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Collected Poetry
VOLUME SEVEN 
Original materials - Copyright © 2012 by Gary Bachlund All international rights reserved
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers,
and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always." Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Fortune smiles - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Fortune smiles, but she also may
Delight us in her reluctant way .
She gives the gift of a summer's day,
With a swarm of mosquitoes and us as prey.See: Fortuna lächelt...
"The Fatah party, headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has made official what it has been saying more quietly and has adopted a new logo showing all of Israel as Palestine. The logo marks the 48th anniversary of the founding of Fatah by Yasser Arafat and includes a map with the PA flag and a map of Israel that appears to be a depiction of the black and white checkered kefiyah, a symbol of the violent intifada, and the slogan 'the state and victory.' PMW revealed that the official PA daily published the new official logo. For the past year, official PA documents have increasingly shown Palestine as covering all of Israel, but this is the first time the Fatah party has officially placed the map on its logo." In "Abbas Makes It Official: All of Israel is Palestine," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, 30 December 2012.
The two-state solution
Played by the quartet
Was just pretty elocution,
Splayed and sold, and yet
The one-state solution
Is the far more likely plan
As Fatah's execution
Shows no Israel to ban.
Two has equaled one
And Oslo was a game.
The intervening years?
A sham with shills, a shame.
Let us watch all the hands
Wringing loudly now;
Applause now for those grands
And each shilly-shally bow.
Addendum: "Israeli Jews are becoming more skeptical about a peace agreement with the Palestinians, with 83 percent saying a withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders and the division of Jerusalem would not end the conflict." In "Poll: Majority of Israeli Jews pessimistic about peace," by Ariel ben Solomon, The Jerusalem Post, 1 January 2013.
Addendum of the Holy Land for Jews: "...Allah assigned Israel to the Jews until the Day of Judgement (Sura 5 Verse 21) [ 1 ] , and that Jews are the inheritors of Israel (Sura 26 Verse 59) [ 2 ] . 'I say to those who distort...the Koran: from where did you bring the name Palestine, you liars, you accursed, when Allah has already named it 'The Holy Land' and bequeathed it to the Children of Israel until the Day of Judgment," argued Adwan. "There is no such thing as 'Palestine' in the Koran.' [ 3 ] Your demand for the Land of Israel is a falsehood and it constitutes an attack on the Koran, on the Jews and their land. Therefore you won’t succeed, and Allah will fail you and humiliate you, because Allah is the one who will protect them (i.e. the Jews),' warns Adwan. The sheikh had more harsh words for the 'Palestinians,' calling them 'the killers of children, the elderly and women' in using them as human shields in order to falsely accuse the Jews of targeting them. He reports having seen the same tactic used by 'Palestinians' against the Jordanian army in the 1970s. [ 4 ] 'This is their habit and custom, their viciousness, their having hearts of stones towards their children, and their lying to public opinion, in order to get its support,' declared Adwan." In "'Allah Gave Israel to The Jews, There's No Palestine'," by Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva, 6 February 2014.
Addendum of Palestinian Politics: "A recent report from January, which the media has kept a tight lip on, has exposed the widespread human rights abuses of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The report, from the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), charges PA and Hamas for repeated cases of torture, oppression, assaults on freedom of expression and academic freedoms, as well as ignoring court orders." In "PA and Hamas Guilty of Rampant Human Rights Abuses," by Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva, 14 February 2014.
Addendum of Palestinian Demographics: "...the PLO has no representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two movements that together probably have the support of more than a third of the Palestinian public. Abu Mazen continues to convene the councils of the PLO, but it is hard to find people who take seriously their deliberations and decisions. The Israeli and Arab media report every utterance made by the leaders of Hamas, but pay much less attention to the pronouncements of PLO spokesmen. Similar observations could be made about the decline of the Fatah movement, the ruling party in the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. Fatah was weakened when some of its leaders, like Farouk Kaddoumi, objected to the Oslo Accords and refused to live under the Palestinian autonomy, the “state-in-the-making” that was established in the West Bank and Gaza. When he died in 2004, Arafat left behind a movement that was also dying and a leadership widely thought to be corrupt. At the head of the Fatah movement is the Central Committee, a group of eighteen people whose power resembles that of the Politburo in communist regimes. Only fourteen members were still alive, all over seventy, in August 2009, when a new committee was finally elected. Journalists in Ramallah estimate that, since 2000, about fifty thousand people have left the West Bank and Gaza. It is worth noting that despite the high birth rate among Palestinians, their number is shrinking in comparison to the great increase in the Israeli and Jordanian populations." In "One State/Two States: Rethinking Israel and Palestine," by Sanny Rubinstein, Dissent Magazine, Summer 2010.
Addendum of Hardline Views and only One State: "This pattern is confirmed by other questions in the survey. For example, just one-third said that a two-state solution 'should be the end of the conflict.' Nearly two-thirds said 'resistance should continue until all of historic Palestine is liberated.' And only a third said that 'it might be necessary to give up some of our claims so that our people and our children can have a better life.' Similarly, only a third said that a two-state solution would be their leadership's final goal. Instead, almost two-thirds said it would be 'part of a 'program of stages,' to liberate all of historic Palestine later.' This remarkable finding helps explain how a plurality or more of Palestinians can support President Mahmoud Abbas and reject a two-state solution at the same time." In "New Palestinian Poll Shows Hardline Views, But Some Pragmatism Too," by David Pollock, Washington Institute, 25 June 2014.
Addendum of the Palestinian Nabka: "...the prospect of an independent state of should-be dhimmis struck Arab leaders as more than humiliating. It endangered all Islam. Thus Rahman Azzam Pasha, the head of the newly formed Arab League, spoke for his 'honor group' when he threatened that 'if the Zionists dare establish a state, the massacres we would unleash would dwarf anything which Genghis Khan and Hitler perpetrated.' As the Armenians had discovered a generation earlier, the mere suspicion of rebellion could engender massacres. The loss in 1948, therefore, constituted the most catastrophic possible outcome for this honor-group: Seven Arab armies, representing the honor of hundreds of thousands of Arabs (and Muslims), were defeated by less than a million Jews, the surviving remnant of the most devastating and efficient genocide in history. To fall to people so low on the scale that it is dishonorable even to fight them—nothing could be more devastating. And this humiliating event occurred on center stage of the new postwar global community, before whom the Arab league representatives had openly bragged about their upcoming slaughters. In the history of a global public, never has any single and so huge a group suffered so much dishonor and shame in the eyes of so great an audience." In "Why the Arab World Is Lost in an Emotional Nakba, and How We Keep It There," by Richard Landes, Tablet, 24 June 2014. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Hate: "Golda Meir, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister, once said, 'We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.' Every time I heard this, I considered it hyperbole, demonstrating not the possibility that mothers could hate their neighbors more than love their own children, but to illustrate the immense animosity they felt against the Jews. But once again, the world is reminded that this is no hyperbole. It’s literal. The hate is deep and streams from generation to generation. They teach hate; they live hate; They pass it on to their progeny." In "A culture of hate means an obstacle for peace," by Lisa Daftari, FoxNews, 12 July 2014.
Addendum of Erasing Israel for "Local Preferences": "...Israel is missing. There’s Syria. There’s Jordan. There’s Gaza. But no mention of Israel. The story was first reported by a Catholic publication, the Tablet. On Wednesday, HarperCollins was backtracking fast. 'HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas,' HarperCollins UK said on its Facebook page. 'This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offense it caused'." In "HarperCollins omits Israel from maps for Mideast schools, citing 'local preferences'," by Terrence McCoy, Washington Post, 2 January 2015. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Jews Not Existing: "The Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy has translated and uploaded video from a speech delivered by PLO Ambassador to Chile Nabil Jada'a, at the Conference for Peace in Palestine and Israel on May 15, in Santiago, Chile. Jada'a cited leftist Israeli Shlomo Sand to support his claim that the Jewish people does not exist, and also relied on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic hoax from 1903, to describe a Jewish plan for global domination." In "PLO Official: We Don't Hate the Jews; They Just Don't Exist," Arutz Sheva, 8 July 2015.
Addendum of a One State Solution: "Khamenei counts on what he sees as 'Israel fatigue.' The international community would start looking for what he calls 'a practical and logical mechanism' to end the old conflict. Khamenei’s 'practical and logical mechanism' excludes the two-state formula in any form. 'The solution is a one-state formula,' he declares. That state, to be called Palestine, would be under Muslim rule but would allow non-Muslims, including some Israeli Jews who could prove 'genuine roots' in the region to stay as 'protected minorities.' Under Khamenei’s scheme, Israel, plus the West Bank and Gaza, would revert to a United Nations mandate for a brief period during which a referendum is held to create the new state of Palestine." In "Iran publishes book on how to outwit US and destroy Israel," by Amir Taheri, NYPost, 1 August 2015. [ 7 ]
Addendum of War by Individual Means: "The murder of a young Israeli couple, Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henken, in a drive-by terrorist attack leaving behind four orphaned children, has been called 'senseless.' It is brutal, violent and barbaric—but hardly senseless. Terrorism always has been about killing innocents at random, seeking to instill fear because anyone can be a random target. If you are a terrorist, killing a couple in front of their children is what you do because the people you seek to terrorize can identify with the victims and see their own children in the faces of the surviving orphans." In "Terrorism Is Not Senseless — It Is Calculated Barbarism," by Abraham H. Miller, American Spectator, 20 October 2015. [ 8 ]
Addendum of Another Muslim Statement on Israel: "Addressing 'Jews who conquered the land of the Muslims' he warns that the 'real war has not started yet' adding that 'everything that happened in the past is child’s play compared to what will occur in the near future… There will not remain a single Jew in Jerusalem, nor throughout the entire land'." In "ISIS releases video in Hebrew with a 'message to the Jews'," by Lisa Daftari, Foreign Desk, 23 October 2015.
Addendum of What's Completely Missing: "It was notable that while the Bethlehem-based Palestinian news agency Ma’an covered the parade extensively on its Arabic-language website, the story was completely missing from its English-language website, which is widely followed by the international press. Yet another example of the Palestinians sending out completely different messages in Arabic and English, just as the parade itself was further evidence that Israel has no Palestinian peace partner at the governmental level." In "Palestinian Children Wear Mock Suicide Belts in Bethlehem Parade," Israel Today, 14 January 2016.
Addendum from the River to the Sea: "They screamed 'Free, free Palestine,' 'Viva, viva Palestina' and 'From the river to the sea Palestine will be free' and smashed a window." In "Pro-Palestinian protesters turn violent at London speech by former Shin Bet head," by Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, 20 January 2016.
Addendum of Non-inclusion Again: "In an article published on National Public Radio's (NPR) website Monday, a map of the Middle East failed to include Israel, labeling Palestine in its place. The map was an illustration accompanying the article 'What Are You Afraid Of In 2016? Globetrotters Share Their Fears."' The article referenced travelers' fears of Islamic radicalization and extremism in the region." In "NPR illustrative photo wipes Israel off the map," Jerusalem Post, 25 January 2016. [ 9 ]
Addendum of No Right to Buy Property in Judea and Samaria: " 'Jews can buy homes anywhere in the world, in France, in Turkey and even in Iran,' said Shlomo Levinger a spokesman for some 20 Jewish families who want to move into the buildings. 'Just in Judea and Samaria there is a racist edict that prevents Jews from purchasing a home,' he said. 'We are demanding an end to this discriminatory practice,' he added." In "Settlers: Jews can buy a home in Iran, but not Hebron," by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, 1 February 2016.
Addendum of a Guarantee: "On a more mercenary note, the Palestinian Authority government generously compensates the families of 'shahids' as well as convicted terrorists with a guaranteed lifetime monthly income. Which Arab child or teen fed from birth on the cuddly characters championing the privilege to die for 'Felesteen' (Palestine) would not want to grow up to kill Israelis? Why would any adolescent with the normal hormonal shifts of the teen years not find solace in reaching eternal peace and family honor as a shahid (Islamic war martyr) after a fight with a parent, sibling or friend? Doesn’t suicide look a lot rosier and more romantic when you know you’ve guaranteed your parents a large lifetime income, and yourself a quick, relatively death in the process?" In "Two Arab Schoolgirls Indicted as Terrorists in Ramle," by Hana Levi Julian, Jewish Press, 11 February 2016. [ 10 ]
Addendum of Infuriating Truth Telling: "Sometimes, nothing is more infuriating than the truth. On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu infuriated the Obama administration when he told the truth about the nature of the internationally supported Palestinian demand that Israel must transfer control over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem to the Palestinians Jew-free. In a video address posted to his Facebook page at around dawn Washington time, Netanyahu said, 'The Palestinian leadership... demands a Palestinians state with one precondition: No Jews. There’s a phrase for that. It’s called ‘ethnic cleansing.’ And this demand is outrageous'." In "Benjamin Netanyahu and the ‘otherwise enlightened’," by Caroline B. Glick, 12 September 2016.
Addendum of Jew-Hate on California College Campuses: "...protesters used bullhorns to drown out the mayor’s speech and yelled and chanted 'Intifada,' 'Get the [expletive] off our campus,' and 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' while university administrators allowed the disruption to continue and instructed campus police to “stand down.” 'SFSU has not merely fostered and embraced anti-Jewish hostility — it has systematically supported these departments and student groups as they have doggedly organized their efforts to target, threaten, and intimidate Jewish students on campus and deprive them of their civil rights and their ability to feel safe and secure as they pursue their education,' the lawsuit said." In "Lawsuit alleges hostile environment for Jews on San Francisco State campus," by Roxanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2017. [ 11 ]
NOTES
[ 1 ] 5:12 "And certainly Allah made a covenant with the children of Israel, and We raised up among them twelve chieftains; and Allah said: Surely I am with you; if you keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate and believe in My apostles and assist them and offer to Allah a goodly gift, I will most certainly cover your evil deeds, and I will most certainly cause you to enter into gardens beneath which rivers flow, but whoever disbelieves from among you after that, he indeed shall lose the right way." (Salih)
[ 2 ] 5:21 "O my people! enter the holy land which Allah has prescribed for you and turn not on your backs for then you will turn back losers." (Salih)
Reading the verse without the preceding verse's context seems uninformative. But the text of the preceding verse is in part: "when Moses said to his people, "O my people, remember the favor of Allah upon you when He appointed among you prophets and made you possessors and gave you that which He had not given anyone among the worlds."
For this context Muslim scholar Adwan advances an interesting point that the "land" was "prescribed" for "the children of Israel." Moreover, given the history of modern Lebanon and Jordan, today's Palestinians also of these lands. The remainder is a question of armed struggles for political rule, which of course always carries with it wealth accumulation for those who rule. It is no wonder therefore that so many have fought to rule. A short sketch of the PLO's bloody history of factional fighting in the footnotes below shows this war to rule has been with us .
[ 3 ] One finds modern assertions that "Palestine" is found in the Koran. One cited the following: One finds assertions: "The word(s) "Palestine" appears 9 time(s) in 9 verse(s) in Quran in Mohsin Khan translation." The organization, Search Truth, cites the translation as follows: 5:21 "O my people! Enter the holy land (Palestine) which Allah has assigned to you and turn not back (in flight); for then you will be returned as losers." Khan, born in 1927, and this translation was sponsored by the Saudi government, according to Wikipedia and published in 1985. To suggest that the English translation by an Afghani made published in 1985 is proof which is sought is extending scholarly argument into outright fabrication.
An Imam's Conclusion
Other Muslim scholars who predate the political name, "Palestine" currently in use are sometimes cited: "...British-based imam Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hussaini, who asserts that early Muslim intellectuals recognized that Israel belonged to the Jews. 'You will find very clearly that the traditional commentators from the eighth and ninth century onwards have uniformly interpreted the Koran to say explicitly that Eretz Yisrael [Heb. The Land of Israel] has been given by God to the Jewish people as a perpetual convenant [sic]. There is no Islamic counterclaim to the Land anywhere in the traditional corpus of commentary'." In "The Qur'an: Israel Is Not for the Jews, Claims to the Holy Land," by Robert Spencer, Middle East, Fall 2009.
[ 4 ] The citation of the PLO -- precursor to the Fatah Party and the PA -- in Jordan is noted.
One reads: "The term Black September (Arabic: أيلول الأسود; aylūl al-aswad) refers to the Jordanian Civil War that began in September 1970 and ended in July of 1971. The conflict was fought between the two major components of the Jordanian population, the Palestinians represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) under the leadership of Yasser Arafat and the native Jordanians represented by the Jordanian Armed Forces under the leadership of King Hussein. At its core the civil war sought to determine if Jordan would be ruled by the Palestine Liberation Organisation or the Hashemite Monarchy. The war resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, the vast majority Palestinian. Armed conflict ended with the expulsion of the PLO leadership and thousands of Palestinian fighters to Lebanon." In "Black September in Jordan," Wikipedia, accessed January 2014.
Changing Names
One observes that in this time, the PLO sought to rule the nation now called Jordan. Wikipedia states: "On 25 May 1946, the United Nations approved the end of the British Mandate and recognized Transjordan as an independent sovereign kingdom. The Parliament of Transjordan proclaimed King Abdullah as the first King. The name was changed from Transjordan to Jordan in 1948, though Jordan states the name is continuous from 1946 as 'Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan'." Thus the PLO sought to rule over Jordan, whatever the history of its political name may have been.
Expelled from Jordan, the PLO sought refuge in other modern Muslim nations. But this failed as well.
"Even in normal times back in Beirut, the PLO was a difficult organization to keep under control, being composed of eight distinct resistance parties, each with its own armed elements. These parties and the PLO central structure were and are funded by a dozen rival Arab countries, and they encompass an array of conflicting ideologies, strategies, and personalities. The parties range from the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to the centrist Al-Fatah; the strategies run from militarism to diplomacy; and the personalities from the strident George Habbash of the PFLP to the moderate, soft-spoken Hani Hassan of Fatah." In "Far-flung PLO tries to pull itself together," by John Yemma, Christian Science Monitor, 29 October 1982.
But of Lebanon and the civil war there: "The role the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) - of which the DFLP is a part - played in the Lebanese Civil War is highly politicised. The accounts and reports of the events that happened are always incomplete, and often contradictory, depending on the personal interests and political affiliations of those recounting them. What remains indisputable, however, is that by the time the war ended in 1991, hundreds of thousands of people had been killed, the vast majority of them civilians. The PLO was an essential party to this tragedy." In "Did the PLO die in Lebanon?" by Spencer Osberg, Al Jazeera, 28 July 2009.
One reads more of the PLO: "Syria expelled Yasir Arafat today, one day after the guerrilla leader accused President Hafez al-Assad of orchestrating the anti-Arafat rebellion among Palestine Liberation Organization troops in Lebanon. A statement by the official Syrian press agency said, 'Because of Arafat's continued slanders against Syria and its sacrifices, and its positions of principle, he was informed today of Syria's desire for him not to continue coming to its territory.' The statement was issued several hours after Mr. Arafat was escorted to the Damascus airport by Syrian security officials in six cars and put aboard a regularly scheduled Air Tunisia flight for Tunis." In "Arafat Expelled after Saying Syria Aids P.L.O. Revolt," by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, 25 June 1983.
False Histories and Damaged Foundations
Additionally, one reads of the larger context of Muslim opinion: "Those who ignorantly claim that progress can be attained through the enforcement of strict ideological purity should take heed of the past and resist the temptation towards religious chauvinism. The conflict which some claim exists today between Sunni and Shia Muslims is a product of very recent global events; blowback from the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the petro-dollar fuelled global rise of Wahhabi reactionaries. It is decidedly not the continuation of any '1,400 year war' between Sunnis and Shias but is driven instead by the very modern phenomena of identity politics. Factions on both sides have created false histories for their own political benefit and have manufactured symbols and rituals which draw upon ancient history but are in fact entirely modern creations." In "The myth of the 1,400 year Sunni-Shia war," by Murtaza Hussain, Al Jazeera, 9 July 2013.
One finds a similar sentiment, in part: "The world of Islam with more than 1500 million adherents spread over almost all the continents of the world is not in a very happy state. In fact, the religion is in a dire state. This state of affairs arises not because Islam is under attack externally from rival religions, although there is some discernible evidence supporting this notion, but mainly because it is perennially in the throes of intra-religious animosity which is now surfacing as a violent internecine conflict. This conflict is of late taking on such severe dimensions that the very foundation of the religion is in danger of being seriously shaken or even damaged. ...The sectarian conflicts in the Middle East may not all have their roots firmly embedded in the Shia-Sunni divide, but the major ones are definitely so. The decade long in-fighting and blood bath in Lebanon, the present sectarian killing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and so forth are all rooted in Shia-Sunni conflict. In Pakistan, Sunni Muslims instigated by religious zealots perpetrated bestial murders of Shias in the name of religion. Then there is the additional religious divide: the fundamentalist Sunni upholding Wahhabism and the moderate Sunni. The conflict in Egypt between the Muslim Brotherhood purporting Wahhabism and the so-called secularists believing in moderate Sunni theology should be seen in that light. A similar situation is brewing up in Bangladesh almost imperceptibly. The Jamaat-e-Islam, Hifazat-e Islam and many other religious-political parties are following Wahhabi ideology almost obliviously through their ignorance. The internecine conflicts that are raging overtly all over the Islamic world and covertly in non-Islamic world are damaging the very foundation of Islam." In "Internecine conflict in Islam," Bangladesh Chronicle, 17 September 2013.
Then, returning to the specific theme as background for this political rhyme, one sees continued factionalism and most clearly the intent to "occupy" present-day Israel via its political destruction in favor of a Muslim-majority government. But as one sees through the history of the many warring factions within the PLO and now that between Fatah and Hamas, the notion that even this would bring peace to the Middle East is specious. Why?
Trading Blows
One reads: " 'But Hamas must edge away a little from the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas must also refrain from provoking the nervous Egyptian authorities these days. Even in Islamic jurisprudence 'necessities make certain prohibitions permissible'.' Al-Masri said he did not think that Fatah was in a position to reclaim Gaza by use of military force. 'Fatah is undergoing a period of political bankruptcy, as the moribund peace process with Israel is going nowhere,' he said. 'But Hamas' fears have increased, and so have Fatah's ambitions - especially in the aftermath of the coup in Cairo'." In "What reconciliation? Hamas, Fatah trade blows," by Khalid Amayreh, Al Jazeera, 14 September 2013.
But the internecine theme is consistent and bloody: "After months of factional street fighting in which hundreds of Palestinians were killed, Fatah struck a deal with Hamas to join a unity government as a junior partner. Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government in June 2007 in the wake of some of the worst fighting that resulted in the Gaza Strip being seized by the Hamas armed forces in what the movement described as a 'liberation'." In "Palestinian rivals: Fatah & Hamas," BBC, 17 June 2007.
The notion of Palestinian vocabulary defining Palestine as including all of what is now Israel as recognized by the United Nations in 1948 is understood by Israelis, if not the Western liberal press.
One reads: " 'The main problem for Israel is that what weighs on the Palestinians is not the conquest of 1967 but the ‘occupation’ of 1948. They do not accept the existence of the State of Israel even within the borders of the 1949 cease fire. It turns out that the slogan, ‘territories for peace,’ was an illusion. The fact that Jaffa, Tiberius and Safed are under Israeli control is more ‘oppressive’ to them than IDF roadblocks at the exits of Hebron and Nablus. The Palestinians have yet to internalize the fact that Israel will continue to exist as the nation state of the Jewish People. In any case,' Amidror says, it certainly not true that the Palestinian issue is the core of Middle East troubles. Just the opposite: it is a marginal issue. Ameliorating the Palestinian-Israeli dispute will somewhat help Israel build alliances with other Arab countries, but it won’t solve any of the major problems that beset the region." In "Perfect Storm: The Implications of Middle East Chaos" by Yaakov Amidror, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, 5 July 2015.
Thus one sees unity in opposing Israel on the one hand, alongside internecine battles over decades in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia and now Gaza. Peace? Process? What reconciliation, asks Al Jazeera?
[ 5 ] Landes noted: "So, alongside the nakba (catastrophe) that struck hundreds of thousands of the Arab inhabitants of the former British Mandate Palestine, we find yet another, much greater psychological catastrophe that struck the entire Arab world and especially its leaders: a humiliation so immense that Arab political culture and discourse could not absorb it. Initially, the refugees used the term nakba to reproach the Arab leaders who started and lost the war that so hurt them."
Lest Any Doubts Linger
Looking back at their 'catastrophe' as Palestinians understand the loss, one reads of the West's two-state policy lack of understanding as regards the UN's 1947 plan, as well as subsequent two-state proposals: "The pipe dream's single outstanding shortcoming was the palpable paucity of brotherly love. The Arabs contemptuously rebuffed the high-minded scheme and invaded newborn Israel. Two weeks pre-invasion, on May 1, 1948, Arab League secretary-general Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha declared: 'If the Zionists dare establish a state, the massacres we would unleash would dwarf anything which Genghis Khan and Hitler perpetrated.' Lest any doubt linger, Azzam reiterated his message the day seven Arab armies attacked: 'This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.' But things, alas, didn't turn out as per Azzam's bravado. Ever since, consequently, frustrated Arabs rage with bitterest indignation about being unfairly denied their state under the partition plan they deliberately foiled." In "Another Tack: Cluing Condi in," by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, 8 September 2007.
Losses at the Center
Landes wrote in another article: "...for every noble adversary there are inferiors, people without honour, without face, people disgraced. These people, who do not (or cannot) defend their honour, who must yield before the powerful presence of men of ‘respect’, will be spared violence by showing subservience, and in their very subservience, bear witness to their lack of honour, to their loss of face. Such people should be beneath aggression. In some cases it is dishonourable even to enter into conflict with them. Zionism represented a double challenge to this worldview. On the one hand, it was seen as a religious anomaly verging on blasphemy. During its first 1,300 years, Islam had only known the Jews as a subject people, subalterns in modern parlance, living in exile, forced to live by the laws and at the whim of foreign rulers and kings, Christian or Muslim. Although at times (for example, during the modernizing periods in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Iraq and Egypt) they rose to considerable prominence, at others (for example, late Ottoman Palestine), they were the lowest of the dhimmis. Unlike the Christians, for example, who increasingly benefited from the concerns of European patrons during the long twilight of the Turkish Caliphate, the Jews were the subaltern people with no protectors. To have Jews who took aggressive initiatives, who not only self-regulated within the framework of small and submissive communities, but had larger ambitions for self-rule and political autonomy, posed both a cultural and religious problem. From the religious point of view, Allah’s honour depends on the dominion of Islam. Dar al Islam cannot have independent political entities in its midst, a fortiori in its earliest and most sacred heartland. It is bad enough to lose ground at the edges of Dar al Islam – Spain, the Balkans, India. It is quite another to lose the centre. And even worse, it is especially humiliating to lose territory at the heart of Islam, not to a great and worthy foe (the Christian West, hundreds of millions of Hindus), but to a tiny people without honour." In "Saïd and Honor-Shame," by Richard Landes, Israel Affairs, Volume 13, Issue 4 October 2007.
Given the demands for sharia ruling over Western nations in which Muslims are a significant minority, one may parallel these demands with the demand that Israel become Palestine and under Muslim rule. Such is the conflict in Indonesia in which a majority Muslim country had to cede to even harsher demands from so-called Islamists that sharia rule that province. The same holds true in other Muslim nations, wherein being Muslim in some ":moderate" and less-observant way does not lessen the conflicts. The Boko Haram in Nigeria and neighboring states are demanding Muslim rule as well, just as has been the case with Israel over many decades. The "humiliation so immense" for the Islamist is that conquest is not coming easily any longer, and the "catastrophe" is that making Islam dominant in all nations is not coming to be. Israel is but one target among many, one national power among many and one embarrassment among many.
[ 6 ] Israel would be "missing" if the Palestinian parliament had its way. One reads: "At a special meeting in Gaza on Thursday held on the occasion of Nakba Day, the Palestinian parliament stated that the entire 'land of Palestine' is an Islamic endowment, and the Jews have no right to even a single inch of it. Nakba Day is the day on which Arabs mourn what they view as the 'disaster' of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. It is marked on May 14, the day in 1948 on which Israel became a state. The parliament also stressed that the 'right of return' is a sacred collective and private right and cannot be given up, and added that the Palestinians will never agree to the settlement of the so-called 'Palestinian refugees' outside the territory of 'Palestine' nor will they ever agree to recognize Israel." In "PA Parliament: Jews Have No Right to Even 'One Inch' of Israel," by Dalit Halevi, Israel National News, 15 May 2015.
Such a clear statement of intent cannot be "synthesized" with Israel to create the decades-old myth of the two-state solution.
[ 7 ] It is clear. The one-state solution is the preferred method of Islam, as represented by many Islamic entities, from movements to governments. "A video posted on a website linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), titled 'Preparation of the complete destruction of Israel by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Islamic Revolution in Iran,' called for Israel’s 'erasure from the annals of history,' according to another report in The Times of Israel on Wednesday. The clip depicts an invasion of Jerusalem by an Islamic army that includes Hamas and Hezbollah among its ranks." In "Iranian Official: We 'Reject the Existence of Any Israeli on This Earth'," Tower, 21 August 2015.
Parallels
Of a recent statement by the current Israeli Prime Minister that a Mufti aligned with Hitler in the Nazi period, one reads further: "The mufti, according to the notes of Hitler’s translator, opened the meeting by thanking Hitler for his sympathy to the 'Arab and especially the Palestinian cause.' They were natural friends, he said, because they had the same enemies. The Palestinian Arabs, therefore, were 'prepared to cooperate with Germany with all their hearts and stood ready to participate in the war.' The Arabs, the mufti predicted, 'could be more useful as allies than might be apparent at first glance.' 'The objectives of my fight are clear,' the mufti’s diary quotes Hitler as saying. 'Primarily, I am fighting the Jews without respite, and this fight includes the fight against the so-called Jewish National Home in Palestine'." In "Netanyahu right to point out parallels between Nazis and Arab leaders," by Seth Lipsky, New York Post, 25 October 2015.
Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in 1944 reviews the Bosnian SS troops.
Promises of Heaven
This is easily documented, for those who would look. One reads: "The romantic notions that Himmler had about the Bosnian Muslims were probably significant in the division's genesis. He was personally fascinated by the Islamic faith and believed that Islam created fearless soldiers. He found their ferocity preferable to the gentility of Christians and believed their martial qualities should be further developed and put to use. He thought that Muslim men would make perfect SS soldiers as Islam "promises them Heaven if they fight and are killed in action." As for their ethnic background and SS requirements, it appears that Himmler accepted the theories advanced by both Croatian and German nationalists that the Croatian people, including the Muslims, were not ethnic Slavs but pure Aryans of either Gothic or Iranian descent." In "13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)," Wikipedia, n. d. A collar tab from the uniform is shown below.
Swastika and Sword
How consistent over many decades and even before the establishment of the State of Israel, as validated by the United Nations, are Muslim statements aimed not only against Israel in this time, but against Jews. "We reject the existence of any Israeli on this earth" seems quite a clear statement.
As the Post's article notes: "The mufti and other Arab leaders hated the Jews before Israel. If Israel went away tomorrow, Muslim fundamentalists would still hate Jews. The left must shout down and discredit Netanyahu, because he’s highlighting the uncomfortable truth that, with respect to the Jews, the Arab ideology is the same as the Nazi one. And how can anyone defend that?"
Similarities Added to Parallels
Finding other similarities, one reads: "According various sources, ISIS recruiters are taking children into the ranks of ISIS on a monthly basis to replace the fighters that are being liquidated in anti-terrorist operations. These actions are reminiscent of the campaign that was launched by a crumbling Nazi Germany in 1944, when the Wehrmacht’s daily losses reached levels of 5,000 people. At that time German commanders began to actively conscript teenagers to form the so-called Hitler Youth. By the conscription of children, Hitler, as does the current ISIS leadership, hoped to prevent the collapse of his criminal state due to the lack of human resources. The actions of modern recruiters from ISIS resemble the actions of Nazi masterminds like Goebbels, Himmler and Axmann, who tried to paint violent and senseless bloodshed in heroic colors." In "ISIS and Hitlerjugend – Can You Spot a Difference?" by Martin Berger, New Eastern Outlook, 11 May 2016.
When one identifies National Socialism by its own historically-documented statements, one finds a clear picture of a consistent member of the anti-capitalist left. See: Enemies of Capitalism
as a visit to historical sources unpopular in the "modern" world. Consider also that the National Socialists pondered, We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party
[ 8 ] The notion of moral equivalence on the part of Western onlookers is noted: "The stabbings in Israel haven’t only exposed an ugly new Islamism in the Middle East. They have also exposed the moral disarray of those in the West who pose as progressive. The universalist, tolerant left that was sensitive to the scapegoating of Jews for the world’s problems is no more. And so it is left to Jews to defend Jews, bereft of left solidarity, the West merely shrugging its shoulders." In "According to the left, Israeli citizens deserve to be murdered," by Brendan O'Neill, Jewish News, 20 October 2015.
Costs Should Exceed Benefits
The Spectator article, cited above, noted: "A society that does not respond strongly to violence inadvertently gives that violence legitimacy. Restraint is not a sophisticated and measured response but interpreted as a sign that the violence is justified. A society under siege faces a delicate balance between taking action and over-reacting. Terrorism creates this dilemma. To suggest that the uses of terrorism are senseless and mindless is to fail to comprehend that terrorism is a tool designed to achieve outcomes, and the taking of life is vital to achieving those outcomes. To stop terrorism, a society must make the costs of terrorism sharply exceed the benefits and be willing to suffer the condemnation in the international community that such a policy will engender."
[ 9 ] It is worth noting how often supposed democrats "err" is failing to identify the only democracy in the Middle East, all the while these same people so readily identify monarchies and Islamic theocracies. The question then is whether such democrats are showing contempt for Israel or for democracy in the Middle East. At the minimum they are expressing poor judgment and an alarming lack of geographic literacy. American's National Public Radio should know better, but seems not to.
This is the "Western" practice of demonizing Israel, such that even a Palestinian Muslim becomes a target for deviating from the "narrative."
Shutting Down Other Voices
One reads: "Bassem Eid is the head of the Palestininian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), an organization and a former member of the far-left wing Israeli group B’Tselem. While Eid would appear to be an unlikely target for anti-Israel smear groups, BDS demonstrators nevertheless showed up to disrupt his lecture at the University of Chicago last week. The anti-Israel activists, incensed that Eid had leveled criticisms against Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for human rights violations, attempted to shout him down." In "Arab human rights activist 'terrified' by BDS death threats," by David Rosenberg, Arutz Sheva, 23 February 2016.
Further: "The first group to attack him was Students for Justice in Palestine. In leading the assault on Eid, SJP members interrupted him, threatened him and demonized him. 'You must never again speak about the Palestinians!,' some yelled in English at a man who has devoted his life to defending Palestinian rights. In the meantime, other SJP members reportedly threatened Eid in Arabic with physical violence." In "The lie of pro-Palestinian activism," by Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, 22 February 2016.
The defense of the "narrative" is no step towards a solution to the so-called peace process. Glick notes: "Eid explained that for 68 years, the Palestinians have blamed Israel for all their suffering. He insisted that the time has come for the Palestinians to take responsibility for their actions and stop shirking that responsibility by blaming Israel for their own crimes."
As other Muslim voices notes above show differing views from the official Palestinian "narrative," one looks to the political background for this, for the Koran as also noted above mentions many things, but neither Jerusalem nor the Palestinians.
[ 10 ] Such generous payments to the families of 'shahids' by Palestinian authorities demonstrates their support. And yet the Palestinians have argued another stance in a US court.
One reads: "The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court to toss a more than $655 million award won by a group of American families who accused them of supporting terrorist attacks in Israel. A lawyer for the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, the government and diplomatic representative of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, argued to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that the case should never have reached trial. A U.S. jury in 2015 found the defendants liable under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act in a case that could bolster efforts by Americans to use the law to hold foreign entities responsible in U.S. courts for overseas attacks." In "Palestinian Authority, PLO appeal U.S. terror support verdict," by Nate Raymond, Reuters, 12 April 2016.
Complaining about technicalities in law does not change two points, first, that Palestinian entities support 'shahids' in attacks on Israelis, and 2) the same Palestinians are upset the consequences of this stance will cost them millions.
A true peace with Israel would better the personal lives of many Palestinians as well as Israelis, while this low-level war is costing all sides, all in service to Fatah's dream of Israel's destruction.
[ 11 ] "From the river to the sea" states in simple geography that modern Palestine is defined by these self-appointed pro-Palestine "activists" to include the entire nation of Israel. Therefore there can be no two-state solution as long as this is asserted, though there can be "activism" on American college campuses against Jews, rather like the anti-Jewish pogroms of Tsarist Russia and the short-lived reign of National Socialism in Europe during World War Two.
See: Islamophobia revisited - a thumbnail sketch of tolerance and inter-religious dialogues
Erotic vaudeville - paraphrase of poem by Alfred Lichtenstein
Night time in the middle of a street:
A landlord of a pub undresses.
An engineer appears deeply downbeat,
After straying from his wife's caresses.
After a like-minded rutting bastard
Ogles a dog of the queerest kind.
Notes an old man, wanking while plastered,
Too much will make you go blind.
Squatting in vomitus, green and thick,
Is a drunken syphilitic squatter .
A boxer shakes. A baby gets sick.
Stares an upper-crust, top-hatted rotter.
A young woman is killed by a car racing by.
A girl is thrashed by an toff.
Embittered is a man. But why?
Because though trying he just can't get off.
Envoi: "At least my theory of technique, if I have one, is very far from original; nor is it complicated. I can express it in fifteen words, by quoting The Eternal Question And Immortal Answer of burlesk,viz. 'Would you hit a woman with a child?--No, I'd hit her with a brick.' Like the burlesk comedian, I am abnormally fond of that precision which creates movement." In Foreword to "Is 5," E. E. Cummings, 1926.
See: Erotisches Variété
"President Evo Morales nationalized the Bolivian electricity distribution subsidiaries of the Spanish energy company Iberdrola in a public ceremony Saturday. Morales issued a decree allowing the takeover of shares in Empresa de Electricidad de La Paz (Electropaz) and Empresa de Luz y Fuerza de Oruro (Elfeo), which supply energy in this Andean nation. Soldiers guarded the installations of the electricity distribution companies, marked with signs reading: 'Nationalized.' In the ceremony at Bolivia's government palace, Morales also announced the expropriation of an investment management company and a service provider belonging to the Spanish energy giant." In "Bolivia expropriates Spanish energy subsidiaries," Associated Press, 29 December 2012
National eyes
Grow greedy now.
Expropriate
And then bid ciao.
Stealing speaks
Its very name
When politics
Declares this game.
Who'll invest
For losses great?
Who'll avoid
Expropriate?
National eyes?
See envy's glare.
The next investor?
You beware.
Thievery stalks you,
Steals, not buys,
And justifies
In national eyes.
Envoi: "State ownership! It leads only to absurd and monstrous conclusions; state ownership means state monopoly, concentrated in the hands of one party and its adherents, and that state brings only ruin and bankruptcy to all." Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
Addendum of Cuban Nationalization: "From sugar bowl to empty cup: it is a sign of the times that Cuba is opening up sugar production to foreign investment for the first time since the industry was nationalised in 1959 as the communist-run country seeks to reverse a relentless decline in output. Cuba was once the world’s largest sugar exporter. But, according to a local expert, it 'has been reduced to rubble by poor state management, a lack of capital, sanctions, hurricanes and other factors'." In "Cuba worries as sugar industry dissolves," by Marc Frank, Financial Times, 18 May 2010.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization I: "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday he will nationalize the gold industry, including extraction and processing, and use its output to boost the country's international reserves. The move follows a dispute between his government and foreign miners who say the rules limiting the amount of gold that can be exported from the South American nation hurt their efforts to secure financing and create jobs. Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia's Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela." In "Chavez to nationalize Venezuelan gold industry," Reuters, by Louise Egan, 17 August 2011.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization II: "...not a promise has been kept. 'The people take very little part in managing the company; there used to be programs directly benefiting communities, but they no longer exist; the government had to inject money into these companies to make them sustainable; cement is sold at a greatly increased price, and the distribution mafia has become stronger,' he says. The same is true for other public sector companies like Lácteos Los Andes, Agropatria, Abastos Bicentenarios, Petrocasa, Envase Internacional, Cultivo Organopónico, Civetchi where, according to Polanco, workers are harassed and legalization of unions is not allowed as they are considered 'counter-revolutionary.' 'Under private hands, unions were recognized; you could go on a strike without being termed a ‘destabilizer.' The shift from the old to the new scheme centers in the criminalization of protest,' Chaparro says. Polanco and Chaparro urge President Maduro to listen to the workers, just as he did business people. They warn that workers complaints are building up, which could have a pressure cooker effect risking explosion, and no one wants that." In "Bureaucracy in Venezuela has failed to empower workers," by Yaneth Fernández, El Universal, 27 July 2013.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization III: "A Venezuelan state agency on Friday ordered the temporary takeover of a factory that produces toilet paper in what it called an effort to ensure consistent supplies after embarrassing shortages earlier this year. Critics of President Nicolas Maduro say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government's rigid price and currency controls are failing." In "Venezuela orders temporary takeover of toilet paper factory," Reuters, 21 September 2013.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization IV: "PDVSA justified the equipment’s expropriation, calling it essential to the South American nation’s development and welfare, according to a court order obtained by The Associated Press. Company workers were instructed to load the rigs, known as snubbing units and used to repair damaged casing, onto trucks to be deployed at 'critical wells' elsewhere, according to the document. 'It was like a thief breaking into your house, asking for the keys to the safe and then expecting you to help carry it away,' Jesus Centeno, local operations manager for Superior in the city of Anaco, said by phone. 'Their argument was that we were practically sabotaging national production'." In "Venezuela’s government seizes U.S.-owned oil rigs," Associated Press, 1 November 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization IV: "The expropriation of private firms in Venezuela first began over 10 years ago, and 230 food companies are now in the hands of the state. However, the private sector still produces 80 percent of the food sold through the state network. 'If all the expropriated industries were operating at full capacity, we would be able to provide the state network without having to reduce the supply to the private sector,' Baraybar said. ...Even though the national government controls the production, distribution, and sale of goods in Venezuela, President Maduro says the private sector's 'economic war' is to blame for the country’s crisis. The Venezuelan government has also instituted strict currency controls since 2003, leaving many firms without the US dollars necessary to pay for imports. Baraybar says production plants in the food industry are grinding to a halt over the government’s delay in assigning foreign-currency quotas. The sector’s debt with foreign suppliers has reached US$1.4 billion, he claims. Venezuela’s largest business union, Fedecámaras, says the country’s the private sector has become highly dysfunctional as a result of state intervention." In "Amid Shortages, Venezuela Forces All Food Distribution into State Hands," by Sabrina Martín, Pan Am Post, 23 July 2015.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization V: "Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a sweeping crackdown Saturday under a new emergency decree, ordering the seizure of paralyzed factories, the arrest of their owners and military exercises to counter alleged foreign threats. The embattled leftist is struggling to contain a raging economic crisis that has led to food shortages, soaring prices, riots, looting and vigilante justice, pushing Venezuela to the brink of collapse." In "Maduro in crackdown under Venezuela emergency decree," by Valentina Oropeza, Agence France Presse, 15 May 2016.
Addendum of Venezuelan Nationalization VI: " General Motors has stopped doing business in Venezuela after authorities took control of a factory in what GM called an illegal judicial seizure of its assets. The plant was confiscated on Wednesday as anti-government protesters clashed with authorities in a country that is roiling in economic troubles such as food shortages and triple-digit inflation." In "GM halts operations in Venezuela after factory is seized," by FOX 5, 20 April 2017.
Addendum of Argentine Nationalization I: "Less than a decade ago, Argentina was an exporter of oil and natural gas. Now the government has to spend billions of dollars to import fuel. This dramatic reversal of fortune is why Argentina, already a global financial rogue after its historic debt default, is willing to risk becoming even more of a pariah by seizing control of its leading oil company from Spanish hands, analysts say. President Cristina Fernandez infuriated Spain, its largest foreign investor, but elated many Argentines by expropriating Repsol YPF SA's majority stake in Argentina's formerly state-owned YPF energy company." In "Argentina YPF Nationalization: Energy Crisis Provoked Government Expropriation Of Repsol YPF," by Luis Andres Henao, Huffington Post, 22 April 2013.
Addendum Argentine Nationalization II: "Moneyed Argentines are parking their cash in Miami to avoid 23 percent inflation and the threat of creeping government expropriation. Also, since Fernández’s landslide reelection in October, Argentina’s borrowing costs have overtaken Venezuela’s. On Monday, when Fernández made her YPF announcement, the cost to insure against an Argentine default staged the biggest jump in the world, according to data provider CMA." In "Argentina Tries the Chávez Way," by Robin Farzad, 17 April 2012.
Addendum Argentine Nationalization III: " 'A year ago the government considered energy sovereignty to mean ‘Spanish, get out', whereas now it seems to mean 'Yankees, come in', says Daniel Montamat, a former energy secretary and former head of YPF (under opposition governments). YPF faces obstacles to attracting more collaborators. For one thing there is runaway inflation and a distorted exchange rate. More pressing is the government’s unfinished business with Repsol. Argentina has yet to compensate the company a peso for the $10.5 billion it claims it is owed. Last year, anticipating its deal with YPF, Repsol sued Chevron in Spain and the United States; on July 24th it sought an injunction to halt the deal. Keeping the lights on in Argentina is not getting any easier." In "Flogging a Dead Cow," The Economist, 27 July 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Hard Data Refuting Socialism: "...to compliment the data. Hong Kong and Singapore were small, poor Asian locales at the end of World War II. But both instituted free markets, limited government, robust capitalism, and a rule of law supporting those. Doing so, the pair have becoming two of the richest locations on the planet. Their citizens are thriving and prosperous. Conversely, Cuba and Venezuela were at one point growing economies. Cuba was a thriving little island, albeit with divided wealth, that for generations now has been locked in poverty under the boot of Communist dictators where there is almost no wealth left at all. Venezuela has immense oil reserves and was building some economic momentum. But they turned to socialism and the people are now literally starving, eating stray animals to stay alive. These four examples are the extremes, but they solidly back the hard data." In "Facts Don’t Care About Socialism’s Feelings: Mississippi More Prosperous Than Europe," by Rod Thomson, Revolutionary Act, 30 November 2018.
Addendum of Backing Away from Nationalization: "The seizures that began in 2000 were ratified by the government, which said they were needed to redress colonial imbalances. A vibrant agricultural industry that exported tobacco and roses and grew most of the food the nation needed collapsed. Periodic food shortages ensued, inflation became the world’s highest and the manufacturing industry was decimated. What was one of Africa’s richest countries became one of its poorest." In "Zimbabwe Gives Land Back to White Farmers After Wrecking Economy," by Godfrey Marawanyika and Antony Sguazzin, Bloomberg, 13 March 2020.
See: Shearing and Fleecing
NOTES
[ 1 ] Venezuela is losing in the legal argument. One reads, "A World Bank arbitration tribunal on Thursday ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil Corp around $1.6 billion to compensate for the 2007 nationalization of its oil projects in the country." In "Venezuela Ordered To Pay Exxon $1.6B For Nationalization," by Corina Pons and Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters, 9 October 2014.
The game of nationalization was justified by socialist theory, and has played out in various ways, all of them relatively short term in a historical perspective. Once the announcement is made by act and deed that investors' assets will be nationalized, a political synonym for theft, the next potential investor is warned and warned away. Oddly, the argument that companies were "sabotaging" oil production falls on it face, as Venezuela's oil production has continued to drop while under government ownership and control. Why? Expertise requires remuneration and investment requires return, not expropriation. It is a matter of investors simply walking away. People walk away
Undermining Revenue
Among those walking away are energy investors and expertise. And so, one learns more: "Local production of medium and light crude oils previously used as diluents has declined and the construction of new oil upgraders is lagging behind. Pdvsa has been purchasing naphtha at high prices on the open market, which hits the company's cash flow and undermines the main source of revenue for the government of Nicolás Maduro." In "Venezuela considers importing crude oil from Algeria," El Universal, 27 August 2014.
Yet more information fills out the picture of ideology-based ineptitude: "In 1999, when Chávez took office, PDVSA had 51,000 employees and produced 63 barrels of crude a day per employee. Fifteen years later, PDVSA had 140,000 employees, and produced 20 barrels of crude a day per employee, according to an Aug. 14 report by the France Press news agency. Venezuela’s net oil exports have plummeted from 3.1 million barrels a day in 1997 to 1.7 million barrels a day in 2013, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates." In "Venezuela: From oil power to oil importer," by Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 30 August 2014.
The multiple addenda above spanning five years of nationalization by the Venezuelan government parallel an ever-weakening economy, such that the laboratory of the real world is proofing what Chavez had called 21st century socialism.
No Long-term Success Stories
One notes in 2016 while socialism as a theme is being tossed about in the West, that socialism around the world continues its failing record. One reads in an editorial: "Around the world, nations that have been foolish enough to adopt socialist policies either collapsed or are well on their way to doing so. Why, then, are so many in the U.S. enthralled with the idea? A quick look at the world’s countries in direst economic shape reveals that many, if not most, have one thing in common: They rely on top-down socialist control, rather than free markets, to run their economies. The former, history amply shows, are doomed to fail. There are no long-term socialist success stories. None." In "Socialism Is Dying Everywhere — Except The U.S." Investors Editorial, 13 May 2016.
One finds the current socialist theorists at pains to term such as Chavez' 21st century socialism, Communist China's one party rule, Castro's almost six-decades old socialist revolution and more by some variant of the term "capitalism." That is to say, the endemic corruption and incompetence of top-down economic management of a national economy is never real socialism but rather just one of many systems which require so much Grease
The common element missing in all the real world examples of socialism by any name is greater freedom from government, giving lie to the revolutionary rhetoric of "liberation."
But such true liberation will always threaten Fat, fat government
[ 2 ] The bill comes due. "...ideology ultimately cannot achieve economic results: YPF production has not improved. Kicillof, the President’s favorite, promised a year ago in the Senate a production boom. In the first quarter of 2013, gas production fell by 3.5% and oil production by 2.7%. In 2012 gas had already fallen and oil had barely risen (aided by a long 2011 strike that provided good optics). Perhaps Kicillof will now attempt to blame Europe, as he does routinely to explain the stagflation in the wider economy. But excuses fall short. Unlike true democracies, authoritarian leaders can never admit mistakes, lest they show their fallibility. That is why in spite of the facts, new commercials are being broadcast explaining the victories of YPF and its nationalization. But a year after the epic, reality prevails. There was no plan whatsoever." In "For Argentina’s Nationalized Oil ;Industry': A Year of Nothing," by Pierpaolo Barbieri, Yahoo Finance, 18 April 2013.
At his mirror - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
At his mirror he poses that
He might arrange his this and that.
He twists and turns moustache and beard,
And by the glint of his rings is cheered,
Trying things out, only just to see,
He chuckles aloud with glorious glee.
Seeing himself through admiring eyes,
He knots his cravat with endearing sighs.
He throws himself a parting glance,
Giving his mirror one last chance,
And off he struts to promenade,
While wafting about is his pomade,
And yet he's annoyed like a little boy
For other folks' vanity does him so annoy.
"Although we take little from it scientifically, the book remains a rare and eccentric journey into the madness of not three, but four men in an asylum. It is, in that sense, an unexpected tribute to human folly, and one that works best as a meditation on our own misplaced self-confidence. Whether scientist or psychiatric patient, we assume others are more likely to be biased or misled than we are, and we take for granted that our own beliefs are based on sound reasoning and observation. This may be the nearest we can get to revelation—the understanding that our most cherished beliefs could be wrong." In "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," by Vaughan Bell, Slate, 26 May 2010
Four Christs of Ypsilanti
Managed their little chats
And quarreled over who was right
And wrong in quarreling spats.
Three were patient in the ward
And one impatient just to see
How things would turn out scored
Over time and eventuality.
Human folly, it is said,
Needs padded walls of sorts,
But much of human folly
Plays at so many sports.
Beliefs which might be cherished
Might drive a person mad,
But everyone believes somehow
That their belief's not bad.
Someone else's, it is plain,
Makes all the problems, all the pain,
While every little Christ's campaign
Requires you believe in the main.
Such is every scribbled slate,
Each clinging clanging bell;
Tabula rasa's troubled fate
Overflows with words too well.
Psychological Christs, political Christs,
And Christs of all sorts and snares.
Three were studied in an asylum,
But we're legion in the world's affairs.
Be you critical of another's belief?
Of a belief that is not yours?
Anointed one, so critical,
Who abhors also adores.
Men all believe in something
That other men revile.
There comes a moment, comes your time,
Some will your belief defile.
Envoi: Susan: "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—" / Death: MY POINT EXACTLY.” Terry Pratchett, in Hogfather (1996)
Lying continues - government flexing its sinews
"There is something particularly ugly in a democratic society when government officials lie — or in the case in point, tell half-truths. That’s a far cry from the heads-will-roll statement initially put out by the State Department presumably to give the rest of us the impression that actions have consequences and that there is a price to be paid for incompetence — especially a level of incompetence that resulted in the deaths of four brave Americans. Headed into term two, this administration continues its lying ways." In "The lying continues," by the Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 28 December 2012.
Lying continues,
So is it writ;
Politics shows
Itself again shit.
Deal form the bottom
Of the well-marked deck,
Palm the ace,
And what the heck?
Tell half-truths.
Which half is true?
It's all a matter of
One's point-of-view.
Lying continues
Its same ugly ways,
As government fails,
Averting its gaze.
State your preference:
Half-truths? Or Lies?
State competence
Yet again stupefies.
Envoi: "Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke." Will Rogers (1879-1935)
Addendum of Not Reporting: "But nowhere in the mainstream media did you hear that the U.S. economy lost more than 1.4 million jobs between December and January. It is amazing the things that you can find out when you actually take the time to look at the hard numbers instead of just listening to the media spin. Back in 2007, more than 146 million Americans were employed. Today, only 141.6 million Americans are employed even though our population has grown steadily since then. When the government and the media tell you that we are in a "recovery" and that unemployment is lower than it was a couple of years ago, I encourage you to dig deeper. The truth is that even the government's own numbers tell us that the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is employed continues to fall and that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession." In "Shocking Numbers That Show The Media Is Lying To You About Unemployment In America," posted by Michael, 1 February 2013
Addendum by the Government Numbers: For 2007, total employees: 146,047 [Numbers in thousands] or 146,047,000 -- In "Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey," United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Last Modified Date: March 1, 2012. For January 2013, 141,614 [Numbers in thousands] or 141,614,000 -- In "Economic News Release - Table A-9. Selected employment indicators" (Not seasonally adjusted), " United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Last Modified Date: February 01, 2013. The numbers -- 4,433,000 less Americans employed in January 2013 as compared to 2007.
Addendum by the News: "In the year following Obama's inauguration, the U.S. economy lost about 4.3 million jobs. But new figures released Thursday show 4.4 million jobs have been added back since then." In "Obama may be a job creator after all," by Annalyn Censky, CNN Money, 26 September 2012.
Academic Addendum: "It is both disquieting and even embarrassing that scholars supposedly studying the same phenomenon could have such strong differences of opinion." James T. Richardson, Ph.D., J.D., University of Nevada professor of sociology, "The Psychology of Induction: A Review and Interpretation"; Cults and New Religious Movements (1989), Marc Galanter, ed., American Psychiatric Association
Academic Addendum: "History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth." Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (2002) [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Addendum: "All governments lie and nothing they say should be believed." I. F. "Izzy" Stone (1907-1989)
Addendum from an Elder Journalist: "The republic's in trouble, we lie about everything, lying has become the staple." In "Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media," by Lisa O'Carroll, The Guardian UK, 27 September 2013.
Addendum of Misleading Statements: "The SEC said It was the first time it has charged a municipality for making misleading statements outside of securities disclosure documents. Its investigation covered Harrisburg's budget, annual and mid-year financial statements, and a 'State of the City' address. Alongside the charges, the SEC issued a report saying that public officials may be liable under federal securities laws for public statements made in the secondary market for municipal securities. Last Monday, the SEC accused Victorville, California, of defrauding investors by, in part, giving them false information about the security of bonds used for an airport hangar project. In March, the SEC settled fraud charges with Illinois over allegations that the state repeatedly misled investors about its underfunded pensions." In "SEC charges Pennsylvania's capital city with fraud," Reuters, 6 May 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum of Validating Disbelief: "While the NSA is allowed to keep the metadata - the address or phone number and the duration, but not the content, of the communication - of Americans for up to five years, the court ruled that when it gathered up such large packets of information, they included actual emails between American citizens, it violated the Constitution's ban against unauthorized search and seizure. In the opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court denouncing the practice, the judge wrote that the NSA had advised the court that 'the volume and nature of the information it had been collecting is fundamentally different than what the court had been led to believe,' and went on to say the court must consider 'whether targeting and minimization procedures comport with the 4th Amendment'." In "NSA collected thousands of US communications," by Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press, 21 August 2013. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Constructing a Lie: "Judicial Watch sought documents related to the Benghazi attacks through the Freedom of Information Act and obtained them earlier this month. On Tuesday, it pointed to an email from Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, which discussed preparations for Rice's appearances on the shows. The email lists one goal as being 'to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.' It also emphasizes Obama's leadership and stresses his statesmanlike qualities. 'Now we know the Obama White House's chief concern about the Benghazi attack was making sure that President Obama looked good,' Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement on the group's website. ...Last year, the White House released reams of emails related to the controversy that showed the talking points for Rice went through a series of revisions that scrubbed them of references to terror warnings before the deadly attacks." In "Benghazi emails show White House image control: Judicial Watch," by Jeff Mason, Reuters, 29 April 2014. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Lying by Commission: " 'I remember during one Roosevelt Room prep session before I appeared on the Sunday shows, I objected when Dan Pfeiffer wanted me to say Social Security didn’t contribute to the deficit,' Geithner wrote in his new memoir, 'Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises.' 'It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute. Pfeiffer said the line was a 'dog whistle' to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security'." In "Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claims White House asked him to lie during TV interviews: book," by Adam Edelman, New York Daily News, 12 May 2014.
Addendum of Lying by Omission: "Those who lived through the Carter Presidency will remember the misery index, “Calculated by adding together the unemployment rate and the annual inflation rate.” Suppose we calculated inflation now using the same methodology as in the 1980s? It would actually be 9 percent, compared to the official government number of 1 percent. One major difference is that energy and food prices are no longer included in inflation calculations. Convenient omission considering how gasoline prices have doubled over the past several years. Similarly, if unemployment was calculated using 1980s methodologies, it would be 23 percent, not the 6.3 percent rate reported this week. This would give us a misery index of 32, far eclipsing Jimmy Carter’s high of 20." In "Time to Resurrect the Misery Index," by Brian C Joondeph, American Thinker, 6 May 2014.
Addendum of CIA Lying to the US Senate: " 'Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn't do that.' That was CIA Director John Brennan's answer in March when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., charged the CIA with breaking into computers used by Senate investigators looking into CIA misconduct. It turns out that the CIA would do that — and, in fact, had done so. Brennan's reassurances were false, and CIA spooks had been hacking into the committee investigators' computers looking for documents they thought the investigators shouldn't have, violating a promise not to. So, first Brennan broke a promise. Then, he either lied, or showed that he doesn't control his own agency, which in many ways would be worse." In "Public servants acting as public masters," by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, USA Today, 3 August 2014.
Addendum of Now Proven Lying: " 'Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency." Obama told this whopper to his assembled staff on his first day in office. He promised it to the press. Instead, his administration refuses to hand over documents and Obama refuses to answer questions. As liberal constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley assessed the presidency, 'Barack Obama is really the president Richard Nixon always wanted to be'." In "5 lies that have shaped the Obama presidency," by Jack Cashill, New York Post, 13 September 2014.
Addendum of the Big American Lie: "Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle class. I hear all the time that 'unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren't feeling it.' When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth -- the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real -- then we will quit wondering why Americans aren't 'feeling' something that doesn't remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class." In "The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment," by Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, 3 February 2015.
Addendum of the Gift that Keeps On Giving: "Political scientist and psychologist Renshon said politicians should be held up to a higher standard but over the decades, they and the government have been more deceitful and unwilling to tell the public something that could hurt them politically. When President Dwight Eisenhower misled the public about a spy plane captured by the Soviet Union, lying was the exception. By the time President Bill Clinton strained the meaning of the word 'is' testifying before a grand jury, it was more common. 'We've become kind of numb to it,' said Pamela Meyer, the Washington based author of the book 'Liespotting' and chief executive officer of the private firm Calibrate, which that trains people and companies about how to spot deception. 'In Washington, deception is the gift that keeps on giving'." In "We all lie, scientists say, but politicians even more so," by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press, 17 April 2016.
Addendum of Intentionally Deceptive Justice: "In a stunning rebuke to the Department of Justice Thursday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ordered annual ethics classes for the DOJ attorneys who were 'intentionally deceptive' during the course of executive amnesty litigation. At issue was whether the DOJ intentionally misled the judge into believing that Obama's DACA amnesty program would be halted until he made a ruling on a lawsuit brought by 26 states." In "Federal Judge Orders 'Deceptive' DOJ Lawyers to Take Ethics Classes," by Debra Heine, PJ Media, 20 May 2016.
Addendum of Unaccountability: "You really can’t make this stuff up. Maybe there are times when the public does deserve what it gets with poor leadership. We have a political class here in the US, decades in the making, who after the worst terrorist attack in history thought that an investigation with no testimony under oath was just fine. This allowed witnesses to lie and withhold evidence which normally would have been felonies." In "Western countries hold themselves unaccountable," by Jim Dean, New Eastern Outlook, 15 October 2016.
Addendum of Idiots Arguing for Lying by Government: "Using taxpayer funds, government officials in Orange County have spent the last 16 years arguing the most absurd legal proposition in the entire nation: How could social workers have known it was wrong to lie, falsify records and hide exculpatory evidence in 2000 so that a judge would forcibly take two young daughters from their mother for six-and-a-half years? From the you-can't-make-up-this-crap file, county officials are paying Lynberg & Watkins, a private Southern California law firm specializing in defending cops in excessive force lawsuits, untold sums to claim the social workers couldn't have 'clearly' known that dishonesty wasn't acceptable in court and, as a back up, even if they did know, they should enjoy immunity for their misdeeds because they were government employees." In "Judges Reject Orange County's Claim that Social Workers Didn't Know Lying In Court Was Wrong," by R. Scott Moxley, Orange County Register, 6 January 2017.
Addendum of Massive Fabrication: "The far more dire implications, however, are for broader student loan market, because if the latest unfabricated data suggesting that loan delinquencies are rapidly rising toward 50% across most of America's colleges, then the US is facing a default problem of staggering proportions. Recall that back in December 2014, The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee forecast that in an aggressive scenario, as much as $3.3 trillion in student loans could be oustanding [sic] by 2024. Incidentally, that is the scenario that has captured the growth of student loans since it was presented." In "US Government Caught Massively Fabricating Student Loan Default Data," by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 19 January 2017.
Addendum of a Self-evident Tactic: "Self-fulfilling premise. You demonize and then you— We call it the wrap-up smear, if you want to talk politics. Called the wrap-up smear. You smear somebody with falsehoods and all the rest, and then you merchandize it. And then you write it, and they’ll say, 'See, it’s reported in the press that this, this, this, and this.' So they have that validation that the press reported the smear. And then it’s called the wrap-up smear. Now, I’m gonna merchandize the press’s report on the smear that we made. It’s a tactic. And it’s self-evident." Video quote of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, in a User-Created Clip by "vicrow," hosted by C-SPAN, 22 June 2017.
June 22, 2017.
Addendum of Emasculating Reason: "The more the concept of reason becomes emasculated, the more easily it lends itself to ideological manipulation and to propagation of even the most blatant lies. … Subjective reason conforms to anything." In "Eclipse of Reason," Max Horkheimer, 1947.
The comedy: "Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Chico Marx as Chicolini, in "Duck Soup" (1933) by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
See: If it's serious, you lie
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The biggest lie in politics today is that the debt can be tamed without hurting the middle class via tax hikes and entitlement cuts. Obama and his allies know better, or should, but there is no stomach in Washington for honesty." In "You May Be Right, Mr. President, But This Is Crazy," by Ron Fournier, National Journal, 20 February 2013. See: Pinocchio knows
[ 2 ] "A week after official figures showed a steep fall in euro-zone output in late 2012 the European Commission (EC) has added to the gloom by unveiling some gloomy forecasts for 2013. Three months ago the EC envisaged a modest recovery getting under way in the first half of this year. Now that is not expected until the second half of 2013." In "The ever-receding recovery," The Economist, 22 February 2013.
Keeping Up Appearances
As numbers are announced, some look into the meaning and methodology behind such announcements. Surprised, one might question: "While the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) defends the integrity of its work and the periodic revisions it makes to its methodology, for some, this aim-high-then-mark-down trend is nothing short of a conspiracy. 'I think we have been getting overly optimistic [GDP] assessments from the government,' says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, in the attached video. 'They want to make GDP appear bigger than it normally would be, and growth to appear bigger. So this is government propaganda.' To back up his claim, Schiff points to the fact that ever since the Great Recession in 2008, two-thirds of the BEA's preliminary estimates of GDP have been revised downward, while noting that 'the size of the downward revisions has also been 50% greater than the upward revisions. I don't think this is an accident'." In "GDP Data Is Unreliable, Government Propaganda: Peter Schiff," by Matt Nesto, Yahoo, 23 August 2013.
[ 3 ] "...Argentina must show that it has rectified its false official statistics, including inflation and CPI numbers, or face censure. To put this in perspective, Argentina is the only leading world economy whose economic data have been repudiated by the IMF and Managing Director Christine Lagarde recently pledged to use the 'red card' against Argentina if Argentina failed to correct its numbers. Argentina's official inflation data has been grossly underreported since 2007. Officially, Argentina's inflation is in the single digits but it's an open secret that the numbers are completely fabricated." In "Argentina's Politics of intimidation," by Nancy Soderberg, UPI Outside View, 6 December 2012.
[ 4 ] "How often misused words generate misleading thoughts." In "The Principles of Ethics," Vol. I (1897) Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Reflecting on those politicians above who "misled" investors according to the word use in the Reuters article, Spencer's observation is all the more profound. Politics is proving itself too often the antithesis of ethics, in which such words as lie, misleading, fraudulent and more cluster in and amongst politics, while ethics shuns them. One would do well then to conclude politics is all too often unethical. But to amplify the notion of the "misleading" as anti-social if political, we ponder, “Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Certainly the "health" of the investors who were misled, as Reuters reporting on the SEC's actions, and in the parlance of Emerson, such misleading -- lying said in a more polite manner -- is fraudulent while utterly political.
A Society of Emasculated Liars Easy to Control
A link is observed between the human penchant for lying and the modern phenomenon of political correctness, as one reads: "In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” Theodore Dalrymple, quoted in Goodreads, n. d.
The Final, Most Essential Command
How alike is this to an iconic text: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth's centre. With the feeling that he was speaking to O'Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote: Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." In "1984," Chapter 7, Geroge Orwell, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
And so the goal is ever some version of asserting that 2 + 2 = 5.
[ 5 ] Imagine that! The "the volume and nature of the information it had been collecting is fundamentally different than what the court had been led to believe" suggests a greater validity to the assertion that lying continues.
Official Forgetfulness
Or is it "forgetting." One reads the lawyerly game: "Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper wasn't lying when he wrongly told Congress in 2013 that the government does not 'wittingly' collect information about millions of Americans, according to his top lawyer. He just forgot. 'This was not an untruth or a falsehood. This was just a mistake on his part,' Robert Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said during a panel discussion hosted by the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday." In "Attorney: Spy chief had 'forgotten' about NSA program when he misled Congress," by Julian Hattem, The Hill, 8 May 2015.
See the copious documentation for Sir Veiled Lance
[ 6 ] More on the construction of a narrative, be it outright lie or half-truth: "In addition a document showed Susan Rice was informed before her TV appearance: 'Responding to a question about whether it was an organized terror attack, Toria said that she couldn’t speak to the identity of the perpetrators but that it was clearly a complex attack.' Toria refers to Victoria Nuland, then State Department spokeswoman and now assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia. She had been unfairly maligned in some quarters and falsely accused of participating in the illicit editing of the talking points. These documents exonerate her entirely, pointing the finger directly at the White House and the CIA. (It is noteworthy that in the days between the attack and Rice’s TV outing, Nuland never tied the video to the attack; Carney did, most clearly on Sept. 14.)" In "Benghazi scandal tied to White House," by Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, 29 April 2014.
"In the wee hours of Dec. 10, the recently reelected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, boarded his private jet for Havana to undergo a fourth round of surgery in his battle against cancer. Surrounded by his inner circle, the 58-year-old populist, donning a blue and white tracksuit, stood at the top of the stairs of his plane, embraced his closest advisers, then punched the air with his fist and shouted, '¡Hasta la vida siempre!' ('Onward into life always!')". In "Fidel Castro’s Last Stand," by A. L. Bardach, Newsweek, 17 December 2012
It's populist oh so populist
To have one's private jet.
It's populist yea so populist
To be treated -- yes, you bet --
And populist oh so populist
To get the best of medical care --
Better than most of the others'
Most miserable un-populist share.
It's populist oh so populist
To be in the ruling elite.
It's populist truly so populist
To never have to compete --
Yes, populist -- oh so populist --
And lifted above the masses
By elite, unequal treatment
Over the populist-impoverished masses.
It's populist, writes a populist,
And misuses thereby the word.
It's populist -- whoa -- so populist
As to make populism absurd.
Now populist is not populist
As the meaning dilutes into naught
As an elite excuses elitism
Though elites pretend populist thought.
It's populist deeply populist
To have more than the underclass.
It's populist darkly populist
To soar above a populist mass.
When populists act as popularly
As popularly they don't,
One may be assured they mean
As populists, they simply won't.
Envoi: "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them." Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Addendum of Robbery: "In this framework poor countries are not poor because their policymakers or citizens are uninformed about what good policies or institutions are. They are poor because those who exercise political power choose to organize society in ways that robs the vast mass of people of opportunities or incentives." In "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty," by James A Robinson (with Daron Acemoglu), CDE Conference 2012, Williams College, September 27, 2012
Addendum that Bad Government Matters too: "Populism stalks many emerging countries: constitutions are being stretched. Overreliant on oil and gas, ruled by kleptocrats and equipped with a dangerously high self-regard, Russia ticks many boxes. But even Brazil has flirted with economic nationalism, while, in Turkey, the autocratic Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blending Evita with Islam. In too many parts of emerging Asia, including China and India, crony capitalism remains the order of the day. Inequality is feeding the same anger that produced the Peróns. The lesson from the parable of Argentina is that good government matters. Perhaps it has been learned. But the chances are that in 100 years’ time the world will look back at another Argentina—a country of the future that got stuck in the past." In "The parable of Argentina," The Economist, 15 February 2014.
Addendum of Populism Which Doesn't Care: "In European politics, fighting youth unemployment is a flagship initiative. But it also constitutes populism, yet another case of the symptomatic therapy: On the one hand, European governments try to create jobs through large investment sums. They do not care which kinds of jobs are created – as long as they provide employment. On the other hand, they encourage migration towards the economically strong countries through their campaigns and subsidies. As a result, countries in the European periphery are weakened even further." In "Overqualified and Underpaid," by Daniel Tkatch, The European, 19 March 2014.
See: The funniest thing
Eternity stretches out unending - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Eternity stretches out unending,
Where logical thought can never go,
Heartfelt piety apprehending
What lies where, beyond time's flow.
Where we once were, where we are,
Clever words cannot essay.
Such a pondering strays too far:
Life dissolves into yesterday.
Do not long in vain for answers.
What once was, always is, will be.
You and other like romancers
Must perish on life's surging seas.See: Woher, wohin?
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are." H. L. Mencken.
Thinking is not encouraged.
It gives rise to evil thoughts,
Like liberty, freedom and similar views
Which fashion juggernauts
As to topple tyrants aplenty
Who'd rage against such thought.
This was, is and will be to come
As for freedom have thinkers fought.
Envoi: "The first duty of a man is to think for himself." José Martí (1853-1895)
Addendum of Sin: "The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought." Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
For more on the surprising Goldman, see: The funniest thing
Addendum of Responsibility: "Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
Addendum of the Cattle: "...the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you now to know with which ear you'll listen." Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451: The temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns" (1953).
Addendum of the Enemy: "Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth." Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
See: Lemmings
The Singer - paraphrase of a Joachim Ringelnatz poem
Sitting to dine before he debuted
There sat, with a woman, the singer.
She marveled at the courses of food,
And thought he was such a humdinger.
The singer then trod up onto the stage,
Simply, with no need to boast.
The beer and meat salad he'd assuage
With cologne, or at least almost.
The singer sang his highest high C.
The applause rose up, well nigh raged.
The lady in the loge marked with a B
Rose also, racing out engaged.
The singer too rushed out the stage door,
Out into the snow-covered garden.
The lady followed, a bouquet and more
Ready enough, should something harden.
The singer raised high the hem of his coat
To stoop in that garden snow white.
Wind broke, booming like explosions afloat.
The lady had to wait in a most un-silent night.
They lingered too long in the damp wet snows,
Encouraging rheumatism's ache.
The singer of the high C's well knows
A mechanism must sometimes just break.See: Der Sänger
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Robert A. Heinlein, in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
That lunch? It wasn't free!
Now there's the agony
As truth replaces fiction.
When numbers come to call,
Blithe fantasies all fall,
Each was a sad addiction.
Pyramid schemes collapse;
Corruption just shot craps.
Full faith and credit meet restriction.
To all and by their need
Made stealing a righteous deed,
The often-proved prediction.
Losses climb debt's mount,
And most folks just lose count.
Free anything's a contradiction.
Lies mount up on wings.
The fat lady? She sings,
Her text in clear hard diction.
That lunch? It wasn't free!
Now there's the agony.
Mere truth replaces fiction.
Envoi: "As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery. Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. In the latter stages of the war all the belligerent governments practised, from necessity or incompetence, what a Bolshevist might have done from design. Even now, when the war is over, most of them continue out of weakness the same malpractices." In "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," John Maynard Keynes, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
Addendum: "The context of Keynes’s statement in The Economic Consequences of the Peace was the immediate danger of postwar hyperinflations in Europe. Keynes made the point clear in A Tract on Monetary Reform ([1923] 1971) when he concluded that both inflation and deflation 'are evils to be shunned.' Nevertheless, Keynes (p. 36) wrote, 'perhaps deflation is, if we rule out exaggerated inflations such as Germany, the worse; because it is worse, in an impoverished world, to provoke unemployment than to disappoint the rentier.' Modern mainstream economic practice agrees with Keynes on this point. To invoke Keynes’s quotation of Lenin on debauchment as applying to modern advanced economies, with their typically single-digit annual rates of inflation, is anachronistic, but in a few poorer economies—notably Zimbabwe, suffering a hyperinflation as of late 2008—the quotation continues to have 'currency'." In "Retrospectives: Who Said “Debauch the Currency”: Keynes or Lenin?" by Michael V. White and Kurt Schuler, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 23, Number 2, Spring 2009.
See: Lessons Are
"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." George Washington, in "Circular to the States," (1783). Writings 26: 484--89, Chapter 7, "Union."
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Anyone you know? Oh no, not you!
To whom then did old Georgie speak?
Perhaps to the tame, the meek and weak.
Liberty is frail and powerless before
Those who seek power, as stated, and more,
For this is how it happens, friend,
And how such stories too often end.
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Someone whom you might believe in too?
The ruins of liberty are foundations of power
And, as freedoms are trampled, built every hour.
To whom then did old Georgie refer?
The question's not rhetorical. No answer defer.
He asks this of all of us, clear and plain,
That we might be watchful and free of its stain.
Who seeks arbitrary power? Who?
Anyone you know? Certainly not you!
But this is how it happens, friend,
And how such stories tragically end.
Envoi: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Addendum: "Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent — the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free." H.L. Mencken, "The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind," 1920.
Addendum: "You can't argue that Armageddon is on the way and that al-Qaida is on the run at the same time. No, I think it is this: secrecy corrupts. Absolute secrecy corrupts absolutely. You have been seduced by the idea that your authority rests in your secrets and your power to hold them. Every attack on that power, every questioning of it only makes you draw in tighter, receding into your vault with the key you think your office grants you. You are descending into a dark hole of your own digging. But you know better, don't you? In a democracy, secrecy is not the foundation of authority; that is the basis of dictatorships." In "As a Democrat, I am disgusted with President Obama," by Jeff Jarvis, Guardian, 22 August 2013. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Addendum: "Sales of Orwell's novel have risen by 6,000% since the Guardian revealed the allegations of former NSA sub-contractor Edward Snowden. In the dystopian novel, all citizens are constantly spied on by an inner elite party in the government. Banners reading 'Big Brother Is Watching You' cover the city and citizens are monitored by the Thought Police, who punish people for independent thinking. After Snowden leaked the top secret files relating to the Washington's highly confidential Prism programme, questions have been raised about the ethical implications of the surveillance." In "George Orwell’s 1984 Book Sales Soar 6,000% on Edward Snowden NSA Prism Data Leak," by Hannah Osborne, International Business Times, 11 June 2013. [ 3 ]
See: Foolish men were ruling
and also Abraham Lincoln's words in a song setting, We all declare for liberty - (2009)
NOTES
[ 1 ] The US Constitution's 4th amendment reads as follows: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Prying Eyes
Through investigative reporting annoying the current administration of the US one learns: "The National Security Agency is storing the online metadata of millions of internet users for up to a year, regardless of whether or not they are persons of interest to the agency, top secret documents reveal. Metadata provides a record of almost anything a user does online, from browsing history – such as map searches and websites visited – to account details, email activity, and even some account passwords. This can be used to build a detailed picture of an individual's life. The Obama administration has repeatedly stated that the NSA keeps only the content of messages and communications of people it is intentionally targeting – but internal documents reveal the agency retains vast amounts of metadata." In "NSA stores metadata of millions of web users for up to a year, secret files show," by James Ball, Guardian UK, 30 September 2013.
Wikipedia's article on the Supreme Court case notes: "Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967), is a United States Supreme Court case discussing the nature of the 'right to privacy' and the legal definition of a 'search'. The Court’s ruling refined previous interpretations of the unreasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment to count immaterial intrusion with technology as a search, overruling Olmstead v. United States and Goldman v. United States. Katz also extended Fourth Amendment protection to all areas where a person has a 'reasonable expectation of privacy'."
Based on the simple notion of being secure from "unreasonable searches" and that there is an individual's "reasonable expectation of privacy," it seems rather obvious from this that the Obama administration has lied outright to the American citizenry as well as overstepped its Constitutional authority.
This is what passes for "liberality" by today's ostensibly "liberal" government which is proving itself willing to fund and defend nationwide -- and indeed, worldwide -- "unreasonable searches." George Washington suggested this would be accomplished "on the ruins of liberty." See: Suspected of no crime
[ 2 ] One finds the cast of characters -- the insiders -- does not change very much from Republican to Democrat administrations of late. The growth of secrecy means the diminution of freedom. Those who advocate for secrecy are interestingly from both "parties," when one ascribes to a notion that the parties are supposedly in political opposition.
We're Exempt
One reads the phrase "full of insiders" in the following: "The members of the review group are Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser on the National Security Council for Clinton who later worked for Republican President George W. Bush; Michael Morell, Obama’s former deputy CIA director; law professor Geoffrey Stone, who has raised money for Obama and spearheads a committee hoping to build Obama’s presidential library in Chicago; law professor Cass Sunstein, administrator of information and regulatory affairs for Obama; and Peter Swire, a former Office of Management and Budget privacy director for Clinton. 'At the end of the day, a task force led by Gen. Clapper full of insiders – and not directed to look at the extensive abuse – will never get at the bottom of the unconstitutional spying,' said Mark Jaycox, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group. The review group met with Obama in late August and with a dozen civil liberties and business groups in a pair of meetings in September. Some who attended said they raised concerns about the programs, but panel members – at least one was missing from each meeting – did not respond to them, saying in several instances they could not reveal information because it is classified. The panel’s meetings are closed anyway after Clapper exempted it from the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee Act, which would have required it to keep the public informed and hold open meetings, for 'reasons of national security,' according to a statement from the group sent from Clapper’s office. 'While we are exempt from the FACA, we are conducting this review as openly and transparently as possible,' the statement says." In "Obama spy panel is loaded with insiders, critics charge," by Anita Kumar, McClathcy, 1 October 2013.
This is "how it happens." Especially when one is Suspected of no crime
[ 3 ] Orwell saw clearly that such an "inner elite party" would uphold a "caste system." One reads: "Everywhere the world movement seems to be in the direction of centralised economies which can be made to 'work' in an economic sense but which are not democratically organised and which tend to establish a caste system. With this go the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer. Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered as soon as military necessity ceases to keep people up to the mark." Quote of George Orwell, in "George Orwell’s Letter on Why He Wrote ‘1984’," Daily Beast, 12 August 2013.
One sees this in the teetering public pensions systems at city, county state and federal levels, in which a small elite group reap the greatest "benefits." Further one sees this in the rapidly rising public debt at many levels which can only end in a middle and lower class caste system worked to supply the elite with growing wealth. And further still, one sees this in the rapid rise in the number of so-called super-rich who meet to discuss world problems each year, all the while the political and economic problems exacerbate. See Moolah
The New Aristocracy
Consider Orwell's words: "The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians. These people, whose origins lay in the salaried middle class and the upper grades of the working class, had been shaped and brought together by the barren world of monopoly industry and centralized government. As compared with their opposite numbers in past ages, they were less avaricious, less tempted by luxury, hungrier for pure power, and, above all, more conscious of what they were doing and more intent on crushing opposition. This last difference was cardinal. By comparison with that existing today, all the tyrannies of the past were half-hearted and inefficient. The ruling groups were always infected to some extent by liberal ideas, and were content to leave loose ends everywhere, to regard only the overt act and to be uninterested in what their subjects were thinking. Even the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was tolerant by modern standards. Part of the reason for this was that in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. ...Every citizen, or at least every citizen important enough to be worth watching, could be kept for twenty-four hours a day under the eyes of the police and in the sound of official propaganda, with all other channels of communication closed. The possibility of enforcing not only complete obedience to the will of the State, but complete uniformity of opinion on all subjects, now existed for the first time. " In "1984," by George Orwell. 1949.
For a further rhymed meditation and supporting sources on "how it happens," see: Sir Veiled Lance
It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
"The leading demographic accounts of contemporary slavery project a global slave population of between 20 million and 30 million people. Most of these people are in sedentary forms of slavery, such as hereditary collateral-debt bondage. But about 20 percent have been unwittingly trafficked though the promise of opportunity by predators through varying combinations of deception and coercion, very mobile, very dynamic, leveraging communications and logistics in the same basic way modern businesses do generally." In "Slavery's Global Comeback," by J. J. Gould, The Atlantic, 19 December 2012
It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
Which informs so concisely in so many ways.
"Hereditary collateral-debt bondage" tells
A tale of debt passed on by the swells
To generations who could not agree to the deal
And yet will be ground under its debt-bondage wheel.
It's horrid to think language cuts to the quick
When so much of politics spews language too thick.
One little phrase speaks volumes and more,
And thereby informs and cuts to the core.
Debtors inheriting debt they've not made
Are collateral damage and slaves in that trade.
Trafficked by borrowing to prop up the state
Is proven hereby to slaves incubate.
Tomorrow's bright children will stare at the dark
Of debt, massive debt, as their greatest birthmark.
Deception, coercion, old promises lie
As the wreckage today hopes tomorrow will buy.
Envoi: "A man in debt is so far a slave." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
See: In a moment of candor
Do not be greatly unhappy - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Do not be greatly unhappy
That the lovely times go by;
Cool yet dread-filled waves will draw us
Into the vortex' whirling eye;
Yes, sweet stirrings of the heart,
And love's highest and its best,
All within the heaven's movements
Must be given over to rest.
Let us love and sing and drink,
And whistle at the time which flees;
Even our faintest winking glances
Flicker through eternities.
The funniest thing - a meditation on Emma Goldman
"Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. [ 1 ] Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations." Emma Goldman, in "Anarchism and Other Essays." (Third revised edition, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1917)
The funniest thing
That makes me laugh
Is the cheerleading loud
On politics' behalf,
To shout one party's best
To rule o'er the state
When all parties dine
From the very same plate.
The funniest thing
That makes me weep
Is the cheerleading bleat
From the governments' sheep,
For shackles are forged
By governments' rule,
And all of the cheering
Cheers but for some fool.
The funniest thing
That makes me smirk
Is the loyal party member
Oh so busily at work
Tying tightening restraints
To chain and oppress;
Instead of liberating,
They think they progress.
The funniest thing
That makes me sad
Are those in all parties
Who think it not bad.
And yet shackles tighten,
Restraints tax men's souls.
And belief in their government
Is riddled with holes.
From shackles, from restraint,
From dominion's firm rule,
The dream of sweet freedom
Stirs oft ridicule.
Liberating freedom
Is problematic at best
When those who would rule
Would rule the oppressed.
Naive children that play
At anarchism's font
Think tearing all down
Will answer their wont.
But freedom is freedom
Is freedom for all,
And such a plain thought
Is a revolutionary squall.
The funniest thing
Which threatens and dares
Is the notion of freedom
From governing snares.
Liberate the mind;
Liberate the man.
This struggle all alone
Is the simplest plan.
It threatens the towers
As foundations shake,
And powers all rage
Against freedom's great quake.
Liberate the mind
And shackles fall broke.
This is the dream hidden
By politics' party smoke.
Party members oh so loyal
Have a funniest ring,
Yet progressive shackles
Are a slave master's thing.
Progressive restraints
Are not progress at all;
When governments progress,
It is freedoms which fall.
Envoi: "We are willing to die for this country. For the mountains and the rivers, the land and the people, we are willing to die. But not for the generals or the admirals, or the businessmen, or the bankers, or the President, all who want to go to war. They are not our country. They don't give a damn about all the young men who will die in this war. What is patriotism? Is it love of your government? No. It is the love of our fellow men and women. It is the love of our country. And that love, that patriotism, may require you to oppose your government." From scene 15, Emma, an opera by Elaine Fine, 2006.
Addendum of Government as Threat: "Almost half of Americans, 49%, say the federal government poses "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens,' similar to what was found in previous surveys conducted over the last five years. When this question was' first asked in 2003, less than a third of Americans held this attitude." In "Half in U.S. Continue to Say Gov't Is an Immediate Threat," by Frank Newport, Gallup, 21 September 2015.
Addendum of Opposing Concepts: "It is certainly clear that wherever society exits there is no room for the state, but that wherever the state is it is like a thorn in society’s flesh, it does not permit it to form a people who can socially inhale and exhale, and instead divides them into classes and thereby prevents them from being a society. A centralized construct cannot at the same time be a federalist construct. A system of management organized along authoritarian lines is a government, a bureaucracy, a commanding power, and this is the mark of the state; a community built upon equal rights and mutuality is, when considered within the bounds of their physical proximity, a people, when considered as a general form of human living, a society. State and society are opposing concepts; the one excludes the other." Erich Kurt Mühsam, in "The Liberation of Society from the State. What is Communist Anarchism?" (Berlin-Britz, November 1932, Translated by CR Edmonston, 13 Sept 2008)
Addendum: "It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus whatever it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power." In "Our Enemy, The State," by Albert Jay Nock, Caxton Printers, 1950.
Addendum: "If one reads, say, Wilhelm von Humboldt's critique of the state of 1792 [English language version: The Limits of State Action (Cambridge University Press, 1969)], a significant classic libertarian text that certainly inspired Mill, one finds that he doesn't speak at all of the need to resist private concentration of power, rather he speaks of the need to resist the encroachment of coercive state power". In "The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Peter Jay." The Jay Interview, 25 July 1976.
Addendum of the Confusion: "Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." Frédéric Bastiat, The Law, par. L. 102.
Addendum: "When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons." Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4: 1944-1947
Addendum: "To the States, or any one of them, / or any city of the States, / resist much, obey little/ Resist much! Resist!
Once unquestioning obedience, / once fully enslaved, / no nation, state, city of this earth, / ever afterward resumes its liberty. / Resist! Resist!" Walt Whitman, in "Leaves of Grass" [ 2 ]
See: Debt
NOTES
[ 1 ] The notion of government and society as opposing forces is not new. From the supposed anarchistic Left of Goldman, Mühsam and Chomsky to the supposed political Right of the Libertarians and free market supporters, one finds the same conclusion. Thus the iconic American poet, Whitman can thunder "resist!" He does not mean to resist a society of his peers, but a state which holds itself man's sole governor.
Liberating Society from the State
One reads from a recent publication, "Just as the two basic and mutually exclusive interrelations between men are peaceful cooperation or coercive exploitation, production or predation, so the history of mankind, particularly its economic history, may be considered as a contest between these two principles. On the one hand, there is creative productivity, peaceful exchange and cooperation; on the other, coercive dictation and predation over those social relations. Albert Jay Nock happily termed these contesting forces: "social power" and "State power." Murray N. Rothbard, "Anatomy of the State," Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2009.
The notion of being free may be found in seemingly competing sides based on the fallacy which is the failed notion of there being an identifiable Left and Right
A Matter of Common Sense
From an earlier age, one may consider some common sense: "Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer." In "Common Sense," by Thomas Paine, pamphlet, 1775–76.
Consider too the views of Erich Kurt Mühsam, as found in the footnote to Gesang der Intellektuellen
[ 2 ] The pompous ego of Marx presumed to answer the great riddles of mankind -- of life and human society -- with "truth" which therefore could not be, in Whitman's words, resisted. "Communism... is the genuine resolution of the antagonism between man and nature and between man and man; it is the true resolution of the conflict between existence and essence, objectification and self-affirmation, freedom and necessity, individual and species. It is the riddle of history solved and knows itself as the solution." Karl Marx, in "Private Property and Communism" (1844)
That this egotistic display in writing is held as belief by many shows more that the riddles are not solved, but rather than Marx is held in almost religious devotion by his adherents. For this Whitman's words sound the clear warning: "once fully enslaved, / no nation, state, city of this earth, / ever afterward resumes its liberty."
Marx envisioned a "dictatorship" which is government rule. That this is mistaken as a trajectory towards freedom condemns the modern Marxist to be merely another apologist for what Paine called "a necessary evil" in its "best state," and much worse, as the twentieth century has proved many times over. Resist.
The pot cracks into shards - paraphrase of an Erich Kurt Mühsam poem
The pot cracks into shards
To be flung away like dung.
Little one, you must die,
E'en though you are so young.
Flowers must soon wither,
And the cow be slaughtered soon
That for today we're milking
In a pail that leaks festoon.
Stones themselves decay
In each country lane o'ergrown.
Tones and sounds but echo,
And light away has flown.
Worlds fall to pieces
Without a remnant's trace.
Deceit lives on forever
In disaster's scowling face.
See: Kracht der Topf in Scherben,
"'If Europe today accounts for just over 7 per cent of the world's population, produces around 25 per cent of the global GDP and has to finance 50 per cent of global spending, then it's obvious that it will have to work very hard to maintain its prosperity and way of life,' Ms Merkel said in the interview. 'All of us have to stop spending more than we earn every year.' Although Ms Merkel stopped short of suggesting that a ceiling on social spending might be one yardstick for measuring competitiveness, she hinted as much in the light of soaring social spending in the face of an ageing population. Indeed, she said Germany is facing one of the greatest demographic challenges." In "Merkel warns on cost of welfare," by Quentin Peel, Financial Times, 16 December 2012
All of us must stop spending
more than we earn each year.
This is the holiday message,
bright with dullest cheer.
Sometimes something must be said,
in plain and thumping speech
When want-want-want sinks all in debt
in its over-reaching reach.
In the light of soaring spending
the darkness slow descends
For want-want-want is answered
by policies considering their ends.
Who just will not see this?
Those who refuse to see.
And who refuses the rising flood
called economic reality?
Then it's obvious, so she said,
and that is plain as day,
But such plain speaking is too hard
for the grasshoppers at play.
Envoi: "We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it." Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Junker (b. 1954)
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) surged back to power in an election on Sunday just three years after a devastating defeat, giving ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a chance to push his hawkish security agenda and radical economic recipe. In "Conservatives sweep to power in faltering Japan," Reuters, 16 December 2012
Liberal is conservative, so Reuters writes this day.
Is conservative then liberal? Let's cheer these words at play.
One thing is another, friend, as words say this and that,
Turning cartwheels' somersaults -- each a wordy acrobat.
