federation Council overwhelmingly approved the tighter controls on Russian blogs and websites that attract more than 3,000 daily visits, under legislation the government says is needed to formalize the definition of blogging in Russian law." In "Putin foes fear Internet crackdown as 'blogger law' sails through," Alessandra Prentice, Reuters, 29 April 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum regarding North Korea: "The announced execution of North Korea's de facto number two leader, Jang Song-thaek was a message from his uncle, and the country's boss, Kim Jong-eun, to his domestic audience and the international community that he's in charge; that anyone in North Korea who questions or doubts his absolute authority will be removed." In "Dissent in North Korea," by Joseph R DeTrani, Asia Times, 16 December 2013.
Addendum regarding Vietnam: "Vietnam's one-party state keeps a tight clamp on dissent and routinely jails activists, bloggers and lawyers who speak out against the communist regime. The 37-year-old blogger faced a maximum of 12 years in prison, and her lawyer said the heavy sentence she received at the closed-door trial was 'harsh'." In "Vietnam blogger 'Mother Mushroom' jailed for 10 years," Agence France Presse, 29 June 2017.
See: Dissent
NOTES
[ 1 ] While some would jail "denialists," others would seek out "hate speech," which has no determined and boundary-clarified meaning in law. One reads: "U.S. Sen. Ed Markey wants to empower an obscure federal agency to begin scouring the Internet, TV and radio for speech it finds threatening — a plan met with jeers from defenders of the First Amendment. Here we add one more incredulous voice to the chorus. The 'Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014' presents a frankly chilling proposition. The spookily-named National Telecommunications and Information Administration (what, you’ve never heard of it?) would be required to submit a report to Congress on 'the use of telecommunications' 'to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate'. Using its own judgment to determine what qualifies as impermissible speech, the new government hall monitors would then recommend steps for Congress to take that are 'appropriate and necessary to address such use of telecommunications'." In "Markey’s mission creep," Boston Herald staff, 24 April 2014.
One understands that out Dizzy Dent threatens all sides in time.
[ 2 ] Just as Russia today worries about "blogs and websites," one sees this a theme throughout the last decades. One such was: " 'The right wing has seized upon the internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information'. -- White House Counsel's Office. A document from the White House Counsel's Office suggests conservatives were using the Internet to propagate stories about Clinton." In "Additional Clinton-era restricted documents made public," Circa, 18 April 2014.
Corruption, Incompetence and Lying Detest Dissent
That this is true for political opposition on several sides does not make the worry less real, as one looks to suppress dissent from a view. A "right wing?" And of a "Left wing?" One finds good reason to hope for suppressing content on the web as one ponders such simple phenomenon as government Corruption
Plato was correct in this: "They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth." For such clarity millennia old, I shall not join the party
Skin
is
getting
thinner
everywhere
you
look,
In
every
corner,
on
every
street,
in
each
cranny
and
smallest
nook.
Thick
skin
seems
a
thing
of
the
past
now
passing
from
this
world,
As
knickers
twist
in
tighten
ing
knots,
and
"I'm
offend
ed"
is
daily
hurled.
Skin
is
getting
thinner
each
passing
day
and
week,
While
offense
is
so
easily
found
wherever
one
it
might
seek.
Thick
skin
seems
Neand
er
thal
while
thin
skin
now
is
chic,
And
being
offend
ed
all
the
while
makes
strength
for
those
so
weak.
Skin
is
getting
thinner
with
every
whine
and
moan.
Manning
up
has
lost
its
way
to
boyish
progest
erone.
Girly
men
now
hold
the
heights,
aghast
at
all
they
survey,
Thin
skin
is
shield
and
sharpened
sword
for
each
heroic
nursery
maid.
Addendum as Advice: " 'Exchange and discussion are the oxygen of an open society. Disagreement is its invigorating element. Argue intensely, but with respect and thick skin'." Quote of Joachim Gauck, in "Germany’s democracy is in danger, says President," DPA/The Local, 18 January 2017.