Conservative is a liberal, so Reuters rights in print,
Left to you to parse the game, wide-eyed with a little squint.
One thing is another, friend, as words mean very much
Like so-and-so, and blah-blah-blah, and, oh yes, such and such!
Words are politicians' friends, while numbers are their foe.
Why is this? It's simple, as base reality tends to show.
Words can mean most anything. They romp, they squeal, they say
Whatever it is they seem to mean, just numbers won't go away.
Radical economic agenda is a phrase Reuters has penned,
Which makes me chuckle quietly, as words all flex and bend.
Radicals sometimes are on the left, and now they're on the right,
As words shift meanings like the wind in a wordy blathered fight.
But economics is not words, which tally not too well.
One needs numbers, clear, concise, which most politics dispel,
For debt is debt is debt is debt, and massive debt's a curse
Which all the words from all the pens have usually made worse.
Liberal bleeds into conservative, conservatives named liberal,
And radical -- my favorite word absurd -- all just peripheral
To what we see in numbers red with red ink's crushing weight.
In the crisis of most governments, words and debt both accumulate.
What is radical then, one need ask, to seek a numbered fix
To the flood of impotent words which answer with but tricks?
Radical numbers seek repair, a rescue in the nick of time,
While radical words can only paper over numerical crime.
Liberal names conservative, a radical economic recipe.
Names and modifying words spelled the debtors' spending spree.
What more now will all the words do to fix the mess?
I wager not one single thing except avoid the numbers chess.
Games best won have shifting rules made from wordy words,
Which redefine and redeploy in wild, stampeding herds.
Games oft lost have hardened rules, unchanging in the wind,
Which a word can merely fumble, and clear meaning oft rescind.
Envoi: "Japan's government is to take the unprecedented step of buying factories and machinery directly with taxpayer funds, the latest in a series of radical steps to lift the country out of its deep slump." In "Japan plans 'nationalisation' of factories to save industry," by Ambrose Evans–Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 1 January 2013.
Addendum: "There are two kinds of liberalism. A liberalism which is always, subterraneously authoritative and paternalistic, on the side of one's good conscience. And then there is a liberalism which is more ethical than political; one would have to find another name for this. Something like a profound suspension of judgment." Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
See: National Eyes
We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party
"Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic. We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national." In an edited interview of Adolf Hitler by Viereck from 1923, republished in Liberty magazine in July 1932, and again in "'No room for the alien, no use for the wastrel'," by George Sylvester Viereck, The Guardian, UK, 17 September 2007.
What is liberal anyway, and what is in a name?
When history is forgotten, such naming is a game.
Define and redefine the words, claim and counterclaim.
Socialize the words again, and try then to reclaim
The honor which some say is due to the socialists' fine aim.
"Ready, aim, fire," did liberal socialists proclaim,
Who stated they were liberal, as a world burst into flame.
Addendum of Changing Names: ""From 1912 onwards, the Bolshevik faction was officially a separate party, known as the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (bolshevik). The Bolsheviks seized power during the October Revolution in 1917 and, in 1918, changed their name to the (All-) Russian Communist Party. They banned the Mensheviks after the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921." In "Russian Social Democratic Labour Party," Wikipedia article, n. d. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Fighting Capitalism: "Capitalism as a whole will now be destroyed, the whole people will now be free. We are not fighting Jewish or Christian capitalism, we are fighting very capitalism: we are making the people completely free." Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 12 April 1922.
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
NOTES
[ 1 ] The seemingly modern party name -- Labor Party -- as its parallel -- Social Democrat -- when the names do not get wrapped into one appear in the jargon of many nations.
The Wikipedia article is informative: "The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Russian: Росси́йская социа́л-демократи́ческая рабо́чая па́ртия, РСДРП, Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya, RSDRP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organisations of the Russian Empire into one party. The RSDLP later split into Majority and Minority factions, with the Majority (in Russian: 'Bolshevik') faction eventually becoming the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Interdistrictites were also formed from this party."
Oddly Alike
How oddly alike are the concerns for political party terminology, when one reviews: "...for the conception of life that is based on the folk idea it is necessary that an instrument be forged which can be used in fighting for this ideal, similar to the Marxist party organization which clears the way for internationalism. And this is the aim which the German National Socialist Labour Movement pursues." In "In "Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler, translated by James Murphy, Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1939.
Hitler speaks specifically to the issue of "clear and precise meaning" in "Mein Kampf." One reads: "Because of their precise and clear meaning, these ideas are suited to the purpose of uniting in a common front all those who are ready to accept them as principles. In other words: The German National Socialist Labour Party extracts the essential principles from the general conception of the world which is based on the folk idea. On these principles it establishes a political doctrine which takes into account the practical realities of the day, the nature of the times, the available human material and all its deficiencies. Through this political doctrine it is possible to bring great masses of the people into an organization which is constructed as rigidly as it could be."
The "Social Democrat" parlance for a "Labour Party" which was relabeled the "Communist Party of the Soviet Union" quite mirrors the parlance of another "Socialist Labour Party" of the German sort. One may review Hitler's own words further, when considering the footnotes and addenda to a rhyme titled, True socialism, oh yes, he said
"In practice, France’s welfare system is a failure, and there is an economic explanation for this. Welfareship does not create wealth; there are no incentives to create wealth. Despite its good intentions, welfareship has created a 'poverty trap.'" In "In France's Welfare State Status Quo, Are We Seeing America's Future?" by Sylvain Charat, Forbes, 7 December 2012. [ 1 ]
It's not for me to do,
the planting of the grain,
It's not for me to do,
from milling I abstain.
It's not for me to do,
for baking is a strain.
It's not for me to do,
except demand bread and complain.
It's not for me to do,
to grow and harvest fruit.
It's not for me to do,
for that's not my pursuit.
It's not for me to do,
to labor like a brute.
It's not for me to do,
but you should. No dispute.
It's not for me to do;
my hand's out for your bread.
It's not for me to do,
not me, but you instead.
It's not for me to do,
get that through your thick head.
It's not for me to do,
but you must, as I've said.
It's not for me to do,
but to wait for sustenance.
It's not for me to do,
but to take what you advance.
It's not for me to do,
but you must me finance.
It's not for me to do,
but take from you, perchance.
It's not for me to do,
except clench a fist and glare.
It's not for me to do,
your profiting is unfair.
It's not for me to do,
but caution you. Beware.
It's not for me to do,
except demand you for me care.
It's not for me to do;
I'm caught in your great trap.
It's not for me to do,
so you must, working chap.
It's not for me to do,
that is your handicap.
It's not for you to do
but work. I'll play and nap.
Envoi -- "When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity." Aesop's Fable
See: You toil
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande battling to undo the potential reputational damage. 'There is a state but it is a totally bankrupt state,' Mr Sapin said. 'That is why we had to put a deficit reduction plan in place, and nothing should make us turn away from that objective.'" In "France 'totally bankrupt', says Labour minister Michel Sapin," by Graham Ruddick, The Telegraph UK, 28 January 2013.
So it was - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
The teapot was so beautiful,
She'd loved it as herself.
Unfortunately her small mistake
Dropped it off the shelf.
What she felt of grief and pain
She'd remember long and hard.
She fitted the shards together and said,
This I held in high regard!See: So wars
"...to put the matter shortly, that a permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon." G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905). [ 1 ]
In your You Topia you think
You'll get more than your fair share;
This blunted calculation proves
That You Topia is unfair.
But such is your You Topia
When you see yourself above
And wish to rule You Topia
With your velvet-fisted glove.
All the passionate speeches
About bettering this world
Are made by folks who'd take yet more
As You Topia's flag's unfurled.
Just how many caring folks
Care oh so much for You?
Peer behind the fragile scene
And note their hoard in view.
Organizing charity
Pays top dollar at the top,
And note that at the top
Is always a fairness cop.
You Topia has lots of cops
Who must have more than most,
In order to assure all is fair
As our betters have diagnosed.
In their You Topia they think
You'll believe in unequal shares;
This blunted calculation shows
That You Topians set their snares.
But such are all You Topias
As the leaders climb above
And with a firm fist rule the joint
With their velvet-fisted glove.
How much would you like to have?
More is an answer sure.
And so the dream of equal shares
Fades into a You Topian blur.
Eradicating poverty?
That's what You Topians preach,
While taking more than just fair shares
In their You Topian fisted reach.
Organizing charity
Pays top dollar at the top,
And note that at the top
There's always a You Topian cop.
This is why You Topia
Is a distant, distant dream,
Because all the very nicest folks
Lap up the richest cream.
Well, don't they really earn it?
That's the logic rare,Which says it is such valued work
To assign each unequal share.
And for this they must have just more
For You Topian fairness calls,
As they get their "more" just rewards,
Another's fair share simply falls.
Yes, this is why You Topia
Is a decadent dark dream,
Because all the very nicest folks
Lap up the You Topian cream.
Envoi: "What can oppose the decline of the west is not a resurrected culture but the utopia that is silently contained in the image of its decline." Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
Addendum: "Utopianism substitutes glorious predictions and unachievable promises for knowledge, science, and reason, while laying claim to them all." Mark R. Levin, Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America (2012)
Addendum: "Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness." In "Why Socialists Don't Believe In Fun," George Orwell, as "Can Socialists Be Happy?" First published: Tribune, December 20, 1943. [ 4 ]
Addendum: "One thousand years ago your heroic ancestors subjected the whole earth to the power of the United State. A still more glorious task is before you: the integration of the indefinite equation of the Cosmos by the use of the glass, electric, fire-breathing Integral. Your mission is to subjugate to the grateful yoke of reason the unknown beings who live on other planets, and who are perhaps still in the primitive state of freedom. If they will not understand that we are bringing them a mathematically faultless happiness, our duty will be to force them to be happy. But before we take up arms, we shall try the power of words." In "WE," by Eugene Zamiatan, translated from the Russian (1924) by Gregory Zilboorg, Dutton, 1952.
See: Equality
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The country we live in is a laboratory. We have one experiment after another. Unfortunately, it is not a laboratory where no one gets hurt: some lives are enhanced, others are ruined. We have to view our society with concern and passion, and see what we can learn from each of our experiments. When we get upset and angry about politics — whether it is conservative, liberal, or whatever — we tend to think in terms of right and wrong, not what we can learn." In "The Liberals' Mistake", by Charles Reich, in "The Center Magazine" (July-August 1987).
[ 2 ] "When I made my theoretical model, I could not have guessed that people would try to realise it with Molotov cocktails." Adorno, cited in "The Dialectical Imagination : A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research" (1973) by M. Jay, p279. Hence, Adorno's vision of the future was not simply short-sighted but tragically wrong, as have been so many "theoretical models."
Great Repositories
When one's vision is grounded in a significant error in historical understanding, it can only be compounded, as one reads from another of the Frankfurt School, "The West is guilty of genocidal crimes against every civilization and culture it has encountered. American and Western Civilization are the world’s greatest repositories for racism, sexism, xenophobia, Anti-Semitism, Fascism, and Nazism. American society is oppressive, evil, and undeserving of loyalty." Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)
The "greatest repositories" are not as he so poorly saw, but rather the entire history of mankind, all civilizations to include the socialist-inspired "repositories" such as the murderous and failed civilizations of Germany's National Socialism (True socialism, oh yes, he said
Surveying only three systems of government in the 20th century, each proposing a utopian vision for society ills, gives lie to the assertion of an always-proposed utopian vision which gives way to totalitarian viciousness against those who would not participate as underlings. But such is the path of those who would take power.
Over-ripe Fruit
As one reads of the socialists' vision for taking "power" politically, "They saw their role as making largely passive propaganda for socialism. Capitalism was immoral: it would eventually collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. Power would fall into the hands of the working class like an over-ripe fruit. This socialist transformation was preordained by History." In "The Socialism of John Maclean," WorkersLiberty.org, accessed February 2013.
The point herein is that seeking power to rule -- while promising a utopia -- is factually and historically its antithesis. As is noted of such utopian idealism as expressed by the naive but lengthy blather of Adorno's opus, we see from a clearer source, "Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) And it is indeed true that such theoretical thinkers as those of the Frankfurt School all "will to power."
The phrase cannot stand alone without fully understanding that this "will to power" amounts to "power over other people, with or even without their agreement. (See: I'm gonna guide you to the promised land
[ 3 ] As counterpoint to the utopian -- and therefore totalitarian -- visions of the Marxists of varying sorts and post-modern cultural Marxists, author William Golding (1911-1993) observed, "Utopias are presented for our inspection as a critique of the human state. If they are to be treated as anything but trivial exercises of the imagination. I suggest there is a simple test we can apply. We must forget the whole paraphernalia of social description, demonstration, expostulation, approbation, condemnation. We have to say to ourselves, How would I myself live in this proposed society? How long would it be before I went stark staring mad?"
Given that a utopia requires submission to the collective and that no one has theoretically sketched a collective with which an individual may dissent without punishment, we also read, "If people would forget about utopia! When rationalism destroyed heaven and decided to set it up here on earth, that most terrible of all goals entered human ambition. It was clear there'd be no end to what people would be made to suffer for it." Nadine Gordimer (b.1923)
Utopian Punishment
My simple test in the vein of Golding's remark is colored by Gordimer's keen observation: Who can rule a utopia without making those who would not submit to its rule punished for their unwillingness to submit? This proves the truth of the etymology of the word, u-topia. As Merriam-Webster clarifies, the word is first found as "Utopia, imaginary and ideal country in Utopia (1516) by Sir Thomas More, from Greek ou not, no + topos place." The supposedly bright scholars of the Frankfurt School forward forgot -- or never learned -- that utopia is and has been since the 16th century "no place." It also proves -- as above -- that these scholars were not so much seeking a better world for all, as they were evidencing their "will to power," per the above.
Let us then reflect on a recent view as additional reflection: "The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle." Christopher Hitchens, in "Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays" (2004).
[ 4 ] The emptiness of the populist-speaking socialist elite is that over time they prove themselves the same old masters over the masses which they have seduced with promises aplenty. Such government heads are easily corrupted, because the seemingly modern schemes of the utopians and socialists is plainly Old-fashioned
Eden round, there went a great wall - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Eden round, there went a great wall,
Highly high and of marble fine.
Killer Cain thought with shrewdest gall:
I'll enter in by way clandestine.
To this, his end, up then he stepped
On a brought-along ladder, like a clever rat.
Then roundabout the old Devil crept,
Upending Cain's ladder! O-o-o! Splat!
Our old Father Adam saw it all,
And said to Cain where he sprawled:
You rogue! You deserved your second fall;
Into paradise are all not always called.See: So nicht
"Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet [ 1 ], sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime. In "U.S. Terrorism Agency to Tap a Vast Database of Citizens," by Julia Angwin, Wall Street Journal, 12 December 2012
Suspected of no crime,
Some fascists overtime
Look to pry into guiltless lives
For their fascistic paradigm.
Of terror not suspected
Fascists have oft connected
Innocent ordinary little folks
With crimes quite unconnected.
Dragnets drag and net
The innocent, and yet
Fascists think this sensible,
As innocence is a guilt-tinged threat.
Suspected of no crimes,
Citizens in peaceful times
Are targets most political
As fascism pumps and primes.
Addendum: "For the second year in a row, President Obama has caved on his threat to veto this dangerous legislation, which severely restricts his ability to transfer or provide fair trials for the 166 men who remain imprisoned at Guantanamo. The 2013 NDAA extends restrictions that have been in place for nearly two years, during which zero prisoners have been certified for transfer oversees and zero have been transferred to the U.S. for prosecution. Once again, Obama has failed to lead on Guantanamo and surrendered closure issues to his political opponents in Congress. In one fell swoop, he has belied his recent lip-service about a continued commitment to closing Guantanamo." The Center for Constitutional Rights, 3 January 2013
Addendum: "Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote an open letter to John Brennan, the frontrunner for the post of Director of the CIA, asking Brennan to provide Congress with the secret legal opinions defining the government’s capacity to pursue and kill US citizens suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence by law have access to classified legal opinions – but, Wyden writes, the Obama administration has denied him access to the opinions governing targeted assassinations of American citizens." In "Obama administration hiding info on targeted killings of Americans," rt.com, 15 January 2013
Addendum: "The Justice Department’s unfortunate decision leaves Americans with no clear understanding of when we will be subjected to tracking—possibly for months at a time—or whether the government will first get a warrant. This is yet another example of secret surveillance policies—like the Justice Department’s secret opinions about the Patriot Act’s Section 215—that simply should not exist in a democratic society." In "Justice Department Refuses to Release GPS Tracking Memos," by Catherine Crump, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, 16 January 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum: "In an initiative aimed at rooting out future leakers and other security violators, President Barack Obama has ordered federal employees to report suspicious actions of their colleagues based on behavioral profiling techniques that are not scientifically proven to work, according to experts and government documents. The techniques are a key pillar of the Insider Threat Program, an unprecedented government-wide crackdown under which millions of federal bureaucrats and contractors must watch out for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers. Those who fail to report them could face penalties, including criminal charges. Obama mandated the program in an October 2011 executive order after Army Pfc. Bradley Manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents from a classified computer network and gave them to WikiLeaks, the anti-government secrecy group. The order covers virtually every federal department and agency, including the Peace Corps, the Department of Education and others not directly involved in national security." In "Linchpin for Obama’s plan to predict future leakers unproven, isn’t likely to work, experts say," by Jonathan S. Landay and Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Washington Bureau, 9 July 2013.
Addendum: "The previously undisclosed rule change allows NSA operatives to hunt for individual Americans' communications using their name or other identifying information. Senator Ron Wyden told the Guardian that the law provides the NSA with a loophole potentially allowing 'warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans'. The authority, approved in 2011, appears to contrast with repeated assurances from Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials to both Congress and the American public that the privacy of US citizens is protected from the NSA's dragnet surveillance programs." In "NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls," by James Ball and Spencer Ackerman, Guardian UK, 9 August 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum: "Thus, the government may obtain an FAA surveillance order without identifying the people (or even the group of people) to be surveilled; without specifying the facilities, places, premises, or property to be monitored; without specifying the particular communications to be collected; without obtaining individualized warrants based on criminal or foreign intelligence probable cause; and without making even a prior administrative determination that the acquisition relates to a particular foreign agent or foreign power. An FAA surveillance order is intended to be a kind of blank check, which once obtained will suffice to cover - without further judicial authorization - whatever surveillance the government may choose to initiate, within broadly drawn parameters, for a period of up to one year. Thus, the court may not know who, what, or where the government will actually tap, thereby undercutting any meaningful role for the court and violating the Fourth Amendment. A single FAA order may be used to justify the surveillance of communications implicating thousands or even millions of U.S. citizens and residents." In a letter from the ACLU to Judge William H. Webster, 6 August 2010, and included as "Exhibit 1" in "FINAL REPORT of the WILLIAM H. WEBSTER COMMISSION on The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Counterterrorism Intelligence, and the Events at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009."
Addendum: "Newly disclosed U.S. government files provide an inside look at the Homeland Security Department's practice of seizing and searching electronic devices at the border without showing reasonable suspicion of a crime or getting a judge's approval." In "New details in how the feds take laptops at border," by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press, 10 September 2013.
Addendum: "The program itself clearly exceeds the authority granted by Congress. Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorizes the government to obtain certain business records only if it can show that the information is “relevant” to an ongoing national security investigation. Though Congress clearly intended Section 215 authority to be directed at a particular individual, and related to a specific investigation, the government chooses to collect records of every phone call made in the United States. In practice, the relevance standard has lost all meaning." In "Reining In the Unauthorized American Surveillance State | Commentary," by John Conyers Jr., RollCall, 2 October 2013.
Addendum looking at the Bush-Obama Plans: "While reporting on domestic surveillance under Bush, Salon obtained a detailed memo proposing such an inquiry, and spoke with several sources involved in recent discussions around it on Capitol Hill. The memo was written by a former senior member of the original Church Committee; the discussions have included aides to top House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, and until now have not been disclosed publicly. Salon has also uncovered further indications of far-reaching and possibly illegal surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency inside the United States under President Bush. That includes the alleged use of a top-secret, sophisticated database system for monitoring people considered to be a threat to national security. It also includes signs of the NSA’s working closely with other U.S. government agencies to track financial transactions domestically as well as globally." In "Exposing Bush’s historic abuse of power," by Tim Shorrock, Salon, 23 July 2008. [ 4 ]
See: Sir Veiled Lance
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers." In "President Obama’s Dragnet," The Editorial Board, The New York Times, 6 June 2013.
Repudiating Principles
The New York Times continues: "Essentially, the administration is saying that without any individual suspicion of wrongdoing, the government is allowed to know whom Americans are calling every time they make a phone call, for how long they talk and from where. This sort of tracking can reveal a lot of personal and intimate information about an individual. To casually permit this surveillance — with the American public having no idea that the executive branch is now exercising this power — fundamentally shifts power between the individual and the state, and it repudiates constitutional principles governing search, seizure and privacy."
The picture becomes clearer: "The proposal would extend technical design mandates for 'wiretap readiness' to peer-to-peer communications tools. According to reports, companies that do not comply with a wiretap order, including those that cannot comply because they have configured their communication service in a secure manner and do not themselves have access to user communications, or do not have access to such communications in unencrypted form, would face escalating, potentially ruinous fines. The threat of such liability would effectively force re-engineering of communications services so they are wiretap ready." In "Leading Security Experts Say FBI Wiretapping Proposal Would Undermine Cybersecurity," by Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Center for Democracy and Technology, 17 May 2013.
A Textbook Definition of Fascism
Seeing these reports through the assistance of basic word definitions is cause for alarm. Merriam-Webster's first definition of fascism includes these words: "severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition," while its second definition of fascism is this -- "a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control." One may well argue that such "overbroad surveillance powers" become evidence that this administration (and perhaps that before it as well) ever more seem to fulfill the textbook definition.
A German periodical's editorial echoes this sentiment: "What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human being is not a free human being. And every state that systematically contravenes human rights, even in the alleged service of security, is acting criminally." In "Obama's Soft Totalitarianism: Europe Must Protect Itself from America," by Jakob Augstein, Spiegel, 17 June 2013.
[ 2 ] Nope -- "Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Clapper denied allegations by panel members the NSA conducted electronic surveillance of Americans on U.S. soil. 'Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?' committee member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper during the March 12 hearing. In response, Clapper replied quickly: 'No, sir'." In "Clapper denied NSA surveillance before Senate panel" by Carlo Muñoz, The Hill, 6 June 2013.
Yup -- "...Clapper said national security required the NSA to collect all the Verizon subscriber data, even if not all the data would be analysed, and regardless of any evidence to link the phone records to crime, foreign espionage or terrorism. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that other telecoms received similar orders from the government for the subscriber data. 'The collection is broad in scope,' Clapper wrote, 'because more narrow collection would limit our ability to protect the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it may assist counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities'.' In "US intelligence chief denounces release of information," by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, 7 June 2013. Nope. Yup. Perhaps the US intelligence chief is really denouncing being proven to have said nope and then yup?
Sucking Data
"Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said." In "Sources: NSA sucks in data from 50 companies," by Marc Ambinder, The Week, 6 June 2013.
Additionally it becomes clearer through closer examination: "Ret. Adm. Dennis Blair, who served as President Obama’s DNI in 2009 and 2010, told NBC News that, in one instance in 2009, analysts entered a phone number into agency computers and 'put one digit wrong,' and mined a large volume of information about Americans with no connection to terror. The matter was reported to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose judges required that all the data be destroyed, he said." In "Officials: NSA mistakenly intercepted emails, phone calls of innocent Americans," by Michael Isikoff, NBCNews, 7 June 2013.
One reads of the notion of surveillance states: “…there are different kinds of surveillance states. You can have a democratic surveillance state which collects as little data as possible and tells you as much as possible about what it’s doing. Or you could have an authoritarian surveillance state which collects as much as possible and tells the public as little as possible. And we are kind of on the authoritarian side.” Paul Krugman, on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," ABCNews, 9 June 2013.
Authoritarian
This suggests to some the utter cynicism of the political class not only from the libertarian wing but also with the Left: "They said that if you vote Romney you’ll get a return to George W Bush. Well, Romney may have lost in 2012 but people got Bush all the same – Obama has cheerfully continued and expanded the authoritarian policies of Dubya. That’s the opinion of Michael Hayden, the former director of the US National Security Agency, who says that the state is bigger and more furtive than it was when Bush was in charge. It’s the kind of Right-wing talking point that would’ve been dismissed as a Right-wing talking point a month ago. But, in the light of the Verizon scandal, it’s starting to sound like an objective, accurate assessment. Obama is Bush 2.0…" In "Edward Snowden has exposed both the ambition and the incompetence of Obama's security state," by Tim Stanley, Telegraph UK, 9 June 2013.
An Executive Coup
As to authoritarian rule being perceived in the "land of the free and the home of the brave," one reads this interesting opinion: " 'In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material, and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago,' Ellsberg wrote in an op-ed published by the Guardian on Monday. 'Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an 'executive coup' against the U.S. constitution'." In "Ellsberg: Snowden’s NSA leak more important than my Pentagon Papers," by Dylan Stableford, Yahoo. 11 June 2013.
World perception changes: "It is not as if Internet users outside the United States did not know that their digital movements might be watched, said Patrick Conley, 47, a media historian who lives in Berlin. 'But you know it more exactly now,' he said. 'In foreign policy terms, it is a catastrophe.' That is particularly so in Germany, where state snooping was a dominant feature of the Nazi and Communist regimes." In "Reception for Obama Is More Sober Than in 2008," by Alison Smale, New York Times, 19 June 2013.
And so one revisits the political statement of a federal government busily operating in huge secrecy operations while denying it: "Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing." In "Transparency and Open Government," Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, by Barack Obama, The White House.
Against this quote stands the news report: "The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed. If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user." In "Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords," by Declan McCullagh, CNET, 25 July 2013. Ergo by being "suspected of no crime," individuals in the private sector are deemed worthy targets of government seeking such information.
Government Cover Ups
The double standard is enormous, as the government seeks openness and cooperation from the private sector while it works to shield itself from the same. It should be noted that to suppress evidence is itself a crime. And yet one reads: "Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges. The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses." In "U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans," by John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke, Reuters, 5 August 2013.
" 'The president must acknowledge what a clear majority of Americans know: Our government has violated the law by collecting the communications of millions of innocent U.S. citizens,' said Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), who wants the collection to end and has also criticized another major NSA surveillance program that targets communications of foreigners. The administration’s definitions defy 'any previous interpretation of the law,' said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'The way the government is interpreting relevance, anything and everything they say is relevant becomes relevant'." In "Obama administration asserts broad surveillance powers," by Ellen Nakashima and Robert Barnes, Washington Post, 9 August 2013. Such behavior is, of course, a clear marker of the totalitarian side of human behavior.
[ 3 ] One reads contradictory propositions, from assertions of an almost police state mentality on the part of "intelligence" which seems to easily ignore the rights of some citizens to the advocacy of the political class that such behavior is necessary to "protect" citizenry. But as information is revealed, the picture of denials from said supporters seems out of sorts with continuing revelations. A recent Christian Science Monitor article was titled with a stinging question, "NSA may have spied on UN. Big deal, or business as usual?"
Among the revelations regarding Americans, one reads: "The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One NSA report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn 'call events' collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added. William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had 'assembled on the order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens', an estimate, he said, that 'only was involving phone calls and emails'. A 2010 Washington Post article reported that 'every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and other type of communications'." In "XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'," by Glenn Greenwald, Guardian UK, 31 July 2013.
Among revelations, one also reads: "President Obama promised that NSA surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But secret documents from the intelligence agency show that the Americans spy on Europe, the UN and other countries." In "Codename 'Apalachee': How America Spies on Europe and the UN," by Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark, Der Spiegel, 26 August 2013.
Big deal, or business as usual? Probably both. Certainly to be surveilled for being "suspected of no crime" seems a big deal. Ergo this rhyme and its footnotes.
[ 4 ] Salon's article notes: "Through a former senior Justice Department official with more than 25 years of government experience, Salon has learned of a high-level former national security official who reportedly has firsthand knowledge of the U.S. government’s use of Main Core. The official worked as a senior intelligence analyst for a large domestic law enforcement agency inside the Bush White House. He would not agree to an interview. But according to the former Justice Department official, the former intelligence analyst told her that while stationed at the White House after the 9/11 attacks, one day he accidentally walked into a restricted room and came across a computer system that was logged on to what he recognized to be the Main Core database. When she mentioned the specific name of the top-secret system during their conversation, she recalled, 'he turned white as a sheet.' An article in Radar magazine in May, citing three unnamed former government officials, reported that '8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect' and, in the event of a national emergency, 'could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and even detention.' The alleged use of Main Core by the Bush administration for surveillance, if confirmed to be true, would indicate a much deeper level of secretive government intrusion into Americans’ lives than has been previously known. With respect to civil liberties, says the ACLU’s Steinhardt, it would be 'pretty frightening stuff'."
Laws Falling Silent Again - circa 2014
Adding to this picture, one learns: "Justice Antonin Scalia predicts that the Supreme Court will eventually authorize another a wartime abuse of civil rights such as the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. 'You are kidding yourself if you think the same thing will not happen again,' Scalia told the University of Hawaii law school while discussing Korematsu v. United States, the ruling in which the court gave its imprimatur to the internment camps. The local Associated Press report quotes Scalia as using a Latin phrase that means 'in times of war, the laws fall silent,' to explain why the court erred in that decision and will do so again." In "Justice Antonin Scalia says World War II-style internment camps could happen again," by Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 4 February 2014.
It becomes likely that one government -- much like so many others -- will again abuse human rights for the sake of some version of martial law, and turn such abuse towards politically-motivated detention, as one has seen repeatedly in history. On this, both parties are silent in the media, while both parties have acted to move in this direction. See: How it happens
Synthesizing a stance: No synthesis is necessary. Free men across the years have already made this synthesis for all free men.
Courtesy of over two centuries ago: "Empires are broken down when the profits of administration are so great, that ambition is satisfied with obtaining them, and he that aspires to greatness needs do nothing more than talk himself into importance. He has then all the power which danger and conquest used formerly to give; he can raise a family, and reward his followers." Samuel Johnson, in a Letter to John Taylor, 24 January 1784.
Courtesy of the present moment: "Anyone, right or left, who cares about individual rights has reason to be appalled." In "Massive secret surveillance betrays Americans: Our view," by the editorial board, USA Today, 6 June 2013.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you? - a run-around
"Greece has managed to buy back some of its debt, but did not succeed in reducing its total debt by as much as its backers had hoped. Holders of Greek debt agreed to sell 31.9bn euros of bonds back to the country at 33.8% of their face value, Greece's debt management agency said." In "Greece buyback puts debt at 34% of its value," BBC, 12 December 2012.
I'll borrow from you in some currency true,
And then pay back less, far less than you're due.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you?
I'll promise to pay but renege on my word.
But come now, don't think that this is absurd.
I simply say that as lender you erred.
I'll stiff you in measure by well over half,
And later perhaps we'll share a good laugh.
But for now what was yours is less. What a gaffe!
When all seems forgotten and over and past,
I'll come back again and sound so steadfast.
Now how will that seem to you, lender harassed?
I'll seek to borrow in some currency true,
And promise to pay back as much as you're due.
Now how would that seem to a lender like you?
Round and around the circle this goes,
As one leads another by a ring in the nose.
Now how does that seem to a lender? Suppose...
I'll borrow from you in some currency true,
And then pay back less, far less than you're due.
Now how does that seem to a lender like you?
Envoi: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery." Charles Dickens, in "David Copperfield"
Addendum of Greek Capital Flowing Away: "With uncertainty clouding the immediate outcome, cash is likely to keep pouring out of Greek banks over the next few days. About 70 percent of the outflows can be attributed to Greek corporate accounts. And most of that is rushing out of the country via electronic transfers to bank accounts elsewhere in the euro zone, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. But many Greek citizens—who account for about a third of the deposit outflow—seem to be taking their cash out of the bank and placing it in safe deposit boxes or even just taking it home and literally stashing it under their mattresses." In "Worried depositors rush to pull cash out of Greek banks," by Dody Tsiantar, CNBC, 19 February 2015.
Addendum of Creditors' Haircuts: "Governments are getting adept at whipping up public anger against creditors to intimidate them. Syriza, the Greek ruling party, has perfected the art. People already hate bankers, and, in many parts of the world, Germans don't fare much better, so bashing them is politically popular. Those creditors who resist and go to court to chase the sovereign's property and funds to ensure repayment are condemned as vultures. The polite, reasonable thing to do is to make a deal and slink away with one's tail between one's legs. Greece's private creditors have already done that, accepting a more than 50 percent haircut on the bonds they owned." In "You Say Debt Relief, I Say Theft," by Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg, 20 February 2015.
Addendum of Hindsight: "In hindsight, of course, we know that the investors should not have lent Greece anything at all, or, if they did, should have demanded something like 100 percent interest. But this is not a case of retrospective genius. At the time, investors had all the information they needed to make a smarter decision. Greece, then as now, was a small, poor, largely agrarian economy, with a spotty track record for adhering to globally recognized financial controls. Just three weeks earlier, a newly elected Greek prime minister revealed that the previous government had scrupulously hidden billions of dollars in debt from the rest of the world." In "Why Greece’s Lenders Need to Suffer," by Adam Davidson, New York Times, 28 July 2015. [ 1 ]
Addendum as the EU Eyes Savings: "The savings of the European Union's 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says. The EU is looking for ways to wean the 28-country bloc from its heavy reliance on bank financing and find other means of funding small companies, infrastructure projects and other investment." In "Exclusive: EU executive sees personal savings used to plug long-term financing gap,: by Huw Jones, Reuters London, 12 February 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Insolvent US Pension Plans: "Ten U.S. states have public pension liabilities that are at least as big as their annual revenues, according to a Moody's Investors Service report released on Thursday that found the Illinois pension bill was equal to 241 percent of its revenues. Illinois is notorious for both its underfunded retirement system and the political battles over how to fix it. In March, the state settled Securities and Exchange Commission fraud charges for allegedly misrepresenting the depth of its pension problems. According to Moody's, Illinois has the largest net pension liability in the country, $133 billion, equal to $10,340 per person in the state. The liability is equal to 19.8 percent of the state's gross domestic product. "In "Public pension costs swamp revenues of 10 U.S. states -Moody's," Reuters, 27 June 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Argentina Defaulting Again: "Argentina has defaulted on its debt - for the second time in 13 years - after last-minute talks in New York with a group of bond-holders ended in failure. So-called 'vulture fund' investors were demanding a full pay-out of $1.3bn (£766m) on bonds they hold. Argentina has said it cannot afford to do so, and has accused them of using its debt problems to make a big profit." In "Argentina defaults for second time," BBC, 31 July 2014. [ 4 ]
Addendum of Continuing Argentinean Fault: "Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said one of its Brazil-based investment funds wrote down more than half the value of its assets after recording losses on investments linked to Argentine government debt. The Brasil Sovereign II Fundo de Investimento de Divida Externa FIDEX took a loss of 197.9 million reais ($87.2 million) on Aug. 1 after booking a provision on credit-linked notes tied to Argentine bonds, according to a regulatory filing yesterday by BNY Mellon DTVM, the bank’s Brazilian fund manager. The fund has just one investor and the identity is not public information, according to securities regulators. Argentina last week failed to make a $539 million interest payment on its bonds, prompting Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings to declare the country in default for the second time since 2001. The country has about $29 billion of overseas foreign-currency notes outstanding, and the International Swaps & Derivatives Association ruled last week that the failure to pay interest will trigger $1 billion of credit-default swaps." In " Bank of New York-Managed Fund Loses 51% on Argentina Default," by Paula Sambo, Francisco Marcelino and Filipe Pacheco, Bloomberg, 5 August 2014.
Addendum of the Costs of Borrowing, the Chicago Way: "Risky interest-rate swap deals have put the school system in a position in which investment banks could demand payments totaling more than $200 million on just two days’ notice because of the downgrade in the credit rating. CPS’ payment into the city teacher-pension fund totals $700 million this year — compared to $200 million during the 2012-13 school year. CPS officials hope lawmakers in Springfield will take steps to help them address the projected $1.1 billion budget shortfall in the next school year." In "CPS' financial straits cost taxpayers with sharply higher interest rates on bond sale," by Chris Fusco, Dan Mihalopoulos and Lauren FitzPatrick, Chicago Sun-Times, 22 April 2015.
Addendum of Puerto Rico: "Peter Hayes, head of the Municipal Bonds Group at Black Rock, estimates Puerto Rico will have to cut its current debt nearly in half, to a more manageable $40 billion, as part of that financial restructuring. And he blogs that bondholders' recovery rates could range from '30 percent or less for subordinate, unsecured or appropriated debt to as high as 100 percent for bonds that are deemed by the courts as secured'." In "Can anything save Puerto Rico from default?" by Bruce Kennedy, CBS News, 30 July 2015. [ 5 ]
See: A clip job
NOTES
[ 1 ] "In hindsight, of course, we know that the investors should not have lent Greece anything at all, or, if they did, should have demanded something like 100 percent interest." What a delightful assertion found in the "Grey Lady's" article about Greece, concluding that lenders should be stiffed for having even lent money to begin with or not charging usurious rates.
One recalls that the New York Times required a loan, of course. The New York Times repaid that loan, coupled to "warrants" which tell the next chapter in a tale of the newspaper and its proprietors.
"Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has become the largest shareholder of New York Times Co (NYT.N) after exercising warrants to double his stake in the publisher to 16.8 percent. Entities affiliated with Slim exercised the warrants he bought in 2009 when he loaned the company $250 million during the height of the financial crisis. New York Times, controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through Class B shares, paid back the loan in 2011. Slim's total stake is valued at $341.4 million, based on the stock's Wednesday closing price of $12.28. He follows other billionaires who have put their faith in the media business." "In Carlos Slim becomes top New York Times shareholder," by Kshitiz Goliya, Reuters, 14 January 2015.
With Slim and "other billionaires," one wonders about this giant of Western media and its oft-stated dedication to the politics of Income Inequality
In hindsight, Slim's loan was repaid. Without hindsight at the time, should he have "demanded something like 100 percent interest?"
Scrupulously Hidden
The NY Times article states clearly that the Greek government "...scrupulously hid[den] billions of dollars in debt from the rest of the world." How would billionaire investors in Western media feel if the companies in which they invest were to have hidden debt from examination? Therefore when thinking about debt, it is prudent to ask, "Now how does that seem to a lender like you?"
[ 2 ] That government representatives and central and international bankers are eyeing "personal savings" suggests that every such entity is seeking cash from new sources -- liquidity where there is instead amassed debt created by these very same entities.
One reads: "The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a 'capital levy' — a one-off tax on private wealth—as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainability. The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible and there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters, including Pigou, Ricardo, Schumpeter, and—until he changed his mind—Keynes.
Taxing Times
"The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away (these, in turn, are a particular form of wealth tax—on bondholders—that also falls on nonresidents). There is a surprisingly large amount of experience to draw on, as such levies were widely adopted in Europe after World War I and in Germany and Japan after World War II. Reviewed in Eichengreen (1990), this experience suggests that more notable than any loss of credibility was a simple failure to achieve debt reduction, largely because the delay in introduction gave space for extensive avoidance and capital flight—in turn spurring inflation. The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to pre-crisis levels, moreover, are sizable: reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels would require (for a sample of 15 euro area countries) a tax rate of about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth." In "Taxing Times, Fiscal Monitor 2013," International monetary Fund, in the subsection: "Taxing Our Way out of—or into?—Trouble."
What is clear is that a "capital levy" is double taxation, when one considers income and VAT taxes in Europe as levies. What remains after the first levies is indeed "capital" -- personal savings. To tax after having taxed on the same capital is unarguably double taxation, advocated by government fat cats. See: Fat, fat government
[ 3 ] One example of pension liabilities -- more easily said, underfunding of promised returns -- is Chicago. The easy answer is "more debt," which can have only one long term conclusion -- insolvency, if not bankruptcy. The scale of the debt is enormous.
One reads: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration is making preparations to issue up to $900 million in bonds this year to lower some of its borrowing costs, push other debt off into the future at an overall higher cost, cover legal settlements and pay for construction, building maintenance and equipment. At the same time, the administration is making plans to double the city's short-term credit line to $1 billion, Chief Financial Officer Lois Scott told aldermen at a City Council Finance Committee meeting." In "Emanuel seeks to borrow $900 million," by Hal Dardick and Jason Grotto, Chicago Tribune, 3 February 2014.
But the overall municipal debt burden is larger than this single instance of politics kicking the proverbial can.
Mind-blowing Debt
One also reads: "Chicago owes almost $14 billion in outstanding general obligation bond debt, and the city’s pension funds owe $19.5 billion in unfunded obligations to police, firefighters and municipal employees. Combined, the Chicago Tribune reports the Second City owes more than $33 billion." In "Chicago’s mind-blowing $33 billion debt and pension obligations," by Reid Wilson, Washington Post, 18 November 2013.
Extending the fiscal picture to a personal level: " 'Chicago's fiscal squeeze is already threatening the city's ability to provide core services. CPS has laid off thousands of staff and closed nearly 50 schools, while the city's crime rate is among the highest in the nation.' It concludes, 'When taxpayers stop receiving the services they are paying for, they'll leave. Chicago has already lost nearly 200,000 people since the 2000 census'." In "Average Chicago household owes $83,000 for City Hall debt," by Greg Hinz, Crain's Chicago Business, 17 September 2013.
But this is one instance among many, as the article above notes similar problems in ten states, not just one city.
And so, when looking at the clear statement which reads "push off debt into the future at an overall higher cost," the question is simply mathematical. Someone sometime and somehow will pay. Lenders? Bondholders? People with savings? Taxpayers? Someone will pay for the excesses, because the IMF gives us the hint, by asking "taxing our way out of -- or into?" The answer is clear, and it is "into" trouble. Greater and greater trouble which politics seems unwilling and perhaps unable to solve. See: Who's gonna pull the welfare wagon
[ 4 ] The new chosen term for people who want to be paid per the terms of a contract is "vulture." One notes that a vulture is a bird which feeds on carrion -- dead flesh. Another connotation of the word is one who "feeds" on the helpless. One might then conclude on the basis of chosen language that the current socialist government of Argentina is either "dead flesh," or "helpless."
The BBC article quotes the Argentine president: "President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has described as vultures the minority bond-holders - including Aurelius Capital Management and NML Capital. She accuses them of taking advantage of Argentina's debt problems to make large profits."
Repaying Debt Is Extortion?
One reads from another report: "Argentine Finance Minister Axel Kicillof delivered the news to the world from Argentina's consulate in New York City. He had just finished a meeting in which he and a delegation from The Republic failed to satisfy the demands of a group of hedge fund creditors negotiating over $1.3 billion worth of debt owed to them for over a decade. 'The Argentine Republic has filed for a stay [on payment] with Judge Griesa... The Judge decided that if the vulture funds said there could be a stay there would be a stay,' said Kicillof. 'The vulture funds were not willing to grant the stay.' Without the stay and without payment, Argentina is in default." In "Argentina defaults," by Linette Lopez, Yahoo Finance, 30 July 2014.
Again, the chosen vocabulary is "vulture." But the Argentine description goes farther, describing this indebted government as victim of a crime: " 'This was a situation of extortion,' said Kicillof. 'We will not just sign anything that could lead to more external debt for Argentina... We will avoid it with all of our weapons.' The 'vulture funds' are investors known collectively as NML Capital and led by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. They would not take haircuts on debt dating back to Argentina's last default in 2001 like over 90% of their fellow bond holders. To Argentina that made them vultures, and you don't pay vultures. Instead you sue them all the way up to the Supreme Court and lose."
Of the earlier default, one learns: "In a 2001 interview, journalist Peter Katel identified three factors, converging at 'the worst possible time', to explain why the Argentine economy unraveled: 1) The fixed exchange rate between Argentine peso and the US dollar (created at the start of the 1990s by the Economy Minister at the time, Domingo Cavallo). 2) The large amounts of borrowing by former Argentine president, Carlos Menem. 3) An increase in debt due to reduced tax revenues." Wikipedia, "1998–2002 Argentine great depression," n. d.
Defaults and Haircuts
Many bond holders from that 2001 default took a "haircut" on the bonds they purchased in good faith from Argentina. How large a haircut? One reads: "Argentina's latest default can trace its roots back to the country's decision to repudiate about $100 billion in debt during a deep economic crisis in 2001. After years of confrontation with creditors, investors exchanged almost 93% of their defaulted bonds for new securities in heavily discounted restructurings in 2005 and 2010 that gave them just 33 cents on the dollar." In "Argentina's Markets Pull Back After Debt Default," by Nicole Hong, Ken Parks and Matt Day, Wall Street Journal, 31 July 2014.That is a loss on a government-sold investment -- supposedly guaranteed by that government itself -- of 67 percent.
From this one learns that the government reneged on its promise to pay lenders in 2001, and now again reneges on repaying bonds per the terms of existing contracts. This defines those who lend to governments by purchasing governments bonds "vultures" committing the crime of "extortion." This is the reality of political speech in which governments seek money from lenders, and then accuse the lenders of extortion for wanting payment in full.
Partial payment -- that "haircut" -- is in plain language a loss for lenders. When a government accuses a lender or holder of a government bond expecting to be re-paid a "vulture," which is the vulture? And which is the extortionist? And which is the deadbeat?
Now how does that seem to a lender like you? How did it seem to lenders before?
There is a history to governments defaulting, and Argentina has such a history. One learns: "Argentina's first bond, issued in 1824, was supposed to have a lifespan of 46 years. Less than four years later, the government defaulted. Resolving the ensuing stand-off with creditors took 29 years. Since then seven more defaults have followed, the most recent this week, when Argentina failed to make a payment on bonds issued as partial compensation to victims of the previous default, in 2001." In "Eighth time unlucky," Economist, 2 August 2014.
In the same period, the 1820s-today, while Argentina has defaulted 8 times, Ecuador and Venezuela each defaulted 10 times, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Chile and Brazil 9 times, and Peru and Mexico 8 times, twenty-two of these sovereign debt defaults since 1980. [Source: Reinhart and Rogoff; Moody's]
How might one view a borrower who does not repay?
Duplicitous and Arrogant
"I co-chaired the Global Committee of Argentina Bondholders leading up to the country’s 2005 exchange of its bonds for better terms. I have been involved in more than 20 country debt restructurings and I had never before or since encountered representatives of a country who were more duplicitous, arrogant or who demonized the representatives on the other side of the table more. At the time, Argentina presented a unilateral offer that only 76% of the creditors accepted (only 63% of international investors accepted), despite our attempts to suggest a modification of their offer that would have been less expensive for the country in the long run and would have garnered over 90% of the bondholders to accept the offer. This was only the beginning of Argentina choosing to engage in antagonistic and self destructive behaviour rather than engage creditors in a negotiation." In "Who to blame for Argentina's disastrous default? Its lawyers, of course," Hans Humes, Guardian UK, 20 August 2014.
Given that the recent term for a significant loss to any lender who holds a government bond is a "haircut," it becomes obvious that governments are trying to clip the wings of the so-called vultures by not repaying in full, proving that true extortion has been and remains the province of government itself.
See A clip job
[ 5 ] One notes the obvious as regards those holding debtors' notes. Less than a 100 percent repayment is a loss. What lender plans on losing even a portion of a principal loaned? When a "clip job" occurs, what lender will rush into similar circumstances in the future?
Given that many small investors place capital in money market funds and various other "pooled" investment vehicles, a seemingly large fund can consist of many small investors, with principal at risk. When enough small investors find themselves on the receiving end of a clip job, it is assured that the whole will play out in political sea change. An unacceptable explanation will be We ran out
"Abdur Raheem Green, a Muslim convert and former public schoolboy, told students at University College London that a 'permanent state of war exists between the people of Islam and the people who opposed Islam.'" In "Terrorism works, preacher told students," by Duncan Gardham, Telegraph, UK, 6 June 2011
A state of war seems permanent
Because we're told it is.
Shall we agree? Attacks' imminent?
Let's have a little quiz?
Shall we defend against a foe?
There are those who'd just say no.
Shall we turn to face to face them? Where?
There are those who think it unfair.
Shall we make nice with the enemy?
They've said this war exists.
Or shall we have a logic-ectomy
As some blinded fool insists?
Terror works, so it's been said,
By those who'd use its claws?
Shall we pretend that terror's bled
Best with loud guffaws?
A permanent state, says a convert lad;
So why should we not see
That his words have dark meaning sad,
That we are his enemy.
Envoi: Qui plume a, guerre a. Ce monde est un vaste temple dédié à la discorde. [ 1 ]
Addendum of the Problem: "In public discussion following my speech, faculty colleagues suggested that a definition of 'love' was needed. Here is what I tentatively propose should be included in that concept: benevolent feelings toward particular people; a desire that they flourish, that they achieve good things and are happy; empathy for their suffering; respect for their dignity, rights, and rational autonomy. With that concept in mind, consider again whether it is psycho-logically possible to love a true enemy, and if so, whether we are morally obligated to do so." In "Killing in the Name of God: The Problem of Holy War," by Dr. David L. Perry, in an Ethics at Noon presentation given at Santa Clara University on 25 September 2001. [ 2 ]
Addendum of the Call: "America is our first target, followed by United Kingdom, France and other crusader countries. As for the field target for the car-bomb, you have places flooded with individuals, e.g. sports events in which tens of thousands attend, election campaigns, festivals and other gathering. The important thing is that you target people and not buildings...." In "Al-Qaeda Calls for Car Bomb Attacks on American Cities, Targets Abroad," by Kerry Picket, Breitbart, 15 March 2014. [ 3 ]
Addendum of States Against a Legal State of War: "The head of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – a collection of six Gulf Arab states – released a statement Monday condemning the latest development in the journey of JASTA, a bill passed Friday by the House of Representatives that would allow families of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack victims to sue the Saudi Arabian government. The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, passed by the Senate in May and the House on Friday, was originally conceived amid speculation that some Saudi officials had connections to attackers who had a hand in the attacks of 2001, which took the lives of almost 3,000. If made into law, JASTA would allow Americans to sue foreign governments suspected of ties to terror attacks on US soil." In "Should Americans be able to sue other governments? Gulf states say no." By Jason Thomson, Christian Science Monitor, 12 September 2016.
NOTES
[ 1 ] The famous quote of Voltaire: "To hold a pen is to be at war. This world is one vast temple consecrated to discord." In a letter to Marie-Louise Denis (22 May 1752).
[ 2 ] Consider an oft-cited statement as perspective to Dr. Perry's "Ethics at Noon" question above: "Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those people are witless. Islam says: 'Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!' Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by the infidel? Islam says: 'Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter them.' Islam says: 'Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword.' The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim." Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989)
[ 3 ] Media for Al-Qaeda suggests continuing a war, all the while US politics attempts to minimize such. One reads: "...the president also tried to tuck al-Qaeda into the past tense, arguing that 'the core of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat. Their remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us. They did not direct the attacks in Benghazi or Boston. They've not carried out a successful attack on our homeland since 9/11'." In "Obama Refines War-on-Terror Rules," by Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics, 24 May 2013.
Apparently You Can't
A similar report on the same day says: "In his speech, the president renewed his call to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and announced new guidelines to govern the use of targeted drone strikes on foreign soil. 'It's a redrawing of strategy on how we're going to confront terrorism,' Schieffer said. 'The president said yesterday -- the quote that everybody is picking up is that, 'This war, like all wars, must end,' but you just cannot declare 'this war is over.' It takes two to tango, as it were. The war will be over when the terrorists stop attacking us. And I think the government's going to have to be very careful that this is not misread by those on the other side,' Schieffer continued. 'This does not mean, as I understand it, that we're going to stop tracking down these terrorists or any of that kind of thing or confronting them when we find them. It means that, for one thing, we're going to bring this large force of people home from Afghanistan and use those resources in a different way. But there's going to be a lot of controversy about this. ... A lot of Republicans are going to say 'this is premature, this is not yet over,' and that it will be misunderstood'." In "Bob Schieffer on Obama's counterterrorism speech: You can't just declare war on terror over," by Amanda Cochran, CBS News, 24 May 2013.
Apparently not. Consider the Poor and lonely wolf
Armed peace - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Quite by surprise on a little mount
A fox and hedgehog met.
"Stop," cried the fox, "you no-account!
It's the king's orders you forget.
Peace has now been long proclaimed,
And you should truly be ashamed,
To be armed with spines, even when tamed.
On behalf of His Royal Majesty, sir,
Disarm and drop them from your fur."
"Not so fast," the hedgehog said,
"Break your fangs; when broken, bled,
Then we'll debate just what you've said!"
Quickly he spiked against attack,
With sharpened spines did he react,
Confidently defying the world' caprice,
Armed, but a living hero of peace.See: Bewaffneter Friede
"Jihad is a term that has unfortunately been widely misrepresented by the actions of Muslim extremists first and foremost, and by attempts at public indoctrination coming from Islamophobes who claim that the minority extremists are right and the majority of Muslims are wrong," said Rehab, who is the executive director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The MyJihad campaign is about reclaiming Jihad from the Muslim and anti-Muslim extremists who ironically, but not surprisingly, see eye to eye on Jihad." [ 1 ] In "US Muslims to reclaim 'jihad' with ad campaign" AFP Chicago, 15 December 2012
Words have meaning, yes they do,
And meanings mean, through and through.
It's all the rage to define away
As if words mean only what you say.
Others use the very same words,
Defining something which undergirds
Exactly what you will not say.
Alas, the both now live today.
Misrepresentation, so it is said,
Is quite unfortunate, as when one's dead.
Minority extremists? Meaning what?
Definitions are neither closed nor shut.
You say what a word should really mean,
While killing remains a brutal scene.
Shall we say then, extreme jihad,
So as to modify the word? How odd.
Mein Kampf's Kampf was struggle too,
So struggle could be extreme? Yes, true.
Translations are such cumbersome things,
And meanings? Well, they fly with wings
Around the world, faster than truth.
Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.
Quote a struggle not thought extreme:
"Fight against Jews...." What means that theme?Let us all explain away,
Until words all confuse the day.
Envoi: "You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them." In "Kitab Al-Fitan wa Ashrat As-Sa`ah," Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6981.
Addendum: "'The threat is a terrorist state at the doorstep of France and Europe,' said French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian." In "Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels," by Baba Ahmed and Jamey Keaten, AP, Mali, 12 January 2013.
See: Islamophobia
NOTES
[ 1 ] "'We now face a spreading jihadist threat. We have driven a lot of the AQ [al-Qaida] operatives out of Afghanistan, Pakistan. We have killed a lot of them, including, of course, Bin Laden. But we have to recognise that this is a global movement,' she said." In "Clinton demands US takes lead to combat 'jihadist threat' in north Africa," By Chris McGreal, The Guardian UK, 23 January 2013.
"House Speaker John Boehner accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of slow-walking negotiations to avoid the 'fiscal cliff,' and urged him to name specific cuts in government spending he would support as part of any compromise. 'Let’s be honest. We’re broke.'" In "Boehner: ‘Let’s Be Honest … We’re Broke’," CBS Washington, CBSDC/AP, 11 December 2012.
"Let's be honest, we're broke."
That's what the speaker spoke.
Which fires might one stoke?
Which ones are mirrors and smoke?
Which funny part's the joke?
Listen to politics invoke
Lies to further and deeper soak
The average Joe and his fellow folk.
One waits for one fell stroke
For another politician to croak:
"Let's be honest, we're broke."
Oh yes, he's said it, he did!
How's about that again, then, kid?
Oh my goodness, heaven forbid!
The scheme is one huge pyramid,
Not to mention the quo pro quid
Which was never reformed, never undid,
For that's how they grease the skid.
The mirrors are broke, the smoke acrid,
As politics has ever backslid.
"We're broke." How's that for a bid?
Oh yes, he's said it, he did!
Envoi: "Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers." Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)
See: Leadership Failure
The old fool - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
An artist midst his high wire walk
Turned old as passing years did him stalk;
Alighting one day from his scaffold high
Said he: now 'tis my time ne'er more to try,
But to only do upon reflection
That which does not upset digestion.
Then joked we all: "What once he'd been!
This master now seems all done in,
Too weak and stiff, he lacks the pep!"
"Ha!" he thinks. "I show those folks!"
The market closed, to quash such jokes
He tried his antics one more time,
High in the air, with a luck sublime
Until that single misstep.
With a crashing thud down he did fall
And broke his back, away to crawl.
"The old fool is now a shattered heap,"
Disparaged his fans; with nary a weep.See: Der alte Narr
"Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It’s a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Obama’s health care overhaul. The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers." In "Obamacare fee of $63 per person to begin in 2014," by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press, 10 December 2012.
Passed on to you?
Pissed on? So true.
"Likely passed on to workers."
Unexpected expense?
Overhaul's pretense?
Let's all recall those smirkers?
It was always a tax.
And yes, now relax.
It's passed on to workers like you.
That's how it just works.
The detail just lurks.
Passed on, as always. Boohoo.
Envoi: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
Money makes the whirled go round
"I believe the US is facing a much more serious problem, one that has simply not been talked about at all: corruption. But this isn't the overt, "bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks" corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to innovate. The corruption to which I am referring is the phenomenon of money in politics." In "How Corruption Is Strangling U.S. Innovation," by James Allworth, Harvard Business review, 7 December 2012.
Money makes the whirled go round,
Be it dollar, Euro, pound;
Money makes the whirled resound,
Corrupting legally.
Money makes the whirled go round,
Skewing, screwing to dumbfound;
Money snakes the whirled all round
And does it busily.
Money makes the whirled twirled round,
As subsidies, loans and grants abound
Wherever quid pro quos abound,
And deliver politically.
Money makes the whirled go round,
Public funds for each chowhound;
Money makes its whirlwind's sound,
Corrupting wastefully.
Money makes the whirled go round,
For politics knows its fertile ground
And harvests in each battleground,
Corruption's legal. See?
Envoi: "President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign has been fined $375,000 by the Federal Election Commission for reporting violations related to a set of donations received during the final days of the campaign. The fines are among the largest ever levied on a presidential campaign by the FEC and stem from a series of missing notices for nearly 1,200 contributions totaling nearly $1.9 million." In "Obama '08 Campaign Fined $375,000 by FEC," by Ken Thomas, Associated Press, 5 January 2013.
Addendum of Flying High: "The World Health Organization routinely spends about $200 million a year on travel — far more than what it doles out to fight some of the biggest problems in public health including AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. As the cash-strapped U.N. health agency pleads for more money to fund its responses to health crises worldwide, it has also been struggling to get its own travel costs under control. Despite introducing new rules to try to curb its expansive travel budget, senior officials have complained internally that U.N. staffers are breaking the rules by booking perks like business class airplane tickets and rooms in five-star hotels." In "AP Exclusive: Strapped UN health agency spends big on travel," by Maria Cheng, Associated Press, 21 May 2017. [ 1 ]
Comparison: $200 million a year on WHO travel > $71 million on AIDS and hepatitis > $43 million a year on DWB travel
NOTES
[ 1 ] A "cash-strapped" UN agency proves only to be cash-strapped when trying to gin up sympathy for greater funding. More on this "rich" bureaucratic style of spending for travel tells that "...the agency’s director-general Dr. Margaret Chan racked up a $370,000 travel bill in one year, and recently stayed in a $1,008-a-night hotel in Guinea, the AP reports. WHO is nevertheless asking for more moolah to fight disease — and taxpayers will be footing the bill." In "WHO spends more on travel costs than fighting AIDS," by Ruth Brown, New York Post, 21 May 2017.
The Post article notes as comparison: "...Doctors Without Borders forbids business-class travel and spends on $43 million a year despite having more than five times as many staffers, the outlet reports."
One comes to understand that class of "public" official who manages to obtain and spend public funds on their own "public" persona and lifestyle. Another such can be learned of in a tale of the Hippogrizzly
Whole classes of "public" figures manage to spend the public's money on such "travel," as may also be seen in the details about The Bureaucrat's Memo
Do you think this dreary game - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Do you think this dreary game
Will go always on and on?
Would you like to see my empathy
As earnest tears, not con?
Or perhaps you'd truly like to see
My dance to joy turned salty?
Previously you'd urged for that;
That proves your thinking's faulty.See: Denkst du
"I am always searching for new ways to de-sacralise the elitism that surrounds the art world..." Choreographer Robyn Orlin (b. 1955)
All ways surging,four gnu ways
Do desack (roll eyes)elites,
Witches' Y she isnow won a
Fringe's legion
done hers a word....
Every oncerevolving arts
In devolutionswhirled
Shows just howmunch correct nice
Is wavingflags unfurled.
But gaining gloryon hers
A warts asothers pranced
Defines elite quitesack (roll eyes)
PR'd andchoreo-danced.
Full bright she is
outstanding
Oh levy a word
commanding.
Such are cons'
none drums
When on hers
all won strums
Her happy
little tune,
With elitely honors
strewn.
All's great ends great
So I says herein
But forty sack (roll eyes)?
Subversion approved is in.
Envoi: "South Africa's Robyn Orlin, one of the country's most respected choreographers, has received a high honour from the French government for her services to the arts over a distinguished 20-year career. French President Nikolas Sarkozy has bestowed on her the French National Order of Merit in the class of Knight (Chevalier)." Media Club South Africa, 4 March 2009.
Addendum of Mere Art without a Rich Moral Soil: "Nothing sublimely artistic has ever arisen out of mere art, any more than anything essentially reasonable has ever arisen out of the pure reason. There must always be a rich moral soil for any great aesthetic growth. The principle of art for art's sake is a very good principle if it means that there is a vital distinction between the earth and the tree that has its roots in the earth; but it is a very bad principle if it means that the tree could grow just as well with its roots in the air. Every great literature has always been allegorical--allegorical of some view of the whole universe.. In "The Defendant," G. K. Chesterton, R. Brimley Johnson, London, 1901.
Addendum of Nothing in It: " 'What do you think of Stanislas' tone-poem? Strong, modern, eh? The soul of rebellion in the crowd—the clash, the revolt at the heart of the machinery. It gives the bourgeois something to think of, oh, yes!' 'Bah!' said a voice in Wimsey's ear, as the cadaverous man turned away, 'it is nothing. Bourgeois music. Programme music. Pretty!—You should hear Vrilovitch's 'Ecstasy on the letter Z.' That is pure vibration with no antiquated pattern in it. Stanislas—he thinks much of himself, but it is old as the hills—you can sense the resolution at the back of all his discords. Mere harmony in camouflage. Nothing in it'." In "Strong Poison," by Dorothy Sayers, 1930.
See: anythingis
President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Reed and House Speaker Pelosi
"The FBI records the emails of nearly all US citizens, including members of congress, according to NSA whistleblower William Binney. In an interview with RT, he warned that the government can use this information against anyone. Binney, one of the best mathematicians and code breakers in the history of the National Security Agency, resigned in 2001. He claimed he no longer wanted to be associated with alleged violations of the Constitution, such as how the FBI engages in widespread and pervasive surveillance through powerful devices called 'Naris.'" In "'Everyone in US under virtual surveillance' - NSA whistleblower," in rt.com, 4 December 2012.
Sir Veiled Lance was knighted
To serve the little kings,
And for this he invaded
All sorts of privileged things.
Sir Veiled Lance poked, prodded
In ways most would not see,
And this was justified in law
By the law's aristocracy.
Sir Veiled Lance saw Lady Liberty
As an inconvenient bitch,
And for this spurned the Lady
While serving in his niche.
Sir Veiled Lance feared the light of day
To work his hidden woes,
But this served well the littlest kings;
It was they who this dark knight chose.
The dark night descends hour by hour
As restraints are drawn away,
In ways which serve the twisted kings,
Silencing some who'd have their say.
Such is power turned to abuse,
And such is the point which cuts,
And such is the dream of the brazen kings
As each puffs and fumes and struts.
Sir Veiled Lance serves these kings right well
And pursues his duties dark,
While Lady Liberty lights the way
With one simple, human spark.
Freedom bucks the bridled bit
And the knight must tilt and sway
As Liberty speaks revolution
When kings must flee the day.
Envoi: " 'Welcome to the shell game in place of open government,' said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a private research institute at George Washington University. 'Guess which shell the records are under. If you guess the right shell, we might show them to you. It's ridiculous.' McRaven's directive sent the only copies of the military's records about its daring raid to the CIA, which has special authority to prevent the release of "operational files" in ways that can't effectively be challenged in federal court." In "Secret move keeps bin Laden records in the shadows," by Richard Lardner, MyWayNews, 8 July 2013.
Addendum of a Complaint from Associated Press: "For the second consecutive year, the Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law - but only when it was challenged." In "US sets new record for denying, censoring government files," by Ted Bridis, Associated Press, 18 March 2015.
Addendum: "Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians." Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938)
Addendum: "Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government." In "On Publicity" from "The Works of Jeremy Bentham," Volume 2, part 2 (1839)
Addendum: "The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness." Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
Addendum: "The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: 'I am not taking it lightly.' She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she said that the CIA appears to have violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as various federal laws and a presidential executive order that prevents the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance." In "Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers," by Ed O’Keefe and Adam Goldman, Washington Post, 11 March 2014.
Addendum: "NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens." In "Snowden accuses Senate intelligence chair of hypocrisy over CIA disclosures, ," by Paul Lewis, Guardian UK, 11 March 2014.
Addendum: "Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity." Lord Acton in "Letter (23 January 1861), published in Lord Acton and his Circle (1906) by Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet, Letter 24.
Addendum: "The Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights watchdog has concluded that travelers along the nation’s borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security. The DHS, which secures the nation’s border, in 2009 announced that it would conduct a “'Civil Liberties Impact Assessment' of its suspicionless search-and-seizure policy pertaining to electronic devices 'within 120 days.' More than three years later, the DHS office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a two-page executive summary of its findings." In "DHS Watchdog OKs ‘Suspicionless’ Seizure of Electronic Devices Along Border," by David Kravets, Wired, 8 February 2013 [ 1 ]
Addendum: "The U.S. government, led by the Pentagon and CIA, censored in the name of national security files that the public requested last year under the Freedom of Information Act more often than at any time since President Barack Obama took office, according to a new analysis by The Associated Press." In "US citing security to censor more public records," by Jack Gillum and Ted Bridis, 11 March 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum: "The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters." In "EXCLUSIVE - U.S. to let spy agencies scour Americans' finances," by Emily Flitter and Stella Dawson and Mark Hosenball, Reuters, 13 March 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum: "Where have all the liberals gone? President Obama, who as a Democratic senator accused the Bush administration of violating civil liberties in the name of security, now vigorously defends his own administration’s collection of Americans’ phone records and Internet activities. With some exceptions, progressive lawmakers and the liberal commentariat have been passive and acquiescent toward the secret spying programs, which would have infuriated the left had they been the work of a Republican administration. " In "The left turns compliant on violating civil liberties," by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 14 June 2013.
Addendum: "Spokesman Matthew Chandler told website: 'To ensure clarity, as part of ... routine compliance review, DHS will review the language contained in all materials to clearly and accurately convey the parameters and intention of the program'." In "Revealed: Hundreds of words to avoid using online if you don't want the government spying on you (and they include 'pork', 'cloud' and 'Mexico')" by Daniel Miller, Daily Mail UK, 26 May 2013.
Foreign Addendum: "Government surveillance is an extremely sensitive topic in Germany, where memories of the dreaded Stasi secret police and its extensive network of informants are still fresh in the minds of many citizens. In a guest editorial for Spiegel Online on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said reports that the United States could access and track virtually all forms of Internet communication were 'deeply disconcerting" and potentially dangerous. The more a society monitors, controls and observes its citizens, the less free it is,' she said." In "Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit," by Noah Barkin, Reuters, 11 June 2013. [ 4 ]
Wire Tap Dance: "There is no explanation of why the federal figures increased so much, and it is generally out of line with the number of wiretaps between 1997 and 2009, which averaged about 550 annually. There was also a large number of wiretaps in 2010, when 1,207 were secured. 'This is just one more piece of evidence demonstrating the need for a full, informed public debate about the scope, breadth, and pervasiveness of government surveillance in this country, Mark Rumold, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in an e-mail. We have a secret surveillance program churning in the background, sweeping in everyone’s communications, and, at the same time, in the shadows (and frequently under seal), law enforcement is constantly expanding its use and reliance on surveillance in traditional criminal investigations'." In "Number of federal wiretaps rose 71 percent in 2012," by Peter Finn, Washington Post, 29 June 2013.
Consumer Protection Protectors' Addendum: "Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealing that the agency has spent millions of dollars for the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans’ financial transactions. The documents also reveal that CFPB contractors may be required to share the information with 'additional government entities.' The records were obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on April 24, 2013, following the April 23 Senate Banking Committee testimony of CFPB Director Richard Cordray." In "JW Obtains Records Detailing Obama Administration’s Warrantless Collection of Citizens’ Personal Financial Data," Judicial Watch Press Room, 27 June 2013.
The "Secret Body of Law" Addendum: "In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say. The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court’s classified decisions." In "In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.," by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, 6 July 2013.
Reflection on political slogans, as per above: "It wouldn't be the first case of website scrubbing after previous positions become inconvenient, but scrubbing a much-vaunted transparency agenda was bound to be noticed. All the content previously found on Change.gov has 'effectively disappeared'." In "Obama transparency promises disappear from transparency website," by Kristen Butler, United Press International, 26 July 2013. [ 5 ]
Addendum from a New York Times Editor: "Well, I would slightly like to interpret the question as 'How secretive is this White House?' which I think is the most important question. I would say it is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of the Times during George W. Bush's first term. I dealt directly with the Bush White House when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. But, you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations. The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It's on a scale never seenbefore. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with." In "Jill Abramson talks to John Seigenthaler," Al Jazeera, 21 January 2014.
Addendum of More of the Press Noticing: "At some point, a compendium of condemnations against the Obama administration’s record of media transparency (actually, opacity) must be assembled. Notable quotations in this vein come from former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, who said, 'It is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering'; New York Times reporter James Risen, who said, 'I think Obama hates the press'; and CBS News’s Bob Schieffer, who said, 'This administration exercises more control than George W. Bush’s did, and his before that.' USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page has added a sharper edge to this set of knives. Speaking Saturday at a White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) seminar, Page called the current White House not only '“more restrictive' but also 'more dangerous' to the press than any other in history, a clear reference to the Obama administration's leak investigations and its naming of Fox News’s James Rosen as a possible 'co-conspirator' in a violation of the Espionage Act." In "USA Today’s Susan Page: Obama administration most ‘dangerous’ to media in history," Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 27 October 2014.
Addendum of Secret Surveillance for Years: "The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material." In "Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011," by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, 8 September 2013.
Addendum of Government Bloat: "...the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is already a national secret police agency, is hoping to get the exact same surveillance powers as the NSA. The DHS has been proactive in cracking down on the Internet in the past, moving against Bitcoins and seizing wrestling websites through their ICE force, which is itself meant to be an immigration enforcement faction. Giving the DHS and their hundreds of millions of bullets access to the private information of all Americans is the surest way imaginable to ensure that the abusive surveillance will directly lead to abusive police actions." In "DHS Wants Same Surveillance Powers as NSA," by Jason Ditz, Antiwar.com, 18 June 2013. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Shattering Trust: "European leaders united in anger as they attended a summit overshadowed by reports of widespread U.S. spying on its allies — allegations German Chancellor Angela Merkel said had shattered trust in the Obama administration and undermined the crucial trans-Atlantic relationship. The latest revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency swept up more than 70 million phone records in France and may have tapped Merkel's own cellphone brought denunciations Thursday from the French and German governments." In "Merkel: US Spying Has Shattered Allies' Trust," by John-Thor Dahlburg and Geir Moulson, Associated Press, 24 October 2013.
Addendum of a Surveillance State now Collapsed: "Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of life in East Germany was the surveillance state. Anyone you knew might be an informant to the secret police, the powerful Stasi, who maintained files on an estimated 6 million citizens and were known to pressure people to turn in neighbors, co-workers, and sometimes even friends and family members as traitors. Economists Helmut Rainer and Thomas Siedler used survey data to try to figure out whether living that way had left a psychological scar. They looked at the results of a Germany-wide survey that had been administered twice a year since 1980: According to their analysis, East Germans were much less trusting toward other people than their counterparts." In "The Berlin Wall’s great human experiment," by Leon Neyfakh, Boston Globe, 12 October 2014.
Addendum of the Growing Surveillance States of America: "Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama's racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document 'inequalities' between minorities and whites. This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already is using to make 'disparate impact' cases against: banks that don’t make enough prime loans to minorities; schools that suspend too many blacks; cities that don’t offer enough Section 8 and other low-income housing for minorities; and employers who turn down African-Americans for jobs due to criminal backgrounds." In "Obama collecting personal data for a secret race database," by Paul Sperry, NYPost, 18 July 2015. [ 7 ]
Addendum of Less and Less Transparency: "Citizens, journalists, businesses and others made a record 714,231 requests for information. The U.S. spent a record $434 million trying to keep up. It also spent about $28 million on lawyers’ fees to keep records secret." In "Obama administration sets new record for withholding FOIA requests," by Ted Bridis, Associated Press (via NPR), 18 March 2015.
Addendum of History: "Obama has managed to put together the most intensive surveillance state in the history of the world. This is pretty frightening when you think about the implications. In the hands of the wrong president, it’s very dangerous what we’re doing." In "Toronto: Oliver Stone Unhappy with Obama and Says Surveillance "In the Hands of the Wrong President, It's Very Dangerous," by Staff, Hollywood Reporter, 10 September 2016.
Addendum of Increasing Surveillance: "The former director of the US National Security Agency has indicated that surveillance programs have 'expanded' under Barack Obama's time in office and said the spy agency has more powers now than when he was in command." In "US surveillance has 'expanded' under Obama, says Bush's NSA director," Paul Lewis, Spencer Ackerman and Nicholas Watt, Guardian UK, 9 June 2017.
Addendum of the Obama Administration and a Very Serious Fourth Amendment Issue: "The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an 'institutional lack of candor' and that the improper searches constituted a 'very serious Fourth Amendment issue,' according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017. The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans." In "Obama intel agency secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years," by John Solomon and Sara Carter, Circa, 23 May 2017.
Addendum of Abuse: " 'Americans should be alarmed that the NSA is vacuuming up their emails and phone calls without a warrant,' said Patrick Toomey, an ACLU staff attorney in New York who helped pursue the FOIA litigation. 'The NSA claims it has rules to protect our privacy, but it turns out those rules are weak, full of loopholes, and violated again and again'." In "Newly declassified memos detail extent of improper Obama-era NSA spying," by John Solomon, The Hill, 25 July 2017.
Addendum of Consolidation and Arrogance: "The report unveils how Pentagon Highlands Forum’s more or less taking over tech giants like Google to pursue mass surveillance. Furthermore, the report shows how the intelligence community has played a key role in secret efforts to manipulate the media and the public. The endless crisis and war we find ourselves in, is in large part because of the efforts of Google and the other technocratic institutions. In on section the author frames how the Obama administration really consolidated this 'Big Brother' control: 'Under Obama, the nexus of corporate, industry, and financial power represented by the interests that participate in the Pentagon Highlands Forum has consolidated itself to an unprecedented degree.' These people refer to themselves as 'the gatekeepers'. Their arrogance is only exceeded by their amoral agnosticism." In "We Told You So: Google Is NSA," by Phil Butler, New Eastern Outlook, 4 September 2017.
Addendum the Half-Educated and Chaos: "...it has something to do with their educational backgrounds. Take the Google co-founders. Sergey Brin studied mathematics and computer science. His partner, Larry Page, studied engineering and computer science. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard, where he was studying psychology and computer science, but seems to have been more interested in the latter. Now mathematics, engineering and computer science are wonderful disciplines – intellectually demanding and fulfilling. And they are economically vital for any advanced society. But mastering them teaches students very little about society or history – or indeed about human nature. As a consequence, the new masters of our universe are people who are essentially only half-educated. They have had no exposure to the humanities or the social sciences, the academic disciplines that aim to provide some understanding of how society works, of history and of the roles that beliefs, philosophies, laws, norms, religion and customs play in the evolution of human culture." In "How a half-educated tech elite delivered us into chaos," by John Naughton, Guardian UK, 19 November 2017. [ 8 ]
Addendum of Abuse: "According to a new declassified ruling from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), FBI personnel systematically abused National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance data in both 2017 and 2018. The 138-page ruling, which dates back to October 2018, was only unsealed 12 months later in October 2019. It offers a rare look at how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been abusing the constitutional privacy rights of U.S. citizens with alarming regularity. The court ruling is also a stinging rebuke to the FBI’s overreach of its ability to search surveillance intelligence databases." In "FISA Court Ruled that FBI Improperly Used NSA Surveillance Data to Snoop on Americans," by Nicole Lindsey, CPO Magazine, 15 October 2019. [ 9 ]
Addendum of a Federal Ruling: "A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the US National Security Agency's bulk collection of citizens' phone records was against the law. The program collected records from phone carriers about who called whom, and it went beyond the scope of what Congress allowed under a foundational surveillance law, a panel of judges ruled. Additionally, the program 'may' have violated the US Constitution, the ruling said." In "Appeals court finds NSA's bulk phone data collection was unlawful," by Corinne Reichert, CNET, 2 September 2020. [ 10 ]
NOTES
[ 1 ] The story continues, in which a supposedly politically 'liberal' administration is behaving under the same assumptions as a totalitarian regime. When "suspicion-less" and "acting on a hunch" become grounds for government actions, civil rights can be shown to have been eroded:
Hunches Without Cause?
"The ACLU, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and other groups have sued to stop the practice, saying that it violates First and Fourth amendment rights. They say allowing agents to act on a hunch encourages racial profiling. Some activists say they also worry that the FBI and other federal investigators are using laptop searches at the border to collect intelligence on terror and criminal suspects without judicial checks. Catherine Crump, the ACLU lawyer who first requested the report, said it is the first detailed explanation of why the government believes it doesn’t need a reason to open a laptop or storage device and download files for further review. She described as inadequate the government’s argument that imposing a legal threshold to perform such searches would lead to lawsuits." In "Dept. of Homeland Security: Laptops, Phones Can Be Searched Based on Hunches," CBS-DC, 5 June 2013.
More: "We all agreed that we needed legislation to make it harder for suspected terrorists to go undetected in this country. Americans everywhere wanted that. But soon after the PATRIOT Act passed, a few years before I ever arrived in the Senate, I began hearing concerns from people of every background and political leaning that this law didn't just provide law enforcement the powers it needed to keep us safe, but powers it didn't need to invade our privacy without cause or suspicion. Now, at times this issue has tended to degenerate into an 'either-or' type of debate. Either we protect our people from terror or we protect our most cherished principles. But that is a false choice. " In "Floor Statement of Senator Barack Obama on S.2271 - USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization," 16 February 2006.
Openly Private and Privately Open
Hypocrisy rears its head: "...George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the Obama administration will likely argue, as it has in the past, that the surveillance is protecting national security. 'It's distressing that until the Snowden disclosures, the administration insisted that any discussion of these surveillance programs would cause grave national security problems,' Turley said. 'What's fascinating is that after Snowden came forward, the administration didn't hesitate a second in discussing the surveillance in public realm'." In "Privacy groups led by EFF sue to stop NSA and FBI electronic surveillance," Associated Press via Guardian, 16 July 2013.
[ 2 ] Yup, Surveillance -- Expanding this theme of surveillance, one learns further that the supposedly "liberal" or "progressive" stream of American politics is behaving in a decidedly illiberal manner. "The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing. The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19." In "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Americans daily - revealed," by Glenn Greenwald, Guardian UK, 6 June 2013.
The political stance of this stream in American politics had previously decried the opposition stream of politics of acting in a totalitarian manner for doing the same thing.
Compromise by Circumventing Law?
One compares this to a candidate's stance, and finds great discrepancy between words and action. Candidate Obama called the Bush stance "illegal," but has broadened that stance. " 'The President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over,' Senator Obama said in the statement. 'It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people'." In "Obama defends new FISA bill as 'compromise'," RawStory, 20 June 2008.
Nope, No Surveillance -- "For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and 'wiretaps without warrants,' he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans' phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.) It's hardly a new stance for Obama, who has made similar statements in previous campaign speeches, but mention of the issue in a stump speech, alongside more frequently discussed topics like Iraq and education, may give some clue to his priorities. In our own Technology Voters' Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: 'No'." In "Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me," by Anne Broache, CNET, 8 January 2008.
It becomes obvious that such a political stance by a supposedly liberal candidate was nothing but electioneering.
Transparently a Lie
This view was reiterated: "Barack Obama promised to run the most transparent White House in history—disclosing donations, shunning lobbyists, and broadcasting important meetings on C-SPAN. Transition captain John Podesta reiterated the point Tuesday when he said Obama's would be 'the most open and transparent transition in history'." In "The TMI Presidency," by Christopher Beam, 12 November 2008.
Yup, Surveillance -- Adding to a more complete picture, one learns that candidate Obama's "the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and 'wiretaps without warrants" is most assuredly not over. "One thing from the memo that was released by the Justice Department was a brief assertion involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which dictates when the government can snoop on those deemed a threat to the nation. The statement read that 'unless Congress made a clear statement in FISA that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area—which it has not—then the statute must be construed to avoid such a reading'." In "Obama Refuses to Release Bush’s Legal Excuse for Illegal Surveillance," by Jon Yoo, AllGov, 29 August 2011.
Very Yup, Surveillance -- One opinion makes an accusation in the process which is worth noting: "Those crazy American conspiracy theorists who live up trees with guns and drink their own pee don’t seem quite so crazy anymore. It turns out that a 'secret court order' has empowered the US government to collect the phone records of millions of users of Verizon, one of the most popular telephone providers – a massive domestic surveillance programme and a shocking intrusion into the lives of others." In "Verizon scandal: Barack Obama's national security state is now beyond democratic control," by Tim Stanley, The Telegraph UK, 6 June 2013.
Very, very Yup, Executive Surveillance -- "Perhaps the White House can spread the responsibility. But the program was initiated and run by the executive branch." In "NSA Spying: An Obama Scandal?" by David Corn, Mother Jones, 6 June 2013.
A Yup to make the Nope a Lie, Lots of Surveillance -- In a next day addition from Mother Jones: "Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far. As news reports emerge about the massive phone records and internet surveillance programs—each of which began during the Bush administration and were carried out under congressional oversight and FISA court review—critics on the left and right have accused the government of going too far in sweeping up data, including information related to Americans not suspected of any wrongdoing. There's no telling if the 86-page FISA court opinion EFF seeks is directly related to either of these two programs, but EFF's pursuit of this document shows just how difficult it is—perhaps impossible—for the public to pry from the government information about domestic surveillance gone wrong." In "Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance," by David Corn, Mother Jones, 7 June 2013.
One Word: Corruption
The Mother Jones articles spoke plainly: "We kept coming back to one word: corruption. Democracy and the rule of law being undermined by those with wealth and power for their own gain." Clara Jeffery, in "How We Got From 9/11 to Massive NSA Spying on Americans: A Timeline," by Dave Gilson, Alex Park and A. J. Vicens, Mother Jones, 11 September 2013.
The scope of this injustice increases with additional reporting: "Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: 'Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple'." In "Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge," by Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, 6 June 2013. And why surveillance of suspicion-free citizens? National security? There are other positions:
Control on the Sly
"The inventor of the World Wide Web said the internet is facing a 'major' threat from 'people who want to control it on the sly' through 'worrying laws' such as SOPA, the US anti-piracy act, and through the actions of internet giants. 'If you can control [the internet], if you can start tweaking what people say, or intercepting communications, it's very, very powerful...it's the sort of power that if you give it to a corrupt government, you give them the ability to stay in power forever'." In "Web inventor Berners-Lee warns forces are 'trying to take control'," by James Hurley, Telegraph UK, 8 June 2013.
One can take heart that in an "open society," secret courts operate with seeming impunity: "The Yahoo ruling, from 2008, shows the company argued that the order violated its users’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The court called that worry 'overblown'." In "Secret Court Ruling Put Tech Companies in Data Bind," by Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, 13 June 2013.
A comparison of remarks follows: First, "It is transparent. That’s why we set up the FISA court...." In "President Obama Defends NSA Spying," BuzzFeed Politics, 17 June 2013. Second, "Because of the sensitive nature of its business, the court is a 'secret court': its hearings are closed to the public, and, while records of the proceedings are kept, those records are also not available to the public." In "United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Wikipedia, accessed June 2013. "Transparent," "secret" and "not available to the public."
Those who argue this is Bush's doing alone while seeking to absolve Obama, and those who argue that this is Obama's doing but absolve Bush, and both groups who absolve Congress based on "security" arguments are playing various forms of partisan politics, and nothing more. Bentham's observation is worth revisiting: "Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government."
What is assured is that the current administration is deeply involved and not transparent as claimed. One reads: "The Guardian is publishing in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009. They detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target 'non-US persons' under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance." In "The top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant," by Glenn Greenwald and James Ball, Guardian UK, 20 June 2013.
Crow
Some editorials speak out: "Obama said that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 'is transparent.' We don’t doubt that there are good reasons for secrecy at the court, but if you’re going to operate a mostly secret court, you also don’t get to crow about how 'transparent' it is. The president can’t have his cake and eat it, too. We rate his claim Pants on Fire." In "The Truth-O-Meter Says," Tampa Bay Times, 21 June 2013.
Another op-ed concludes: " 'The government can get virtually anything,' said Wyden, who as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is allowed to read many of the court’s classified rulings. 'Health, guns, credit cards — my reading is not what has been done, it’s what can be done'." In "For secretive surveillance court, rare scrutiny in wake of NSA leaks," by Peter Wallsten, Carol D. Leonnig and Alice Crites. Washington Post, 22 June 2013.
An American President also commented on such a scandal as this from an earlier time: "If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." James Madison (1751-1836)
The Protecting Tyrant Springs
But the awareness of what makes for tyranny is millennia old: "This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." Plato (428 BC-348 BC).
So is surveillance increasing? One reads: "The NSA began infecting computers in 2001 claims Kaspersky, ramping up their efforts in 2008 when President Barack Obama was elected." In "Russian researchers expose 'NSA's secret weapon': Outrage at program that enables America to spy on EVERY home computer in the world is uncovered," by Reuters Reporter and Chris Spargo, Daily Mail UK, 17 February 2015.
[ 3 ] " 'If I know every single phone call you made, I’m able to determine every single person you talk to, I can get a pattern about your life that is very, very intrusive. And the real question here is: What do they do with this information that they collect that does not have anything to do with al Qaeda? There’s a whole deal when you talk about this kind of stuff, where the — under the law they’re supposed to demonstrate that they’re getting rid of and not keeping any extraneous information that they pick up on wiretaps and/or pick up in sweeps like this. And the president’s saying–I think I wrote down — he said, `this is not mining or trolling.’ If it’s true that 200 million Americans’ phone calls were monitored, in terms of not listening to what they said but to whom they spoke and who spoke to them, I don’t know, the Congress should investigate this'." A quote of then-Senator Joe Biden in 2006, in "Biden in 2006: 'Don’t count me in' on trusting NSA phone call surveillance'," by Jeff Poor, Daily Caller, 11 June 2013.
And as the revelations mount up, one finds journalists being investigated over "leaks" as over unfavorable investigative reporting, and a supposedly "secret" program fattened on federal funds which shows remarkable lack of judgment and perhaps even a redefinition of "secret" as something shared between a few thousand of your closest friends.
Receiving Benefits
One reads: "Thousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said." In "U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms," by Michael Riley, Bloomberg News, 15 June 2013.
How oddly fascist in this modern day to enlist "thousands" of private companies in "secret" operations, as happened in the wartime support of such governments as the Axis powers raised up for a time. Looking back through their own recent quotes, the current president and vice-president of the US spoke against surveillance as we are seeing now, while now being found to administer and defend it through their political governance.
Yup is Nope. Why? Because the denial when the story first broke was simple lying by a government to its own people.
Eavesdropping
"The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed 'simply based on an analyst deciding that.' If the NSA wants 'to listen to the phone,' an analyst's decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. 'I was rather startled,' said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA's formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls." In "NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants," by Declan McCullagh, CNET, 15 June 2013.
Compare and contrast the twisting explanations and confessions of the federal government in the last months with this: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
It becomes ever more clear that the current Justice Department of the United States government is now in violation of the nation's constitution.
While the federal government asserts via the White House and NSA that there is no Constitutional violation, one learns others disagree: "In the wake of the past week's revelations about the NSA's unprecedented mass surveillance of phone calls, today the ACLU filed a lawsuit charging that the program violates Americans' constitutional rights of free speech, association, and privacy. This lawsuit comes a day after we submitted a motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) seeking the release of secret court opinions on the Patriot Act's Section 215, which has been interpreted to authorize this warrantless and suspicionless collection of phone records." In "ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging NSA's Patriot Act Phone Surveillance," by Brett Max Kaufman, Legal Fellow, ACLU National Security Project, 11 June 2013.
Donations for Running Amok
As the story is fleshed out, one finds an interesting political twist: "Six of the largest government contractors doing 'Top Secret' work for the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies have given more than $16 million to lawmakers since 2007, according to Maplight, a firm that tracks political donations." In "Surveillance contractors gave millions in campaign cash to congressional lawmakers," by Shaun Waterman, Washington Times, 21 June 2013.
Things to observe: a) national "top secret" work is contracted out to a number of supposedly private sector firms which then lobby government while receiving funds from the same government, b) these "congressional lawmakers" have never acknowledged a quid pro quo relationship, and yet there is a demonstrable "quid" and a demonstrable "quo," and c) government intelligence activities are now in large part privatized. As the Washington Post's Milbank asked in the article cited above, "Where have all the liberals gone?"
Where have all the liberals gone?
The answer might in part be seen in some doggerel entitled: A Modern Observation on The Anti-War Movement
"This astounding level of surveillance that government officials first denied quickly became something they were eager to defend." In "National security run amok," Rand Paul, Washington Times, 9 August 2013.
As the Obama "surveillance" is ended, the picture clarifies: "The court document also criticized the FBI’s distribution of intelligence data, saying it had disclosed raw surveillance data to sectors of its bureaucracy 'largely staffed by private contractors.' The 'contractors had access to raw FISA information that went well beyond what was necessary to respond to the FBI’s requests,' it said, adding that the bureau discontinued the practice on April 18, 2016." In "Secret court rebukes NSA for 5-year illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens," by Tim Johnson, Miami Herald, 26 May 2017.
From 2012 or Earlier and Through to 2016
More: Judge "Collyer rules that 85% of DOJ searches of NSA databases were illegal. That audit reveals database is accesses 500 times in 6 months. Furthermore, 85% of those queries were illegal and unauthorized. 4250 unlawful, noncompliant queries using names of American citizens, email addresses, phone numbers, or other identifying information. They further found that the use of these databases under these illegal circumstances had begun as far back as 2012. The audit found that out of roughly 40000 searches of the NSA database from DOJ computers using FISA 702 authority in four years from 2012 through 2016 that 34000 of them were illegal. Put another way, that is 34000 criminal violations of individual Civil Rights. 34000 attacks on the 4th Amendment, the constitution, the justice system and the rule of law." In "FISA Court exposes Obama’s abuse of NSA to spy on Americans," by L. J. Keith, Communities Digital News, 28 May 2019.
[ 4 ] "In short: any so-called credible DOJ/FBI leak investigation, by its very nature, would have to involve the Obama administration invasively using the very surveillance and data techniques it is attempting to hide in order to snoop on a few Democratic Senators and more media outlets, including one based overseas. Outside of Washington, D.C., the frustration that Wyden and Udall have felt has been exponentially magnified. Transparency supporters, whistleblowers, and investigative reporters, especially those writers who have aggressively pursued the connections between the corporate defense industry and federal and local authorities involved in domestic surveillance, have been viciously attacked by the Obama administration and its allies in the FBI and DOJ. Jacob Appplebaum, a transparency activist and computer savant, has been repeatedly harassed at American borders, having his laptop seized. Barrett Brown, another investigative journalist who has written for Vanity Fair, among others publications, exposed the connections between the private contracting firm HB Gary (a government contracting firm that, incidentally, proposed a plan to spy on and ruin the reputation of the Guardian’s Greenwald) and who is currently sitting in a Texas prison on trumped up FBI charges regarding his legitimate reportorial inquiry into the political collective known sometimes as Anonymous." In "Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans," by Michael Hastings, BuzzFeed, 7 June 2013.
Soft Totalitarianism
While cited above, the following is worth repeating here, an estimation of a European attitude about this scandal: "What, exactly, is the purpose of the National Security Agency? Security, as its name might suggest? No matter in what system or to what purpose: A monitored human being is not a free human being. And every state that systematically contravenes human rights, even in the alleged service of security, is acting criminally." In "Obama's Soft Totalitarianism: Europe Must Protect Itself from America," by Jakob Augstein, Spiegel, 17 June 2013.