See: Ice Cream
Happy Ending - Happy Feet's a tasty treat
"The heart-warming story of a wayward emperor penguin that was rescued in New Zealand may not have a happy ending. Scientists who released the penguin back into the ocean say the signal from a tracking device has stopped and they fear the bird has been eaten. But they still are holding out hope that the device just fell off the penguin who has been dubbed 'Happy Feet.'" In "Famed rescue penguin 'Happy Feet' released back into wild may have been eaten, scientists fear," by Lukas I. Alpert, NY Daily News, 13 September 2011
A happy ending for those who dine
Is not so happy, I opine,
For that which lies upon the plate
As savory dish to cooperate.
Think, warm and caring people
Who so active in your zeal
Spend so much time and capital
Upon a penguin, fish or seal.
Back in the wild, those victims go
To shed their victim class,
Thereupon to be gobbled fast,
Then defecated out some ass.
Envoi: "There had been only eight recorded sightings of the white-throated needletail in the UK since 1846. So when one popped up again on British shores this week, twitchers were understandably excited. A group of 40 enthusiasts dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of the brown, black and blue bird, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia. But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed." In "Rare bird last seen in Britain 22 years ago reappears - only to be killed by wind turbine in front of a horrified crowd of birdwatchers," by Will Robinson, 27 June 2013.
Addendum of Painless Release: "It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the 'dirty work' caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals—even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn't have enough heart or homes with room for them." In "Why We Euthanize," PETA.org, 21 March 2013.
Addendum of a Sad and Tragic End: "The sheltered existence of hundreds of desert tortoises will come to a sad and tragic end in early 2014. A lack of funds at The Desert Tortoise Conservation Center, located outside Las Vegas, Nevada, will cause the sanctuary to close its doors and euthanize about half of its 1,400 tortoise residents, reports the Associated Press." In "Bankrupt Sanctuary to Euthanize Hundreds of Tortoises," by Anna Hess, Yahoo, 27 August 2013.
Addendum of Activists' Rescued Lobster: "John Merritt, a Florida resident who helped save Larry from the seafood restaurant, told ABC News that they did their best." In "Larry the lobster D.O.A. at aquarium after activists rescue him from restaurant," by Shayla Love, Washington Post, 29 July 2016.
Addendum of the Officials' Collective Groan: "The 700-pound sea lion blinked in the sun, sniffed the sea air and then lazily shifted to the edge of the truck bed and plopped onto the beach below. Freed from the cage that carried him to the ocean, the massive marine mammal shuffled into the surf, looked left, looked right and then started swimming north as a collective groan went up from wildlife officials who watched from the shore. After two days spent trapping and relocating the animal designated #U253, he was headed back to where he started — an Oregon river 130 miles (209 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean that has become an all-you-can-eat fish buffet for hungry sea lions." In "Battle of species pits protected sea lions vs. fragile fish," by Gilllian Flaccus, Seattle Times, 21 March 2018.
Addendum of Rabbit Stew: "A vegan activist in Spain who claimed to have been attacked by an angry mob last week — after she 'rescued' 16 rabbits from their farm — wound up causing the deaths of nearly 100 baby bunnies in the process, a report says." In "Vegan activist who ‘rescued’ 16 rabbits killed nearly 100 in the process," by Chris Perez, NY Post, 9 September 2019.
See: Meetings
Jones' little van was greenly green outside,
With redly red interior, though cheap Naugahyde.
It belched and smoked and fumed a lot,
And so the poorest mileage was what it got.
It was a noble failure, as no bull times went by,
Wheels flattening flatly, panels aimed on high.
No bull, as failure was foreseen for sure
When no bull dumped that old manure.
Jones fueled it with cash from agitprop
Even as it failed, drooping drop to drip, full stop.
Such noble failures run quickly out of gas;
Proving such a noble is most often just an ass.