Another perspective from a European leader is instructive: "We had all become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it. In other words, we are all — though naturally to differing extents — responsible for the operation of the totalitarian machinery. None of us is just its victim. We are all also its co-creators. … Those who rebelled against totalitarian rule and those who simply managed to remain themselves and think freely, were all persecuted. We should not forget any of those who paid for our present freedom in one way or another." Václav Havel, in his New Year's address, Prague, 1 January 1990. The conundrum for the current US administration is obvious, as it teeters between freedom and human rights on the one side, and basic violations of such freedoms and an ever-closer alliance with totalitarian behaviors on the other. The story has been repeated many times in history, totalitarianism has triumphed in the short term and freedom in the long run. One therefore may foresee the "legacy" of this United States administration is one which must explain, as Hastings wrote, "why Democrat love to spy on Americans?"
Where Have All the Liberals Gone?
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank has asked: Where have all the liberals gone? The answer is given by Václav Havel. They "helped to perpetuate it" as "co-creators."
Additional scrutiny from the press clarifies: "The debate over the U.S. government’s monitoring of digital communications suggests that Americans are willing to allow it as long as it is genuinely targeted at terrorists. What they fail to realize is that the surveillance systems are best suited for gathering information on law-abiding citizens.... At best, the recent revelations concerning Prism and telephone surveillance might deter potential recruits to terrorist causes from using the most visible parts of the Internet. Beyond that, the government’s efforts are much more dangerous to civil liberties than they are to al-Qaeda and other organizations like it. " In "U.S. Surveillance Is Not Aimed at Terrorists," by Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg, 24 June 2013.
A Chinese press perspective parallels the concerns of European and American press: "Of course, the NSA's program is a violation of Americans' constitutional rights, as former US vice-president Al Gore has said. Of course, it violates the 'privacy of US citizens', which the Western media have been focusing on so ardently. But it is also a blatant violation of the democratic rights and privacy of people (and enterprises) in others countries." In "Snowden has exposed the obvious," Op Rana, China Daily, 21 June 2013.
How to Lose Friends
Revelations of "Sir Veiled Lance" which serves "kings right well and pursues his duties dark" have changed the political landscape not only nationally but internationally as well. One reads of a parallel pursuit of the US administration: "This infringement on the sovereignty of other nations has not gone down well abroad and has only served to reinforce the most negative stereotypes of America. To address this, the U.S. Treasury has been negotiating "Inter-Governmental Agreements" which promise reciprocity in return for compliance. But in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, U.S. Congressman Bill Posey—a member of the House Financial Services Committee from Florida—alleged that Treasury had exceeded its authority in promising reciprocal financial reporting to foreign nations. If Congressman Posey is wrong, U.S. banks will face enormous reporting requirements and costs. If he is right, the U.S. government will face enormous international embarrassment after having coaxed nations into signing IGAs." In "How to Lose Friends, Citizens and Influence," by Colleen Graffy, Wall Street Journal, 16 July 2013.
Indeed, Dana Perino's question lingers: "Where have all the liberals gone?" An answer by the gadfly who began reporting the Snowden revelations has proposed an answer to Perino's query:
"One of the worst myths Democratic partisans love to tell themselves - and everyone else - is that the GOP refuses to support President Obama no matter what he does. Like its close cousin - the massively deceitful inside-DC grievance that the two parties refuse to cooperate on anything - it's hard to overstate how false this Democratic myth is. When it comes to foreign policy, war, assassinations, drones, surveillance, secrecy, and civil liberties, President Obama's most stalwart, enthusiastic defenders are often found among the most radical precincts of the Republican Party." In "Democratic establishment unmasked: prime defenders of NSA bulk spying," by Glenn Greenwald, Guardian UK, 25 July 2013.
[ 5 ] Among the administration's statements which were deleted was this as an "ethics agenda:"
"Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process."
"...expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government" now deleted.
A humorous insight into such inconsistency: "Having, then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent not to be inconsistent consistently, and he lapsed ere long into an amiable indifferentism which to outward appearance differed but little from the indifferentism …" Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
The deletion may well be translated via a verb substitution. "Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government" becomes "Barack Obama will weaken whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government."
Day-to-Day Intimidation
The promised transparency was a lie. One reads: "The AP's Washington chief of bureau, Sally Buzbee, said the Obama administration's efforts to control information extend even to agencies not directly involved in intelligence gathering. Some sources, she said, have reportedly been warned they could be fired for even talking to a reporter. 'Day-to-day intimidation of sources is also extremely chilling,' she said. Buzbee said she's frequently asked if the Obama administration, when it comes to transparency, is worse than the administration of President George W. Bush. 'Bush was not fantastic,' she said. She added, 'The (Obama) administration is significantly worse than previous administrations'." In "Journalists criticize White House for 'secrecy'," by Michael Tarm, Associated Press, 17 September 2014.
AP further noted in repetition: "Day-to-day intimidation of sources is chilling. AP’s transportation reporter’s sources say that if they are caught talking to her, they will be fired. Even if they just give her facts, about safety, for example. Government press officials say their orders are to squelch anything controversial or that makes the administration look bad." In "8 ways the Obama administration is blocking information," by Erin Madigan White, Associated Press Blog, 19 September 2014.
In the words of the old adage, "it all depends on whose ox is being gored." See: Leadership Failure
A clear comment on such hypocrisy: "Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised." Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910)
But more than simply being hypocritical, one might well suggest that much of the administration's political rhetoric is something beyond merely hypocritical. Consider the statement: "He does not believe that does not live according to his belief." Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Looking back on politicians' words compared to actions, one finds Freud's observation rather correct.
[ 6 ] "U.S. officials for nearly three years accessed data on thousands of domestic phone numbers they shouldn't have and then misrepresented their actions to a secret spy court to reauthorize the government's surveillance program, documents released Tuesday show. The government's explanation points to an enormous surveillance infrastructure with such incredible power that even the National Security Agency doesn't fully know how to properly use it: Officials told a judge in 2009 that the system is so large and complicated that 'there was no single person who had a complete technical understanding' of it. The documents, which the Obama administration was compelled to release as part of a lawsuit by a civil liberties group, show that National Security Agency analysts routinely exceeded their mission to track only phone numbers with reasonable connections to terrorism." In "Docs: Officials misused US surveillance program," by Paul Elias, Associated Press, 10 September 2013.
It becomes well worth pondering -- How it happens
[ 7 ] The notion that private businesses building databases -- such as Google with its massive revenue based on "directed" ad placement -- invades privacy is petty compared to the lust for information by government, it seems.
Racial Mapping or Racist Mapping
The article notes: "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing database, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development rolled out earlier this month to racially balance the nation, ZIP code by ZIP code. It will map every US neighborhood by four racial groups — white, Asian, black or African-American, and Hispanic/Latino — and publish 'geospatial data' pinpointing racial imbalances. The agency proposes using nonwhite populations of 50% or higher as the threshold for classifying segregated areas."
One might consider the notion that Everything's about my colored skin
[ 8 ] That surveillance is quite the parallel to invasions of privacy and more should be obvious. The New York Times, as noted above, testifies to tyranny forming when it stated "a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans."
The Guardian opinion article notes: "We are now beginning to see the consequences of the dominance of this half-educated elite. As one perceptive observer Bob O'Donnell puts it, 'a liberal arts major familiar with works like Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, or even the work of ancient Greek historians, might have been able to recognise much sooner the potential for the 'tyranny of the majority' or other disconcerting sociological phenomena that are embedded into the very nature of today’s social media platforms. While seemingly democratic at a superficial level, a system in which the lack of structure means that all voices carry equal weight, and yet popularity, not experience or intelligence, actually drives influence, is clearly in need of more refinement and thought than it was first given'."
In these last years the tech moguls have amassed fortunes, and applied this new wealth to seeing their political views advertised and financially funded. "All voices" demonstrably carry less than equal weight, and with social media used to mount mob-like suppression of opposing views, one finds the very real incarnation of new tyrannies forming, "thanks" to "disconcerting sociological phenomena that are embedded into the very nature" of both social media, surveillance for many purposes and that striking development, a gathering "secret body of law" to collect data on individuals for whatever purposes to which that data is put.
[ 9 ] One learns of the Obama administration's FBI led by James Comey that the "FBI conducted over 3.1 million searches of NSA #surveillance data in 2017, compared to just 7,500 combined searches by the CIA and NSA. #respectdata."
[ 10 ] The ruling is detailed: "The court's ruling, written by Judge Marsha Berzon, held that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act didn't permit bulk collection of phone users' call records. 'The metadata collection exceeded the scope of Congress's authorization,' she wrote. The NSA declined to comment."
When a government purportedly working for "the people" responds thusly, the question may be rightly asked, for whom do they then work?
This and more spawns the question: Should government be limited?
"Nearly all creators of Utopia have resembled the man who has toothache, and therefore thinks happiness consists in not having toothache. They wanted to produce a perfect society by an endless continuation of something that had only been valuable because it was temporary. The wider course would be to say that there are certain lines along which humanity must move, the grand strategy is mapped out, but detailed prophecy is not our business. Whoever tries to imagine perfection simply reveals his own emptiness." In "Why Socialists Don't Believe In Fun," by George Orwell, Tribune, 20 December 1943.
Perfecting society
Requires your fist,
Such that those who disagree
Can be summarily dismissed.
Perfecting utopia
Requires a club
To force dulled submission,
And there's the rub.
Perfecting humanity
Means human beings must
Offer perfecting leaders
Their obedient trust.
Imagining perfection
Shows emptiness within,
For one man's perfection
Is another man's sin.
One man's fun
Is another man's crime,
And such disagreement
Is not settled with time.
Perfecting society
Makes submission just prime,
Such that those who disagree
Can be cured in quicklime.
Envoi: "For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them." Thomas More, in "Utopia"
See: You Topia
Sexy acrostic - just to turn a trick -
"I’ve always had the cliched fantasy of having sex in Main Stacks, so we wasted no time in heading there first. The trick to doing it in Stacks is to go at a time when there won’t be a lot of people studying at the same time and to pick a section of books that people won’t ever think to look up. Like the British Royal Academy archives. We decided that, out of the millions of books in the library, the shelves full of books on religion seemed like the best place to fuck. We moved the adjacent shelves to block our location so that we couldn’t be seen from the rows on either side. I liked having our shelves of choice close to each other so that the setting was nice and cozy." In "College sex: Berkeley edition, Sex on Tuesday" by Nadia Cho in "The Daily Californian," 2 December 2012.
Free sex isn't love, and
Unlike that which is paid,
Consensual screwing's but
Karmic fate delayed.
In between the library stacks
No big deal was made,
Grappling in a swinging trade.
Fuck is the lovelorn word
Elected by her, then written;
Maybe, oh just maybe,
It's likely she was smitten
Not with love but rutting
In opinion then typewritten.
So how should one understand
This rutting strutting kitten?
Fiat lux, or let there be light,
Utters the bright motto of Cal;
Consequently seen is this
Keen oh-so-Berkeley gal,
In between dark library stacks
Naughty as a femme fatale,
Graduating by degree au naturale.
Envoi: Scratch most feminists and underneath there is a woman [ 1 ] [ 2 ] who longs to be a sex object. -- Betty Rollin (b. 1936)
Addendum: "The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance." Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (written in 1798-1799).
Addendum of Seeming to Be Women: "What are these / So wither'd and so wild in their attire, / That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, / And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught / That man may question? You seem to understand me, / By each at once her chappy finger laying / Upon her skinny lips: you should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so." From "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (1605), Act I, Scene 3, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Addendum: "What man can pretend to know the riddle of a woman's mind?" Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, in "Don Quixote" (1605)
Addendum: "And James Carville, Clinton's former adviser, made the comment: 'Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find.'" In "Watch Who You're Calling `Trailer Trash'," by Helene R. Lee, Chicago Tribune, 2 April 1997
Addendum: "If you can't say 'Fuck,' you can't say, 'Fuck the government.'" Lenny Bruce (1925-1966)
Addendumber: "Join us to laugh and learn about the "big O," the most popular topic sex educators Marshall Miller and Kate Weinberg teach about! Orgasm aficionados and beginners of all genders are welcome to come learn about everything from multiple orgasms to that mysterious G-spot. Kate and Marshall cover it all with lots of humor, plenty of honesty, and an underlying message of sexual health and women's empowerment." In "The Female Orgasm: A Program About Sexual Health and Women's Empowerment," University of Minnesota, Events Calendar, announced for 10 April 2013 [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Addendum-diddly-dum: "Hardly. Been there, done you. Adequate, but unremarkable.” Jennifer Estep, in "Spider's Bite" (2010) [ 5 ]
Addendum Mooing: "Have you ever heard the expression, 'Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?' It appears that some women on college campuses have become 'cows' as women sell themselves short, allowing casual sexual “hooking up” to dominate their relationships with male students. Some female students are demeaning their own value as males have sex them in what has been described as the 'mating market'." In "Sexual hooking up favors male students on college campuses," Examiner, 25 August 2013.
Addendum: “All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: 'O God, make me a normal twentieth-century girl!' Thanks to our labors, this will mean increasingly: "Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite'." C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1940. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Duke's Duchess of Porn: "Tuition at Duke is about $60,000 a year. 'The financial aid that I was given to pay for my tuition was insufficient and just really an enormous financial burden on my family,' Miriam [ Weeks ] said last week. She has complained that she’s been harassed at Duke since her porn came to light. But that apparently hasn’t dulled her enthusiasm for the craft. 'She’s working today,' said her agent, John Steven. 'She seems to be still very much interested in pursing this'." In "Dad returns from Afghanistan to learn his kid is Duke porn star," by David K. Li, New York Post, 10 March 2014. [ 7 ]
Addendum of the Sexy Campus Culture: "As colleges continue to grapple with the increasingly public issue of campus sexual violence, California lawmakers are weighing how to address a 'rape culture' that some say has been overly tolerated by the state's public universities." In "California legislators look to change campus 'rape culture'," by Alexei Koseff, Sacramento Bee, 1 July 2014.
Addendum of the Unsexy Campus Culture: "Sex and relationships are always tricky terrain for college students. Those arriving this year are finding schools awash in complaints and headlines about sexual assault and responding with programs aimed at changing campus culture that has been blamed for glorifying dorm-bed conquests, excusing rape and providing a safe haven for assailants. For many young men, it’s an added dimension in a campus scene that already appears daunting, said William Pollack, a Harvard Medical School psychologist." In " Hook-Up Culture at Harvard, Stanford Wanes Amid Assault Alarm," by John Lauerman and Jennifer Surane, Bloomberg, 20 August 2014.
Addendum of the Mattress Carrier: "After joining a federal complaint in April over Columbia’s mishandling of rape cases and speaking out about the school’s failure to address her assault, Sulkowicz is now embarking on yet another effort — an artistic one — to make change on campus. For her senior thesis project, the visual arts major will perform what she is calling 'an endurance art piece,' in which she will carry around a standard twin-size dorm room mattress with her everywhere she goes, until her rapist is removed from school." In "College rape survivor will carry her mattress around campus until her rapist is expelled," by Jenny Kutner, Salon, 3 September 2014. [ 8 ]
Addendum of Withholding and Demanding: "Sexual violence. Examples of sexual violence include: discounting the partner's feelings regarding sex; criticizing the partner sexually; touching the partner sexually in inappropriate and uncomfortable ways; withholding sex and affection; always demanding sex; forcing partner to strip as a form of humiliation (maybe in front of children), to witness sexual acts, to participate in uncomfortable sex or sex after an episode of violence, to have sex with other people; and using objects and/or weapons to hurt during sex or threats to back up demands for sex." In "Abuse Hurts," Definitions, University of Michigan web page, accessed 2014. [ 9 ]
Addendum of the Myth: "Even when contraception is used, early sexual debut has been associated with negative consequences including multiple sexual partners, sexually transmitted infections (STI), increased likelihood of psychological injury (feelings of regret, depression, suicidal attempts), greater substance abuse, and lower academic achievement." In "Promoting the Myth of "Safe Sex'," Press Release, American College of Pediatricians, 29 September 2014.
Addendum of Sexy Statistics: "Based on data from 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eight most common sexually transmitted diseases are: chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B virus (HBV), genital herpes, HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis and trichomoniasis. About 50.5 million current infections are in men while 59.5 million are in women, for a total of 110 million Americans with STDs at any given time. Fifty percent of new infections occur in young people from ages 15-24 and gonorrhea is the most commonly reported STD in that age group." In "CDC: 110 Million Americans Have STDs At Any Given Time," CBS Atlanta, 6 October 2014.
Addendum of University Library Sex: "Oregon State University's main library just went viral, and not because of its state-of-the-art computer lab. A 19-year-old woman was cited Tuesday evening for allegedly using the university library at the campus in Corvallis, Oregon, as a backdrop to shoot an adult video last year. The woman was cited for public indecency and released, according to Steve Clark, Oregon State vice president of university relations. She is not a current student but attended the school for the 2014 fall term." In "Porn filmed in Oregon State University library," by Carolyn Sung and Joe Sutton, CNN, 30 January 2015.
Addendum of Sexy Exams: "In one instance, according to the lawsuit, one of the defendants, Barbara Ball, made inappropriate comments to a student who was undergoing a probe. 'Defendant Ball's comments can only be described as bizarre during some of these forced probing sessions,' the lawsuit states. 'She allegedly approached one student ... during a probing session and stated (she) was 'sexy' and should be an 'escort girl' (prostitute).' The suit says Ball's behavior casts serious doubts upon her motivation for insisting upon the forced vaginal probing sessions." In "Florida college sued over forced vaginal exams, Federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Orlando against Valencia College, three instructors," by AnneClaire Stapleton and Pat St. Claire, CNN, 18 May 2015.
Addendum of a Sexy Rutgers Professor: "During the trial, experts testified that the victim was legally incompetent, unable to communicate and thus unable to consent to sex. In addition, the evidence showed that facilitated communication has been discredited as a valid method of communications. At trial, Professor James Todd, a psychology professor at Eastern Michigan University, said facilitated communication had become 'the single most scientifically discredited intervention in all of developmental disabilities'.’" In "Rutgers Professor Raped Man With Cerebral Palsy In Her Office, Goes To Jail: Prosecutor," by Tom Davis, West Orange Patch, 16 January 2016. [ 10 ]
See: Whoopi
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Woman. Before marriage, an 'agente provocateuse'; after marriage, a 'gendarme'." In "The Jazz Webster," a section in "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
It Roareth Now
Another American humorist defines: "WOMAN, n. An animal usually living in the vicinity of Man, and having a rudimentary susceptibility to domestication. It is credited by many of the elder zoologists with a certain vestigial docility acquired in a former state of seclusion, but naturalists of the postsusananthony period, having no knowledge of the seclusion, deny the virtue and declare that such as creation's dawn beheld, it roareth now. The species is the most widely distributed of all beasts of prey, infesting all habitable parts of the globe, from Greenland's spicy mountains to India's moral strand. The popular name (wolfman) is incorrect, for the creature is of the cat kind. The woman is lithe and graceful in its movement, especially the American variety (felis pugnans), is omnivorous and can be taught not to talk." Fictionally attributed to Balthasar Pober, one of many pseudonyms of Ambrose Bierce, in his "The Devil's Dictionary" (1911).
And in modern literature in contradistinction to Nadia Cho's casual stance, "But when a woman decides to sleep with a man, there is no wall she will not scale, no fortress she will not destroy, no moral consideration she will not ignore at its very root: there is no God worth worrying about." Gabriel García Márquez, "Love in the Time of Cholera," (1985 in Spanish, 1988 in English). Other views not in agreement below.
[ 2 ] The power of sex in personal lives as in society is obvious, and without consensus. One reads: "The notion that Playboy turns women into sex objects is ridiculous. Women are sex objects. If women weren't sex objects, there wouldn't be another generation. It's the attraction between the sexes that makes the world go 'round. That's why women wear lipstick and short skirts." In "Being Hugh Hefner: The Playboy founder dishes on his love for blonds, Viagra and morality," by Jacob E. Osterhout, New York Daily News, 1 August 2010.
Oh, Fuck
In an opposite vein, one finds: "In a patriarchal society, all heterosexual intercourse is rape because women, as a group, are not strong enough to give meaningful consent." A quote in "Professing Feminism: Cautionary Tales from the Strange World of Women's Studies," by Daphne and Noretta Koertge Patai, New Republic/Basic, 1994.
Stepping away from the overt materialist and philosophical stances, one finds: "The more sexual partners a woman has had, the more likely it is that she is depressed." Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, "Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying," Oxford University Press, 2010.
Continuing the back-and-forth, one reads a pithy comment: "The feminist ideology that created the hookup culture might be the greatest gift ever to mankind. It's as if a cabal of evil genius men got together and conspired to convince young college girls to throw away their moral inhibitions and make themselves playthings for college boys." A comment by RustyPelican to an article, "Why Is There a Hookup Culture?" by Dennis Prager, RealClearPolitics, 30 April 2013.
The First Time, Over and Over Again
And in this "rape culture," one finds promiscuity parading as liberation. One example: "I can pinpoint a couple times when I actually felt like I lost my virginity that don’t match the classic definition. It wasn’t the first time I had sex with a man, or the first time a girl ate me out, or even the first time I was fucked with a strap-on. I would say I lost my virginity the first time my girlfriend saw me naked and I felt my most vulnerable — but also my most beautiful. I could also say it was the first time I gave my girlfriend an orgasm, even if it was only with my hands. I could even argue that with each new partner I am losing my virginity over and over again, because I am learning to be vulnerable with someone new — just like how every kiss with a new person feels like my first." In "The Definition of Virginity is Unqueer," by Anabel Costa, Daily Nexus (UCSB), 25 October 2018.
This comment is most amusing for it underscores Hefner's assertion by thanking feminism for being so sexually available. Ah, then both sides contribute to the culture of "empowerment?" Just from different perspectives, pretending outrage at the other. How interesting that a simple word, promiscuity, is left out of most of the discussions I have read. And so the battles continue.
Of late the Obama administration's Defense Department has busied itself with what some would call sexual justice and others would term prudery, as the US military concerns itself with such publications as Hugh Hefner has published for decades. One reads, " 'Contraband includes materials that are patently lewd, lascivious, obscene, or pornographic, as well as supremacist images, publications, or materials,' it says. Those items can include song lyrics, 'inappropriate cartoons,' picture with 'inappropriate comments,' and 'unprofessional' calendars or posters, according to a spreadsheet template provided to commanders to record their findings." In "Navy Will Inspect Its Bathrooms for ‘Degrading’ Images of Women," by Elizabeth Harrington, CNS, 18 June 2013.
How amusing to think that Ms. Cho's article about "the best place to fuck" might be considered "contraband" in the context of the new military. Perhaps the above-mentioned University of Minnesota's Events Calendar could be deemed "patently lewd?"
Questions: When is a degrading image a degrading image? According to what standards? According to whose standards? Was Nadia Cho's article in the university newspaper degrading to women? Or empowering?
[ 3 ] The University of Minnesota and the University of California at Berkeley student programs are not the only examples. Here from a student committee at Washington University is their announcement: "Sex Week 2013: Friday / 1:00 – 3:30 pm: Free STI Screening DUC 233/234 / 7:00 – 9:00 pm: Sex Week 2013: (SHAC Presents) A Night With the Stars: Life, Love, and Sex in the Workplace Graham Chapel," in a Student Health Advisory Committee ("Connecting WashU students with SHS") announcement. 8 February 2013. And at Yale....
"During a discussion Saturday afternoon with 'sexologist' Jill McDevitt, who conducts workshops on sexual topics at college campuses across the country, roughly 40 students had to reconsider their idea of 'normal' in sex when asked to take anonymous surveys that yielded surprising results. Students often do not realize the difference between normative — being in the middle of the bell curve for certain behaviors — and normal, which is a judgment call, McDevitt said, adding that what is common is not necessarily good just as what is deviant is not necessarily bad. On the survey, nine percent of attendees reported having accepted payment for sex in the past." In "Sex Weekend examines sexual culture," by Cynthia Hua, Yale Daily News, 4 March 2013.
Compare this "free love" support sponsored by campus student groups with the following feminist statement: "I, personally, have taken the position that I will not appear with any man publicly, where it could possibly be interpreted that we were friends." Ti-Grace Atkinson, in "Amazon Odyssey," Links Books (1974).
Taken together, the wholly disparate views above underscore the following: "Richard Lichtman provides a sustained argument that Freud and Marx adhere to incompatible views of human nature, and Isaac Balbus similarly robs neo-Marxist liberationist movements, including feminist ones, of any clear picture of their oppressor." Nicholas Power in "The Freudian Left," article in "The Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Sex: From Plato to Paglia," Ed. By Alan Soble, Greenwood Press, 2005.
Nadia Cho's "best place to fuck" cannot jive with the radical feminist's view of oppression, but rather seems a best fit with the quotes of Hefner and Rollin.
Infectious Ideas
But what is obvious from a purely factual perspective is reported: "In 2008, there were an estimated 110 million prevalent STIs among women and men in the United States. Of these, more than 20% of infections (22.1 million) were among women and men aged 15 to 24 years. Approximately 19.7 million incident infections occurred in the United States in 2008; nearly 50% (9.8 million) were acquired by young women and men aged 15 to 24 years." In "Sexually Transmitted Infections Among US Women and Men: Prevalence and Incidence Estimates, 2008," Sexually Transmitted Diseases: March 2013 - Volume 40 - Issue 3.
The epidemic does not decline: "The incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis is increasing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 110 million Americans now are infected with a sexually transmitted disease." In "110 Million Americans Have an S.T.D." by Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, 29 September 2017.
Disease is likely not part of Ms. Cho's "nice and cozy" and admittedly "clichéd fantasy."
Many Do Not Know It
Nor is the following: "Despite strides in reducing cases of HIV infection in the United States in the past three decades, as many as 50,000 Americans become infected with the virus each year. The CDC estimates that almost 1.2 million people in the United States are infected with HIV, yet 20 percent to 25 percent of them do not know it." In "Task force calls for routine HIV testing for all adults," by Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, 29 April 2013.
In the ongoing changes of the biological world which relate wholly to human sexual ethics, one reads: "Professor Cathy Ison, head of the National Reference Laboratory for Gonorrhoea which is part of Public Health England, told the Today programme: 'Hopefully by raising awareness we can at least buy some time and look at new ways in which we can prevent it from becoming untreatable. But there is a possibility that if we don't do something then it could become untreatable by 2015'." In "Gonorrhea 'could be untreatable by 2015'," BBC, 23 April 2013.
In an oddly related story for the "safe sex" argument, one reads: "An underground workshop producing fake brand-name condoms was busted after police found clues on an online marketplace. Police confiscated more than 2 million bogus condoms labeled Jissbon, Durex and Contex in the factory and its warehouse. While a knock-off prophylactic is priced at 1 yuan (16 cents), it costs less than 0.2 yuan to produce." In "Fake-condom factory busted in Fujian," by Sun Li and Hu Meidongin Fuzhou, China Daily, 15 May 2013.
[ 4 ] ADULTERY. Democracy applied to love. In "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
With the euphemism about "women's empowerment," one wonders what power women now have to act ever more as sexual objects under the tutelage of academic excuse and permission. Another news item about academic enthusiasm for such "empowerment" among many shows what a lack of judgment brings to the social debate: "But Schwyzer defended Navigating Pornography in an interview with The College Fix, calling the subject matter legitimate. '(The course) focuses on giving students tools to understand pornography as a historical and contemporary phenomenon,' Schwyzer told The College Fix. 'Students today live in a porn-saturated culture and very rarely get a chance to learn about it in a safe, non-judgmental, intellectually thoughtful way.'" by Jack Butler, The College Fix, 29 March 2013.
Which?
So the question refers directly back to the dissonance between Hefner's "women are sex objects" and "women's empowerment" -- to appear as role models in pornography. The only remaining question for the range of societal views on this "sexy" subject is "which are you?"
One finds a seemingly safe, non-judgmental, and perhaps intellectually thoughtful stance allows one to climb high. "A DS agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors. 'The agent began his investigation and had determined that the ambassador routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children,' says the memo. 'The ambassador’s protective detail and the embassy’s surveillance detection team . . . were well aware of the behavior'." In "Hillary’s sorry state of affairs," By S. A. Miller and Geoff Earle, NYPost, 11 June 2013. But then one might also read: Hillarious
[ 5 ] LOVE. The delusion that one woman differs from another. Also in "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
[ 6 ] Lewis wrote: "Remember, Wormwood, not to let your patient lose sight of how precious sex is. Let him think all must be orchestrated around that appetite: his looks, his mannerisms, his thoughts, his self-assessment -- these must be in the service of the most fleeting of appetites. And don't let him for a moment entertain its true intent. Our Father Below cares relatively little for the miserable creatures' gastronomical gluttonies since mileage is limited among those obsessed for fit bodies. The real pay off is isolation through sex. And can you think of a more fitting irony, dear Nephew, than to turn the very appetite of their unity and propagation into one of the most self-absorbed, unfruitful delights?"
[ 7 ] "Belle Knox [Miriam Weeks], the Duke University freshman paying for college by doing porn, has upped the ante this week with a new blog post on XOJane.com espousing rough sex, and a spin around a stripper pole at a New York City skin joint. 'This is my first time dancing,' Knox told The Post before hitting the stage Tuesday night. 'I'm nervous, but I think it’ll be really empowering.' That 'empowerment' line is the same one she used in her new, graphic blog post written largely about her first porn video, which included submission, name calling, and slapping. 'I’ve been called a hypocrite and mocked for daring to talk about empowerment if I have also not kept adequately hidden away my enjoyment of rough and dirty, nasty and filthy, saliva-dripping and name-calling-filled sex,' she wrote. Knox struck a similar, if less graphic, chord when she stopped in the FOX411 studios Tuesday to talk to us, and said doing all sorts of porn is empowering, because that's who she is. She also called out those who criticize her, including 'anti-porn feminists' on the Duke campus." In "Duke porn star Belle Knox: Rough sex empowering, critics off base," Celebrity News, FOX, 19 March 2014.
Inspiring Tail
More of this celebrity: "Belle Knox, who is paying her tuition at Duke University by working as a porn star, is inspiring New York co-eds to follow in her stilettos. Since word got out that the petite brunette will perform May 2 at the all-nude Show Palace in Queens, the club has been flooded with applications from would-be teen strippers. The club’s manager Mike Diaz told me, 'We are getting bombarded, five to 10 applicants a day. The Knox story is bringing them in.' Diaz said Baruch and Brooklyn Colleges are providing the best pole dancers." In "Belle Knox inspiring more NYC co-eds to be strippers," by Richard Johnson, New York Post, 11 April 2014.
Yet more from this celebrity: "Our society needs a paradigm shift as it relates to our sexual assault prevention efforts. How about we stop teaching women how to not be a victim and instead attack the culture that creates the perpetrators instead? I dream of a day when my daughter can walk down the street without the fear of being assaulted. And yes, I think that I should be able to wear whatever the hell I want without being labeled as a slut. This idea that men cannot control their impulses is archaic and offensive." In "Just Say No To Rape," by Belle Knox, Huffington Post, 29 April 2014.
Shedding her pseudonym, she writes of Duke University, "To make matters worse, my income now makes me ineligible for the $13,000 in aid I was receiving. My bill for next year will be a staggering $62,000. And I will pay this all on my own; the financial aid office does not care that I am legally financially independent. They view it as my parent’s responsibility to foot the bill. But my porn work pays the exorbitant tab for one simple reason: Demand for porn actresses, especially extremely young ones like myself, far exceeds supply. How interesting that the same basic principle explains why my tuition bill is so high in the first place. Demand for education, kind of like demand for porn, is pretty inelastic." In "‘Duke Porn Star’: I Lost My Financial Aid," Miriam Weeks, Time, 16 June 2014.
The Federal Spigot
And so one learns the university education business is akin to the pornography business. As she notes, "Everyone is focused on my decision to perform in porn to pay my tuition. Let’s start paying attention to what got me here. Sky-high tuition bills result from a culture, from our President on down, telling every kid to go to college, regardless of their future plans or ability to graduate. And they result from schools being all-too-happy to raise prices to catch all the money flowing from the federal spigot."
As to sky-high tuition bills and schools "catching all the money," one may learn the sordid details of such an academic culture when a certain Doctor Oppression comes to call
Of sex and possible oppression one may read in some major media today: "Sex workers complain that they are earning less than in the past. But their incomes may not have fallen as steeply as the decline in prices would suggest. The shift towards advertising and coordinating the sale of sex online means that prostitutes rely less on intermediaries, such as brothels and agencies, pimps and madams. That means that they may be able to keep a greater proportion of their income. But selling sex online brings new demands. Clients contact sex workers via their websites, by e-mail, through Facebook and Twitter. Some websites allow prostitutes to tell clients whether they are currently available; but that means going online frequently to update their status. Such work is time-consuming, so some prostitutes may end up paying someone to do it for them. For sex workers as much as anyone, time really is money." In "Why the price of commercial sex is falling," by J. D., Economist, 11 August 2014.
At the Altar of Eros
The short story of the so-called Duke porn star begins to close with this additional information from a documentary interview: "Miriam Weeks, we see in her heart-breaking interviews, is just a hurting 18-year-old girl being used by an industry that takes girls like her, exploits their insecurities, promises them empowerment, and then subjects them to abuse and degradation until they can’t handle it any more. Then the carnivorous recruiters simply go out looking for fresh flesh to feed the baying cannibalistic mob, burning with insatiable lust and shouting their demands for new girls, new girls to degrade and discard. A new day, a new human sacrifice at the altar of Eros." In "Porn is super-empowering: just ask the Duke University porn star," by Jonathon Van Maren, LifeSiteNews, 22 September 2014.
Detail from a "Slutwalk" sign at Oregon State University, 2015.
A Daily Californian column writer muses about "the best place to fuck," and a porn star wonders for a moment and then writes of "empowerment." Is this where feminism thought it would lead? One may ponder the notion of a woman's education in the darkly humorous quip: "That woman speaks eight languages and can't say no in any of them." Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
For more on "empowerment" and "woman," see below.
[ 8 ] Stories are not finished after a scene or two have been played out. One waits for "The End."
This particular "sexy" university story continues to evolve. One reads now more of the characters by name: "Mr. Nungesser, a German citizen, said the ensuing publicity has hurt his chances of remaining in the U.S., given that his job prospects have been hurt by the publicity surrounding the case. The students engaged in sexual activity in August 2012, but Mr. Nungesser says the encounter was consensual, while Ms. Sulkowicz says she was raped. A university tribunal ultimately found Mr. Nungesser not responsible, after which Ms. Sulkowicz launched her highly publicized protest." In "Male Columbia student sues school over 'mattress girl' case," by Valerie Richardson, Washington Times, 23 April 2015.
A Hostile and Intimidating Learning Environment
The prosecutors of the City of New York did not indicted Nungesser, but now the courts in New York will be hearing the story anew, as civil litigation against Columbia University. "In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, Jean-Paul Nungesser said the school engaged in gender bias by allowing him to be subjected to a hostile and intimidating learning environment. The hostile environment was created, the lawsuit says, by the ongoing protest of fellow student Emma Sulkowicz, also known as the 'mattress girl'."
Other "sexy" stories of rape come to different ends. One reads: "Beale’s first victim, Mahad Cassim, served two years and nine months in jail, while she received £11,000 in criminal injuries compensation following the alleged rape. The court heard that she went on to make a string of false allegations that took up 6,400 hours of police time and cost at least £250,000. Most lies began 'impulsively' following drunken rows with girlfriends as she sought attention and to arouse jealousy." In "Lesbian fantasist invented 15 rapes and sexual assaults which saw man jailed to get sympathy from girlfriends, court hears," by Victoria Ward, Telegraph UK, 24 August 2017.
Flaws and Outright Lies
With the "mattress girl's" act constituting a thesis in visual arts, Columbia has made itself doubly liable for condoning the public act of 'accusation by art' by considering it 'academic.' A settlement out of court might end this tale, because the "mattress girl" did not end it when police decided not to prosecute and the university's own "tribunal" found no legal commission of rape.
In an odd confluence of things "Columbia," it is the Journalism School which critiqued a false rape case as written in the magazine, Rolling Stone. That story -- the story of the media itself -- is instructive as a parallel to Nungesser's court suit. One reads: "The lawsuit comes a day after Rolling Stone editors retracted a Nov. 19 story 'A Rape on Campus,' that portrayed the chilling account of brutal sexual assault allegedly occurring in the Phi Kappa Psi house at U-Va. in 2012. A Columbia University report issued Sunday described significant lapses by the magazine’s staff while reporting the gang-rape allegations and the story’s writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, and the publication’s managing editor, Will Dana, apologized for the deeply flawed account. But the fraternity noted that Erdely did not apologize directly to the Phi Psi chapter at U-Va." In "U-Va. fraternity announces lawsuit against Rolling Stone," by T. Rees Shapiro, Washington Post, 6 April 2015.
"....deeply flawed account" in some mouths becomes "outright lie" in others, as another parallel story informs: "...her boyfriend made a suggestion that something more might have happened, and then the boyfriend told Sweetin's brother. Police say Sweetin said the story just got worse from there and she 'continued to go along with it because she did not know what else to do.' Sweetin was arrested for Filing a False Police Report, which is a Class D Felony." In "U of A Student Arrested for Lying About Sexual Assault," KNWA / Arkansas Matters, 20 April 2015.
Art - Screwed One Way or the Other
Given that false accusations are in fact crimes, one waits to see the Gordian knot of the "mattress girl" and her new celebrity status in New York's art circles unravel. Certainly, the Nungasser law suit comes to its conclusion, as will the fraternity's suit against Rolling Stone. Perhaps the answer lies in The Daily Californian's article about "the best place to fuck?"
The law suit was settled in favor of Nungasser. One reads: "The statement reaffirmed that Columbia’s investigation had found Nungesser not responsible and expressed regret that his time after the investigation was 'very difficult for him and not what Columbia would want any of its students to experience.' The statement also said the University will reform its gender-based misconduct policies to make sure all students, 'accuser and accused, including those like Paul who are found not responsible,' are treated with 'respect.' The University did not disclose the terms of the settlement." In "Columbia settles Nungesser's Title IX lawsuit," by Aaron Holmes, Columbia Spectator, 13 July 2017.
But as to "the best place to fuck," the continuing story of the "mattress girl" becomes most strange. One reads: "The former Columbia University student who lugged around a mattress in a stance against college rape has released a video of herself having violent sex in her newest art performance. Emma Sulkowicz, 22, is seen whimpering in pain and protest in the disturbing footage as an anonymous man slaps her, chokes her and rips off his condom before forcing her into having rough sex in a dorm room, according to reports." In "Columbia University anti-rape activist Emma Sulkowicz releases sex video as newest art piece," by Melissa Chan, New York Daily News, 5 June 2015.
Self-described Victim of Rape Releases Violent Sex Video?
And so the "sexy university stories conflate. The mattress girl releases her own "performance art" rape video, while the "empowered" Belle Knox of her porn video popularity becomes an advocate for "just say no to rape." Ms. Cho's "nice and cozy" fantasy becomes a porn star's short-lived career, which becomes a performance artist's "video of herself having violent sex." Ah, feminism takes odd twists, making one recall the lyric, "Perverse and foolish oft I strayed" from the hymn text of Henry Williams Baker (1821–1877). Unlike these modern feminists' and their "perverse" statements, affirmations and accusations, and most changeable stances, the old lyric suggests one way out of the dilemma, while none of the modern feminist tales seem to offer a clear exit from what perhaps the postmodern will claim has "No Exit."
One might consider other sort of stories the popular media present, as regards mattresses. Among these is: "He said student loans come up 'every day in the interview process,' and he's seen more and more college students applying to work for him. So Hof said he'd start matching payments the prostitutes make toward their student loans over the next two months. He's already helped a few workers he employs pay down their debt." In "This pimp helps his prostitutes pay off student debt," by Jackie Wattles, CNN, 9 October 2015.
Mattress girl was a media cause célèbre. There are many mattress girls, it turns out. Screwed one way or another. Many screwed themselves, sadly yet predictably.
As issues surrounding the "rape culture" on college campuses swirl, one finds rape suggested after an election. One reads: "According to the man who photographed the sign, who goes by the handle 'Beck @thereal_beck', the 'RAPE MELANIA'” sign was held aloft without any reaction by the estimated one-hundred-fifty Hillary Clinton supporters protesting the election of Trump." In "Hillary Supporter Holds 'Rape Melania' Sign at DC Protest in Front of Trump Hotel," by Kristinn Taylor, Gateway Pundit, 12 November 2016.
Apparently rape is a relative phenomenon which is sometimes a part of opposition politics and therefore sometimes "without any reaction."
[ 9 ] The notion that sexual violence may be defined for the purposes of academia standards by both "withholding sex and affection" on the one hand and "always demanding sex" is a remarkable demonstration of bureaucratic thinking. Both withholding and not being allowed to withhold sit side by side in such a statement, rather like the "damned if you do and damned if you don't."
One might wonder how "College sex: Berkeley edition, Sex on Tuesday" fits with the statement from UM?
One might wonder how a porn actress may call for a "paradigm shift" in attitudes, when bureaucrats may deem withholding sex as well as demanding sex are held as examples of "sexual violence."
Sex on campus? Publish a student essay on "the best place to fuck?" Promote an academically-sponsored "Sex Week?" Promote a seminar about "The Female Orgasm?" Promote official concern over a "Hook-Up Culture" on campuses, while encouraging the former issues? Declare "demanding sex" and "withholding sex" both to be "sexual violence?"
Thankfully, the UM system pays its leadership very well indeed. The UM Director of Athletics, David Brandon, gets a salary of $800,000, topping the President, Mary Sue Coleman, with her $603,357 salary, and the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Philip Hanlon, and his $509,292 salary. With so many 1 percenters atop the academic ladder, one might ask what other sorts of economic inequality "violence" are ongoing in an academic structure. But certainly one might expect that "withholding sex" and "demanding sex" should not define the boundaries of "sexual violence," for then terms become meaningless. Such is the case in bureaucracy, while the wealth showered upon such academics suggests they should know better. Perhaps some in the leadership failed to consult faculty in the UM Law School, which topped out its salary level at a mere $1,272,218.67 for LEO Intermittent Lecturer, Martin Jay Bienenstock. Such law talent perhaps should be consulted about what constitutes real sexual violence under law? Source: "University of Michigan, Salary Rate of Faculty and Staff, 14 December 2012, Report ID: mhr00575, of over 700 pages.)
Or maybe one should just accept that demanding sex and withholding sex both constitute sexual violence. The tangled webs we weave....
Oafish Hookups and Ill-Trained Grievances
One opinion speaks to those "academic standard" for sex: "Despite hysterical propaganda about our 'rape culture,' the majority of campus incidents being carelessly described as sexual assault are not felonious rape (involving force or drugs) but oafish hookup melodramas, arising from mixed signals and imprudence on both sides. Colleges should stick to academics and stop their infantilizing supervision of students’ dating lives, an authoritarian intrusion that borders on violation of civil liberties. Real crimes should be reported to the police, not to haphazard and ill-trained campus grievance committees." In "The Modern Campus Cannot Comprehend Evil," by Camille Paglia, Time, 29 September 2014.
[ 10 ] There is an odd confluence between "sexy" stories as one learns another Rutgers professor involved in similar facilitated communication work with a patient was similarly charged, and subsequently convicted. One reads: "When the judge explained that Anna had been convicted of two counts of a first-degree felony and that further bail would be impossible, she collapsed onto the defense table in loud, convulsive sobs." In "The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield," by Daniel Engber, New York Times, 2015.
That these stories relate directly to academia seems oddly curious, as one recalls Nadia Cho's writing in a university paper about "the best place to fuck." Apparently a professor's private office is not among these best places.
Selling Stories
But then again, presidential politics seems a fine venue for accusations, as one reads: "California lawyer Lisa Bloom's efforts included offering to sell alleged victims' stories to TV outlets in return for a commission for herself, arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempting to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who ultimately declined to come forward after being offered as much as $750,000, the clients told The Hill. The women’s accounts were chronicled in contemporaneous contractual documents, emails and text messages reviewed by The Hill, including an exchange of texts between one woman and Bloom that suggested political action committees supporting Hillary Clinton were contacted during the effort." In "Exclusive: Prominent lawyer sought donor cash for two Trump accusers," by John Solomon and Alison Spann, The Hill, 15 December 2017.
A little detail is informative: As to Bloom, one reads further: "...she also acknowledged a standard part of her contracts required women to pay her commissions as high as 33 percent if she sold their stories to media outlets."
In a composite picture of accusations alongside false accusations, all flavored by political stances as well as law, as the above addenda and footnotes suggest, the picture is a Gordian knot to many. An attorney, for a time a supporter and defender of accused Harvey Weinstein, seems to support several opposing facets, sometimes on the side of a victim and sometimes on the side of a perpetrator depending on some as yet nebulous standard. Go figure, and at "as high as 33 percent." Sexy.
As to Weinstein in the context of Cho's "the best place to fuck," one reads: " 'If a woman decides that she needs to have sex with a Hollywood producer to advance her career and actually does it and finds the whole thing offensive, that's not rape,' he told The Times. 'You made a conscious decision that you're willing to do something that is personally offensive in order to advance your career,' he added." In "Sex to boost film career is 'not rape': Weinstein lawyer," by Agence France Presse, 3 March 2018.
Apparently it's all about defining rape, so one learned from Whoopi
Empowering feminism - a parody on "I Am Woman" (first released 1971) by Helen Reddy and singer-songwriter Ray Burton.
"What we really need is a new and energized women's liberation movement that can fight for real changes in women's lives. We can start by rejecting the moralistic scapegoating that blames women for our personal choices and putting the focus instead on a society that has failed us." In "The single mother myth," Jen Roesch, Socialist Worker, 23 July 2012.
She is woman, hear her roar,
In numbers too large to ignore.
She's unmarried and she's flitting like a bee.
She can open her own shut door,
Carry packages and what's more
She can family without a husband, as we see.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
She is bearing singly
In her postmodernity,
More elusive now is some next final goal.
Fisc'lly stronger? It seems not,
Yet this is now her lot.
It's consistent with her most postmodern soul.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
She's so often marriage-less,
Which seems so modern, oh my, yes.
And she spreads her lovin' arms often alone.
She aborts her embryo
Thinking that's the way to go.
Seems the whole thing was just overblown.
We're told she is wise
But it's wisdom born of pain,
And not so much was really gain.
If she has to
She will do anything.
She's alone (groan)
And not invincible (she's vincibile)
Modern woman.
Oh, modern woman?
She's not invincible.
Society's wrong?
For some women,
Not so invincible.
Not so strong.
Whither, woman?
Envoi: "Well, I don’t ever listen to my stuff once I’ve finished it, and I don’t really know what’s on it. I’m not saying it’s a bad record, I’m just saying I can’t remember it. When I listen to all my old stuff, I tend to be horrified." In "Linda Ronstadt: 'I don’t like any of my albums'," by Laura Barton, Guardian UK,. 28 September 2017.
Addendum of Empowering Even the Ugly Ones: "Anybody who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex (the ugly ones included)." In "Marx to Kugelmann In Hanover," Abstract, Marx and Engels Correspondence, 12 December 1868.
Addendum of a Trend Away From Marriage: "Fewer and fewer Americans are getting married, continuing a decades-long trend among nearly all education levels and ages that shows no signs of slowing down. In 2011, 4.2 million adults were newly married, about the same number as in 2010 and sharply lower than the 4.5 million newlyweds estimated in 2008, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which asked respondents whether they had been married, divorced or widowed in the previous 12 months. This decline in nuptials from 2008 to 2011 is consistent with a general trend away from marriage in the U.S. Barely half of adults (51 percent) were married in 2011, according to ACS data, compared with 72 percent in 1960. Cohabitation, single-person households and other adult living arrangements are increasingly replacing marriage." In "Study: Marriage Continues To Decrease Among Americans," CBS Washington, D. C., 24 November 2012.
Addendum of Modern Liberalism: "Modern liberalism suffers unresolved contradictions. It exalts individualism and freedom and, on its radical wing, condemns social orders as repressive. On the other hand, it expects government to provide materially for all, a feat manageable only by an expansion of authority and a swollen bureaucracy. In other words, liberalism defines government as tyrant father but demands it behave as nurturant mother. Feminism has inherited these contradictions. It sees every hierarchy as repressive, a social fiction; every negative about woman is a male lie designed to keep her in her place. Feminism has exceeded its proper mission of seeking political equality for women and has ended by rejecting contingency, that is, human limitation by nature or fate. Sexual freedom, sexual liberation. A modern delusion." In "Sexual Personae, Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson," Camille Paglia, Yale University Press, 1990.
Addendum of an Exodus: "All of this has profoundly negative implications – for the emotional and mental well-being of children; for America’s social fabric and 'civil society'; for social mobility and the gap in income inequality; and for dependency on government and costs to the state (family breakdown costs the taxpayers billions every year). The collapse of marriage in America, then, has enormous human and social ramifications." In "America’s Exodus from Marriage," by Peter Wehner, Commentary Magazine, 17 January 2013
Addendum of the More Likely: "The study, released Dec. 20, also discovered that an American youth was 3.8 times more likely to become the victim of a serious violent crime if he or she lived in a home where the householder was unmarried than if he or she lived with married parents. In 2010, 7.4 out of every 1,000 youth living with married parents became the victims of a serious violent crime. At the same time, 27.8 out of every 1,000 living with an unmarried householder became the victims of a serious violent crime." In "DOJ: 95% Drop in Youth Victimized by Guns; 6x More Likely to be Victimized by Knife; Children of Unmarried 3.8x More Likely To Be Victims," by Terence P. Jeffrey, Cybercast News, 11 January 2013
Addendum of Differences: "The battle of the sexes is alive and well. [ 1 ] According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997 – from 28 percent to 37 percent. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent. Believe it or not, modern women want to get married. Trouble is, men don’t." [ 2 ] [ 3 ] In "The war on men," by Suzanne Venker, FoxNews.com, 26 November 2012
Addendum of Empowering Modeling: " 'As parents, it shatters our trust in the school system,' said Lora Luzier, parent of a SDMS seventh-grade boy who was not in the particular class but will be taught a similar curriculum. 'The letter that came home did not include any information about making male genitalia models out of clay.' Luzier said the girls in the class made life-size male genitalia with tinsel for hair and Easter eggs representing testicles. She said there must be some better way to teach the male anatomy including posters, text books or approved models. 'The fact that the girls had to make these, touch them, handle them and have them around in the classroom is unacceptable,' she said. 'They had to present them to the rest of the class. The little girls were embarrassed and humiliated.' Witherow explained the lesson was part of a health class and not a sex education class. Family Life and Human Development is taught in grades 5-11. In grades 5-8, the course includes between four and six class periods and each class is roughly 45 minutes. The class in question was comprised only of female students." In "Male Genitalia School Activity Causes Uproar; School Drops Modeling Activity," Ocean City Dispatch, 20 February 2014.
Addendum of a Least Happy Profile: "...the unhappiest profile?: Female, 42 years old, Unmarried (and no children), Household income under $100,000, In a professional position (doctor, lawyer, etc.) In a press release, the company reported that its survey of 670 North American white-collar workers found men to be 'consistently happier than women'—both in and out of the office. The results also revealed that men are nearly twice as likely to report feeling balance in their work and personal lives." In "Meet the Least Happy People in America," by Sherrie Bourg Carter, Psy.D., Psychology Today, 17 September 2011. [ 4 ]
Addendum of Empowering Femininity into Androgyny and Revolt: "Feminist socialism would universalize these so-called feminine characteristics so that they were no longer specifically 'feminine' at all but would characterize all culture, culminating in androgyny. Residual aggression would be channeled into 'the destruction of the ugly destructiveness of capitalism,' in Marcuse's rather neat phrase. 'Feminism is a revolt against decaying capitalism' and will ultimately have to develop its 'own morality'. In "Marcuse and Feminism Revisited," by Nina Power, Radical Philosophy Review, 16(1), 2013.
Addendum of an Important Feminist's Issue in the Press: "...men can assume the right to be disgusting in a way that women can’t. It’s understood that male bodies are a part of what men are. Female bodies don’t have the same status. Even though, on a basic level, we know that they work in much the same way male bodies do – we shit, we piss, we perspire, we snore – we don’t really want to know this. A female body remains a thing to use, to own and to look at. It’s not something which does things suggestive of some real, human messiness inside." In "Why farting is a feminist issue," by Glosswitch (a pseudonym), New Statesman, 9 December 2014.
Addendum of a Pig: "Another reason some refuse to consider moi a feminist is that I do not fit the popular image of a feminist." In "Miss Piggy: Why I Am a Feminist Pig," by Miss Piggy (The Muppets Studio), Time, 4 June 2015.
Addendum of the Pathetic Silent Piggies: "The new pseudo-feminists are more concerned with racism than with sexism, and disproportionately focused on Western imperialism, colonialism and capitalism than on Islam’s long and ongoing history of imperialism, colonialism, anti-black racism, slavery, forced conversion and gender and religious apartheid. And why? They are terrified of being seen as 'politically incorrect' and then demonized and shunned for it. The Middle East and Western Africa are burning; Iran is raping female civilians and torturing political prisoners; the Pakistani Taliban is shooting young girls in the head for trying to get an education and disfiguring them with acid if their veils are askew — and yet, NOW passed no resolution opposing this. Twenty-first century feminists need to oppose misogynistic, totalitarian movements. They need to reassess the global threats to liberty, and rekindle our original passion for universal justice and freedom." In "As ISIS brutalizes women, a pathetic feminist silence," by Phyllis Chesler, New York Post, 7 June 2015. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Misogynist Tweets: "Half the aggressive tweets using the words slut and whore analysed by social thinktank Demos came from women and girls, research indicates. The suggestion that women and girls as well as men are responsible for the use of misogynistic words in an abusive manner on Twitter came in research over a three-week period from the end of April." In "Half of misogynistic tweets sent by women, study finds," by Sandra Laville, Guardian UK, 26 May 2016.
Addendum from the Tragedy of Emancipation: "The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds. Pettiness separates; breadth unites. Let us be broad and big. Let us not overlook vital things because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. A true conception of the relation of the sexes will not admit of conqueror and conquered; it knows of but one great thing: to give of one's self boundlessly, in order to find one's self richer, deeper, better. That alone can fill the emptiness, and transform the tragedy of woman's emancipation into joy, limitless joy." In "The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation," in "Anarchism and Other Essays. Second Revised Edition," Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1911.
Addendum of Missing Men and the Leftover Women: "Prof Marcia Inhorn, Professor of Anthopolgy at Yale University, said professional women found themselves losing out in a game of 'musical chairs' because there were simply too few men of the same calibre to go around. 'There is a major gap - they are literally missing men. There are not enough college graduates for them. In simple terms, this is about an oversupply of educated women,' she said. 'In China they call them 'left over women'. It sounds cold and callous but in demographic terms this is about missing men and left over women'." In "Shortage of eligible men has left women taking desperate steps to preserve their fertility, experts say," by Laura Donnelly, Telegraph UK, 4 July 2017. [ 6 ]
Addendum of a Post-Accusations Era: "No more dinners with female colleagues. Don’t sit next to them on flights. Book hotel rooms on different floors. Avoid one-on-one meetings. In fact, as a wealth adviser put it, just hiring a woman these days is 'an unknown risk.' What if she took something he said the wrong way? Across Wall Street, men are adopting controversial strategies for the #MeToo era and, in the process, making life even harder for women." In "Wall Street Rule for the #MeToo Era: Avoid Women at All Cost," by Gillian Tan and Katia Porzecanski, Wall Street Journal, 3 December 2018. [ 7 ]
Addendum of More Empowerment: " 'This isn't like an 'end of the road' or 'I've hit bottom' choice,' she says. 'This is a positive, empowering choice. I realized there is no shame in having a fascination with this industry and wanting to do something that is safe, sane, consensual'." In "Mikaela Spielberg, Steven Spielberg’s daughter, comes out as porn star," by Rob Bailey-Millado, NY Post, 19 February 2020.
Addendum of No Future Feminism: " 'They're saying that the future isn’t a good investment,' Routledge says. 'And if there’s no future, why would you be anything but hedonistic? Why would you donate to charities? Why would you try to make the world better or care about human progress?' He adds that this generation has a sense that 'humans were a mistake.' Sophie Lewis, a British feminist scholar, calls the institution of the family a 'microfactory of debtors' and argues that it generally 'sucks.' In her book, 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family,' Lewis describes pregnancy as 'something to be struggled in and against.' She dreams of a post-parent world, one in which the old notion of the family is replaced with a 'classless commune on the basis of the best available care for all'." In "First Comes Love. Then Comes Sterilization. Inside America's Baby Bust. Meet the young women who never want to have kids," by Suzy Weiss, Common Sense with Bari Weiss, 25 October 2021.
See -- Chased Away
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's inquest." In "A Book of Burlesques," H. L. Mencken, 1916.
[ 2 ] "On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life / (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife) / Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith, / And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: 'The Wages of Sin is Death.'" An excerpt from the longer poem, "The Gods of the Copybook Headings," by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).
Totally Oversimplified
As to men losing "reason and faith," an interesting reports tells a tale. "New YouGov research reveals the scale of the generational shift in terms of how young people perceive their own masculinity, and to a lesser extent femininity. On a scale of 0-6, where 0 is completely masculine and 6 is completely feminine, only 2% of young men (aged 18-24) define themselves as totally masculine, compared to fully 56% of men over 65." In "Only 2% of young men feel completely masculine (compared to 56% of over 65s)," by Will Dahlgreen, YouGov, UK, 13 May 2016.
Though the media above stated that "modern women want to get married," in a population where men do not see themselves as "completely masculine" the stated statistical reality affects marriage itself. Consider the modernity of Wedding Shredding
[ 3 ] "What the feminists want of me is something they haven't examined because it comes from religion. They want me to bear witness. What they would really like me to say is, 'Ha, sisters, I stand with you side by side in your struggle toward the golden dawn where all those beastly men are no more.' Do they really want people to make oversimplified statements about men and women? In fact, they do. I've come with great regret to this conclusion.'" Quote of Doris Lessing, in "Doris Lessing on Feminism, Communism and 'Space Fiction'," by Lesley Hazelton, New York Times, 25 July 1982.
It's Hard
And so as regards marriage as an institution and the "empowerment" promised by feminism, one reads: "It's hard to overstate the breakdown of marriage and the rise of single-parent families. Consider out-of-wedlock births. In 1980, about 18 percent of births were to unmarried women; by 2009, the proportion was 41 percent. Among whites, the increase was from 11 percent to 36 percent; among African-Americans, from 56 percent to 72 percent; among Hispanics, from 37 percent (1990) to 53 percent. Or look at the share of children living with two parents. Since 1970, that's dropped from 82 percent to 63 percent. Among whites, the decline is from 87 percent to 73 percent; among African-Americans, from 57 percent to 31 percent; among Hispanics, from 78 percent to 57 percent." In "Family Meltdown," by Robert Samuelson, The Washington Post Writers Group, 15 April 2013. Family meltdown? As noted above in Mencken comic twist perhaps this era is indeed "at a coroner's inquest."
A similar sentiment is made, from the perspective of the fiscal and social costs to the state as well as the society at large: "Single mothers in their early 20s instantly become the have-nots, statistically, in income and education. For so many women to have so many children without a husband is a complete abdication of personal responsibility, which leads to a complete shunning of any civic responsibility. We are going broke. And if you think taxing higher-income earners more is the answer, you haven't done the math. The men who are party to these births are, of course, just as irresponsible, just as uncommitted to a civic responsibility to take care of their own." In " Single moms are making us broke." by Joe Soucheray, Pioneer Press, 4 May 2013.
A Different Sort of Battle
Yet in spite of the changing demographics in the West, one finds feminism fighting a different sort of battle: "Our understanding of Islamism, according to what we have learned fighting against it, tells us that our criticism of it is valid and holds out much hope for the future. At the heart of Islamism lies the enslavement of women based on control over their sexuality. The hijab is at the same time both a symbol and a tool of this enslavement." In "Why topless protesters will hound Islamic leaders," by Inna Shevchenko, special to CNN, 22 April 2013.
Of sex in another "empowering" context, one reads via translation: "However, jihad comes first, for it is the pinnacle of Islam, and if the pinnacle of Islam can only be achieved through sodomy, then there is no wrong in it. For the overarching rule of [Islamic] jurisprudence asserts that 'necessity makes permissible the prohibited.' And if obligatory matters can only be achieved by performing the prohibited, then it becomes obligatory to perform the prohibited, and there is no greater duty than jihad. After he sodomizes you, you must ask Allah for forgiveness and praise him all the more. And know that Allah will reward the jihadis on the Day of Resurrection, according to their intentions—and your intention, Allah willing, is for the victory of Islam, and we ask that Allah accept it of you." Quote from a fatwa of Al-Khallaf, in "The 'Sex Jihad'," by Raymond Ibrahim, Human Events, 24 June 2013.
Gordian Knot Knotted
One sees the modern dilemma for the modern liberal mentality. If sex is ever permissible according to the rational of the individual "empowered" by such thinking, then what of all the uses which so-called empowered women, enslaved according to other views, travel to provide sexual favors to rebel fighters. Which is empowerment and which is enslavement? It comes down to words and postures and stances and more words and words and enlightened "feminist" words. Free to do what? Un-free to do what? Empowering feminism seems to have not untied this Gordian knot, while oddly it has undone many other societal ties.
It seems that some feminists have spoken clearly against rationales for sex in every circumstance while others, less so: " 'I am struggling to understand a world in which the only anti-capitalist organisation is Islam and it seems the only way we can have Islam is with Sharia law,' she said. 'If I have to watch African women, North Africa women, Arab women choosing an Islamic republic because it is the answer then I'm also going to have to watch those women negotiate the problems that will be presented when they adopt Islamic systems.' " In "Hay Kerala: [ Germaine ] Greer warns 'I think we are all in grave danger'," by Matthew Bayley, Telegraph UK, 19 November 2013. See: Islamophobia
[ 4 ] One begins to see that "empowerment" might mean things not originally intended by the political caste. One reads, "Single Americans make up more than half of the adult population for the first time since the government began compiling such statistics in 1976. Some 124.6 million Americans were single in August, 50.2 percent of those who were 16 years or older, according to data used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly job-market report. That percentage had been hovering just below 50 percent since about the beginning of 2013 before edging above it in July and August. In 1976, it was 37.4 percent and has been trending upward since." In "Is Everybody Single? More Than Half the U.S. Now, Up From 37% in '76," by Rich Miller, Bloomberg, 9 September 2014.
How Clever
One may then consider what "empowerment" meant as a political catch-all phrase of the moment, when the cultural trend as borne out by statistics shows that, in part, such empowerment also touches on being single. The famous slogans of feminists echo here, one superficially empowering albeit nonsensical. "Dunn coined the famous catch phrase: 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,' which was subsequently popularised by Gloria Steinem and became a popular slogan among feminists." In "Irina Dunn," Wikipedia, n. d.
How clever the political feminists have been, empowering women with metaphors of fish and bicycles such that decades later one reads in Psychology Today of the "unhappiest profile": "Female, 42 years old, Unmarried (and no children), Household income under $100,000, In a professional position (doctor, lawyer, etc.)" Jen Roesch, of the Socialist Worker, argues of women that "society has failed us." It seems clear that political action has failed, while birthing that "unhappiest profile," unmarried, childless, yet financially middle class and professionally accomplished. What's missing then? More politics? More feminism? More bicycles?
An echo of Steinem's silly but memorable statement, a comment on the news site opines: "A woman may need a man like a fish needs a bicycle, but it appears that she wants him to have a job with a stable income." A comment posted by Will, Pasadena, CA.
This to an article about marriage, economic class and culture failing the institution, as one reads: "Changing culture is harder: Government marriage promotion programs haven't worked well, for example. Yet it’s clear from research that if relationships progressed more slowly, and childbirth came later, families would be more stable." In "How Did Marriage Become a Mark of Privilege?," Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, 25 September 2017.
The observation based on many sources is that marriage is a word with great and little meaning, at the same time. This results in Wedding Shredding
[ 5 ] One hears the absence of many Western feminist voices as regards issues in Islam worldwide, excepting to refrain from addressing issues which women in the Islamic world are addressing for themselves.
Morality Police?
One reads as an example: "The hijab is becoming an increasingly contentious issue in Iran as women step up their campaign against it and other oppressive, gendered laws. In recent months, women have been filmed walking through Tehran with their hair uncovered and activists have urged Western tourists to violate laws by refusing to wear the hijab during their visits to the Islamic republic." In "Iranian women cut off their hair and dress as men to avoid morality police," by Heather Saul, Independent UK, 22 May 2016.
The article has the courage to note that this "is a serious cultural war between two lifestyles." In an age throughout the West awash in cultural relativism, the notion that there is a cultural war becomes a stumbling block, as many Western feminists are themselves active in local politics all the while being silent about this real "cultural war," a phrase on which the cultural relativists of the West so often gag.
[ 6 ] Government planning for society, including China's one child policy and sex selection coupled to abortion has resulted in consequences. One reads: "Besides, the shortage of marriageable age women has made it difficult for men to find a spouse, especially in poverty-stricken rural areas. The number of marriageable age men in China will be 24 million more than marriageable age women in 2020. And given the huge social pressure single men face in rural areas, they could become the catalyst to many problems, such as sex crimes and trafficking of women, which in turn could undermine social stability and harmony." In "Staying single not good for demographics," by Mu Guangzong, China Daily, 5 September 2017.
[ 7 ] Given an article written by two women with the phrase "avoid women at all costs" in regards to men being inured legally against false allegations, and in an era when so much of the above tells a tale of the age-old battle between the sexes, one reads of another woman's opinion.
A lot of men hate women?
"...we live in a misogynist society and a lot of men hate women. They just do. I think that seeing a strong woman articulate her points, argue for her position, and even get angry about the disparities she faces — whatever they are — will cause some men to have a problem, even if women won't. (If women do, then they ought to look in the mirror.)" In "Voting for women is more than gender politics. It's opting to create real change," by Jamie Lee Curtis, NBC, 27 November 2019.
The quote is odd, for Curtis also chastises other women who would not agree with her. They ought to look in the mirror? All, men and women, could examine themselves more clearly. When "a strong woman articulates her points," but does not heed the modern liberal call for "change" opting for another more conservative direction, how often does the modern liberal disparage her? Often and regularly. Who ought to look in whose mirror?
A Woman Calls for Change?
Here is change as imagined and called for by a woman: "The cultural institutions which embody and enforce those interlocked aberrations--for instance, law, art, religion, nation-states, the family, tribe, or commune based on father-right--these institutions are real and they must be destroyed. If they are not, we will be consigned as women to perpetual inferiority and subjugation. I believe that freedom for women must begin in the repudiation of our own masochism. I believe that we must destroy in ourselves the drive to masochism at its sexual roots. I believe that we must establish our own authenticity, individually and among ourselves--to experience it, to create from it, and also to deprive men of occasions for reifying the lie of manhood over and against us. I believe that ridding ourselves of our own deeply entrenched masochism, which takes so many tortured forms, is the first priority; it is the first deadly blow that we can strike against systematized male dominance. In effect, when we succeed in excising masochism from our own personalities and constitutions, we will be cutting the male life line to power over and against us, to male worth in contradistinction to female degradation, to male identity posited on brutally enforced female negativity--we will be cutting the male life line to manhood itself. Only when manhood is dead--and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it--only then will we know what it is to be free." In "Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics," Andrea Dworkin, 1976.
No Woman is Safe? Every Woman is a Victim?
Dworkin aggregates men into this 'patriarchy' which Curtis calls a 'misogynist society," and asserts: "Under patriarchy, no woman is safe to live her life, or to love, or to mother children. Under patriarchy, every woman is a victim, past, present, and future. Under patriarchy, every woman's daughter is a victim, past, present, and future."
It is less heated and more likely that "men" and "women" gathered into their collective noun rules vary, and vary within their own seeming collective groups. No one can speak for a group with such variety and with so many in opposition to what others avow. But one can sample individual views aplenty. What is sampled above tells little of society as some unified whole, but much of the individuals in that society.
Consider again other women and their several views: Sexy acrostic
A drunken poet - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
A drunken poet emptied
His glass with hefty swig;
His companion warned him:
Hey! enough of that, you pig.
Almost toppling from his stool,
He said: That's incorrect!
Ah yes, one can drink too much,
But enough? That I expect.See: Du hast genug
True socialism, oh yes, he said
"For the Nazi Party, the brownshirts -- who included the unemployed, the underemployed, apprentices and high-school students -- were 'political soldiers.' In Goebbel's view, their task was the 'conquest of the street.' In the melting pot of Berlin, these primarily young men were supposed to reconcile and embody two previously hostile worldviews: nationalism, which Goebbels believed had to be 'reshaped in a revolutionary way,' and a 'true socialism' free of Marxism." In "The Ruthless Rise of the Nazis in Berlin," by Uwe Klussmann, Der Spiegel, 29 November 2012.
True socialism, oh yes, he said,
And today socialists should squirm,
For all the waters spilt o'er that dam
And blood spilled for this one term
Left the world to bleed and die
As millions of dead confirm;
Define it as you may and will;
In it there is a vicious germ
That grows into a murdering rot
As multiple histories all confirm.
National and yet socialist?
Reshaped? And brutal and firm.
But then, international socialist?
It collapsed being brought full-term.
True socialism, oh yes, each said;
All who forget now reaffirm
The same and ugly soldiers' stance
And the gnawing of that worm.
True socialism, oh yes, he said,
Yet true socialists don't squirm.
That they do not, but urge it again
Should clearly reaffirm
That such as he are with us still,
His cadre dreams long-term.
Envoi: The Convention promulgated this great axiom: 'The liberty of one citizen ends where the liberty of another citizen begins,' which comprises in two lines the entire law of human society.” Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Addendum from the Source Himself: "...a general conception of life can never be given an organic embodiment until it is precisely and definitely formulated. The function which dogma fulfils in religious belief is parallel to the function which party principles fulfill for a political party which is in the process of being built up. Therefore, for the conception of life that is based on the folk idea it is necessary that an instrument be forged which can be used in fighting for this ideal, similar to the Marxist party organization which clears the way for internationalism. And this is the aim which the German National Socialist Labour Movement pursues." In "Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler, translated by James Murphy, Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., 1939.
Addendum of Sources: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma living, creative Socialism. Volksgemeinschaft: that means a community of all productive labor, that means the oneness of all vital interests, that means overcoming bourgeois privatism and the unionized, mechanically organized masses, that means unconditionally equating the individual fate and the nation, the individual and the Volk. I know that liberal bourgeois concepts are highly developed in Germany, the bourgeois man rejects public life and has a deep-seated aversion toward what goes on in the streets. If he weakens in his resolve for any length of time, this public life, the street, will destroy the ideal of his four walls. In cases like this, attack is the best form of defense." Adolf Hitler, in an interview for the writer Hanns Johst on the concept of the ‘Bürger’ (bourgeoisie) published in the “Frankfurter Volksblatt ,“ 27 January 1934. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Aryan Intellectual Glories: "For Socialism in itself is anything but an international creation. As a noble conception it has indeed grown up exclusively in Aryan hearts: it owes its intellectual glories only to Aryan brains." Adolf Hitler, in a Speech in Munich, 28 July 1922. [ 2 ]
Detail from a Nazi political poster, circa 1940
Addendum from Another National Socialist: "We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system ! And with my inclination to practical action it seems obvious to me that we have to put a better, more just, more moral system in its place, one which, as it were, has arms and legs and better arms and legs than the present one!" In "Thoughts about the Tasks of the Future," by Gregor Strasser, 15 June 1926. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Setting One Record Straight: "A 94-year-old former SS sergeant admitted in court Friday that he had served as an Auschwitz death camp guard, apologizing to Nazi Holocaust survivors looking on in a German courtroom that even though he was aware Jews were being gassed and their corpses burned, he did nothing to try to stop it. Reinhold Hanning told the Detmould state court that he had never spoken about his wartime service in Auschwitz from January 1942 to June 1944, even to his family, but wanted to use his trial as an opportunity to set the record straight." In "Former SS Auschwitz guard apologizes at trial," by David Risin, Associated Press, 29 April 2016.
Addendum of a German Historian's Passing: "Nolte, who died this week at the age of 93, suggested that Stalin's forced-labour camps and the killing of millions of peasants in the Soviet Union were forerunners of the Nazi crimes. One of the concerns that arose following Nolte’s hypothesis, was the potential threat of minimizing Nazi crimes. His thesis was mostly refuted by the historical community, and he was was heavily criticized by sociologist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who accused Nolte of trying to whitewash the past in a column for 'Die Zeit'. The controversy was not only intellectual but also thoroughly political. Right-wing intellectuals argued that a similar approach should be taken towards different totalitarian states, whereas left-wing intellectuals thought that the Nazi crimes could not be equated with the crimes of the Soviet communism." In "Controversial Berlin historian dies aged 93," TheLocal.de, 19 August 2016. [ 4 ]
Addendum Echoing from 1940: "Only those who unconditionally and unrestrictedly consider the market economy as the only workable form of social cooperation are opponents of the totalitarian systems and are capable of fighting them successfully. Those who want socialism intend to bring to their country the system which Russia and Germany enjoy. To favor interventionism means to enter a road which inevitably leads to socialism. An ideological struggle cannot be fought successfully with constant concessions to the principles of the enemy. Those who refute capitalism because it supposedly is inimical to the interest of the masses, those who proclaim 'as a matter of course' that after the victory over Hitler the market economy will have to be replaced by a better system and, therefore, everything should be done now to make the government control of business as complete as possible, are actually fighting for totalitarianism. The 'progressives' who today masquerade as 'liberals' may rant against 'fascism'; yet it is their policy that paves the way for Hitlerism. Nothing could have been more helpful to the success of the National-Socialist (Nazi) movement than the methods used by the 'progressives,' denouncing Nazism as a party serving the interests of 'capital.' The German workers knew this tactic too well to be deceived by it again." In " "Progressive" Attacks on Capitalism Were Key to Hitler's Success," Ludwig von Mises (written in 1940, republished 7 February 2019) Mises Daily.
Addendum of an Amusing Apologia for Non-Nazi Socialism: "...the Nazis were German white nationalists. What they stood for was the ascendancy of the 'Aryan' race and the German nation, by any means necessary. Despite co-opting the name, some of the rhetoric, and even some of the precepts of socialism, Hitler and party did so with utter cynicism, and with vastly different goals. The claim that the Nazis actually were leftists or socialists in any generally accepted sense of those terms flies in the face of historical reality." In "Were the Nazis Socialists?" by David Emery, Snopes, n. d. [ 5 ]
Addendum from 1942 Condemning the "Have" States: "... it cannot be compared to the democratic-political bungling of the idlers and dividend profiteers, who, in the Anglo-American countries, for instance, spend the wealth accumulated by their fathers or acquire new wealth through shady deals. It is precisely because this young Europe is involved in the resolution of truly great questions that it will not allow the representatives of a group of powers who tactfully call themselves the 'have' states to rob them of everything that makes life worth living, namely, the value of one’s own people, their freedom, and their social and general human existence." In "New Year’s Proclamation to the National Socialists and Party Comrades" Adolf Hitler, 1 January 1942. [ 6 ]
See: I'll use my freedom
NOTES
[ 1 ] A portion of this quote is cited in a Wikipedia article on National Socialism, and also in other resources, among them "The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary," by Max Domarus, Bolchazy-Carducci, 2007.
"Creative Socialism" interpreted by Nationalism, as editors attempt to downplay the socialist themes in favor of the nationalist in order to obfuscate that National Socialism was and remains somehow the antithesis of international socialism, when in fact Victor Hugo's simple statement is the true antithesis of the Nazi Totalitarian
The modern German socialist tries to distance ":modern" socialism as ideology from the National Socialists by finessing the failing Right-Left model to place Hitler at the right, while other "left-of-center" socialists portray themselves as distant from this imagined "right." But one may consult a number of sources, including Hitler's physician.
A Special German Socialism
One reads the following exchange, in "I Was Hitler's Doctor," from the German of: Kurt Krueger, M.D., Forward by Upton Sinclair, Introduction by Otto Strasser, Biltmore Publishing, 1943, p. 79.
"Have you head about Anton Drexler's German Workers Party?"
"No, but it sounds like socialism on a blotter."
"It's not socialism raw," he assured me. "It's a kind of special German socialism, and some day not only you but ll the rest of the world will hear about it."
"Give me one good reason why," I challenged.
"Because," he replied with what to him was inexorable logic, "it is going to change Germany, then Europe, and finally all the rest of the world. It's already changed me," he added as an afterthought.
Stepping away from the amorphous descriptions, right and left, one finds that all those ideological models which advocate for large, forceful government cluster together, begin with high-sounding words and ideals, but historically all prove out that "dictatorship" as "dictatorship of the proletariat" fall into murderousness with relative ease, before they collapse in economic failure. The twentieth century as a vast experiment has proven that National Socialism, Italian Fascism, Soviet Socialism, Sino-Socialism, and the many smaller experiments all are similar in time, when one steps away from the naive notion that the so-called Left-Right model accurately separates murderousness from murderousness, and economic collapse from economic class, based on ideological words and postures.
[ 2 ] The notion that National Socialism was somehow not socialism is refuted within the texts of Hitler's many speeches, though one notes many contemporary historians fail to cite such remarks.
From an anti-capitalist speech a speech in Schleiz, Southwest Thuringia, in 18 January 1927, one reads: "We are National Socialists, that is to say what we understand by the word nation is not one class, nor one economic group; the nation is for us the collective term for all people who speak our language and possess our blood. We see no possibility for pride in the nation if there is a well-fed group of entrepreneurs and behind them the starving and exhausted working people of our nation."
Teaching Socialism - A Must
Later in an opening speech at the new Winterhilfswerk, Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, 5 October 1937, Hitler declared: "... there is a difference between the theoretical knowledge of socialism and the practical life of socialism. People are not born socialists, but must first be taught how to become them."
History serves when well documented to show that National Socialism was among the Enemies of Capitalism
[ 3 ] This quote by an ardent Nazi illustrates what the modern academic stance wishes to ignore, that National Socialists were indeed socialists, and dedicating to eradicating capitalism.
One learns: "Strasser joined a revived NSDAP in 1925 and once again established himself as a powerful and dominant member, hugely increasing the party's membership and reputation in northern Germany. Personal and political conflicts with Adolf Hitler led to his death in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives." Wikipedia article, "Gregor Strasser (1892-1934), n. d.
That the totalitarian system he espoused turned on him is one example among many of totalitarian systems which purge the ranks of their own when threats to centralized power are perceived. Such was the case, for example, in the Baath Party of Iraq under Sadaam Hussein which purged from its own ranks to consolidate power. Similar examples may be seen in the histories of the Soviet Union and during the "cultural revolution" of Communist China.
[ 4 ] The seeming distinction between right-wing and left-wing is a pretense, I argue. The obituary of Nolte contrasts him with Habermas, as seemingly representative of right-wing and left-wing. Of Habermas one notes that while Ernt Nolte argued for the links between ideology and state-sponsored mass murder, Habermas who Wikipedia notes was "...associated with the Frankfurt School," and that this Frankfurt School sought to "fill in the perceived omissions of classical Marxism, they sought to draw answers from other schools of thought, hence using the insights of antipositivist sociology, psychoanalysis, existential philosophy, and other disciplines," one might learn that the article indentifies the need of the postmodern Left to disassociate Hitler and the Holocaust from Stalin and the Holomodor as well as Mao with the Cultural Revolution and Pol Pot with the slaughter in Cambodia.
A Never-Correct Model
The sheer magnitude of state-sponsored and ideologically-driven mass murder in all the above instances does not minimize Hitler's evil, but rather places it alongside other state mass murders. The seeming intellectual irritation towards Nolte is that he notes this, presenting a challenge to the advocates of greater state powers -- left, as right -- to explain why a gathering of ever broader state powers is somehow to be disassociated from government, left as right. Unlike the professional historians and based on Hitler's own words as the above, I suggest herein that the model of Left and Right
When a historian connects government and political ideology with state sponsored mass murder, there should be precious little controversy about it. Governments are the greatest perpetrators of mass murder, and such governments all cluster together under similar ideologies. What "perceived omissions of classical Marxism" correct this in the many decades of intellectual activities by those associated with the Frankfurt School?
Another scholar has quoted Hitler himself: "We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system...." Enough said.
[ 5 ] It is amusing how the intelligentsia works to disassociate National Socialism from socialism, or "debunk" that association as does the author of the assertion above.
Of him one reads: "David Emery is a San Francisco-based writer with nearly 20 years’ experience debunking rumors, hoaxes, and urban legends, first as a freelancer for About.com (1997-2016), and for snopes.com since July 2016. His varied career has also included stints as a newsroom librarian, staff writer for a television sitcom, and contributing editor of a (pre-Internet) satirical newspaper." One learns that he earned "a B.A. in philosophy from Portland State University." Thus shown, he is a scholar.
Obvious Facts Need No Debunking
That the Nazis were "German" is an obvious fact, though many were also Austrian. That they were "nationalist" is demonstrated by their chosen party name: German National Socialist Labour Movement, and that they were, as Emery seems need to say, "white" is rather plainly seen by their Northern European demographics.
But the assertion the National Socialists were not socialist is absurd, while Emery, in his debunking, fails to define what "true" socialism is, of the many and sometimes contradictory definitions one finds. What is herein noted, however, is that he finds a need to "debunk" in part the title of the party, debunk Nazis' own statements, and moreover to defend the placement of National Socialism on that undefined notion of the "right."
A Scholar Critical of Left-Wing Views
In addition, Emery cites a number of scholars without regard to their relationships. Of one scholar Emery cites to "debunk" the socialism of National Socialism, one reads of Joachim Fest, one reads: "After the Hitler biography, Fest was invited to become co-editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of the leading German newspapers based in Frankfurt am Main and an institution in the German-speaking world. From 1973 to 1993, he edited the culture section of the paper. His views were generally conservative, pessimistic and sceptical, and he was particularly critical of the left-wing views that dominated German intellectual life from the late 1960s up to the collapse of communism in 1991. He took a leading role in the Historikerstreit (historians' dispute) of 1986-89, in which he was identified with those rejecting what they saw as the Marxist hegemony in German historiography in this period." Wikipedia.
A Scholar Critical of Another Scholar
Of a second Emery source, one reads of Ian Kershaw: "In the Historikerstreit (Historians' Dispute) of 1986-89, Kershaw followed Broszat in criticising the work and views of Ernst Nolte, Andreas Hillgruber, Michael Stürmer, Joachim Fest and Klaus Hildebrand, all of whom Kershaw saw as German apologists attempting to white-wash the German past in various ways. In the 1989 edition of The Nazi Dictatorship, Kershaw devoted an entire chapter towards rebutting the views of Nolte, Hillgruber, Fest, Hildebrand, and Stürmer. In regard to the debate between those who regard National Socialism as a type of totalitarianism (and thus having more in common with the Soviet Union) versus those who regard Nazism as a type of fascism (and thus having more in common with Fascist Italy), Kershaw, though feeling that the totalitarianism approach is not without value, has argued that in essence, Nazism should be viewed as a type of fascism, albeit fascism of a very radical type."
Thus competing modern historians parse meanings as to National Socialism as totalitarianism "in common with the Soviet Union" (which was officially "socialism" and known throughout the West as Communist) and/or fascism "of a very radical type."
Totalitarian Socialist or Totalitarian Fascist, but Totalitarian
Yet one learns clearly from sourced citations from many Nazis themselves was that they were in fact anti-capitalist. Moreover the "debunking" also fails to debunk the Spiegel, a modern German news source, article from 2012, "The Ruthless Rise of the Nazis in Berlin," which is cited above
Free from Marxism but Enemies of Capitalism Nonetheless
Moreover, Emery's debunking ignores many other sources, as above and beyond. What Emery failed to observe was that the Nazis, among many others, were self-declared Enemies of Capitalism
Emery and those who would prop up the failing Left-Right model to separate National Socialism from Soviet Socialism, Sino-socialism and many other instances of failing socialism -- as Marx defines it in his 1848 Communist Manifesto -- work hard to draw distinctions. In order to do so, they need ignore the testimony of National Socialists themselves, in order to assert that the Nazis were merely "German white nationalists."
Liberating the Masses from a Wretched National Bourgeoisie
Interestingly, Hitler used socialist vocabulary from that era, complaining about an ineffectual middle class: "A young movement which, therefore, sets itself the goal of resurrecting a German state with its own sovereignty will have to direct its fight entirely to winning the broad masses. Wretched as our so-called ' national bourgeoisie ' is on the whole, inadequate as its national attitude seems, certainly from this side no serious resistance is to be expected against a powerful domestic and foreign policy in the future. Even if the German bourgeoisie, for their well-known narrow-minded and short-sighted reasons, should, as they once did toward Bismarck, maintain an obstinate attitude of passive resistance in the hour of coming liberation - an active resistance, in view of their recognized and proverbial cowardice, is never to be feared." In "Mein Kampf," Vol. I, Chapter XII: 'The First Period of Development of the National Socialist German Workers' Party'. Adolf Hitler, 1924.
Necessarily Anti-Semitic
Additionally, should one wish to check primary sources, one reads in Hitler's own words from an August 15th, 1920, speech in Munich at the Hofbräuhaus: "Since we are socialists, we must necessarily also be antisemites because we want to fight against the very opposite: materialism and mammonism against which we must fight. (Great applause.) ....How can you not be an antisemite, being a socialist!"
The original German is provided here to those who wish greater clarity in an extended excerpt: "Wenn wir Sozialisten sind, dann müssen wir unbedingt Antisemiten sein, dann ist das konträre Gegenteil der Materialismus und Mammonismus, den wir bekämpfen wollen. (Lebhaftes Bravo.) Und wenn uns heute auch der Jude Schritt auf Schritt versichert und noch in unsere Fabriken läuft und erklärt: Wie kannst du als Sozialist Antisemit sein? Schämst du dich nicht? - Es kommt die Zeit, in der wir fragen werden einst: Wie kannst du als Sozialist nicht Antisemit sein! (Sehr richtig.) Es kommt die Zeit, in der es selbstverständlich sein wird, daß Sozialismus nur durchzuführen ist in Begleitung des Nationalen und des Antisemitismus." In "Hitlers „grundlegende" Rede über den Antisemitismus," pp.416-417, Reginald H. Phelps, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, 1968.
A German Social Democrat?
One could seek later in Hitler's speeches the following: "The Weimar Constitution is not a Socialist Constitution. But we adhere to the basic principles of a constitutional state, to the equality of rights, and the concept of social legislation anchored therein. We German Social Democrats solemnly pledge ourselves in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism." Adolf Hitler in a debate with the SPD's Otto Wels, Berlin, 23 March 1933.
And in the next year: "National Socialism takes for itself the pure idea from each of these two camps. From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma living, creative Socialism. Volksgemeinschaft: that means a community of all productive labor, that means the oneness of all vital interests, that means overcoming bourgeois privatism and the unionized, mechanically organized masses, that means unconditionally equating the individual fate and the nation, the individual and the Volk." Hitler, in "Adolf Hitler - interview by Hanns Johst on the concept of the 'Bürger' (bourgeoisie)," Frankfurter Volksblatt, 27 January 27, 1934.
Since We Are Socialists, What's in a Name?
A debunking is debunked by the testimony of principals in the historical phenomenon which was National Socialism. After all Hitler himself could inform Emery that We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party
There is no question that, in Hitler's mind, he was anti-capitalist. From 1938, one reads: "Perhaps the most persuasive evidence of the insincerity of their fight against the National Socialist Party as it struggled for power at the time is the fact that no matter whether they were bourgeois nationalists, capitalist democrats, or Marxist internationalists, they formed a unitary front against us in all decisive battles." In "Closing speech at the NSDAP congress in Nuremberg," Hitler, 12 September 1938.
Towards the end of the war, one reads: "What we have so often preached at home about the essence of the enemy coalition has now been confirmed: it is a devilish pact between democratic capitalism and Jewish Bolshevism. All nations whose statesmen have signed this pact will sooner or later become the victims of the demonic spirits they have summoned." In "National Socialists! Party Comrades!," proclamation to the German People, 24 February 1945.
Anti-Capitalist National Socialism
"Democratic capitalism" was an enemy to National Socialism, as was "Jewish Bolshevism."
From the preponderance of the evidence, National Socialism was socialism of a Nazi mold, but socialist and anti-capitalist nonetheless. Therefore one wonders at the pains to which today's socialists support a political model which sanitizes socialism.
Who Is Not Prepared to Admit?
But of this effort, one finds from 1944, "The Marxians are not prepared to admit that the Nazis are socialists too. In their eyes Nazism is the worst of all evils of capitalism. On the other hand, the Nazis describe the Russian system as the meanest of all types of capitalist exploitation and as a devilish machination of World Jewry for the domination of the gentiles. Yet it is clear that both systems, the German and the Russian, must be considered from an economic point of view as socialist. And it is only the economic point of view that matters in debating whether or not a party or system is socialist. Socialism is and has always been considered a system of economic organization of society. It is the system under which the government has full control of production and distribution. As far as socialism existing merely within individual countries can be called genuine, both Russia and Germany are right in calling their systems socialist. Whether the Nazis and the Bolsheviks are right in styling themselves workers' parties is another question. The Communist Manifesto says, "The proletarian movement is the self-conscious independent movement of the immense majority," and it is in this sense that old Marxians used to define a workers' party. The proletarians, they explained, are the immense majority of the nation; they themselves, not a benevolent government or a well-intentioned minority, seize power and establish socialism. But the Bolsheviks have abandoned this scheme. A small minority proclaims itself the vanguard of the proletariat, seizes the dictatorship, forcibly dissolves the Parliament elected by universal franchise, and rules by its own right and might. Of course, this ruling minority claims that what it does serves best the interests of the many and indeed of the whole of society, but this has always been the pretension of oligarchic rulers." In "The Socialist Calumny Against the Jews," Ludwig von Mises, 1944.
Marxist Coinage?
From only years ago, one reads further: " 'Fascism' was, in fact, a Marxist coinage. Marxists borrowed the name of Mussolini's Italian party, the Fascisti, and applied it to Hitler's Nazis, adroitly papering over the fact that the Nazis, like Marxism's standard-bearers, the Soviet Communists, were revolutionary socialists. In fact, 'Nazi' was (most annoyingly) shorthand for the National Socialist German Workers' Party. European Marxists successfully put over the idea that Nazism was the brutal, decadent last gasp of 'capitalism.' Few of their colonial cousins in America became doctrinaire, catechism-drilled Marxists, but most were soon enveloped in a heavy Marxist mist. The Marxist fable of the 'capitalists' and the 'bourgeoisie' oppressing 'the masses' - 'the proletariat'-took hold even among intellectuals who were anti-Marxist. Prior to the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, the American Communist Party had great success mobilizing the colonials on behalf of 'anti-fascist' causes such as the Loyalists' battle against the 'fascist' Franco in the Spanish Civil War. 'Anti-fascism' became a universal ray gun, good for zapping anybody, anywhere, from up here ... on the intellectuals' Everest of Indignation." In " In the Land of the Rococco Marxists, Why no one is celebrating the Second American Century," by Tom Wolfe, 2 May 2007.
So while the modern apologists like David Emery and sites like Snopes still obscure historical relationships with non-original sources, one can return to many original sources.
When Misinformation Obscures the Truth
From the Snopes site, one reads: "When misinformation obscures the truth and readers don’t know what to trust, Snopes.com’s fact checking and original, investigative reporting lights the way to evidence-based and contextualized analysis. We always document our sources so readers are empowered to do independent research and make up their own minds."
This assertion encourages "independent research" which oddly contrasts with the Snopes/Emery conclusion courtesy of sourced evidence, such as reading the words of from those whose testimony requires precious little "contextualized analysis." In Ludwig von Mises' verbiage above, perhaps still "Marxians are not prepared to admit that the Nazis are socialists too." But....
The War Cry Against the Rotting World of Capitalism
As an example, one reads: "Stand up and demand a Germany that belongs to you, one that is free of the chains of the oppressor. This is the historic mission of the German working class. Freedom and prosperity! This is the war cry against the rotting world of capitalism! Away with the empty rhetoric! Risk looking cold reality in the face. Hold out your hand, German working men! The day of freedom is coming, if only you want it! Adolf Hitler is showing you the way!" In "Hail Moscow!" by Joseph Goebbels, trans. from "Heil Moskau!' Der Angriff. Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1935).