"The fact that Europeans are unwilling to comply with Obama's strange logic gives reason for hope. It makes no sense to pile up more and more debt on already unstable piles of debt. The world doesn't have too little debt, but too much." In "Why Europe Is Right and Obama Is Wrong," a commentary by Michael Sauga, Der Spiegel Online, 3 October 2011 (Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan) [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Too much debt.
There's too much debt.
But who seeks out the loans
That become this threat?
Such a threat.
A devastation's threat.
But which whirlwind devours
What markets can't forget.
So much debt.
Governments pile up debt.
Yet comes an end to the tale
Which the many will regret.
Pile up debt?
Where's logic in that bet?
Debt means payback's due
Or losses rage as they're reset.
Too much debt
Was sure to cause upset.
Upset comes to governments all
Who spun the wheel in this roulette.
Addendum of Spanish Debt: "Spain's debt will rise to almost 100 percent of national output by the end of next year, the highest level in more than a century, according to the 2014 budget proposal handed to Parliament on Monday. The ratio of debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) will rise to 99.8 percent by the end of 2014 from 94.2 percent at the end of 2013. Debt stood at 92.2 percent of GDP at end-June. Spain's public debt has almost tripled since a decade-long property bubble burst in 2008, sending the country into a five-year long economic slump." In "Spain's public debt to approach 100 percent of GDP end-2014," by Andrés González, Reuters, 30 September 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum of Data Analyzed: "The results, based on a range of econometric techniques, suggest an inverse relationship between initial debt and subsequent growth, controlling for other determinants of growth: on average, a 10 percentage point increase in the initial debt-to-GDP ratio is associated with a slowdown in annual real per capita GDP growth of around 0.2 percentage points per year, with the impact being smaller (around 0.15) in advanced economies. There is some evidence of nonlinearity, with only high (above 90 percent of GDP) levels of debt having a significant negative effect on growth. This adverse effect largely reflects a slowdown in labor productivity growth, mainly due to reduced investment and slower growth of the capital stock per worker. On average, a 10 percentage point increase in initial debt is associated with a decline of investment by about 0.4 percentage points of GDP, with a larger impact in emerging economies. Various robustness checks yield largely similar results. They underline the need to take measures to not just stabilize public debts but to place them on a downward trajectory in the medium and long term." In "Public Debt and Growth," an IMF Working Paper by Manmohan S. Kumar and Jaejoon Woo, International Monetary Fund, WP/10/174, July 2010. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Actuarial Betrayal: "The overall picture for state pension unfunded liability is bleak. Many plans are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, in terms of both lost investment returns and stagnant economic growth. As the economy struggles to get back on track, states' fiscal health also suffers, making it more difficult for state officials to make up for the shortfalls with greater contributions." In "Promises Made, Promises Broken 2014: Unfunded Liabilities Hit $4.7 Trillion: The Betrayal of Retirees and Taxpayers Continues as State Governments Fail to Change Their Faulty Pension Accounting," by Joe Luppino-Esposito, State Budget Solutions, 12 November 2014. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Too Many Americans, 2017 Edition: "Some 40% of Americans with debt are spending up to half of their monthly income paying it back. And that may not even be enough to cover how much they owe. That’s according to a study on debt Thursday released by Northwestern Mutual, a life insurance and financial services company. The polling company Harris Poll surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. adults in February 2017 on behalf of Northwestern Mutual. The survey found that nearly half of Americans are carrying at least $25,000 in debt, with an average debt of $37,000, excluding mortgage payments." In "40% of Americans spend up to half of their income servicing debt," by Maria Lamagna, Market Watch, 30 April 2017.