Yes, We Call Ourselves Socialist!
Joseph Goebbels, whose name has become synonymous with propaganda, stated clearly: "Yes, we call ourselves socialist! That is the second step. The second step against the bourgeois state. We call ourselves socialist as a protest against the lie of social bourgeois pity. Your talk of 'social legislation' is absurd. It is too little to live on but too much to die on. We want our rights according to nature and the law. We want our full share of what Heaven has given us, and what we have created with our own hands and minds. That is socialism?"
Further: " 'You talk of socialism! Is it not right for the German worker, after the past 60 years have proven the complete bankruptcy of his political ideal, to feel despair about socialism and the future of his class?' 'Never! Because: 1. He fought for 60 years not for socialism, but for Marxism. Marxism, whose theories are fatal to peoples and races, is the exact opposite of living socialism. 2. Marxism was never the political idea of a German worker. He only accepted this jumble of Jewish ideas because he had no other choice in his struggle for the freedom of his class. 3. Marxism is the death not only of nationally-minded peoples, but above all of the class that fights with total devotion for its realization: the working class. The worker has no right to doubt socialism, but rather the duty to doubt Marxism. The sooner he does that, the better. The clock has almost struck midnight'." In "The Nazi-Sozi," by Joseph Goebbels, trans. by Randall Bytwerk, from "Der Nazi-Sozi," (Elberfeld: Verlag der Nationalsozialistischen Briefe, 1927).
Long Live Socialism
Goebbels foresaw fatally as sourced above: "This future will be ours, or it will not exist at all. Liberalism is dying. Long live socialism. Marxism is dying so that nationalism can live. Then we will build the new Germany, the nationalist, socialist third Reich!"
Thus the distinction for the Nazis historically was between national socialism and international socialism, both enemies to capitalism.
I argue the Left-Right model fails ever more precipitously, which is why the socialist so wishes to keep at arms length the murderousness of several forms of anti-capitalist socialism, in its Nazi-made Holocaust, its Stalin-esque Holomodor, its Maoist Great Leap Forward, and more.
Hurrah for debunking! Such is the nature of today's Left, dedicated to keeping examples of the Left's ideology unsullied by sourced, historical facts, even when today socialists are again Left to their own devices
Sincerely, today's socialists say they will make it all right, if only we adopt their newest and best, enlightened form of So shall ism
Simple Slogans and Fictionalization
One may be skeptical with good cause at the modern socialists' apologia. But the murders of Soviet Socialism and Sino-Socialism far outdistance National Socialism, each and all being murderous forms of anti-capitalism.
"On Oct. 16, 1919, Adolf Hitler became a propagandist. It would be his chief occupation for the rest of his life. Without propaganda, he could never have become a public figure, let alone risen to power. It was as a propagandist that he made a second world war possible, and defined Jews as Germany’s foe. The form of his propaganda was inextricable from its content: the fictionalization of a globalized world into simple slogans." In "How Hit, Hitler Pioneered 'Fake News'," by Timothy Snyder, New York Times, 17 October 2019.
While "fake news" as a phrase brings conniption fits in American politics, the historical reality is clarifying ever more that "simple slogans" -- Left and Right -- are fictional. And in this supposedly modern time, the sloganeered defense of Left and Right as a political model is supported on all sides in order to continue obfuscation.
[ 6 ] One finds the anti-capitalist sentiment clearly in this 1942 proclamation. One observes the clear rhetoric of "the democratic-political bungling of the idlers and dividend profiteers," the so-called "have nations" who would "rob" others of "everything." Thus Hitler played out in that time the same rhetorical language as those today who would paint "haves" as having robbed the have-nots, for whom today's ardent apologists for socialism, in its various incarnations, would redress this imbalance between classes.
"Dividend profiteers" are capitalists, and after the establishment of a dictatorship in Nazi Germany and throughout the war, the resentment against the "haves" was essentially a class war in which the "Volk" would be recipients of redistribution from the "haves." And these "haves" were identified as "Anglo-American countries," which the Nazi Party sought to conquer for the cause of the people under National Socialism.
"Big Island Carbon LLC, which spent some $50 million to build a biomass plant to turn Hawaii-grown macadamia nut shells into granulated activated carbon, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company, which has not started commercial operations at the Kawaihae plant, has laid off all 25 employees, including CEO Rick Vidgen, who was let go on Oct. 9 along with Chief Operating Officer Fred Baker and Controller Gerald Gruber, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, where the bankruptcy was filed on Nov. 5. Vidgen declined to comment on the bankruptcy filing." In "Biomass producer Big Island Carbon files Chapter 7 bankruptcy," by Janis L. Magin, Managing Editor of Digital Content- Pacific Business News, 27 November 2012
Decline to comment;
No comment to be had.
Bankrupt but so green.
Now isn't that so sad?
The story is now oft reprised
And acted out again.
All and more is then foreseen.
The question is just when?
Of such things we are now told:
To comment, one declines.
Might I herein be too bold?
Such no comment brightly shines...
...out the same-old same-old mold.
Bankruptcy but maligns.
Truth foreseen, corruption told:
Ergo one comment declines.
Addendum of High-Paid Chaps with Low Income: "Filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware show Chief Executive Officer Rick Vidgen received $184,000 in salary and $21,228 in expenses for the 12-month period ending Oct. 30, while Chief Operating Officer Fred Baker received $240,000 in salary and $3,365 in expenses. A third executive, Controller Gerald Gruber, received $130,000.In comparison, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie makes $117,312 annually. Richard Rosenblum, president and CEO of Hawaii Electric Industries, the parent company of Hawaiian Electric Co. with a net worth of $1.7 billion, makes $602,000. Big Island Carbon had $15,353 in income in 2010, $38,845 in 2011 and $14,017 so far this year, according to court filings. Income came from shell sales, equipment rentals and interest." In "Big Island Carbon officers paid nearly $500K," by Nancy Cook Lauer, Hawaii Tribune Herald, 1 December 2014.
See: Bankrupt green
"A Cook County judge set bail at $25,000 for Donne Trotter, 62, on the felony charge. Trotter, who has called the incident an honest mistake, posted bond and was released shortly afterward. If convicted, Trotter could face a sentence ranging from probation to up to four years in prison, according to prosecutors. Trotter, a Chicago Democrat, is a gun control advocate who once voted "no" on a measure that would have allowed state residents to carry concealed weapons in 1995." In "Illinois lawmaker running for Congress out on bond after gun charge" by Renita D. Young, Reuters, 6 December 2012.
Guns for me, but not for thee,
That's our gun control.
Registered or maybe not?
That's a slick Chicago pol.
Strictest laws, so they say,
A gun safe zone to have,
Leaking like a hole-filled sieve
As words spread out their salve.
Let's all join the circus:
Gun control's the rage,
Let's organize a demo,
With rhetoric, thick and sage.
But when the push comes to pushing shove,
It seems the shoving folks
Think all their words and all their push
Are just their little jokes.
A Class 4 felony? An honest mistake,
Pled the jackass with donkey ears,
And all the other jackasses
Racing to allay political fears.
Guns for me, but not for thee,
That's gun control, we say.
Registered or maybe not?
That's part of the Chicago way.
Envoi: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attributes the rise in homicides, in part, to the broader problem of illegal guns on the street." In "Chicago observes a grim milestone: the 500th murder of 2012," by Adam Edelman, New York Daily News, 29 December 2012.
Adden-dumb: "One party official made a joking reference to State Sen. Donne Trotter's early December arrest at O’Hare International Airport for carrying an unregistered handgun. Trotter is one of the candidates who wants Jackson's old seat.," by Janell Ross, Huffington Post, Chicago, 21 December 2012.
Vice-Addendum: " 'Kate, if you want to protect yourself, get a double barreled shotgun,' Biden responded. 'I promise you, as I told my wife, we live in an area that's wooded and somewhat secluded. I said, Jill, if there's ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out, put [up] that double barreled shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house.' The vice president said that by firing two shotgun blasts, anyone who might be trying to break in would be scared off. 'You don't need an AR-15,' he said. 'Buy a shotgun! Buy a shotgun!' " In "Joe Biden Says No Need To Own Assault Weapons: 'Buy A Shotgun!' " by Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post, 19 February 2013.
Addendum of Getting Firearms: "The Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association fired back after the proposal, saying public safety is paramount and these proposed cuts will have a negative impact. John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, said, 'If the mayor's not going to provide security, then my recommendation, as an experienced law enforcement officer for nearly 40 years, is either buy yourself an attack dog, put bars on your windows and doors and get yourself some firearms because you're going to have to protect yourselves. We won't be able to'." In "Hundreds of police jobs at stake, in new Miami-Dade budget proposal," in "WSVN Channel 7 News," 8 July 2014.
Addendum of a Anti-Gun State Senator's Gun: "Police searched a state senator's home Sunday after he was accused of firing a shotgun following a fight with his girlfriend. Sources told Local 4 state Sen. Virgil Smith, who represents the fourth district, fired several shots into the woman's car." In "DPD source says Mich. Sen. Virgil Smith fired shotgun shots after arguing with girlfriend," ClickOnDetroit, 10 May 2015.
Addendum of Guns for the Anti-violence Group: "When officers eventually raided the office, they found guns, heroin, cocaine, and other items used in the manufacturing and sale of drugs, including cutting agents and scales, police said. Nine people were arrested at the site, including two Safe Streets employees, who Wen said have been terminated." In "East Baltimore anti-violence group work suspended after guns, drugs found in raid," by Kevin Rector and Justin Fenton, Baltimore Sun, 14 July 2015.
Addendum of More Permitted Guns: "Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates fell from 5.6 to 4.2 deaths per 100,000 (according to preliminary estimates). This 25% drop coincided with a 156% increase in the number of adults with permits. A similar drop occurred in other violent crimes. The data have consistently shown that states with the biggest increases in permits also experienced the biggest reductions in murder rates. Dozens of academic papers have documented that allowing concealed carrying leads to a reduction in violent crime, and the Crime Prevention Research Center report shows that this pattern has continued over the last few years. Permit holders are extremely law-abiding — even more law-abiding than the police, who are rarely convicted of crimes. The latest data from Texas and Florida continue to show that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than one-sixth the rate that police officers are." In "Americans now know: More guns = less crime," by John R. Lott Jr., Journal Sentinel, 27 July 2015. [ 1 ]
Addendum of the Decrease in Gun Violence: "In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The number of victims of crimes involving guns that did not result in death (such as robberies) declined even more precipitously, from 725 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 175 in 2013." In "We’ve had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States. Here’s why." By Max Ehrenfreund, Washington Post, 3 December 2015.
Addendum of a Grateful Gun Dealer: "Adam McGuffy is a manager at Mister Guns in Plano and says President Obama has always been good for business. 'Obama is the best gun salesman since Samuel Colt. Every time he opens his mouth and tries to limit gun purchase, it has the complete opposite effect'." In "Gun Store Owner Expects Gun Sales To Shoot Up After Obama’s Speech," by Austin York, CBS News, 5 January 2016.
Addendum of Buying in Record Numbers: "Women are buying handguns in record numbers -- especially weapons that are small enough to conceal." In "Women are reshaping the gun industry," by Aaron Smith, CNN, 2 February 2016. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Kennesaw: "Sec. 34-21. - Heads of households to maintain firearms. (a) In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore. (b) Exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who suffer a physical or mental disability which would prohibit them from using such a firearm. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who are paupers or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine, or persons convicted of a felony. (Ord. No. 2009-03, Exh. A, 2-16-09) In "Kennesaw, Georgia - Code of Ordinances," online, updated 23 September 2015.
Addendum of Pink Pistols: "Mike Smith, a firearms instructor in Colorado Springs, is one of many closely tracking the sudden surge in gays and lesbians buying weapons. 'I think right now because of what happened, people are looking for answers,' he said. 'You walk into a gun shop and you expect to see people, frankly, who look like me. I think we forget we’re a country of all people, not just people who fit that predetermined mold.' The Pink Pistols is a national gun club for gays and lesbians. It saw its membership soar from about 1,500 members on Saturday to 3,500 on Monday." In "Gun sales surge among gays, lesbians after Orlando shooting, by Keagan Harsha, Fox31 News, 14 June 2016. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Considering an Arming Citizenry: "Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month's deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians. In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Noble said there are really only two choices for protecting open societies from attacks like the one on Westgate mall where so-called 'soft targets' are hit: either create secure perimeters around the locations or allow civilians to carry their own guns to protect themselves. 'Societies have to think about how they're going to approach the problem,' Noble said. 'One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you're going to have to pass through extraordinary security'." In "Exclusive: After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders 'Armed Citizenry'," by Josh Margolin, ABC News, 21 October 2013.
Addendum of Being More Likely to Protect than to Harm: "A survey by the Pew Research Center found that 54 percent of blacks now see gun ownership as a good thing – more likely to protect than to harm – compared with 29 percent just two years ago. Predominantly black gun clubs and online forums report spikes in interest, especially from African-American women. Smith said black women made up 65 percent of his online group’s membership – from ordinary professional women seeking self-protection to dealers such as Francine James-Jones, owner of Bubbas Gun Sales in Georgia and one of the only – if not the only – African-American women to hold a U.S. federal firearm license." In "For black gun owners, bearing arms is a civil rights issue," by Hannah Allam, McClatchy, 15 July 2016.
Addendum of Similar Likelihoods: "The rate at which people were killed was virtually the same: 0.083 per million people in the EU versus 0.089 per million people in the U.S. But the injury rate in the EU was more than twice as high: 0.19 versus 0.087. If you compare the U.S. to individual countries in Europe over the same time period, the U.S. had the 11th highest fatality rate. Because of Anders Breivik’s 2011 attack at a summer camp, Norway had the top spot — 1.9 per million people per year. This rate was 21 times higher than that of the U.S. But other advanced countries such as France, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic also came in above the U.S." In "We adjust for population with murder rates. Why not for mass shootings?" by John R. Lott Jr., Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2016.
See: If Chicago were a war zone
NOTES
[ 1 ] There are political gaffes and political gaffes in all campaigns and all politicians' blather. But amusingly, some statements become ludicrous and illogical. One such is: "It’s not sporting to use a semi-automatic weapon to go hunting, or frankly, self-defense." In "Dan Muroff: 'Guns in the street are easier to find than healthy produce'," by Max Martin, Aldia News, 11 February 2016.
The notion that self-defense should somehow be "sporting" is inane. Self-defense is not a sport, and often can be in deadly earnestness. Given the above examples of anti-gun politicians with guns for themselves -- often justified as for "defense" -- doubly indicts such a stupid statement by a politician campaigning for office.
[ 2 ] "For the women we spoke with every shot, every lesson, every time they reload, it's about being prepared. 'It's like having a fire extinguisher. I mean, you have one in your house don't you? You don't think you're going to have a fire, but you're ready in case you do. I don't think something's going to happen to me, but if it does, I'm prepared.' said Katherine." In "12 Investigates: More Women Carrying Guns," WWBT NBC12, 2013.
From an independent blogger, one reads: "The firearms homicide rate for Black females age 15-24, was five times the rate of white women in the same age group. With the rise in home invasions, black women are doing what they have to do to protect themselves. The Castle Doctrine is now Law in 21 states, making it legal to use lethal force to stop an intruder in your home. According to the US Census Bureau, 75% of women who killed a stranger in self-defense with a handgun were Black. The National Sporting Goods Association says the number of female gun consumers has increased 9% in a year. The National Shooting Sports Foundation attributes the boost to first-time female buyers, mainly concerned about protection." In "Black Women Buy Guns in Record Numbers," Black Girl Green World blog, 7 January 2012.
Given the seemingly potent fluidity of political memes in this time, one might ask of this "Black Girl" blogger, is opposition to guns an opposition to black women "doing what they have to do to protect themselves?" Is the anti-gun opponent therefore misogynistic? Or racist?
Harriet Tubman's Gun
This blogger continued: "The history of Black women arming themselves dates back to our earliest years in this country. Harriet Tubman even carried a gun for protection on the Underground Railroad. She also used her rifle to threaten runaway slaves who wanted to turn back, telling them, 'You’ll be free or die.' Black women activists (in the 1960′s and 1970′s) first 'used the gun as a bid for equal power within their often sexist movements, ' says Laura Browder, author of 'Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America'."
When anti-gun elite protect themselves with armed security personnel, and when some anti-gun politicians are proved to hold guns, and when a political gaffe can allege that "self-defense" should somehow be "sporting," the arguments weaken dramatically. One crowns the debate with a sitting Vice-President urging, "Buy a shotgun! Buy a shotgun!"
Cue the laugh track.
[ 3 ] More from Pink Pistols in the aftermath of the Orlando mass murder at a gay club: "Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of the Pink Pistols, an international GLBT self-defense organization, warns people not to jump immediately to the assailant’s guns as the object of blame, but to concentrate instead on Mateen’s violent acts. 'The Pink Pistols gives condolences to all family and friends of those killed and injured at Pulse,' began Patton. 'This is exactly the kind of heinous act that justifies our existence. At such a time of tragedy, let us not reach for the low-hanging fruit of blaming the killer’s guns. Let us stay focused on the fact that someone hated gay people so much they were ready to kill or injure so many. A human being did this. The human being’s tools are unimportant when compared to the bleakness of that person’s soul. I say again, GUNS did not do this. A human being did this, a dead human being. Our job now is not to demonize the man’s tools, but to condemn his acts and work to prevent such acts in the future'." In "Pink Pistols Saddened by Attack on Orlando Club," statement of Pink Pistols, 12 June 2016.
Pink Pistols' slogan is "Pick On Someone Your Own Caliber."
"The District said Monday that hundreds of city workers took nearly $2 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits, a scandal that roiled the D.C. government earlier this year and prompted widespread firings and criminal charges. Lisa Mallory, the director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services, told the D.C. Council that her agency had detected $1.9 million in overpayments to District workers who collected unemployment benefits while on the city's payroll. 'This probe continues to be ongoing,; said Mallory, who has credited access to a specialized database for the initial detection of the fraud." In "D.C. says more than 300 city workers involved in unemployment scandal," by Alan Blinder, Washington Times, 19 November 2012
Cash in.
Trash in.
Thrashin' the law.
Hundreds.
Boneheads.
Gosh. Gee. Pshaw.
Workers,
Shirkers,
There's a guffaw.
Wheeling,
Dealing,
Stealing? Who saw?
Scandal?
Handle
Fraud or withdraw.
Envoi: "Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity." Tacitus (56-117), in "Annals"
Addendum: "We have a generation, many of whom are looking for a way to bleed the system to get their 'fair share.' We could call them the 'entitlement class.' But it goes beyond the welfare class to people with jobs and careers, looking for some way to 'cash in' in some way. There are many variations, but the common denominator is people looking for a way to get some kind of a free ride, in a manner in which they did not work for it or earn it. This reaches even to the tops of corporate America, with the recent bunch of corporate executives and CEOs that had a lapse of ethics and conscience and seem to have forgot such annoying things as laws, in the interest of their own personal fortunes." In "The Tytler Cycle" by John Eberhard. CommonSenseGovernment.com, 15 September 2003
Addendum: "The government's case against Freeman centered on an alleged scheme in which he was accused of boosting his salary by illegally directing Local 6434 money to the affiliated organization he led, California United Homecare Workers. He was charged with similarly defrauding a union-funded nonprofit group devoted to building homes for low-wage workers. At the time, Freeman's annual compensation was about $200,000, making him one of the higher-paid union leaders in the nation. The tax counts he was convicted on involved his failure to report about $63,000 in income from 2006 and 2007. Prosecutors dropped another tax charge initially brought in the indictment." In "Former leader of major California union faces theft, tax charges," by Paul Pringle and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 1 August 2013
Follow-up to the addendum: "Ex-SEIU local exec convicted of stealing from low-income members," by Paul Pringle and Hailey Branson-Potts, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2013.
Addendum of Cashing In via Medical Embezzlement: "In America the scale of medical embezzlement is extraordinary. According to Donald Berwick, the ex-boss of Medicare and Medicaid (the public health schemes for the old and poor), America lost between $82 billion and $272 billion in 2011 to medical fraud and abuse. The higher figure is 10% of medical spending and a whopping 1.7% of GDP—as if robbers had made off with the entire output of Tennessee or nearly twice the budget of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)." In "That’s where the money is," Economist, 31 May 2014.
See: Welfare Queen
"The 'almost democracy' of the Hebrew Bible is less about structures of government than about culture and “habits of the heart,” the laws, practices and institutions capable of sustaining the virtues necessary for individual responsibility and a sense of the common good. It is as if in their different ways prophets, priests and sages were saying: there is a limit to how much can be changed in the human condition by power alone. Don’t expect political structures to deliver freedom. That needs a long apprenticeship in liberty. There is more to society than politics, and more to freedom than power." In "How democratic were the children of Israel?" by Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, The JC.com, November 15, 2012
Majority rule means nothing,
If not dictatorship as a club.
Therein lies the truth of it,
The meaning and the nub.
Little-d democrats
Play the democratic game,
But push comes to shoving shove,
And it's someone else gets the blame.
Liberty, freedom,
Old fashioned words,
Irritate damning democrats
And upset their loyal herds.
Society has so often
More politics than it needs,
More seeking democratic power
And practicing their screeds.
Minority rights must surely
Then be well preserved,
When again majorities fail
And to tyranny are swerved.
Little-d democrats
Are not left to be right,
As orthodox democracy
Is a rancorous fight.
Liberty, freedom,
Such new fangled themes,
Threaten little-d democrats
And their power-filling schemes.
Envoi: "You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989), in Tikkun (July-August 1989)
Addendum: "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Addendum: "Importantly, majority rule is not a fundamental principle of either democracy or fairness, nor is it required by any basic principle of democracy or fairness." In "Against Majoritarianism: Democratic Values and Institutional Design," by Stephen Macedo, Boston University Law Review, Vol. 90:1029
Addendum: "Love work, loath mastery over others, and avoid intimacy with the government." In "Ethics of the Fathers" (Pirkei Avot) 1:10, and "Be careful with the government, for they befriend a person only for their own needs. They appear to be friends when it is beneficial to them, but they do not stand by a person at the time of his distress." In " Ethics of the Fathers" (Pirkei Avot) 2:3
Addendum: "Resist much, obey little." Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (first published 1855)
See: Democracy is stupid
Life goes by and by and by
And always what is near too nigh
Is ever and a time like this,
Its hour drawn out from time's ticked kiss.
What were we are we will we be
Answers not in its fading, free
From what is once as never was
But always is as time's tick does.
Time goes by and by and by
And ever when we sore to fly --
To soar on wings of gossamer
That in these times do rise and stir...
To their end that they may spread
And carry us on the road ahead.
Who knew knows or can foresee?
Perhaps someone, but not me.
I prefer a knowing not,
A point to where I go, a spot
Where knowing will then come to be
As willingly I leave off me...
To that, the greater immensity,
When life goes between me and thee.
Life goes by and by and by,
Yet never answers, questioned why.
See: A song setting of Julie Dalton Williamson's text - No Ending - (2012)
"Again, the message they’re sending is quite clear– citizens, even in death, are dairy cows for the government to milk. Perhaps most shocking is increase in dividend tax rates, set to rise from 15% to as high as 43.4%. Individuals who start productive businesses are being heavily penalized. Individuals who save their money and put it to work investing in other people’s businesses are being heavily penalized. This says a lot about government values. Ironically, the new government of the People’s Republic of China has decided the REDUCE their tax on dividends. Years ago it was 20%, then dropped to 10% in 2005. Effective January 1st, though, the dividend tax rate in China will drop to a mere 5%." In "Tell Me Again... Which Of These Nations Is Communist?" by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 20 November 2012
The donkeys and the elephants
Are playing at their game.
Let us now tax dividends
To a world-high rate! The aim?
To recover from that which seems unfair,
And gather some capital cash
From all the folks who've got some
To add to our capital stash.
These donkeys and these elephants
Pretend that freedom works,
As they confiscate to spend and spend
On donkeys' and elephants' perks.
Leaders lead, for so they tell,
And the message seems quite clear;
They help themselves to the high life
Off the sheep they fleece and shear.
When China taxes less than US,
An odd thing clarifies.
Blue donkeys and red elephants
All tax as their sole enterprise.
Addendum: "In Shanghai, the tax cut has helped reduce enterprises' tax burdens by 22.5 billion yuan (3.57 billion U.S.dollars) in the first 10 months of this year, while in Beijing, the new measure has cut tax revenue by 2.5 billion yuan in two months." In "Tax cut to benefit over 900,000 enterprises," Xinhuanet, China, 26 November 2012
"Years of overhaul efforts have done little to improve schools in Illinois, and a comprehensive and sustained program to change how children are educated in the state's public schools is needed, leaders of an education reform group said Tuesday. 'We're going to have to hit this with a 2-by-4,' said Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois. According to a report released by the organization Tuesday, only one-third of Illinois students complete fourth grade proficient in reading; the same percentage of students is academically prepared at the start of high school; and fewer than one-third of students leave high school ready for college." In "Advance Illinois releases dismal report on education in Illinois," by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune, 14 November 2012
1-by-2?
No one knew?
2-by-3?
Don't you see?
3-by-4?
Dropouts soar.
4-by-5?
Sake's alive!
5-by-6?
Politics.
6-by-7?
Film at 11.
7-by-8?
Not played straight.
8-by-9?
By design?
9-by-ten?
Yet again.
2-by-4?
You'll need more.
Two and fro - not too much to know
By the wardrobe stands a can
That could hold none other than
A box within the can, I'd wager,
Explaining "What's in the box?"
And yet another question knocks:
Is it sung in minor or perhaps in major?
Leering out a long rectangle
"Two eyes" -- ah -- knows the angle.
I ask: But in those drawers is what?
What drawers, you ask? I answer,
The referent's advancer.
Wardrobe drawers are boxes shut.
One opens all with questions;
One shuts all with suggestions:
Alternatives go forth, then back.
Can a box be in a can?
Is a rectangled box more than
A frame to boundary a cul-de-sac?
One wonders, knowing not,
Because in art that's what we've got.
Questions point to questions' queries.
One goes here and one goes there,
And one might go quite anywhere.
Or so is this my simple theory.
By some wardrobe stands some can
That could hold none other than
Some box within the can, I'd gamble,
Nothing ventured, nothing gained,
And so nothing well explained:
Such questions for us all to unscramble!
An Egyptian jihad leader, with self-professed links to the Taliban, called for the 'destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt,' drawing ties between the Egyptian relics and Buddha statues, local media reported this week. Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Islamist leader twice-sentenced under former President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, called on Muslims to remove such 'idols.' " In "'Destroy the idols,' Egyptian jihadist calls for removal of Sphinx, Pyramids," in Al Arabiya. 12 November 2012.
Coexist, as sometimes said
By the blind as Western-bred,
Makes seven sweet melding icons speak
A happy word, just one, just meek.
The starred Crescent, an angry moon,
Is followed by the peace sign swoon,
Then hermaphrodite -- boy-E-girl;
After then David's X-starred pearl
And after Wiccan's pronoun, I,
Yin-yang's circle seems so Sly,
T types Christian? Really? Why?
Coexist, so clever, coy,
With clever symbols spells a toy,
Subsuming religions in one word,
As if the image were not absurd.
The angry Crescent, a starred moon,
Is on its march across the dune
To sand away the distant past
In order that only it will last.
Coexistence, some have said,
Is wise, we should be led.
But others would crush that idol dead.
Coexist is an idol dressed
As an icon of the dulled, dead West
In a game not all will play
Until other idols are ground to clay.
Envoi: "The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam." In "Christianity in Saudi Arabia," Wikipedia article. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Coexistence with Mickey Mouse: "Sheikh Muhammad Munajid claimed the mouse is 'one of Satan's soldiers' and makes everything it touches impure. But he warned that depictions of the creature in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, and Disney's Mickey Mouse, had taught children that it was in fact loveable. The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed." In "Mickey Mouse must die, says Saudi Arabian cleric," by Martin Beckford, Telegraph UK, 15 September 2008.
Addendum of Coexistence with Radical Islam: " 'God has honored us in the Islamic State to remove all of these idols and statutes worshipped instead of Allah in the past days,' one militant says in the video. Another militant vows that 'whenever we seize a piece of land, we will remove signs of idolatry and spread monotheism." In "Video: Islamic State group destroys ancient ruins of Nimrud," by Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press, 12 April 2015.
Addendum of Non-existent Coexistence: "The government of Indonesia's Aceh province has approved a new law obliging every citizen to follow the sharia Islamic legal code regardless of their religion. Councillor Abdulah Saleh told the Jakarta Post that the new behaviour law, or qanun jinayat, 'does indeed oblige everyone in Aceh to follow sharia without exception.' Saleh said that the qanun stipulated that all those found to have violated sharia would be tried under Islamic law regardless of their religion. Non-Muslim violators of Indonesia's national criminal code (KUHP) will be given the option to choose between a sharia court or a regular court - but both courts will adhere to islamic legislation." In "Indonesia: Aceh Province Enforces Sharia for non-Muslims," by Ludovica Iaccino, International Business Times, 7 February 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Comparisons: "There is not a single majority Christian nation today that executes or imprisons people for blasphemy or apostasy. Several leading majority-Muslim countries punish these offenses with death, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. The Aasia Bibi case is a frightening example of the precarious position of religious minorities under these laws. Bibi, a rural laborer, was asked to bring water to a group of other women with whom she was working in the fields. Some of the women refused to drink the water after it had been touched by an 'unclean' Christian. Bibi got into an argument with them and defended her faith -- and was reported for blaspheming against Mohammed." In "Islam and the Intolerance Problem," by Cathy Young, RealClearPolitics, 23 January 2011. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Intolerant Coexistence: "Al Salman said, 'Since the 14th of February, 2011 the government of Bahrain has extensively practiced sectarian seclusion and sectarian blaspheme. [sic] These practices add on to its long lasting sectarian discrimination practices that have denied the majority of Bahrainis their rights based on their religious, ethnic and sectarian background. Sectarian Framing in Bahrain is a deliberate regime strategy rather than being a secretion of social tensions.' ... Anti-Shi’ism has spread throughout Bahrain in a limited time span due to the utilization of official media and governmentally financed media to broadcast the culture of sectarian intolerance, noting that Bahrain only has one independent newspaper." In "Religious intolerance in Bahrain," Ahlul Bayt News Agency, 17 June 2013.
Addendum of Saudi Tolerance: "In Saudi Arabia there is no Church, Synagogue, Buddhist nor Hindu Temple is allowed. Wahhabism (pseudo Salafism) is NOT a religion of tolerance. Wahhabism provides the fundamental base for Jihadism which causes unending strife and misery. It is not Iran that should be bombed. In Iran there are still Jews living there and praying in their Synagogues. Muammar al-Gaddafi respected Christian and Jewish religions and their Churches, Synagogues in Libya but American, English, French, Saudi and Qatari financed terrorists destroyed Churches, Synagogues recently. Buddhist Temples including Bamiyan Buddha statues have survived in Islamic countries for centuries, but they could not survive under the Wahhabism. Washington and London are protecting Wahhabi extremists." In "Muslims wiped out complete civilisations," by Nalliah Thayabharan, LankWeb, 1 July 2014.
Addendum of More Saudi Tolerance: "Saudi authorities have swooped on a house in the eastern province city of Khafji, on the border with Kuwait, and arrested 27 people for using the premises as church last week. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) also confiscated copies of the Bible and various musical instruments from the people during the raid." In "27 Christians in Saudi Arabia Arrested for Using House As a Church," Assyrian International News, 16 January 2015.
Addendum of Convert, Pay or Die Coexistence: " 'We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract - involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,' the announcement said. A resident of Mosul said the statement, issued in the name of the Islamic State in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh, had been distributed on Thursday and read out in mosques. It said Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which the group has now named Caliph Ibrahim, had set a Saturday deadline for Christians who did not want to stay and live under those terms to 'leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate. After this date, there is nothing between us and them but the sword,' it said." In "Convert, pay tax, or die, Islamic State warns Christians," Reuters, 18 July 2014. [ 4 ]
Addendum of Coexistence by Arson: "Militants from the radical jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have set fire to a 1,800-year-old church in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, a photo released Saturday shows. The burning of the church is the latest in a series of destruction of Christian property in Mosul, which was taken by the Islamist rebels last month, along with other swathes of Iraqi territory." In "ISIS burns 1,800-year-old church in Mosul," Al Arabiya News, 20 July 2014.
Addendum of Clothes on Their Backs Tolerance: "Islamic militants have seized a monastery in northern Iraq, kicking out its Christian monks as well as Christian residents of Mosul. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS) insurgents stormed the ancient Mar Benham monastery in the Christian town of Qaraqosh Sunday, near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which was overrun by ISIS on 10 June. Mar Benham is a 4th century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church. A member of the Syriac clergy said the monks pleaded to be allowed to save some of the monastery’s relics but the ISIS fighters refused and ordered them to leave on foot with only the clothes on their back." In "ISIS militants ransack Catholic monastery in Iraq," Russia Today, 21 July 2014. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Coexistence seen from Lebanon: "The bishop accused Muslims of centuries of violence against Christians, condemning the attacks on the Christians of Iraqi Mosul. '[They don’t] have the right to storm houses, steal and attack the honor of Christians,' Saliba said. 'Most Muslims do this, the Ottomans killed us and after that the ruling nation-states understood the circumstances but always gave advantage to the Muslims.' Saliba also said Muslim generations are raised on bad feelings against Christians, saying this applies to the majority of Muslims. 'Islam has never changed, and Muslims have been educated on the bad treatment of Christians,' he said." In "Syriac Orthodox bishop: Muslims enemies of Christ," The Daily Star, Lebanon, 30 July 2014.
Addendum of "Kill the Jews" Again: "France's politicians and community leaders have criticised the 'intolerable' violence against Paris' Jewish community, after a pro-Palestinian rally led to the vandalizing and looting of Jewish businesses and the burning of cars. It is the third time in a week where pro-Palestinian activists have clashed with the city's Jewish residents. On Sunday, locals reported chats of 'Gas the Jews' and 'Kill the Jews', as rioters attacked businesses in the Sarcelles district, known as 'little Jerusalem'. Manuel Valls, France's prime minister said: 'What happened in Sarcelles is intolerable. An attack on a synagogue and on a kosher shop is simply anti-Semitism. Nothing in France can justify this violence'." In "France's Jews Flee As Rioters Burn Paris Shops, Attack Synagogue," by Jessica Elgot, Huffington Post UK, 22 July 2014. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Brutally Attacking a Coexistence Artist: "...in Paris, this particular iteration of the popular inscription—here, created by the street artist Combo, who also pasted a life-size photo of himself next to it—didn't go down well with everybody. Le Monde reports that four young people asked the artist to remove it last weekend, and beat him up severely when he refused to do so. Combo ended up with a dislocated shoulder and many bruises. The attack is characteristic of the inter-religious tensions that plague France and have been exacerbated by the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.... Combo declined to discuss the identity of his assailants. 'It would only add fuel to the fire,' he told the French newspaper." In "Street Artist Combo Brutally Attacked for Pacifist Tag Post Charlie Hebdo," by Coline Milliard, artnetnews, 5 February 2015.
Addendum from an Chaldean Archbishop: "Please, try to understand us. Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever growing number of Muslims. Also you are in danger. You must take strong and courageous decisions, even at the cost of contradicting your principles. You think all men are equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed in your home." In "Archbishop of Mosul: 'I have lost my Diocese to Islam - You in the West will also become the victims of Muslims'," by Archbishop Amel Nona, Chaldean Catholic Archeparch of Mosul, now exiled in Erbil, via Corriere della Sera, 14 August 2014.
Addendum of Iranian Tolerance: "Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, who ran for office as a moderate a year ago, has since presided over a brutal crackdown on Iran's Christian community. Rouhani and the religious mullahs he answers to have been particularly concerned about the spread of Christianity and conversion into its Muslim population. 'There are a lot of people who are disgruntled with the government and many for comfort and peace in their lives are turning to Christianity,' Jason DeMars, founder of Present Truth Ministries, which sponsors Christian churches and outreach in the Middle East, told FoxNews.com. 'That’s a threat to the regime. The more people who turn from Islam, the fewer people they have on their side,' DeMars added." In "Pastor imprisoned in Iran faces death for 'spreading corruption on Earth'," by Lisa Daftari, FoxNews, 5 September 2014.
Addendum of Muslim Coexistence with Armenian Christians: "The Islamic State (also known as ISIS) destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor, news agencies in the Middle East reported. The reports surfaced as Armenia was celebrating the 23rd anniversary of its independence on Sept. 21. Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian issued a statement condemning the destruction of the church, which housed the remains of victims of the Armenian Genocide, calling it a 'horrible barbarity'." In "ISIS Destroys Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor," Armenian Weekly, 21 September 2014.
Addendum of Muslim Coexistence in Nigeria: "Ethnic Fulani gunmen shouting the jihadist chant 'Allahu Akbar' attacked three villages in Nigeria’s Plateau state this month, burning down a church building and killing at least 10 Christians, sources said. Heavily-armed Fulani Muslim extremists on Sept. 14 attacked the Bokkos area, shooting five members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in their homes in Mbar and burning down 15 houses and an Assemblies of God church building, said the Rev. Manasseh Duwong of the COCIN congregation in Mbar. 'They were shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar [God is greater]’ and also saying, 'We must wipe out these infidel Christians today,' Duwong told Morning Star News in Mbar." In "Islamic Extremists Kill at Least 10 Christians in Plateau State, Nigeria," Morningstar News, 23 September 2014.
Addendum of Noticing Parallels: "French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia made an urgent plea to Europe to defend non-Muslims in the Middle East, whom he likened to Holocaust victims. Speaking Sunday at the Grand Synagogue in Paris at a commemoration for Holocaust victims, Korsia cited the Yazidis’ plight in Iraq as an example of a minority group in need of protection. 'The situation of religious minorities all over the world and especially in the Middle East resonates, unfortunately, with our commemoration today,' Korsia was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP. 'As our parents wore the yellow star, Christians are made to wear the scarlet letter of 'nun'.' The Hebrew letter nun is the same sound as the beginning of Nazareen, an Arabic term signifying people from Nazareth, or Christians. According to reports, Muslim men in areas of Iraq that are controlled by the ISIS jihadist group have ordered Christians to wear the 14th letter of the Arabic letter on their clothes to make them instantly recognizable." In "French chief rabbi: Non-Muslims in Middle East akin to Holocaust victims," JTA, 23 September 2014.
Addendum of the Armenian Holocaust Attacked Again: "In the most savage act of vandalism against Syria’s Christians, Islamists have blown up the great Armenian church in Deir el-Zour, built in dedication to the one and a half million Armenians slaughtered by the Turks during the 1915 genocide. All of the church archives, dating back to 1841 and containing thousands of documents on the Armenian holocaust, were burned to ashes, while the bones of hundreds of genocide victims, packed into the church’s crypt in memory of the mass killings 99 years ago, were thrown into the street beside the ruins."' In "Jabhat al-Nusra blows up Armenian church in Deir el-Zour: A savage blow that echoes through Armenian history," by Robert Fisk, Independent UK, 10 November 2014.
Addendum of Coexistence at Point Blank Range: "The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of the holy Koran, and those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One by one they were shot in the head at point blank range." In "Kenya bus killings claimed by Somali group al-Shabab," BBC, 22 November 2014. [ 7 ]
Addendum of Coexistence with Communism: "Estimates for the number of Christians in China range from the conservative official figure of 23 million to as many as 100 million by independent scholars, raising the possibility that Christians may rival in size the 85 million members of the ruling Communist Party. In August, Beijing rounded up Christian pastors and religious scholars in a national seminar with the edict that the Christian faith must be free of foreign influence but 'adapt to China,' a euphemism for obeying the Communist Party's rule." In "Crosses torn down from 400 churches in eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang," Associated Press, 25 December 2014.
Addendum of Acknowledgement: "...every attack perpetrated by Islamic extremists is an attack against freedom of speech, whether they’re terrorising journalists and cartoonists at a satirical magazine in Paris or bystanders having a quiet coffee in Sydney. These callous cowards seek to silence dissenting voices by waging a war of terror against anyone who dares question their twisted, totalitarian worldview. The time for weasel words and treading on eggshells is over. We owe it to the growing number of victims to open our eyes and acknowledge the unmistakable reality that radical Islam and Western values cannot coexist peacefully." In "Radical Islam and western values cannot coexist peacefully," by Rita Panahi, Herald Sun (Australia), 9 January 2015.
Addendum of Sunni Tolerance: "Speaking to a delegation in Kuwait, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, who serves as the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, said the destruction of churches was absolutely necessary and is required by Islamic law, Arabic media reported. Abdullah, who is considered to be the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, also serves as the head of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas." In "Saudi grand mufti calls for demolition of churches," Times of Israel, 18 March 2015.
Addendum of Asking Questions: "When the gunmen arrived at his dormitory he could hear them opening doors and asking if the people who had hidden inside whether they were Muslims or Christians. 'If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot,' he said. 'With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die'." In "At least 15 dead as gunmen attack university in Kenya," by Tom Odula and Rodney Muhumuza, Associated Press, 2 April 2015.
Addendum of Coexistence at Sea: "Muslims who were among migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy in a boat this week threw 12 fellow passengers overboard -- killing them -- because the 12 were Christians, Italian police said Thursday. Italian authorities have arrested 15 people on suspicion of murdering the Christians at sea, police in Palermo, Sicily, said." In "Italian police: Muslim migrants threw Christians overboard," by Hada Messia, Livia Borghese and Jason Hanna, CNN, 16 April 2015.
Addendum of Bans for Cultural Reasons: "Saudi Arabia banned the August issue of the National Geographic's Arabic edition, whose cover featured Francis standing in the Sistine Chapel, due to what the magazine said were 'cultural reasons'." In "Saudi Arabia Bans National Geographic Cover Featuring Pope Francis," by David Kenner, Foreign Policy, 8 September 2015.
Addendum of Coexisting in Aceh: "Authorities in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on Monday began tearing down several small Christian churches after hardline Muslims demanded their closure, citing a lack of building permits, and following religious violence. Tensions are high among the ethnically and religiously diverse population of Aceh Singkil, where last week a mob burned down a church, leaving one person dead and forcing thousands of Christians to flee the area." In "Indonesia's Aceh province tears down churches after religious violence," by Kanupriya Kapoor, Reuters, 19 October 2015.
Addendum of Coexistence in a Refugee Camp: "There have been tensions in Slovenia between refugee groups, say police, who earlier this week broke up a fight between Syrian and Afghan men who smashed their camp beds to build make-shift weapons. 'I’m sorry to say this,' says a young Syrian university lecturer travelling with Mr Haj Ali. 'And I know it sounds racist, but on our journey we have all seen what the Afghans do.' She does not want to give her name or show her face, citing family in Syria, but says large groups of Afghan men are 'intimidating' Syrian families. In "Refugee crisis: Syrians and Iraqis clash with Afghans as ethnic tensions rise near Slovenian border," by Jamie Merrill, Independent UK, 30 October 2015.
Addendum of Coexistence with Hacking: "A publisher of a slain online critic of religious militancy was hacked to death on Saturday in the Bangladesh capital, police said, hours after similar attacks on two secular writers and another publisher in the majority-Muslim country. Faysal Arefin published books by Avijit Roy, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin who was killed by Islamists militants in the same way in February." In "Publisher of slain blogger hacked to death in Bangladesh," by Ruma Paul, Reuters, 31 October 2015.
Addendum of the Negotiable Coexistence Standard: " 'I absolutely agree that it is okay for those on the left to critique, mock, deride Christianity, but Islam gets a free pass, which is so strange, because if you care about women’s rights, if you care about human rights, if you care about gay rights, then really Islam is much more problematic – sorry to paint Islam with a huge brush – and much more devastating,' he said. 'As an atheist – where on planet Earth is the death penalty meted out to atheists?' Zuckerman said. 'It’s only in, I think, 24 Muslim countries'." In "Atheist: Okay to Disparage Christians, But Islam Off-Limits Because of ‘Fear’," by Penny Starr, Cybercast News Service, 30 October 2015.
Addendum of Kuwaiti Coexistence with Jews: "Kuwait hates Jews so much that its national airline has ditched a popular and lucrative New York-to-London flight rather than allow Israelis on its planes, authorities said Thursday. Kuwait Airways killed the flight to spite American officials, who threatened to pull the airline’s permit to fly to the United States if they continued discriminating against Israeli passengers. The airline says they cannot allow Israelis on the planes because the Middle Eastern kingdom prohibits it citizens from doing business with citizens of the Jewish state." In "Jew-hating airline cancels flight rather than allow Israeli passengers," by Danielle Furfaro, New York Post, 17 December 2015.
Addendum of Muslim Coexistence with Christians in Brunei: "The tiny oil-rich nation has banned the public celebrating of Christmas, following concern that it will affect the faith of its Muslims. Any Muslims caught celebrating Christmas, and non-Muslims who are discovered organising celebrations, could face the lengthy prison sentence." In "The super-rich ruler who stones gays, now bans Christmas: Sultan of Brunei threatens Muslims who celebrate it with up to five years in prison while Christians must keep theirs secret," by Imogen Calderwood, Mail Online, 21 December 2015.
Addendum of Somali Coexistence: "Director General of Somalia's Ministry of Religious Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Khayrow, warned that security forces would break-up any gatherings held in the capital Mogadishu. He said: 'All events related to Christmas and New Year celebrations are contrary to Islamic culture, which could damage aqidah (faith) of the Muslim community. There should be no activity at all'." In "Islamic nation of Somalia follows Sultan of Brunei's example and bans Christmas celebrations because 'they are contrary to our culture'," by Simon Tomlinson, Mail Online, 23 December 2015.
Addendum of Islamic State Coexistence: "As Christmas approaches, Islamic extremists have warned Christians in the city of Mosul that they will not be allowed to celebrate Christmas because 'they are heretics.' In Kirkuk, Muslim militants attacked two Christian graveyards, desecrating tombs." In "Islamic State warns Iraqi Christians not to celebrate Christmas," Catholic World News, 23 December 2015.
Addendum of Coexistence in Sweden: "...passersby on a central street in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, were greeted with chants in Arabic urging the killing of Jews. 'Death to the Jews,'and 'More stabbings,' the protesters screamed,' recalls Jehoshua Kaufman, head of communications for Malmö’s Jewish community. The protesters at the October pro-Palestinian rally were referring to the near-daily stabbings of Jews by Arab assailants over the past couple of months in Israel." In "Facing death chants and hate crimes, Sweden’s Jews live in a climate of fear," by Josefin Dolstein, Times of Israel, 22 December 2015.
Addendum of Ultra-orthodox Israeli Coexistence: "Benzi Gopstein of Lehava wrote 'Christmas has no place in the Holy Land' on an ultra-Orthodox Jewish website earlier this week, according to the Daily Telegraph and other Israeli media outlets. Gopstein also called on Christians to be expelled from Israel." In "Extremist religious leader says there's no place for Christmas in Israel," FOX News, 23 December 2015.
Addendum of Coexistence with an Apocalypse: "Christianity is facing 'elimination' in the Middle East at the hands of an Islamic State 'apocalypse', the Archbishop of Cantebury has warned. The Most Reverend Justin Welby used his Christmas Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral to say IS is 'igniting a trail of fear, violence, hatred and determined oppression'." In "Welby: Christians Face Middle East Elimination," Sky News, 25 December 2015.
Addendum of Shitty Christians: "Eyewitnesses reported that a group of apparently Muslim children and young people on Christmas Eve stormed into the church and allegedly shouted 'shitty Christians'." [ 8 ]
Addendum of the Brothers of Apes and Pigs: " 'Today, however, our enemies have joined forces against our nation,' says Sheikh Ahmad Bin Anis. 'The Islamic nation is held hostage by the absolutely most despicable and base nation on the face of the Earth. The nation of Islam has become subordinate to others, while in the past, others were subordinate to it. The nation is ruled by others, while in the past, others were ruled by it'." In "Yemeni Cleric: Jews Are 'Most Despicable, Base, Vile, and Wretched ... The Brothers of Apes and Pigs'," by Michael W. Chapman, Cybercast News, 4 January 2016. [ 9 ]
Addendum of No Safe Space at Kings College, London: " 'Attendees inside felt the walls and windows shake as they were struggling to hear the talk, looking genuinely scared for their security,' he continued. 'Indeed they had reason to. It got violent as a few managed to push their way into the building, break a glass window and physically assault a friend of mine. This came along with a tirade of verbal abuse, inches from the faces of many Jewish students. It got to a stage where the police felt the need to call in around 15 police officers and two vans. Two female friends of mine cried from the fear and abuse, and I stood there staring at a poster on the door declaring Kings College London to be a ‘safe space,’ and thought – what a lie. The truth is, universities across the UK are not safe spaces (if you happen to be a Zionist Jew)'." In "Pro-Palestinian protesters turn violent at London speech by former Shin Bet head," by Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, 20 January 2016.
Addendum of Muslims Coexisting with Muslims: "The brawl in the early hours of Sunday morning in the Leimen camp in Baden-Württemberg, Germany was triggered by inter-Islamic friction between different interpretations of the faith. Pakistani Muslims at the migrant centre had discovered that a group of Muslims from Afghanistan had been drinking alcohol and accused them of being 'bad Muslims' for doing so, reports the Stuttgarter Nachrichten." In "Migrant Riot At Asylum Centre After Pakistani Muslims Catch Afghan Muslims Getting Drunk," Oliver JJ Lane, Breitbart, 25 January 2016. [ 10 ]
Addendum of Coexistence with a Hindu Priest: "A top Hindu priest was decapitated by attackers in northern Bangladesh Sunday and two worshippers wounded, police said, in the latest assault targeting minorities in the Muslim-majority nation." In "Leading Hindu priest decapitated in Bangladesh," Agence France Presse, 21 February 2016. [ 11 ]
Addendum of Coexistence in a Berlin Refugee Center: " 'We read the Bible in out 12-bed room. Immediately the other Muslims in the room complained, because we are converts from Islam to Christianity," said one victim. "Suddenly 7 people confronted us and wanted to thrash us. We were afraid for our lives!' Then 20 police and a team with dogs were called to make arrests. The leader of the asylum confirmed to the press: 'Yes, there is mobbing against Christians'." In "Muslims drive Christians away from Berlin Asylum Accommodations." Junge Freiheit, 24 February 2016. [ 12 ]
Addendum of a Catholic's View in Indonesia: " 'The Indonesians want to replace the Christian religion with Islam,' said Sister Susan Connelly, the author of the commission’s report. 'There is clear evidence of ongoing violence, intimidation, and harassment by the Indonesian security forces,' added the commission’s executive officer, Peter Arndt." In "Report finds ‘slow-motion genocide’ in West Papua," Catholic Culture, 25 March 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence in Belgian Mosques: "Controversy has erupted in Belgium after it emerged that some Belgian mosques were refusing to join public prayers for non-Muslim victims of the recent terror attacks in the capital Brussels. A report by the United Arab Emirates TV station Al-Ghad Al-Arabi explained that the Council of Belgian Imams rejected the prayer initiative, saying that praying for the souls of non-Muslims runs counter to Islamic law (Sharia)." In "Belgian Imams refuse to pray for non-Muslims killed in Brussels," by Ari Soffer, Arutz Sheva, 29 March 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence with Bible Translators: "The four unidentified translators, who worked secretly for Wycliffe Associates, a Florida non-profit dedicated to bringing the gospel to hundreds of obscure languages, were killed by suspected Islamist militants at an undisclosed location, Wycliffe officials said in a statement. 'They shot and destroyed all the equipment in the office,' read the statement. 'The invaders burned all the books and other translation materials in the office'." In "Bible charity vows to continue translation work after murders of four employees," by Perry Chiaramonte, FOX News, 30 March 2016.
Addendum of Teaching Intolerance: "A new study of Pakistani public school textbooks, which reach over 41 million children, found that these textbooks negatively portray religious minorities and signal that these minorities are untrustworthy and inferior. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) sponsored this study, which was conducted by the Pakistan-based NGO Peace and Education Foundation (PEF), an organization dedicated to promoting peace and tolerance in Pakistan. 'Pakistan's public school textbooks contain deeply troubling content that portrays non-Muslim citizens as outsiders, unpatriotic, and inferior; are filled with errors; and present widely-disputed historical 'facts' as settled history,' said USCIRF Chairman Robert P. George. 'Missing from these textbooks are any references to the rights of religious minorities and their positive contributions to Pakistan’s development. These textbooks sadly reflect the alarming state today of religious freedom in Pakistan. A country’s education system, including its textbooks, should promote religious tolerance, not close the door to cooperation and coexistence'." In "Pakistan: Public School Textbooks Continue to Teach Intolerance," United States Commission on International Religious Freedom," 11 April 2016.
Addendum of Acting on a Rumor: "A 70-year-old Christian woman has been stripped naked, beaten and paraded through the streets by a mob of around 300 Muslim men in a village in southern Egypt. The mob also burned down seven homes belonging to Christian families, according to an unusually outspoken statement issued by the local Orthodox Coptic church, after rumours circulated in the village that a Christian man was having a relationship with a Muslim woman." In "Elderly Christian woman stripped naked and paraded through streets by mob," by Adam Withnall, Independent UK, 26 May 2016.
Addendum of Today's Anti-Semitism in Germany: "Most victims of anti-Semitic crime are wearing kippahs at the time of the attack, Tagesspiegel reports. In one such attack, in October 2015, four men of Middle Eastern appearance insulted and spat at an Israeli travelling on the city’s underground system." In "Jewish man beaten in Berlin for wearing kippah," TheLocal.de, 22 June 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence with Hindus and Sikhs: "According to Avtar Singh, chairman of the national council of Hindus and Sikhs, the community now numbers fewer than 220 families, compared with around 220,000 members before the collapse of the Kabul government in 1992. Once spread across the country, the community is now mainly concentrated in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Ghazni, and the capital Kabul. Although Afghanistan is almost entirely Muslim, its constitution, drawn up after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban government in 2001, theoretically guarantees the right of minority religions to worship freely. In "Afghanistan's dwindling Sikh, Hindu communities flee new abuses," by Hamid Shalizi, Reuters, 22 June 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence in Turkey: "The attacks by Islamist mobs begun on Saturday evening, that is, the evening after the attempted coup had been averted. Attacks were reported at the Catholic Church of Santa Maria in Trabzon; a second attacks was reported on a Protestant Church in Malatya. In Trabzon a mob of 10 people attacked the Catholic Church, throwing stones drawn from the pavement. The mob also carried sledge hummers. Fortunately, neighbours had warned the priest of the expected attack. Father Andrea Santoro was killed by another mob in this Church in February 2006. In Malatya too, the mob attacked the Protestant Church with stones and hammers, trying to enter the building. Mobs also attacked neighbourhoods of the Alevi Muslim religious minority in Malatya." In "Pro-government mobs attack religious minorities in Turkey," New Europe Online, 19 July 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray: "An 86-year-old priest has been 'beheaded' by two ISIS knifemen who cut his throat after bursting into a French church and taking nuns and worshippers hostage before being shot dead by police." In "Elderly priest, 86, is 'beheaded' by two ISIS knifemen shouting 'Daesh' after they took nuns and worshippers hostage at French church: Police shoot both attackers dead then search for bombs," by Peter Allen and Julian Robinson, Mail Online, 26 July 2016.
Addendum of Islam's Increasing Coexistence with Christianity: "A number of cases of terrorist reprisals and actions against Christians in the Middle East increased by 300% in the past seven years, Konstantin Dolgov, Russian Foreign Ministry Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, said. 'According to estimates of a variety of human rights organizations, a number of cases of terrorist reprisals and actions against Christians, including in the Middle East, increased by 300% in the past seven years,' he said during a roundtable meeting on Tuesday." In "Number of actions against Christians in Middle East increases fourfold in past 7 years - Russian Foreign Ministry representative," Interfax Religion, 23 August 2016.
Addendum of Baha'i Under Iranian Islam: "In a 122-page report, the community said Rouhani's government has stepped-up its 'campaign to incite hatred against Baha'is' including by disseminating more than 20,000 pieces of anti-Baha'i propaganda in the Iranian media. Since Rouhani was inaugurated in August 2013, the report said at least 151 Baha'is have been arrested, and at least 388 incidents of economic discrimination have been documented ranging from threats and intimidation to shop closings. The report also said that under Rouhani, thousands of Baha'is have been blocked from attending universities and 28 followers have been expelled." In "Baha'i minority says Iran is trying to crush the religion," by Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press, 25 October 2016.
Addendum of Communism's Coexistence Practice: "During 40 years of communist rule in Albania – which in 1967 declared itself the first completely atheist country in the world – praying, making the sign of the cross, wearing a crucifix around one’s neck, or any other evidence of being a believer in God were treated as crimes." In "In Albania, the Church honors martyrs of the communist era," by Mónica Zorita de la Morena, Catholic News Agency, 2 November 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence with Indonesia's Minorities: "...Mr. Purnama’s religion and ethnicity make him a target for Islamists. In recent days anti-Chinese posters and graffiti have appeared in Jakarta, bringing back memories of 1998 riots in which hundreds of ethnic Chinese were killed. Radical groups called on their supporters to use last week’s protest to incite jihad across the country. That is a real danger, as attacks on Christians and other religious minorities have increased. Much of the blame lies with former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who endorsed fatwas of the Indonesian Ulema Council, a group of top clerics, against minorities. The Defenders Front was allowed to operate with impunity even though it was linked to the burning of churches and attacks on Ahmadiyya Muslims." In "Indonesia’s Minorities Under Threat," by Ben Kurkin, Wall Street Journal, 8 November 2016. [ 13 ]
Addendum of Muslim Coexistence with Christian Converts: "Security agents also raided the home of their pastor Yousef Nadarkhani and his wife Fatemeh Pasandideh and arrested them at the same time, but they were not detained. Iranian authorities later charged converts Mosibzadeh, Fadayee and Omidi for consuming alcohol during a communion service. It is not illegal for Christians to drink alcohol in Iran but under Islamic law, Muslims are forbidden from drinking and it is illegal for Muslims to convert. The trio’s conversion from Islam to Christianity is not recognised by Iranian authorities who subscribe to Sharia law." In "Christians sentenced to 80 lashes by Sharia court for drinking communion wine," by Kate Mansfield, Express UK, 16 November 2016.
Addendum of Pure Hatred for Christians: "A translator at German refugee camps has revealed Muslim migrants are showing 'pure hatred' toward Christians and want the country to be Islamised. The Arabic speaker worked in a number of asylum centres across the country and went undercover to discover migrants were preaching 'pure hatred' about non-Muslims and women were planning to have more children to 'destroy Christians'. She said the hostility is also visible at asylum homes, where Muslim children refuse to play with Christians." In "'They want us to be Islamised. They despise our country and our values': Translator at German refugee camp says Muslim migrants display 'pure hatred' of Christians," by Gareth Davies, Mail Online UK, 17 November 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence with Applying for a Permit: "Christians have applied for a permit to build a church but have not yet received permission. Samir Nashed, a Christian resident of El-Naghamish, told ICC: 'On Friday [at] noon, November 25, following the Muslim prayers, a great deal of fanatic Muslim young men, some of them were carrying gas canisters and rocks while others came armed with automatic rifles, clubs, machetes and knives, they attacked Copts and Coptic-owned houses. The attackers cut [off] the road so that the fire trucks could not enter the village; they also cut off the water and power supply to the village'." In "Islamist mob destroys Christian homes in Egypt," Catholic Herald, 1 December 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence with Egyptian Coptic Christians: "A bombing at Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and wounded another 35 on Sunday, in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. The attack came two days after a bomb elsewhere in Cairo killed six policemen, an assault claimed by a shadowy group that authorities say is linked to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Islamic militants have targeted Christians in the past, including a New Year's Day bombing at a church in Alexandria in 2011 that killed at least 21 people." In "Bombing at Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral kills 25, Explosive detonated on women's side of the cathedral," by Associated Press via CBC, 11 December 2016.
Addendum of Coexistence between Ugandan Christians and Muslims: "A pastor in eastern Uganda and eight other Christians are missing two weeks after a Muslim mob attacked a church prayer meeting, locked the congregation in, beat several members and raped 15 women, sources said. The approximately 90 Muslims broke into the evening prayer meeting of Katira Church of Uganda, in Katira village, Budaka District at about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 15 and beat them with clubs and sticks, area sources said. Previously Muslims had only thrown stones at the roof of the church building to disrupt church services of the 500-member congregation, villagers said." In "Pastor, Eight Others Missing in Uganda after Muslims Beat, Rape Congregation," Morning Star News, 29 January 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence in Istanbul: "An Islamist gunman, who has confessed to the killing of 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Day, told a court that he had aimed to kill Christians during his attack, Hurriyet newspaper said on Monday, citing testimony given this weekend. Abdulgadir Masharipov initially planned to attack the area around Taksim Square but switched to the upscale Reina nightclub due to the heightened security measures around the square, Hurriyet said, without saying how it had obtained the document." In "Suspected Istanbul nightclub attacker wanted to kill Christians - Hurriyet, citing court document," by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Reuters, 13 February 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence in Iraq: " 'The defeat of Daesh has not seen the defeat of the idea of the re-establishment of the Caliphate…' 'And with this idea of the Caliphate there comes all the formal historical structures of intentional inequality and discrimination against non-Muslims. I speak here not only of Iraq. We see leaders in other countries in the Middle East who are clearly acting in a way consistent with the re-establishment of the Caliphate'." In "Iraq's Christians 'close to extinction'," by John Newton, Catholic Herlad, UK, 6 August 2019.
Addendum of Coexistence in Venezuela: "Militant socialists stormed a Mass in Venezuela on Sunday, shouting slogans such as 'Satan in a cassock' and 'fascist!' Congregants told Reuters that about 20 people barged in to San Pedro Claver church in the '23 De Enero' community, shouting 'Chavez lives!' " In "Socialist militants storm Mass in Venezuela," Catholic Herald, 16 February 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence with Religious Bullying in Australian Schools: "Teachers at a primary school in Sydney, Australia have been threatened with beheading and other violence from young Islamic students, prompting one of them to quit her job. Students as young as those in Year 5, according to the Daily Telegraph, are making the violent threats and pressuring others to read the Koran at Punchbowl Public School in Sydney. Documents given to the newspaper allege that three staff members have taken a leave of absence owing to stress, received counselling and been awarded compensation after bullying from Islamic students." In "Australian Teacher Quits After Islamic Students Threaten to Behead Her," by Lukas Mikelionis, HeatStreet, 17 March 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence with Genitally-Obsessed Do-Gooding Hobbyists: "Fergus Butler-Gallie, an ordinand at Westcott House, fired a mighty broadside: 'I'd say that any affirmation that involves the personal smearing of a brother or sister in Christ is no affirmation at all and that, if anything, it makes the church look even more like a genitally-obsessed bunch of do-gooding hobbyists than ever before. The fact that the highest paid clergyman in the Church of England (Martyn Percy) can use the deanery of an Oxford college as a sniper's post to take down a convincing advocate for the very poorest in society (with a columnist for the Guardian feeding him his ammunition) will send one message and one message alone – we care more about our own sub-Freudian internal wranglings than we do about the care of God's people.' Future prospects for the unity of the church are grim." In "The Church of England has sent a clear message to its conservative churchgoers – you're not wanted," by Andrew Sabisky, International Business Times, UK, 13 March 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence in Indonesia: " Muslim-majority Indonesia recognizes six religions, but militant Islamic groups frequently protest against the minority faiths and police often do not intervene. Members of minority religions that aren't recognized by the state face persistent discrimination. Ismail Ibrahim, a cleric and organizer of the protest, said they would not disperse until authorities cancel the church's construction permit. The church in the northern part of Bekasi has been the target of protests by hard-line Muslims since it obtained its permit in June 2015. Some claim the church's leaders used false identity cards to get the permit. In April last year a Muslim group sealed off the church, tore down its sign and demanded that the mayor cancel the permit." In "Indonesia police fire tear gas on Muslims protesting church," by Achmad Ibrahim and Ali Kotarumalos, Associated Press, 24 March 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence on Australia Transit: "...30-year-old Greek Orthodox Christian, Mike, discovered too late the risks of wearing a large cross outside his clothing while travelling on the train from Campsie to Bankstown with his girlfriend. He says he was minding his own business talking on his mobile phone, when four young men of Middle Eastern appearance allegedly violently ripped the crucifix off his neck, and stomped on it while swearing 'F*** Jesus' and referring to 'Allah'. He says they punched him and kicked him in his face, back and shoulders during the attack which began about 3pm, just after the train left Belmore station. When his girlfriend tried to defend him, two Arabic-speaking women also allegedly hit and kicked her." In "We rush to condemn Islamophobia. What about anti-Christian attacks," by Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph, 8 April 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence in India: "Concern about religious intolerance has grown across India particularly since the May 2014 election of Narendra Modi as prime minister, which saw a spike in the number of attacks against Christians and Muslims. After Modi took office the country saw a sharp rise in attacks against people and property, most of them perpetrated by the radical Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, also referred to as the RSS, or the 'the Sangh'." In "India bishops slam 'brutal' disruption of Good Friday service," by Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency, 21 April 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence with "the Middle East Overwhelmingly Dominated by Islam": "Like the Jews before them, Christians are fleeing the Middle East, emptying what was once one of the world’s most-diverse regions of its ancient religions. They’re being driven away not only by Islamic State, but by governments the U.S. counts as allies in the fight against extremism. ...The exodus leaves the Middle East overwhelmingly dominated by Islam, whose rival sects often clash, raising the prospect that radicalism in the region will deepen. Conflicts between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have erupted across the Middle East, squeezing out Christians in places such as Iraq and Syria and forcing them to carve out new lives abroad, in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere." In "Christians, in an Epochal Shift, Are Leaving the Middle East," by Maria Abi-Habib, Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2017.
Addendum of Coexistence between Islam and Liberal Values: "The statue is being removed to maintain peace, said its creator Mrinal Haque. Analysts say this is a sign of the rising tension between Islamic conservatism and liberal values in Bangladesh. Protesters have long asserted that the figure, which held the familiar sword and scales of justice in her hands, amounted to idolatry." In "Greek goddess statue removed in Bangladesh after Islamist outcry," BBC, 26 May 2017.
Addendum of Reform Islam Coexisting with Erdoğan's Islam: "The found of a new liberal mosque in Berlin, lawyer Seyran Ates, has received the bill for her reform work: after enormous political critcism from Turkey, where the religious group Diyant and the Erdoğan-loyal media acts against the Gülen movement, she receives daily death threats. She must have 24-our police protection." [ 14 ]
Addendum of Saudi Muslims Coexisting with Qatar's Muslims: "Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called Qatar's demands for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, although it was unclear whether Qatar had actually made any such demand. 'Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom,' Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya's website." In "Saudi Arabia says calls for internationalization of holy sites 'a declaration of war'," Reuters, 30 July 2017.
Addendum of Islamic Coexistence with Mali Catholics: "...attacks by Touareg separatists and Islamist insurgents have continued, delaying the return of displaced Malians from neighbouring Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. Rights groups have reported summary executions and the destruction of schools and forced recruitment of child soldiers. Mgr Dembele said armed men had smashed their way into a church at Dobara, 500 miles north of the capital Bamako, in late September, throwing out crosses, altar furnishings and a statue of Mary, which they burned outside. Assailants also drove Catholics out of a church at Bodwal, warning they would be killed if 'seen praying in the church,' he said." In "Mali Church leader voices alarm as Islamists attack parishes," by Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic Herald, 6 Oct 2017.
Addendum of a Future Chance at Coexistence: "...there is clearly also something strategically more significant going on. While many of the officials arrested over the weekend threaten Mohammed's power, they aren't the only ones that he has purged. In September Mohammed arrested some 30 senior Wahhabist clerics and intellectuals. And Saturday's arrest of the princes, cabinet ministers and business leaders was followed up by further arrests of senior Wahhabist clerics. At the same time, Mohammed has been promoting clerics who espouse tolerance for other religions, including Judaism and Christianity." In "Our world: Saudi purges and duty to act," by Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, 6 November 2017.
Addendum of an American Imam's Sermon and Coexistence: "During a sermon on 24 November, Elkasaby questioned the attack on a Sufi mosque in Egypt's Sinai province in which suspected Isis militants killed over 300 people. Elkasaby said it was 'ridiculous' that Isis carried out the attack: 'For the sake of whose interests are Muslims being killed in Sinai and all over the Islamic world?' he asked. 'This could have only been done by the enemies of Islam, the Jews and their subordinates from among the Muslim rulers,' the MEMRI translation shows Elkasaby saying before adding: 'Oh Allah, count the oppressors one by one, and kill them down to the very last one. Do not leave a single one upon the earth!' " In "American Imam called Jews 'apes and pigs' and blamed them for Isis attack," by James Tennent, International Business Times, 15 December 2017.
Addendum of a Fatwa: "A Muslim does not address a non-Muslim as 'brother' unless he is his biological brother from his mother or father or both. If this is not the case, then he does not address him as his brother. It is impermissible to consider Jews and Christians as our brothers; rather, it is incumbent to hate them for the sake of Allah and believe that they are on Kufr (disbelief), and it is prohibited to take them as allies or incline towards them. Allah, The Exalted, says (what means): {The believers are but brothers...} [Quran 49:10]" In "Calling non-Muslim 'brother', Fatwa No: 343897, Islamweb.net, Fatwa Date: 7-6-2017 - Ramadan 13, 1438.
Addendum of Coexistence in the Philippines: "The couple, Ellen Barriga and Mohammad Reza Kiram, could have served as the model of a modern interfaith marriage. Instead, they are poster children for how violent ideology transformed educated Filipinos into agents of death for the Islamic State." In "An ISIS Couple’s Troubling Path to Terror Recruiting," by Hannah Beech and Jason Gutierrez, New York Times, 24 March 2019. [ 15 ]
Addendum of Unwilling Conversion: "It starts with the abduction of these Hindu girls by Muslim men who are often married. They keep the girls in their custody, rape them and then force them to convert to Islam before marrying them. 'There is not even one case in which anyone has willingly converted. These men, who are often already married, kidnap the girls, keep them in their custody, rape them, and through threats and intimidation make the girls say they converted willingly,' according to Dr Vankwani, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council. Forced conversions and underage marriages of girls are common in Tharparkar and Umerkot districts of Sindh where almost 50% of the population is Hindu. Such incidents, however, are rarely reported in the media. " In "Muslim men abduct, rape, then marry Hindu girls from impoverished families in Sindh: Pak legislator Vankwani," by Omer Farooq Khan, Times of India, 16 April 2019.
Addendum of an Accusation and a Mob: "Dozens of people have been arrested in Pakistan after a teenager accused his Hindu headteacher of blasphemy, sparking riots. The principal, who owns the school, was accused of making comments about the Prophet Muhammad in Sindh province. A large mob then allegedly attacked a Hindu temple, shops and the school in the town of Ghotki on Saturday. The principal is now in custody facing blasphemy charges. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty." In "Pakistan blasphemy riots: Dozens arrested after Hindu teacher accused," BBC News, 16 September 2019.
For more citations regarding Coexistence and Islam see: Islamophobia
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Hundreds of men, women and children have been arrested and detained in Saudi Arabia since the Gulf Crisis in August 1990, most without charge or trial, solely for the peaceful expression of their religious beliefs. Scores have been subjected to torture, flogging or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment while in detention. In Saudi Arabia, where the vast majority of citizens are Sunni Muslims, both public and private non-Muslim religious worship is, in practice, banned. This ban is not limited to non-Muslims, however, as the public expression of Shi'a Muslim beliefs or the performance of their religious rites is strictly monitored and generally prohibited. In recent years a clear pattern of discrimination against religious minorities, particularly resident Christians and Saudi Arabian Shi'a Muslims, has emerged. Religious intolerance in the country appears to have become particularly acute after the Gulf Crisis of 1990-1991, as evidenced by a marked increase in the number of Christian worshippers being arrested and ill-treated solely for the peaceful expression of their religious beliefs." In "Saudi Arabia: Religious intolerance: The arrest, detention and torture of Christian worshippers and Shi'a Muslims," Amnesty International, September 1993, AI Index: MDE 23/06/93."
In the Heartland, Uniquely Intolerant
For another perspective: "Religious intolerance is on the rise even in Kuwait, perhaps America's best friend in the Arab world. Until now Christians have worshipped freely in the Persian Gulf state. However, growing threats to religious minorities reflect public attitudes which could undermine the heretofore close U.S.-Kuwait relationship. Saudi Arabia long has promoted the worst forms of religious intolerance. Spiritual liberty simply doesn't exist. The country is essentially a totalitarian state. The government claims the right to decide the most fundamental questions involving every individual's conscience. The State Department's latest report on religious freedom observed: 'The laws and policies restrict religious freedom, and in practice, the government generally enforced these restrictions. Freedom of religion is neither recognized nor protected under the law and is severely restricted in practice.' At best non-Sunni Muslims can hope to be left alone when they worship privately. The group Open Doors placed Saudi Arabia on its 'World Watch List,' noting simply that 'religious freedom does not exist in this heartland of Islam where citizens are only allowed to adhere to one religion.' Earlier this year the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom tagged the kingdom as a 'country of particular concern.' The Commission found that 'systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom continued despite improvements.' A decade after 9/11, 'the Saudi government has failed to implement a number of promised reforms related to promoting freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. The Saudi government persists in banning all forms of public religious expression other than that of the government's own interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam.' Although Saudi Arabia is the most important Gulf State, it is uniquely intolerant." In "Religious Intolerance is on the Rise in Kuwait," by Doug Bandow, American Spectator, 31 April 2013.
Saudi Arabia is at least consistent over time. "Saudi authorities have swooped on a house in the eastern province city of Khafji, on the border with Kuwait, and arrested 27 people for using the premises as church last week. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) also confiscated copies of the Bible and various musical instruments from the people during the raid." In "27 Christians in Saudi Arabia Arrested for Using House As a Church," Assyrian International News, 14 September 2014.
Deadly Renunciation
Religious tolerance, Saudi style, is furthered by their courts. "An Islamic court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for renouncing his Muslim faith, the English-language daily Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday. The man, in his 20s, posted an online video ripping up a copy of Islam's holy book, the Koran, and hitting it with a shoe, the newspaper reported." In "Saudi Arabia court gives death penalty to man who renounced his Muslim faith," Reuters, 24 February 2015.
So much for coexistence and religious tolerance. So in this year while apologists for Islam say that ISIS is not Islamic, and somehow demeans the adjective, "Islamic," one waits to hear from these same apologists state that the "Islamic court" is not Islamic, nor is beheading for insulting Islam, and renouncing it as a faith. One will likely wait a long time.
[ 2 ] "Recent surveys indicate that Indonesian Muslims are increasingly intolerant of other religions, this according to a report published by the Jakarta-based Islamic National University (UIN). This has taken the form of non-acceptance by Muslims of non-Muslim teachers in public schools and opposition to new churches or non-Muslim places of worship. The survey, which compares data from 2001 to data from 2010, was conducted by the Centre for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM), an independent research centre at the State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta, headed by executive director Jajat Burhanudin." In "Religious intolerance rising among Indonesian Muslims," by Mathias Hariyadi, AsiaNews, 5 October 2010.
[ 3 ] As to the individual case: "As well as the death penalty hanging over her, Asia Bibi now has a price on her head. A radical cleric has promised 500,000 Pakistani rupees (£3,700; $5,800) to anyone prepared to 'finish her'. He suggested that the Taliban might be happy to do it." In "Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi 'has price on her head'," by Orla Guerin, BBC, 7 December 2010.
Persecution Today
One notes of "coexistence" with such as Pakistan's cleric who can offer a bounty on a Christian, that "Nine of the 10 countries with the worst records for persecution of Christians have populations that are at least 50 percent Muslim, according to the assessment of persecution in the Open Doors USA's World Watch List (WWL) 2015 and population information published by the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency." In "9 of 10 Worst Countries for Persecution of Christians Have 50% or Greater Muslim Populations," by Lauretta Brown, Cybercast News, 8 January 2015.
One may consider the official position of some Muslim nations the distinction that There's God and then there's Allah
It may be noted that the longer list by Open Doors WWL also includes the Sino-Socialism of Communist China and its one party state, and the Stalinist North Korea. Consider those who through a political state assert that god is dead
Considered from the perspective of those advocating coexistence, it seems one may document two streams of world thought which wholeheartedly and forcefully disagree. One demands allegiance to one god and that god's language and culture-acquired laws, and the other demands allegiance to the state. So much for coexistence throughout much of the world in our time.
[ 4 ] A fine example of coexistence, told by Reuters and validated by The Guardian: ""Last weekend Isis gave the city's Christians a stark choice: convert to Islam, pay a religious tax, or face death. 'They said there is no place for Christians in the Islamic state,' one distraught refugee said from the safety of Bashiqa, 16 miles from Mosul. 'Either you become Muslim or you leave.' Mosul's last 1,500 Christian families were reportedly robbed at Isis checkpoints as they fled." In "'They are savages,' say Christians forced to flee Mosul by Isis," by Fazel Hawramy, Guardian UK, 24 July 2014.
Finishing Christianity
"A priest hailing from what used to be Iraq’s largest Christian city has lamented the exodus of over 100,000 Christians from the city, many of whom are fleeing on foot with no food, money or water. 'Today the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq,' said a priest who identified himself as Fr. Nawar." In "Priest from Nineveh: 'Christianity is finished in Iraq'," by Elise Harris, Catholic News Agency, 8 August 2014.
The intolerance is following the stream of Muslim migrants, as one reads: "A Protestant minister from Berlin said Christian refugees had been threatened after they refused to take part in an Islamic prayer organized by other migrants." In "Non-Muslim refugees at mercy of other migrants, German group warns," Europe Online, 9 May 2016.
One might inquire from the "coexistence" advocate how one may coexist without existence. The sentiment of the "coexist" graphic and bumper sticker is simply unable to meet the reality of extreme religious intolerance.
[ 5 ] With as many instances of Muslim intolerance of other Muslims, of Christians and Jews, of secular peoples, one may well conclude that this kind of Islam is in fact at war with the world around it, seeking hegemony and utterly intolerant, in the modern parlance. This is among the reasons that the "Coexist" bumper sticker seen in the US is such a farce, spelling coexist beginning with the crescent moon.
The Prohibiting Religion
One reads: "Saudi Arabia allows Christians to enter the country as foreign workers for temporary work, but does not allow them to practice their faith openly. Because of that Christians generally only worship in secret within private homes. Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited. These include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols, and others. The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (i.e., the religious police) prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam. Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy, a crime punishable by death if the accused does not recant. The Government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country for the purpose of conducting religious services." In "Christianity in Saudi Arabia," Wikipedia, n. d.
The raging Muslim war in Iraq proves that the Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam is utterly intolerant of other views, and as such is a religious fascism. One reads: "Yazidi refugees who are stranded on Mount Sinjar said they have received calls from family members trapped behind enemy lines in villages now controlled by Islamic State jihadis. They have reportedly been handed a brutal ultimatum: convert to Islam – or die." In "Islamic State extremists deliver ultimatum to trapped Yazidis: 'Convert today - or die'," by Alastair Beach, Telegraph UK, 10 August 2014.
Islamic Coexistence with a Yazidi Minoirty?
Further one learns: "Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority, burying some alive and taking hundreds of women as slaves, an Iraqi government minister told Reuters on Sunday. Human rights minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani accused the Sunni Muslim insurgents - who have ordered the community they regard as "devil worshippers' to convert to Islam or die - of celebrating a 'a vicious atrocity' with cheers and weapons waved in the air." In "Islamic State kills at least 500 from Iraq's Yazidi minority," by Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters, 10 August 2014.
How shall someone coexist with a religion which exercises a prohibition on "the practice of any religion other than Islam?" How shall someone coexist with a religious stance which demands "covert today - or die?"
[ 6 ] One commentator observed that the Muslim protests during the Israel-Gaza conflict of August 2014 in Europe did not say "kill the Israelis," but clearly "kill the Jews" and "gas the Jews." The later reflects the gassing of Jews by the National Socialists during World War II. In that war, influential Muslims sided with Hitler.
The textual ground for this comes from Islam itself, not either mainstream nor radical but historical. One reads as one example: "Chapter : The Last Hour would not come until a person would pass by a grave and wish that he should have been the occupant of that grave because of this calamity. Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." In "Sahih Muslim Book 041, Hadith Number 6985."
Natural Friends
One reads of the then Grand Mufti of Jerusalem: "During World War II he collaborated with both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by making propagandistic radio broadcasts and by helping Germans recruit Bosnian Muslims for the Waffen-SS. On meeting Adolf Hitler he requested backing for Arab independence and support in opposing the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. At war's end, he came under French protection, and then sought refuge in Cairo to avoid prosecution." In "Haj Amin al-Husseini," Wikipedia, n.d.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler, 28 November 1941
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1987-004-09A / Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957)
"Der Führer empfing in Gegenwart des Reichsministers des Auswärtigen von Ribbentrop den Grossmufti von Palästina, Sayid Amin al Husseini, zu einer herzlichen und für die Zukunft der arabischen Länder bedeutungsvollen Unterredung."
The Wiki article adds: "When Husseini eventually met with Hitler and Ribbentrop in 1941, he assured Hitler that 'The Arabs were Germany's natural friends because they had the same enemies... namely the English, the Jews, and the Communists'."
To Eliminate the Scourge
This Muslim is quoted in that Wiki article: "It is the duty of Muhammadans in general and Arabs in particular to … drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries….Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in their different countries. It has very clearly recognized the Jews for what they are and resolved to find a definitive solution [endgültige Lösung] for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world."
Given that this alliance with Hitler's National Socialists predates the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel, one also notes that Husseini tells that Jews were in fact living in "Arab and Muhammadan countries," giving lie to the latest political rhetoric from the PA that Jews did not live in the areas now known as Israel and Palestine.
History tells of an even earlier flirtation by Germany with Muslims during World War I: "Reserved primarily for Muslim prisoners, detainees lived in relative luxury and were given everything they needed to practise their faith. Spiritual texts were provided, Ramadan observed, a mosque erected – the first on German soil – and there were sermons by visiting spiritual leaders and academics. But Half Moon Camp was not some torchbearer for the more enlightened treatment of PoWs ushered in later by the Geneva Convention. It was, instead, the symbolic centre of a spectacularly unsuccessful pet project of Kaiser Wilhelm II: to turn Muslim soldiers fighting for Britain and France into jihadists loyal to Germany." In "Germany's grand First World War jihad experiment," by Florence Waters, Telegraph UK, 10 August 2014.
Thinking About a History of War Crimes
As to a public relations flap, one reads: " 'We know the responsibility of the Nazis for the civilizational rupture of the Shoah,' Merkel told journalists at a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Berlin, adding that there was no reason for Germany to change its thinking about its history of war crimes." In "Palestinians not behind Holocaust: Merkel," TheLocal.de, 22 October 2015. The statement is correct, because the assertion of a state of Palestine is a mid-20th century phenomenon somewhat parallel to the establishment of the recognized state of Israel. The war crimes of the National Socialists resound to them and to a Third Reich which is now thankfully defeated and long gone.
Detail of photograph of Himmler greeting al-Husseini, circa 1943
Recent documents inform. One reads of a telegram from Heinrich Himmler to al-Husseini: " 'To the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini, 'The great National-Socialist movement of Great Germany has, from its inception, carried the flag of the struggle against world Jewry. For this reason, it has closely monitored the struggle of the freedom-loving Arabs – especially in Palestine – against the Jewish invaders. The common recognition of the enemy, and the joint struggle against it, are what form the solid foundation between Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims all over the world. The common recognition of the enemy, and the joint struggle against it, are what form the solid foundation between Germany and the freedom-loving Muslims all over the world. In this spirit, I am happy to wish you, on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, warm wishes for your continued struggle until the great victory.' SS commander in the entire Reich, Heinrich Himmler'." In "Document: SS Chief Wished Mufti in 1943 'Victory Against the Jewish Invaders'," by JNi.Media, 29 March 2017.
Detail from the telegram, as reproduced in the news article.
Given the sentiment and the relationship between the mufti of Jerusalem and the SS commander "in the entire Reich," added to the details of al-Husseini's meeting with Hitler, Merkel's discounting of other than National Socialism as responsible for "the civilizational rupture of the Shoah" seems historically inaccurate and overtly political.
Yet one reads of current "protests" which include calls to "gas the Jews" in this 21st century, all the while reports of Muslims gassing Muslims in Iraq and Syria have been documented and yet ignored by these same protests, this shows that this kind of Islam cannot "coexist" with Judaism, just as it is proving unwilling to coexist with other forms of Islam, as with Yazidi in Iraq, the Baha'i, Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians being expelled from their homes so many years after the World Wars.
As to radical Islam in modern Germany, one learns that it "soars" as one reads: "German federal prosecutors have opened up more than 900 terrorism-related cases so far this year, including 800 related to radical Islamists, according to a report published in the German language newspaper [ sic ] Welt am Sonntag on Sunday. The number of terrorism cases has jumped nearly four-fold compared to last year, when federal prosecutors opened about 250 proceedings. In 2013, there were about 80 terrorism cases in the courts." In "Germany terrorism prosecution cases soar: report," Deutsche Welle, 23 October 2017.
Consider who one might coexist with The religion of peace
[ 7 ] One notes Somali Muslims are executing non-Muslims in Kenya, which borders Somali but is in fact a sovereign African nation of its own. This is demonstration that militant Islam is acting across borders, internationally without the excuses of Zionism by Israelis and such other rationales for war. Islam's militant side in confronting the historical challenge of facing coexistence with cultures which it can no longer conquer by brutal militancy, on the one hand, nor win by theological argument, given that its various sects are also at war with one another.
[ 8 ] The original report is taken from a German news source reporting on this event in Mönchengladbach: "Augenzeugen berichteten, dass eine Gruppe von offenbar muslimischen Kindern und Jugendlichen an Heiligabend in die Kirche gestürmt sei und angeblich "Scheiß-Christen" gerufen habe." In "Pfarrer sieht Anzeige gegen Kinder und Jugendliche als 'Signal'," by Aaron Clamann und Dieter Weber, Rheinische Post Online, 26 December 2015.
In other German-language news from Switzerland, one finds an immigrant group lobbying to change the Swiss flag -- a characteristic white cross on a red background -- to another, because "The Swiss flag no more represents today's multicultural Switzerland," because it has a Christian background and "what is needed is a new symbol, with which one can identify, and not Christian."
A Cross Offends
The original reads: "Das Schweizer Kreuz soll abgeschafft werden. Das fordert der Immigranten-Verein Second@s Plus. 'Die Schweizer Flagge entspricht der heutigen, multikulturellen Schweiz nicht mehr', sagt Vorstandsmitglied Ivica Petrusic. Das Kreuz habe einen christlichen Hintergrund. Die christliche Herkunft der Schweiz gelte es zwar zu respektieren, 'nur gilt es auch eine Trennung zwischen Religion und Staat zu machen', fordert Petrusic. 'Abgesehen davon haben wir heute eine grosse religiöse und kulturelle Vielfalt in der Schweiz.' Es brauche neue Symbole, mit denen sich auch alle identifizieren könnten, auch Nicht-Christen. " In "Immigranten-Verein fordert Abschaffung des Schweizer Kreuzes," Tages Anzeiger, 19 September 2011.
Such is the nature of tolerance and coexistence between a nation and a politically active immigrant group. One wonders how the crescent moon which appears in many Muslim nations' flags and other symbols should fare such as Turkey, Pakistan, Libya, Malaysia and Mauritania, by this example?
One wonders whether Saudi Arabia's flag with its Islamic creed, the shahada, inscribed over a sword should be changed because of religious content?
What of the crosses which appear on the Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic flags? The Union Jack and St. George flags? Greece's? Dominican Republic?
[ 9 ] The report brings news not generally reported, thanks to video of the sheikh. The article notes: "In a recent sermon posted on the Internet and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Sheikh Ahmad Bin Anis declares, 'Oh Muslims, oh servants of Allah, the nation of Islam ruled the world for a long time. This nation ruled the land in accordance with the shari'a'. The Islamic nation is invincible,' he says. 'In the days of yore, its slogan was: 'Convert to Islam, and you will be safe. Allah will reward you twice. Otherwise, pay the jizya poll tax in humiliation. Or else the sword will come down on the heads of those who resist this'.'"
One interesting feature of the modern age and technology racing forward is that such "sermons" are now more widely noticed, and the translations of such speeches allow for dissemination of this form of what is rightly hate speech.
Taken Over by the Brothers of Apes and Pigs
Filled with resentment of the wider world, this sheikh's view is clear, thanks to being captured on video. " 'The nation of Islam has been taken over by its enemies,” he says. “It has been taken over by the Jews – the most despicable, base, vile, and wretched of all the creatures of Allah. Our nation has been taken over by the brothers of apes and pigs,' states the Muslim cleric."
Consider the logic. In this new century, there are estimated to be 13 million Jews, while the estimate of Muslims worldwide is about 2 billion. That a population 150 times the size of Jews worldwide feels so powerless and "taken over by the Jews" suggest a truly weak "nation of Islam" or an enormously powerful 13 million Jews. What an odd and self-imaged victimhood for such a sheikh, dreaming of ruling "the world for a long time." The historical reality is that no single nation or religious group have ever ruled "the world."
Muslim Calls for Divine Vengeance Against Muslim?
The reality of the "nation of Islam," in the parlance of Bin Anis, is that the "nation" is raging against itself. One reads: "The Saudi foreign ministry said on Sunday that Iran’s reaction 'revealed its true face represented in support for terrorism'. A ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency accused Tehran of 'blind sectarianism' and said that 'by its defence of terrorist acts' Iran is a 'partner in their crimes in the entire region'. Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki called Iran’s reaction 'irresponsible', and Riyadh summoned Tehran’s envoy in protest." In "Iran's leader warns Saudis of 'divine vengeance' over execution of Shia cleric," by Reuters and Agence-France Presse, 3 January 2016.
Islamic Cooperation?
As Bin Anis is recognized as a Yemeni cleric, one learns from a Wikipedia article on the nation that "Yemen is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and also participates in the nonaligned movement." Given the absurd demographic and political claim that Jews "rule" over the "nation of Islam", one wonders whether Bin Anis is ruled by the Sunni and the Saudi monarchy, the Shia and the Iranian theocracy, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or a mere 13 million Jews worldwide, after all. Given so many religious and political entities ruling Muslims in the Arab world alone, Bin Anis' opinion becomes predictably anti-Semitic yet demographically absurd.
But as the humorous Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) sang in his original lyrics for the song, "National Brotherhood Week" in the 1965 comedy album "That Was the Year That Was," this strophe capsules Bin Anis fifty years later: "Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, / And the Catholics hate the Protestants, / And the Hindus hate the Moslems, / And everybody hates the Jews."
[ 10 ] For those interested, the original report in German reads: "Der Grund für das Handgemenge in der Nacht zum Sonntag lag laut Polizei in unterschiedlichen riligiösen Ansichten über den Konsum von Alkohol. Dabei sollen Flüchtlinge aus Pakistan ihren afghanischen Mitbewohnern vorgeworfen haben, „schlechte Muslime“ zu sein, weil diese Alkohol getrunken hatten."In "Streit um Alkoholkonsum gipfelt in Massenschlägerei," Stuttgarter Nachrichten, 24 January 2016.
One becomes ever more aware that even some Muslims would do well to be Islamophobic.
[ 11 ] The question of coexistence between religious stances is not a generalized one, as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism have learned to manage this far more capably than the supremacist slant of Islam.
What It Comes Down To
One reads: "Three different compilations of data thus yield the same conclusion: In the early 1900s Muslims were engaged in more intergroup violence than were non-muslims, and two-thirds to three-quarters of intercivilizational wars were between Muslims and non-Muslims. Islam's borders are bloody and so are its innards." In "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order," by Samuel P Huntington, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Critics of Huntington, such as Edward Said who replied with his "The Clash of Ignorance" (2001), complain that such "different compilations of data" are stereotypes, and stand in the way of finding peaceful coexistence with Muslim governments and religious authorities. What such critics blithely ignore is the outright ban on other religions as found in stark Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia, which as cited above bans other religions as a matter of law.
I agree with Said, that one should consider the notion of Islamophobia
[ 12 ] In the original German: " „Wir haben in unserem Zwölf-Bett-Zimmer die Bibel gelesen. Sofort haben uns die anderen Muslime im Raum beschimpft, weil wir vom Islam zum Christentum konvertiert sind“, sagte eines der Opfer. „Plötzlich standen siebzig Menschen vor uns, beschimpften uns und wollten uns verprügeln. Wir hatten Todesangst!“ Erst 20 Polizisten und eine Hundestaffel konnten den Angreifern Einhalt gebieten. Der Heimleiter bestätigte dem Blatt: „Ja, es gibt Mobbing gegen Christen.“ In "Moslems vertreiben Christen aus Berliner Asylunterkünften." Junge Freiheit, 24 February 2016.
Harassers and the Harassed
Other reports tell a similar, sad reality: "...surveys of the 231 Christian migrants showed that 42 percent of them experienced insults, 37 percent claimed to have received physical injuries, and 32 percent even had death threats. The document is only 'the tip of the iceberg,' said Open Doors Germany head Markus Rode, adding there is 'fear and panic' among the non-Muslim newcomers, Deutsche Welle reports. According to AVC (Action on Behalf of Persecuted Christians and the Needy), who also took part in the survey, up to 40,000 Christian refugees and members of other religious minorities are being harassed for their religious beliefs in German centers, Bild reports." In "40,000 non-Muslim migrants harassed in German centers over their religion – activists," RT-TV-Novosti," 10 May 2016.
[ 13 ] One notes that "minorities" in the article are ethnic Chinese, as well as Christian and Ahmadiyya Muslims, while the "defenders" supported by "top" Muslim clerics sanction "attacks." The picture of the Indonesian Ulema Council is clear, and essentially supremacist to the point of inciting repeated violence. Thus the happy graphic of the word "coexist" is proven naive at best, and not representative of the many news reports cited above, any more than was militantly atheist Communism in its day, which as seen below resulted so often in Death in Peacetime
Before coexistence can come, it must be wished for by all sides.
[ 14 ] In the original German news article: "Die Gründerin einer neuen liberalen Moschee in Berlin, die Anwältin Seyran Ates, bekommt für ihr Reformwerk jetzt die Quittung: Nach hochpolitischer Kritik aus der Türkei, wo sie die Religionsbehörde Diyanet und die Erdogan- treuen Medien in die Nähe der Gülen- Bewegung rückten, erhält Ates nun täglich Morddrohungen. Sie musste daher mittlerweile unter 24- Stunden- Polizeischutz gestellt werden." In "D: Liberale Imamin braucht 24- h- Polizeischutz," Kronen Zeitung, 2 July 2017.
[ 15 ] The NYTimes article notes of the husband of what once seemed to be a "modern interfaith marriage": "...he and a Malaysian and Indonesian urged foreigners to wage jihad in Muslim parts of the Philippines, where the Islamic State has been gaining strength. 'Worshipers of the cross,' he warned, 'we will use the language of swords and language of bullets. Our brothers in the path of Allah will soon rise in your own land.' Holding a dagger, Mr. Kiram then beheaded a hostage kneeling in front of him."
One notes the Times' phrase, a "violent ideology." This is most clear. One also notes the adjective "Islamic" This too is clear. From what part of Islam comes this "violent theology," while some apologists pretend that this has nothing to do with Islam itself?
Open and Sectarian War
Yet of the Islamic State's foundation, one reads: "The group was founded in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād (lit. "The Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad"). In a letter published by the Coalition in February 2004, Zarqawi wrote that jihadis should use bombings to start an open sectarian war so that Sunnis from the Islamic world would mobilize against assassinations carried out by Shia, specifically the Badr Brigade, against Ba'athists and Sunnis." In "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," Wikipedia, n. d.
Thus one may conclude that the Islamic State quite adequately fulfills the argument of Islamophobia
Wikipedia notes further: "On 29 June 2014, ISIL proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – known by his supporters as Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph Ibrahim – was named its caliph, and the group renamed itself ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah ("Islamic State" (IS)). As a 'Caliphate', it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide. The concept of it being a caliphate and the name 'Islamic State' have been rejected by governments and Muslim leaders worldwide."
Ergo some Muslim authority rejects another, a prime marker for Islamophobia.
To Conquer the World
One reads more: "According to German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, who spent ten days embedded with ISIL in Mosul, the view he kept hearing was that ISIL wants to 'conquer the world', and that all who do not believe in the group's interpretation of the Quran will be killed. Todenhöfer was struck by the ISIL fighters' belief that 'all religions who agree with democracy have to die', and by their 'incredible enthusiasm' – including enthusiasm for killing 'hundreds of millions' of people." In "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," Wikipedia, n. d.
Roots in the 7th Century and/or Roots in the 21st Century?
Further as to the roots of this ideology one reads: "Extremism within Islam goes back to the 7th century, to the Khawarijes. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines which set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims. They were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed worthy of death. Other scholars have also described the group not as Sunnis, but as Khawarij. Sunni critics, including Salafi and jihadist muftis such as Adnan al-Aroor and Abu Basir al-Tartusi, say that ISIL and related terrorist groups are not Sunnis, but are instead modern-day Kharijites (Muslims who have stepped outside the mainstream of Islam) serving an imperial anti-Islamic agenda." In "Islamic Extremism," Wikipedia, n. d.
So is that Islamic? Some say so and other disagree. One reads that for some the Islamic State begins only a decade or two ago: "IS can trace its roots back to the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian. In 2004, a year after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and formed al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which became a major force in the insurgency." In "What is 'Islamic State'?" BBC, 2 December 2015.
No National Origin? What of Arabic?
Yet tracing a national origin does not inform as to the ideology, as the BBC notes as well: "A significant number of IS fighters are neither Iraqi nor Syrian. In October 2015, National Counterterrorism Center Director Nicholas Rasmussen told Congress that the group had attracted more than 28,000 foreign fighters. They included at least 5,000 Westerners, approximately 250 of them Americans, he said. Studies by the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) and the New York-based Soufan Group suggest that while about a quarter of the foreign fighters are from the West, the majority are from nearby Arab countries, such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Morocco."
Therefore national origin tells nothing. Therein lies the challenge. What is Islam? Muslims disagree, making that challenge.
Fictions? Fictions Will Soon Rise Up?
One reads of the challenge from a non-Muslim: "Islam must accept that many of its stories about the Prophet Muhammad are seventh-century 'fictions' if it is to counter the jihadist rhetoric driving hundreds of young Muslims into the arms of terrorist groups, a historian has said. Tom Holland, the author and television presenter, said the claim that the Islamic State’s ideology had nothing to do with Islam was 'wishful thinking' and that the militants’ theology had a strong basis in the Koran and early Islamic history. 'The grim truth is that sanctions can be found in the Koran, in the biographies of Muhammad and in the histories of early Islam for much that strikes the outside world as most horrific about the Islamic State,' he writes in an online article." In "Muslims must scrutinise ‘fictions about Muhammad’, says historian Tom Holland," by Oliver Moody, Times UK, 29 September 2014.
Of this ideology with a "strong basis in the Koran and early Islamic history, the Times UK reminds of the ideological assertion: "Our brothers in the path of Allah will soon rise in your own land."
So much for coexistence.
"Mao Tse-Tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world's population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader." --Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, "Mao: The Unknown Story" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005).
Death in peacetime ends not always
with a peaceful, peacetime death,
As Sino-Socialism's victims prove
with their millions' dying breath.
The professorial and the oh so cool,
those edgy, trendy folk
Think Warhol's Mao's an icon,
like a huge artistic joke.
Mao has hung on Christmas trees,
on precinct workers' walls,
In posters and iconic things
to line university halls.
When such Western stupidity
is totaled, the sum is great,
A soft and cuddly version
of murderous Maoist hate.
The Western Left love their icons
and wear them like a charm,
Ignoring such brutality,
much thuggery and harm.
But they would be offended
when one would speak a truth;
The iconic Mister Western Mao
is a lie told to our youth.
Death in peacetime ends not always
with a peaceful, peacetime death,
As Sino-Socialism's victims prove
with their millions' dying breath.See: Revising History
I'm done with my complaining - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Müller poem
I'm done with my complaining
About how bad things get,
When with a heady, hefty wine
I can my whistle wet.
Awful news? Apocalypse?
Brother, let's have a drink!
To toss one down has greater worth
Than newsprint and the printers' ink.
Perhaps things round the world
And from day to miserable day
Get worse, more worse, most worse
As so many loudly say:
But there's relief in liquidity
Despite the fads and trends,
As has been true throughout the years
When spent with drink and friends.
What each passing year might bring
In public stings' breadth and length,
Is answered fruitfully by wine,
Ginning passion, courage, strength.
Let's pour out yet another round,
Open and empty, and open yet more.
Time flies by just the same,
And constant worry is such a bore!
For those who waste their pressured lives
Mired in misery's chains,
I recommend some vintage year
Such thinking to right rearrange.
Envoi: "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
"The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race. On Tuesday, the board passed a revised strategic plan that says that by 2018, it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level. For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian kids to be proficient, whites at 86 percent, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent. It also measures by other groupings, such as poverty and disabilities, reported the Palm Beach Post." In "Florida Passes Plan For Racially-Based Academic Goals," CBS Tampa, 12 October 2012
Merit dies as scholarship
Lies gasping in ICU.
Equality has taken leave,
In this political curlicue.
Grades are now just relative
And goals change like the winds,
As education withers now;
Plain commonsense rescinds
The excuses which are trotted out
To make some colored skin
The same old lesser worth
Which the KKK said in sin.
Slavery based on the hues of skin
Was toppled long ago,
But now the same conclusions
Are held as apropos
Of enlightened academic thinking
About children, culture, race,
All the while their work
Keeps some lessers in their place.
I'd hold to a different view,
Expectations even raised,
To see accomplishment be born
And achievement highly praised.
But this is now what racists
Call racist in our day,
For it demands merit and
Then scholarship holds sway.
The race which means the most
Is not the Asian there,
But in winning one's accomplishment
All efforts are deemed fair.
Those who work and work yet more
Receive a just reward,
While those who act with sloth and less
Should probably be ignored.
See: Everything's about my colored skin
We won't ever be like them - reality, ahem!
"Seven months after calling themselves the 'anti-Solyndra,' the Colorado-based solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar announced it was filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, arguing that cheap Chinese solar panels flooding the market caused their demise. 'With over $30 billion in reported government subsidies, Chinese panel makers were able to sell below cost and put Abound out of business before we were big enough to pose a real competitive threat to China’s rapidly growing market share,' according to the prepared congressional testimony by Craig Witsoe, former CEO of Abound." In "Sources, documents suggest government-subsidized Abound Solar was selling faulty product," by Michael Bastasch, The Daily Caller, 2 October 2012
We would never be like them, and yet, in time we are.
Strike a pose, adopt a stance, keep reality afar?
But ticked time's mill stone grinds all fine,
And reality refuses to toe the illiquid line.
We won't ever be like them, that is, until we are.
Chapter seven liquidates this emptied repertoire.
Billions wasted on a dream, again and then again.
Such is the tale of subsidies and green lies told by men.
See: Bankrupt green
Sixteen trillion - the teetering pavilion
"You load sixteen tons, what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt. / Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, / I owe my soul to the company store." first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his album 'Folk Songs of the Hills' in 1947.
You owe sixteen trillion, and what do you get?
Another year weaker and deeper in debt.
Prosperity ain't calling, the reason you know:
You owe your soul 'cause you wouldn't say "no."
The nation owes trillions, a growing threat.
The numbers explode; now don't you forget,
Prosperity can't call you, the numbers show:
You owe your soul 'cause you couldn't say "whoa."
You owe sixteen trillion, and that's your bad bet,
And so you ignore it, trying not to fret.
Prosperity can't help you by printing more dough:
You owe your soul for the money you blow.
You owe sixteen trillion, your grandkids' debt,
That's how you pretend you're clever, and yet....
Prosperity ain't coming to this fiasco:
They'll owe their souls 'cause you wouldn't say "no."
Envoi: "And don't tell me debt is not a big deal. Debt will cut off your legs and laugh at you as you grovel in the dirt begging for mercy. If you don't need it, don't get it. If you can't afford it, don't get it. If you're already in debt, get out quickly. If you think you'll never get out, you're right, you won't." Osayi Osar-Emokpae, in "Impossible Is Stupid," CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2011)
Synthesizing a Simple Stance: This bit of doggerel was written in 2012, and is already wildly out-of-date. Such is the lunatic leadership of political leaders, who lead all into increasing debt.
Addendum of Skyrocketing Debt: "19,012,827,698,417.93" on 29 January 2016, according to "The Daily History of the Debt Results," U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service.
See: Debt
Noah's Ark - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Müller poem
Our meals yet not our drink
Were brought from paradise.
What Adam once had wasted
When Eve's apple did entice
Was given back by heady wine
And merry songs that intertwine.
Once man's new earth was sunk
By the joys of eating crowned,
The flood would wash away man's sin
As creatures by it were drowned.
But dear old Noah did survive,
And did our grapes vines keep alive.
He fled with wife and family,
Sailing in an ark-shaped vat
Which floated o'er flooding waters,
And none got wet from that.
By this did wine for us live on
Till watery death became dry dawn.
And as the flood abated,
The great round house alit
So all could come ashore
And upon that mountain sit,
To greet anew with cheery hoots
And plant their vineyards' tender shoots.
That vat upon the mountain
Stands as monument this day;
Yet in Heidelberg on the Neckar
We see something like it, anyway.
So understand this then, a story fine,
How came our grapes along the Rhine.
If even one would err with bile
Our sacred wine so to revile,
He should sink in flooding waters
To wash away the smirk or smile.
So brethren, raise your glasses:
For wine and song all surpasses!See: Die Arche Noäh
"I do not want to see the allies defeated. But I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed. Englishmen are showing the strength that Empire builders must have. I expect them to rise much higher than they seem to be doing." Mahatma Gandhi, in Letter to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, regarding the military situation between England and Germany (May 1940), quoted in Collected Works (1958), p. 70.
The problem with words is they hang around,
And then rise up with lingering sound
To remind that our saints are so easily fooled
As hindsight well shows to those so schooled.
Why, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
So said a man who wrongly predicted.
The problem with worship of all mortal men
Is even the best ones err, and then
Their errors compound into raging roars
Which teach us wise men too can be boors.
Why, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
So said some words history's contradicted.
Non-violence as a creed serves not well,
Sometimes paving a pathway straight to hell;
And wise pronouncements often pale
When in hindsight reality's truths prevail.
Yup, he wasn't as bad as he was depicted,
Excepting the millions of dead he'd inflicted.
Empire builders, now there's a phrase
Which bubbled in Gandhi's bubbling praise
With opinions sure footed, written and read
Which never conceived of so many dead.
But, he was in fact worse than he was depicted,
The mahatma was wrong, his vision constricted.
Envoi: "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?" Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Addendum: "Relatively little was known in America about Hitler, and many leading newspapers predicted that the Nazis would not turn out to be as bad as some feared. An editorial in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin on Jan. 30 [1933] claimed that “there have been indications of moderation” on Hitler’s part. The editors of the Cleveland Press, on Jan. 31, asserted that the 'appointment of Hitler as German chancellor may not be such a threat to world peace as it appears at first blush.' Officials of the Roosevelt administration were quoted in the press as saying they 'had faith that Hitler would act with moderation compared to the extremist agitation [i]n his recent election campaigning... [They] based this belief on past events showing that so-called 'radical' groups usually moderated, once in power.'" In "How the press soft-pedaled Hitler," by Rafael Medoff, jns.org, posted 17 January 2013
See: Conjugating Hitler
"Nous sommes ici dans le dogme anti-capitaliste, l'anti-économique, le «brisage de rêve», la démotivation quasi-sadique, le "je-ne-sais-quoi-qui-donne-la nausée"..." In "Une loi de finances anti-start-up?" by Jean-David Chamboredon, La Tribune, 28 September 2012 [ 1 ]
Auntie Capital's in a snit
And don't know what to do.
Auntie Capital is -- mmm -- fit
To cook in Darwin's stew.
Auntie Capital's sucking dream
Is ready, perched in view.
Auntie Capital's latest scheme,
Does wrong 'gainst what works true.
Auntie Capital's latest thought
Seeks more capital to be brought.
Then just what has belle France bought?
A deadly cold is what she's caught.
Idea logs burst into fire,
To burn with passion and expire.
Capital flees, we know that's true,
As Auntie Capital applies her screw.
Dogma dogs old Auntie now,
And soon she'll kill her own cash cow.Auntie Capital can't live alone,
She'll need her pigeons, when they've flown....
Envoi: "Mais si les corbeaux, les vautours / Un de ces matins disparaissent / Le soleil brillera toujours." ("But if these ravens, these vultures / disappeared one of these days / the sun will shine forever." From the socialist hymn, L'Internationale, 1871 text by Eugène Pottier (1816–1887).
Addendum of Green Anti-Capitalism: "Environmentalists have declared that global warming can’t be stopped without ending the 'hegemonic capitalist system,' saying that cap-and-trade systems and conservation efforts are 'false solutions.' 'The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system,' reads the final draft of the Margarita Declaration, presented at a conference including about 130 environmental groups. 'To combat climate change it is necessary to change the system,' the declaration adds. Environmental activists met in the oil producing, socialist country of Venezuela as part of a United Nations-backed event to increase civil engagement in the lead up to a major climate conference." In "130 Environmental Groups Call For An End To Capitalism," by Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 23 July 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum of an American Auntie: "Moore and Glynn own nine properties in Michigan and New York, including a Manhattan condo that once was three apartments. CelebrityNetWorth.com pegs their wealth at $50 million. In legal pleadings, Moore blames his wife for the expansion of the 10,000-square-foot home on Torch Lake, which has a value of $2 million. He listed six media reports from 2011, which poked fun at the defender-of-the-poor for owning such a big house, as exhibits in the divorce case 'He criticizes capitalism, but capitalism made him rich,' said Gary Tracy, owner of Bellaire Bait and Tackle." In "Divorce case exposes bickering between Michael Moore, wife," by Francis X. Donnelly, Detroit News, 22 July 2014. [ 3 ]
Addendum of the New German Anti-Capitalists: "Germany's G20 summit host city Hamburg braced for a potentially violent 'Welcome to Hell' protest Thursday by anti-capitalist activists as tensions rise in the lead-up to the power meeting. Ugly scenes unfolded Tuesday night as riot police used water cannon and pepper spray to clear an unauthorised protest camp, leaving five people injured and driving fears of more trouble ahead in the northern port city of Hamburg." In "G20 host Hamburg braces for 'Welcome to Hell' protest," by Frank Zeller, Agence France Presse, 6 July 2017. [ 4 ]
Addendum of an Historical Anti-Capitalist: "Joseph Goebbels wrote in 1925, 'It would be better for us to end our existence under Bolshevism than to endure slavery under capitalism'." In "Our Ignorance of Socialism Is Dangerous," by Walter E. Williams, Daily Signal, 5 December 2018.
Addendum of New American Anti-capitalism: "The Party for Socialism and Liberation believes it is not just a few bad cops, it is the capitalist system itself and its apparatus of repression. The police, courts, prisons and the laws that value private property over lives. We are a militant organization in more than 90 cities, organizing to fight for a new system: Socialism, where the capitalist repressive state is overturned and a new, anti-racist state replaces it to truly serve the people. Socialism means a job, free healthcare and education, a home for all are guaranteed constitutional rights, instead of commodities out of reach for tens of millions, homelessness and landlordism, racism and police brutality, war and oppression, poverty and hopelessness." In "Racism & police repression are the symptoms, capitalism is the disease, socialism is the cure," Party for Socialism and Liberation web site, 31 May 2020.
Reference: Enemies of Capitalism
NOTES
[ 1 ] Recent years have brought a reform of the Revolutionary Communist League: "A new party aiming to appeal to disaffected French leftists of all political stripes was born Saturday.
Anti-Capitalism -- New Again
The New Anticapitalist Party, or NPA, is the latest incarnation of the Revolutionary Communist League, or LCR, which was dissolved to create the new party. NPA founder Olivier Besancenot has said the global economic crisis — and the conservative French government's response — has shown that the global capitalist system is not viable." In "New anticapitalist party born in France," in USA Today, 7 February 2009.
In only a few years the bickering began and worsened: "In its first years, the NPA attracted whole new layers of activists from a wide variety of backgrounds: militant trade unionists, youth, greens, feminists, and even anarchists. Militants from smaller Trotskyist groups joined it, too. However, it failed to win them to a clear common strategic orientation for fighting capitalism; that is, to a coherent programme. Nor did it gain any agreement on the tactics necessary to bring down the Sarkozy government. And as we have noted, its electoral tactics were incoherent." In "France’s New Anticapitalist Party’s congress fails to solve its crisis," in Workers Power UK, 7 May 2013.
Amusingly, one reads: "In their minds, and contrary to what some politicians have assumed, the enemies are not the foreigners but employers and their main instrument: the State. Both of them pointed out the necessity to create links with the various fighting workers’ movements so as to make converge all the fights under a common perspective, the same political objective, which could eventually lead to a better organization of the society and a better distribution of wealth." In "France Anti-Capitalist Party Holds Gathering," by Anne-Sophie Raujol, La Jeune Politique, 25 October 2012.
Out of Synch
Now with avowed socialist Hollande atop French government, one sees Auntie Capital struggling -- because of capital being sought by the anti-capitalists. One reads: "In a world where the best capitalists are card-carrying Chinese communists and even the Castro brothers are slowly liberalising Cuba, the episode exposed just how out of sync French politics are with what most of the world now thinks about the sources of economic growth." In "ArcelorMittal episode depicts France's anti-capitalist neurosis and its relationship with money," by Bennett Voyles, IndiaTimes, 9 December 2012.
And so, the populace is unsettled: "To express their discontent with Hollande’s policies, tens of thousands of leftists marched through Paris on Sunday. Police put the number of leftwing rally participants at 30,000, while the organizers claim the crowd was six times that figure. A major source of public anger is skyrocketing unemployment, the worst in years, with 3.2 million French now looking for work. And that’s just one of the factors which contributed to Hollande’s popularity plummet. The French are dissatisfied with the fact that the one who they hailed as a socialist hero could not deliver on many of his election promises." In "Hollande anniversary marked by protests and record popularity slump," RTNews, 6 May 2013.
What promises? To redistribute wealth by various policies to fund election promises, all the while denigrating the creation of wealth from which the Hollande programs planned to redistribute. One does not easily pay from an empty wallet.
It is capital that fills wallets, as the Chinese communist leadership has managed rather well to fill theirs at the expense of a populace. For more on this, see: Capital for Communists
The basic problem for ideologues who seek to redistribute capital while speaking against capital is obvious. From whence comes capital, that one might be against it while seeking it?
And for this, one sees reaction from the 'dastardly' capitalists who have and are planning to exit France for its climbing taxation rates. It is therefore even more amusing to consider the rhetoric of anti-capitalism from an earlier historical perspective of other European anti-capitalists, as below.
A Negative Approach
And further, it is instructive to observe further from a news article: "The weakness of their politics is that they have no united font policy towards the PS, and therefore no way of breaking French workers from reformism. And their approach to the NPA’s development is negative.
Regarding its foundation as an abandonment of “Trotskyism”, they cannot see how to struggle for a revolutionary programme within it. While most of the NPA platforms agree on a turn outwards towards workers’ struggles, these are developing under a reformist PS-led government, where the union leaders, as usual, are holding back and sabotaging struggles to protect the government. In "France Anti-Capitalist Party Holds Gathering," by Anne-Sophie Raujol, La Jeune Politique, 25 Ocotber 2012.
If anti-capitalism were a positive and productive program, the most ardent anti-capitalist political movements should by now have demonstrated through their economic prosperity the greatest growth and productivity in history. Sadly for Auntie Capital, it seems that capital is still more productive than "anti-capital."
Unlocking Possibilties
This remains a delicious irony for dear old Auntie, which has yet to deal with -- as the original quote above clearly mentions -- "demotivation" of those producing the capital at the political attacks of the anti-capitalists who oddly seek capital. Might be that anti-capitalists require capital even more than capitalists? It seems so. One reads:
"Capital unlocks possibilities by assigning resources to what has potential but is still unproven. It enables people to pursue solutions based on the case that can be made for the potential of those solutions, even when the people offering them are not the children of government ministers or the scions of old families. It is a powerful instrument used not only by private ventures, but also by governments, communities and not-for-profits striving to learn from private enterprise how to make sure the grants they make and the services they offer generate specific types of financial, social and environmental return. To be sure, this instrument is difficult to use well. Capital requires no small measure of skill and guidance to manage effectively, and when it is employed injudiciously the results are often ruinous." In "No, Capitalism Is Not Evil," by Alejandro Crawford, US News and World Report, 16 July 2013.
What one may well conclude is that anti-capitalists seek capital for their use using political means of confiscation while attempting to restrain others in a private sector from acquiring and using the very same capital that anti-capitalists seek. Thus anti-capitalism is merely the socialist leopard attempting to change its spots.
As an example of misuse of capital by government being "ruinous," see: Bankrupt green
[ 2 ] The accusation is clear: "El Colonialismo sigue operando. El cambio climático ocurre en un contexto histórico en el que un grupo de países basó su desarrollo en prácticas que generaron la crisis ambiental actual, incluyendo el Cambio Climático, mientras que otros sufren las peores consecuencias de esa crisis. Los países desarrollados, causantes del Cambio Climático, tratan de desviar el debate hacia soluciones tecnológicas o de mercado, evadiendo sus responsabilidades históricas." In "Declaración de Margarita sobre Cambio Climático," Reunión Preparatoria para la PreCOP Social, 15-18 July 2014.
"Colonialism continues to operate. Climate change occurs in a historical context in which a group of countries based on their development practices that led to the current environmental crisis, including climate change, while others suffer the worst consequences of this crisis. Developed countries, which cause climate change, try to divert the discussion towards technological solutions or market, evading their historical responsibilities."
No Mention Is Made
No mention is made of the 20th century tragedies of National Socialism, Soviet Socialism, Sino-Socialism, as well as the Pan-Arab Socialist parties, nor of the Baath Party of Iraq which set fire to its own oil fields, nor of China's growing use of coal and building of new coal-fired plants. Rather "colonialism" is the accusation without documentation, though which Western nations "continue" to operate by holding colonies is mentioned. Developed countries -- rich with capital, so the Declaration thinks -- cause climate change, and so bear "responsibility" to poorer countries, generally led by socialist parties and policies. This is the old Marxism warmed over for a new slice of rhetorical pie.
The Declaration states: "Las causas estructurales del cambio climático están ligadas al sistema hegemónico capitalista actual. Para combatir el cambio climático es necesario cambiar el sistema." That is, "the structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system. To combat climate change is to change the system."
Given that the Declaration was made while these environmental groups were meeting in Venezuela, an oil-producing nation which is in turmoil for its declining production and rising, rampant inflation due to socialist leadership, the irony is great. It comes to this - Auntie Capital wants capitalists to send her money because they are guilty historically of the crime of capitalism. Yet without capital being generated by capitalists, dear old Auntie Capital will get nothing.
Old? Auntie Capital is old? Indeed, as one learns that the National Socialists were anti-capitalist eighty years ago (see below), while the Soviet Socialists constructed a now collapsed state from this old theme. And amusingly one learns that capital was very much admired by some socialist leaders. See: Capital for Communists
So what does the Declaración de Margarita sobre Cambio Climático want? Money, just as have socialists and communists throughout history. Anti-capitalists of the world, unite! Meet the new bosses, same as the old.
[ 3 ] The revelations in court provide a glimpse into capital acquired and a warning thereby: "Don’t be hoodwinked by his casual demeanour and capitalism rants – Michael Moore’s millions make him one of the richest men in American media. Film-maker Moore, 60, made his name for anti-establishment politics with Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) – accruing a multi-million dollar fortune in the process." In "How anti-capitalist Michael Moore built a £30m fortune," by Kate Palmer, Telegraph UK, 25 July 2014.
[ 4 ] The newest German anti-capitalists have forgotten or never been taught their own history of anti-capitalism, or the lesson below would have been in their minds as they re-enacted the old story. Consider that circularity which is Left in an open book
"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." Adolf Hitler, quoted in John Toland, "Adolf Hitler," p. 224, New York, Anchor Books, 1976.
A word, we're told, doesn't mean the same
When it various folks define.
Today's socialists say Hitler's game
Was fascist, as they whine,
But a word is a word is a word is a word
And that fiend toed the socialist line.
Modern socialists wiggle and squirm
To wrestle with this, yet malign
And as enemies of capitalism, they join hands
But with whom? I ask and opine,
With those who spoke the very same words,
Which stem from the roots of one socialist vine.
Envoi: "Dr. Robert Ley, Nazi Labor Front leader, cribbed a few words from Karl Marx's and Friedrich Engels' Communist Manifesto, stole a sentence from Richard Wagner's opera Siegfried and made a speech last week. Right in line with the Nazis' new face-Lefting, Dr. Ley cried: 'Workers of all lands, unite to smash the rule of English capitalism!' He also urged: 'You young, upward- striving nations of the earth, combine to annihilate the old English dragon, who blocks the treasures of the earth and withholds from you the riches of the world'." In "Germany: Socialist and Nationalist," Time Magazine, 26 February 1940. [ 1 ]
Addendum of an avid 1920s Anti-capitalist: "Capitalism has learned nothing from recent events and wants to learn nothing, because it places its own interests ahead of those of the other millions. Can one blame those millions for standing up for their own interests, and only for those interests? Can one blame them for striving to forge an international community whose purpose is the struggle against corrupt capitalism?" Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), in a letter to Anka Stalhern 1920.
Addendum of a Wagnerian Victim of Capitalism: "rein GOLD. ein bühnenessay is a prose work by Elfriede Jelinek, the Austrian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004, published in 2013 by Rowohlt Verlag. It is cast in dialogic form at the opening of which Brünnhilde diagnoses her father Wotan to be a victim of capitalism because he, too, has fallen into the trap of wanting to own a castle he cannot afford ('This happens in every second family.')." Wikipedia, "rein Gold" [ 2 ]
Addendum of the Criticism of Capitalism: "Criticism of capitalism ranges from expressing disagreement with the principles of capitalism in its entirety, to expressing disagreement with particular outcomes of capitalism. Among those wishing to replace capitalism with a different method of production and social organization, a distinction can be made between those believing that capitalism can only be overcome through revolution (e.g., revolutionary socialism) and those believing that structural change can come slowly through political reforms (e.g., social democracy). Some critics believe there are merits in capitalism, and wish to balance it with some form of social control, typically through government regulation (e.g., the social market movement)." In "Criticism of capitalism," Wikipedia. [ 3 ]
Addendum of the Extinction Rebellion Version of Anti-capitalism: "The capitalist system is going to be brought down by itself, the capitalist system's eating itself. But the point about.... No, let me make this point clear. The capitalist system, the global system that we're in is in the process of destroying itself, and it will destroy itself in the next ten years." In "Stephen Sackur interviews Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, a movement dedicated to mass resistance and civil disobedience; how far are these climate rebels prepared to go?" HARDtalk/BBC, 16 August 2019.
Addendum of Contemporary Enemies of Capitalism: "The Party for Socialism and Liberation believes it is not just a few bad cops, it is the capitalist system itself and its apparatus of repression. The police, courts, prisons and the laws that value private property over lives. We are a militant organization in more than 90 cities, organizing to fight for a new system: Socialism, where the capitalist repressive state is overturned and a new, anti-racist state replaces it to truly serve the people. Socialism means a job, free healthcare and education, a home for all are guaranteed constitutional rights, instead of commodities out of reach for tens of millions, homelessness and landlordism, racism and police brutality, war and oppression, poverty and hopelessness." In "Racism & police repression are the symptoms, capitalism is the disease, socialism is the cure," Party for Socialism and Liberation, 31 May 2020.
Reference: "Auntie Capital," just above
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
Additional Sources: True socialism, oh yes, he said
NOTES
[ 1 ] As to the monopolization of private industry and private capital, one learns: "Ley said in a speech in 1939: 'We National Socialists have monopolized all resources and all our energies during the past seven years so as to be able to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle'." In "Robert Ley," Wikipedia.
[ 2 ] This tidbit is included here, for the confluence of Wagner alongside criticism of capitalism.
Oddly critics of capitalism are seemingly found on the so-called political Right and political Left, if one accepts the view that National Socialism is Right, while Jelinek's communism is Left-wing. When 'enemies of capitalism' are so defined as both of the right and left, it brings further into question the left-right model.
Of Jelinek, one reads from Wikiepdia as source: "Austrian playwright and novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2004."
One reads: "Her writing interrogates the relationship between sexual power and social structure, and marks her as a controversial figure in her homeland. She was a member of the Communist Party from 1974 to 1991, and she voiced her opposition to the far-right Freedom Party. On awarding Jelinek the Nobel Prize, the committee praised 'her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power'." In "Elfriede Jelinek," Poetry Foundation biography.
But, "In 2005, Knut Ahnlund left the Swedish Academy in protest, describing Jelinek's work as 'whining, unenjoyable public pornography', as well as "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure". He said later that her selection for the prize "has not only done irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art'."
Aside from the public pros and cons, what is most interesting is the confluence of Wagner's imagery on the one hand and the utter dissonance between left and right on the other, suggesting that the left-right model is failing to explain the fascination the left and right share with some form of socialism, as with reading socialism into such as Wagner's opus.
Given that Das Rheingold was premiered in 1869, only two decades after the publication of "Das Kapital," it is all the more odd that National Socialists like Ley and one-time Communist Party members like Jelinek find in Wagner the same opposition to capitalism. One is tempted to conclude that capitalism is neither left nor right, according to the polemical models of National Socialists and Communists. As for Wagner, he was supported by the rich elite of his day, not the proletariat.
[ 3 ] The critics of capitalism propose anti-capitalism, which usually replaces concentrations of "aristocratic" capital held by the few breeding power with concentrations of "aristocratic" power breeding capital for the few. This is an irony to the focus on capital itself.
One notes that a socialist elite manages to create an aristocracy and concentrations of wealth. For more on this see Socialists love money
One also notes that a communist elite manages to create an aristocracy and concentrations of wealth. For more on this interesting dichotomy, see: Capital for Communists
One further notes that many voices speaking to the issue of income inequality are hugely wealthy themselves. For this see the footnotes to Income Inequality
Most deliciously, one notes that the Nobel Prize Committee awards about $1,000,000.00 to prize winners, making it a distribution of wealth in comparison to most people around the world, whose yearly income is the equivalent of about $800.00.
With significant capital -- wealth -- sought by anti-capitalists as by capitalists, and awarded by various wealth distribution mechanisms like the Nobel Committee, one finds "enemies of capitalism" are so often in search of capital and lots of it.
One might recall, in good Wagnerian fashion, the last line of Götterdämmerung, as Hagen cries out, "Zurück vom Ring!"
Keep away from the ring!
Alas, all the critics of capital propose systems of political power which so easily become mechanisms to amass capital. It is ironic indeed. So many bourgeois critics of the bourgeoisie. So many "greedy" capitalists and so many more "greedy" anti-capitalists in the end seeking capital. Power breeds wealth as wealth breeds power. Zurück vom Ring?
A better understanding of this line might be: Keep away from political power! Such a translation would be most unwelcome by those who seek power over others, power over capital being their proxy.
Rearrange the words - an exercise in grammar
Filthy rich businesses --
Poor dumb governments --
That's what folks are wont to say.
But filthy rich governments
Tax poor dumb businesses;
Rearrange the words, flipping this way
For debate about the size and scope
Of the fat cat governing class --
Of a taxing bureaucracy holding sway.
Rearrange the words; consider --
Who profits most of all?
Do not the governments underplay.
Work and eke a taxed profit?
Or tax all with but slight constraint?
Governments win out straightaway.
One may ignore rich businesses,
Just turn on one's heel and walk away.
Ignore governments and walk? Just try that today.
Filthy rich businesses?
Poor dumb governments?
That's what we're told each day.
But filthy rich government
Heists a portion of profits all;
Rearrange and see: with governments, we're all their prey.
See: Up on the little guy
Growth in debt - a non-sequitur
The first 42 presidents had driven the debt to $5 trillion, he said, but Bush "added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic," said candidate Obama. Under Obama, in just over three years, the debt has ballooned to $16 trillion. He spends and spends. But he sure looked cool talking to the pirate. Numbers don't cringe. Numbers don't have bromances with talk show hosts. Numbers don't make gaffes. And all that $16 trillion debt does is grow." In "Obama's pricey gaffe that's worth talking about," by John Kass, Chicago Tribune, 23 September 2012.
Growth in debt is shrinkage sure;
Spending now is the deadly lure.
Someone later will fix the mess,
But that is then in this political chess.
Kick the can and kick it again,
Make debtors of the next rank of men.
Generations will pay, so it is said,
But ever more likely, they'll be bled.
Growth in debt is shrinkage sure
Because growth in debt is a non-sequitur.
Envoi: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt." Barack Obama, in remarks to the Senate, 16 March 2006.
Addendum of Eight Years Later: "Despite a national debt over $18 trillion, President Obama said Saturday the nation can afford the major spending increases he’ll put forward in his fiscal year 2016 budget, due out Monday. In his weekly address, Mr. Obama made the case that the federal government has the money to invest in infrastructure, education and other priorities because of shrinking deficits, though he also is calling for tax hikes on the wealthy to fund his desired $74 billion increase in spending. His budget also would undo the automatic cuts known as sequestration, paving the way for even higher spending down the road." In "Obama: 'We can afford’ $74B spending increase'," by Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times, 31 January 2015. [ 1 ]
See: Leadership Failure
Addendum of the Continual Absence of a Plan: "The key elements of the required policy package are well known: foremost among them is setting out—and implementing—a clear and credible plan to bring debt ratios down over the medium term. The continued absence of such plans in Japan and the United States remains a significant concern, particularly given the introduction of new short-term stimulus in Japan (even though temporary) and insufficient progress on measures to restore medium-term fiscal sustainability, including entitlement reform, in the United States." In "Fiscal Adjustment in an Uncertain World," IMF, April 2013.
See: This Then That
NOTES
[ 1 ] The article "annoyingly" refers back to earlier levels of federal debt: "Deficits have indeed dropped considerably over the past several years, but the national debt continues to rise. It stood at $10.6 trillion when Mr. Obama came into office. It now is over $18 trillion."
Comparing Obama's assertion from 2006 that "America has a debt problem" when that debt amounted to under $9 billion dollars, rose to $10.6 trillion by 2008 and now stands at over $18 trillion dollars in a time when Obama negates his 2006 remark with "we can afford" statements suggests something quite simple. His own words do not add up. The 2006 "failure of leadership" measured at about $9 trillion dollars is now a doubled "failure of leadership."
Diogenes and the bad boys of Corinth, a Grecian story - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
Pensively lying in his barrel,
Diogenes philosophized not on his peril.
A bad boy of Corinth by him had passed
Who called to his chum to join him fast.
On that barrel these bad boys drummed;
At civility they their noses thumbed.
Diogenes peered out from where he lay,
And said: Hey! That's not very agápē!
The hoodied boy, reports disclose,
Ran quick to fetch a water hose.
Sprayed through a hole knocked in a stave,
Diogenes was drenched by this one knave.
Barely could Diogenes lie down again,
These two bad boys returned, and then...
The two began to push and spin
The barrel; Diogenes screamed within.
The barrel heavily turned and spun,
And to the boys it seemed fine fun.
Two nails sticking out here and there
Caught on their jackets. Ah, beware!
The boys were taught by physics' law,
As they screamed and flipped and saw...
The barrel rolling, flattening them,
Not ever part of their stratagem.
Those boys from Corinth, bad, unwashed,
Were predictably and fully squashed.
Philosophizing, Diogenes was not perplexed.
"Ah yes, one thing regularly leads to the next."
"The only way to save America’s children is to lock up the baby boomers. We are robbing the next generation’s future." In "Boomers vs. Millennials: Who’s Really Getting Robbed?" by Michael Winerip, in the New York Times, 13 September 2012
Deficits are just robbery;
Public debt is basically theft.
Adding to the deficits
Shows sense has gone and left.
Government says roll it over,
Paying interest is so great;
Its one true self-interest
Is its own re-election's fate.
Vote for me! I'll rob your kids, not you,
And probably rob your grandkids too,
But just consider your goodies I send
And you'll come round in the end.
Envoi: "Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people." Wendell Phillips (1811-1884)
Addendum: "A pickpocket is obviously a champion of private enterprise. But it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that a pickpocket is a champion of private property. The point about Capitalism and Commercialism, as conducted of late, is that they have really preached the extension of business rather than the preservation of belongings; and have at best tried to disguise the pickpocket with some of the virtues of the pirate." G. K. Chesterton, The Outline of Sanity (1927)
See: Debt
Offertory - an anthem of irony
"The National Atheist Party is canceling its secular convention due to a lack of funding. Troy Boyle, the party’s president, announced on its website won’t be holding NAPCON 2012 in Boston in October because it would bankrupt the group." In "National Atheist Party Cancels Convention Due To Lack Of Funding," CBS Connecticut, 30 August 2012
The choir sings, so pass the plate.
Oh no! No services? But wait!
The organ plays, collection time?
But no one comes to drop a dime.
Congregated? Well, they're not.
A patron ain't is what they got.
Pass their hat? It gathers squat.
Their party comes now to naught.
Near to bankruptcy's their thing?
Oh, my Lord! The angels sing....
Envoi: "Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been its drastic uninterestingness as an intellectual position. Where was the ingenuity, the ambiguity, the humanity (in the Harvard sense) of saying that the universe just happened to happen and that when we're dead we're dead?" John Updike (1932-2009)
Addendum: "There were two factors in particular that were decisive. One was my growing empathy with the insight of Einstein and other noted scientists that there had to be an Intelligence behind the integrated complexity of the physical Universe. The second was my own insight that the integrated complexity of life itself—which is far more complex than the physical Universe—can only be explained in terms of an Intelligent Source. I believe that the origin of life and reproduction simply cannot be explained from a biological standpoint despite numerous efforts to do so. With every passing year, the more that was discovered about the richness and inherent intelligence of life, the less it seemed likely that a chemical soup could magically generate the genetic code. The difference between life and non-life, it became apparent to me, was ontological and not chemical. The best confirmation of this radical gulf is Richard Dawkins' comical effort to argue in The God Delusion that the origin of life can be attributed to a 'lucky chance.' If that's the best argument you have, then the game is over. No, I did not hear a Voice. It was the evidence itself that led me to this conclusion." Quote of Anthony Flew, in "How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind," by Dr. Benjamin Wiker, To the Source, 30 October 2007.
Addendum: "Irreligion. The principal one of the great faiths of the world." Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
See: No God is the god for me
Serve the Poor - observing the Poverty Barons
"The Department for International Development (DFID) paid almost £500million last year to consultants, mostly British, many of whom earn six, even seven-figure incomes, courtesy of the taxpayer. DFID also funds dozens of foreign consultancy firms. It is paying £6million to the University of Cape Town to investigate mental health issues in southern Africa and millions of pounds to US-based organisations, including the Clinton Foundation, the International Food Policy Research Institute and Family Health Inter-national. It is paying a Washington-based group, Search for Common Ground, £3.9million to 'support the electoral cycle in Sierra Leone'. Consultancy firms in India and Uganda are also receiving large sums." In "'Poverty barons' who make a fortune from taxpayer-funded aid budget, Britain's swelling overseas aid budget has created a new group of “poverty barons” paying themselves up to £2 million a year for their work helping the disadvantaged," by Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph UK, 15 September 2012
Serve the poor,
Six figures rich.
Programs pay;
So where's the hitch?
Budgets bloat,
Teeter, pitch,
To and fro,
Bait and switch.
Serve the poor,
Scratch that itch.
Six-figure leaders
Fill each niche.
Philanthropy?
A lucrative plum.
Common ground?
Like a sieve, old chum.
Poverty?
Not for some
Who receive
Till kingdom come.
A Serve Yourself
Consortium
Pays itself
At maximum.
Envoi: "Almost all War on Poverty programs shied away from serious empirical research, since they were mainly run by people with an ideological belief in the redemptive power of their own programs." In "What I Learned in the Poverty War, Work, not welfare, uplifts the poor," by Peter Cove, City Journal, Autumn 2012, vol. 22, no.4.
Addendum of Bonuses and Parties: "But an audit released today found that among 20 community agencies hired by the state, several had misspent or failed to refund a total of $12.2 million from January 2010 to June 2011 —some by awarding themselves bonuses, throwing themselves a party at a country club, or hiring others to do the work and pocketing the proceeds." In "Audit: N.J. child welfare nonprofits misspent as much as $12.2M," by Susan K. Livio, NJ - New Jersey, 5 February 2013.
Addendum of an Ex-Congressman: "After Joe Kennedy left Congress, he returned to run Citizens Energy. That job paid him $86,311 in 2010. But the bulk of his income comes from his for-profit companies — Citizens Enterprises Corp. and Citizens Investments Ltd. — which together paid him $807,390 in salary and benefits. Kennedy’s wife, Elizabeth, raked in $346,764 from the nonprofit, where she is marketing director, and from the for-profit companies." In "$lick Kennedy is oil broken up," by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein, New York Post, 10 March 2013.
Addendum of Overseers Living Large: "Hundreds of people here rely on public housing for shelter, with the average income among Alexander County Housing Authority residents just $8,655 a year, the majority of them raising children and nearly half as single mothers. More than half of the county’s children live in poverty, and nearly a third are considered food insecure – meaning they don’t always know from where their next meal is coming. But some of those who were charged with overseeing the shelter upon which many of them rely, lived large, records show, traveling extensively to conferences in destination cities, drinking on the authority’s dime, shelling out hundreds of dollars for steak, salmon, shrimp cocktails, sorbet and other multi-course meals, sometimes paying nearly $100 per person at fine-dining establishments." In "Living large on the public dime," by Molly Parker, Southern, 20 September 2015.
Addendum of Global Barons: "Aid officials wrote a cheque for nearly half a billion pounds to an international charity in a desperate effort to meet David Cameron’s spending target, it emerged last night. The extraordinary sum was rushed to the Swiss-based Global Fund with only days left to go to ensure the Government met its controversial pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid. It meant Britain ended up providing more than a fifth of the organisation’s total budget – twice the planned scale of donation, it was claimed last night. The Global Fund pays its 600 staff an average salary package of almost £130,000, and has also recently commissioned an expensive new lakeside headquarters in Geneva. The body was set up by the G8 to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria." In "Clintons' charities got £50million of British aid cash: UK government accused of trying to buy influence with US power family," by Daniel Martin and Gethin Chamberlain, Daily Mail, 25 July 2015.
Addendum of a Millionaire Welfare Manager: "The fat cat boss of a company given vast amounts of taxpayers' money to house asylum seekers is on a salary of almost £1million a year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. MPs have condemned James Vyvyan-Robinson, director of Clearspring Ready Homes Ltd, for profiteering from the plight of refugees after he awarded himself an astonishing near-fourfold pay rise. The company, which is paid by the Government to provide transportation and accommodation for asylum seekers, is currently under investigation by HMRC over its tax affairs." In "The man who became a millionaire out of migrants: The fat cat who gave himself a £760,000 pay rise to put refugees up in hotels... but his guests are moaning about the buffet and lack of puds," by Nick Craven and Peter Henn, Mail On Sunday, 7 February 2016.
Addendum of the Federal Employee: "According to its tax filings, the charity has received more than $29 million in donations from generous Americans from 2010 to 2014 for what it calls on its website 'aiding, supporting and benefiting America's veterans and their families.' But look a little closer on those same filings and you can see that nearly all of those donations have been cycled back to telemarketers, leaving less than 2 percent for actual veterans and veterans' charitable causes." In " 'Worst' charity for veterans run by VA employee," by David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffin, CNN, 17 May 2016. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Consultants Raking It In: "Revelations about the payouts came as it emerged that billions of pounds earmarked to help impoverished countries is being handed to wealthy consultants. Executives are earning six-figure salaries paid in public money to complete dubious projects and reports despite Government promises to prevent misuse of aid cash. Its insistence that payments to consultancy firms had all but stopped was rubbished as Whitehall documents revealed that the annual bill for private contractors had doubled to almost £1billion. Some consultants are raking in more than £1,000-a-day to provide advice and guidance on how the UK should spend money that is supposed to help poor communities throughout the world." In "Officials are unable to track £274m given in foreign aid to a controversial climate change organisation," by Martin Robinson, Mail Online, 12 December 2016. [ 2 ]
See: Income Inequality
NOTES
[ 1 ] "J. Thomas Burch, who is also a federal employee working as an attorney for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Burch is deputy director in the VA's Office of General Counsel, where he pulled down $127,000 in salary in 2014. That's the same year he drew a salary of $65,000 as head of his 'zero-star' charity."
The CNN report told of very large expenses for the charity's operators including a favorite classification, "other." That this government-approved charity operates under the jurisdiction of and by the approval given by the federal government itself suggests enormous Incompetence
[ 2 ] When the parallel streams of poverty and climate change wash together and fill the wallets of the wealthy, one might consider the enormous impact of green politics which are supposed to generate a Green Job
"Poverty barons" seem to come in many party flavors and political colors.
From chrysalis of day
Through chrysalis of night
We cannot remember,
And yet we take flight.
The flight we take
As each chrysalis breaks
Is a new dawn, awake,
Which memory forsakes.
Rage we against
The dying of the light?
The butterfly knows
When mere poets lose sight.
Out chrysalis one day
Into chrysalis one night,
We will not remember
Yet wings will take flight.
Envoi: "Mortality has its compensations: one is that all evils are transitory, another that better times may come." George Santayana (1863-1952) in "Reason in Common Sense, volume one of "The Life of Reason; or the Phases of Human Progress (1905).
"Only human beings who are forced to hide something catastrophic are capable of erring so consistently and punishing so relentlessly any attempt at clarifying such errors." Wilhelm Reich, in "Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition"
I'd like to blame the eraser
For mistakes my pencil made.
I'd like to blame my pencil
When my thinking was what strayed.
I'd like to blame that inkwell
When my pen had scratched its lie.
I'd like to blame poor penmanship
When content runs awry.
I'd like to blame the gritty truth
Which often knocks me down.
But I'd never blame myself, not me,
As I burnish bright my crown.
I'd like to blame the burning bush
For its bursting into flame.
I'd like to blame most anyone
As my operative counterclaim.
I'd like to spread the guilt around,
Yet lavish gilt on me.
Blame is like a tide, a flood,
And ne'er my calamity.
You bear the blame, I tell you true,
For I alone assign...
...the penalties which blame poor you --
All those that I opine.
I'd like to blame the hand gun
For the shooter's innocence.
I'd like to blame low taxes,
Not my poor beneficence.
I'd like to blame and blame some more
Just so you'll understand
That nothing I have ever done
Is a fault from my own hand.
I'd like to blame another,
For so the game proceeds
To point accusing fingers
And fueling raging screeds.
I'd like to blame and then again
I'd like to blame yet more,
For in my active blaming
Your blaming I can ignore.
Envoi: "We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others." Pema Chödrön (b. 1936)
Thoughts are never secret;
They leach into the world,
Even if as puzzles,
Awaiting sense, unfurled.
Thoughts are thoughts becoming
Something as they're thought,
As connections or their eulogies
Comes thoughts' jumbled juggernaut.
Thoughts once secret, then they speak,
Or sing, or in symbols dance;
Thoughts reach out to others
In far more than happenstance.
Thoughts are ever secret,
Till comes the time they scream,
Or whisper, joking laugh,
Or take flight in a waking dream.
Unwise from the start - market forces and common sense dictate
"It is not often that a stroke of a pen can quickly undo the ravages of nature, but federal regulators now have an opportunity to do just that. Americans’ food budgets will be hit hard by the ongoing Midwestern drought, the worst since 1956. Food bills will rise and many farmers will go bust. An act of God, right? Well, the drought itself may be, but a human remedy for some of the fallout is at hand — if only the federal authorities would act. By suspending renewable-fuel standards that were unwise from the start, the Environmental Protection Agency could divert vast amounts of corn from inefficient ethanol production back into the food chain, where market forces and common sense dictate it should go." In "Corn for Food, Not Fuel," by Colin A. Carter and Henry I. Miller, The New York Times, 30 July 2012
Burn your food?
That harvest ripe?
Call it green
With wordy tripe;
Corn for food,
Not for fuel --
Rising costs
Are so cruel.
Now we learn,
Growing smart,
'Twas unwise
From the start.
Burn your wealth?
Lose it quick.
Say it's green
With verbal shtick.
Watch it come;
Watch it go --
Corn for fuel's
Afterglow.
Now we read,
Off each chart,
'Twas unwise
From the start.
Envoi: "For urban residents, the US biofuel mandates—now sending 40 percent of the US corn crop into ethanol production—are pushing up the price of corn, a staple food in Guatemala. Rosenthal points to an Iowa State University study estimating that US biofuel policy added about 17 percent to global corn prices in 2011—bad news for people who rely on tortillas as a staple." In "What Does Biofuel Have to Do With the Price of Tortillas in Guatemala?" by Tom Philpott, Mother Jones, 9 January 2013
Addendum: "As corn prices skyrocket and land is removed from food production to produce ethanol, some unintended consequences of fuel policies designed to cut carbon emissions are coming into focus." In "Are biofuels starving the world's poor?" Compiled by Eric Schulzke, Deseret News, 10 January 2013
See: Creative Folklore
Toil and labor praise I not! - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
Toil and labor praise I not!
Toil and labor's the worker's lot.
So, let the worker have his say:
Toil and labor? Or a lazy day?
Idleness is my delight;
It wearies not nor does incite.
Friend, let dust lie on your books.
Ignore them, nor more studied looks!
Tomorrow we ourselves are dust!
Laziness is right and just,
Except love's labors and wine's joy,
And laziness to well employ.See: Die Faulheit
This then that - portrait of the Gordian Acrobat
"He took office at a time when the U.S. economy was on its worst slide in 75 years, but pushed policies using borrowed money that were more meant to preserve government jobs than broadly help the private sector where the great majority of Americans work, ensuring the jobs crisis continued. He railed against the heavy spending and big deficits of his predecessor, but blithely backed budgets that had triple the deficits ever seen in American history." In "Presidential busts: The worst of all: Barack Obama (2009-?)," an editorial in San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 July 2012
I said this but I did that.
Fed the kitty yet killed the cat.
I said less but I spent all,
as we soar into our fall.
I said yes but I meant no.
Hey, it's politics. Don't you know?
I said no, while meaning yes.
You're the ones supposed to guess.
I say more for little me,
but not as an election plea.
Debt so bad is stimulus good,
in our parties' neighborhood.
This then that is all the game,
and ever always, you're to blame.Envoi: "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
See: Growth in debt
A comedian - paraphrase of a Joachim Ringelnatz poem
A comedian of ostensible renown
Went along a way of a road of a town.
Folks thereabouts would point, then exclaim,
"There goes Mister -- hmm -- What's-his-name!"
This ignominy stormed home, and took it out
By throttling his gal, Miss Knockabout.
Not play acting was he with his honey,
But serious: one must be earnest to be funny.See: Der Komiker
"General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts." In "Insight: GM's Volt - The ugly math of low sales, high costs," by Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman, Reuters, 10 September 2012
Re: Volt is this just
Sticker shock?
The price you pay
For GM schlock?The market is revolting.
Costs X to build?
Half X is lost
When sold today
To count the cost.The basic truth is jolting.
The numbers tell
The lying word;
Re: Volt, the car is
Green absurd.The buyers? They are bolting.
Taxpayers lose?
Well, that's a shock.
It seems the Volt's
Just business crock.The Volt is now revolting.
Envoi: "Despite the promise of 'green' transportation - and despite billions of dollars in investment, most recently by Nissan Motor Co - EVs continue to be plagued by many of the problems that eventually scuttled electrics in the 1910s and more recently in the 1990s. Those include high cost, short driving range and lack of charging stations. The public's lack of appetite for battery-powered cars persuaded the Obama administration last week to back away from its aggressive goal to put 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015." In "Insight: Electric cars head toward another dead end," by Norihiko Shirouzu and Yoko Kubota and Paul Lienert, Reuters, Tokyo-Detroit, 5 February 2013
Addendum Asking What Kind of Mistake: "There’s simply no denying that the administration’s electric-vehicle project was a mistake. But it’s worth asking precisely what kind of mistake (beyond eminently foreseeable and terribly expensive). As Bruce Springsteen once sang: 'Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?'" In "The electric car mistake," by Charles Lane, Washington Post, 12 February 2013 [ 1 ]
Addendum Answering What Kind of Mistake: "When I covered GM, then-CEO Dan Akerson said he wanted the company to build more than 100,000 Chevy Volts a year. The company missed that target from the start; in private, GM employees admitted it was never realistic. Last year, U.S. sales barely cleared 20,000. 'There is no scenario under which the Volt, estimable as it may be, will make any material contribution to GM's fortunes for many years,' Steven Rattner, former head of the Obama administration's auto task force, wrote in his 2010 book, 'Overhaul.' Even that dour prediction was too generous." In "Chevy Volt was going to save Detroit. Now its workers are losing jobs," by Chrissie Thompson, USA Today, 27 November 2018. [ 2 ]
See: A Losing Proposition
NOTES
[ 1 ] As an amusing note, one comment to the Washington Post article observed, "electric vehicle = coal-powered vehicle," for the fact that recharging a battery requires an electrical source, and most in the United States are coal-fired plants, the remaining being nuclear and some hydroelectric.
One group of environmentalists opposes coal, while another opposes nuclear, and yet another opposes new hydroelectric dams. taken together, one observes that a certain illogic fires the imaginations of environmental positions which call for electric vehicles without concerning themselves with where sufficient "electric" will come from in the future.
Every religion seems structurally to demand its demons, and the secular stance of environmentalism in its many denominations has built one or more plentiful supplies of energy as their demons, while evangelizing for their chosen messiah. How human.
[ 2 ] The end game of a folly will be played out in two arenas. The first arena is the unfeeling marketplace of simple numbers. In 2012, the "ugly math of low sales, high costs," as noted by Reuters was foreseen. That ugly math has its foreseeable end result, as all unsustainable economic gambits have proven throughout history. This "ugly math" was supported by what is being seen as Globaloney
The infinite jest is all this is that any "ugly math" proposed by and expected to be supported by Fat, fat government
The "sticker shock" of the short-lived, yet massively subsidized Volt should be seen within a larger framework of a nation mired with politics-created DebtAnother view: "...even with a $7,500 subsidy, they don't sell fast enough. Why? As the joke goes, the extension cord isn't long enough. For anyone who has a long commute or wants to take a road trip, an e-car makes no sense. As such, GM's commitment to electric cars is emblematic of its recent market failures. Worse, it's based on a kind of environmental fraud. Electric cars aren't 'zero emission,' as we're constantly told. For one, building an electric car produces more CO2 than building a regular car. For another, if the car's batteries get their charge from electricity generated by a coal-fired plant, that makes an 'electric car' really a coal-fired car." In "GM Layoffs: A Tragedy Caused By Embracing Government Subsidies, Not Markets," Investors Business Daily, 29 November 2018.
Government subsidies and then layoffs due to "recent market failures." Another dead end.
Response (of a drunken poet) - paraphrase of a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing poem
A drunken poet quickly drained
His glass, drawing this rebuff,
Being warned by his companion:
"Stop it! you've drunk enough."
Poised to topple out of his chair,
He cracked: "Clever, you're not!
One can always drink too much,
But enough can never be got."See: Antwort
Fled from empty market shelves - a history lesson
"It was the height of the Cold War, and the comrades believed that the conflict between socialism and capitalism would be decided in Germany. For that reason, they wanted to make sure that East Germany would economically outpace its West German rival. But Ulbricht's planned economy failed to gain momentum, and in 1960 alone, roughly 200,000 East Germans fled from empty supermarket shelves -- and the Stasi secret police -- to West Germany." In "Who Ordered the Construction of the Berlin Wall?" by Klaus Wiegrefe, Der Spiegel, 30 April 2009.
Fled from empty market shelves?
Let us consider then this ourselves
Those police state thug-like tactics
With a mind to which didactics
Turned men's thoughts to the political thing,
As to economics, as its poor sibling.
In the conflict, so a telling mirror tells,
And on which each opposing side dwells,
It was socialism against mean capital flight;
It seems that fleeing was a capital fight.
For this that wall must corral such foe
As dare to shop and spend their dough.
Lesson lost? Forgotten? Suppressed?
The story returns, and never in jest,
For socialists now say the wall was bad,
Yet it was socialism that acted the social cad.
Socialism withered, plucked from capital's vine,
While capital flew elsewhere, to grow quite fine.
Had socialism worked, those nice socialists
Would have been quite prosperous, not angry, not pissed.
Alas it was proved by those empty market shelves,
And will again as the mirror's story delves
Into who built the wall and who took flight
And who sought capital and who built the blight.
Fled from empty market shelves?
Let us conclude then this ourselves
That police state walls and brutal snares
Await the same when come their heirs
To lure our thoughts to their political thing,
To socialism and its empty shelf sting.
Envoi: "Shortly after midnight on Aug. 13, 1961, East German troops began erecting a barbed-wire barrier to prevent skilled workers from fleeing to West Germany. The fence evolved into an imposing concrete wall that came to symbolize the Cold War." In "Half of Germans unaware of when Berlin Wall built: survey," by Helen Cahill, Reuters, 13 August 2014.
Addendum of Twins Separated at Birth: "...when the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, it created what London School of Economics associate professor Daniel Sturm calls a 'perfect experiment.' While people in West Germany voted in free elections, read independent newspapers, and protested if they felt dissatisfied with their government, their Eastern counterparts lived inside a surveillance state ruled by a zealously doctrinaire communist party. Where 'Ossis'—an unofficial term for those who lived in East Germany—drove famously shoddy Trabant cars, wore drab clothing, and drank off-brand soda, their 'Wessi' counterparts enjoyed Pepsi and regularly saw BMWs in the street. The two halves of the country were like a pair of identical twins separated at birth and raised by two very different sets of parents." In "The Berlin Wall’s great human experiment," by Leon Neyfakh, Boston Globe, 12 October 2014.
Addendum of Echoes of the DDR Policies: "Business representatives responded that shortages were a result of the government's economic policies, including intimidation, price controls and rationing of foreign currency in a country that was heavily dependent on imports. There isn't a single example in the world of a country where controlling prices and threatening businesses has worked in solving shortages," said Luis Vicente León, a pollster and economist who advises leading private companies in Venezuela." In "Chávez will miss inauguration, say officials," by Benedict Mander, Financial Times, 8 January 2013.
Addendum from the 60s: "The Castro government placed all goods and services under price control today. The decree regulates prices and profits in private and state enterprise. All of Cuba's industries and wholesale activities are state-operated. Prices will be set according to 'conditions of production or importation and the population's standard of living and will be fixed so that they aid the establishment of equilibrium between demand and supply,' the announcement said." In "Price Controls for Cuba," Miami News, 4 April 1963. [ 1 ]
Addendum of US Price Controls: "[ Following the Kennedy-Johnson administration in the United States, there was a massive effort to manage the marketplace, in part by controlling wages.] This initiative was not the handiwork of left-wing liberals but of the administration of Richard Nixon, a moderately conservative Republican who was a critic of government intervention in the economy." In "Nixon, Price Controls, and the Gold Standard," Excerpt from "The Commanding Heights" by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 1997 ed., pp. 60-64., PBS.org. [ 2 ]
Addendum Warning on Price Controls: "But we must also realize that everything has a price and that consumers eventually pick up the tab." In "Jimmy Carter, "Anti-Inflation Program." 24 October 1978..
Addendum as the Years Pass: "Earlier today, Venezuela Oil Minister and Economy Vice President Rafael Ramirez announced on state television that the country just devalued the official Bolivar exchange rate again by another whopping 45%, for some." In "Venezuela Devalues Bolivar By Another 44% For Some, Still 600% Higher Than Black Market Due To 50% Inflation," by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, 22 January 2014.
Addendum of Venezuelan Price Controls: "Among his priorities, Maduro says, will be to cap profits for businesses at between 15% and 30% and to enforce price controls on an expanding number of goods. Some see this as a movement to a fully socialist model; other see political opportunism. In recent months, Maduro has blamed capitalism for speculation that is driving high rates of inflation and creating widespread shortages of staples. The so-called 'enabling law' that grants him decree powers could make it easier for him to set price controls, as he did recently to an electronics and appliance chain he accused of price gouging. The result was a run on the Daka chain of stores, as people mobbed to buy deeply discounted electronics in chaotic scenes that included some looting. 'Consumerism is not the path,' the President said Tuesday. 'We are re-establishing prices so that the people's economic rights are respected, not to consume without control'." In "Decree powers widen Venezuelan president's economic war," by Mariano Castillo and Osmary Hernandez, CNN, 20 November 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Argentine Price Controls: "Many economists blame Argentina's inflation woes on high government spending financed in part by money printing. The central bank's new president, Juan Carlos Fabrega, has pledged to slow the growth in the money supply this year. But that goal could prove challenging if deficits persist. The government swung from a primary surplus to a deficit of 2.6 billion pesos ($394 million) in the first 11 months of 2013. Mrs. Kirchner and her ministers have repeatedly ruled out lowering inflation by cutting government spending on the grounds that austerity measures would only hurt the economy. Instead, the administration has relied on price controls and cheap loans to businesses that expand their factories." In "Argentina Launches New Price-Control Accord," by Ken Parks, Wall Street Journal, 3 January 2014.
Addendum of the Old East Germany: "It is a particularly ugly chapter in the history of communist East Germany (GDR). Political functionaries from the Communist Party, the SED, seized the property of collectors like Peter Garcke to sell their possessions. The more desperately the country needed hard Western currency, the more often officials targeted East German art aficionados. Numerous spies combed the country looking for possible treasures, such as Baroque furniture, paintings, porcelain and silver. Then, the GDR's most important procurer of hard currency, Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, would hawk the confiscated wares to rich clients in the West via the state-owned company Kunst & Antiquitäten GmbH (Art & Antiques). SPIEGEL reported on the looting in the spring of 1991, not long after the collapse of East Germany, and a parliamentary investigative committee examined the systematic robbery perpetrated by the East Germany on its citizens.' In " East Germany's Blood Art: No Justice for Victims of Regime's Treasure Hunt," by Rainer Erices, Nicola Kuhrt and Peter Wensierski, Spiegel International, 24 July 2014. [ 4 ]
Addendum of an Off the Cuff Confession: "Yeltsin, then 58, 'roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,' wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, 'there would be a revolution'." In "When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake," by Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle, 7 April 2014.
Addendum of Venezuela's Truth: "Maduro however denies any migration crisis, and has asked the UN to be 'more sincere' in its figures. He also says there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela due to a chronic lack of food and medicine. The new police force will help monitor migration 'so that the truth will come out and not the imperial lies that from Washington want to be sold to the world,' Rodriguez said." In "Venezuela forms immigration police to strengthen border controls, Agence France Presse, 5 October 2018. [ 5 ]
See the quotes beneath the verse, Socialists love money
NOTES
[ 1 ] Prosperity did not come through price controls. One reads as an update decades later: "...harsh reality has set in on the financial front, with the admission that Cuba can no longer afford the jobs for life and the price controls that have allowed it to maintain its near-total control of economic activity. In September last year, it was announced that one million Cuban public sector employees would be laid off, although the job cuts are now expected to take longer than initially planned." In "Cuba inches towards market socialism," by Robert Plummer, BBC News, 27 March 2011.
[ 2 ] One notes subsequent US presidents, Ford and Carter, removed controls in favor of admonishments to restrain prices as was possible for the marketplace to do. This is instructive, as one notes the left-right model of political jargon now erodes.
See: Left is Right, as Right is Left
[ 3 ] The post-Chavez socialist government of Maduro calls opposition to his policies fascism, and yet one finds it flummoxed simple market forces.
One reads: "A government plan to combat Venezuela's food shortages by fingerprinting shoppers in grocery stores has sparked a backlash ranging from violent street protests to social media campaigns ridiculing the idea. Shoppers have for more than a year struggled to find basic goods including cooking oil, powdered milk and corn flour as well as detergent, shampoo and diapers." In "Venezuelans Don't Like The Idea Of Being Fingerprinted Just To Buy Groceries," by Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters, 29 August 2014.
There Will Be Enough?
One reviews the promise: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need (French: De chacun selon ses facultés, à chacun selon ses besoins; German: Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen) is a slogan first used by Louis Blanc in 1851 (although an earlier version of the saying appeared in Étienne-Gabriel Morelly's The Code of Nature) and popularised by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program. In the Marxist view, such an arrangement will be made possible by the abundance of goods and services that a developed communist society will produce; the idea is that, with the full development of socialism and unfettered productive forces, there will be enough to satisfy everyone's needs." In "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," Wikipedia article, n.d.
"Unfettered productive forces" has been repeatedly proven to be absent in socialist societies throughout the 20th and now 21st centuries, as the collapse of the USSR and its client state, the DDR, illustrate. Venezuela's socialist government may be contrasted with the news that "shoppers have for more than a year struggled to find basic goods...." As the socialist grip over Venezuela tightens, one may expect DDR-like images to emerge, such as the iconic image of the East German policeman escaping over the now-fallen Iron Curtain which fell over Eastern Europe, courtesy of Soviet Socialism.
Don't Look Now
As to such imagery, one learns the government tries to stop even the images from emerging. One reads, "Social media is awash with striking images of #EmptyShelvesInVenezuela (#AnaquelesVaciosEnVenezuela) as the evaporation of basic human staples such as toilet paper has now been hyperinflated to total chaos at warehouses and supermarkets. As President Maduro decries the loss of $100 oil 'stability', vowing to return oil prices to their rightful places (and heads to China for help), lines reach for miles for milk and soap... and the people defy governmental bans on photographing empty market shelves... 'We couldn't find shampoo, so we washed our hair with soap. Now there's not even soap'." In " 'Now There's Not Even Soap' Maduro Heads To China To 'Save' Socialist Utopia Venezuela," by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, 4 January 2015.
For this, the Maduro strategy may be summed up as Don't look now
Urging and Urgent
The tale lengthens: "Last Friday, dozens of people spent the night in the surroundings of the Andrés Bello square (north Caracas) to buy food in an outdoor market organized by the Venezuelan Ministry of Food. For taking home staples such as rice, pre-cooked corn flour, milk, oil, sugar, beef or chicken, people had to wait in line for at least twelve hours. Buyers had numbers written on their arms. With fear and anger, but with the need to buy food, they were waiting there since the day before. 'No matter if I am very fond of this government, this is not fair,' a consumer said waiting in a line, where she spent seventeen hours. Aware of the situation, Vice-President of Food Security and Sovereignty Carlos Osorio urged people to keep calm." In "Venezuelans stay the night outside stores for food," El Universal, 12 January 2015.
One wonders if the Vice-President of Food Security and Sovereignty in the Venezuelan Ministry of Food must wait in the same line with the others. Based on the history lesson of the collapsed and very corrupt DDR, the answer is likely no.
Blame with a Name
While the Venezuelan Ministry of Food pontificates, some bishops are speaking out. One reads: "In a refreshingly powerful and direct statement, Venezuela's bishops Monday blamed 'Marxist socialism' and 'communism' by name for the horrors and chaos gripping their country, according to a story in El Universal. The bishops said the long lines of people trying to buy food and other basic necessities and the constant rise in prices are the result of the government's decision to 'impose a political-economic system of socialist, Marxist or communist,' which is 'totalitarian and centralist' and "undermines the freedom and rights of individuals and associations.' The Venezuelan bishops specifically stated that the private sector was critical for the well being of the country. The document, read by Monsignor Diego Padron in Spanish, said the country needs 'a new entrepreneurial spirit with audacity and creativity'." In "Venezuela's Bishops Have A Message For Pope Francis on Communism," by Monica Showalter, Investors Business Daily, 12 January 2015.
The Spanish version from El Universal reads: "Las largas colas de personas tratando de comprar alimentos y otros artículos de primera necesidad y el alza constantes de los precios son para los obispos la consecuencia de la decisión del Gobierno de 'imponer un sistema político-económico de corte socialista, marxista o comunista', el cual es 'totalitario y centralista'y además 'atenta contra la libertad y los derechos de las personas y asociaciones'." In "Obispos achacan la crisis al "socialismo marxista" impuesto por el Gobierno," by Juan Francisco Alonso, El Universal, 12 January 2015.
Thus one sees the opposition between the socialists (by any term) and freedom. One notes that this is not discussed as a dissonance between socialism and capitalism -- the argument as presented by socialists -- but between socialism and basic freedom, of which capital flow is one phenomenon among many.
While socialists attack capitalism, one notes that socialists rule in nations wherein capital is fleeing, where market shelves go from almost empty to more empty, and where basic goods needed for survival become rare.
One reads of the continuing saga of Venezuela in which image can no longer trump reality: "Mr Chavez might be dead, but as one of Latin America’s most charismatic political performers, he is far from forgotten. His placid features still stare out from billboards in Caracas, while Venezuelan television still plays his rambling speeches denouncing America, capitalism and the West. He promised the people the riches of the revolution, and for a while he was able to deliver, thanks to his country being blessed with the world’s largest proven oil reserves. But now, as the people queue at the pharmacy and the supermarket for basic necessities like baby formula, flour, milk and toilet paper, the promises sound like empty boasts." In "Venezuela's 'socialist paradise' turns into a nightmare: medical shortages claim lives as oil price collapses," by Peter Foster, Telegraph UK, 3 February 2015.
From the promise of an abundance of goods and services through the promise of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" one finds the basic disconnect. Reality intervenes. Human nature contravenes. And the top dogs and fat cats of Socialist and Communist and Fascist government become as accustomed to riches as any aristocrat or successful capitalist. For this observable truth, my conclusion is that the extension of the feudal society into a seemingly modern world is accomplished via socialist theory, placing the now-famous "proletariat" under the now equally famous "dictatorship." From the divine right of kings, mandarins, sultans, emperors and such to the socialist right of the dictatorship is no real progress at all. It is a extended stasis of the same old "boss."
The small difference is that unlike the socialist, communist, fascist or aristocrat, a successful capitalist enters into a free exchange with a consumer, and this is the only principle and mechanism which has consistently delivered an "abundance of goods and services." The consumer struggling to find "basic goods" will indeed conclude it becomes wise to flee "from empty market shelves."
The story of flight from government oppression continues over decades, as one reads: "More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to the South since a widespread famine hit the impoverished North in the late 1990s. Nearly all of them have traveled through China. But a handful of North Korean soldiers and civilians have defected by crossing the 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone, which is guarded by minefields, sentry posts and tall fences topped with barbed wire, some electrified." In "North Korean Soldier Shot by Own Troops as He Defects to the South," by Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, 13 November 2017.
Alas for the promise of So shall ism
[ 4 ] A political state wanting money only need define its citizens as criminals and then seize their property. Der Spiegel rightly looks back at this time, before the failure of East German socialism. Indeed socialists love money.
Selling Off and Selling Out
The article notes: "Pulling the strings behind the scenes was Schalck-Golodkowski. He was a confidant of East German leader and Communist Party chief Erich Honecker and was responsible for the Commercial Coordination (KoKo) department at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. For a time he was arguably one of the most important officials in economically fragile East Germany. Schalck-Golodkowski, who has since retreated from public view and lives on Tegernsee lake in Bavaria, secured billions in loans from the West and ensured that both he and other members of the nomenclature had access to highly sought after luxury goods. By selling East Germans' art and cultural goods, he also guaranteed access to much-needed foreign currency for the SED. The worse the economic situation became in the East, the more important the company Kunst & Antiquitäten became."
Said clearly, the worse the economic vitality of a socialist nation, the more important the state functions which squeeze remaining currency and assets, because government will survive even on the backs of its own citizenry. As the current German government notes, this was "systematic robbery." Nothing more and nothing less.
Lessons in Trade
Awareness of this plain fact grows. One reads: "East Germany's economy was in free fall. Many skilled workers and intellectuals had fled and the Soviet Union was stripping the country of its resources. By 1964 the fiscal situation had become so dire that the authorities developed a scheme to sell political prisoners to West Germany. They called it haeftlingsfreikauf." In "East Germany's trade in human beings," by Gavin Haines, BBC News, 6 November 2014.
Further, the BBC article notes: "Prisoners were also traded for commodities such as coffee, copper and oil. However, neither side wanted the public to find out - the GDR because it didn't want to appear weak and West Germany because it didn't want to be seen supporting the communist regime. So the operation remained clandestine - people were traded in darkened nooks of the underground railway, the U-Bahn, or sent across the border in buses with revolving license plates."
The East German Communists had a pretend democracy, even including the term in the official name of the country, "Deutsche Demokratische Republik" or simply DDR. A democratic republic, so they said, even sang, but with a wall to keep citizens from escaping such a "socialist" democratic republic.
"Laßt das Licht des Friedens scheinen..." says a line in the second verse of the DDR national hymn, "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" authored by Johannes R. Becher. "Let the light of freedom shine," which ended up meaning walls to keep a populace from fleeing, the selling of prisoners and swaps for commodities and cash, alongside now documented corruption among the socialist elite. While the rhetoric bragged about "rising the ruins" of the war, the DDR collapsed, itself becoming a ruin as the Berlin wall torn away and a truer light of freedom began to shine.
Throughout the ruin which was the German Democratic Republic, the socialist leadership scoured their own citizens for capital which could be confiscated via state corruption. Such is the nature of socialism, as practiced under National Socialism, then under the East German "democratic" socialism, and of course during the decades of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which also collapsed.
[ 5 ] If only historical lessons could be ignored, then the socialist government of Venezuela could be Left to their own devices
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land - a story quite like others
One of the believers, a victim of the massacre
"Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully, noting each of their strengths and weaknesses...." and "While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism. By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing in Temple sermons his 'Apostolic Socialism' concept." In "Jim Jones," Wikipedia, accessed 4 August 2012. [ 1 ]
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land
And if you don't follow in the ways I've planned,
You're a sexist, racist, hater, and a homophobe,
You're a devil, you're a demon, you're a xenophobe.
I'm gonna guide you to my promised land
But if you resist in the things I demand,
You're the enemy, a threat, and even traitor to the cause,
And for these many reasons, I'll unsheathe my claws....
And drag your sorry hide into my promised land,
And scorch the earth behind us so you cannot stand
On what you'd always thought was a haven from the storm
Of all the minions I'd muster for my poisoned swarm.
I'm gonna drag you to my promised land
And if you resist, you'll be slave to my command
For resistance to my dreams and rejection of my goals
Will land you in hot water, abandoned on the shoals
Of all the lovely wonders of my promised land
Which burn to purify as they rage to expand,
As every head will bow and every knee will bend
In tribute and allegiance till the very end.
I'm gonna conquer from my promised land
By reason of my promises which none should e'er withstand,
For all the earth must be as my dreams have foreseen
And all that must be swept away is whate'er might contravene.
I will rule with force o'er this promised land
As right is as defined in all that I have planned.
I'm gonna guide you to the promised land
And if you want to leave, blood must flow upon the sand.
I will compel you in the promised land
And if you don't follow in the ways I've planned,
You're a heretic, a turncoat, an apostate cursed.
You're a villain, you're a sinner who must be coerced.
I'm gonna see us in our promised land,
Hundreds, yes the children, revolution as is planned,
Crossing over borders to the dreams that I dream,
Lying altogether in the jungle's rotting steam.
Envoi: "You have to quit confusing a madness with a mission." Flannery O'Connor, "The Violent Bear it Away" (1960)
Addendum of the Cult: "If Jones' People's Temple wasn't a cult, then the term has no meaning. That’s obvious." In "Rethinking Jonestown," by Scott McLemee, Salon.com, 17 June 1998.
Addendum of Mass Revolutionary Suicide: "Marxism arose as a theory that would liberate a proletariat that had 'nothing to lose but its chains', and has ended up imposing chains on the proletariat. The followers of the Peoples Temple (mainly poor blacks and alienated young whites) have made history by inaugurating the 'mass revolutionary suicide'. Cults can clearly mature into mainstream institutions. Or disintegrate into jungle horror stories. A detailed analysis of cults would require an analysis of their rhetoric and ideology, and of the culture matrices in which they are embedded. The present appeal of cults is related to the major upheaval of our times." In "Suicide for socialism? - Maurice Brinton", LibCon.org, 25 July 2005. [ 2 ]
Addendum of False Promises: "Even as the Peoples Temple fades into history, Jonestown is a bitter reminder of what happens when people surrender their emotional and moral independence and become spiritual slaves to evil leaders who guarantee salvation, eternal life, utopia either here on earth or in outer space. Jones evolved into a monster when he discovered he could manipulate and dominate people with false promises." In "35 Years Later, Jim Jones Cult Leaves Lessons for Believers," by A. James Rudin, Charisma News, 15 November 2013.
Addendum of Ignoring Warnings and Special Contempt: "Tim Stoen maintains that the public figures — San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, actress Jane Fonda, journalist Herb Caen, activist Angela Davis — seduced by Jones merely got suckered by the same charlatan who fooled him. Like Jones’s followers, they had skin in the game. First Lady Rosalynn Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale met with Jones during the 1976 campaign, and San Francisco pols Willie Brown and Harvey Milk treated him as though a God. Marked for Death reserves special contempt for the State Department of the Carter Administration that turned its back on repeated warnings of impending mass suicide in Jonestown. 'The U.S. State Department was to remain willfully blind until it was way too late, and despite [Congressman] Leo Ryan and staff members meeting department officials — five times — in preparation for his trip,' he writes. 'On November 13, 1978, Ryan went so far as to bring [defector] Deborah Blakey and Grace [Stoen] and [concerned relative] Steve Katsaris to the meeting with State Department officials,' Stoen notes. 'Despite Debbie’s face-to-face account of mass-suicide there, the officials acted as if they had never heard the allegations before'." In "The Man Jim Jones Hated Most Speaks," by Daniel J. Flynn, American Spectator, 22 April 2016.
Addendum of Another Tale of Mass Suicide: "Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religious millenarian group based in San Diego, California, founded in 1974 and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985). On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of thirty-nine members of the group who had participated in a mass suicide in order to reach what they believed was an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale–Bopp." In "Heaven's Gate (religious group)," Wikipedia article, n. d. [ 3 ]
See: Totalitarian
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against the State? Has it not preached in the place of these, charity and poverty, celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church? Christian Socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat." In "Chapter III. Socialist and Communist Literature," The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx, 1848. See also: Jesus was a socialist?
[ 2 ] "...Jones counseled, 'Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony.' He also said, 'I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries...death is a million times preferable to ten more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight'." Wikipedia, "Jonestown."
Revolutionary Suicide = Mass Murder
The article states "A total of 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed 'revolutionary suicide' by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at a nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. The victims included United States Congressman Leo Ryan. Four other Temple members died in Georgetown at Jones' command. To an extent, the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass suicide; some sources, including Jonestown survivors, regard the event as a mass murder. It was the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001."
Such is "Christian Socialism" in which the "holy water with which the priest consecrates the heart-burnings of the aristocrat." And of course it is not Christian, by any sense of any major Christian denomination, suggesting that Marx' historical understanding was indeed very, very wrong.
[ 3 ] The tales of "sects" in both the political and pseudo-religious spheres intersect, with many similarities. Submission to some set of ideological goals may be easily seen, characterized by an "anointed" -- appointed -- who will govern over others. From Jones' apostolic socialism to the sect below and many more, the unmasked urge is simply to rule (or die trying).
Instructions on How to Govern
A legal case is afoot, against another such cult. One reads: "She's asking that a jury award her these wages, in addition to more than $7million in emotional and punitive damages. UNOI was founded in 1978 by Royall Jenkins, a former member of the Nation of Islam - itself an African-American-focused off-shoot of mainstream Islam. Jenkins claimed that he had been abducted by 'angels and/or scientists' who took him via spaceship to another galaxy where he was given instructions on how to govern Earth. 'UNOI doctrine focused primarily on the supremacy of Jenkins as God on Earth,' the lawsuit claims." In "Muslim cult 'trafficked woman for a decade, starting when she was 11, forcing her to work for free and subjecting her to emotional abuse'," by Ashley Collman, Daily Mail, 19 September 2017.
Better for all the world - notions from the underworld
"Even the United States Supreme Court endorsed aspects of eugenics. In its infamous 1927 decision, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, 'It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.' This decision opened the floodgates for thousands to be coercively sterilized or otherwise persecuted as subhuman. Years later, the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials quoted Holmes's words in their own defense. In "The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics," by Edwin Black, History News Network, 25 November 2003.
Better for all the world,
Said one famous imbecile,
If other imbeciles were hurled,
Disposed of deep in some landfill hill.
Better for all the world,
Say imbeciles today,
If all the imbeciles they judge
Were killed and thrown away.
Better for all the world,
But better then for who?
Who will judge and who be judged?
Next time, they'll come for you.
Better for all the world
To prevent the imbecile,
But oh, alas, and oh, alack,
Who, how many should one kill?
Better for all the world
To never think this way,
For no one judges all the world
Lest hatred rise to say:
Better for all the world,
So say such imbeciles,
If other imbeciles were hurled,
Discarded dark, deep in our landfill hills.
See: The Robert Reich Song
"Today we find a world of symmetric development, unsustainable natural resource use, and continued rural and urban poverty. There is general agreement about the current global environmental and development crisis. It is also known that the consequences of these global changes have the most devastating impacts on the poorest, who historically have had limited entitlements and opportunities for growth." In "Fifty million climate refugees by 2010," statement of the UNEP on their website, now scrubbed as of 2012.
Revising's the game
When predictions fall flat,
And the UN's true aim
Was to cause panic, whereat
We would run for the hills
And for salvation plead;
Mountains, not mole hills,
Would make us agreed.
The cash should then flow
In bundles galore,
As our saviors would show
Their why and wherefore
That refugees floods
Would break loose in waves
And all would then learn
That politics saves.
That year's prediction
Is scrubbed clean away,
But new ones erupt
To continue the play.
Envoi: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." Vladimir Lenin (1870 - 1924)
The evening comes, the day is past - paraphrase of a Manfred Kyber poem
The evening comes, the day is past,
And Lady Sun by time is led;
Retiring to a cloud-washed house,
She yawns and directly goes to bed.
When this is all well and done
The stars are seen above,
And over all, both sea and land,
The angels guard with love.
And when the golden stars are there,
The moon bright blazes too,
As come the time to go to bed:
For the world, for me, and you.
And when our tired eyes are shut,
And when soft sleep alights,
The Queen of Night then sends to all
A dream of love's delights.See: Abendlied
"Chicago likes to compare itself to other world cities, so Ward Room thought it would find out how we rank in violence. It turns out no one can top us. Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo. Here’s how we rank in murders per 100,000 among cities we consider our peers, based on a projected murder total of 505 for this year." In "The Deadliest Global City," by Edward McClelland, NBCChicago.com, 30 July 2012
Berlin earns one as its murderous score,
While Chicago gets better than five hundred more.
Los Angeles wracks up its seven or eight,
Chicago scores that in a weekend spate.
Moscow numbers ten, so statistics tell,
While Chicago does fifty times as well.
Mexico City? Their number's eight.
São Paulo's at a fifteen-point-six murder rate.
Aurora's dozen tell a tale of twelve killed,
But Chicago's epic is forty-two times spilled.
Chicago's morgues take five hundred plus,
As Chicago is the champ at such murderousness.
How is it, this phenomenon?
Is this part of the values Chicagoan?
Addendum: "'We wanted to get a handle on how people are recovering post-recession and to understand how things like our state's budget crisis are filtering down into communities,' said report author Amy Rynell, director of the research center. 'What we learned was extraordinarily disturbing,' Rynell said. The study found that almost half of Chicago's population is living in or near poverty." In "1 in 3 Illinoisans lives in or near poverty level: report," Sun-Times Media Wire, 16 January 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum: "The date was January 12, 2013. You probably didn’t hear about this tragedy involving guns and two teenage boys. But this was the headline in the Chicago Tribune: 'Boys, 14 and 15, killed in separate shootings Friday.' You didn’t hear about it because such events aren’t news in Chicago. They’re ordinary daily occurrences." In "The War Against Black Men," by Lee Habeeb, National Review Online, 17 January 2013
Addendum: "It’s getting easier to get away with shooting people in Chicago. Last year, gunmen who shot and wounded someone got away without criminal charges 94 percent of the time, according to a DNAinfo.com Chicago analysis of police data." In "Most Shooters In Chicago Don't Face Charges," Mark Konkol, DNAinfo, 24 January 2013
Addendum About Homicide Watch Chicago: "Homicide Watch Chicago is dedicated to the proposition that murder is never a run-of-the-mill story. Attention must be paid to each one, not merely a select and particularly tragic few. We understand the reality of the public’s demand for news - that some stories get more attention than others. But all murders represent a degree of human suffering - direct and indirect - that cannot be ignored." In "About Homicide Watch Chicago," Chicago Sun-Times, accessed December 2013.
Addendum of Values Chicagoan: "Former Chicago Comptroller Amer Ahmad pleaded guilty in Ohio federal court Monday to charges that he steered state business to his financial adviser in exchange for more than $500,000 in kickbacks. Ahmad, who served as Ohio's deputy treasurer and chief investment official, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, wire fraud and money laundering. He was hired in Chicago by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after the crimes in Ohio were committed." In "Amer Ahmad, ex-aide to Mayor Emanuel, pleads guilty to Ohio corruption," by Chuck Goodie, ABC News, 23 December 2013.
Addendum of a Re-elected East Chicago Councilman: "An East Chicago councilman was sworn into office behind bars earlier this month while in custody on murder charges. Robert Battle, who was re-elected in November when he ran unopposed, was given his oath of office and signed required paperwork on Jan. 15, said Paula Miraldi, of the Lake County Board of Elections in northwest Indiana." In "East Chicago councilman sworn in from behind bars," ABC News, 25 January 2016. [ 2 ]
See: If Chicago were a war zone
NOTES
[ 1 ] How is it that "almost half of Chicago's population is living in or near poverty?" One reads a sad report: "Nearly half of Chicago’s young black men ages 20 to 24 are out of school and out of work – a rate four times higher than that for white Chicago men in the same age bracket, and far higher than the same groups in New York City and Los Angeles." In "Nearly half of Chicago's young black men are out of work, out of school," by Austin Berg, Chicago Now, 25 January 2016.
Should the politicians who have controlled Chicago and indeed all of Cook County for decades be held responsible? Predictably these say that someone else is responsible, for politics has become little more than a game of blaming others when policies fail a citizenry. When was the last time one heard any politician, ideologue or political party say "We were wrong?"
But then again the citizenry which continues to support failure is responsible, is it not, alongside the politicians such an electorate chooses?
[ 2 ] Wholly applicable to the news reports and comment above is the story of an East Chicago politician "in custody on murder charges" who was reelected by running unopposed. No one would oppose an accused murderer or drug user? The condemnation of this question goes directly to the politics and party which allows such to occur.
One reads further: "An East Chicago councilman has been charged with murder. Prosecutors say Robert Battle shot and killed Reimundo Camarillo Jr. on Monday. Battle's attorney claims Camarillo pulled a knife on him, but police say they didn't find a knife at the scene. The new charge comes just weeks after Battle was arrested for drug possession." In "East Chicago councilman charged with murder," ABC News, 14 October 2015.
Looking at the details, one reads: "Trooper Christopher Eagles finally pulled the car over in Porter County just after 2 p.m. and a search of the car turned up 73 grams of marijuana in a brown paper bag and $100,700 in cash placed in a backpack in the trunk, documents said. Police later searched the house in Flint they believed Battle went to and found 9 ounces of cocaine and three stolen guns, according to court documents." In "East Chicago councilman faces murder, drug charges," by Ruth Ann Krause and Teresa Auch Schultz, Chicago Tribune, 14 October 2015.
The outcome will likely be quite the same as another similar "democrat" phenomenon in which one party dominated through into outright economic collapse. Consider that tale in rhyme and supporting addenda and footnotes: Voted
"Little boys have always played with swords and guns. But they did not always play at beating a prisoner's genitals with a rope, or stitching a live bomb inside a man's stomach. For that innovation we must thank Hollywood, the industrious factory of dreams, now frequently devoted to churning out nightmares. The poet WB Yeats once wrote, 'In dreams begins responsibility', yet Hollywood will never take responsibility for its most brutal dreams so long as the paying public still flocks to the theatre of cruelty." In "Our attitude to violence is beyond a joke as new Batman film, The Dark Knight, shows. The new Batman film reaches new levels of brutality, so why are we letting children watch it? Jenny McCartney looks at a society seduced by sadism," by Jenny McCartney, Telegraph UK, 26 July 2012
We must thank Hollywood,
So writes one clear-eyed man.
Dream factories churn out nightmares
As their money-making plan.