See: Pretty darn fucked
NOTES
[ 1 ] "During a House Financial Services Committee hearing Tuesday on the budget, two Democrats complained after House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling instructed that two monitors in the hearing room display a real-time running national debt clock. California Rep. Maxine Waters and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison both issued complaints about the displays, according to video of the hearing. 'Clearly it is a political prop designed to message ideologically,' Ellison said." In "Democrats complain about presence of debt clock on Capitol Hill," by Alex Pappas, The Daily Caller, 26 February 2013.
[ 2 ] "Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5% per year. This has been determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5% devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years. At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5%, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government will have confiscated 64% of every dollar he saved over those years. By the time he has worked 45 years, the hidden tax will be 90%. The government will take virtually everything a person saves over a lifetime." G. Edward Griffin (b. 1931)
[ 3 ] "A large number of people, certainly the majority of the political looter class, think the best way to deal with the rapidly deepening economic crisis is via 'stimulus packages' with money plucked off the magic money tree... which is to say, by trying to re-inflate the credit bubble that actually caused the crisis. This is a bit like treating alcoholics by urging them to buy more whiskey." Perry de Havilland (Founder of Samizdata, a British group weblog).
Time is an arena in which recent political, social and economic theories are tested. The results of such tests annoy those who would have people ignore reality for rhetoric. But reality will not be ignored. One such case has been the picture postcard confluence of so-called public debt piled on public debt, the unavoidable results now being seen:
"It’s a crisis rooted deep within the history of a city that, for many years, rose and fell economically with the auto industry — while poverty, racial segregation, crime and official corruption festered.... The challenge for Mr. Orr, and the stakeholders with which he will negotiate, is to fix Detroit with minimal collateral damage — to remember that the legal positions they take and the rights they assert, in or out of a possible bankruptcy proceeding, will affect the whole country. It’s actually in the Detroit parties’ self-interest to keep the rest of America in mind, since many of the same investors and public-employee unions also have stakes elsewhere. And let’s face it, both creditors and unions took advantage of the city’s profligacy, certainly more than most ordinary Detroiters did." In "As goes Detroit," by Editorial Board, Washington Post, 24 June 2013.
[ 4 } One notes that "public debt" and "economic slump" are terms ever more frequently linked in news reports from around the world. If one were to conclude that "public debt" as a positive phenomenon even as an "economic slump" continues could not be rationalized by apologists who would further increase the amount of debt causing such a slump. one would be wrong.
Increasing public debt means temporarily that a small and elite economic class of people are reaping sizeable benefits from this process. None of these apologists argue for limiting government such that increasing debt ceases, for that would also limit their self-aggrandizement; the great proponents of increasing public debt are among the higher economic classes, even as they deny that they are. For a reflection on this from one perspective, see Income Inequality
[ 5 ] It is worth noting the enormity of this conclusion: Unlike all the theoretical words thrown at economics across decades without hard proof, now enough data has been accumulated and what emerges is a basic, no-nonsense conclusion with huge political difficulties. The data "underline the need to take measures to not just stabilize public debts but to place them on a downward trajectory in the medium and long term."
A "downward trajectory" is simply paying down the public debt. This is the antithesis of what many governments around the world have been doing for decades, and therefore this conclusion identifies a basic fact. The social welfare state, whether in overt socialist nations like Cuba and Venezuela or in social welfare states as are many Western nations, has been propped up by ever-increasing public debt, with an obvious and predictable end. The IMF notes the "need to take measures." A downward trajectory means budget cuts and reductions in benefits, the so-called "austerity" which has brought protestors to the streets around the world. Why? Because "freebies" being withdrawn make for anger for those who'd received without having produced. For more on this human penchant, see: Free bees
[ 6 ] The simple fact, bolstered by many reports, is that Lying continues
Many sources available in the news of late, and sourced throughout these pages, prove what political bureaucracy tries to obscure. The politicians and political clerisy become richer, while most citizens become poorer, all courtesy of government promises of competence -- which is easily seen to become Incompetence
From the fall of the Roman empire to the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the structure of the process remains rather consistent. Say it isn't so? Then prove it isn't so.