Brutal dreams parade on screen
In the theaters of cruelty,
While nightmare makers prance and preen,
Over 'innocent' novelty.
Society seduced by sadism
Laps up such imagery,
For such is excitement in this day
When fun is savagery.
Nightmareland is open
And self-congratulates,
Denying culpability
As a flocks' blood coagulates.
"Nearly 80 percent of bundlers who raised $500,000 or more for Mr. Obama were appointed to posts in the administration, according to a 2011 report by the Center for Public Integrity, which tracks campaign finance issues. While most envoys got perches in coveted capitals like Prague, Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen or Oslo, a few were sent to commercially or politically delicate posts like Canada and South Africa." In "Obama Rewarded ’08 Fund-Raisers, Barring Some From Helping Now," by Mark Landler, New York Times, 24 July 2012
Rich rewards
is how it works.
Pay to play
with political perks.
Drop a dime
up to half a mil
to live life plush;
so works the Hill.
Lucky numbers,
about eighty percent,
delivered funds;
their consequent
ascension, don't you know,
is that never confessed
quid pro quo.
Envoi: "This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise or, at least, neglect persons of poor and mean conditions, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments." Adam Smith, in "Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759)
See: Corruption
So - stupid
"At its peak, the large German solar companies - SolarWorld, SMA Solar, Q-Cells, Conergy, Solon, Solar Millennium, Centrotherm, Phoenix Solar - - were worth more than 25 billion Euros, according to calculations by Handelsblatt online. Today, all together have only a market capitalization of 1.12 billion Euros. Of this amount, 863 million Euros alone belong to SMA. The company based in Northern Hessen is the only one whose stock price has not totally crashed. The others have lost more than 97 percent of their value since the peak." In "Germany's Green Disaster: Wave Of Solar Bankruptcies Wipes Off Almost 25 Billion Euros," by Jörg Hackhausen, Handelsblatt, 12 July 2012
So lar so long so lost so rry
So rrow so so ught so re so undingly
So lar so long so much is lost
So so so mbre so bering cost
So licitation so gone wrong
So lid investment so ld but not for long
So me time
So me what
So me one
So me how
So me where
So me wise
So so la la cries
So lar so sad so bankrupt see?
So who's at fault so in errantly?So long so green so red ink so then stupidity.
Envoi: "On Thursday, the price hit a low of €2.81 ($3.75) per metric ton of carbon and rebounded back above €4 before the end of the day. But it remains far below the €20 or €30 price point that analysts say is needed to spur the type of clean investment needed by industry to cut carbon emissions. Back in April of 2006, credits peaked at €32 and neared €30 per ton in 2008." In "Wake-Up Call: A Disastrous Week for Carbon Trading," by Joel Stonington, Der Spiegel, 27 January 2013.
Addendum by Looking Back: "The EU's flagship mechanism for combatting climate change, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), has been revealed as a magnet for tax fraud on a grand scale, costing government coffers around €5 billion euros. In announcing its investigations into the pan-European racket, Europol, Europe's criminal intelligence agency, said that as much as 90 percent of the entire market volume on emissions exchanges was caused by fraudulent activity, undermining the very viability of the ETS just as the EU is touting a similar scheme for the rest of the world." In "EU emissions trading an 'open door' for crime, Europol says," by Leigh Phillips, EUObserver, 12 December 2009.
Addendum of Solar Production: "Solar power, which President Barack Obama promoted in his State of the Union Address, accounted for 0.2 percent of the U.S. electricity supply in the first nine months of 2013, according to data published by the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration. That is up from the 0.02 percent of the total electricity supply that solar power sources provided in 2008, the last calendar year before Obama took office. 'Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy,' Obama said in the State of the Union. 'The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we've been in decades'." In "Solar Provides 0.2% of Electric Supply--Up From 0.02% Before Obama," by Terence P. Jeffrey, Cybercast News, 29 January 2014.
Addendum of Rising Debts: "Several years ago, Spain was considered a world leader in solar power, with the government pumping money into the sector. In the last two years, however, that has all changed, and the many thousands of people and businesses who invested in the industry are facing rising debts." In " 'Energy giants out to kill off Spain's solar sector'," theLocal.se, 21 March 2014.
See: Bankrupt green
"Topinka has remained critical of how Illinois lawmakers -- particularly Democrats -- have handled the state's budget in Springfield. In April, when she unveiled her office's new 'The Ledger' website, she said, 'Being the chief fiscal officer in Illinois right now is like being one of your obituary writers at the newspaper, because I’ve only got bad news to report all the time.'" In "Illinois Budget Deficit Worst In The Nation: State Is Reportedly $43.8 Billion In The Red," 22 June 2012, The Huffington Post.
Obit a bit,Then obit a lot.
With numbers like these,
Their debt's a blot.
Worst in a nation
Awash in red ink,
Suggests that the state
Soon just might sink.
Behind are they
In paying their bills,
They've spent all their credit
Acquiring ills.
Bad news to tell
With bad news to come
Is bad news for all
Ad infinitum.
Obit a bit,
Then obit a lot.
The state was fat fed
With tommyrot.
Worst in a nation
Growing more debt
Suggests its elite
Are its biggest threat.See: Bernie got it right
Saying - paraphrase of a Justinus Kerner rhyme
I've no idea from whence I came,
And no idea of tomorrow's game,
But 'tis assured I know one thing:
What an unforgettable love can bring.See: Ein Spruch
green screws red - lights or bread
"800.000 Deutsche können Strom nicht bezahlen," [ 800 thousand Germans cannot pay their electrical bills ] headline in Die Welt, 26 June 2012. [ 1 ]
green screws red
as black darks night....
lots of average folks
can't pay, all right.
green made red;
now power costs more....
what was all the
technology for?
to line the pockets
of political friends,
the same old,
same old never ends....
green screws red,
then red must react,
demanding costs
be swift attacked....
costs still rise
as green requires,
and when costs rise,
as it transpires,
bust budgets
of the little folk
for whom this
is no little joke....
green screws red
as plain as day,
and once again
just politics is at play....
green screws red,
and red screws green,
and markets screw both
as was well foreseen....
Envoi: "Ever since the German government started subsidizing solar energy, demand for solar installations went up like clockwork, towards the end of each year. But recently released data from German regulators shows that number of solar installations in December 2012 was down 88% from the previous year. In fact, 2012 saw the lowest number of installations since 2008. And it still wasn't as low as the German government would have liked. The German government wants to cut back on solar energy installations because their whole drive to switch to renewable energy has ended being far more expensive that they thought it would be." In "It Looks Like Europe Is Going Off The Solar Energy Demand Cliff," by Lisa Mahapatra, Business Insider, 12 January 2013.
Addendum of Price Inflation: "Real German electricity prices for households have increased 61% since 2000. One quarter of household costs now stem directly from renewable energy. Also, the increase is *not* because of increasing production costs (which have actually slightly declined since 1978). The increase is due to dramatically increasing taxes, most noticeably from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG). In 2013 the EEG will increase 50% to 6.28 euro-cent (5.28 cents plus 19% VAT). In June 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel famously promised to keep EEG prices stable, but this promise has now clearly been broken. The German household will pay 24% of its electricity bill to renewables." Bjørn Lomborg's Facebook Page, accessed 24 January 2013.
Addendum of Continuing Price Inflation: "Earnings in the bottom ten percent of German society actually decreased significantly in real terms across this period, with an increase in earnings of 6 percent clearly being outpaced by a 24 percent rise in consumer prices." In "Experts warn of rising inequality in Germany," TheLocal.de, 18 March 2016.
Addendum of Investment Loss: "On Thursday, the price hit a low of €2.81 ($3.75) per metric ton of carbon and rebounded back above €4 before the end of the day. But it remains far below the €20 or €30 price point that analysts say is needed to spur the type of clean investment needed by industry to cut carbon emissions. Back in April of 2006, credits peaked at €32 and neared €30 per ton in 2008." In "Wake-Up Call: A Disastrous Week for Carbon Trading," by Joel Stonington, Der Spiegel, 27 January 2013.
Consider more on Carbon Trading: 30 to 6
Addendum of a Warning: "Germany's push for wind and solar and its retreat from nuclear power is driving electricity costs to untenable levels and destroying support for the green agenda, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned. Electricity costs rose 11pc last year, in part to fund subsidies for wind and solar. This is doing little to create jobs at home since China’s solar upstarts have swept the market while Germany’s solar pioneers go bust." In "IEA warns Germany on soaring green dream costs," by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 24 May 2013.
Addendum on Propping Up Inefficiency: "There are many reasons for the cost explosion. Contrary to earlier forecasts, solar and wind farms are a long way from being able to produce energy at the prices possible in coal-fired or nuclear power plants. There are also high costs associated with grid expansion and electricity storage facilities -- both necessary for a system more reliant on renewables -- as well as for backup power plants, which take up the slack when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. In addition, the German government failed to define upper limits for solar energy, an expensive form of energy that is inefficient in a country like Germany, with its relative lack of sunshine. Even more vexing, consumer advocates and Green Party politicians like energy expert Bärbel Höhn have been saying for months, are the special provisions that enable 'supposedly energy-intensive companies' to exempt themselves from the EEG levy and grid charges." In "War on Subsidies: Brussels Questions German Energy Revolution," by Frank Dohmen, Christoph Pauly and Gerald Traufetter, Spiegel, 26 May 2013.
Addendum for UK Consumers: "...an independent Scotland could find itself in the same position as Denmark, which produces much of its energy from wind and has the highest household bills in the world – about 70 per cent more than the UK – because it has to import at premium prices from Norway when the wind is not blowing." In "Scots ‘face world’s biggest energy bills’ from wind power," by David Maddox, Scotland Today, 4 August 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum for French Consumers: "French state-regulated power rates charged by Electricite de France SA could jump about 30 percent by 2016, according to the energy regulator. The increase would reflect inflation, higher wholesale rates at which EDF sells nuclear power to rivals, a subsidy for renewable energy, and transport and distribution costs, Philippe de Ladoucette, head of the Commission de Regulation de l’Energie, told a conference today in Paris." In "French Power Prices May Rise 30% by 2016, Energy Regulator Says," by Tara Patel, Bloomberg, 17 January 2012. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Fear Mongers: "...unfortunately for global warming alarmists, rising temperatures have no clear perpetrator. Sunstein notes, that there 'are no obvious devils or demons — no individuals who intend to create the harms associated with climate change… in the context of climate change, those who are the solution might well also be, or seem to be, the problem. In these circumstances, public outrage is much harder to fuel,' writes Sunstein. People are also more fearful of immediate threats rather than long-term ones, writes Sunstein, who adds that for 'this reason, they might fail to save for retirement, or they might engage in risk-taking behavior (such as smoking or unhealthy eating) that will harm their future selves'." In "Former Obama czar says we need more fear of global warming," by Michael Bastach, Daily Caller, 27 August 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum of the Price Fixers: "First, there is little reason to believe that energy will get cheaper. The advanced energy technologies with the greatest potential in terms of abundance -- solar energy, controlled fusion, and fission breeder reactors -- are all characterized by raw fuel that is free, or nearly so; but the high capital costs likely to be associated with those technologies will lead to high overall energy costs despite free fuel." In "Ecoscience, Population, Resources, Environment" co-authors, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and John Holdren, 1977. [ 5 ]
Addendum of the Poor Subsidizing the Rich: "The assumption long ago was that global energy costs would ratchet up, making the levy unnecessary. The Merkel government was caught off-guard by the US shale gas revolution, though the writing has been on the wall since 2009. The levy policy is turning into a nexus of distortions - 'Madness', as the Handlesblatt screamed on its front page - since firms that have slashed energy use the most are penalised. One has taken a case to the top court. The burden on households is politically toxic. Property owners enjoy a solar income. Renters suffer the extra levy. The poor subsidise the rich. Besides, experts say it is only a matter time before the vice tightens on industry as well." In "Romantic Germany risks economic decline as green dream spoils," Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.. Telegraph UK, 11 September 2013. [ 6 ]
Addendum of "Renewable" Bankruptcy: "The company has been incurring heavy losses for the past several years and the company's debts are currently close to €300 million." In "WinWinD files for bankruptcy," Renewable Energy Focus, 11 October 2013. [ 7 ]
Addendum - Gone With the Wind: "...newly released numbers, collected and analyzed over a several-year period, show what disappointed investors have long surmised: Around half of these commercial wind park enterprises are doing so poorly that investors can count themselves lucky if they even get their initial investment back after the 20 year duration." In "Gone With the Wind: Weak Returns Cripple German Renewables," by Gunther Latsch, Anne Seith and Gerald Traufetter, 30 January 2014.
Addendum of the Cost of American Wind: "Electricity prices are soaring in states generating the most wind power, U.S. Energy Information Administration data show. Although U.S. electricity prices rose less than 3 percent from 2008-2013, the 10 states with the highest percentage of wind power generation experienced average electricity price increases of more than 20 percent. Iowa – 27% South Dakota – 26 Kansas – 19 Idaho – 16 Minnesota – 16 North Dakota – 16 Oklahoma – 15 Colorado – 14 Oregon – 12 Wyoming – 8. From 2008-2013 electricity prices rose an average of 20.7 percent in the top 10 wind power states, which is seven-fold higher than the national electricity price increase of merely 2.8 percent." In "Electricity Prices Soaring In Top Wind Power States," by James Taylor, Forbes, 17 October 2014.
Addendum for Brazil: "As Lula's energy minister and then his chief of staff, Rousseff was determined to avoid another rationing crisis. Images of new power lines and massive hydroelectric plants figure prominently in her campaign to win a second four-year term in October. In September 2012, she added another goal: to cut residential electricity costs by 20 percent. Hydro-dam operators were allowed to renew expiring leases on key assets early, but only if they slashed prices. The move, popular politically, caused electricity shares to plunge. Many now worry that state-run Eletrobras and other utilities will not have the cash to finance investments needed to meet rising demand. ...'What should be a technical problem is now an economic and political problem,' said Sylvie D'Apote, partner and director of Prysma, a Rio de Janeiro energy research group. 'Rousseff will do everything to put off the impact until after elections'." In "Brazil scrambles to avoid power rationing as costs soar," by Jeb Blount, Reuters, 25 March 2014.
Addendum of US Project Not Producing: "A federally backed, $2.2 billion solar project in the California desert isn’t producing the electricity it is contractually required to deliver to PG&E Corp., which says the solar plant may be forced to shut down if it doesn’t receive a break Thursday from state regulators." In "Ivanpah Solar Plant May be Forced to Shut Down," by Cassandra Sweet, Wall Street Journal, 16 March 2016.
Addendum of California Prices Going Up: "The California Legislature's nonpartisan analyst estimates the state's pollution tax has raised gasoline prices by 11 cents per gallon and diesel prices by 13 cents, according to a month-old letter released on Thursday. The pollution tax costs drivers collectively about $2 billion a year, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. His staff calculated the estimate in response to questions from Assemblyman Tom R-Palmdale, who is pushing legislation that would require the state to report more detailed information about the costs to drivers." In "Report: California carbon tax hikes gas prices 11 cents," by Jontahan J. Cooper, Associated Press via KCRA News, 7 April 2016.
Addendum of Australian Prices Skyrocketing: "...emergency measures are needed to ease punishing costs for South Australian industry as National Electricity Market (NEM) prices in the state have frequently surged above $1000 a megawatt hour this month and at one point on Tuesday hit the $14,000MWh maximum price. Complaints from business about the extreme prices – in normal times they are below $100 – prompted the state government to ask energy company ENGIE to switch its mothballed Pelican Point gas power station back on. The extraordinary intervention – first foreshadowed in December when the government of premier Jay Weatherill hosted an energy crisis meeting – comes as electricity prices soar to near record levels across the nation." In "South Australia intervenes in electricity market as prices hit $14,000MWh," Financial Review, 14 July 2016.
Addendum of $1.50 Worth of Wind Power: Three windmill-like turbines loom motionless over the city of Port Angeles' new Waterfront Park. The $107,516 spires stand immobile more than two months after they were erected and more than a year after the city council approved them. Once they are working to generate electricity, they will produce so little power — $1.50 worth of electricity a month in savings — that at least one council member is regretting her decision to purchase them." In "Wind turbines generating regret; $100,000 turbines to create $1.50 in electricity monthly," by Paul Gottlieb, Peninsula Daily, 4 December 2016.
Addendum of Canadians Paying 80% More: "...while it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact impact on bills, the cost is far more than the extra $2 a month per customer predicted by one anti-coal group. 'It was a decisive change in the trajectory of electricity costs,' Adams said Monday. 'Figuring out exactly what the cost of getting rid of coal is, that’s hard country because there are so many moving parts ... But if I’m asked to put a price tag on it, it’s something like $5 billion a year.' An Ontario auditor report noted that between 2003-14, the province eliminated 7,546 MW of electricity generation from coal and added 13,595 MW of new capacity — mostly wind, natural gas and nuclear power. During that time period, Ontario electricity consumers saw the commodity portion of their bill rise by 80%, the auditor found." In "Shutdown of coal plants raised electricity rates, failed to reduce pollution: Report," by Antonella Artuso, Toronto Sun, 17 January 2017.
Addendum of Some Canadians Considering Moving Outside Canada: " 'The government treats us like bourgeois sweatshop operators who have to be stopped,' said Bamford, who has organized dozens of medium-sized companies into the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers of Ontario. 'All the businesses are terrified of the government. My husband said, ‘Well, do you just want to pick up and go?’ And I said, ‘Well, I guess I gotta just stay and fight.’ I feel like I’m the Norma Rae of manufacturing.' Automatic Coating’s electricity bill has more than doubled in the past decade. Its bill for last November was $49,209.68. The first line is for electricity: $6,577.93. The second line is much harder to explain: it is the euphemistic Global Adjustment charge: 217,165 kWh at 11.6 cents each for a total of $25,223.73." In "Ontario manufacturers eye greener pastures stateside as hydro rates go through the roof," by Peter Kuitenbrouwer, Financial Post, 16 March 2017.
Addendum of Using Less and Paying More: "Although California uses 2.6% less electricity annually from the power grid now than in 2008, residential and business customers together pay $6.8 billion more for power than they did then. The added cost to customers will total many billions of dollars over the next two decades, because regulators have approved higher rates for years to come so utilities can recoup the expense of building and maintaining the new plants, transmission lines and related equipment, even if their power isn’t needed. How this came about is a tale of what critics call misguided and inept decision-making by state utility regulators, who have ignored repeated warnings going back a decade about a looming power glut." In "Californians are paying billions for power they don't need," by Ivan Penn and Ryan Menezes, Los Angeles Times, 5 February 2017. [ 8 ]
Addendum from Australia: " 'Unless we take drastic measures the world would reach a point of no return within 10 years,; he told us then. Wrong. In fact the world has just been through almost 20 years in which there has been a hiatus in global warming, even as carbon dioxide has increased: an 'inconvenient pause' as some wags put it. Around the world people are waking up to the fact that their leaders have been crying wolf, while their electricity bills go through the roof. Australia’s prosperity is built on the reams of cheap, abundant fossil fuel under our feet, and yet green zealots have forced us into an energy crisis." In "Who’s afraid of the big bad climate monster?" by Miranda Devine, Daily Telegraph, Australia, 16 July 2017.
Addendum of Australian "Record" Electricity Price Increases: "Queensland's wholesale electricity prices hit record highs in January, outstripping every other state so far this year, including South Australia’s trouble-prone network. The average price in January was more than double any other state and more than three times that of Victoria, according to figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). It follows the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) this week declaring it would investigate three massive power price surges in Queensland this summer." In "Queensland’s wholesale electricity prices hit record highs in January, highest in Australia," by Matthew Killoran, 10 February 2017. [ 9 ]
Addendum of the World's Dumbest Energy Policy: "The energiewende, or energy transformation, championed by Chancellor Angela Merkel heavily subsidizes unreliable wind and solar power, making it uneconomical for utilities to invest in cleaner natural gas. Meanwhile, Mrs. Merkel pledged to shutter German nuclear plants in the wake of Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster. Utilities have fallen back on cheaper but dirtier coal to fill the supply gaps when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun isn’t shining. Not that a new coal ban will help much. Critics such as Karen Pittel of the Ifo think tank in Munich note that Germany is likely to import coal-fired electricity from Poland and the Czech Republic. And whatever Germany does to keep the lights on, the coal phase-out involves more green subsidies—some €40 billion to compensate utilities for prematurely closing coal-fired plants, the commission estimates." In "World’s Dumbest Energy Policy," editorial, Wall Street Journal, 29 January 2019.
Addendum of Germany's Green Energy Prices: "Since then Germany has been battling with the consequences of the government's 'Energiewende,' or energy transition policy. It has meant the percentage of electricity generated by renewable sources has significantly increased. But at what cost? The precise answer is €160 billion ($180 billion) in the past five years! And the result is the highest energy prices in Europe. This has not just hit private consumers hard, but the German economy overall. Even so, we still can't get this damn carbon dioxide level to go down. So now we have to introduce a transportation transition policy, too." In "Germany's climate activism is full of hypocrisy," by Henrik Böhme, Deutsche Welle, 13 April 2019.
Addendum of German Poverty: "Despite having equal education, young women are twice as likely to be poor as their male peers. For example, 23 percent of the participants in 2018 lived in poverty, 73 percent of whom were women. Young single women are more often poor. The statistics confirm this finding of the study: the at-risk-of-poverty rate of single parents in NRW was 45.2 percent in 2018. 'One fifth of all families in NRW have a single parent. Forty percent of these families live on Hartz IV,' said NRW AWO Chairman Scheffler." In "At least 2.5 million children in Germany live in poverty," by Dietmar Gaisenkersting, World Socialist, 19 February 2020. [ 10 ]
See: Raise those taxes!
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The government predicts that the renewable energy surcharge added to every consumer's electricity bill will increase from 5.3 cents today to between 6.2 and 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour -- a 20-percent price hike. German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe. But because the government is failing to get the costs of its new energy policy under control, rising prices are already on the horizon. Electricity is becoming a luxury good in Germany, and one of the country's most important future-oriented projects is acutely at risk. ...Two-thirds of the price increase is due to new government fees, surcharges and taxes. But despite those price hikes, government pensions and social welfare payments have not been adjusted. As a result, every new fee becomes a threat to low-income consumers." In "Germany's Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good." by SPIEGEL Staff, Spiegel International, 7 September 2013.
The Poor Subsidize the Rich
The consumer costs are beginning to crush, so that Social Democrats are taking note: "Germany must reduce the cost of its switch from atomic energy toward renewables to protect growth, Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. German companies and consumers shoulder as much as 24 billion euros ($32 billion) a year for renewables because of subsidy payments, Gabriel told an energy conference in Berlin. " In "Germany Can’t Bear $32 Billion-a-Year Green Costs, Minister Says," by Stefan Nicola and Tino Andresen, Bloomberg, 21 January 2014.
So how did the "switch" happen? Because "green" -- as Handelsblatt above noted -- became a method in which "the poor subsidise the rich." For a partial explanation, see: Green Job
And now to look at the bill: where do the increasing costs come from? One learns unsurprisingly: "Taxes and fees levied by the state account for half the power bill and have nearly trebled over the past 10 years. The renewable energy surcharge, the main element, rose by 18 percent to 6.24 euro cents per kilowatt hour on January 1." In "Five million German households faced with higher power bills," by Vera Eckert, Reuters Frankfurt, 24 February 2014.
So over half the energy bill is in fact taxation -- in which the cost of government and its "green" policies which are going to 1) bankrupt start ups, 2) harm the lower economic classes, and 3) redistribute wealth from the lower classes to the few at the top of the "subsidy" pyramid.
Spiraling Costs
The German press is taking note: "There is the spiraling cost of 22 billion euros in green energy subsidies last year; there is also the over-estimated impact of climate change and especially the threat posed by the promotion 'very low technology-specific innovation impact in Germany'." ("Die steigenden Kosten von zuletzt 22 Milliarden Euro im Jahr, überschätzte Auswirkungen auf den Klimaschutz, vor allem aber die von der Förderung ausgehende „sehr geringe technologiespezifische Innovationswirkung in Deutschland“.) In "Regierungsberater wollen EEG abschaffen," by Adreas Mihm, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 25 February 2014.
The awareness of this enormous impact on the poor and middle class, as well as for businesses finding themselves less competitive internationally, grows.
Two and a half years later, the costs continue to rise, through a pricing "mechanism." One reads: "When this mechanism was first introduced in 2000, households were paying 0.19 cents a kilowatt hour, meaning a 36-fold increase between then and now. 'The EGG levy is growing this year four times faster than the economy,' Ulrich Grillo, head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) told Bild. 'The current subsidy system is running out of control'." In "Renewables costing German households ever more cash," TheLocal.de, 14 October 2016.
Energy Poverty in a Land of Plenty
One reads further from 2014: "The German government recently said that 6.9 million households live in energy poverty, defined as spending more than 10 per cent of their income on energy. This is partly a result of Germany's Energiewende, the country’s turn away from nuclear and towards renewable energies. This year alone, German consumers are expected to subsidize green energy to the tune of a whopping €23.6 billion ($33 billion) on top of their normal electricity bills for the so-called 'renewable energies reallocation charge.' Since 2008, this charge has increasingly reallocated money from the poor to the rich, e.g. from poor tenants in the Ruhr area to wealthy homeowners in Bavaria who put solar panels on their roofs. The charge has skyrocketed from 1.15 ct/kWh in 2008 to 6.24 ct/kWh this year. Since then, another 1.4 million households slipped into energy poverty. German consumers have already paid €109 billion for renewable energies since 2000, with greater costs looming on the horizon. Between 2000 and 2013, real German electricity prices for households have increased 80%." In "Germany's Energy Policy Is Failing the Poor, While Being a Poor Way to Help the Climate," by Bjorn Lomborg, Copenhagen Consensus Center posting via LinkedIn, 21 March 2014.
Paying Premiums
In a similar vein one reads of the cost to the national economy: "German exports would have been €15bn higher last year if its industry had not paid a premium for electricity compared with international competitors, according to a recent analysis by the Energy Consultancy IHS. Germany’s manufacturing suffered already €52bn in net export losses for the six-year period from 2008 to 2013. The figure was calculated by linking changes in the net volume of German manufacturing exports to changes in energy costs, using an economic model that accounted for other variables such as exchange rates. Almost 60 per cent of the total loss (or €30bn) came in energy-intensive industries: paper, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, non-metallic mineral products and basic metals. Smaller companies were disproportionately affected." In " Energy Policy In Germany – Big Problems In Europe’s Powerhouse," by Jürgen Krönig, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 27 March 2014.
As has been noted above and elsewhere, the big companies and big investors are subsidized at higher rates than the "poorer" companies, a fact the article above notes: "Unlike heavy energy users such as BASF and Thyssen/Krupp, small companies are not eligible for exemptions from the energy bill surcharges that cover the costs of the move to clean energy. Even more worrying for Germany is a clear trend for investment to go abroad. IHS found that direct investment abroad has accelerated at the expense of domestic investment and the cost of energy was the most important driver of this shift."
Note also that "direct investment abroad" because of costs and lower returns even with energy subsidies in Germany. Of course this is rational, because the subsidies paid to "heavy energy users" must come from some source in the nation -- and these are consumers and the smaller companies which serve consumers but must increase costs to make up for the taxation which becomes a subsidy -- in this case to the large companies.
One reads further: "Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG), drastically revamped in 2014, gives renewables priority on the grid and guarantees that investors in renewable energy receive state-guaranteed income. Household consumers have frequently grumbled though that their electricity bills are shooting through the roof, and with good reason: currently German consumers must fork out the second highest amount for their electricity in the EU." In "Is Germany the green leader it's hyped up to be?" by Rachel Stern, TheLocal.de, 7 November 2017.
Economic Corporatism
How odd that seemingly populist "green" policies end up paying the top tier of a nation's businesses. But this was so in the old DDR, where failing policies of companies run by edict from the state did nothing more than make East Germans of that era more and more burdened. For more on this phenomenon, see: Fled from empty market shelves
This is neither wholesale socialism nor free capitalism. Germany is practicing economic corporatism, and the consumers are gouged in the process.
As the rhyme suggest, "politics is at play...." Green politics, which seems so much like the old Red politics after all, in which the socialist DDR could not compete with a free West Germany. Now unified, it seems the green politicians have managed to do again what has been done before -- gouging the lowest economic class in favor of an elite. A history of the DDR's collapse showed that the elite socialists were pocketing huge sums on the backs of the "socialist" workers -- see: Socialists love money
Taxes and Fees and Levies and Tariffs
As time passes, the media takes note: "Taxes and fees now amount to 52 percent of the monthly power bill for retail consumers, according to a new report released Wednesday (13.8.2014) in Berlin by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). A typical household that uses 3,500 kilowatt hours of power per year pays about 85 euros ($113) a month for electricity. That's just one euro more than last year. About 45 euros, just over half the monthly total, is composed of taxes and special levies imposed by government. They include the standard value-added tax that applies to all goods and services, plus a special electricity tax, and a levy used to subsidize the buildout of renewable energy capacity under Germany's feed-in tariff system. The renewable energy levy alone adds 18 euros to the average monthly bill." In "German electricity price is half taxes and fees," Deutsche Welle, 13 August 2014.
Therefore one learns that the "average" consumer is subsidizing "renewable" projects run by the few, the elite and the wealthier investors for whom subsidies are simply "free money." Even with this, one also learns that renewable energy projects are failing in the marketplace, with bankruptcies essentially transfers of losing bets from consumers to risk-takers who made bad bets with public monies.
As one watches the years pass, with the "green" costs heaped on the lower classes to the benefit of the "green" elite, one finds growing numbers of the working poor. One reads: "Over 40 percent of single parents and almost 60 percent of the unemployed are poor, according to the Paritätische Gesamtverband, an umbrella organisation for associations focusing on social services. Older people and retirees, around 15 percent of whom are considered poor, are the fastest growing demographic group in terms of poverty, according to the report released on Thursday." In "Charity finds most Germans ever in poverty," DPA/Local.de, 19 February 2015.
While other societal forces are also at work, that energy costs rise by such burdensome percentage each year for the sake of "green" goals, in part the truth is that this dreamed-of energy future is robbing people today. Such was government; such is government. Such will continue to be such government, colored green and as well as red.
[ 2 ] One looks back a decade to see the Labour government under Tony Blair planning to raise costs to consumers, which subsequently has occurred.
Higher Prices to Consumers
One reads: "We have recently put in place a range of new measures to deliver this. We have: introduced a Renewables Obligation for England and Wales in April 20025. This will incentivise generators to supply progressively higher levels of renewable energy over time. The cost is met through higher prices to consumers. By 2010, it is estimated that this support and Climate Change Levy (CCL) exemption will be worth around £1 billion a year to the UK renewables industry; exempted renewable electricity from the CCL; created a renewables support programme worth £250m from 2002-2005; drawn up a strategic framework for a major expansion of offshore wind; and created a new organisation within Government - Renewables UK - to help our renewables industry growand compete internationally. In addition, from 2005 onwards, the EU emissions trading system will provide a further incentive for renewables." Section 4.7, "The Low Carbon Economy," ENERGY WHITE PAPER - "Our energy future - creating a low carbon economy," The Stationery Office, UK government, March 2003.
"Further incentive for renewables" has been taken from future taxpayers through public debt as from today's consumers. For a reflection on this government-mandated rise in costs through the lens of the Coase Theorem, please see: Incompetence
[ 3 ] Broadening the consumer picture as governments affect rise in energy prices, one reads of this as a consumer concern for many years now: "Respondents were asked how much the rises in the cost of energy, including petrol, had negatively affected them and their family. Overall 60 per cent say that increased energy costs are affecting them and their family a great deal, and again it is those in developing economies who seem to be feeling the effects most - 95 per cent in the Philippines, 93 per cent in Egypt, 84 per cent in Indonesia, 83 per cent in Kenya and Lebanon, and 81 per cent in Mexico. Majorities in several developed countries also say they have been affected a great deal - 61 per cent in Italy, 59 per cent in France, and 58 per cent in the United States." In "Higher Food and Energy Prices are a Burden, Says Global Poll," World Public Opinion, 15 October 2008.
It becomes obvious that the elite "green" leadership has burdened consumers for their goals. But what of the "green" forecasts now screwing consumers as evidenced by rising prices and public reaction to rising prices?
One sees things are "iffy."
Hijacked by False Data
"...those forecasts have had a ruinous impact on the bills we pay, from heating to car fuel to huge sums paid by councils to reduce carbon emissions. The eco-debate was, in effect, hijacked by false data. The forecasts have also forced jobs abroad as manufacturers relocate to places with no emissions targets. A version of the graph appears in a leaked draft of the IPCC’s landmark Fifth Assessment Report due out later this year. It comes as leading climate scientists begin to admit that their worst fears about global warming will not be realised. Academics are revising their views after acknowledging the miscalculation. Last night Myles Allen, Oxford University’s Professor of Geosystem Science, said that until recently he believed the world might be on course for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than five degrees this century. But he now says: 'The odds have come down,' – adding that warming is likely to be significantly lower. Prof Allen says higher estimates are now 'looking iffy'." In "The Great Green Con no. 1: The hard proof that finally shows global warming forecasts that are costing you billions were WRONG all along," by David Rose, Daily Mail UK, 1 May 2013.
Given the willingness of a political class to cause higher energy prices based on forecasts suggests something else. It suggests that gouging -- a word used in connection with consumer prices -- was planned by governments and their forecasters, with some profiting greatly from these "iffy" guesses put forward as fact, thereby inserting ever greater costs into consumer transactions. It is interesting to note that so many of the recent and current proposals for "carbon credits" involve profiting by the few from higher costs assigned to the many.
[ 4 ] One should note the precise use of language: "...in the context of climate change, those who are the solution might well also be, or seem to be, the problem." The wiggle room herein is enormous. It breaks apart into two suppositions, one most informative. The second taken first: "...those who are the solution might well seem to be the problem."
Parsing the less obvious from the muddle of words: "...those who are the solution might well also be the problem." The striking illogic of this set aside, Sunstein in speaking about "the context of climate change" hints that those proposing solutions "might" be a "problem." From the perspective of the average Joe, the problem is rising costs for energy mandated by "green" government.
Mandating rises in consumer prices through government acts is the fact. Speaking about this fact is the politics of it.
Political Nudging for Profit for the Few
One reads "...Sunstein’s tenure in the Obama Administration have had quite a different impact. Using the U.S. government as a real-world laboratory, he put into practice what he had developed in theory. All of us gained insights into how behavioral economics can inform sound, effective and 'smart' policymaking. In Europe, the use of behavioral economics in public policy has been increasingly on the agenda. Particularly in energy policy, it has become clear that efforts to steer people towards “better” — that is, more energy efficient — choices and behaviors are much needed. The relevance of finding solutions is clear. Household energy consumption grew by 20% between 1990 and 2006 globally, according to the International Energy Agency. It accounted for nearly a third of total final consumption and 20% of end-use sectors’ CO2 emissions. To deal with these challenges, British Prime Minister David Cameron has installed a 'Behavioral Insights Team' — nicknamed the Nudge Unit — in his Cabinet Office. The unit screens the existing policy toolbox, suggests and empirically tests improvements. In Germany, the 'Energy Transformation' announced by Chancellor Angela Merkel last year after the Fukushima nuclear incident provides an excellent, global test case. It aims at phasing out the use of nuclear energy by 2022, based on a dramatic increase in renewable energy sources. That is a big challenge not just for the engineers and energy industry managers, but also for the prospects of success involved in applying a 'nudging' strategy to households." In "Nudging Europe’s Energy Transformation," by Lucia Reisch, The Globalist, 20 August 2012.
One might ask how Scots coping with the "world’s biggest energy bills’ from wind power" as documented in "Scotland Today" feel about being "nudged."
One might inquire how consumers throughout the world feel about being "nudged" through "fear of global warming," as Sunstein said, feel about being "nudged" into unaffordable high energy prices.
One might then inquire how the 800,000 German consumers mentioned by "Die Welt" feel about being "nudged" when they "cannot pay their electrical bills."
One might inquire, especially carrying Professor Allen's acknowledgement that forecasts were "iffy." Perhaps the world merely needs more fear....
[ 5 ] One should examine the source of such strategies as "nudging," a seemingly harmless term used by Sunstein as recent advisor to the current US administration, and enthusiast of political coercion to enforce political goals -- which has resulted in consumers being nudged into ever higher prices.
Who Is Seeking De-Development?
Another advisor to the current US government is John Holdren, who co-wrote the text from cited above. Further reading into that text finds clear political goals: "Assuming that the formidable obstacles can nevertheless be overcome and the two separate 'worlds' started on the appropriate paths -- the rich world begins to de-develop, and the poor world undertakes grass-roots development -- full cooperation between the two groups will be required to make it work." In "Ecoscience, Population, Resources, Environment" co-authors, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and John Holdren, 1977.
One may then see, since 1977 and before, the goal of "de-development" of the "rich" nations was an economic and political goal of the "ecoscience" partisans. Increasing prices for "free fuel" is a part of this goal, forcing through "green" edict whole populations to bear ever higher energy prices in order to meet "full cooperation" with "the poor world." This is not science, but international post-Marxism. What "the poor world" is gaining is not a zero-sum gain against the "rich." Indeed the so-called "rich world" is in fact so heavily indebted at this point that many argue with substance that the "rich world" is insolvent.
One may question a public intellect based on many things, among them forecasts meeting reality. For this, one reads of Holdren: "Holdren was involved in the famous Simon–Ehrlich wager in 1980. He, along with two other scientists helped Paul R. Ehrlich establish the bet with Julian Simon, in which they bet that the price of five key metals would be higher in 1990. The bet was centred around a disagreement concerning the future scarcity of resources in an increasingly polluted and heavily populated world. Ehrlich and Holdren lost the bet, when the price of metals had decreased by 1990." Wikipedia article, "John Holdren."
What is demonstrably true now is that energy consumers in the lower economic classes around the world are also losing, while one sees the fat cats of ecoscience comfortable with tenured academic positions and government pensions. As an fine example of this, please think on the poster child for the "green" movement, Albert Gore
Who's the Problem?
Using Sunstein's term, we see Western consumers being "nudged" into the green goal of "de-development," Holdren's and the Ehrlich's term. This is lovely sounding ecoscience vocabulary, which in another discipline would be called price manipulation and price fixing. And so, one may re-read Sunstein's words -- "...those who are the solution might well also be, or seem to be, the problem."
Interestingly, one can lose sight of some basic facts in the wash of rhetoric. Among these facts is the one clear truth that so many who wish to "nudge" a populace and who seek a "de-development" of some countries in favor of others are almost all a part of the top five percentile in income in a given population.
Thus one sees that such intellectuals speak as if representing sense and the betterment of average Joe, all the while their own personal economic behavior attests to the opposite. These -- our betters, as they appoint themselves -- seek privileges far above the average Joe, far above the median income of a given population in which these elite men and women live and move, and this is nothing more than the old "rent seeker" dressed up in new, well defended and neo-aristocratic "privileges."
See: The Privileges of Intellectuals
[ 6 ] The clarity of simple numbers is slowly overcoming the clever complexity of political rhetoric. One reads from an American source merely echoing German opinion: "Germany’s affair with 'green romanticism' has not been pretty. The country’s energy costs are more than any other country in Europe and they are twice U.S. levels. German taxpayers are getting fed up with having to help subsidize exempted 'clean' business. 'Spiraling energy costs will soon drive us into the wall. It has become dangerous,' the German Chemical Industry Association said." In "German Economic Experts Ready to Pull the Plug on Costly Clean Energy Industry," by Becket Adams, Blaze, 20 September 2013.
Madness
As Handelsblatt said, "Madness." But not for a few who have capitalized on state subsidies, a lovely euphemism which hides the basic truth that a subsidy from a "state" is government taxing its own citizens. Ergo, this has been about income redistribution to the few from the many. How green, and how red. See: Socialists love money
[ 7 ] European wind farm bankruptcies are erupting alongside electric rates to consumers more than doubling over a decade. Should one not conclude incompetency is evident therein, if not fraud? The question is sound, given the public statements of optimism just preceding filing for bankruptcies .
Deeply in the Red
Of one, one reads: "As experts have feared for some time, Windreich GmbH is insolvent. The largest German offshore wind farm developer submitted an application for self-administered insolvency at the end of last week. Holger Blümle from the firm Schultze & Braun was appointed to be the provisional administrator. In addition, the company founder Willi Balz has resigned as a managing partner. Just two weeks ago, Balz had expressed optimism about the economic development of Windreich, despite the numbers being deeply in the red." In "Windreich files for bankruptcy," by Bodo Höche, Sun and Wind Energy, November 2013.
Another bankruptcy occurs: "An insolvency filing by a German wind energy financing company has prompted the government to think about barring private investors from certain high-risk instruments. Prokon attracted 75,000 mainly private investors." In "Prokon insolvency triggers debate about tougher regulation," Deutsche Welle, 23 January 2014.
[ 8 ] As the lower classes struggle economically, one finds the state deeply involved in their plight.
Astonishingly Bad Decisions
From the same article, one learns: "The state went from having too little to having way too much power. 'California has this tradition of astonishingly bad decisions,' said McCullough, the energy consultant. 'They build and charge the ratepayers. There’s nothing dishonest about it. There’s nothing complicated. It’s just bad planning'."
Thus one may easily make the conclusion that political dreams, as history shows repeatedly, end up as "bad planning," at the minimum. Who wins? Those whom the state makes winners by fiat. Who loses? All who pay more that the political dreams may be turned into profit for the few and elite.
[ 9 ] Australian consumers are hit with high energy price rises, Queensland's being "more than double any other state...." One notes that this seeming gouging of consumers comes directly from he government itself, as one reads: "Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the State Government needed to do more to bring prices down. 'The Queensland Government owns most of the state’s electricity generators,' he [ Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan ] said."
Thus one may correctly conclude that government is the cause of energy cost increases, a function not of capital competition between private companies, but of a monopolistic reality, government operating said monopoly. As Queensland rate payers will be gouged even more through government nationalization of a utility, one sees the effects of believing in and then acting on the tenets of So shall ism
[ 10 ] One takeaway from the article is the conclusion that "single women" -- as a reported statistic -- also sits in this report with "single parent" -- as a linked statistic. The cause then of poor single women might be, in part, having a child without having a "life partner." This tale is oft told across many cultures. Thus, the expenses for one who is "poor" in these cases includes child care alongside rising energy prices.
The article continues with a rather obvious statement: "German society is characterized by high levels of social inequality and is highly polarized, the study participants stated. Disparities between those in poverty and the wealthy were frequently encountered. In their perception, the 'principle of fairness in performance in conjunction with equal opportunities is not fulfilled by society.' Twenty-five-year-olds who have experienced poverty 'believe less often in participation in elections as a democratic instrument of influence'."
As one looks for a "socialist" solution to this economic and political problem, one finds many instances in which socialism applied feeds an elite quite as well as do capitalist societies. Consider: Capital for Communists
Additionally, one sees that "green" politics -- purportedly to 'save the earth' -- also seems to serve an elite, as one considers how to Use a kid for politics, part two
The choice between "lights or bread" is metaphor for many life choices. Among them is the whole issue of sexuality and child bearing, which seems to greatly affect the consequences of life choices, especially for "single women," many of whom end up as a "single parent" and impoverished.
A society ruled by a particular elite,-- which is well named as The Barren and the Barrenness
Prudence and Thrift - a hoary story
Borrowing and Bonds
Went up Credit hill
To fetch more bails of money.
The Boys come stumbling,
Bumbling down,
Which Prudence and Thrift find funny.
Prudence and Thrift
Climbed no such hill,
But saved their bits of money;
Borrowing and Bonds
Looked darkly on
But projected an outlook sunny.
Borrowing and Bonds?
Their ratings drop.
Now Credit mountain's steeper.
Their little game
Rolls over again,
Ever more deep and deeper.
Prudence and Thrift
Suffer no such thing,
For credit they have plenty,
So Borrowing and Bonds,
Hats in their hands,
Coming begging:
Loan us twenty?
Loan us thousands?
Millions perhaps,
Although we cannot pay?
So says Borrowing,
Bonds likewise,
In their heightened plea and play.
Prudence and Thrift
Must sadly decline,
And not accept their spiel.
Prudence and Thrift
Would new haircuts get,
In an ever worsening deal.
The virtuous Ladies
Offend such Boys
Who refuse thought of tomorrow.
The story is old
Yet relives again,
Always to end in sorrow.
Capital for Communists - a story growing old
"The investments are hidden from public view in multiple holding companies, but were identified among thousands of pages of regulatory findings, Bloomberg said. The family's interests include a 1.83 billion yuan (£188 million) share of the assets of Shenzhen Yuanwei, a property investment company, according to a filing from December 2011. Other companies in the same group, wholly owned by the family, have assets of at least 539.3 million yuan. They also have an indirect 18 per cent stake in Jiangxi Rare Earth & Rare Metals Tungsten Group, whose assets are worth some £1.1 billion." In "China's incoming president Xi Jinping's family 'has wealth of hundreds of millions'," by Malcolm Moore, The Telegraph UK, 29 June 2012. [ 1 ]
Capital for Communists
Is quite the clever game.
It is equality in lying words
But not in truth the same.
Capital for Communists
Is variations on a theme,
The tune being all political
In a government's regime.
Communism is powerful
And gathers in the wealth,
And then to censor fact
It practices its stealth.
Capital for Communists
Is a story growing old,
For oh so many Communists
The same was always told.
How capital for Communists
To use the system so,
To gather in their fortunes
From all the poor below.
How it is is how it was,
And how it will also be,
Until one day it's overthrown
By honest liberty.
Envoi: "The fact that there are no free elections leaves the party elders vulnerable to accusations that they have merely perpetuated China's dynastic traditions by handing down power within a 'red nobility.' The privileges of birth extend to every sector of the economy, be it oil, electric power, insurance or even diamonds. 'It isn't so much corruption as a system of official privilege,' said Ding Xueliang, a professor of sociology at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Originally from the mainland, Ding recalls that when he worked at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought, many of his colleagues were children of officials who either changed their names or kept quiet about their connections. 'After several months, you would learn, oh, her father was X, Y or Z.'" In "In China, 'red nobility' trumps egalitarian ideals," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 4 March 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum of the Biggest Fish in the China Sea: "As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg. Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don’t account for liabilities and thus don’t reflect the family’s net worth." In "Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite," Bloomberg News, 29 June 2012.
Addendum of Other Big Fish: There are currently 8,100 billionaires in China, 600 more than a year earlier. 2,700 of them are classified as having ‘Known’ wealth and the remaining 5,400 are categorized as having ‘Hidden’ wealth. The number of people with 10 billion RMB worth of assets has increased by 20 year on year, now reaching 280 individuals." In "The Chinese Billionaire Class," Hurun Report, The GroupM Knowledge – Hurun Wealth Report 2013.
Addendum for the Small Fry: "Jia said that locals would often witness a steady flow of luxury cars streaming in and out of the complex, alerting them to the extravagance within. They learned of Zhang's banquet from an unidentified whistleblower. 'Every room in the centre had a banquet, and each banquet included abalone and other expensive dishes,' Jia said." In "Chinese official sacked after 'citizen journalists' expose extravagant banquet," Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing, The Guardian UK, 25 April 2013. [ 3 ]
Addendum for the Chub in the China Sea: "The average disposable income of urban Chinese households rose to around $3,000 per capita in 2010, according to an analysis of official government statistics by China Market Research Group. That means a typical family of three earns around $9,000 a year." In "China's middle-class boom," by Annalyn Censky, CNN Money, 26 June 2012.
Addendum of Sensitive Topics: "Opponents of one-party rule, it says, 'have stirred up trouble about disclosing officials’ assets, using the Internet to fight corruption, media controls and other sensitive topics, to provoke discontent with the party and government.' The warnings were not idle. Since the circular was issued, party-run publications and Web sites have vehemently denounced constitutionalism and civil society, notions that were not considered off limits in recent years. Officials have intensified efforts to block access to critical views on the Internet." In "China Takes Aim at Western Ideas," by Chris Buckley, NYTimes, 19 August 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum of the Communist Princelings: "More than a dozen family members of China's top political and military leaders are making use of offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands, leaked financial documents reveal. The brother-in-law of China's current president, Xi Jinping, as well as the son and son-in-law of former premier Wen Jiabao are among the political relations making use of the offshore havens, financial records show." In "China's princelings storing riches in Caribbean offshore haven," by James Ball and Guardian US Interactive Team, Guadrian UK, 21 January 2014. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Millionaires Relocating: "So where were all these millionaires moving from? Mostly China. According to the report, China had a net outflow of 76,200 millionaires during the 10-year period. India was the next largest loser, with a net outflow of 43,400, followed by France, Italy and Russia. The report said Chinese millionaires were mostly moving to Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. Indian millionaires prefer the U.K., U.S. and Australia, while French and Italian millionaires were largely flocking to the U.K. and Switzerland." In "5 countries that gained the most millionaires," by Robert Frank, CNBC, 27 March 2014.
Addendum of Retreat into Power: "In the end, Mao, facilitated by Stalin, built a party-state that neatly combined Leninism, the paternalism of early Chinese sage-rulers and fascism Chinese-style. He sought to craft a 'new man.' Mao's achievement was to unite China after foreign invasions and civil war, and to make China after 1949 a force with which to be reckoned. But his social engineering efforts were largely canceled by Deng Xiaoping after Mao's death in 1976. In subsequent years, the totalitarian state became an authoritarian state. Today, retention of CCP power, moneymaking for the folks below, national glory for all, and a veil over the past in the name of "good feelings" are the chief priorities. With Mao's 'new' Chinese man gone, the 'old' Chinese man of family values, entrepreneurial spirit and a belief in China as a religion reappears. But the soft landing for Mao is not the final word. Some say Deng reversed Mao's revolution, but it is an important distinction that Deng dismantled Mao's thought yet retained Mao's state. Deng-ism (continued by President Hu) was a retreat from as much as possible of Maoism without endangering Leninist political power." In "Market Leninism," by Ross Terrill, Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2007.
Addendum of Size and Scale: "Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang, who is at the centre of China's biggest corruption scandal in more than six decades, two sources said. More than 300 of Zhou's relatives, political allies, proteges and staff have also been taken into custody or questioned in the past four months, the sources, who have been briefed on the investigation, told Reuters. The sheer size of the asset seizures and the scale of the investigations into the people around Zhou - both unreported until now - make the corruption probe unprecedented in modern China and would appear to show that President Xi Jinping is tackling graft at the highest levels. But it may also be driven partly by political payback after Zhou angered leaders such as Xi by opposing the ouster of former high-flying politician Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life in September for corruption and abuse of power. Zhou, 71, has been under virtual house arrest since authorities began formally investigating him late last year. He is the most senior Chinese politician to be ensnared in a corruption investigation since the Communist Party swept to power in 1949. 'It's the ugliest in the history of the New China,' said one of the sources, who has ties to the leadership, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for speaking to the foreign media about elite politics." In "China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief: sources," by Benjamin Kang Lim and Ben Blanchard, Reuters, 30 March 2014. [ 6 ]
Addendum of Rich Chinese Communists: "Many Americans grumble about the wealth of their politicians, but they are paupers compared with their Chinese counterparts. The 50 richest members of America's Congress are worth $1.6 billion in all. In China, the wealthiest 50 delegates to the National People's Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament, control $94.7 billion. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, is the richest man in Congress, with $355m. China's richest delegate is Zong Qinghou, boss of Hangzhou Wahaha Group, a drinks-maker, whose wealth is almost $19 billion (including assets distributed to family). Last year Mr Zong was China's richest man, but was overtaken by Wang Jianlin, who is not a member of the NPC." In "Wealthy politicians," Economist, 28 September 2013.
Addendum of the Richest Man in China: "The 49-year-old founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has a net worth of $21.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His assets include a 7.3 percent economic interest in China’s largest e-commerce business, which is preparing for what could be the largest initial public offering in U.S. history, and almost half of the parent of Alipay, a separate online-payment service that previously hadn’t been included in his net worth calculation." In " Jack Ma Emerges as China’s Richest Man Before Alibaba IPO," by Zijing Wu and Sterling Wong, Bloomberg, 28 August 2014.
Addendum of China's New Marxist Trend: "Xi has espoused old school Maoism as he seeks to court powerful conservative elements in the party. [ 7 ] Like many officials before him, Xi is steeped in the party's long-held belief that loosening control too quickly or even at all could lead to chaos and the break up of the country. In July, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said China would toughen curbs on journalists disclosing state and commercial secrets. Early this year, Chinese journalists also had to pass a new ideology exam to keep their press cards. They were required to do a minimum 18 hours of training on topics including Marxist news values and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." In "China tells journalists to learn 'Marxist news values'," Reuters, 30 August 2014.
Addendum of Massive Bribes: "The leadership has launched sweeping anti-graft campaign in the troops since taking office. This week the authority said one of the senior former military officers Xu Caihou had confessed to taking 'massive' bribes. Xu was found to have taken advantage of his position to assist in the promotion of others, accepting huge bribes personally and through his family, and to have sought profits for others in exchange for bribes. The amount of bribes were 'extremely large', prosecutors said. Xu was CMC vice chairman from 2004 to 2012 and was made a general in 1999. He has been discharged from military service with his rank of general revoked." In "Xi stresses CPC's absolute leadership over army," Xinhuanet, 1 November 2014.
Addendum of Communist Billionaires: "The latest Hurun Global Rich List 2015 charts every dollar billionaire currently living in the world. It shows an additional 222 billionaires were created last year, almost a third of whom were in China. The US still holds the crown for most mega-wealthy residents, at 537. But China is not far behind with 430, having acquired 72 new billionaires in 2014. India now holds third spot, having increased its share of dollar billionaires from 70 to 97, leapfrogging Russia (93) and the United Kingdom (80) in the table." In "Where do the world's 2,089 billionaires live?" by Andrew Marszal, Telegraph UK, 5 February 2015.
Addendum of Explaining Away Communist Billionaires: "Wealth creation is booming for the Chinese -- supported by strong economic growth and robust capital markets -- and it's all happened in the last 15 years, said Francis Liu, a managing director at UBS Wealth Management. They're primarily pulling in the big bucks from real estate, technology, healthcare and other consumer industries, he said. In 2014, there were about 200 billionaires in China, versus 570 in the U.S., according to UBS. Chinese billionaires are also using their new found wealth to give back." In "China gets a new billionaire every week," by Sophia Yan, CNN, 26 May 2015. [ 8 ]
Addendum of More China's Rich Seeking Shelter: "Since 2000, China has had the world's largest outflow of high net worth individuals. Around 91,000 wealthy Chinese sought second citizenship between 2000 and 2014, according to a report by residence investment broker Lio Global, a factor that is fuelling demand to buy foreign property. Most of these individuals, defined as those with net assets of $1 million or more excluding their primary residences, are moving to the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore and Britain. Brian Ward, president of capital markets and investment services for the Americas at commercial property company Colliers International, said Chinese investors had already sunk around $5 billion into U.S. real estate in the first six months of 2015, more than the $4 billion they invested in the whole of 2014." In "China's rich seek shelter from stock market storm in foreign property," by Jane Wardell and Kate Holton, Reuters,11 July 2015. [ 9 ]
Addendum of the Poor Panicking Proletariat: "Right across the country a mounting body of evidence points to a slowdown that many experts believe is far more severe than Beijing admits. Christopher Balding, a Peking University economist based in the southern city of Shenzhen, said China was witnessing a rise in the number of labour disputes and strikes as well as a significant slowdown in migration to cities because of the lack of opportunities and the high cost of living." In "China's workers abandon the city as Beijing faces an economic storm," by Tom Phillips, Guardian UK, 26 August 2015.
Addendum of Chinese Capital's Los Angeles Spending Spree: "The ultra-wealthy Chinese tend to get what they want, and right now most of them want one thing: to get out. More than 60 percent of China’s most affluent citizens have already left the country or are planning to leave it, according to the Los Angeles Times. And L.A. — a politically stable and always-comfortable metropolis where catering to the rich is a way of life — is among their most coveted destinations. The numbers don’t lie: In 2014, a full 20 percent of the city’s $8 billion in real estate sales was purchased by Chinese buyers. Showing no signs of slowing down, this injection of Chinese capital and influence can be felt at every level of L.A.’s culture of consumption." In "Why China Is on an L.A. Spending Spree: 'It's Just Monopoly Money to Them'," by Seth Abramovitch, Hollywood Reporter, 2 October 2015.
Addendum of Armani Communists: "Many of the comments revealed the resentment that some Chinese feel for those connected to the party elite who have become rich as a result of free market reforms which have diluted the Marxist theory of the Maoist years. Others questioned Liu's credentials and implied he was too wealthy to speak at a meeting on state education. One person who posted a picture of Liu commented: 'He can only represent the upper class, he should be representing the grassroots'." In "'Armani Communist' divides China," BBC, 6 February 2016.
Addendum of the Billionaire Capital of the World: "Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of Hurun, attributed China's explosive wealth creation to Chinese market regulators allowing a flood of new initial public offerings after holding back new IPOs for several years. Hoogewerf said his wealth calculations were made using stock prices as of Jan. 15, which means they took into account the Chinese market's 40 percent tumble over the past half year. Had the calculations been made at the market's peak last summer, the number of Chinese billionaires would have been nearly 150, Hoogewerf said." In "Beijing overtakes NYC as 'Billionaire Capital of the World'," by Gerry Shih, Associated Press, 24 February 2016.
Addendum of a China of Billionaires Laying Off Millions of Workers: "China aims to lay off 5 to 6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution." In "China to sack SIX MILLION state workers from its hugely inefficient state sector," by Tom Wyke, Mail Online and Reuters, 3 March 2016. [ 10 ]
Addendum of Insight Into Chinese Communism As Practiced: "China is the least generous country in the world, according to a worldwide survey on generosity by the Charities Aid Foundation. The 2016 CAF World Giving Index is based on a poll of 1,000 respondents from 140 countries and regions, asking them if in the last month they helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time. China ranked 140th place in the poll, behind Palestine, Yemen, Greece and the Democratic Republic of Congo, lifestyle website Shanghaiist reports." In "China least generous country in the world: poll," Hong Kong Economic Journal Insight, 29 October 2016.
Addendum of Exposure of Corruption Feared: "China’s foreign ministry says Interpol has issued a 'red notice' seeking the arrest of Guo Wengui, a Chinese billionaire who has threatened to disclose corruption at the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the disclosure on Wednesday but gave no details about Guo’s alleged crimes." In "China hunts for billionaire who threatened to expose corruption," by Associated Press, 19 April 2017.
Addendum of Marxist-Leninists Not Wanting Rivals: "As China’s private sector has blossomed, the state has hardened its Leninist core, which dictates that the communist party should face no rival centers of power. Mr. Wu’s detention—and the harassment of other rich entrepreneurs—seems to be a taste of the struggles to come between the party and the business class." In "China Takes On Its New Tycoons," by Richard McGregor, Wall Street Journal, 13 October 2017. [ 11 ]
Addendum of the Party of the Wealthy and Powerful: "Carl Minzner, an expert in Chinese law and governance at Fordham University in New York, said the party’s socialist rhetoric had become 'water-cooler banter and fodder for jokes' among educated Chinese. 'The party of revolution is now the party of the wealthy and powerful,' he said. 'They’ve got to stand for something. They’re worried about the moral void at the core of Chinese society'." In "To Inspire Young Communists, China Turns to 'Red Army' Schools," by Javier C. Hernández, New York Times, 15 October 2017.
Addendum of Concentrating Power and Wealth: "The communique that wrapped up the plenary session -- the curtain-raising event to the 19th Communist Party national congress, currently underway in Beijing -- omits the words 'the firm maintenance of the collective leadership system.' The phrase has been in communiques of previous central committees and has been the political consensus since the days of Deng Xiaoping. They have served as a reminder not to return to the charismatic but erratic days of the Mao Zedong autocracy. 'Whatever rule changes are made at the national congress, the leadership system will become one in which President Xi Jinping calls the shots,' one party source said. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao still has many proteges within the Chinese Communist Party leadership. The communique calls for power to be concentrated in the hands of Xi. Furthermore, the plenary session moved to enshrine Xi's political thought in the Communist Party's constitution during the current national congress." In "Xi Jinping and the end of collective leadership," by Katsuji Nakazawa, Nikkei Asian News, 23 October 2017.
Addendum of the Communist 1 Percent: "But Xi knows that Beijing has not repealed the basic economic theory: There are too many people chasing too few opportunities, with 1 percent of China’s population holding a third of the country’s wealth, by the government’s own estimates. And with an aging population, whose problems are exacerbated by decades of the one-child policy, the country has too few entrants into the labor market to keep wages low. This is made worse by an education rate inadequate to the task of creating a middle-class work force that can help China escape its globally assigned role as low-cost producer and arrest its decline in economic growth. According to some estimates, more than three-quarters of the labor force did not complete high school." In "What President Xi Knows about China’s Economy," by Therese Shaheen, National Review, 25 October 2017. [ 12 ]
Addendum of Consolidating Power Once Again: "Now with omnipotent power firmly in his hands, Xi Jinping wants to do something neither Mao nor Deng has done -- he wants the combination of Mao's totalitarianism and Deng's crony capitalism. This may be a new era for Xi Jinping, but for the Chinese people, it means more political control, more censorship of media, more crackdowns on any activities that are not inline with the Communist Party's agenda. Under such a situation, crony capitalism will be cronier and corruption will continue." In "Opinion: Xi Jinping Thought Combines Mao's Totalitarianism And Deng's Crony Capitalism," by Helen H. Wang, Forbes, 31 October 2017.
Addendum of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Becoming a Dictatorship: "At a Central Committee plenary session in January, party leaders decided on a plan to write Xi’s guiding principle into the constitution at the National People’s Congress scheduled for next month. Xi will also be formally elected to his second term at the annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament, which opens March 5. The principle, entitled “'Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era,' was added to the Communist Party’s constitution last year." In "China to scrap term limits for president, paving way for Xi to stay at helm," by Jesse Johnson, Japan Times, 25 February 2018.
Addendum of Capital for Russian Communists: "Farm oligarch Pavel Grudinin, running as the Communist Party s candidate for the March 18 Russian presidential election, caught having foreign accounts, Russia’s Central Election Commission has said." In "BUSTED: Communist Presidential Candidate Caught Hiding His Foreign Bank Accounts," Russian Insider, 19 January 2018. [ 13 ]
Addendum of Another Super-Rich Communist: "The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development. He is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin among its billionaire members." In "Jack Ma, China's richest man, is a Communist Party member," Agence France Presse, 27 November 2018. [ 14 ]
Addendum of Angering the Wealthy Communist Royalty: '... to say that she is the CFO of Huawei doesn’t begin to explain her importance — or China’s reaction. It turns out that 'Princess' Meng, as she is called, is Communist royalty. Her grandfather was a close comrade of Chairman Mao during the Chinese Civil War, who went on to become vice governor of China’s largest province. She is also the daughter of Huawei’s Founder and Chairman, Ren Zhengfei. Daddy is grooming her to succeed him when he retires. In other words, Meng is the heiress apparent of China’s largest and most advanced hi-tech company, and one which plays a key role in China’s grand strategy of global domination." In "How arrest of Chinese ‘princess’ exposes regime’s world domination plot," by Steven W. Mosher, New York Post, 22 December 2018.
Addendum of Chinese Communist Colonialism via Capital: "It is becoming increasingly clear that China’s designs on the nations of Africa are anything but benevolent. Kenya appears to be lining up behind Zambia, which is slated to lose its international airport, as well as its national electricity grid because of defaults on Chinese loans. African nations must wake up to China’s new form of colonialism that is chipping away at their critical infrastructure one major asset at a time." In "China's African debt-trap: Beijing prepares to seize Kenya's port of Mombasa," by Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, 27 December 2018. [ 15 ]
Addendum of Chinese Communism and France: "French police have seized ten Chinese-owned wine châteaux in Bordeaux on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering, a police source said on Friday. The châteaux, worth nearly £25 million, are owned by the Haichang Group, controlled by one of China’s richest men, Qu Naijie, 57, an oil billionaire." In "France seizes 10 Chinese-owned chateaux in Bordeaux on suspicion of tax fraud," by Jannat Jalil, Telegraph UK, 29 June 2019.
Addendum of Cracks Appearing: "...not only has China not become liberalized, the 'party regime is tighter and better organized now than it was under Mao.' As for now, Waldron pointed out that U.S. trade and investment, including those from the pension funds, into China, is keeping the Chinese Communist Party afloat. 'If they had to live on what they can get from their state-owned enterprises, which lose money, and from taxation, it would be a completely different situation,' Waldron said." In "The Chinese Communist Regime is on the Brink of 'Disintegration,' Says Leading China Expert," by Frank Fang, Epoch Times, 6 December 2019. [ 16 ]
Addendum of Chinese Communist Capital Fleeing Chinese Communism: "Money was leaving the country at a record clip earlier this year through unauthorized channels, according to analysts. That's bad news for China, which needs to keep financial reserves high to maintain confidence in its markets. Now Chinese officials are trying harder than ever to avoid a repeat of the financial scare four years ago that sapped its money reserves by hundreds of billions of dollars. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, a key government regulator, said Sunday that its most important job next year is to prevent major financial risks, avoid 'abnormal' capital flows across its borders and crack down on illegal trading activities." In "Money has been leaving China at a record rate. Beijing is battling to stem the tide," by Laura He, CNN Business, 19 December 2019. [ 17 ]
Corollary -- See Anti-capitalism struggles
See also: Put the past to rest
NOTES
[ 1 ] Compare and contrast Xi Jinping's family reportedly having "wealth of hundreds of millions" with the following:
"Results of a wide-ranging survey of Chinese family wealth and living habits released this week by Peking University show a wide gap in income between the nation’s top earners and those at the bottom, and a vast difference between earners in top-tier coastal cities and those in interior provinces. The survey found that in 2012, the households in the top 5 percent income bracket earned 23 percent of China’s total household income. The households in the lowest 5 percent accounted for just 0.1 percent of total income. Average annual income for a family in 2012 was 13,000 renminbi, or about $2,100." In "Survey in China Shows a Wide Gap in Income," by Edward Wong, New York Times, 19 July 2013.
It seems the top Communists in China have become massively wealthy while preaching their Chinese form of socialism. One reads: "Close relatives of China's top leaders have used secretive offshore companies in tax havens that helped shroud the Communist elite's wealth, according to a massive cache of leaked financial records, posing a formidable challenge for President Xi Jinping, the country's avowed anti-corruption leader. The confidential files include details of a real estate company co-owned by Xi's brother-in-law, as well as British Virgin Islands corporations set up by former premier Wen Jiabao's son and son-in-law, plus dozens of more cases of people tied to high-level officials. " In "Offshore assets of China's elite revealed in leaked records," CBC News, 21 January 2014.
The Obama Administration's View - State Run Communism Works
In spite of the economic disparity between the Communist elite and the average Chinese citizen, one finds admiration for Chinese Communism as currently exists:
"...the Chairman of President Obama's Jobs and Competitiveness Council, comes clean with us on what he actually believes and advocates. '...the one thing that actually works, you know, state run communism may not be your cup of tea, but their government works. They have five-year plans.' Not only is this a clear indication of what President Obama has been hearing for a long time now, but it also implicitly shows that Jeff Immelt is in bed with the government, and as such he expects preferential treatment." In "State Communism's Newest (public) Advocate: Jeff Immelt," by Crown Thomas, ZeroHedge, 17 December 2012.
This confluence of related facts leads one to observe that an American CEO worth millions has expressed admiration for a nation whose elite political leadership are worth millions, while one finds the "expanding" middle class in China earns as reported above. What does this say about government and corporate leadership? Factually it says that government leaders and corporate leaders being subsidized by government programs are elite, wealthy and powerful, while the general populace is none of these.
The Principal Contradiction Remains
Let us employ the language of early Communist thought, as regards a landlord class -- think millions in wealth -- versus the poorer class -- think a few thousands in yearly income, as we look back as some interesting words:
"It was under such feudal economic exploitation and political oppression that the Chinese peasants lived like slaves, in poverty and suffering, through the ages. Under the bondage of feudalism they had no freedom of person. The landlord had the right to beat, abuse or even kill them at will, and they had no political rights whatsoever. The extreme poverty and backwardness of the peasants resulting from ruthless landlord exploitation and oppression is the basic reason why Chinese society remained at the same stage of socio-economic development for several thousand years. The principal contradiction in feudal society was between the peasantry and the landlord class." In "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party," Mao Tse-tung, 1939, as found at Marxist.org.
Xi Jinping' millions and an "average annual income for a family in 2012 was 13,000 renminbi, or about $2,100" is a rather clear and utterly modern truth about the outcome of Chinese Communism, rather akin to the supposed "feudal society," which one might well argue still exists. But as is the case with Cuban socialism, the rhetoric does not match the reality. See: Socialism's Last Hurrah
Purveyors and Victims of Deceit
What one may well conclude is that reality speaks a far different language than much of Communist rhetoric. One finds this expressed in the following: "... many who write on communist policy and performance are either purveyors or victims of deceit." From a book review by John C. Campbell for Foreign Affairs, "The Poverty of Communism," Nicholas Eberstadt, author, Transaction Books, 1988.
A review is then apt: "The Four Cardinal Principles (Chinese: 四项基本原则, pinyin: sì xiàng jīběn yuánzé) were stated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and are the four issues for which debate was not allowed within the People's Republic of China. These are: 1. the principle of upholding the socialist path, 2. the principle of upholding the people's democratic dictatorship, 3. the principle of upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and 4. the principle of upholding Mao Tse–Tung thought and Marxism-Leninism." Wikipedia sourced. Based on the 1939 statement of Mao describing a landlord class, one may conclude that Deng's restatement of the fourth principle illustrates Campbell's statement above as regards "purveyors or victims of deceit."
What is not deceit is that Xi Jinping' millions speaks volumes about "Capital for Communists - a story growing old."
As one watches, the call from Xi Jinping goes out to reinforce the party, and this makes rational sense. Given that the cronies atop the system have become massively wealthy Chinese Communists, an obedient party is intended to protect them.
Adhering to Correct Political Orientation
One reads: " 'Higher education ... must adhere to correct political orientation,' Xi said in a high-profile speech to top party leaders and university chiefs that was delivered at a two-day congress on 'ideological and political work' in Beijing. Universities must be transformed into 'strongholds that adhere to party leadership' and political education should be made 'more appealing', the president ordered, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency. Experts have described it as the latest phase of Beijing’s bid to rein in opposition to its rule. Xi, a populist strongman who recently reaffirmed his political authority by being declared the party’s 'core leader', said teachers needed to be both 'disseminators of advanced ideology' and 'staunch supporters of [party] governance'." In "China universities must become Communist party 'strongholds', says Xi Jinping," by Tom Phillips, Guardian UK, 9 December 2016.
Of course. From what other source would the enormously wealthy Marxists draw their cadre of defenders?
It is and has always been a matter of acquiring and preserving power, though the vocabulary changes over time to obscure similarities and fashion them into differences.
I Am the State
Of another example, of Louis XIV (1638-1715) -- known as Louis the God-Given, Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the Sun King (Roi Soleil) -- Wikipedia notes that "[n]umerous quotes have been attributed to Louis XIV by legend. The well-known 'I am the state' ('L'état, c'est moi.') was reported from at least the late 18th century. It was widely repeated but also denounced as apocryphal by the early 19th century." But the identification of central, personal power also ended with a caveat: "Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince, and may you apply yourself principally to the alleviation of the burdens of your subjects." Cited in Wikipedia, from Bluche, François. "Louis XIV," Hachette Litteratures, Paris (1986).
State Power is One Individual
As one reads of the Communist Chinese in 2018, it shows: " 'This move, which would allow for a single individual to amass and accumulate political power, means that China would again have a dictator as her head of state - Xi Jinping,' said Joshua Wong, one of the movement’s leaders. 'The law may exist in China in form, but this just proves that the Chinese law exists to serve the individual and the party’s purposes.' China is likely though to see any such criticism as a plot against the party." In "China pushes back against criticism of plan for Xi to stay in power," by Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina, Reuters, 26 February 2018.
It is worth repetition, as one compares the "divine right" asserted by a historical French monarch as law centuries ago and a Communist today: "...Chinese law exists to serve the individual and the party’s purposes."
[ 2 ] As to "liabilities," one reads: "A new, sharply worded IMF report said that Chinese government debt has been growing faster than reported, and at 45 percent of annual economic output is perhaps double the officially recorded level. The country’s reliance on state spending, credit, and investment to prop up economic growth had become 'unsustainable,' the IMF said, and needed to shift direction soon to avoid an eventual and potentially devastating crisis." In "IMF labels China’s economic policy 'unsustainable' as trade talks are suspended," by Howard Schneider, Washington Post, 17 July 2013.
Government Doesn't Know
One learns also: "A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates. Estimates of local government debt range from Standard Chartered's 15 percent of the country's GDP at end-2012 to Credit Suisse's 36 percent. Fitch put the figure at 25 percent when it downgraded China's sovereign debt rating in April." In "China admits local govt debt levels unknown, could be higher than estimated," Reuters, 5 July 2013.
Red Nobility Over the Masses
But as to "red nobility," one learns of the Chinese economic elite: "A decade ago, China had no dollar billionaires. Now the country has more billionaires than any other country except the US. The latest rankings reflect the rapid changes in China's economy and shifts in wealth from one industry to the next. One in four of the 1,021 people on the Hurun rich list made their money from property, which passed manufacturing to become this year's top source of wealth in China. Hurun said 559 of those on the list saw their wealth grow, while 252 saw their fortunes shrink. Property prices in China have soared, driven partly by a flood of government spending and bank lending in response to the 2008 global crisis. The surge in asset prices has helped widen the gulf between China's wealthy elite and the poor majority, fuelling social tensions." In "China Billionaires: Sharp Rise In Richest, Sky News, 11 September 2013.
How very Communist. But this makes sense when one considers that all forms of government and central banking move towards wealth and power, and said wealth and power amass to the few. Such is the nature of power, and such is the nature of -- how Communist -- any dictatorship of any proletariat.
[ 3 ] As one reads of "millions" for the Chinese president against a backdrop of an average annual income of "about $2,100," one notices also that healthcare has become a matter of this: "Bribery is the lubricant that helps keep China's public hospitals running, and the health system would struggle to function without illegal payments to poorly paid doctors and administrators, say medical practitioners and industry experts. They say government policies are partly to blame for a system in which doctors and other staff expect to be paid extra fees to perform operations and take kickbacks from pharmaceutical firms and medical-equipment suppliers." In "Bribery serves as life-support for Chinese hospitals," by Kazunori Takada, Reuters, 23 July 2013.
[ 4 ] Most amusingly, the one party leadership with its billionaire fat cats is upset with "dissent" which means exposure for these fat cats: "China has ordered its entire press corps back to school in an effort to shore up ideological unity. The nation’s 307,000 reporters, producers and editors will soon have to sit through at least two days of Marxism classes, the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department has announced along with the press association and the state press regulator. The announcement comes a week after Xi Jinping called for increased unity in a much publicised speech and amid a widening crackdown on online dissent." In "China orders nation’s journalists to take Marxism classes," by Patrick Boehler, South China Morning Post, 27 August 2013.
No Dissent Allowed
One reads later in the same article, "Journalists have reacted with muted apathy to the announcement made by Xinhua on Tuesday. 'I’ve studied Marxism for so many years, the more I study it, the less I understand it,' was a Beijing-based journalist’s reaction. 'Speechless,' Lv Minghe, an investigative reporter with Southern Weekly commented in a Sina Weibo post."
There is relatively little to understand. Wealth and power unite in a single party system to amass wealth and power under the guise of "whatever" as long as it means eventually "Capital for Communists."
Such an example has been reported: "Wang Gongquan, a 52-year-old venture capitalist, was taken into custody at noon by around 20 policemen, according to Teng Biao, a Beijing-based rights activist and lawyer. Police claimed Mr Wang was 'suspected of committing the crime of disturbing [public] order', Prof. Teng said. But friends say Mr Wang is the latest victim of an ongoing government crackdown and believe he is being punished for speaking out in defence of his friend, the jailed activist Xu Zhiyong. Mr Wang is a prominent supporter of the New Citizens’ Movement, a loose coalition of petitioners, academics and lawyers that was founded last year and holds monthly dinners at which members discuss social change. Observers believe its supporters now number in the thousands." In "China billionaire businessman detained for 'dissent'," by Tom Phillips, Telegraph UK, 13 September 2013.
The dark irony here is that one learns of the top Chinese Communists in a one party government all amass capital, and even the "52-year-old venture capitalist" had done so. The crime for today's Communists therefore is not to amass capital, but to upset the applecart. How? By telling of such Communist "capitalists," as by suggesting that "social change" might threaten their one-party's very capital-intensive party.
Control Through the Barrel of the Gun
As such, crackdowns are to have been expected. Any enterprise which wants little or no scrutiny behaves this way. One reads: "In practice, the crime of 'stirring up trouble' has often been used to silence political activists and critics of the Communist party or individual leaders. 'With this legislation the party is trying to regain ownership over public discourse,' said one normally outspoken professor of politics at one of China’s top universities, who asked not to be named because of fear of reprisal. 'It is equally important to the party to control both public opinion and the barrel of the gun'." In "China intensifies internet crackdown," by Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times, 16 September 2013.
Dictatorship Over the Proletariat
One read above, "I’ve studied Marxism for so many years, the more I study it, the less I understand it." It is quite easy to understand it by simply observing the socialists across the 20th century and into this 21st century. One party apparatus allows the top dogs to amass "power and wealth" at the same time. The wealth is obvious, but the power is telling, for it is applied to quash dissent and this obvious conclusion. Communism in practice has always been about capital for Communists' elite class -- and it is crucial for this elite that no one upset the system which fosters their wealth and power.
[ 5 ] "As the country has moved from an insular communist system to a socialist/capitalist hybrid, China has become a leading market for offshore havens that peddle secrecy, tax shelters and streamlined international deal making. Every corner of China’s economy, from oil to green energy and from mining to arms trading, appears in the ICIJ data. Chinese officials aren’t required to disclose their assets publicly and until now citizens have remained largely in the dark about the parallel economy that can allow the powerful and well-connected to avoid taxes and keep their dealings secret. By some estimates, between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left the country since 2000." In "Leaked Records Reveal Offshore Holdings of China’s Elite," by Marina Walker Guevara, Gerard Ryle, Alexa Olesen, Mar Cabra, Michael Hudson and Christoph Giesen, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 21 January 2014.
Obfuscation Through Language
This is an excellent reason to learn skepticism as regards political jargon. Note "communist" somehow becoming a "socialist/capitalist hybrid." In fact, China is a one-party state with the pretense of democratic structures, as have been Arab and North African nations, Cuba, North Korea and others. The fact is that under one party rule, one party rules. Stating this is communist, socialist or crony capitalist changes nothing about the reality of "rule."
As history across centuries has taught, "rule" is about wealth and power for the few. The terminology changes over time, but the underlying reality remains. Wealth and power are sought, and by the nature of these can only be won by the "few." Ergo dictatorships, one party rule, political dominance and the like. The explains the truth of this rhyme's title, "Capital for Communists." It is indeed a story growing old. It is an old story telling a truth which ideologues and apologists seek to ignore.
[ 6 ] So elite Chinese Communists love capital -- and lots of it. Is there any doubt left, when billions of reasons leap out into the news of corruption? One has seen government corruption in the Soviet Union, as in the DDR and in many other socialist lands. One has seen millions murdered in parallel with an elite responsible for both.
Communists Lay Off Workers
And oddly while the elite gather massive wealth while declaring socialist solidarity and requiring loyalty to the one-party state, one finds such news as this: "China said on Monday it expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, or about 15 percent of the workforce, as part of efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity, but no timeframe was given. It was the first time China has given figures that underline the magnitude of its task in dealing with slowing growth and bloated state enterprises." In "China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in coal, steel sectors," by Kevin Yao and Meng Meng, Reuters, 29 February 2016.
Thus the correct picture is a billionaire elite with millions of "workers" being fired. Let one recall the "workers of the world unite to through off your chains," while considering the Chinese Communists' billionaires and lowly, easily discarded workers.
[ 7 ] The use of vocabulary is political reporting is interesting. One learns from the news writer that Marxist-Maoist trends are now "conservative." Therefore one might conflate conservative political tendencies with Marxism and "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." Such is the nonsense in the news, the idiocy of the Left-Right or Liberal-Conservative model of shortcutting socio-economic realities and the identity of governments and their "isms."
Consider the truth of jargon-dumb political speech and reporting that Left is Right, as Right is Left
When a country of billionaires led by a one-party state headed by a billionaire is spoken about in terms of politics and economics as "conservative" while Communist, as well as officially informed by a "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," up is indeed down, and Left is indeed Right -- while utterly wrong.
The whole game is something else, that one is expected to Bring presents to the party
[ 8 ] News reporting can sometimes be extraordinarily amusing. This report says that billions being accumulated by "Chinese billionaires are also using their new found wealth to give back." What an odd notion that "giving back" a small proportion of billions constitutes giving back, per se. Would not "giving back" be better measured by billionaires becoming mere millionaires by "giving back" billions?
Communist Elites Looking to Preserve Wealth
The editorialized report fumbles, by later noting these same "giving back" Chinese Communists will preserve their wealth, which is rather not "giving back." One reads: "Going forward, estate planning will be key -- two-thirds of the world's billionaires are over 60 years old, and they'll be looking to preserve their wealth for future generations, according to the report."
The pretense of some Western media that Chinese billionaires are an anomaly in the single-party Chinese Communist state is ludicrous, and the editorial slant that these wealthy are busy "giving back" is proven a lie, when one looks to where Chinese capital is moving. It is moving into shelters from taxation as from confiscation.
Given the Marxist principles of abolition of private property and all rights of inheritance, the CNN's very inarticulate report fails to explain how Chinese Communism is in fact an economic mechanism for "Wealth creation... booming for the Chinese...." For the largest portion of the Chinese, "wealth creation" is not occurring. Rather "booming for the Chinese" is demonstrably "booming for few Chinese." As a one-party, officially Communist nation, much of the picture is false.
Chinese Communist Version of the Illusory Trompe l'oeil
One refers back to the Communist Manifesto of 1848, and reads in part: "Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable. 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels." In "Chapter II. Proletarians and Communists," of The Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848.
With the Manifesto in mind, one sees that billionaires in the Chinese elite are not only unusual, compared to the general population, but also decidedly not Communist, given what Communism is supposed to promise its proponents. But I have learned that many ardent Western Communists have failed to read the founding Communist documents, fail to account for the economic collapse of many socialist governments, and specifically in the case of Communist China are unable to explain to formation of "wealth" by a small elite and the flight of capital by which these elite are attempting to shelter said capital. And where is the capital from Communist elites fleeing? To non-Communist countries. How odd for Communists to behave this way.
Planning a Great Escape in Case of a Real Revolution
More media reports take notice: "China topped the list of most high net worth individuals changing their domicile, or permanent home, with 91,000. Indians came in second, with 61,000 out of 226,800 millionaires, leaving their native country. Indian high net worth individuals tended to move to the United Arab Emirates, the UK, the US and Australia. One reason countries would want to be more welcoming to the Chinese is they buy property and other big ticket purchases. They also make other investments that benefit the local economies." In "Chinese millionaires play 'Great Escape'," Asia Times, 14 July 2015.
But CNN in the cited article alleges that "Chinese billionaires are also using their new found wealth to give back." How do billionaires amass billions in a Communist nation, to begin with?
Not by fleeing capital control, taxation and confiscation.
Meanwhile back at reality ranch, the average Chinese was not even close to being a billionaire. The World Bank reports the GDP per capita for China at $6,807, while Forbes reported in 2010 the "annual household income in China, converted to dollars, was $10,220...."
Whether measured by per capita or by household, China is not home to many wealthy individuals or families. So much for "giving back" except in the same way that Western wealth is "given back" via foundations and their philanthropy which is first oriented to "preserving their wealth." Were this not true, there would be few wealthy foundations and wealthy "philanthropists" continuing to "preserve their wealth." There would be moderately wealthy individuals or families who had shed their "billions" in favor of perhaps a few million. This is of course not the case, as one may observe in the many indelicate truths which lie beneath the latest popular political phrase, Income Inequality
Where then are all these Communist billionaires -- as well as "liberal" Western billionaires -- coming from? A likely answer is found as these wealthy Bring presents to the party
[ 9 ] Given some basic facts -- a simple comparison between the billionaires atop the Chinese Communist Party and the median per capita income of most Chinese at about ten thousand dollars -- the reports of capital outflow in the billions from China are not about ordinary Chinese citizens moving their small savings to another sovereign economic entity, but about the wealthy Communists moving their capital to safe havens.
Communists' Capital Flight from Communism
China's "rich" are elite Communists -- including the premier, as the opening citation which precedes the rhyme tells. Of the capital outflow in 2015, one reads: "Capital flight for the first three weeks of August is already close to $100bn, despite draconian use of anti-terrorism and money-laundering laws to curb illicit flows." In "Record capital flight from China as industrial slump drags on," by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 21 August 2015.
Thus one sees party-connected power preserving its capital wealth while posturing to the little guy their populist Communist myth. The article notes: "Capital outflows from emerging markets have reached $940bn since June 2014, according to NN Investment Partners. The damage from the EM crisis is ricocheting back into the US. High-yield bonds spreads have surged to three-year highs, rising to bankruptcy levels of 1100 basis points for energy companies."
Fleecing
Thus one also sees the effect of capital outflow from China and to other safe monetary and investment havens. When a people and their nation have been ripped off -- in the normal sense of not only Marxist class theory, but also simple government corruption -- where does one see the take from the "theft?" Normally the spoils are preserved somewhere, with the hopes of preserving the take. Such has been the case with governments for centuries, and especially in this modern era in which the Old-fashioned
Thus the vocabulary of "Chinese billionaire" and Communist Party link together. In one such instance, to avoid tariffs Chinese Communists stockpiled inventory for sale through NAFTA. One reads: "U.S. aluminum executives claim Liu Zhongtian, founder of Chinese metals conglomerate China Zhongwang, used a factory in Mexico to game the global trade system." In "Chinese Billionaire Linked to Giant Aluminum Stockpile in Mexican Desert," by Scott Patterson, John W. Miller, and Chun-Wei Yap, Wall Street Journal, 9 September 2016.
More: "Liu controls China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd, the world's second largest aluminum producer in its category. His current fortune is estimated at $3.2 billion according to Forbes." In "Chinese billionaire 'hid $2bn aluminium pile in Mexican desert and then sold it across the border to America to avoid costly tariffs', claim US rivals," by Clemence Machallon, Daily Mail, 12 September 2016.
Politics
[ 10 ] One recalls Communist rhetoric of workers of the world throwing off their chains. It is a dark irony that now Communism is throwing off the "chains" of workers by firing them from jobs.
Hugely Inefficient
The article notes a history lesson: "The hugely inefficient state sector employed around 37 million people in 2013 and accounts for about 40 percent of the country's industrial output and nearly half of its bank lending."
The academic-nurtured romance with various theories of socialism as found in the West fail to observe basic facts, such as those which tell a tale of massive government so easily becoming massively corrupt, of billionaires among the ranks of the single-party Communist state, of enormous layoffs of "workers" so beloved by the academics who themselves usually seek remuneration far above the average worker, and the failure of what always has become So shall ism
The basic fallacy underneath the romance of Western apologists for socialism in its various forms is that Socialists love money
One phrase in the Mail Online/ Reuters article tells the tale of the "hugely inefficient state sector." This phrase tells the truism of government everywhere and throughout history. Consider that Fat, fat government
And then consider the estimates of the current Chinese premier's wealth. This is the true nature of Capital for Communists
[ 11 ] The oddity if Xi, in control of massive amounts of capital assets, spouting Marxist-Leninist theory is a laugh and simple camouflage for the simple reality of power and wealth. Atop the system, Xi and his allies worry about power and wealth gathering to oppose them, as power and wealth does.
Berkeley's Believers in Marxist-Leninist Theory
A joke is embedded in the Wall Street Journal article: "From a near-standing start in the 1990s, entrepreneurs now account for three-quarters of China’s economic output and employ more than 80% of workers in its cities, according to Andy Rothman, an investment strategist with Matthews Asia in San Francisco. 'The Chinese economy has been for the last decade—and will be forever into the future—driven by the private sector. That’s not in dispute,' said Mr. Rothman. 'There’s more people in Berkeley, where I live, who believe in Marxist-Leninist theory than in Beijing.' But while China’s new entrepreneurial class may not believe in Marx, its leaders have other ideas. 'If we deviate from or abandon Marxism, our party would lose its soul and direction,' Mr. Xi told a meeting of senior party officials in September. That same week, the party and the government issued a joint statement defining for the first time the essential qualities of 'Chinese entrepreneurship.' At the top was 'patriotism'."
Marxist-Leninist theory and practice from a century ago would have declared these new "capitalist" tycoons to be "kulaks" and disposed of them in favor of the state's control of production and distribution. That the current Chinese "Communists" rely on capitalism's behaviors for 3/4s of China's economic output demonstrates the humbug in all this. Chinese Communists want capitalism to produce and employ citizens -- "more than 80% of workers in its cities" -- but through the one-party state insists on its hegemony over power and eventually wealth as well, witness Xi's personal fortune.
And so, indeed, 'There’s more people in Berkeley, where I live, who believe in Marxist-Leninist theory than in Beijing.'
Chinese Communist Rejection of Democracy
What is proven true is that power and wealth, draped in political rhetoric as camouflage, is about retaining power and wealth. As to control, one reads: "...beyond the congress' displays of pageantry and protocol — its chandeliers, identical black suits and long, turgid speeches — Li's experience is a vivid reminder of the party's propensity for maintaining its grip on power through violence and fear. The Communist Party, under Xi, has introduced new, draconian legislation tightening control over religion, foreign non-governmental organizations and the internet. Xi's sweeping anti-corruption drive has 'punished' more than a million officials and suppressed competing party factions. He has repeatedly vowed to preside over a 'national rejuvenation' — one that categorically rejects 'Western values' such as democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech. The media has been neutered. Scores of lawyers, activists and journalists have been jailed." In "China's rising authoritarianism has a stark human cost," by Jonathan Kaiman, Los Angeles Times, 20 October 2017.
Then, with such control from a national hierarchy, "capital" is to be directed by edict. One reads: "China will introduce measures aimed at guiding private investment into areas that have a higher growth potential, a senior official with the state planning agency said on Saturday. China also would take steps to lower the investment threshold for private investors, said Zhang Yong, the vice-head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), during a briefing on the sidelines of China’s Communist Party Congress. The manufacturing industry as well as the property market, which have been driving private investment, are now quite weak, Zhang said." In "China says will guide private capital into higher growth areas," staff, Reuters, 21 October 2017.
But, as above, those in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communists hold "private capital," all the while these same hope to lure foreign investors' private capital to be "guided" by them. The model has been tried before, in the Marxist-Leninist tradition of decrying Sheer Ignorance
[ 12 ] The article notes a plain fact: "...China’s is an economy in serious imbalance, on a scale not seen since the global economy became so integrated. While the world focuses on and benefits from the China of relative affluence and modernity in Beijing and the coastal provinces, on tech billionaires, high-speed trains, and the global supply chain, Xi knows that more than 500 million Chinese are living in poverty and rural destitution. The World Bank estimates that more than 400 million subsist on $4 a day."
Thus the fiction that China has vast potential as a consumer market is naive, and asserting this is ideological as if to ignore the basic reality that $4 a day will not pay top dollar for technology, entertainment, luxury goods and more. But the Communists' elite one percent will.
[ 13 ] The official Communist Party of Russia is represented by a "rich" candidate. How rich?
One reads: "The Communist Party nominated the farm magnate as its candidate at its party congress late last month. .... According to information on candidates’ finances, released by the Committee, Grudinin’s income over past five years amounted to some 157.5 million rubles ($2.8 million). Grudinin has also declared he did not have any foreign accounts or financial instruments at the moment of registration as a candidate. According to another released document, however, the “candidate and his spouse” are in possession of bonds, options and other assets in the National Bank of Lichtenstein amounting to some 7.5 billion rubles ($132.23 million)." In " 'Lenin' farm director registered as 2nd candidate for presidential election," by Russia Today, 12 January 2018.
Just Another Wealthy Communist
Taking the smaller number as reported by the Communist Party, this party member apparently received the equivalent of $560,000 a year to lead a communal farm.
The public relations for this may be seen in a quote from another article: "...Mr. Grudinin. 'We have managed. Today ours are the only strawberry fields practically within sight of the Kremlin.' He claims that Lenin Sovkhoz is not so much a remnant of the past as it is a beacon for the future. 'We live quite well here. This is perhaps the way we would all have lived if not for the collapse of the USSR and all that mad privatization that followed,' he says." In "In capitalist Russia, a socialist garden flourishes," by Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor, 6 September 2017.
So a "socialist garden" is defined in part by an officially Communist leadership being paid of $560,000 a year. How murky the definitions become when plain numbers are obscured by political verbiage.
In Accordance With the Law
One reads further: "The promoted worker of the Communist party Pavel Grudinin was the second candidate, which was registered by the Central election Commission. Earlier, on December 29, the CEC registered the presidential candidate, the LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Speaking at the session the Central election Commission 12 Jan, Pavel Grudinin said, 'I read a lot in the press that someone is dissatisfied with something, but I am convinced that the CEC actions are actions in accordance with the law'. He previously stated that he was ready 'to do everything to ensure that elections were fair'. Member of the Central election Commission Evgeny Kolyushin said that, according to the requirements of the law, before the extension Grudinin has closed five accounts in an Austrian Bank. One of them left 17 million rubles." In "Grudinin has closed five foreign accounts to register as a presidential candidate," The Newspapers, 20 January 2018.
Thus one sees a plain picture of a "one percenter" parading himself with the help of his party as a "promoted worker." One wonders what would happen when the remaining members of the Communist Party in Russia would expect similar capital remuneration. A revolution of the wealthy? The irony of this is as comic and tragic as the many billionaires of the Chinese Communist Party, for both prove the simple argument that the ideology is a smokescreen for the amalgamation of wealth and power. After all, how many good little Communists in Russia and China hold millions of dollars in capital?
Indeed the "socialist garden flourishes," as wrote Fred Weir above. It flourishes for the few over the many.
[ 14 ] The popularized persona is factually Jack Ma Yun, and a wealthy Communist. Go figure. But the more personal side to this is that among the many spam I receive, and am able to trace back to spammers, Ma and other Chinese Communists play a part.
Much spam comes through Ma-founded Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and Chengdu West Dimension Digital Technology Co., Ltd., and it all uses fraudulent presentations and pretend names.
Fake Business Entities Vanish After Their Scam
Of Alibaba, one reads: "Alibaba is frequently associated with fraudulent import of counterfeit items: in 2016, the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative added Taobao back onto a list of notorious counterfeit platforms that includes the likes of torrent site The Pirate Bay. AliExpress is even more controversial: despite claiming to provide buyer protection, it frequently refuses to reimburse customers when goods are seized by customs or when sellers who establish fake business entities vanish after their scam. Several hundred lawsuits and class actions have been filed in the US. Alibaba denied wrongdoing and started timid action against counterfeiters with only 2 lawsuits filed as of January 4, 2017, but brands suffering from the counterfeit products continue to blame Alibaba for not doing what it takes to fight the issue." In "Alibaba Group," Wikipedia, n. d.
So the many fraudulent contacts seen personally come in part through the "Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Chinese: 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司; pinyin: Ālǐbābā Jítuán Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī) is a Chinese multinational conglomerate specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, AI and technology. Founded April 4, 1999, the company provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals, as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services."The company provides Capital for Communists
[ 15 ] The obvious solution for those nations who have taken on un-payable loans from Communist China is to take a page from the socialist handbook, and simply nationalize those debt-ridden entities which were used as loans and then abrogate the debt, as has been done using that playbook for decades.
What has been, as the adage says, sauce for the goose can be sauce for the gander. These nations need to open their National Eyes
[ 16 ] The forecast mirrors the recent history of the Soviet Union, as its Communist-led command economy simply imploded in time. As with other systems of government pretending to support those in "need" -- in the sense of the Communist Manifesto -- become so easily susceptible to the elite leadership pilfering, and justifying it by raw political power. The survey of sourced information above paints the picture of a government which is corrupt, requires the more free nations to "invest" in its survival, and yet confronts a Western world of broad and deep denial. Consider how many might say, I've made up my little mind
There is no explanation for the billionaire class which has arisen within the Chinese Communist Party except the one. Corruption, which has been underpinned by the blindness of Western policy since Kissinger, has been made possible by this. As with the surprise collapse of the Soviet Union, the collapse of Sino-Socialism will surprise many.
[ 17 ] Given that China is a one-party political system, with the official Chinese Communists controlling through that single channel, the Western enthusiasts for Communism who claim that this politico-economic system has yet to be "tried" becomes laughable. The Marxist phrase "dictatorship of the proletariat" has as its fundamental error the word and reality, dictatorship. Centralizing power is centralizing power.
As above and from 2012, that the chairman -- dictator -- of the the Communist party has wealth in "investments [ that ] are hidden from public view," is consistent with the CNN report of "billions" fleeing China, as with other reports of Chinese billionaires. The centralizing of authority -- that dictatorship of the proletariat -- creates from some few members of the supposed proletariat the new bosses, same as the old. The structure of Communism simply fails for its own internal inconsistencies.
Besides, to find myriad examples of the abuse of power from the individual to an entire political organization, one only need Scratch a Leftist
These socialists all may be taxonomically clustered together as "true" socialists, when one steps aside from the cleverness of socialist academics. True socialism, oh yes, he said
An inconvenient surprise - paraphrase of a Wilhelm Busch poem
The old fellow chortles with happy cheer,
because he's brought a first liter of beer.
The brew is one most highly praised,
and very quickly his glass is raised.
Gulp! the beer goes down the hatch,
in expectation of a second batch.
"But what is this?" he cries in haste,
"This has the most obnoxious taste!"
At once 'twas clear the sickening cause --
A dead mouse worth a stomach-churning pause!
Ah yes, hardly will most any man rejoice,
before he must suffer from his own awful choice.
"Many cities across the country are facing unsustainable legacy costs. But Detroit is uniquely impervious to political solutions because the ratio of its public moochers to private producers is far higher than others. There are too few Detroiters with a vested interest in fixing the city and too many with a vested interest in sucking it dry. Only bankruptcy will convince them that there is nothing more to be milked." In "Detroit Has Run Out of Other People's Money," by Shijha Dalmia, 3 July 2012
Pair a site with your chosen tube
To a vacuum which gently sucks;
In time most any sort of rube
Can empty bilge or bucks.
Pump a vessel's bilge so deep
Until dry as dry can be;
It is just so with taxes' sweep
And the takers' taking spree.
Pump a people and some folks will
Escape the bound plantations;
Those who can, who've had their fill,
Evade such dry vexations.
As all dries up, those at the pumps
Might pump more in their haste,
Yet flows reduce; awakening chumps
Contribute less, then none, to waste.
Pair a site with a siphon pipe
To a vacuum which daily sucks;
In time most any sort and type
Can empty bilge or bucks.
When emptied -- ah now, there's the rub --
The pumps can suck more;
What's left then is that moochers' club,
Hat-in-hand and door-to-door.
Think this model false, unfair?
It's oft been proved in the public square.
Utopia, we learn, means "nowhere;"
Too many imagined it could be there.
When cash cows die or just wander off
The milk stops flowing in the public trough.The model is tested; do not scoff.
One cannot give truth a brushing off.
Envoi: "The Auditors fluttered anxiously. And, as always happens in their species when something goes radically wrong and needs fixing instantly, they settled down to try to work how who was to blame." Terry Pratchett, in "Hogfather"
Addendum: "If socialists mean that under extraordinary circumstances, for urgent cases, the State should set aside some resources to assist certain unfortunate people, to help them adjust to changing conditions, we will, of course, agree. This is done now; we desire that it be done better. There is however, a point on this road that must not be passed; it is the point where governmental foresight would step in to replace individual foresight and thus destroy it." Frédéric Bastiat, in "Justice and fraternity," in Journal des Économistes, 15 June 1848, page 313.
See: When the cash cow cashes out
"...private property institutions are more robust because they enable people to cope with uncertainty by reducing the prospect of systemic error. Compared to regimes where decisions are taken at the centre, the dispersal of ownership in a market tends to confine the effects of any errors to a relatively smaller sphere and provides decision-makers with greater scope to respond to changing circumstances as they face them." In "Robust Political Economy; Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy ," by Mark Pennington, New Thinking in Political Economy, 2011
They decide
or you decide,
But someone will,
that's true.
From the top
and thundering down
Decisions flood
o'er you.
That's when freedom
withers, fades,
As powers align
amassed.
History mans
the barricades
When freedom
fights at last
Against the center
at the top
Which clings
to privilege,
As freedom is
a sacrilege
Against power
against just them
From whom unfree
decisions stem.
They decide
or you decide,
But someone will.
Will you?
Idea - hist whist fist
I love an idea
that cannot fly;
it will not hunt
nor clarify.
It might not work,
but must not fail;
You should not mock
nor it assail.
My idea is mine,
even should it fall;
and yet you must
it not forestall,
though it bring pain
and loss to you,
it is my thought;
my clearsight view.
I love my idea,
and you should too;
If you will not,
I'll force it through.
It might come to naught
in time, in yield,
yet it is mine
to wave and wield.
You must then bend;
this I declare.
You must its faults
just grin and bear.
My idea is my Will.
I've come to be
in every land
through history.
I love my idea
that's sure to be
bequeathed to all
eternity.
It might not work,
but must not fail;
express no doubt,
but my Will hail.
Phil owed Sophie's - whence non sense
A pack of lips for profits
or if a gull predicts
The end of daze,
a pox of lipstick visions'
silly bills which says,
Awful owes us fees
as offal oozes fleas.
Yea! I've had my fill
of them, so fill 'em up Sophie's.
Play dough did that sock rat tease,
then aeries' toddle did,
Ear as mouse upped willing if
ox ham's racer's kid.
Loud say as confuse she does
each tern as ease sachets,
Then a gust teen cat low lick
to choose my mono days;
Rain a day cart thinking thought
but cherry me bent them so,
The curl marks stained the spot
a damn smith got two know.
I manual he can't yes and no
while John's jacks bruises so,
Shopping hour gorged heard bird
a sore and quirky gird bent low.
Fried rice, knee, cheese goodied after
fronds' cough cart met a morph,
Martinet high digger to tea art déjà Dan:
Her bird mark's oozes tea on a door, no?
Cyber berg lewd wig haggle
shun locks' curl mocks again
Spin nose ah! when bird rammed rustle
as any wit can steams,
johnnies do he didwhile jump all sword know exited.
All's not as all it seems....these pillowed sophists' courts,
unseeingly epochs a pun these warts
In pleas now friend now no retorts.Know eye did know name them All
Toucan you can who cans crawl?
Envoi: "Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them." Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), in "Adagia," Opus Posthumous (1959).
"Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul." Plato (427-347-BCE), in "The Republic."
The answer is:
because it's fun.
Many parts
weave into one.
Point and counter
blithely spun,
A voice begins,
till all are done.
Envoi: "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." Aldous Huxley, in "Music at Night and Other Essays" (1931)
Addendum: "Music is... [a] higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy" Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Addendum: "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music." Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Addendum: "Music is, to me, proof of the existence of God. It is so extraordinarily full of magic, and in tough times of my life I can listen to music and it makes such a difference." Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Addendum: "Let us take the best example: the fugue, a pure form in which the music means nothing outside itself. Doesn't the fugue imply the composer's submission to the rules? And is it not within those strictures that he finds the full flowering of his freedom as a creator? Strength, says Leonardo da Vinci, is born of constraints and dies in freedom." In "Musical Typology," Poetics of Music in the form of six lessons," Igor Stravinsky, Random House, 1947.
Green drivel - love locks, dead
"Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines. As he puts it, 'so-called sustainable development … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant.'" In "Green 'drivel,' The godfather of global warming lowers the boom on climate change hysteria," Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun, 23 June 2012
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Green red inks now in tides.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Green red thought's cow subsides.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Sustainable proves not.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Hysteria is what we got.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
Green now bleaches and fades.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Green hosts its masquerades.
Drivel snivel shrivel,
It's meaningless, he said.
Drivel turn and swivel,
Now to them love locks, dead.
Envoi: "They say: 'The market for renewable energy is an artificial one created and maintained by government legislation. The question is whether this consumer-derived money is well spent. It is worth noting that the excessive subsidy offered to onshore wind development has drawn developers even to sites where the wind resource is very weak and the environmental impact severe.'" In "Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims," by Patrick Sawyer, The Telegraph UK, 13 September 2008 [ 1 ]
Addendum of Discovered Defects: "The owners of the biggest Proven wind turbines in Shetland were advised to shut down their £60,000 machines last week due to a danger that the rotor and its blades might fly off." In "Small wind turbine owners advised to shut down Proven machines after defect discovered," by John Robertson, Shetland Times, 22 September 2011
Addendum of Failure: "Iowa recently incurred what is being described as the greatest failure of the $100 million Power Fund started by former Governor Chet Culver in 2007. An $8 million project striving to store wind energy underground was abandoned on Thursday." In "Iowa’s failed wind energy project," by Michael Gallagher, Iowa Environmental Focus, 29 July 2011
Addendum of Governments Squandering: "Governments are squandering billions of dollars on "uneconomic" wind farms, according to a landmark study that undermines the case for Labor's huge renewable energy subsidies. Investment in wind turbines will fail to cut enough greenhouse gas emissions to justify their cost, economists warned yesterday after a detailed British analysis released this week." In "Billions blown away on wind power, says British study," by David Crowe, The Australian, 9 March 2012
Addendum of an Unheeded Warning: "Germany is being horribly caught out by precisely the same delusion about renewable energy that our own politicians have fallen for. Like all enthusiasts for “free, clean, renewable electricity”, they overlook the fatal implications of the fact that wind speeds and sunlight constantly vary. They are taken in by the wind industry’s trick of vastly exaggerating the usefulness of wind farms by talking in terms of their “capacity”, hiding the fact that their actual output will waver between 100 per cent of capacity and zero. In Britain it averages around 25 per cent; in Germany it is lower, just 17 per cent." In "Germany's wind power chaos should be a warning to the UK." by Christopher Booker, Daily Mail UK, 22 September 2012 [ 2 ]
Addendum of Not Happening: "For decades, wind power proponents argued that wind would be cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation if only it received the taxpayer's help for a few more years. In 1986, a representative of the American Wind Energy Association claimed that wind would be the "lowest cost source of energy in the 1990s, beating out even large-scale hydro." That didn't happen." In "Taxpayers Shouldn't Subsidize Wind Energy They Don't Want, Don't Use," by Daniel Simmons, US News and World Report, 26 September 2012
Addendum of a Collapse: "The £250,000 tower, which stood as tall as a six storey building, was hit by gale force gusts of 50mph. The structure then collapsed at a farm in Bradworth, Devon, leaving a 'mangled wreck'. Margaret Coles, Chairwoman of Bradworthy District Council, said hail storms and strong winds have hit the area and the turbine, installed just three years ago, simply could not withstand the wind." In "Wind turbine collapses in high wind," by Louise Gray, Telegraph UK, 30 January 2013.
Addendum of Green Investment as a Ponzi Scheme: "Of the $54 million believed to have been invested in Mantria, $17 million was returned to early investors to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme and make later investors believe huge profits could be had. By the time the Securities Exchange Commission shut down Mantria in 2009, just $790,000 remained from the other $37 million. In addition to the sheer size of the scam, the reach that Wragg and Knorr achieved in a few short years out of college remains hard to fathom. Former President Bill Clinton personally honored their now disgraced work in a ceremony for the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009." In "Temple Grad Sentenced for 'Biggest Green Scam' in History," by Brian X. McCrone, NBC News, 6 April 2019.
Addendum of Evidence of a Human Contribution: "The IPCC climate sensitivity is about one order of magnitude too high, because a strong negative feedback of the clouds is missing in climate models. If we pay attention to the fact that only a small part of the increased CO 2 concentration is anthropogenic, we have to recognize that the anthropogenic climate change does not exist in practice. The major part of the extra CO 2 is emitted from oceans [6], according to Henry‘s law. The low clouds practically control the global average temperature. During the last hundred years the temperature is increased about 0.1°C because of CO 2 . The human contribution was about 0.01°C." In "No Experimental Evidence for the Significant Anthropogenic Climate Change," by J. Kauppinenand P. Malmi, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku (Finland), 29 June 2019. [ 3 ]
See: Bankrupt green
NOTES
[ 1 ] One finds more "denialists" speaking openly. "But surely most of the world’s leaders, scientific community and people in general can’t be wrong can they? Prof Woodcock hits back: 'This is not the way science works. If you tell me that you have a theory there is a teapot in orbit between the earth and the moon, its not up to me to prove it does not exist, its up to you to provide the reproducible scientific evidence for your theory. Such evidence for the man-made climate change theory has not been forthcoming.' He adds: 'It’s become almost an industry, as a consequence of this professional misconduct by Government advisors around the world, not just UK - you can’t blame ordinary people with little or no science education for wanting to be seen to be good citizens who care about their grandchildren’s future and the environment. In fact, the damage to our economy the climate change lobby is now costing us is infinitely more destructive to the livelihoods of our grand-children. Indeed, we grand-parents are finding it increasingly expensive just to keep warm as a consequence of the idiotic decisions our politicians have taken in recent years about the green production of electricity. Carbon dioxide has been made out to be some kind of toxic gas but the truth is it’s the gas of life. We breath it out, plants breath it in. The green lobby has created a do-good industry and it becomes a way of life, like a religion. I understand why people defend it when they have spent so long believing in it, people do not like to admit they have been wrong. If you talk to real scientists who have no political interest, they will tell you there is nothing in global warming. It’s an industry which creates vast amounts of money for some people. Even the term 'global warming' does not mean anything unless you give it a time scale. The temperature of the earth has been going up and down for millions of years, if there are extremes, it’s nothing to do with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it’s not permanent and it’s not caused by us. Global warming is nonsense'." In "‘Global warming’ is rubbish says top professor," by Neil Hudson, Yorkshire evening Post, 27 April 2014.
From Priestess to Critic
Another reputable scientist and academic offers similar views: "Richard Lindzen and Roger Pielke Sr. have been making far more critical statements about the IPCC and climate science for a longer period than I have. And both score higher than me in the academic pecking order (in terms of number of publications and citations and external peer recognition). The answer must be in the narrative of my transition from a “high priestess of global warming” to engagement with skeptics and a critic of the IPCC. The “high priestess of global warming” narrative (I used to see this term fairly frequently in the blogosphere, can’t spot it now) arose from my association with the hurricane and global warming issue, which at the time was the most alarming issue associated with global warming. The overall evolution of my thinking on global warming is described in the Q&A at collide-a-scape (the relevant statements are appended at the end of this post.) My thinking and evolution on this issue since 11/19/09 deserves further clarification. When I first started reading the CRU emails, my reaction was a visceral one. While my colleagues seemed focused on protecting the reputations of the scientists involved and assuring people that the “science hadn’t changed,” I immediately realized that this could bring down the IPCC. I became concerned about the integrity of our entire field: both the actual integrity and its public perception. When I saw how the IPCC was responding and began investigating the broader allegations against the IPCC, I became critical of the IPCC and tried to make suggestions for improving the IPCC. As glaring errors were uncovered (especially the Himalayan glaciers) and the IPCC failed to respond, I started to question whether it was possible to salvage the IPCC and whether it should be salvaged. In the meantime, the establishment institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere were mostly silent on the topic." In "Heresy and the creation of monsters," by Judith Curry, her personal blog, 25 October 2010.
Deletions and Conflicts of Interests
Yet more voices are being heard: "A top US academic has dramatically revealed how government officials forced him to change a hugely influential scientific report on climate change to suit their own interests. Harvard professor Robert Stavins electrified the worldwide debate on climate change on Friday by sensationally publishing a letter online in which he spelled out the astonishing interference. He said the officials, representing 'all the main countries and regions of the world' insisted on the changes in a late-night meeting at a Berlin conference centre two weeks ago. Three quarters of the original version of the document ended up being deleted. Prof Stavins claimed the intervention amounted to a serious 'conflict of interest' between scientists and governments." In "Top climate expert's sensational claim of government meddling in crucial UN report," by David Rose, Daily Mail UK, 26 April 2014.
The tale becomes sordid. One reads: "A high-level whistleblower has told this newspaper that America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) breached its own rules on scientific integrity when it published the sensational but flawed report, aimed at making the maximum possible impact on world leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015. The report claimed that the ‘pause’ or ‘slowdown’ in global warming in the period since 1998 – revealed by UN scientists in 2013 – never existed, and that world temperatures had been rising faster than scientists expected. Launched by NOAA with a public relations fanfare, it was splashed across the world’s media, and cited repeatedly by politicians and policy makers. But the whistleblower, Dr John Bates, a top NOAA scientist with an impeccable reputation, has shown The Mail on Sunday irrefutable evidence that the paper was based on misleading, ‘unverified’ data." In "Exposed: How world leaders were duped into investing billions over manipulated global warming data," by David Rose, Mail On Sunday, 4 February 2017.
[ 2 ] See green screws red
[ 3 ] If indeed the "human contribution" of CO2 to affect climate comes to .01 percent -- one-hundredth of a percentile --then the worldwide hysteria generated by some scientists (litigation continues to obtain data and methodology from some who refuse to "show their work") in concert with politicians and media, then a deeper measure of how much waste of economic resources occurred based on hysteria.
The interlocking truth seems to be demonstrably that Bankrupt green
"Solo for Voice 92 - Perform the material (four systems on each of four pages)....."
Eric Satie écrivait,
that is, once he did say,
L'artiste n'a pas...
as hip-hip-hurrah,
le droit de disposer...
one's welcome overstay,
inutilement du temps...
underuse or overdraw,
de son auditeur.
in concert or at theater.
Far too many, John then wrote,
times to type as antidote.
Antidotes in too large a dose
can be as deadly as they are verbose.
The kids are screwed - a truth renewed
"The economic historian, who is affiliated to Oxford and Harvard Universities, says wise young voters should insist politicians pay off debts as soon as possible for the benefit and security of their own financial interests. Speaking at the Reith Lectures on Tuesday, Professor Ferguson will argue the 'young should welcome austerity,' adding they 'find it quite hard to compute their own long-term economic interests.'" In "Niall Ferguson: If the young knew what was good for them they'd join the Tea Party," Telegraph UK, 17 June 2012
The kids are screwed and the grandkids worse;
That's the sum, its chapter and verse.
The next generations will foot the bill
For someone has robbed them almost at will.
The kids are screwed by these days that spend
Tomorrow, already appearing round the bend.
The next generations will then be asked
To pay such debt as it is unmasked.
The kids are screwed and the grandkids robbed,
For into tomorrow are debt bombs lobbed.
The next generations will look at debt
And think quite rightly that we built that threat.
The kids are screwed, as the debt tides rise
To drown such discussions in a flurry of lies.
But debt plus debt equals debt beyond debt,
And that spells truth in math's alphabet.
Politics this ain't, just numbers and math
Showing quite clearly the horrid path
From rhetoric to lies of self-serving john and jack
Who, for today, kids' tomorrows attack.
The kids are screwed, and the grandkids worse;
That's the sum, its chapter and verse.
The next generations will foot the bill
For someone has robbed them almost at will.
Envoi: "Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt." Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
See: Pretty darn fucked
anythingis - that new old refrain
anythingismusic
andanythingisart
andanythingistheater
likeaurinalorsilentfart
let'salljoininsinging
dada dee lah di dah
anythingisacleverprank
andanythingisalsonot
andanythingischurlish
likeabicyclewheelorpot
idsamodernartthing
dada dee lah di dah
anythingisconceptual
andanythingiswhat
andanythingishowandwhy
saysabrightboylikeanut
punkchewaiting
dada dee lah di dah
windmillswithinwheels
wheelswithinwindmillsturn
circlescriclingcircles
tacettruningtaciturn
insilenceletussing
dada dee lah di dah
onceyouehearthepunchline
thejokeisoverdone
andonceyou'reindeterminant
onewonderswhatwaswon
zenassumptionsnegating
dada dee lah di dah
liberatefrompersonaltaste
canalwaysbedoneinhurriedhaste
justputonplaypokerfaced
allandnothingwellembraced
startagainfromthebeginning
dada dee lah di dah
Envoi -- "Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before." Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Addendum of Terminal Prestige: "Perhaps only with the twentieth-century avant-garde, however, has there been a music that has sought to secure prestige precisely by claiming to renounce all possible social functions and values, just as Wagner's Alberich renounced human love in exchange for the Rheingold. Schoenberg was relieved and gratified when audiences again turned against him: it had not been his fault that they had thought temporarily that they liked him - they really had not understood him in the first place. The prestige value of this music, in other words, is inversely correlated with public response and comprehension. This strange posture was not invented in the twentieth century, of course. It is but the reductio ad absurdum of the nineteenth-century notion that music ought to be an autonomous activity, insulated from the contamination of the outside social world." In "Terminal Prestige: The Case of Avant-Garde Music Composition," by Susan McClary, Cultural Critique, No. 12, Discursive Strategies and the Economy of Prestige (Spring, 1989). [ 1 ]
Addendum Dada: "I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way." Tristan Tzara, "Dada Manifesto 1918"
Addendum of the Foolish: "This is a guide for instructing posthumans in living a Dada life. It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to lead a Dada life. It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to lead a Dada life. It is and it was always foolish and self-destructive to lead a Dada life because a Dada life will include by definition pranks, buffoonery, masking, deranged senses, intoxication, sabotage, taboo breaking, playing childish and/or dangerous games, waking up dead gods, and not taking education seriously."--"The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara & Lenin Play Chess, by Andrei Codrescu, Princeton University Press, 2009.
Addendum of the CIA Weapon: "As for the artists themselves, many were ex- communists barely acceptable in the America of the McCarthyite era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive US government backing. Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete. The existence of this policy, rumoured and disputed for many years, has now been confirmed for the first time by former CIA officials. Unknown to the artists, the new American art was secretly promoted under a policy known as the 'long leash' - arrangements similar in some ways to the indirect CIA backing of the journal Encounter, edited by Stephen Spender. The decision to include culture and art in the US Cold War arsenal was taken as soon as the CIA was founded in 1947. Dismayed at the appeal communism still had for many intellectuals and artists in the West, the new agency set up a division, the Propaganda Assets Inventory, which at its peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines and public information organisations. They joked that it was like a Wurlitzer jukebox: when the CIA pushed a button it could hear whatever tune it wanted." In "Modern art was CIA 'weapon'," by Frances Stonor Saunders, Independent UK, 22 October 1995.
Addendum of Feeding on Itself: "The avant-garde was a magnificent and revolutionary phase in the history of art, but it’s completely over. Artists and galleries must (in Ann Landers’ immortal words) wake up and smell the coffee! The avant-garde, whose roots were in late-18th-century Romanticism, was a reaction against a strong but suffocating classical tradition. The great modernist artists, from Picasso to James Joyce, were trained in that tradition, which gave audacity and power to their subversion of it. But then modernism began to feed on itself, and it became weaker and weaker." In "Camille Paglia: 'It remains baffling how anyone would think that Hillary Clinton is our party’s best chance'," by Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon, 21 August 2013.
Addendum of Stupidity: "Plans by a Turner Prize-nominated artist to drop a piano off an iconic east London tower block have been thwarted by residents, who were concerned over the 'danger and utter stupidity' of the stunt. Catherine Yass had been scheduled to hurl the instrument off the top of the 26-storey Balfron Tower in Poplar – but a petition signed by 254 locals forced organisers to change their tune." In "Plans to drop a piano off 26-storey east London flats blocked by concerned residents," by Mark Shales, London24, 10 July 2014.
Addendum of Art as a Form of Terror: "The performer, Ariel Bronz, inserted a flag into a part of his nether anatomy in front of the crowd, which predictably reacted harshly. According to Israel Hayom's Dror Eydar, the flag was an Israeli flag. According to some reports, the artist also threw juiced oranges at the audience after he was booed. In a Ha'aretz interview in October, Bronz said that he sees his art as a form of terror and that he sees Israelis as embodying 'all that is ugly in the human race'." In "Sick performance at Ha'aretz conference," by Gil Ronen, Arutz Sheva, 6 March 2016.
Addendum of a Public Entertainer Spilling the Beans: "He knew himself to be not far from fraudulence, or, at least, the temptation to give what his public would take: 'We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.' Such equivocation served Picasso well in beguiling his public. However much 'necessity' may have compelled his art, Picasso was unwilling to see it as revealing truth, least of all any explaining of his repetitious ambivalence towards women. He could accept that he was an explorer, but of precisely what order of ambivalent fantasy he was unable to say. In an interview of 1952 with Giovanni Papini, reported in Libero new, Picasso is quoted: "In art the mass of people no longer seeks consolation and exaltation, but those who are refined, rich, unoccupied, who are distillers of quintessences, seek what is new, strange, original, extravagant, scandalous. I myself, since Cubism and before, have satisfied these masters and critics with all the changing oddities which passed through my head, and the less they understood me, the more they admired me. By amusing myself with all these games, with all these absurdities, puzzles, rebuses, arabesques, I became famous, and that very quickly. And fame for a painter means sales, gains, fortune, riches. And today, as you know, I am celebrated, I am rich. But when I am alone with myself, I have not the courage to think of myself as an artist in the great and ancient sense of the term. Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt were great painters. I am only a public entertainer who has understood his times and exploited as best he could the imbecility, the vanity, the cupidity of his contemporaries. Mine is a bitter confession, more painful than it may appear, but it has the merit of being sincere."' In "Desire and Avoidance in Art: Pablo Picasso, Hans Bellmer, Balthus and Joseph Cornell, Psychobiographical studies with attachment theory" Andrew Brink, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2007.
Addendum of a Pathway to Riches: "Here in the billionaires' playground of Aspen, the politicians waived the zoning laws a few years ago for a monstrosity they call an art museum. It's a huge square wicker basket dominating a city block, with zero setback and zero architecture. This place that is supposed to display visual beauty is itself an eyesore. Almost everyone hates it. But not the director Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson. In an artistic burst, she created for herself a $900,000 salary. Her salary is about the only permanent or valuable piece in the collection. To put that number in perspective, it's higher than the salaries paid to the directors of real museums like the Guggenheim and the Getty." In "Beaton: Should Toledo taxpayers pay for Aspen art?" by Glenn Keaton, Aspen Times, 14 May 2017.
Addendum of Mocking the Art World: "One art lover said, 'It's mocking the art world. That's what Maurizio Cattelan does.' The first two pieces according to ARTnews.com were sold for $120,000, a third is being sold for $150,000." In "Banana Duct Taped To Wall By Maurizio Cattelan Sells For $120K At Art Basel," by Amber Diaz, CBS4 News, 6 December 2019.
Addendum of Mocking the Mockery of the Art World: "While the banana was indeed consumed, apparently that doesn’t diminish the integrity of the six-figure art work, said Lucien Terras, director of museum relations for Galerie Perrotin. 'He did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea,' Terras said. Confused? We were, too, but that’s where the Certificate of Authenticity comes in. Collectors are buying the certificate." In " Someone ate the $120,000 banana at Art Basel. Some quick thinking saved the day," by Howard Cohen and Siobhan Morrissey, Miami Herald, 7 December 2019. [ 2 ]
See: Modern Art
NOTES
[ 1 ] The sickness metaphor of a terminal illness is informative. McClary went on to note: "Adorno and others (including the composers cited above) have regarded modernism and mass culture as inseparable opponents in the same cultural world and have consequently bestowed prestige upon the avant-garde as a defense against the degradation of mass culture. But at this moment in the history of the dichotomy, the terms of the debate have shifted so much as to make earlier definitions and moral positions no longer credible. This is in part owing to the avant-garde's deliberate self-reification from the inside-most explicitly displayed by the "who cares if you listen" attitude. But it is probably the case that the avant-garde was always fighting a losing battle. If one reflects on the demographic shifts of this century, the emergence of energetic, previously disenfranchised voices to displace a moribund, elite status quo is not at all surprising. Nor, I think, is it cause for lamentation. Debates over culture now tend to concentrate on the various models articulated and distributed through the popular media. Some of these models are worthy of celebration, others seem highly problematic with respect to images of violence and misogyny - though none more so than much of what the avant-garde has consistently dished up. In any case, the avant-garde is scarcely even a factor in cultural discussions now, except in a few sealed rooms in the academy."
All Art of the Past Must Be Destroyed Mentally
"Gross: Then earlier, after Stravinsky's death, there was a quote from you in the New York Times. You said, it's not enough to deface the "Mona Lisa" because that does not kill the 'Mona Lisa.' All art of the past must be destroyed. Why have you felt so strongly at certain times in your career that the past was this great burden?
"Boulez: Yes, I think that, so, I mean, you know, we are living in a period of a big memory. And we have a memory of everything in any kind of domain. And therefore so, I mean, this memory is a burden because you cannot really think totally freely. I am still of this opinion. Although, you know, I don't want to destroy physically but destroy mentally that you can really think anew and without always the mothers in front of you or go through this mother and go further." In "Remembering French Composer, Conductor And Musical Provocateur Pierre Boulez," National Public Radio, 6 January 2016.
A Kind of a Musical Stalinist
The clever banter of thinking "anew" is disingenuous, as one looks at Boulez' music after the passage of time, in the same way as one looks at his words after the passing of time. As another avant-gardist noted: "What did I try to do, in this context, in 1948? As Boulez said, extremely snidely (he's a pretentious boy, a kind of musical Stalinist... I'm an anarchist myself), it was a case of 'bricolage'." In "Pierre Schaeffer - an interview with the pioneer of musique concrete," by Tim Hodgkinson, ele-mental.org, 2 April 1986. Thirty years later, such movements as Musique concrete have proved out McClary's observation. The avant-garde was always fighting a losing battle. After Duchamp declared he wanted to give up the word, art, one makes comparison to such nihilism which espouses that one should "destroy mentally."
"...dada dee lah di dah...."
Educated into Imbecility
But this was foretold. One reads: "So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over -- a weary, battered old brontosaurus -- and became extinct." Malcolm Muggeridge, "Seeing Through the Eye: Malcolm Muggeridge on Faith," ed. Cecil Kuhne, Ignatius Press, 2005.
The brontosaurus has not yet collapsed, and humanity is not yet extinct. But modern art is perplexed "into imbecility" and to many "stupefaction."
[ 2 ] Ah but not all things on a wall are apparently. After the artistic splash of a banana duct taped to a bare wall, and then another "artist" eating it, leaving the "certificate," a prankster -- or perhaps an artist -- painted on the bare wall. The gallery was not amused. So apparently "anythingis" seems not to include political memes.
So a question for the art world is: who is buying that? It is the same question for the world of modern media, as of modern Politics
Examinations - towards abrogations
"To gauge where these policies went wrong, we'll examine the performance of what we'll call Europe's "Six Spenders:" France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, and Portugal. To simplify, we'll treat the Six Spenders as if they were one big country by combining their deficit, spending, debt, GDP growth and other numbers. The big push for stimulus began in 2009. From the end of 2008 to 2011, the Six Spenders had combined budget deficits of almost $1.4 trillion (we'll translate all euro numbers into dollars). That's approximately $450 billion a year, or an enormous 7.3% of GDP. So how much growth did all that 'stimulus create? Over those three years, the Six Spenders' combined output shrank by 5%, adjusted for inflation." In "More spending won't rescue Europe's six big spenders," by Shawn Tully, senior editor-at-large, Fortune, 31 May 2012
Examine nations as they shrink
While spending more and more.
The results of this rude equation
Ask what was such spending for?
Examine nations on the brink
As debt waves crash ashore.
What is their best explanation?
What did they all ignore?
Examine nations' doublethink
Stimulating loss galore.
Leaders of the highest station
Were foolish to their core.
Examine nations' debt load stink
Now rising in its roar.
Stimulation's titillation
Has emptied the reservoir.
Examinations flunked, they slink
Away, each big league boor,
Considering each an abrogation
While lying just to reassure.
Hippogrizzly - a zoological fantasy
"The IMF chief Christine Lagarde was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after it emerged that she pays no income tax – just days after blaming the Greeks for causing their financial peril by dodging their own bills. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without 'justification' – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night. Unlike Mr Obama, however, she does not have to pay any tax on this substantial income because of her diplomatic status." In "Anger over Lagarde's tax-free salary," by Rob Hatsings, The Independent, 30 May 2012
The hippogrizzly waddled out
Onto the world stage.
She seemed so wise, elite and large
Upon the news' front page.
She freely gorged as such would do
Because it is their way.
The little folks, on the other hand,
Are the ones who ought to pay.
The hippogrizzly blathers on
For reporters of the press,
To lecture on austerity
Amidst her own excess.
The diplomat's a banker,
Or the banker's a diplomat?
In that same reality,
This financial world falls flat.
Black heart, black heart,
Know you many fools?
Yes sir, in the press, sir,
Her fans are useful tools.
Because they stand above us
In their broad hypocrisy.This is how it works
In one zoological fantasy.
Envoi: "He often derides the Washington-based organization, headed by French politician Christine Lagarde, as a 'North Atlantic monetary fund,' because, as he argues, Americans and Europeans are primarily interested in defending their interests and preventing emerging economies like Brazil from exerting their rightful influence in the fund. He resents the Europeans for increasingly availing themselves of the fund's assets to combat their euro crisis, even though they have enough money of their own. 'The euro countries abuse their power within the IMF,' Batista is fond of saying.' In "Merkel Maligned: IMF Board Attacks Euro Crisis Management," by Markus Dettmer and Christian Reiermann, Der Spiegel, 3 June 2013.
Addendum: "In an internal document marked 'strictly confidential,' the IMF said it badly underestimated the damage that its prescriptions of austerity would do to Greece's economy, which has been mired in recession for the last six years. The IMF conceded that it bent its own rules to make Greece's burgeoning debt seem sustainable and that, in retrospect, the country failed on three of its four criteria to qualify for aid. An immediate restructuring would have been cheaper for European taxpayers, as private-sector creditors were repaid in full for two years before 2012 using the money borrowed by Athens. Greece's debt level thus remained undented, but it was now owed to the IMF and euro-zone taxpayers instead of banks and hedge funds." In "IMF Concedes It Made Mistakes on Greece," by Matina Stevis and Ian Talley, Wall Street Journal, 5 June 2013.
Addendum of Wrong Again, but Thankfully Still Paid Well and Tax-Free: "The International Monetary Fund underestimated the strength of the U.K. economy when warning against the government’s austerity program, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. 'We got it wrong,' Lagarde told the 'Andrew Marr Show' on BBC Television today. 'We acknowledged it. Clearly the confidence building that has resulted from the economic policies adopted by the government has surprised many of us'." In "Lagarde Says IMF 'Got It Wrong' on Rallying U.K. Economy," by Simon Kennedy, Bloomberg News, 8 June 2014. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Being Judged Guilty: "Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was found guilty on Monday of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds during her time as France’s finance minister, a verdict that could force her out of her post. The judge hearing the case declined, however, to impose a fine or any jail time on Ms. Lagarde, who began her second five-year term at the I.M.F. in February. The scandal has overshadowed her work at the fund, to which she was appointed in 2011, after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director when he was accused of having sexually assaulted a maid in a New York City hotel." In "Christine Lagarde, I.M.F. Chief, Is Found Guilty of Negligence," by Liz Alderman and Aurelien Breeden, New York Times, 19 December 2016.
Addendum of Not Understanding a Distinction: "The IMF and the World Bank, though, are now operating against the Trump administration on our dime. That’s the real story in the FT’s interview. It’s not just that the IMF is a European-centric cabal. It’s that both the IMF and the World Bank have never really understood the distinction between government growth and private growth. After Bretton Woods their only logic is socialism." In "The Ross-Lagarde Feud," Editorial of The New York Sun, 17April 2017. [ 2 ]
See: How is it
Consider also other animals with similar features: Fat cats richly rich of late
NOTES
[ 1 ] " 'We said very clearly that we had underestimated growth for the U.K. and that our forecasts had been proven wrong by the reality of economic developments,' she said. Pressed on whether she had apologised to Mr Osborne for the incorrect forecasts, she said: 'Do I have to go on my knees?' Mrs Lagarde rejected calls from the European Commission for higher taxes. 'The mixture between tax and spending cuts is something that we regard as fairly balanced and at the right mix. We don’t see a massive increase in tax as recommendable at the moment'." In " 'Do I have to go on my knees?': grovelling apology from IMF head for incorrect warnings on UK economy," by Matthew Holehouse, Telegraph UK, 8 June 2014.
The managing director -- paid well while paying no taxes according to the details above -- is "wrong" about the tax policy for a nation, and apologizes. When a financial advisor to you makes an error in the completely wrong direction, will an apology to you suffice? Or would credibility be shattered?
But if your financial advisor was among the "1%" class and paid no taxes at all, what would be your view to having been given a wrong forecast, while advising you to pay your taxes?
I Don't Pay Taxes But You Should
One reads: "IMF chief Christine Lagarde suggested in an interview with UK’s Guardian that the Greeks should pay their taxes. It turns out Ms. Lagarde—legitimately—doesn’t pay them herself. In fact, her IMF salary of $467,940 plus an $83,760 additional allowance is not subject to any taxes." In "IMF's Christine Lagarde: 'I Don't Pay Taxes, But You Should'," by Robert W. Wood, Forbes, 30 April 2012.
This is the nature of those high-talking political types who worry about economics and the poor, while feathering their nests, privately oblivious while publically sensitive to Income Inequality
[ 2 ] The assertion by the Editorial Board of the New York Sun is telling. As one learns of the few elite atop many international systems one finds on odd confluence of wealth alongside waivers for taxes, political action by officially non-political entities, and significant mistake in policy and errors in judgment admitted and yet deemed not meriting a toppling from power those making such errors.
"If Chicago were a war zone, it would be a deadlier one for Americans than Afghanistan. In fact, according to the Department of Defense and FBI data, the number of Chicagoans murdered is two and a half times U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001. With NATO in the rear-view mirror, area law enforcement officials and politicians will turn their attention away from unruly protestors back to the city's rising murder rate - up 54 percent from last year, according to police data." In "Chicago's murder rate mirrors war zone, federal data shows," by Nolan Peterson, Medill News Service (Illinois), 23 May 2012.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Begins with one word, if,
A conjunction from Old English
Which at comparisons can sniff.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Seeks numbers to compare,
But finding war in the present day
Makes comparisons unfair.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Conjoins a war so far away,
But Chicago's lethal numbers
More than double that in prey.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Is found in Illinois' press,
Which makes that small conjunction
An editorial address.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Was writer's license sure,
For Chicago is a war zone
For the war game connoisseur.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Begins with "if," one reads,
A conjunction from Old English
Which sees the city as it bleeds."If Chicago were a war zone"
Tells of this poster child
For a society that stumbles
By gunning, running wild.
"If Chicago were a war zone"
Is not too much an "if,"
When one counts up in numbers
Its victims, cold and stiff.
Envoi: "...the Chicago City Council adopted the Responsible Gun Owners Ordinance. This requires prospective gun owners to take a firearm safety course at a gun range in order to obtain a permit to own a gun in a home. The city also placed a virtual ban on gun ranges. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says that the Chicago City Council has been blocking Chicagoans from obtaining handguns and range-training; the result being that law-abiding citizens are left defenseless." In "Chicago Shootings Spike 49% In November Despite Strict Gun Laws," by Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr., Cybercast News Service, 4 December 2012.
Addendum - Quick and Easy: "Chris said he’s confident he and his crew will always be one step ahead of the police. 'You’ll never stop us from getting guns,' he said. 'You feel me?'" In "Getting a gun in Chicago quick and easy," by Frank Main, 25 August 2012.
Addendum of Strict Laws: "Firearms are inanimate objects; they don’t kill people, people kill people. Yes, that’s been said so many times it’s become a cliche. Cliche or not, ask former presidential adviser, now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel how his city, a city with the most restrictive gun-control measures in the country, got the nickname 'murder capital.'" In "Chicago proof strict gun laws don’t work," Bud Cohan, The Columbus Dispatch, 27 December 2012.
Addendum of Disturbing Numbers: "National Runaway Safeline Executive Director Maureen Blaha said the number of youths in Illinois contacting the hotline steadily increased over the past three years. And every year, more say that they're homeless when they call. Beth Cunningham, a youth attorney for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said shelters she works with turn away children and young adults in increasing and 'really disturbing numbers'." In "Number of homeless youths on the rise, suggests shelter, hotline data," by Ellen Jean Hirst, Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2013.
Addendum of Resemblance: "It's really not much of an exaggeration to say that parts of Chicago resemble a war zone. [ 1 ] The numbers are grim. Unofficially, there were 513 homicides in Chicago in 2012, nearly 100 more than in New York City, which recorded 414 killings but which has triple the population. Chicago's body count is 200 more than the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan last year. The carnage has continued unabated into the New Year." In "Mr. President, Chicago's gun victims need you now," by Thomas Bevan, Chicago Tribune, 20 January 2013.
Addendum of a Weekend Update: "At least 33 people were shot — six of them fatally — Saturday afternoon through Father's Day Sunday, stretching from 94th Street and Loomis Avenue on the South Side up to about North Avenue and North Pulaski Road on the Northwest Side, according to authorities. The youngest person killed during one of the bloodiest weekends in Chicago this year was 16." In "Weekend violence leaves 7 dead, 46 shot," by Peter Nickeas, David Jackson, Mitch Smith and Jennifer Delgado, Chicago Tribune, 16 June 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum of an FBI Update: "The city of Chicago registered more homicides than any city in the nation in 2012, surpassing even New York — despite the fact that the Second City has only one third as many residents as the Big Apple. In new crime statistics released Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported 500 murders in Chicago in 2012, up sharply from the 431 recorded in 2011. New York reported 419 murders last year, compared with 515 in 2011." In "FBI: Chicago passes New York as murder capital of U.S.," by Reid Wilson, Washington Post. 18 September 2013.
Unfunded Addendum, 2013 Edition: "Combined, the city of Chicago's four pension funds are $19.5 billion in the hole and only 36 percent funded. Add another $9.5 billion in unfunded liability from the Chicago teachers' fund for a grand total of $29 billion. Point of reference: The city's annual budget is $7 billion and Chicago Public Schools' is $5.6 billion. Even if every penny of those budgets went toward pensions, that wouldn't be enough to fully fund the systems until the middle of year three. The city of Chicago and its school system simply do not have the money to stabilize these badly listing funds." In "Next for pension reform: Chicago," Chicago Tribune editorial, 8 December 2013.
Update for Summer 2014: "...the number of homicides falling to 415 in 2013 from more than 500 the year before. However the murder rate was still higher than many other U.S. cities. By comparison New York City, which is more than triple the size in population recorded less than 350 murders in 2013. As of June 30, there were nine fewer homicides in Chicago than during the same period as last year, according to The Associated Press. The Chicago Tribune updated its tally of Chicago shooting victims today, bringing up the total of those shot to 1,129 so far this year. According to the Tribune, there were 2,185 shooting victims in Chicago last year." In "More Than 60 Shot, 9 Dead in Chicago's Bloody Holiday Weekend," by Gillian Mohoney, ABC News, 7 July 2014. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Comparative Massacres: "On Independence Day weekend, Chicago street gangsters (and the police fighting them) killed twice as many people as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The Chicago Tribune reported that 82 were shot, 14 of them fatally, during the long July Fourth weekend (the death toll rose to 17 after more shooting victims later died). Most of the victims — and most of the perpetrators — were in their late teens and 20s. Who knows how many innocents were hit by stray bullets or huddled under their beds for protection? How many children think gunfire is a normal background noise? Although the July Fourth holiday was particularly bloody, what's even more disturbing is how ordinary the killing and maiming has become." In "Summer weekend 2014 worse than St. Valentine's Day Massacre," by Charles Lipson, Chicago Tribune, 10 July 2014.
Addendum of Chiraq: " 'I hope the film will face head on this violence that’s really becoming a genocide, and cause us to hold up a mirror to it,' Father Pfleger said. 'There’s been a huge amount of controversy and outrage over a movie title. Where is the outrage over the violence? It is unacceptable to me'." In "Spike Lee Comes to Film ‘Chiraq,’ Unsettling Some Chicagoans," by Julie Bosman, New York Times, 31 May 2015. [ 4 ]
Addendum for a Fourth of July: "Among those who died was a 7-year-old boy who was shot while watching fireworks in Humboldt Park with his father just before midnight Saturday." In "Eight Dead, 41 Wounded in Fourth of July Weekend Violence in Chicago," 5 NBC Chicago, 5 July 2015. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Decades of Big Chicago Government: "Crime, corruption and misgovernment are rampant. Last year, homicides in Chicago approached 470. Gang violence in some neighborhoods is a constant occurrence. The city has strict gun laws, but shootings in poor neighborhoods are a regular event. Public schools are in deplorable condition, with the teachers union promising a protracted strike later in the year, the second such strike during Rahm’s five years in office. City finances are a dreadful mess, and the city’s public school budget is out of balance by nearly $500 million. It hopes the money can be provided by state government, but if the state legislature is not forthcoming, 5,000 teachers are going to have to be laid off by Thanksgiving. The city’s pensions are unfunded and now comes Chicago’s crisis with its police force. There are demonstrations almost around the clock, and an aide to the mayor was roughed up when he attended services for one of the cops’ recent victims." In "‘Rahm, I tried to warn you’, Decades of big government have made Chicago ungovernable," by R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., Washington Times, 5 January 2016. [ 6 ]
Addendum of January's Last Days, 2016: "It was the most violent January in years, according to DNAinfo Chicago data: In all, there were 199 shootings Jan. 1-25, while there were just 100 shootings over the same period last year. The data doesn't include the victims of violence from Tuesday into Wednesday, when three people were killed and another wounded. Through early Tuesday, 42 people had been shot dead and 210 wounded, while last January saw 22 people dead and 98 wounded in shootings. On Monday alone, five people were shot and killed in just 11 hours." In "2016 Off To A Bloody Start as Shootings Double: 42 People Killed, 210 Hurt," by Kelly Bauer, DNAinfo, 27 January 2016. [ 7 ]
Addendum of a Peace Activist Gunned Down: "This past weekend, 21-year-old Matthew Williams died a violent death, the kind he held peace marches and rallies about. The kind of black on black murder we hear about far too often in this city." In "Funeral services for gunned down peace activist," by Marcella Raymond, WGN TV Chicago, 12 February 2016.
Addendum of Doubling: "Four homicides over the weekend and two more Monday morning pushed Chicago's homicide count so far this year to double the same period last year. The city has recorded at least 95 homicides since the first of the year, compared to 47 last year, according to data kept by the Tribune. The city has also more than doubled the amount of people shot - about 420 this year compared to 193 last year." In "Homicides in Chicago this year double same period last year," by By Alexandra Chachkevitch and Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune, 22 February 2016.
Addendum of Illinois Women Arming Themselves: "Gun sales in Illinois have increased steadily since 2013. One suburban retailer says women represent the fastest-growing segment at his business. Other retailers say recent mass shootings and the state's concealed carry law are some reasons for the increase in purchases. Federal investigators say gun sales have also increased nationally." In "Recent Illinois gun sales breaking monthly records," Associated Press, 28 February 2016.
Addendum from the so-called War Zone: "Predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Chicago have seen poverty rise and services diminish even as the nation's third largest city has become less racially segregated, according to a study released on Wednesday. While Chicago has become more racially balanced over the decades with more neighborhoods showing no majority populations, black areas are seeing economic stagnation or decline, according to the study by the Chicago Urban League, which promotes progress for blacks." In "Poverty up, services diminished in Chicago's black neighborhoods - study, by Mary Wisniewski, Reuters, 2 March 2016.
Addendum of an Exodus of Black Chicagoans: "A recent study found that nearly half of the city's African-American men between 20 and 24 were unemployed or not attending college. There are troubling signs that more well-to-do blacks have forsaken the city. Last fall, a Tribune article detailed how Chicago had fallen out of the top 10, from seventh place to 21st, in the percentage of black households earning at least $100,000. Many of the cities on the list are now in the South, as affluent blacks from northern cities have relocated. Demographer William Frey calls it a 'reverse migration'." In "A crumbling, dangerous South Side creates exodus of black Chicagoans," by William Lee, Chicago Tribune, 18 March 2016.
Addendum of Economic Refugees Fleeing a "War Zone": "By almost every metric, Illinois' population is sharply declining, largely because residents are fleeing the state. The Tribune surveyed dozens of former residents who've left within the last five years, and each offered their own list of reasons for doing so. Common reasons include high taxes, the state budget stalemate, crime, the unemployment rate and the weather. Census data released Thursday suggest the root of the problem is in the Chicago metropolitan area, which in 2015 saw its first population decline since at least 1990." In "Chicago area sees greatest population loss of any major U.S. city, region in 2015," By Marwa Eltagouri, Chicago Tribune, 25 March 2016.
Addendum of a Weekend in October 2016: "At least 14 people were killed and 38 others have been wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening. The weekend’s latest homicide happened about 3:15 a.m. Sunday in the Old Town neighborhood on the Near North Side." In "14 Killed, More Than Three Dozen Wounded In Weekend Shootings," CBS, 30 October 2016.
Addendum of a Day in 2017: "As of this month, there have been more than 130 homicides in Chicago in 2017. The Thursday shootings match the seven homicides in February which marked the deadliest day of the year, according to the Sun-Times." In "Seven are killed, including one pregnant woman, in separate shootings in Chicago neighborhood over span of 24 hours," Associated Press, 31 March 2017.
Addendum of the War Zone Reported as Such: "...viewers this week got a glimpse of Chicago's violence, with a perplexed host describing the situation as 'urban warfare out of control.' 'Imagine living in a place where every three hours someone is shot, and every 14 hours someone is murdered. And I'm not talking about Iraq or Afghanistan but Chicago, one of the biggest and most sophisticated cities in the world,' says Liz Hayes, a reporter for the Australian '60 Minutes'." In "A View From The Outside: Chicago Violence Stuns Australia's '60 Minutes'," by staff, DNAinfo, 4 July 2017.
Addendum of Chicago's Quiet Genocide and Asking for UN Peacekeepers: "Some politicians in the past have recommended deploying the National Guard to help Chicago quell gun violence, but Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin went even further on Thursday, suggesting the United Nations perhaps send in peacekeepers in the face of what he called a 'quiet genocide.' Boykin was traveling to New York to meet with Oscar Fernandez-Taranco of Argentina, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Support, to seek international help with 'horrific levels of shootings' and other violent crime in West Side and South Side communities." In "Commissioner Suggests U.N. Send Troops To Fight ‘Quiet Genocide’ Of Gun Violence In Chicago," CBS Chicago, 14 December 2017.
Addendum of Robbing a Politician: "The gunman and two other men robbed Goldstein and four others of camera equipment and their cellphones before they ran away, the law enforcement source said. As of Thursday evening, no one was in custody, police said. Police described the three suspects as between 20 and 24 years old. They did not release a detailed description of the suspects." In "Candidate for Illinois attorney general robbed at gunpoint," by Tony Briscoe, Jeremy Gorner, and Peter Nickeas, Chicago Tribune, 12 January 2018.
Addendum of the Real Racism as seen in Chicago: "...Americans know none of the thousands of innocent young black men and women killed by other black men in our nation’s third largest city—and across America. There’s a reason. A young black male’s life is not worth reporting when it is taken by another black male. That’s the real racism that prevails in America’s newsrooms. The marginalization of black urban life. And there’s a reason you don’t know the names of all of those black victims: because the media doesn’t much like the narrative. Journalists and activists can’t blame the deaths on assault style weapons like the AR-15. Or the National Rifle Association. It is handguns that are the weapon of choice in most of these shootings, and Chicago already has some very strict gun control laws. You don’t know the names because the problems seem so intractable in Chicago. Poor schools, poor employment opportunities, and poor choices led by a poverty of options are just some of the problems. And last, far too many journalists aren’t interested in getting at a primary cause of much of the senseless gun violence in America: fatherlessness." In "America's Real Racism? Ignoring The Senseless Killing Of Our Black, Fatherless Boys | Opinion," by Lee Habeeb, Newsweek, 10 May 2018.
See: Guns for me
NOTES
[ 1 ] "...the number of black children killed by gunfire since 1979 is nearly 13 times more than the number of blacks who were lynched in this country between 1882 and 1968. In Chicago alone, more than 270 children have been killed since 2007. And most of them were killed by other blacks, as are most of the nation's homicide victims." In "Gun violence threatens young blacks," by Dwayne Wickham, USA Today, 11 February 2013.
Such information is coalescing as more speak out about the problem: " 'There is no safe time of day to go out anymore,' said Arthur Lyles, an assistant pastor of Christ Bible Church of Chicago, which sits in the middle of Terror Town. Lyles has a grandson and nephew wounded by gunfire. 'You can be shot at 10 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon or 9 at night.' '' In "Chicago Killings Cost $2.5 Billion as Murders Top N.Y.’s," by Tim Jones and John McCormick, Bloomberg News, 23 May 2013.
There is a cost in dollars, but more importantly in lives. One reads continuing reports and analysis of Chicago's extraordinary murder rate, so often brushed aside by politics because the current politicians have no idea what to do which can be measured in decreased violence. And so platitudes and jargon and "look over there" political gambits replace hard facts. But hard facts are amassing.
Big Numbers from Surprisingly Few
"Chicago has high raw numbers of homicides and a relatively high homicide rate. But statistically speaking, homicides are a small sample of violence in the city, and in some respects a random one. Recently, Papachristos followed up with a new investigation, and a much larger new data set: non-fatal gunshot injuries in the city. The data in the new paper is equally fascinating, and on one level, as you might expect, quite troubling. To begin with, the dramatic disparities the rates of nonfatal gunshot injury: overall it’s 46.5 per 100,000 for the city as a whole from 2006-2012. It’s 1.62 per 100,000 for whites; 28.72 for Hispanics, and 112.83 for blacks. For all males, it’s 44.68 per 100,000; 239.77 for black males, and for black males from 18-34 it’s 599.65. As Papachristos and co-authors Christopher Wildeman and Elizabeth Roberto point out, that’s a staggering one in 200." In "Chicago Gun Violence: Big Numbers, But a Surprisingly Small Network," by Whet Moser, Chicago Magazine, 14 April 2014.
Organized, Inner City Gangs
The target becomes well-known but as easily well-defended. A "surprisingly small network" is defined better by culture than by race, and that culture is an inner city youth organized into gangs. But this culture is defended by those who would define it as racial, and then mount a defense of it by calling critics racists. This is an error, for the largest group of fatal as non-fatal gun violence in Chicago is "black males from 18-34," both perpetrators and victims. To defend against addressing this by framing the discussion as racist in content is myopic and, itself, racist in a different way. Nonetheless this is the current state of things in Chicago, a city becoming ever more defined by its own media as "a war zone."
While all men of good will have an interest in addressing this problem effectively, too many are caught up in racist thinking to consider any change. For this phenomenon, please see: Everything's about my colored skin
[ 2 ] Ironic: "Six months into the year, more than 1,000 people have been wounded or killed by gunfire in Chicago. And this is an improvement." In "Violence reverberates through the city" by Chicago Tribune Staff, 7 July 2013.
Magical Thinking
Gun laws have there place, but the politics of bragging about gun laws' effectiveness seems rather misplaced: "Policies making areas 'gun free' provide a sense of safety to those who engage in magical thinking, but in practice, of course, killers aren't stopped by gun-free zones. As always, it's the honest people — the very ones you want to be armed — who tend to obey the law." In " Gun-free zones provide false sense of security," by Glenn Harlan Reynolds , USA Today, 14 December 2012.
And so one looks to clarity as regards the effectiveness of gun laws as is the stance of Chicago's politics: "Not a single gun shop can be found in this city because they are outlawed. Handguns were banned in Chicago for decades, too, until 2010, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that was going too far, leading city leaders to settle for restrictions some describe as the closest they could get legally to a ban without a ban. Despite a continuing legal fight, Illinois remains the only state in the nation with no provision to let private citizens carry guns in public. And yet Chicago, a city with no civilian gun ranges and bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, finds itself laboring to stem a flood of gun violence that contributed to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 killings already in 2013, including a fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl on Tuesday." In "Strict Gun Laws in Chicago Can’t Stem Fatal Shots," by Monica Davey, New York Times, 29 January 2013.
Truth and Being Prisoners
One finds a political apologia to rationalize the current level of violence: "Fact: In 1992, nearly 950 people were killed in Chicago. Ten years later that number had fallen, but the homicide count still stood at 656. Note that the 433 homicides in Chicago in 2011 were the fewest in two decades, although you certainly wouldn't know that from the media's coverage of Chicago crime in recent years, or the right-wing media's constant attacks on Chicago's gun policies." In "The Truth About Chicago's Falling Murder Rate," by Eric Boehlert, Huffington Post, 19 April 2013. "Fewest in decades" is a pleasant point were one not to compare this assertion to the following:
" 'It’s crazy,' said Rashauda Tolbert, a niece of the dead man. 'Kids can’t play outside. People can’t sit on their porches. 'The shooting has been going on for days,' said Tolbert, who she was on her way to her security job when she heard about what happened and rushed back to her family. 'Why we gotta be prisoners in our homes'?" In "1 Dead, 7 Wounded In West Side Shooting," CBS Local, 7 July 2013.
Another example of apologia: "In the overall rate of violent crime, Chicago ranks 19th -- slightly worse than Minneapolis and better than Kansas City, Indianapolis and Nashville. It has half as much violent crime, per capita, as Detroit or Oakland, Calif. Even when it comes to homicide, Chicago is enjoying, relatively speaking, a golden age. In 1992, it had 943 murders -- 2.6 per day. Last year, it had 415 -- 1.1 per day." In "The Truth About Violence in Chicago," by Steve Chapman, Creators Syndicate, 20 July 2014. One notes that while the statistics and comparisons about other violent cities are correct, this is not an indemnification of significant violence in Chicago, but rather a condemnation of other similar situations in other similar inner-city municipalities. While "gun violence" has indeed dropped from higher levels, it has not dropped enough to not compare Chicago -- and other inner city areas -- from war zones.
Assertions of Competing Truths
That "truth" of which Chapman writes in 2014 is followed by another "truth" as one reads news following on the heels of Chapman's truth: "The violent weekend in Chicago follows a deadly Independence Day weekend when more than 60 people were shot and nine were killed, according to police statistics. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy blamed weak gun laws for the spurt of holiday violence." In "47 shot. 5 dead. Chicago officials meet," by Lorenzo Ferrigno, CNN, 22 July 2014.
For sixty shot and nine more killed in a weekend, Chapman's "truth" is little consolation.
It is sadly amusing for those calling for stricter gun laws than Chicago's already strict laws to cite lower numbers of murders in recent years than in, as an example, 1992, but not propose other solutions to the murderous truth of such statistics. It becomes apparent that addressing the socio-economic and class-related phenomena are ignored with a certain well-constructed aplomb. It is my suspicion that calling for ever more draconian gun laws is far easier than investigating and identifying the root causes of why so many shooters in Chicago shoot and, it is important to note, ignore Chicago's gun laws in the process. If laws are ignored, proposing more laws seems most ineffective. And an easy out for politics playing the Left-Right shell game.
But as to one apologist's complaint of "the right-wing media's constant attacks on Chicago's gun policies," one reads of a Chicago politician asking for help, not rationalization: "Gun violence in Chicago is so severe that a state lawmaker wants state police and the National Guard to assist the local cops. State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) is making the request. 'I am requesting with this press conference that Gov. Patrick Quinn order the Illinois National Guard (and) the Illinois State Police (to) come to Chicago and work with our mayor Ron (sic) Emanuel to provide safety for the children, especially, she said at a news conference in Springfield." In "Ill. Rep Requests National Guard Help Stop Chicago Violence," CBS Local, 10 July 2013.
The focus on Left-Right politics is a red herring, for the terms are never defined.
See: Left is Right, as Right is Left
Additionally, such political rhetoric is trumped by State Representative Davis' plea, which is neither Left nor Right. One might well conclude that politics itself is a cause in the violence and death, as root issues are obfuscated in favor of simple party politics. As Tolbert above says. "It's crazy." Yes, it is.
[ 3 ] One compares Chicago's deaths to an actual war zone: "As of Tuesday, July 1, 2014, at least 2,194 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count. The AP count is three less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT. At least 1,817 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers." In "At least 2,194 US military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001," Associated Press via Fox, 1 July 2014.
A simple arithmetic average for the war zone is less than 163 per year, while 2014's mid-year tally suggests an almost double numbers of homicides. If Chicago were a war zone....
[ 4 ] The article notes that homicides are up over last year, and yet -- Local politicians have lined up against the title. Mr. Lee has been confronted by Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who told him in a meeting last month that he was 'not happy' about the name." A Catholic priest dares ask about the killings which politicians in the city have failed confront in any productive way. A 2012 article posits the notion: "if Chicago was a war zone."
[ 5 ] While the Chicago papers labor to point out that the murder rate in Chicago is diminishing, albeit slowly, this did not stop the chief law enforcement from expressing outrage. One reads: " 'We need to repair a broken system. Criminals don't feel the repercussions of the justice system,' McCarthy said. A Chicago Police spokesperson said Sunday that along with the seven slayings, there were 33 shootings and 40 nonfatal victims in the wave of incidents." In "Chicago convulsed by another violent weekend; top cop blames justice system," by Leslie Holland, CNN, 6 July 2015.
Thus, rationalizing fewer -- though still far too many -- "incidents" being progress, that progress may be described as being slightly less of a "war zone" than some media have opined. The question remains apt. When and how will Chicago become a "peace zone?"
[ 6 ] Chicago is de facto a war zone. One samples data: "As of Wednesday, August 13, 2014, at least 2,199 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count." In "U.S. Military Deaths In Afghanistan At 2,199," by Associated Press, 13 August 2014.
Simple arithmetic divides 2,199 military deaths in a war zone by 12 years, to calculate a raw average of about 183 deaths per year in a war zone. The above op-ed notes deaths in Chicago for one year "approached 470."
This is 2½ times the deaths in a declared war zone, and thus the statement "Chicago is a war zone" is correct from the perspective of killings on its city streets.
War Zone Numbers
This becomes a condemnation of many big cities in the US, wherein such "war zone" numbers are sadly normative. One reads from a recent year: "1. New York — 515; 2. Chicago — 431; 3. Detroit — 344; 4. Philadelphia — 324; 5. Los Angeles — 297; 6. New Orleans — 200; 7. Houston — 198; 8. Baltimore — 196...." In "The 15 US Cities With The Most Murders Last Year," by Abby Rogers, Business Insider via Yahoo Finance, 29 October 2012.
With war zone numbers such as these, one finds op-ed writers quick to conclude: "The sad reality is that many American cities have rates of gun homicides comparable to the some of the most violent nations in the world." In "Gun Violence in U.S. Cities Compared to the Deadliest Nations in the World," by Richard Florida, City Lab/The Atlantic, 22 January 2013.
Oddly, as gun ownership in the US has increased, such rates are going down, suggesting that self-defense by individual citizens has an effect on criminality and its use of guns as offensive weapons.
Moreover, as one reads of examples of The anti-gun guy
[ 7 ] A word of explanation is offered, but perhaps unwelcome. One reads: "In a statement from CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, police called the increases 'unacceptable' and attributed most of them to gang conflicts and retaliatory violence. 'The vast majority of incidents originated from petty disagreements that escalated into gun violence that tore apart families,' the statement said." In "CPD: January shootings double compared to 2015; murders up 75 percent," by Mitchell Armentrout, Chicago Sun-Times, 1 February 2016.
If the city is simply unable to mitigate "gang conflicts and retaliatory violence" for socio-political reasons, then the municipal culture of violence in Chicago makes the city a war zone indeed.
It is reported that the Chicago police are "less aggressive" for fear of reprisals from government as from political movements. One reads: "Homicides and shootings have doubled in Chicago so far this year compared with the same period in 2015, and police have seized fewer illegal guns - more possible signals that officers have become less aggressive in the aftermath of a shooting video released last fall." In "Chicago homicides, shootings double over same period in 2015," by Don Babwin, Associated Press, 1 May 2016.
A police person fearing prosecution for using deadly is likely to be less aggressive in an aggressive society. Therefore "if Chicago were a war zone...."
Partisan artisan - most news is a ruse
"A budget resolution based on President Obama’s 2013 budget failed to get any votes in the Senate on Wednesday. In a 99-0 vote, all of the senators present rejected the president’s blueprint. It’s the second year in a row the Senate has voted down Obama’s budget. Obama's 2012 budget failed 97 to 0 last May after Obama himself last April said he wanted deeper deficit cuts." In "Senate rejects Obama budget in 99-0 vote," by Erik Wasson and Daniel Strauss, The Hill, 16 May 2012.
One side gets the blame, another side gloating crows,
As if those partisans all would come to real blows.
But when push and shove meet on the pushy Senate floor,
It seems oft there is no partisan knocking at their door.
Ninety-nine to zero earns a zero; some game, eh?
Ninety-seven to zero was last year's vote, then blame.
One side is at fault when both sides come to vote?
Politics is all just words until by numbers it is smote.
The partisan artisan whose outrage is oft so loud
Turns out to vote with everyone else in that voting crowd.
Yes, when push and shove smile behind the budget's roar,
It seems there is no partisan knocking at that door.
Spend what you don't have - no tonics for wreckonomics
"Mark Rutte, the deposed Dutch prime minister, made a passionate plea to politicians to stick to his proposed budget cuts. 'The problems are serious, the economy is stalling, employment is under pressure and government debt is growing faster than the Netherlands can afford,' he said. 'Those are the facts and nobody can run away from them. I'm standing here without pretences, it is up to parliament and the voters.'" In "German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends austerity in face of open rebellion in Europe," by Louise Armitstead, The Telegraph UK, 24 April 2012
Spend what you don't have;
Explain it all away.
The brightest folks have done it,
Or so they do say.
There'll never come a reckoning,
They'll tell you straight,
And then they'll resign
At some later date.
Debt is growing faster,
Because they spend.
What is so difficult
About truth to comprehend?
Debt is growing up to be
What no one can afford.
Once upon a time,
This was something we abhorred.
Spend what you don't have,
The government way.
The bright folks can manage,
For so they say.
Then there comes a reckoning;
It's time to abdicate,
But when that time arrives
Said arrival comes too late.
Debt is growing faster,
Because they waste.
What was once so tasty
Has an acid aftertaste.
Debt is blowing up to be
What no one can repay.
Once upon a time
Is nevermore today.
What's spent you didn't have,
For all the good it did.
Encumbrance cannot manage
And no longer can be hid.
Now comes the hard reckoning
As politicians flee,
Leaving behind their debts
After politics' spending spree.Envoi: "The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it." Frédéric Bastiat, in "The Law" (c. 1850)
I have seen mirages
In the plain of day;
To this I can well testify
And this is what I say.
I have heard dark rumors
In the deep of night;
To them I bear my witness
Which you then too might cite.
I have felt the changing winds
Of protest, outrage, war,
Recoiling at the stirrings
Which drum up such a roar.
I have tasted joyfulness
In savoring little things,
And for the simplest of them all
My heart then leaps and sings.
I believe in unicorns
As found in stories rare,
And think such unrealities
Are real as rumors' blare.
I hold trust in little
Which spills from lips of man,
For much is vowed in surety
Though a failing, futile plan.
I have trusted fools and fops
Who swore they were other than
What later they each proved to be:
That fabled bogeyman.
Fools and fops and bogeymen,
Unicorns, winds, mirage,
All too often acts the world
In fictions' camouflage.
I have seen mirages
In ideas, words and deeds;
Of this I can certify
To the folly in many creeds.
Freedom is the pits - a revolution waves
"At least 12 percent of Americans change their residences each year, often moving to more hospitable economic environments. In a system of competitive federalism, Peterson and Nadler write, 'If states and localities attempt in a serious way to tax the rich and give to the poor, the rich will depart while the poor will be attracted.' And government revenues and expenditures vary inversely." In "Illinois moves toward state of insolvency," by George Will, Boston Herald, 27 April 2012
Freedom is the pits
When free funds call it quits,
And wander off the campus
Where rule the hypocrites.
Freedom with both feet
Annoys the taxing bleat
Which give me politicks
As policy concrete.
Freedom makes attacks
By footsteps leaving tracks
Which lead away from burdens
Of ever higher tax.
Say whatever you will,
But freedom seeks to still
Rapaciousness and greed
From a steadily rising bill.
Governments tax and spend,
Then borrow, heaven forefend,
Until the debts are weighted
And schemes predict their end.
Freedom digs the grave
When free funds so behave,
And wander off the campus
Where hypocrites enslave.
States of insolvency
Have always had a history
Of all this sort of thing:
A government's spending spree.
Freedom is the pits
When free folks call it quits,
Throwing off the yokes and chains
Forged by the hypocrites.
Envoi: "Anarcho-Syndicalists... deny the arguments seemingly posed by the Marxist-Leninist approach, for example, which seems to say that people must first be trained in the habits of deference and blind submission to authority (in other words, the habits of slavery) in order to be freed. The methodology of anarcho-syndicalism decrees that individuals must train themselves for freedom, that they must incorporate it into their everyday lives in the present. It says that in order for the end result of working class activism to be the liberation of the world from poverty and wage-slavery, people generally must learn to be autonomous, free-thinking, self-actualising individuals before they can make the social revolution, not the other way around." In "Section 1: Defining Anarcho-Syndicalism," on anarchosyndicalism.net.
"Demand for housing loans fell 70pc in Portugal, 44pc in Italy, and 42pc in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2012. Enterprise loans fell 38pc in Italy. The survey took place in late March and early April, and therefore includes the second of Mario Draghi’s €1 trillion liquidity infusion (LTRO). The ECB said net demand for loans had fallen 'to a significantly lower level than had been expected in the fourth quarter of 2011, with the decline driven in particular by a further sharp drop in financing needs for fixed investment.' Demand fell 43pc for household loans, and 30pc for non-bank firms." In "Europe faces Japan syndrome as credit demand implodes," by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph UK, 25 April 2012
Take it from me:
debt's slavery,
and that's the sum of it.
Debt's slavery
would take from me,
and for this I have quit.
Demand drops down,
debt's proved a clown,
which laughed on to its bank.
Too high? Folks drown
in a dry-water town,
until debt's tides drop down.
Take it from you,
debt becomes due,
and that subtracts so much.
Debt is a shrew
which crushes on cue,
strangling most its clutch.
Take it from me:
debt's slavery,
and that's the truth of it.
Debt's slavery
would take from me;
cleverly I have quit.
Envoi: "Debt is the slavery of the free." Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, a freed slave.
The bubbles grew;
As skins blew thin,
Depending on
Their state of sin.
Puffing up
And puffing out,
All went pop,
Sought bailed out.
After math
The aftermath,
For blowhards chose
A losing path.
The market did
As markets do,
Each time bubbles
Meet a screw.
Pointedly
The point remains,
The bubble pops
And loses gains.
Who knew then
And who knows now?
The deep in debt
Who wonder how....
After math
Negatives subtract,
When bubbles burst
By sharpened fact.
Who blows bubbles?
That's the key.
From what I know
And what I see
It is not you
And is not me,
But those who act
Politically.
I like math,
Not politics,
For numbers' truth
Sees lunatics
For what they are
And what they say,
In blowing bubbles
Night and day.
Aftermath tells
A hardened thing;
After math works,
Each pop's a sting.
The cupboard was bare - it bares, repeating
"But many economists call it a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it. Prices are set so low, they say, that companies and producers cannot make a profit. So farmers grow less food, manufacturers cut back production and retailers stock less inventory. Moreover, some of the shortages are in industries, like dairy and coffee, where the government has seized private companies and is now running them, saying it is in the national interest. In January, according to a scarcity index compiled by the Central Bank of Venezuela, the difficulty of finding basic goods on store shelves was at its worst level since 2008." In "With Venezuelan Cupboards Bare, Some Blame Price Controls," by William Neuman, The New York Times, 20 April 2012
The cupboard was bare
As time went by,
For the bugbear's err
Was to damnify
Those folks who would see
Such shelves well filled,
A bourgeoisie
Who'd profit and build....a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
Government seizes;
Government carves.
Government squeezes;
Government starves.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard goes bare
As profits go dry,
Through a government's flair
To crass crucify
Those who are key
By their work so skilled;
Again bureaucracy
Whole markets chilled.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
A scarcity index,
Writes the New York Times,
Notes market wrecks
Under such government climes.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard stays bare
As time goes by,
For the bugbear's err
Is to ever hog-tie
Those folks who'd see
Such shelves refilled,
The bourgeoisie
Which was slowly killed.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
It's you you'll target,
In this radicalized tale,
As the radicals' argot
Would, dear you, impale.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
As you read this rhyme so crass,
Think to yourself:
Are you in that middle class
And seek a well-stocked shelf?
Yet do you dabble
In radical thought
And think a bourgeois rabble
Should be thumped and fought?
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
Government blames,
Then government takes,
Over decades it maims
What a free people makes.
...a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
The cupboard goes bare
By marketplace rules,
When marketplace politics
Makes us tools
To tear apart
Whereupon we stand,
Which is ever and always
What radicals have planned....a classic case of a government causing a problem rather than solving it.
"Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste. It’s a tedious process. Slowly but surely, the shattered remains of brand new solar panel tubes head to a recycling plant in Hayward. Meanwhile the next phase of the company’s liquidation is under way. It involves getting rid of all the heavy metals left inside the building that were used to make the panels." In "Solyndra Not Dealing With Toxic Waste At Milpitas Facility," CBS San Francisco, 28 April 2012 [ 1 ]
Bankrupt green
Proves toxic too?
A tragic laugh
For Secretary Chu.
Save the planet
By poisoning it?
Tell me a tale
Of sordid shit.
That future wave
Has hit the fan;
It proves the lie,
A failed plan.
Bankrupt green
Took hefty cash,
Converting it
To toxic trash.
Toxic debt
And toxic waste,
All because
The bright boys chased
Green as red ink
Spilled and stained,
As good after bad
Was treasure drained.
Loss and waste
Comes out the end,
And that's the story
Facts have penned.
Litany of pent-ups:
Solyndra ($535 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Evergreen Solar ($25 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
SpectraWatt ($500,000), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Beacon Power ($43 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
AES’ subsidiary Eastern Energy, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
SunPower ($1.2 billion), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
First Solar ($1.46 billion), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Babcock & Brown ($178 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Ene1 ($118.5 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Amonix ($5.9 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
The National Renewable Energy Lab, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Abound Solar ($400 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Solar Trust of America, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
A123 Systems ($279 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Willard & Kelsey Solar Group ($700,981), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Beacon Power, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Range Fuels Solar Trust of America, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Eastern Energy, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Unisolar, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Bright Automotive, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Sovello, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Siag, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Solon, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Q-Cells, bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Mountain Plaza ($2 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.Nordic Windpower ($16 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
ECOtality ($126.2 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Azure Dynamics ($5.4 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
GreenVolts ($500,000), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Satcon ($3 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Compact Power ($151 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Raser Technologies ($33 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Johnson Controls ($299 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Konarka Technologies Inc. ($20 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Thompson River Power ($6.5 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Mascoma Corporation ($100 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Navistar ($39 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Fisker Automotive ($529 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Schneider Electric ($86 million), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Brightsource ($1.6 billion), bankrupt now. Pay for us.
Billions burned by bankrupt green. Pay for us.
And bankrupt green
Proved toxic too;As screaming Cassandras
Were ignored by who?
Might they have been ignored by you? [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
Envoi: "It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities." Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)
Addendum: "How did you go bankrupt?" / "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly." Ernest Hemingway, in "The Sun Also Rises" (1926)
Addendum of Not Learning Very Much: "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
Addendum of Dragging Others Down: "The commercial world is very frequently put into confusion by the bankruptcy of merchants, that assumed the splendour of wealth only to obtain the privilege of trading with the stock of other men, and of contracting debts which nothing but lucky casualties could enable them to pay; till after having supported their appearance a while by tumultuary magnificence of boundless traffic, they sink at once, and drag down into poverty those whom their equipages had induced to trust them." Samuel Johnson, in Rambler #189, 7 January 1752.
Addendum of No Regrets: "In an interview on ABC News' 'Good Morning America', also broadcast online on Yahoo! News Monday, anchor George Stephanopoulos asked President Obama if he regretted the 2009 loan guarantees . He replies, 'No I don't. Because if you look at the overall portfolio of loan guarantees that had been provided, overall it’s doing well. And what we always understood is that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy.' President Obama's administration is accused of rushing the loan guarantee in order to allow it to be announced at the September 2009 groundbreaking of the company's new factory. By February the loan was already under investigation. Still, the President stood firmly behind Solyndra, visiting their California headquarters in early 2010 and touting them as a green energy 'leader'. Some emails that have been released indicate some administration members had expressed concerns about the company's financial health -- concerns that were ultimately overruled." In "Obama Says he Has No Regrets on Wasting $535M on Failed Solar Startup," by Jason Mick, Daily Tech, 4 October 2011.
As regards a politician's stance on public money and waste, see: Chump Change
Addendum of Not Anticipating: "Chu had bragged about the 'unprecedented speed' with which he was granting loans to 'promising' companies that 'hesitant investors' weren’t supporting. Those hesitant investors look pretty good right now and Obama and Chu look stupid. But in their minds they still stand on the side of the angels and thus should be exempt from any criticism. Judge us by our intentions, they basically say. Their attitude about 'green jobs' is the same as their approach to 'climate change' regulations — they consider them the 'right thing to do' no matter how much economic destruction might follow in their wake. Of course, they don’t think those adverse consequences should touch them or their political donors. Obama and Chu made sure to leave the Solyndra bill for the American taxpayer rather than George Kaiser. Obama and Chu claim that they could not have anticipated the company’s problems (one would have needed 'clairvoyant' hindsight, Chu has said) even as they boast of the brave risk they took by supporting it. 'And what we always understood was that not every single business is going to succeed in clean energy,' Obama has said. It was a noble failure, they say — a noble failure that they didn’t want anyone to know about.' Thinking that innocent incompetence is an easier and more respectable explanation than hubris and corruption, the Nobel Prize winner [Chu] is essentially pleading stupidity." In "Chu Him Out," by George Neumayr, American Spectator, 17 November 2011.
Addendum as Time Passes: "While environmentalists tout benefits of solar power, three solar companies filed for bankruptcy in the past week. Each of them blamed intense global competition for its downfall. The German companies Conergy AG and Gehrlicher Solar AG filed for insolvency in German courts in the past week. The Hawaii-based solar company Hoku also filed for bankruptcy protection, reports Renewable Energy World." In "Three solar firms file for bankruptcy in a week," Michael Bastasch, Daily Caller, 9 Juuly 2013. [ 5 ]
Addendum as Time Subtracts: "The Obama administration said it will lose money on the investment. It previously recouped a $5 million reserve fund, so it’s not clear how much of the remaining $45 million it lost. But chances are it lost tens of millions of dollars, since there was little outside interest for the start-up. The Energy Department auctioned off its outstanding loan in recent weeks to exit the troubled investment." In "Indiana firm acquires MV-1 wheelchair accessible vehicle," by David Shepardson, Detroit News, 5 September 2013.
Addendum of Fumbling Government's Access to Capital: "....access to capital is still too dependent on favor and privilege." In "No, Capitalism Is Not Evil," by Alejandro Crawford, US News and World Report, 16 July 2013. [ 6 ]
Addendum on a Chinese Solar Bankruptcy: "China's leading solar firm LDK Solar Co., Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States Wednesday as a key step for the troubled company's overseas debt restructuring. The company started its overseas debt restructuring in Cayman Islands via provisional liquidation in February to resolve its offshore liquidity issues. ... The plan involves its subsidiaries in Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and the United States. The company suffered a loss of 1.3 billion yuan ( 211 million U.S. dollars) in 2013, compared with the loss of 4.3 billion yuan in 2012, according to a report issued by the Jiangxi commerce and industry association last month." In "China's leading solar firm files for bankruptcy protection in U.S.." Xinhua, 22 October 2014. [ 7 ]
Addendum of a Bio-Fuels Bankruptcy: "Kior, Inc., the Houston-area biofuels maker that hoped to tap new technology to produce clean energy, filed for bankruptcy Sunday. The company listed $58.3 million in assets along with $261.3 million debts in its filing in the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, where the company is incorporated. The company was at one-time considered a leader in the development of what’s known as cellulosic fuel — gasoline and diesel that is made from inedible plant material like woodchips and grass clippings." In "KiOR files for bankruptcy, but not Mississippi unit," by Ryan Holeywell, Fuel Fix, 10 November 2014.
Addendum of a Solar Panels Bankruptcy: "...taxpayers could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars the counties owe bondholders, after work ground to a halt amidst cost overruns and lawsuits. What's more, the $88 million that must be repaid to bondholders for the 71 projects could cause 'unmitigated disaster' to the three counties, according to court filings. Negotiations are underway involving 'more attorneys than could fit on a bus' to ease the financial pain of the incomplete projects and to possibly salvage the work, officials said." In "Taxpayers in 3 counties could be on hook for millions after solar project fizzles," by Ben Horowitz and Seth Augenstein, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, 15 February 2015.
Addendum of Another Failure, This Using Prison Labor: "...those solar arrays rest on a foundation of falsehoods and false hopes, an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. Interviews and an examination of thousands of pages of documents show that state officials wrongly awarded millions in state tax credits, turning a blind eye to phony documents. The project also was dogged by an international trade war, a bitter corporate rivalry and a stunning twist that traded high-paid Oregon jobs for prison labor at 93 cents an hour." In "Oregon's signature solar energy project built on foundation of false hopes and falsehoods," by Ted Sickinger & Jeff Manning, Oregonian, 27 February 2015.
Addendum of Continuing Billions: "The EIA — part of the Energy Department — reported last month that the federal government spent roughly $45 billion just from 2010 to 2013 on renewable energy subsidies, mostly for wind and solar. Obama's budget calls for a 13% hike in current subsidy levels. In a speech this year, Obama said this 'investment' has paid off, claiming that 'we've doubled the production of clean energy.' What he didn't say is that even with that doubling, solar and wind still account for less than 3% of the total energy supply, according to the new Outlook report. Nor did Obama mention that, even with billions upon billions in subsidies, solar and wind will still account for a mere 4% of the nation's energy supply by 2040 — a quarter-century from now." In "Even With Subsidies, Green Energy's Future Is Dim," by John Merline, Investors, 15 April 2015.
Addendum of Bio-Fraud: "Millions of tax payer dollars stolen and now the company responsible will have to pay for their actions. Investigators say three brothers who ran E-biofuels LLC, out of Muncie, are behind the scheme and it was one of the largest fraud busts in Indiana history. United States Attorney Josh Minkler announced the charges with members from the FBI, EPA and IRS. Brothers Chad, Chris and Craig Ducey all pleaded guilty to running the company E-biofuels LLC. The brothers resold biodiesel and then accepted federal tax incentives as if they had produced the fuel. Authorities say they had been doing for years." In "3 Indiana brothers plead guilty in biofuels fraud," Associated Press, 29 April 2015.
Addendum of Enriching the Middlemen: "Big mistakes in economic policymaking abound. But it would be hard to find a worse one than energy subsidies. Recent research has shown that they enrich middlemen, depress economic output and help the rich, who use lots of energy, more than they do the poor. But now a new working paper by the International Monetary Fund highlights another cost too: damage to the environment. Including this, the authors reckon that the total drag on the global economy caused by fuel subsidies now amounts to a stonking $5.3 trillion each year, or 6% of global GDP—more than world spends on health care." In "A costly mistake," Economist, 19 May 2015. [ 8 ]
Addendum of Completing a Conclusion: "Solyndra, the solar panel manufacturer who took more than $500 million from President Obama’s stimulus then went bust, sticking taxpayers for the loss, lied to federal officials to secure the loan, the Energy Department’s inspector general said in a report released Wednesday. But the Obama administration goofed too, and may have cut corners in fully vetting the project because of 'political pressure' from top Democrats and Solyndra itself, the investigators said in their report, which took four years to complete." In "Solyndra misled government to get $535M solar project loan: report," by Kellan Howell and Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, 26 August 2015. [ 9 ]
Addendum of a Green Town: "Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment company, pledged financial support to the estimated $22bn experiment in urban design. Ten years on, however, only a fraction of the town has been built - less than 5% of the original six square km 'greenprint', as Wan called it. The completion date has been pushed back to 2030." In "Masdar's zero-carbon dream could become world’s first green ghost town," by Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian UK, 16 February 2016.
Addendum of a €7.0 billion Loss: "German power giant E.ON on Wednesday said it booked a €7.0 billion ($7.7-billion) net loss in 2015 and warned that 'the course ahead will be tougher and longer than anticipated'." In "Green energy policies bring power giant to €7 billion loss," TheLocal.de, 9 March 2016.
Addendum of Subsidy-Fueled Collapse: "Even $1.5 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees can’t save a 'clean' energy company from bankruptcy. That’s the takeaway from the looming failure of SunEdison, a company that touts itself as the 'largest global renewable energy development company.' Once a darling of Wall Street and the green Left because of SunEdison’s portfolio of wind and solar projects, the company’s stock is now in free fall. Furthermore, two related companies that were spun off from SunEdison — TerraForm Global and TerraForm Power — also appear to be in financial distress. On March 30, Brian Wuebbels, the CEO of both TerraForm companies, resigned effective immediately. If all that weren’t enough, the company is also under investigation by both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission about its finances and the disclosures it made to investors." In "SunEdison’s Subsidy-Fueled Collapse," by Robert Bryce, National Review, 4 April 2016.
Addendum of SunEdison's Bankruptcy: "U.S. solar energy company SunEdison Inc (SUNE.N) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, becoming one of the largest non-financial companies to do so in the past 10 years. Once the fastest-growing U.S. renewable energy developer, SunEdison embarked on an aggressive acquisition strategy that left it struggling with $12 billion in debt." In "SunEdison files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection," by Tom Hals, Reuters, 21 April 2016.
Addendum of Aquion Energy's Hyped Battery: "Aquion Energy, a rising star among manufacturers of large-scale energy storage systems, announced on Wednesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization amid struggles with fundraising from investors. The company said it is in search of a buyer and hopes to emerge from bankruptcy 'in the coming weeks.' It has laid off about 80 percent of its personnel, keeping only a core research and development team. The company has halted its factory operations in Westmoreland County and paused marketing and sales efforts, it said in a release." In "Hyped battery maker Aquion Energy files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy," by Daniel Moor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8 March 2017.
Addendum of Ten Times More Liabilities Than Assets: "Suniva has filed voluntarily for chapter 11 bankruptcy, two weeks after laying off 131 employees without notice and closing its 200 MW module factory in Michigan. The company’s financial troubles appear to be quite serious, as it reports assets of $10-50 million, but ten times that many liabilities." In "Suniva files for chapter 11 bankruptcy," by Christian Roselund, PV Magazine, 18 April 2017.
Addendum of Yet More Green Fraud: "A former official with the Oregon Department of Energy has pleaded guilty to accepting $291,017 in kickbacks in connection with the sale of state energy tax credits, prosecutors said." In "Oregon state official admits taking bribes: 'I'm dirty'," by Ted Sickinger, Oregonian, 20 June 2017.
Addendum of Agreeing to Borrow and Then Close: "Level Solar, which operated offices in Hicksville and Ronkonkoma, terminated employees Tuesday, according to a copy of a note sent to one of the employees. The company’s website has been suspended, and calls to the company’s Long Island and Manhattan offices were not answered. In 2015, the company reached an agreement to borrow up to $25 million from the state’s Green Bank program." In "Level Solar closes, PSEG and former employees say," by Mark Harrington, Newsday, 22 September 2017.
Addendum of a Politically-related Green Company Collapsing After an Election Loss: "One of the more striking outcomes from the DOE Bioeconomy 2017 conference in Washington DC was confirmation of the demise of Joule Unlimited. 'We had a lot of prospects last year,' former CEO Brian Baynes told The Digest, 'but those new investor prospects walked away, particularly post election. The insiders would have been happy to see this project go forward, but didn’t have an ability to go it alone given the amount of capital we needed. Baynes was responding to reports that the technology and the Hobbs, New Mexico pilot facility would be auctioned shortly." In "Heat Death: Joule Unlimited collapses as oil prices flag, time passes, pressure mounts," by Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest, 18 July 2017.
Addendum of the 2018 Riots in France and Elsewhere: "Already 'dozens of countries and cities have introduced or drawn up plans for carbon taxes to speed the transition from fossil fuels that are warming the planet to increasingly dangerous levels. They are rarely easy to implement. There have also been protests and political backwards steps in Belgium, Tunisia, Algeria and Canada.' They knew what they wanted; they just didn't know it couldn't be paid for." In "Surprise Collapse," by Richard Fernandez, PJ Media, 8 December 2018.
Addendum of a Green Ponzi Scheme: "Shortly before the SEC filed its lawsuit, Wragg appeared alongside former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the 5th Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in April 2009. Mantria was among those organizations honored by the former president’s foundation." In "Co-founder of bogus green energy firm gets jail time for $54M Ponzi scheme," by Jeff Blumenthal, Philadelphia Business Journal, 8 April 2019.
Addendum of Having Not Considered: " 'The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has discussed the impact of cloud cover on climate in their evaluations, but this phenomenon has never been considered in climate predictions due to the insufficient physical understanding of it,' comments Professor Hyodo. 'This study provides an opportunity to rethink the impact of clouds on climate. When galactic cosmic rays increase, so do low clouds, and when cosmic rays decrease clouds do as well, so climate warming may be caused by an opposite-umbrella effect. The umbrella effect caused by galactic cosmic rays is important when thinking about current global warming as well as the warm period of the medieval era'." In "Winter monsoons became stronger during geomagnetic reversal revealing the impact of cosmic rays on the Earth's climate," Kobe University via Science News, 3 July 2019. [ 10 ]
Addendum of Continuing Bankruptcies: "SolarReserve, the developer behind Crescent, sued for the dissolution of Tonopah Solar Energy LLC. The developer told a federal court in November that 'the plant is moribund—neither generating energy nor revenue' and had debt of more than $440 million with 'assets of much less value,' TheWSJ Editorial Board reported. ACS Cobra, another developer that aided in the project, would control Tonopah once the DOE is free of its obligation, allowing the developer to make appropriate repairs and eventually negotiate with of one or more new Purchase Power Agreements at competitive rates, Hynes noted. The loan was distributed three weeks after Solyndra got $535 million in government loan guarantees during the Obama administration before declaring bankruptcy in 2011. Abound Solar got a $400 million loan guarantee from former President Barack Obama’s administration, but only used $68 million before the DOE cut off funding in the wake of Solyndra’s bankruptcy." In "Trump Recovers Taxpayer Cash On A $1 Billion Obama-Backed Solar Plant That Was Obsolete Before Ever Going Online," by Chris White, Daily Caller, 30 July 2020.
Addendum of an Editorial on Bankrupt Green: "A failed solar plant in Tonopah is a reminder that reality frequently fails to live up to the promises of the green energy hype machine." In "EDITORIAL: Failed solar project offers warning," by Staff, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9 August 2020.
Addendum of Yet Another Bankruptcy: "A Portland-based startup that pioneered ocean carbon-removal technology, and sold credits to offset the emissions of major clients such as Microsoft, shut down and laid off its last employees on Friday because it could no longer sell enough carbon credits to survive, its CEO said. Running Tide, which had more than 120 workers at its peak, laid off its remaining 32 U.S. employees on Friday, most of whom were based in Portland, CEO Marty Odlin said. Fifteen workers in Iceland, near one of the company’s carbon sequestration sites, also lost their jobs." In "Portland startup that became global leader in capturing carbon shuts down, lays off all staff," by Kelley Bouchard, Portland Press Herald, 15 June 2024.
Addendum of Yet Another Bankruptcy: "The California-based company, which filed for bankruptcy in Delaware District Court, had been seeking a deal with another automaker in a last-ditch effort to rescue the enterprise." In "EV startup Fisker files for bankruptcy," by Kirsten Korosec and Sean O'Kane, Tech Crunch, 18 June 2024.
Addendum of SunPower Bankruptcy: "In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs, according to CalMatters. The changes weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate." In "Major Solar Company Files for Bankruptcy after California Slashes Subsidies," by Frank Bergman, Slay, 6 August 2024.
Addendum of Lumio Bankruptcy: "In a court declaration, Jeffrey T. Varsalone, a Lumio board member, said the company has faced a 'severe liquidity crisis' over the past year, which he attributed to 'a sharp decline in demand in the solar market and various macroeconomic headwinds.' Varsalone blamed increases in inflation and a subsequent jump in interest rates to have resulted in 'reduced demand across the entire solar power industry,' thus negatively affecting Lumio’s financial performance." In "Solar Firm Lumio Files for Bankruptcy After ‘Sharp Decline in Demand’," by Naveen Athrappully, Epoch Times, 5 September 2024.
See: Green Job
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra, will always be America’s businesses. But that doesn’t mean the government can just sit on the sidelines. Government still has the responsibility to help create the conditions in which students can gain an education so they can work at Solyndra, and entrepreneurs can get financing so they can start a company, and new industries can take hold." Quote of Barack Obama in "Remarks by the President on the Economy," The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 26 May 2010.
Solyndra went bankrupt. The rhetoric was demonstrably untrue. But praised until....
Haphazard and Not Well Equipped
Only a few years later, one finds, "'The allocation of spending to clean energy is haphazard,' he wrote. 'The government is just not well equipped to decide which companies should get the money and how much. … One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million; while that is good for us, I can't imagine it's a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.'" In "Obama on Solyndra: 'Hindsight Is Always 20/20'," by Matthew Mosk, ABC News, 3 October 2011.
One sees the story clearly now, and the narrative can only be one of arrogance and hubris resulting in the waste of public monies, or government corruption resulting in the waste of public monies.
"Green politics" as practiced by the Obama administration asserted 1) that government could not "sit on the sidelines," 2) could not foresee loss, though "some administration members had expressed concerns about the company's financial health -- concerns that were ultimately overruled," 3) touted Solyndra as a "green energy leader" in 2011 while stating in the same year they could not anticipate "the company's problems, 4) wasted public money in doing so as this "green energy leader" went quickly bankrupt, and then shrugged off the loss of public money.
[ 2 ] "The Energy Department gave $150 million in economic Recovery Act funds to a battery company, LG Chem Michigan, which has yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public and whose workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games, or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups." In "Inspector general: Grant money for battery company not ‘managed effectively’" by Stave Mufson, Washington Post, 13 February 2013.
Defaults and Foreclosures
Such stories continue to proliferate. Small "green" companies sprang up under the flood of subsidies from governments, only to find they needed more capital than they estimated. As another example: "If the San Jose, Calif., company defaults, Portland taxpayers could be out $5 million, because the city guaranteed half the loan last year in wooing the plant away from Wilsonville. Already the state of Oregon is out $20 million in state tax credits issued to SoloPower, which is scheduled to close its factory next month, barring arrival of a white knight bearing fresh capital. Energy officials are working with Oregon Justice Department lawyers on the case, said Diana Enright, an Energy Department spokeswoman." In "Oregon prepares to foreclose on SoloPower as solar startup misses loan payment," by Richard Read, The Oregonian, 3 May 2013.
The overall picture painted by so many "market" failures of subsidized green companies suggests that the "market" fundamentals were exaggerated if not simply falsified. Taken as a study worldwide, it seems "green" is "red" in simple terms of red ink and past, ongoing and future bankruptcies. But in addition to tax payers losing public funds yet again, one sees consumers being essentially gouged.
[ 3 ] "The face of Obama’s green energy ideas is a Potemkin village. Behind closed doors — a little real work, and a lot of pretending. You give me billions of dollars, I’ll pretend for them too. Put up a nice storefront, with a pretty sign. Dog and pony shows." Comment ascribed to Paul-Cincy in an article titled, "IG: Add LG Chem to Obama’s green-tech subsidy flops," HotAir.com, 13 February 2013.
A Completely Irrational Strategy
Additionally one reads of the UK's learning curve on "green" fuels for vehicles: "'Once you take into account these indirect effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first place,' said Rob Bailey. 'Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely irrational strategy.'" In "Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than fossil fuels'," by Matt McGrath, BBC News, 15 April 2013.
Among the prizes of the "green" movement was the very expensive car bought by celebrities of wealth. But.... "But the limelight was short-lived for Fisker. In the months and years that followed, the company spiraled downward, burning its dreams and reputation to the ground — just like faulty parts did to a couple of its cars. Fisker has been reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy, lawsuits are piling up, and a government hearing is reportedly in the works." In "A look under the hood: why electric car startup Fisker crashed and burned," by Katie Fehrenbacher, CNN, 17 April 2013. CNN opinion would do well to review Huxley's remark as above.
More on Fisker: "The Energy Department, which has had to defend its loan guarantees to failed solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC, gave Fisker its loan primarily to acquire and restart production at a closed GM plant in Delaware, the home state of Vice President Joe Biden, who attended the press conference announcing the venture. The company forecast it would create 2,500 jobs, according to a project summary still posted on the Energy Department’s website. Activity at the Delaware plant stopped last year and no cars have been made there. " In "Fisker Spent $660,000 on Each $103,000 Plug-in Car," by Angela Greiling Keane, Bloomberg News, 19 April 2013.
Government Loans and Bankruptcies
But the federal government and Secretary Chu are represented by an official website, recounting the promise: "Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced a $528.7 million conditional loan for Fisker Automotive for the development of two lines of plug-in hybrids that will save hundreds of millions gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. The project will result in approximately 5,000 jobs created or saved for domestic parts suppliers and thousands more to manufacture a plug-in hybrid in the U.S. 'This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future,' said Secretary Chu. 'Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could revolutionize personal transportation and cut our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention give us cleaner air and less carbon pollution.'" In "US Energy Secretary Chu Announces $528 Million Loan for Advanced Vehicle Technology for Fisker Automotive," statement dated 22 September 2009, found on the "energy.gov" website of the United States Federal Government. This announcement has been proven an empty promise at the costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Other "green" vehicle companies are also collapsing at a steady pace: "Closely held Coda, which counted former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as an investor, pitched its vehicle as a “real world” car with better range, battery-pack life and acceleration than competitors such as Nissan Motor (7201) Co.’s Leaf, Ford Motor Co. (F)’s Focus EV and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211)’s i-MiEV hatchbacks. The compact, which cost $37,250 before a $7,500 U.S. tax credit, averages 88 miles (142 kilometers) per charge and can travel as far as 125 miles, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. About 87,000 electric and plug-in hybrid cars have been sold in the U.S., with two years left to achieve President Barack Obama’s target of 1 million sales for the industry." In "Electric-Car Maker Coda Files for Bankruptcy to Seek Sale," by Michael Bathon & Kit Chellel, Bloomberg News, 2 May 2013.
False Predictions
"After the federal government spent billions of dollars on federal tax credits and subsidies to promote all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, they accounted for less than half of one percent of the 11.7 million light vehicles purchased in the U.S. during the last nine months. In his 2011 'State of the Union' address, President Obama predicted that the U.S. would 'become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015,' and backed up his prediction with $2.4 billion in federal grants to companies that produce lithium-ion batteries to power them. But with 14 months to go, sales of the two top-selling plug-in cars are running far behind the president’s expectations. And despite receiving $99.8 million in stimulus funds, electric charging station manufacturer Ecotality filed for bankruptcy last month." In "Plug-Ins Account For Less Than Half of 1% of Auto Sales This Year," by Barbara Hollingsworth, Cybernews, 17 October 2013.
It seems the sales pitch was massively un-informed are massively dishonest. Perhaps both, for when ideology overwhelms practicality, for a time anything seems possible -- until it isn't.
[ 4 ] And as to the complaint of unfair price competition with China-made solar panels, one learns that -- "China's Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., once the larger manufacturer of solar panels in the world, said its main operating subsidiary has been pushed into bankruptcy by eight Chinese banks." In "Chinese solar panel manufacturer Suntech Power's operating unit in bankruptcy," Pacific Business News, 20 March 2013.
It seems the rush to obtain government grants and cheap loans in the solar boom has caused the predictable solar bust. As with the now defunct Chicago Climate Exchange which from height of market to its collapse lost ninety percent of its investors' value, and as Germany's solar sector has lost in a similar scale, only a few years later China is also finding the promise of profits from solar energy elusive. Screaming Cassandras foresaw this and were ridiculed by the green industry.
Additionally as to SunTech, one learns, "Some of the $75 billion sector's high profile names have fallen on hard times recently - most notably Suntech Power (STP). The China-based solar panel company rattled the industry when it filed for bankruptcy last week. In its heyday, the stock traded just shy of $90 and had a market capitalization of $16 billion: on Thursday, the last day U.S. markets were open, the shares traded around for 42 cents each." In "Once 'Overhyped and Sexy,' Solar Tumbles," by Javier E. David, CNBC, 30 March 2013.
As with carbon credits traded by the now collapsed Chicago Climate Exchange which traded at a high of about $8 and were worth about 10 cents at collapse, the SunTech high of $90 falling to 42 cents, suggests a quite common occurrence in "green" trading.
Inching and Losing and Crashing
As one looks further, one finds "'In Europe, prices plunged as it became clear that the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is over-allocated all the way to 2020, mainly due to the impact of Europe's economic troubles on emissions', explained Anders Nordeng, senior carbon analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon and co-editor of the report." In "European carbon price 'inching ever closer to zero'," by James Murray, Guardian UK, 7 February 2013. As with the massive losses generated for investors in the Chicago Climate Exchange, one sees the same thing in Europe in the moment. Checking European Carbon Futures, on learns from a high in 2010 of over 17.50 Euros/t CO2, the price has slipped to under 7.5 Euros, for a loss for investors of about sixty percent.
The losses in the German solar sector also climb: "The Bosch unit is the latest casualty of boom and bust experienced in Germany's solar energy industry. Former heavyweights SolarWorld (SWVG.D) and Conergy (CGYGk.DE) are in debt restructuring talks while Q-Cells QCEG.UL filed for insolvency last year." In "Bosch abandons solar energy," Reuters, 22 March 2013.
Losses are becoming synonymous with "carbon" investing. "After trading on the EU ETS began, prices reached a high of €31 per ton. But the economic slump beginning in 2008 slowed industrial activity, depressing prices. Permits for delivery in December 2013 (and valid for seven years) touched a low of €2.81 on Jan. 24. They closed at €4.15 on March 22." In "Europe's Carbon Emissions Market Is Crashing," by Alex Morales and Alessandro Vitelli, Bloomberg Business Week, 28 March 2013. These numbers tell the tale, wherein the "high" is now worth less than 14 percent of an investor's "credit."
The bankrupt and bankrupting green companies, only some of which are listed above, are causing massive amounts of investors' funds and government subsidies alike to be lost. One example: "The California Public Employees Retirement System has put $900 million to work in cleantech, $460 million of that with venture capitalists who invest in cleantech startups, and has had a negative return of 9.8 percent on that money." In "CalPERS loses on cleantech bets," by Kent Bernhard Jr., Upstart Business Journal, 22 March 2013.
The pattern and sheer scope of the losses suggest that "green" was overhyped and oversold, its claims outlandish and proven so in a few short years.
That Will Cost Money
But it is worthwhile revisiting the intent of the politicians involved, through their own words, notably: "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity price would necessarily skyrocket. . . . Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas—you name it—whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers." Barack Obama, January 2008 and found as a YouTube video, and as cited by Institute for Energy Research, "Quotes on Cap and Trade and Energy."
As well as significant losses in government subsidies to companies now bankrupt only years later, one also reviews the proposed cap and trade as envisioned by government: "A cap and trade bill will likely increase the costs of electricity. . . . These costs will be passed on to the consumers. But the issue is, how does it actually…how do we interact in terms with the rest of the world? If other countries don’t impose a cost on carbon, then we would be at a disadvantage. . . . We should look at considering duties that would offset that cost." Quote of Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, in testimony to House Committee on Science on Technology, 17 March 2009.
As Chu resigned from the administration, he wrote the following: "Through the Recovery Act, the Department of Energy made grants and loans to more than 1,300 companies. While critics try hard to discredit the program, the truth is that only one percent of the companies of the companies we funded went bankrupt. That one percent has gotten more attention than the 99 percent that have not." Steven Chu, "Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announcing His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term," 1 February 2013.
So is it a matter of the number of companies or the amount of loan losses?
One reads: "The story is the same for the U.S. Department of Energy. The Obama administration’s rocky road with green-energy boosterism is no secret. With big names like Solyndra and Solar Trust of America, it’s hard to lose sight of the administration’s funding failures. But what may come as a surprise is the overall amount of money being thrown away on these green companies that the administration has championed. Of the $10.7 billion in green-energy commitments, detailed below, approximately $3.2 billion is to companies that are in bankruptcy, and another $7.1 billion is committed to teetering firms." In "Energy Loserville: U.S. DOE Picks in an Artificial Industry," by Sterling Burnett, MasterResource, 9 July 2012.
Simple math suggests that as of July 2012, about 30 percent of the "commitments" were in bankruptcy, a greater number than Chu's "one percent."
Or Something Like That
Apples and oranges. Chu seems to be citing the number of companies or university grants, not aggregate dollar losses. But some months after his retirement from the administration, he predicted, "We're going to have a few more bankruptcies. Sometimes it'll be like Solyndra where you get 3 cents on the dollar. Others, it'll be 80 cents, or something like that." In "Ex-Energy Secretary Steven Chu Q&A," by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 June 2013.
What an odd prediction of "something like that." Losing money on an investment is not what investors seek.
But in stepping down Chu wrote, "This is the approach I’ve brought to the Department of Energy, where I believe we should be judged not by the money we direct to a particular State or district, company, university or national lab, but by the character of our decisions." Steven Chu, "Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announcing His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term," 1 February 2013.
What is the definition of "character of our decisions" when so great an economic loss is assigned to the "public?"
Bailing
An additional question comes about 'corporate welfare' for multi-national, foreign-owned companies to expand into US markets, courtesy of the "green" government stance. One reads: "Yet again, evidence of impropriety surrounds the issuance of federal Department of Energy 'green' loan guarantees — in this instance, loans were granted to a foreign company with Democratic Party ties. Over the last two years, DOE Secretary Steven Chu has awarded Spain-based Abengoa — a sprawling, multi-national industrial firm operating in 70 countries — loan guarantees worth a staggering $2.78 billion for solar and ethanol plants. Abengoa is a Madrid-based conglomerate that operates throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. It is not starved for cash: according to its 2009 annual report, the firm was valued at $25.5 billion, enjoying a cash flow of $4 billion and a net profit of $288 million. It is traded on the Madrid and Barcelona stock exchanges and employs more than 25,000 workers. At first glance, Abengoa does not appear to require U.S. government-backed loan guarantees. In 2010 it qualified for private bank loans in 11 countries worth $161 million. In July 2009 alone, Abengoa issued convertible bonds in Europe worth $688 million. Overall, the Energy Department has awarded Abengoa three separate loan guarantees." In "Another DOE Loan Scandal: Are We Bailing Out Spain’s Solar Collapse?" PJMedia, 10 November 2011.
[ 5 ] "Green energy has a low capacity factor, intermittent operation, more access and transmission costs. and creates operational inefficiencies in backup plants. It is a destructive and stunningly expensive way to achieve a miniscule overall reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, even if that were a sensible aim. It is a system designed by delirious politicians not prudent power engineers, and its main achievement is to harvest subsidies not energy. If all green energy welfare was removed, the parasite power producers would die. And unless it is removed, the hosts and the customers will be continuously weakened." In "Parasitic Power Producers," by Viv Forbes, 19 August 2013.
The political Left has often called for the end of "corporate welfare," and yet one finds the political Left has supported, funded with now lost public money, and based much of their fund raising and profit taking on the green myth. See: Albert Gore
Thus if one refuses this call to believe, one is termed a "denier." How utterly religious in its manipulative model, all the while the green secular priesthood piles up their wealth at the expense of ever increasing public debt.
[ 6 ] That the news noticed that capital in the hands of government becomes "too dependent on favor and privilege" is evident in the many public pronouncements by government about "green energy" investments, so many of which have taken capital in the billions of dollars and essentially lost it on bet.
Strive to Generate Return, Not Loss
The article notes that capital can be moved about in a free marketplace, as well as in a less-than-free economy. "Capital unlocks possibilities by assigning resources to what has potential but is still unproven. It enables people to pursue solutions based on the case that can be made for the potential of those solutions, even when the people offering them are not the children of government ministers or the scions of old families. It is a powerful instrument used not only by private ventures, but also by governments, communities and not-for-profits striving to learn from private enterprise how to make sure the grants they make and the services they offer generate specific types of financial, social and environmental return. To be sure, this instrument is difficult to use well. Capital requires no small measure of skill and guidance to manage effectively, and when it is employed injudiciously the results are often ruinous." In "No, Capitalism Is Not Evil," by Alejandro Crawford, US News and World Report, 16 July 2013.
So the question is not capitalism, per se, but rather the misuse of capital because "capital requires no small measure of skill and guidance," and of course government is repeatedly proven to be inept -- see: No correct arithmetic
It is the voice of politicians which declares a political opposition to be at fault, and yet that voice remains consistent in obfuscating the reality of government which suffers from Leadership Failure
And of failed leadership, one recalls the sterling words about now-bankrupt Solyndra: "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra, will always be America’s businesses. But that doesn’t mean the government can just sit on the sidelines. Government still has the responsibility to help create the conditions in which students can gain an education so they can work at Solyndra, and entrepreneurs can get financing so they can start a company, and new industries can take hold." Barack Obama, in "Remarks by the President on the Economy," 26 May 2010.
After the fact and after the loss of billions in public funds, one may still say that "companies like Solyndra" have collapsed without continuing subsidies from government. Such is the nature of politics investing money.
Recalling Words Which Proved False
That green politics spoke this: "We can see the positive impacts right here at Solyndra. Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot. But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations. This new factory is the result of those loans… Before the Recovery Act, we could build just 5 percent of the world’s solar panels. In the next few years, we’re going to double our share to more than 10 percent." Barack Obama, remarks at Solyndra Inc., Fremont, Calif., May 26, 2010.
In fact, from mid-2010 and promised "positive impacts" to mid-2012 as noted in the press report above in which "CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste," one sees the basic truth of capitalism, as noted in the US News and World Report, 16 July 2013. "Capital requires no small measure of skill and guidance to manage effectively, and when it is employed injudiciously the results are often ruinous." President Obama and his administration loaned massive sums to many "green" ventures, and that capital was "employed injudiciously" with "ruinous" results.
And yet politics was fully in play. "This week, the White House said using Solyndra as a reason to abandon solar and other clean energy loans is 'counterproductive defeatism.' The President spoke Thursday primarily to promote his $447 billion jobs bill and challenge Republican opposition." In "Obama Defends Solyndra And Clean Energy Loan Program," Huffington Post, October 6, 2011.
Apparently resisting politically the resultant loss of $447 billion of public money was "counterproductive." Basic capitalism asserts that lost investment is proof of "ruinous" choices. Such is the rhetorical nature of green politics, which happily, even ruinously, wastes public money for what has been called a "noble cause." And of course, quid pro quo.
"Billions burned by bankrupt green. Pay for us." Such is the fiscal and political truth of today's glib Globaloney
The losses of Bankrupt Green are not examples of capitalism and the "creative destruction" which the theory suggests is a way of weeding out the unproductive. Bankrupt Green is clearly become an example of government ineptitude, waste, folly and nested in it somewhere the dark game of quid pro quo alongside possible fraud, but all sanitized as "noble."
Years after the Solyndra bankruptcy which lost government-loaned venture capital which is the antithesis of capitalism, one sees more government-loaned venture capital being lost in yet another collapse.
Holy Toledo! Bankrupt!
"The university wasn’t the only public entity to help Xunlight. In 2010, the company received $34.5 million in tax credits as part of the stimulus bill. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) helped secure nearly $3 million in federal earmarks for the company. The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority loaned $3 million in 2009 from its Northwest Ohio Bond Fund. The company received a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a more than $4 million loan from the state, and more than $2 million in state and local tax credits." In "Xunlight Corp. files for bankruptcy liquidation," by Nolan Rosenkrans, Toledo Blade, 25 November 2014.
One learns from the report that many government entities participated. A commenter to that news report summed it up and came to his most logical conclusion: "HOW OUR TAX DOLLARS ARE SPENT/ University of Toledo - $3,000,000.00; United States via Kaptur (what she does for a living) - $3,000,000.00; United States via Obama (stimulus bill) - $34,500,000.00; Lucas County Port Authority - $3,000,000,00; United States (NW Ohio bond fund) - $3,000,000,00; State of Ohio (cash) - $4,000,000.00; State of Ohio (credit) - $2,000,000.00; Grand Total $52,500,000.00. Don't let anyone EVER tell you that solar technology isn't profitable. You can rest assured that every executive and every politician in the $52.5 million loop is set for life. ....it's profitable, all right. The end." A comment by Jeff Tucker posted to the Toledo Blade article.
Therein lies the reality, in which government acts in a soft yet fascist manner to take public funds and transfer them to risky ventures, in which a small group of people profit while the citizenry is assigned the resultant unpaid debts. This is not capitalism, in which a private capital market invests, but a socialist-styled income transfer which has failed multiple times. Some want to sully capitalism by terming this "crony capitalism," but when the now lost funds come from taxpayers ultimately, it is most assuredly crony but not capitalism. A better term will become crony socialism. Why? For an insight, see: Socialists love money
[ 7 ] One observes that the Chinese solar company was listed on the US stock exchange, such that this "Chinese" bankruptcy effectively picks the pockets of investors outside of China, notably US investors. "Green" -- that "true engine of economic growth" -- has failed again.
[ 8 ] Although the Economist article looks at all energy subsidies including coal subsidized in emerging economies, the salient admission is that government subsidies, a phrase which sounds so pleasant and supportive to citizens, in fact "enrich middlemen, depress economic output and help the rich, who use lots of energy, more than they do the poor."
Such seems the case throughout all the news reports of government subsidies for energy, green or otherwise. A re-reading of all the above news excerpts reveals a basic pattern, one of failed "investments" of public funds, of bankruptcies aplenty, and even fraud. The Economist correctly notes that this pattern in energy subsidies follows the same scheme, helps "the rich" while depressing real economic output. But then bankruptcies and outright fraud should be expected to result in this, after all.
[ 9 ] And so the end of the story comes for Solyndra and the political pressure to make "green" what was failing. The article notes: "...investigators said employees felt political pressure from the administration, Congress and Solyndra itself to approve the program. Vice President Joseph R. Biden touted the Solyndra plant’s groundbreaking, addressing the event by video in 2009, and Mr. Obama himself visited the plant in 2010 to tout it as an example of his green energy plans, raising the stakes involved in the project. Just months later, however, Solyndra admitted to the department it was in danger of collapse. Officials helped it restructure its plans, earning a new infusion of cash from investors — then it shuttered half a year later."
Taxpayers Come Second But Cronies Come First
Operators who "misled" and "political pressure from the administration" ended quickly with "sticking taxpayers for the loss." How? One reads: "The company’s liquidation value of its collateral was $91 million to $99 million in December, before the refinancing, which would have provided less than a 22 percent return to the government, the document shows. By subordinating $385 million of the government loan to $75 million from investors, the government calculated that Solyndra's conservative enterprise value this year would be $240 million to $360 million." In "Taxpayers Rank Behind Solyndra Investors Under Obama Deal," by William McQuillen, Bloomberg, 3 September 2011.
These news reports echo the official Inspector General's report: "The Solyndra ordeal resulted in a loss to U.S. taxpayers likely to exceed $500 million and a corresponding loss of confidence in the loan guarantee program. At its core, Solyndra officials failed to make complete, accurate, and direct disclosures to the Department of information that was relevant to the loan guarantee process. While the Department’s due diligence effort had shortcomings, it is our view that providing misleading answers to Departmental inquiries and failing to openly disclose critical information violated the spirit and intent of the requirement for Solyndra to report material changes to its loan guarantee application to the Department. As outlined previously, Solyndra furnished information to the Department relating to sales activities and projections as it worked to secure loan guarantee funding, and the Department missed opportunities at several junctures to critically analyze the information. However, we found that even when such information was conveyed, it was not complete and was provided in a less than transparent manner." In "Special Report, The Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee to Solyndra, Inc.," U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Inspector General, 11-0078-I, 24 August 2015.
One could conclude such green bankruptcies as seen herein amount to those oft-seen Old-fashioned
[ 10 ] The "settled science" is not yet settled a decade later, even after media claims of "consensus." The settled bankruptcies have been settled -- proven to be massive losses which have made some few rich and the public poorer by being more indebted over these many government gambles.
The rush to fund "green" projects with government money and enforcement has been heavy-handed, and as time goes along, has been based on Green drivel
Hen Party - a eunuch's cluck
"But for many Swedes, gender equality is not enough. Many are pushing for the Nordic nation to be not simply gender-equal but gender-neutral. The idea is that the government and society should tolerate no distinctions at all between the sexes. This means on the narrow level that society should show sensitivity to people who don't identify themselves as either male or female, including allowing any type of couple to marry. But that’s the least radical part of the project. What many gender-neutral activists are after is a society that entirely erases traditional gender roles and stereotypes at even the most mundane levels." In "Sweden’s New Gender-Neutral Pronoun: Hen, A country tries to banish gender." by Nathalie Rothschild, Slate.com, 11 April 2012. [ 1 ]
Parent One and Parent Two
Had Children: One, Two, Three!
Oh, no, yes, no! But then who knew
Of gender's responsibility?
Parent One and Parent Two
With names like Sky and Sea
Could name their kids Yellow, Cross, Blue,
Avoiding gender's augury.
Red and Blue trot out to play
While One and Two peer on,
To guard against some gendered way
Such childish play might spawn.
Distinction, by law, is not allowed;
Only neutrality may be had,
As One and Two and all their crowd
Believe gender is that bad.
Parent Three and Parent Four
Whose sex -- oops, gender -- function not
Ponder what life has for them in store
After gender-neutral they had sought.
My parts, your parts, those neutral things,
Aren't quite working up to snuff.
Engendering sometimes -- well -- it stings,
When gendered sex is erased enough.
Gender neutral's ideal spawns
Gender neutral's checkmate pawns.
Gender-neutral, that's the game,
Because it's gender that is so too blame
For all the ills in all the world
Come from gendered parts unfurled.
Wrap them tightly, bind them well,
And -- gee -- won't a neutral life be swell?
Sexy then goes out of date,
Confusion reigns twixt mate and mate.
When mating does not make the grade,
Then gender-neutral sex will fade.
Darwin's thoughts might enter here,
To say such thinking needn't fear;
Gender-neutral will not prove fit;
Coming generations will not submit.
Envoi: "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell, in "Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Addendum of the Money Seeker: "A former catering worker who identifies as neither female or male is suing Bon Appetit Management Co. for $518,000, claiming co-workers referred to the employee as a female though repeatedly being asked to stop. Valeria Jones alleges in a lawsuit that co-workers repeatedly called Jones 'miss,' 'lady' and 'little lady' despite explanations that Jones “was not a female or a male and that the term was unwelcome.' Workers also directly said Jones looked like a woman and made female celebrity comparisons, the suit states. The lawsuit, filed this week in Multnomah County Circuit Court, says Jones preferred to be addressed by a general neutral pronoun. The suit doesn’t identify the term. The term 'they' -- rather than 'he' or 'she' -- is sometimes used to refer to a gender-neutral individual in the LGBTQ communities." In "Gender-neutral employee sues for $518,000; suit says employee wrongly referred to as woman," by Aimee Green, The Oregonian, 7 February 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum pondering "no distinction at all between the sexes": "Footballers in Iran's professional women's league are to undergo mandatory gender tests to establish that they are fully female. The country's football governing body is bringing in the random checks after it was revealed that several leading players - including four in the national women's team - were either men who had not completed sex change operations, or were suffering from sexual development disorders." In "Iranian women footballers to undergo gender tests," by Robert Tait, Telegraph UK, 7 February 2014. [ 3 ]
Addendum pondering "lots of distinctions between the sexes": "You don’t have to be just male or female on Facebook anymore. The social media giant is adding a customizable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them. Facebook said the changes, shared with The Associated Press before the launch on Thursday, initially cover the company’s 159 million monthly users in the U.S. and are aimed at giving people more choices in how they describe themselves, such as androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid or transsexual." In "Facebook adds 50 new gender terms, as well as preferred pronoun choices, to social media site," Associated Press via NY Daily News, 13 February 2014. [ 4 ]
Addendum from a Dissident Feminist: "Self-described 'dissident feminist' Paglia, 66, believes that attempts to deny the biological distinctions between men and women is to blame for the much that is wrong with modern society. 'What you're seeing is how a civilization commits suicide’ she told the Wall Street Journal. Paglia, a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, is well known for her critical views on many aspects of modern culture." In "'There's no room for anything manly now': Feminist writer Camille Paglia speaks out AGAINST the loss of masculine virtues and its negative impact on society," Daily Mail UK, 17 February 2014. [ 5 ]
Addendum of Suicides: "...researchers said that the most stunning finding was just how high the risk was for all transgender and gender-nonconforming people, no matter how much money they made, how much education they had, or whether they were single or married. Even transgender people at comparatively 'low' risk were still much more likely to have attempted suicide than the general population, they wrote, with 'lows' often ranging from 30% to 40%. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people who had gotten graduate degrees, for instance, had a lifetime risk of attempting suicide of 31% -- lower than less-educated transgender people, but still astoundingly high. 'It's alarming all across the board,' said Jody L. Herman, manager of transgender research at the Williams Institute. Researchers cautioned that it remains unclear whether the earlier survey, which included more than 6,400 people, was representative of the entire transgender and gender-nonconforming population of the United States. However, other surveys in the U.S. and abroad have also suggested 'an unparalleled level of suicidal behavior among transgender adults,' they wrote." In "Transgender study looks at 'exceptionally high' suicide-attempt rate," by Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, 28 January 2014. [ 6 ]
Addendum of an Amazing Coincidence: "In 2009, David Geary, a University of Missouri psychologist, published the second edition of Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences. This thorough, fair-minded, and comprehensive survey of the literature includes more than 50 pages of footnotes citing studies by neuroscientists, endocrinologists, geneticists, anthropologists, and psychologists showing a strong biological basis for many gender differences. And, as Geary recently told me, 'One of the largest and most persistent differences between the sexes is children’s play preferences.' The female preference for nurturing play and the male propensity for rough-and-tumble hold cross-culturally and even cross-species. Researchers have found, for example, that female vervet monkeys play with dolls much more than their brothers, who prefer balls and toy cars. Nor can human reality be tossed aside. In all known societies, women tend to be the nurturers and men the warriors. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker points to the absurdity of ascribing these universal differences to socialization: 'It would be an amazing coincidence that in every society the coin flip that assigns each sex to one set of roles would land the same way.' Today, an army of gender scholars and activists is marching in support of the genderless ideal. But these warriors forget that ignoring differences between boys and girls can be just as damaging as creating differences where none exist. 'Free to Be' is a cautionary example of how an idealistic social fantasy can turn into a blueprint for repression." In " 'Free to Be' Boys and Girls: 40 Years After the Failed Gender Revolution," by Christina Hoff Sommers, Time, 11 March 2014.
Addendum of the Nouns War like unto the Pronouns War: "...the European Union is saying his cheese isn't authentic enough to carry a European name. As part of trade talks, the EU wants to ban the use of names like Parmesan, feta and Gorgonzola on cheese made in the United States. The argument is that the American-made cheeses are shadows of the original European varieties and cut into sales and identity of the European cheeses. ... the EU is expected to make similar attempts to restrict marketing of U.S.-made cheeses, possibly including Parmesan, Asiago, Gorgonzola, feta, fontina, grana, Muenster, Neufchatel and Romano. And it may not be just cheese. Other products with traditional ties to European countries that could be affected include bologna, Black Forest ham, Greek yogurt, Valencia oranges and prosciutto, among other foods." In "Europe says US-made cheeses can't use Old World names," Associated Press, 12 March 2014. [ 7 ]
Addendum on The Banning of Proper Names: "Saudi Arabia's interior ministry has banned 50 names they argue contradict the culture or religion of the Kingdom, according to reports by local media. Parents in the Kingdom will reportedly no longer be able to call their children by names such as Linda, Alice, Elaine or Binyamin (Arabic for Benjamin) after the civil affairs department at the ministry issued a list of the prohibited names. Binyamin is believed in Islam to be the son of Prophet Jacob, but is also the name of the current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Some names on the list are allegedly banned by the interior ministry because they are considered 'blasphemous,' non-Arabic or non-Islamic, or contradictory to the kingdom’s culture or religion, Gulf News has reported. The ban was also allegedly justified by the ministry because some of the names were deemed foreign or 'inappropriate'." In "Is your name now 'banned' in Saudi Arabia?" Belfast Telegraph, UK, 15 March 2014. [ 8 ]
Add in Dumb as regards Language: "The Vancouver School Board has decided that students may ask teachers and staff to address them by the pronoun of their choice, to accommodate transgender students for whom 'he' and 'she' do not fit. Offered as possible replacements by the board: The newly coined pronouns xe, xem, xyr, which are pronounced to rhyme with the genderless plurals, they, them, and their, only starting with the 'z' sound. 'It does require one to be quite mindful,' said Lisa Pedrini, VSB’s manager of social responsibility and diversity, although it would only apply to a 'very tiny tiny minority' of students." In "Vancouver School Board’s genderless pronouns — xe, xem, xyr — not likely to stick, if history is any indication," by Joseph Brean, National Post, 17 June 2014. [ 9 ]
Addendum of Someone Pregnant not Identifying as a Woman: "While this guide may refer to 'women' when discussing study results or use female pronouns in some instances, we recognize that individuals seeking pregnancy counseling or abortion may not identify as women." In "Introduction, Accessing Abortion in Illinois: a Guide for Health Care and Social Service," University of Chicago, 2014. [ 10 ]
Addendum of an AIDS-dead Philosopher: "We have not only witnessed a visible explosion of unorthodox sexualities; but –and this is the important point – a deployment quite different from the law, even if it is locally dependent on procedures of prohibition, has ensured, through a network of interconnecting mechanisms, the proliferation of specific pleasures and the multiplication of disparate sexualities." Michel Foucault, "The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction," 1976. [ 11 ]
Addendum of Vive la France: "Catherine Coutelle, a Socialist MP, said: 'France is the only country that has translated 'human rights' as 'rights of man' for the United Nations universal declaration.' She said it was a regrettable example of the 'French exception'. 'Abandoning the use of this expression would be a step towards ending the discriminatory logic within the French language itself,' Coutelle said. She also regretted the continued and common use of titles such as Madame le Maire and Madame le President, where the masculine noun always takes the masculine article even if the holder of the position is feminine." In "French feminists demand rewording of 1789 'rights of man' declaration," by Kim Willsher, Guardian UK, 21 May 2015. [ 12 ]
Addendum of Government re-assigning Gender: "Sex-specific health care cannot be denied or limited just because the person seeking such services identifies as belonging to another gender. For example, a provider may not deny an individual treatment for ovarian cancer, based on the individual’s identification as a transgender man, where the treatment is medically indicated." Fact Sheet: Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities Proposed Rule, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, circa 2015. [ 13 ]
Addendum of New York Requiring Use of Preferred Vocabulary: "... refusal to use a transgender employee’s preferred name, pronoun, or title may constitute unlawful gender-based harassment." In "GENDER IDENTITY/GENDER EXPRESSION: LEGAL ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE, New York City Commission on Human Rights Legal Enforcement Guidance on Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Expression: Local Law No. 3 (2002); N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-102(23).
Addendum of Very Profitable Enforcement for Some: "Oregon is a very friendly state for individuals who claim they have suffered discrimination based on gender identity. The state’s labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, forced a bakery to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple they wouldn’t bake a cake for, and he has also compelled a bar owner to pay a whopping $400,000 to a group of transgender customers he tried to ban from his bar. Eager to avoid meeting a similar fate, district officials agreed to pay Soell $60,000 in compensation for her emotional distress, and they also agreed to adopt a whole battery of new policies to make the district more transgender-friendly." In "Transgender Teacher Gets $60k After Co-Workers Won’t Call Her ‘They’," by Blake Neff, Daily Caller, 23 May 2016. [ 14 ]
Addendum of Courtesy 101: "Courtesy 101: If you don't know what pronouns to use, ask. Be polite and respectful; if you use the wrong pronoun, apologize and move on." In "Gender ID Card," NYC Commission on Human Rights, 2015. [ 15 ]
Addendum of Trolling the Game: "...one conservative student, Grant Strobl, who is also chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom board of governors, decided to troll the university administration by officially requesting his pronoun to be changed to 'His Majesty.' And it worked! ...The college made the change following a student-led initiative, Wolverines for Preferred Pronouns, which garnered over 750 signatures...." In "U of Michigan Student Successfully Changes His Preferred Pronoun to ‘His Majesty’ on Class Roster," by Nahema Marchal, Heat Street, 29 September 2016. [ 16 ]
Addendum of the Hehn Party: "Oregon resident Jamie Shupe, who identifies as neither male nor female, can legally be considered nonbinary, a judge ruled. In what legal experts believe is the state's first such ruling, Judge Amy Holmes Hehn ruled Friday that Shupe's sex has been changed from female to nonbinary." In "Oregon court allows resident to change sex from female to nonbinary," by Faith Karimi and Dani Stewart, CNN, 11 June 2016.
Addendum of Norway Voting No Hen: "Norway’s parliament has rejected a proposal to bring in a third gender category with the gender-neutral personal pronoun ‘hen'." In "Norway parliament turns down third gender 'hen'," Agence France Presse, 28 February 2017.
Addendum of What's Confused en Español: "The traditional Spanish use of male pronouns and noun forms to refer to both genders collectively has raised the hackles of some, who say it makes women invisible. But Dario Villaneuva, the head of the Royal Spanish Academy, on Monday told El Pais newspaper: 'The problem is confusing grammar with machismo. Languages are governed by the principle of economy. The systematic use of duplicate words destroys this. Some false solutions have been proposed like replacing the end of a word with E in place of the (masculine) O and the (feminine) A but this appears to me to be absurd, ridiculous and absolutely unworkable"." In "Spanish bid for gender neutral constitution sparks row," Agence France Presse, 16 July 2018.
Addendum of More New Vocabulary: "In our research, we use the term digisexuality in two senses. The first, broader sense is to describe the use of advanced technologies in sex and relationships. ...a second, narrower sense, in which we use the term digisexuals for people whose sexual identity is shaped by what we call second-wave sexual technologies." In "Digisexuality is stepping out of the closet. Keep an open mind," by Neil McArthur and Markie Twist, Fast Company, 8 February 2019.
See: Sexy acrostic
NOTES
[ 1 ] This enthusiasm from the supposedly modern feminist to attack language as patriarchal and in need of their enlightened viewpoint is found elsewhere "The University of Leipzig has voted to adopt the feminine version of the word for 'professor' as its default. In German Professorin refers to a female professor while Professor is the male equivalent. Under the new measures, written documents will use the term Professorinnen when referring to professors in general. A footnote is to explain that male professors are also included in the description." In "Uni switches to feminine professor titles for men," kkf, The Local.de, 5 June 2013.
This is amusing, as the other approach in a number of languages had been to use the "masculine" form as inclusive of all genders. By opting for either, gender is played as a political stance.
Amusingly one Leipzig professor suggests that, however amusing the exercise is, changing the language will not change the socio-political situation of discrimination wherever it might be found: "Der Gleichstellungsbeauftragte der Uni Leipzig, Georg Teichert, sieht das ähnlich: Die Idee der neuen Schreibweise, die von Physikprofessor Josef Käs stamme, sei interessant. „Sie ändert aber nichts an der tatsächlichen Diskriminierung von Frauen“, sagte Teichert." In "Nur noch „Professorinnen“ an der Uni Leipzig," Franfurter Allgemeine, 5 June 2013.
This is a remarkable stream of thought for when on contemplates even lightly on "gender-neutral language," then the politico-philosophic stream of feminism which recognizes the feminine in its own chosen name is in fact not "gender-neutral." One reads: "Various forms of gender-neutral language became a common feature in written and spoken versions of many languages in the late twentieth century. Feminists argue that previously the practice of assigning masculine gender to generic antecedents stemmed from language reflecting 'the prejudices of the society in which it evolved, and English evolved through most of its history in a male-centered, patriarchal society'." in Wikipedia article on "Gender-neutral language."
"Feminine" is in fact a gender-specific adjective, as is "masculine."
A popular play of the last decade or so has been Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, in which sections are titled, as example, "The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy" or "Because He Liked to Look At It," with both "woman" and "he" being anything but gender-neutral. It is amusing to follow the critical trail for a moment. On critic, Kim Hall, complained of "colonialist conceptions of non-Western women."
Again "woman" appears in the language. In assessing the last decades of feminism, a gender-specific term pointing to the "feminine," one finds feminism countered with a second and then third "wave" as the struggle over language is mired in politics.
As observed in a Wikipedia stub, "In this wave, as in previous ones, there is no all-encompassing single feminist idea." In "Third-wave feminism," Wikipedia accessed May 2013.
Gender equality does not sit well as a language rule with gender specificity, and this is what is observed, which makes Orwell's prescient statement most apt -- "to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
[ 2 ] Aside from the seeking of free money via litigation -- see Free Bees
Dysphoria
Of such gender diversity, one reads of one view: "Neutrois typically experience a sense of gender dysphoria, and often have a strong desire to reflect their internal gender. Dysphoria can be physical, such as feeling in the 'wrong' body; or social, from being seen, categorized, labeled and treated as a man or woman when neither of these fit. Transition may include using an ambiguously gendered name or gender-neutral pronouns, expressing one’s gender through clothing, hairstyle, or mannerisms, and can involve the hormonal or surgical alteration of primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the body. Not all neutrois have transitioned or wish to transition. Most importantly, transition isn’t all-or-nothing, one-size-fits-all." In "Neutrois -Agender. Neutral-gender. Neither male nor female," Neutrois.com, n. d.
Being about language, one notes that various dictionaries inform about the term in ways which perhaps such dysphoric individuals might recognize, i.e. "New Latin, from Greek DYS- + -phoria, from pherein to bear" and "circa 1842, 'hard to bear'." If one is to accept the terminology of those who find their own gender identity "hard to bear," given the alternatives already within the modern world, one notes that the argument is about words other people use and the demand that any given dysphoric individual have control over another individual's choice of vocabulary. Such political correctness extended into the extremes suggests something akin to political fascism, in which a group seeks to control another group by fiat, manipulation of law and illogic approaching nonsense.
Bi-gendered? Androgynous? Gender-fluid? Gender non-conforming? X-gender? Asexual? Ill at ease sexually? Whatever and however the listing of terms inflate to ever greater "nuance," the dark humor is that behind all the fuss often reduces down in the courtroom to the old and often-seen common denominator, "pay me" or "pay for me." It is indeed a world full of "one size-fits all" and it can be indentified in a word -- GimmeOddly, an similarly old fashioned notion of 'live and let live' would have solved most of these issues. People can indeed walk away in most free societies, rather than demand that others obey their commands. Is that so "hard to bear?" Apparently, some think so.
Welcome to the hen party, in which you try to rule over others while others try to rule over you.
[ 3 ] "Gender verification in sports (also known as sex verification, or loosely as gender determination or a sex test) is the issue of verifying the eligibility of an athlete to compete in a sporting event that is limited to a single sex. The issue has arisen a number of times in the Olympic games where it has been alleged that male athletes attempted to compete as women in order to win, or that an intersexed person competed as a woman. The first mandatory sex test issued by the IAAF for woman athletes was in July 1950 in the month before the European Championships in Belgium. All athletes were tested in their own countries. Sex testing at the games began at the 1966 European Athletics Championships in response to suspicion that several of the best women athletes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were actually men." In "Gender Verification in sports," Wikipedia article, n. d.
[ 4 ] Given that the "modern" theme is self-identification on the basis of elective gender terms, it becomes obvious that racial self-identification will tear apart the cries of various and seemingly powerful racist stances in today's society.
Election - Be Anything You Want
One reads of a new research direction: from University of Southern California's Camille Gear Rich - "Elective Race: The Right to Racial Self Determination and the Future of Title VII." Another of her article's speaks to a racial issue which apparently is already behind the times: "What the marginal whiteness framework reveals is that many low-status, or “marginal whites,” are secondary casualties of higher-status whites’ attempts to discriminate against minorities. After identifying some of the concrete economic and social costs “marginal whites” suffer from minority targeted discrimination, the Article explores how the recognition of marginal whites will force antidiscrimination scholars to develop more nuanced complex understanding of white privilege." In "Marginal Whiteness," California Law Review, Vol. 98, 2010. Professor Rich's article concludes: "This Article provides a starting point by encouraging marginal whites to recognize the costs whiteness imposes on their daily lives, rather than cling to its inconsistent promise of benefits."
The odd humor in such a racial-oriented stance is that the US Census Bureau allows self-identification, unlike Professor Rich's assignment of "white" alongside "marginal white." One notes: "The 2010 questionnaire lists 15 racial categories, as well as places to write in a specific racial self-identification not listed on the form. The 2010 Census continues the option first introduced in the 2000 Census for respondents to choose more than one race. Only about 2 percent of Americans identified with more than one race in the 2000 Census, but the percentage was much higher for children and young adults and will likely increase in 2010."' In "The 2010 Census Questionnaire: Seven Questions for Everyone," Population Reference Bureau, April 2009.
Given the recent enthusiasm for at least fifty terms and three pronouns to self-identify sexually, per the article quoted above, and the US Census Bureau's stance of a minimum of fifteen terms -- plus write-ins -- to self-identify "racially," it seems the social discourse is propagating verbiage at an astounding rate, leaving such concepts as Professor's Rich's "whiteness" in a rhetorically racist and legal lurch. But racism is somewhat different than a "Hen Party." See: Everything's about my colored skin
Words, Words and Words
As to vocabulary, of late one learns: "We found 56 custom options, bringing the total number of options to 58 including male and female. Please note that it's possible that the list below is not complete. If you find one that we missed, please feel free to point it out in the comments and we'll update accordingly. Agender, Androgyne, Androgynous, Bigender, Cis, Cisgender, Cis Female, Cis Male, Cis Man, Cis Woman, Cisgender Female, Cisgender Male, Cisgender Man, Cisgender Woman, Female to Male, FTM, Gender Fluid, Gender Nonconforming, Gender Questioning, Gender Variant, Genderqueer, Intersex, Male to Female, MTF, Neither, Neutrois, Non-binary, Other, Pangender, Trans, Trans*, Trans Female, Trans* Female, Trans Male, Trans* Male, Trans Man, Trans* Man, Trans Person, Trans* Person, Trans Woman, Trans* Woman, Transfeminine, Transgender, Transgender Female, Transgender Male, Transgender Man, Transgender Person, Transgender Woman, Transmasculine, Transsexual, Transsexual Female, Transsexual Male, Transsexual Man, Transsexual Person, Transsexual Woman, Two-Spirit...." In "Here Are All the Different Genders You Can Be on Facebook," by Will Oremus, Slate, 13 February 2014.
As to dealing with the profusion of terms, one reads: "Among other new gender options identified on Facebook so far: Trans Female, Trans Male, Trans Person, Gender Variant, Gender Questioning, Bigender, Androgynous, Pangender and Transsexual. Facebook also tweaked its privacy settings to let users control with whom they share their custom gender. Reaction on social media Thursday was largely positive, although some people joked they would need a dictionary to look up many of the gender-identity terms." In "Facebook goes beyond 'male' and 'female' with new gender options," by Brandon Griggs, CNN, 13 February 2014.
How Many Labels?
Predictably, one view generates an opposing view: "In the words of a Tumblr blogger called 'Nerd is my gender': Do not call me cisgender. You have no right or authority to name me without my consent. . . . It does not come from us, as its origins are from a trans perspective. . . . Do not call me cisgender. That is offensive to me. I am offended that you consider that you have power over me, and can name me." In "Cis-Ridiculous - How many labels do we need?" by Christine Sisto, National Review, 21 May 2014.
Pun fully intended, this proliferation of terminology and criticism thereof as some demand new and restrictive terms while others demand, as above, a "gender-neutral" language will engender controversy aplenty.
Alternative spelling and alternative words are all the vogue, marking the latest phase of feminism. One reads: " 'It’s more intersectional and more individualized,' Abdeljalil said. 'What makes it younger is (that) it’s focusing more on individuality and what it means to be a feminist within that individual. So for some people it does have intersecting identities, and for others, it’s just
white women.'' 'Womyn' and 'womxn' are not the only alternative spellings. There are also terms like 'womban,' 'wimmin' and 'femme,' which is an expression of identity that both men and women adopt." In "Woman, womyn, womxn: Students learn about intersectionality in womanhood," by Asia Key, The Standard, Missouri State University, 27 March 2017.
This comes at a time when some "women's" protests in the United States involve vagina costumes and pussy hats, seemingly all in service to a complaint that society is indentifying them by -- ironically -- the more technical 'vagina' and slang 'pussy.'
If "man" in "woman" is problematic in terms of spelling, one wonders whether "man" in emancipation would irritate. Perhaps the solution is emxncipation? Ewomxncipation? Wwomyncipation? And what might one do with terms like menses, menstruation and its periodicity -- the menstrual cycle? Womxnses?
Mapping the margins, playing on a seminal work in feminism according to academics, of words allows many new terms, spellings, and eventual chaotic communication between not only men and woman -- the old story, so it's said -- but between various groups of the splintered waves of feminism. It's all about whose words will be adopted by the general population. I wager very few indeed. But given the graphic above, vaginas will remain popular for a majority of people and a variety of reasons.
Intersectionality Classes
As to intersectionality as a word and complex set of political thought, one may look at one of the term's early proponents, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, She is a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles. This identifier of new "revolutionary classes" through viewing multiple oppressions "intersecting" is rather well off. One learns from a public database that she -- if that is a correct pronoun in writing about her who is not a hen -- had total pay and benefits of $310,955.00 in 2014, not considering other sources of income such as publishing and speaking fees. As to issues of class and oppressors by way of comparison, the median per capita income in Los Angeles County is about $27,987 while across the state it is slightly higher, as $29,906.
From the perspective of formal, yet simplistic thinking about "Kapital," she by her salary and life style demonstrates herself to be worth ten mere citizens of California. Revolution against an upper class, anyone?
Thus one may conclude that a career in public education and special focus on intersectionality as a matter of indentifying oppressed classes fails to notice that Professor Crenshaw might very well be described as yet another member a class identified as the top five percent of citizens economically. Insured by a public perception of her "class" and intersectional attributes, she will not be particularly moved when the next Doctor Oppression comes to call
[ 5 ] One finds basic clarification in another editorial by Paglia: "The refusal by public schools’ sex-education programs to acknowledge gender differences is betraying both boys and girls. The genders should be separated for sex counseling. It is absurd to avoid the harsh reality that boys have less to lose from casual serial sex than do girls, who risk pregnancy and whose future fertility can be compromised by disease. Boys need lessons in basic ethics and moral reasoning about sex (for example, not taking advantage of intoxicated dates), while girls must learn to distinguish sexual compliance from popularity. Above all, girls need life-planning advice. Too often, sex education defines pregnancy as a pathology, for which the cure is abortion. Adolescent girls must think deeply about their ultimate aims and desires. If they want both children and a career, they should decide whether to have children early or late. There are pros, cons and trade-offs for each choice." In "Put the Sex Back in Sex Ed," by Camille Paglia, Time, 13 March 2014.
It becomes likely that those calling for "gender neutrality" in language as in public policy are post-modern deconstructionists who refuse what Pagila terms "harsh reality" in favor of an imaginary and idealized society -- one which can be created by revising all of society, government and even language in their image. At one time this was easily seen as totalitarian in aim and scope.
[ 6 ] One finds many studies accumulating information and conclusions thereby which simple ideological slogans never do.
One reads: "Estimates of mortality risk ratios suggest that both never married individuals and those with cohabiting relationship histories indicative of being lesbian, gay, or bisexual were more likely to die by suicide than married or formerly married persons, after adjusting for age, gender, and year of death (see Table 2). Indeed, the risk for suicide among the subpopulation of individuals likely to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual was more than four times greater than that seen among currently or formerly married persons." In "The association between relationship markers of sexual orientation and suicide: Denmark, 1990–2001," by Robin M. Mathy, Susan D. Cochran, Jorn Olsen and Vickie M. Mays, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 46(2): 111-7, 28 June 2009.
Will Science and Research Offend?
One reads further: "Results -- Of the 1285 gay, lesbian and bisexual respondents who took part, 556 (43%) had mental disorder as defined by the revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS - R). Out of the whole sample, 361 (31%) had attempted suicide. This was associated with markers of discrimination such as recent physical attack (OR=1.7, 95% CI 1.3-2.3) and school bullying (OR=1.4, 95% CI 1.1-2.0), but not with higher scores on the CIS-R. Conclusions -- Gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women have high levels of mental disorder, possibly linked with discrimination." In "Rates and predictors of mental illness in gay men, lesbians and bisexual men and women," by James Warner, MD, Eamonn McKeown, PhD, Mark Griffin, MSc, Katherine Johnson, PhD, Angus Ramsay, MA, Clive Cort, BA and Michael King, MD, British Journal of Pyschiatry, December 2004.
While the British study writes "possibly" in their conclusion -- and adverb usually not found in science -- one reads: "RESULTS: Nearly half (43.7%, 95% CI=39.0-48.4) of the sample fulfilled the criteria for at least one of the five DSM-IV disorders: 19.2% had major depression, 21.9% had specific and/or social phobia, and 16.7% had an alcohol and/or drug dependence disorder in the past 12 months. Over one quarter of the cases were comorbid with another kind of disorder, and 35.7% of cases consulted a health care professional in the past 12 months for mental health. Like cases, screen-positives for mood and/or anxiety disorders (24.7%) also reported significantly greater disability and lower quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly two-thirds of this community sample of gay men was affected by psychiatric morbidity with new evidence for comorbidity, subthreshold disorders, and low levels of awareness of psychiatric disorders and their treatment. This population needs to be a priority in psychiatric epidemiology and mental public health." In "High prevalence of mental disorders and comorbidity in the Geneva Gay Men's Health Study," by Wang J, Häusermann M, Ajdacic-Gross V, Aggleton P, Weiss MG, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2007.
Research continues, to surely annoy those who would see medicine only through a political lens. One reads: "The study cohort comprised 68,814 participants. Their mean (SD) age was 46.8 (11.8) years, and 51.8% (38 063 of 68 814) were female. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, gay men were more likely to report severe psychological distress (odds ratio [OR], 2.82; 95% CI, 1.55-5.14), heavy drinking (OR, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.08-3.58), and moderate smoking (OR, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.39-2.81) than heterosexual men; bisexual men were more likely to report severe psychological distress (OR, 4.70; 95% CI, 1.77-12.52), heavy drinking (OR, 3.15; 95% CI, 1.22-8.16), and heavy smoking (OR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.08-4.10) than heterosexual men; lesbian women were more likely to report moderate psychological distress (OR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.02-1.76), poor or fair health (OR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.24-2.95), multiple chronic conditions (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.12-2.22), heavy drinking (OR, 2.63; 95% CI, 1.54-4.50), and heavy smoking (OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.36-3.88) than heterosexual women; and bisexual women were more likely to report multiple chronic conditions (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.34-3.20), severe psychological distress (OR, 3.69; 95% CI, 2.19-6.22), heavy drinking (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.20-3.59), and moderate smoking (OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.05-2.44) than heterosexual women." In "Comparison of Health and Health Risk Factors Between Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adults and Heterosexual Adults in the United States Results From the National Health Interview Survey," by Gilbert Gonzales, PhD, MHA; Julia Przedworski, BS; Carrie Henning-Smith, PhD, MPH, MSW, JAMA, American Medical Association, September 2016.
One may be assured such findings are not politically correct, and challenged by any who disagree.
The arguments fly in each other's face, as one stance says sexual preference is in-born (the gay gene supposition) while another suggests it is inculcated (the cultural argument, as this "gender-neural" activist movement asserts). But what seems most obvious is the activists' notion that gender-neutral is some proposed solution to societal ills is, at the minimum, ignorant of scholarship as per the above examples, and blinded by wordy rhetoric, when the gathering of facts suggests something else. Gender-neutral is a meaningless phrase, an oxymoron which must attack not only families and people who see themselves as gendered, but attack language in the process and demand that society and even language conform to their vision.
How many movements throughout history have demanded that society submit to a visionary's call for change? And what has been the consistent result?
[ 7 ] The notion of generic names having financial value is akin to the argument, as above, that the use and misuse of generic pronouns purportedly causing emotional harm seeks financial redress. Among the European languages which employ gender-based distinctions, one finds most European languages behaving in this way. Within the EU, the argument is made that only sparkling wine made in the Champagne area of France is properly champagne (note the use of capitalization to make the distinction). In this way, most dictionaries currently in use also violate this new "sense" of language to serve political ends.
One notes that a standard English dictionary makes distinctions by the use of capitalization. Merriam-Webster states that Champagne is a ""...region & former province NE France W of Lorraine & N of Burgundy capital Troyes." It is then a place name used as a proper noun. The same dictionary notes that champagne is "...a white sparkling wine made in the old province of Champagne, France; also : a similar wine made elsewhere." The trade discussion hinges on the second meaning of "similar."
How dare things be seen to be similar? And yet, gender similarities cluster under somewhat fluid linguistic functions. For this a dictionary offers definitions for many pronouns in use including "he" and "she" alongside a new entry in language, s/he which is defined as "... : she or he — used in writing as a pronoun of common gender (1973)." From what "locale" comes the notion of a "common gender?" From what reality?
A Postmodern Battleground of Meaninglessness
Let one consider the notion of a "common gender." Gender then becomes a meaningless word, itself. What is a common gender from the perspective of science? Of medicine and pharmacology? What remains then of what was once called European chivalry? As one pursues post-modern deconstruction of the tools of post-modern deconstruction, one finds "there is no there there." If meanings cannot be known with clarity and precise understanding, then what it might mean to be post-modern also cannot be known. The intellectual game becomes a snake eating its own tail.
If Parma is the only locale where Parmesan cheese might be made, then are all other "similar" European cheeses become illegal? But if place name is the criteria, is not "Parmesan" not incorrectly spelled because it is a French-language derivation, when "Parma-san" should better identity the locale? Perhaps Champagne produces champagne, but there is no wine growing region in Germany named Sekt, while prosecco is not produced in a region named Prosecco, two from a much longer list of examples of words and definitions which identify.
In a "similar" manner, "he" and "she" identity the gender of an individual, while "s/he" refuses to do so, but only for those who choose to write such a pronoun. Seeking changes in law to deconstruct language itself becomes a job without end, for when one takes into consideration a specific complaint, the next complaint will arise, and a next after that.
Trendy Gobbledygook
Language? "Han" for "he" and "hon" for "she" in Swedish. "Er" and "sie" in German, "il" and elle" in French, and so on. And yet, the sympathy for cross-gender pronouns continues, as one finds "él/ella" in some Spanish dictionaries. That language become only legally approved meanings requires legal redress and punishment for using words accordingly deemed "legally incorrect." And one notes how quickly one comes to the similarity with "politically correct," as terminology.
Language has become the post-modern battleground strewn the debris of former political skirmishes and with newly laid mine fields. Gender-neutral language? Various languages speak "language" in gender. Språk becomes die Sprache, le langage, el lenguaje and la lingua (but also il linguaggio). Sexuality, die Sexualität, la sexualité, la sexualidad, and in Swedish, sexualitet. So, is sexuality, a noun as well as a human phenomenon, now to be genderless? Those languages which have no distinction between gender in noun naming and those languages with more than two both say "neuter" meaning neither masculine nor feminine.
Ah, yes. And from what locale and of what ingredients exactly are Swedish meatballs? Is there more than one recipe?
Do hens cluck? Sometimes about roosters? "Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry...." Or else they be neutered by the gender-neutral crowd.
[ 8 ] This mention of Saudi Arabia's ban on names is included, by reason of the article's phrase, "contradictory to the kingdom’s culture or religion." The architecture of the argument -- whether made by a Muslim about non-Muslim names (see the rhyme and footnotes, There's God and then there's Allah
This is one among many examples of The End Game of Conformity
[ 9 ] The article is most instructive for recalling a long history of attempts to change language. It notes: "In a book on gender and language, he calls the genderless pronoun, known to linguists as the epicene pronoun, 'the word that failed,' and not for lack of trying. He quotes, for example, the editor of a New York newspaper in 1884, mocking the suggestion of 'thon,' an abbreviation of 'that one,' and saying the man who proposed it, a lawyer and hymn-writer called Charles Crozat Converse, 'is ill informed as to the history of the craze for a new pronoun.' More than a century later, the craze continues."
A craze? Indeed, as one learns the craze is elderly after all, though seeming so modern.
A Long List
A scholar summarizes the craze spanning over a century: "The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed," by Dennis Baron, English Department University of Illinois, lists quite a number of attempts to change the language with pronouns, documenting with source and dates from 1850 until recently: "ne, nis, nim, hise, thon, thon, hi, hes, hem, le, lis, lim, unus, talis, hiser, himer, hyser, hymer, ip, ips, ir, iro, im, tha, thar, them, ons, e (from he), es, em, hizer, ith, he’er, him’er, his’er, his’er’s, hie, hiez, hie, ha, hez, hem, hesh (heesh), hizzer, himmer, thir, she, shis, shim (as gender-specific parallels to he, his, him) himorher; hes (pron. [his]), hir (pron. [hir]), hem; his’n, her’n, se, sim, sis, heesh, hse, kin, she (contains he), heris, herim, co (from IE *ko), cos, ve, vis, ver, ta, ta-men (pl.), tey, term, tem; him/herself, fm, it; z, shis, shim, shims, shimself, ze, zim, zees, zeeself; per, na, nan, naself, s/he, him/er, his-or-her, shem; herm, thon, se (pron. [si]), ser (pron. [sir]), sim (pron. [sim]), simself, j/e, m/a, m/e, m/es, m/oi; jee, jeue, ne, nis, ner, en, es, ar, hisorher; herorhis; ve, vis, vim, shem, hem, hes, hir, herim, ey, eir, em; uh, h’orsh’it (facetious blend of he, or, she,and it), ho, hom, hos, homself, (s)he, herm, hs, po, xe, jhe, E, E’s, Em, e, ris, rim, sheme, shis, shem; heshe, hisher, himmer, em, ems, ae, hir, hesh, hizer, hirm; sheehy; sap (from homo sapiens), et, ets, etself, shey, sheir, sheirs; hey, heir, heirs, heshe, hes, hem, shey, shem, sheir, hann, herm, e, e’s, de/deis; den/din, ghach (Klingon), han, hey, mef, ws, wself, ze, zon...."
Pronoun Explosion
The hen party is rather crowded, is it not? Pronoun explosion!
An answer? "...University of Michigan professor Anne Curzan argues that we don’t need such a word, since we already have a perfectly acceptable, if controversial, alternative—just use 'they'." In "For He/She’s a Jolly Bad Pronoun," by Mike Vuolo, Slate, 14 May 2012. Of course, for those who wish to make a distinction between one and more than one, what seems "perfectly acceptable" cannot count for being innumerate.
Is this a losing battle? "The problem isn’t just finding a sex-neutral term, but also a number-neutral term, one that can serve as both singular and plural. Better minds than mine have devoted themselves to this problem to no avail. I think I know a losing battle when I see one." In "The epicene pronoun," by Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman, Grammarphobia, 3 April 2008.
These grammarphobes, elsewhere in their blog, observe: "The house of grammar has many rooms, and some of them are haunted. Despite the best efforts of grammatical exorcists, the ghosts of dead rules and the spirits of imaginary taboos are still rattling and thumping about the old place."
This seems an apt observation. Having experienced two situations in which someone demanded a certain pronoun be used when communicating with ---- pick any of the above alternatives, and you see the situation -- what seemed clear was that it was not about "authentic" self-identification, but rather about trying to control other people's linguistic behavior. Plain old "you can't say that." In both situations I chose a very normative behavior and simply walked away, opting not to agree to the tiny tyranny of another who would demand adherence to one of the many pronoun games. See: People walk away
[ 10 ] Among the various perspectives on language and self-identity, this is among the most amusing. How does a "person" become pregnant while not identifying as a female and acting physiologically as a female with a male in the physical act of sex with a member of the opposite sex? Moreover how does a "person" who does not identify as a "woman" identify a person as a "man," in order to engage in coitus between woman and man, while not identifying as "woman?" One might even ask, how does a person not identifying as a woman be able to identify the sexual identity of another, without disproving such a person's own claim? There is an explanation for such language falling over itself.
Inventing the Next Revolutionary Class
One reads: "Marxism in this country had even been an eccentric and quixotic passion. One oppressed class after another had seemed finally to miss the point. The have-nots, it turned out, aspired mainly to having. The minorities seemed to promise more, but finally disappointed: it developed that they actually cared about the issues, that they tended to see the integration of the luncheonette and the seat in the front of the bus as real goals, and only rarely as ploys, counters in a larger game. They resisted that essential inductive leap from the immediate reform to the social ideal, and, just as disappointingly, they failed to perceive their common cause with other minorities, continued to exhibit a self-interest disconcerting in the extreme to organizers steeped in the rhetoric of 'brotherhood.' And then, at that exact dispirited moment when there seemed no one at all willing to play the proletariat, along came the women's movement, and the invention of women as a 'class.' One could not help admiring the radical simplicity of this instant transfiguration. The notion that, in the absence of a cooperative proletariat, a revolutionary class might simply be invented, made up, 'named' and so brought into existence, seemed at once so pragmatic and so visionary, so precisely Emersonian, that it took the breath away, exactly confirmed one's idea of where 19th-century transcendental instincts crossed with a late reading of Engels and Marx might lead." In "The Women's Movement," by Joan Didion, New York Times, 30 July 1972.
An Explosion of Oppressed Classes to Oppose the Last Fortress of Capitalism
It becomes an easy next step to conclude than "women" are an oppressed class, but now "persons" not identifying as "women" are yet another oppressed class, ready for our revolutionary movements to defend. How to defend? Attack language itself when it dares identify, excepting that form of self-identifying which reinforces the new class of the oppressed -- persons who do not self-identify as women yet become pregnant. Quite immaculate.
Moreover Didion notes, "If the family was the last fortress of capitalism, then let us abolish the family." Most specifically in this regard, one can survey an amusing musing in rhyme: Wedding Shredding
This becomes even more strange when one notices throughout the last century that capital which becomes Capital for Communists
[ 11 ] Foucault may have written a historian's tale about "a visible explosion of unorthodox sexualities," but the philosopher's question goes unanswered: to what end? While some will avow sexual freedom, others will find sexual confusion and certainly in the context of this commentary confusion even into language.
Given the notion of Gramscian "collapse" to usher in a new age, one notes that confusion does indeed bring the dreamt-of Marxist or post-Marxist collapse of a Judeo-Christian civilization in favor of a dictatorship of the proletariat.
But today's "visible explosion of unorthodox sexualities" also is nothing new, for it becomes merely the rehash of an age-old hedonism, a philosophical term of Greek origin testifying to the antiquity of this type of thought. But what of the dreamed of utopia? Consider: You Topia
[ 12 ] One notes that the name of the nation in its own language takes the feminine article: la France. Asserting that there is a "discriminatory logic within the French language itself" is most amusing because one obvious answer is for the French to adopt a language without the masculine and feminine definite and indefinite articles. I suggest English.
One notes the lunacy of this new cry of sexism about France's language. One finds the anthem properly termed "la Marseillaise," which is of course a feminine gender noun.
Madame la France and Monsieur le Socialisme Discriminate
One also finds that in the nation with its feminine name -- la France -- carries a historical symbol -- "la Marianne," which appears on the official seal of the country, is found on coins, drawn and banknotes before the introduction of the Euro. The symbol harkens back to 1792, when a popular song in the south of France became a visual symbol for the French Republic.
This female as symbol of France, wears a cockade or "la cocarde tricolore" on her hat. This circular insignia with its feminine name harkens back to 1794. Another symbol is the wreath of wheat, knotted together and symbolizing unity. In French it is "la gerbe de blé."
Catherine Coutelle, noted in the news excerpt as a "Socialist MP" should reflect on her political affiliation, because socialism in French is a masculine gender: "le socialisme." That a socialist MP has not noticed that her nation's name is feminine, her favored anthem is feminine, and some of her national symbols are feminine seems odd, but no more strange than her allegiance to the masculine gendered "le socialisme."
C'est la guerre. La guerre. La bataille. La langue. Vive la France. Perhaps "hen" will solve her language problems? La poule, naturellement.
But vagina, thankfully for the sexists as well as the concerned socialists of France, is still a masculine gender word, "le vagin." And when speaking of the comedy of life, one must use the correct feminine word, "la comédie."
[ 13 ] The humor is this is large. The above mentioned self-identified "man" being female after all is underscored in the HHS rule for the Affordable Care Act. No getting around it -- the transgendered "male" with ovaries is to be treated as a female. For now.
[ 14 ] The redistribution of capital from one party to another can be viewed as punishment but also as a form of socialism and social control. In addition to fines for legally-defined misuse of personal pronouns and expressions of personal choice not legally allowed by a government, one finds government seizing money by other mechanisms as well.
Power Abused
One reads of "civil forfeiture" misused: " 'It’s so clear on its face: this is an abuse of power,' Roskam told The Daily Signal. 'The government is being dismissive of notions of fundamental justice, even when they acknowledge that the underlying policy is wrong, even when the IRS has apologized for the implementation of that policy. It is still a miserable enterprise trying to funds restored to the individuals.' Under civil forfeiture, law enforcement has the power to take cash, cars, and property from people if they suspect the property is connected to criminal activity." In "‘An Abuse of Power:’ IRS to Face Lawmakers After Thousands Seized From Small Business Owners," by Melissa Quinn, Daily Signal, 24 May 2016.
Now that refusal to knuckle under socially as regards words and the misapplication of pronouns become civil torts under various levels of government, two things become clear. Fining a bakery $135,000 for is a beginning; the deepest pockets fiscally are governments themselves. Thus it is obvious that accusations will form against governments, as has happened against a school district, wherein the "wrong" use of words has cost the public $60,000. Additionally, as governments evidence a growing "abuse of power," the political climate will shift to act against such misuse. This is foreseeable, and the so-called stigma of various gender fluid people complaining about others not accepting them will grow, not diminish.
The entire debate reduces down to being about one person seeking to control another person, one group seeking to control another group, and at the top of the heap, a government seeking to control all. How easily does this lead to the Totalitarian
[ 15 ] The NYC Commission on Human Rights has a partial list of various vocabulary with which people are expected to acquaint themselves as "Courtesy 101." From their pamphlet, one reads: Bi-gendered, Cross-dresser, Drag King, Drag Queen, Female-to-male, FTM, Gender Bender, Genderqueer, Male-to-female, MTF, Non-Op, Hijra Pangender, Transexual/Transsexual, Trans Person Woman, Man, Butch, Two-Spirit, Trans, Agender Third Sex, Gender Fluid, Non-Binary Transgender Androgyne, Gender Gifted, Gender Blender, Femme Person of Transgender Experience, Androgynous."
Comedic Possibilities
Given over fifty different taxonomic words per the citation above about FaceBook as well as the larger list of substitute pronouns as sourced in footnote 9, one wonders how many people will try to keep track of the various demands for individuals demanding use of one pronoun while declaring others to be an offence requiring an apology?
What happens when a genderqueer fails to correctly observe a Gender Blender's preferred pronoun? The comedic possibilities multiply, as do the tragic given high rates of disorders "comorbid with another kind of disorder" and high rates of suicide.
How To Identify? Over If Not More Over
The British join the lunacy, as one reads: "In response to a child's question, the headteacher says there are 'many' genders. 'You know, there are so many gender identities,' the headteacher declared. 'We know that we have got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now.' The video, which is targeted at school children aged 9-12, is part of nine new BBC Teach films presented as support material for the personal, social, and health education (PSHE) curriculum in UK schools." In "BBC Tells Young School Children There Are ‘Over 100’ Genders in New Video Series," by Jack Murphy, Neon Nettle, UK, 13 September 2019.
[ 16 ] This outcome is most amusing, for it requires the opposition to such mockery to take up the standard of "word police." Which words, pronouns and titles and that which is allowed versus that which must be banned, are not allowed? Why? The complexity of merely administering such requires fascism as the operative rule.
One reads from the university paper: "Students can designate pronouns in Wolverine Access through the new Gender Identity tab within the Campus Personal Information section. This page can be used to enter, update or delete pronoun information. Designated pronouns will automatically populate on all class rosters accessed through Wolverine Access. Rosters pulled from other systems will not have designated pronouns listed. If a student does not designate a pronoun, none will be listed." In "Students now may designate personal pronouns on class rosters," by Rick Fitzgerald, University Record, University of Michigan, 27 September 2016.
Amusingly that list is growing longer with farcical entries. How shall the inclusive deal with ridicule? By refusing to include designated personal pronouns? The university paper's comments on this article included ridicule, as is the wont of students at this time in life. It's not funny, one supposes?
Self-appointed Language Police
But the direct pathway to parody was foreseen. One reads: "Certainly no decent person can quarrel with the underlying impulse behind political correctness: a vision of a more just, inclusive society in which racism, sexism and prejudice of all sorts have been erased. But the methods and fervor of the self-appointed language police can lead to a rigid orthodoxy -- and unintentional self-parody -- opening the movement to the scorn of conservative opponents and the mockery of cartoonists and late-night television hosts. It's hard to imagine women earning points for political correctness by saying 'ovarimony' instead of 'testimony' -- as one participant at the recent Modern Language Association convention was overheard to suggest. It's equally hard to imagine people wanting to flaunt their lack of prejudice by giving up such words and phrases as 'bull market,' 'kaiser roll,' 'Lazy Susan,' and 'charley horse'." In "The Word Police," by Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, 31 January 1993.
Can one imagine what kind of authority with what sorts of punitive actions can be constructed to be "unbiased," when the very act of punishing the use of language is an act of bias, of pre-judging based on simply the use of words. Quickly one would arrive at a fascistic regime or, as prefer to label this, So shall ism
The Game Has Already Been Played Out
It reduces down to "I tell you what to do, but you do not get to tell me what to do." The double standard strategy painted in nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. Some are allowed; others are forbidden -- rather as was the scheme in the National Socialists' dealings with what they called "Entartete Kunst" or degenerate art. Such a history lesson would be advised for these Wolverines for Preferred Pronouns who have invited their own self-parody.
From "approved art" it now morphs into designating degenerate words. With the National Socialists, it was about enforcing obedience, whereas with the "rigid orthodoxy" of today's modern "Wolverines for Preferred Pronouns," which pretends that "preference" will not be enforced until it is. If it is not enforced, then what is it? High jinks by self-important students seems the clearest explanation. Who shall "flaunt their lack of prejudice" by being prejudiced? Will one be prejudiced against His Majesty?
The latest generation of language activists is likely unaware of their history, the outcomes already seen and lessons already learned. Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them....
"I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil. Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America? Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia? Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?" W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963). The Souls of Black Folk, 1903.
Shakespeare, Balzac and Dumas were of another distant land,
Another folk, another time, another life and band.
Aristotle and Aurelius still commerce with our thought,
Across all time, the learnéd have their wisdom wrought.
Swing wide and open knowledge in wisdom as in truth,
By swinging wide those gates of toil in age as in one's youth.
The demagogue demands we cease to learn and widely learn,
And by such learning learn it is for freedom that we yearn.
Those who would shut and bar the gates pretend another stance,
But as they blind the knowing, they must quickstep in their dance,
And say they stand for learning, for this but not for that,
Then as the gates are closing, reveal their caveat.
This, not that, and all approved, but one must not be free,
For from the freedom knowledge brings, these tyrants then must flee.
The rich - owed an American ode
"Longtime political strategist David Axelrod, who helped advise President Obama's presidential run in 2008 and is serving as communications director for Obama's re-election campaign, has paid $1.7 million for a four-bedroom, 3,320-square-foot condo unit in a high- rise condo along Michigan Avenue." In "Axelrod buys $1.7 million Michigan Ave condo," by Bob Goldsborough, Chicago Tribune, 16 April 2012 [ 1 ]
The rich,
When left to their own devices,
Are a Kennedy'd Camelot.
The rich,
When right, the Left entices
Right wealth to re-allot.
The rich,
When left to use words like fairness
Rage against the right.
The rich
When right corner a squareness
Unready for that fight.
The rich
Left millionaires make bold display
To complain of Right millionaires.
The rich
Right millionaires reply and say
Soros' billions trump piddling flares.
The rich
In liberal limousines
Like the finest of pricey things.
The rich
Play acting conservative scenes
Find the game is tough and it stings.
The rich,
Left and Right, are a dynamo
Trading influence on the go.
The rich,
Left and Right, play quid pro quo,
And far more than they show.The rich
Buy parties for their friends,
The best that money can buy.
The rich,
Other people's money spends
To take aim at each little guy.
Envoi: "...the city of Yonkers is paying more than 100 retired cops pensions that are bigger than the salaries they got when they were on patrol. One officer who retired – at 44 – with pay of $74,000 is collecting a pension of more than $100,000. In San Diego last year, a mayoral candidate got a lot of traction by noting that a retired assistant attorney was pulling down a pension of more than $300,000, and a chief librarian’s pension exceeded $230,000." In "Today’s top opinion: The pension bomb," Richmond Times Dispatch, 25 February 2013
Addendum of Desperation: "CalPERS' advocacy for higher benefits and its poor investment performance in recent years have locked in long-term debt in California and driven up costs, problems for which there are no easy solutions. As former Schwarzenegger administration economic advisor David Crane, a Democrat, has said of the fund's managers and board: 'They are desperate to keep truths hidden.' " In "California's sad pension saga," by Steve Malanga, Los Angeles Times, 24 February 2013. [ 2 ]
See: Fat cats richly rich of late
NOTES
[ 1 ] "...when Axelrod was the top advisor to the Obama presidential campaign, he hauled in a total of $1.5 million in salary and partnership income from the two companies." In "Obama advisor David Axelrod sells stakes in Chicago firms for $3 million," by Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times, 5 April 2009. One might think of the campaign chatter on Income Inequality
[ 2 ] From 2013 to 2016, one finds the story continues: Off
"With regard to music: It is forbidden and is not permissible to play musical instruments or listen to songs and tunes. The majority of scholars say that it is haraam, including the four imams of fiqh: Abu Haneefah, Maalik, al-Shaafa’i and Ahmad (may Allaah have mercy on them all). The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: 'Among my ummah there will be people who will regard as permissible adultery, silk, alcohol and musical instruments.' Narrated by al-Bukhaari (5590). See also: al- Silsilah al-Saheehah by al-Albaani (91). " In "Islam Question and Answer," Shaykh Muhammads al- Munajjid, Fatwa No. 50687. Posted by Norman Lebrecht, in his article, "Is it permissible for Moslems to listen to classical music?" 3 April 2012.
With regard to music,
Let's shake it a little.
The Shakers thought music
A dancing, spiritual gift,
While one bearded old fakir
By a merry tune gets miffed.
The Hindus have bhajans,
Devotional, lyrical and old,
But this Shaykh would play critic;
Sama veda leaves him cold.
Jews have had piyyutim,
Niggunim and much more,
But through this silly fatwa,
That's music to abhor.
Christians sing hymns,
Praises, chants and laments,
But to grumpy old sheykh
It's a forbidden offence.
Buddhists sing shomyo,
Ryokyoku and rikkyoku styled,
But one shaking old sheykh
Thinks of them and gets riled.
Druids had their bards
For a mystical, musical elite,
Of which cheeky old crab
Is no appreciative aesthete.
High heaven forbid
That some tune might infect
A robed, tune-dead scholar
And his unmusical sect.
The question today:
Shall our tolerance respect
Such a fatuous proponent
Who would all music reject?I choose singers of note,
Ivories' tinkled en masse,
Scratchers of strings
And winds and bright brass.
Battery is a drum beat
With sticks and much more,
Not doctrinal battery from
An unmusical bore.
Envoi: "So it was with utter horror that I heard Lucy Duran, who hosts the BBC programme World Routes and teaches the anthropology of world music at SOAS, say in an emotional comment this week that one of the terrible side effects of the extreme Islamic fundamentalism now invading northern Mali is the silencing of music. Outlawed under Sharia law, all instruments, radio, CD players have been destroyed, and as Lucy chillingly said, those seen playing guitars were threatened with having their fingers cut off." In "Mali: silencing the music," by Lauren O’Hara Cyrus Mail, 19 January 2013.
Adulterous Addendum: " 'It's a chain reaction – when people listen to music, they ask for alcohol, which will lead to adultery,' said Imam Mahmoud Abdel of Masjid Annur Islamic Center. 'One step leads to another in the majority of cases. It's well known that anybody who listens to music a lot will be distracted from his or her mission, which is worshipping God Almighty'." In "Hip-hop, poetry, singers, classical music to star in Muslim event," by Stephen Magagnini, Sacramento Bee, 15 June 2013.
Addendum of Eradication: "The extremist-held Iraqi city of Mosul is set to usher in a new school year. But unlike years past, there will be no art or music. Classes about history, literature and Christianity have been 'permanently annulled.' The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has declared patriotic songs blasphemous and ordered that certain pictures be torn out of textbooks." In "ISIS eradicates art, history and music from curriculum in Iraq." CBS News/Associated Press, 15 September 2014.
Addendum of Accursed Sounds: "Anas narrated that the prophet said, 'Two sounds are accursed in this world and the hereafter: (the sound of) musical instruments in time of happiness and wailing during calamity.' (Al-Bazzaar). Brothers in Islam! Music is prohibited and condemned by many Qur’anic verses. Allah says, 'And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (i.e. Music, singing etc.) to mislead men from the path of Allah without knowledge and takes it (the path of Allah, or the verses of the Qur’an) by way of mockery. For such there will be humiliating torment (in the Hell-fire).' (Luqmaan: 6)." In "Forbidding Music (The Islamic Stand on Music)," Khutbah No. 2031, Salaah Al-Budair, trans. by Hazem Ragab, Alminbar, n. d.
Addendum of Instruments Burning in the Islamic Manner: "A message released with the pictures explains: 'Hesbah seized these un-Islamic musical instruments in the state of Warqa (we call it the city of Derna). It adds they were 'burnt in accordance with Islamic law'. Whether or not it actually is has been a point of some debate in the Islamic world, but Libya's ISIS recruits are not the first to burn instruments. Earlier this year, religious police were filmed beating musicians and destroying their instruments as punishment for playing an 'un-Islamic' keyboard. The men were pictured being hit across the back and legs with a wooden stick in a public square in Syria after ISIS's fanatical Islamic enforcers ruled the electric keyboard was 'offensive to Muslims'. Another picture shows two keyboards and what appears to be a lute smashed to pieces after raids thought to have taken place in Bujaq, a few miles to the east of Aleppo in Syria." In "Now Libya’s ISIS extremist attack music as they burn 'un-Islamic' drums in the desert," by Flora Drury, Daily Mail UK, 18 February 2015.
Addendum of Losing One's Head: "In a statement two years ago, the terror group also banned 'music and songs in cars, at parties, in shops and in public, as well as photographs of people in shop windows.' It added: 'Songs and music are forbidden in Islam as they prevent one from the remembrance of God and the Koran and are a temptation and corruption of the heart'." In "ISIS execute a 15-year-old boy by beheading after he is caught listening to western music in Iraq," by Simon Tomlinson, Mail Online, 18 February 2016. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Appearances: "Saudi folk music has been shaped by the nomadic Bedouins and the pilgrims who brought musical influences from around the world. The music varies from region to region – for example, in the Hijaz, the music of al-sihba combines poetry and songs of Arab Andalusia, while the folk music of Makkah and Madinah reflects these two cities’ influences from throughout the Islamic world." In "Folk Music & Dance," Saudi Embassy, DC, 2016. [ 2 ]
Addendum of a Hate Relationship with Music: "The radical Islamic hatred for music takes many forms. At the Pontanézen mosque in Brittany, France, Salafist Imam Rachid Abou Houdeyfa has taught children that 'people who listen to music will be turned into monkeys and pigs.' Dr. Ali Selim, Secretary General of the Irish Council of Imams, in his 2014 book Islam and Education in Ireland, called for radical change in the Irish educational system to accommodate Islamic beliefs, including the removal of music from the national curriculum. During an inspection of Darul Uloom Islamic High School in Birmingham, England on 12 May 2016 officers from Ofsted, the government school monitoring body, discovered leaflets branding music and dancing as 'acts of the devil.' In Iran and Saudi Arabia, the teaching of music in schools is banned. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Taliban regularly target musicians and music stores." In "Islamist Extremism's Hate Relationship With Music," by Leslie Shaw, Clarion, 22 June 2016.
Addendum of Disagreement About Music: " Saudi cleric has become the latest among progressive sheikhs to prompt anger in the kingdom, after sharing his belief that music is not 'haram' or forbidden in Islam. Sheikh Saleh Al-Maghamsi said he had been referring to music, not singing, prompting many on social media to be angered by his views. 'The nation is heavily in need of novelty and modernization, and I strongly believe in this, whether people accept my views or not,' he said in a talk show last week airing on MBC, Al Arabiya’s parent channel." In "Progressive Saudi cleric views may anger some, but are hailed by many," by Eman El-Shenawi, Al Arabiya English, 2 June 2016.
Addendum of the Canadian Koran Teacher: "After a bitter three-year fight, however, Mr. Dasu felt he had no other opton but to bring his kids home. According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail, some parents insist they cannot allow their children to be in the same room where musical instruments are being played. Mr. Dasu, a Koran teacher who sometimes leads prayers at Scarborough’s Jame Abu Bakr Siddique mosque, says he has led the fight on behalf of parents. He has consulted with national Islamic bodies, and requested a letter from the leader of his mosque. 'We here believe that music is haram [forbidden]. We can neither listen to it, nor can we play a role in it,' said the mosque’s imam, Kasim Ingar." In "Mandatory music classes hit a bad note with some Muslim parents," by Colin Freeze and Mahnoor Yawar, Globe and Mail, 5 September 2016.
Addendum of Afghanistan's "Students" of Islam: "An Afghan folk singer has been executed by the Taliban just days after the Islamic fundamentalist group declared that 'music is forbidden in Islam,' according to his family. Fawad Andarabi’s family told the Associated Press that he was shot dead Friday when enforcers returned to his home after earlier searching it and even drinking tea with him." In "Taliban execute folk singer days after saying music is 'forbidden,' family says," by Lee Brown, NY Post, 30 August 2021.
Addendum of the Bell: "Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger as saying: The bell is the musical instrument of the Satan." In Sahih Muslim 2114, In-book reference: Book 37, Hadith 159.
Addendum as Antidote: "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." Plato (428 BC-348 BC)
NOTES
[ 1 ] A comment posted to this article astutely noted the following: "Ironic is it not. They will kill you for listening to our western music, but are very happy to use our western technology like Toyota jeeps, radios, guns, walkie talkies, telephones, computers, the internet etc., etc. What a bunch of hypocritical swine."
[ 2 ] The Saudi Embassy addresses folk music, citing the "Arab Andalusia" which was early Hispania before its conquest by the Umayyad caliphate in 711, and became Spain and Portugal again after the final expulsion of the Moors in 1614, termed the "reconquista" by Catholic kingdoms which then united.
The citation by the Saudis is a reference to Muslim control of this part of Europe, and given the current geopolitical realities of today this citation at the minimum seeks to not use such other descriptive as Iberian, Portuguese or Spanish. Perhaps suggesting that Saudi music is influenced by Spanish traditions is for today's Saudis a step too far?
Yet the Saudi Arabia of today was formed in 1932. Successive earlier dynasties came and went, extending Islamic control as far as India and China, as well as the Iberian peninsula. The first Saudi state was formed in the 18th century but conquered by the Ottoman Empire, with wars between Muslims dotting this history.
Dichotomy
But what of music in Islam? This depends on which tradition speaks. One reads: "Salafism is associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam. In the Western world it is often associated with the Salafist jihadism which espouse violent jihad against civilians as a legitimate expression of Islam. Sufism is associated with the use of prayer, music, dance and the teachings of Sufi masters—who may serve as an intermediary between God and humans—to achieve a spiritual sense of the meaning of God'" In "Sufi–Salafi relations," Wikipedia, n.d.
Thus music is allowed by some Islamic traditions, but not all. The Salafist form, akin to older sources, does not, as one finds: "Various Ahadith also clearly prohibit music and the use of musical instruments. Hazrath Abdullah bin Umar (R.A.) reports that once Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) heard the sound of the flute of a shepherd. He immediately placed his fingers into his ears (to block out the sound) (Musnad Ahmad). How tragic it is that our beloved Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) blocks his ears to the sound of music but his Ummah opens their ears wide to the same sounds. In another narration Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) is reported to have said: “ Verily Allah Ta’ala has sent me as a guidance and as a mercy to the Believers and He has commanded me to destroy musical instruments” (Musnad Ahmad)." In "Is Music Haram?" Al-Haadi ,Vol. 10 Issue No. 4.
"Verily the most grievously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrection would be the painters of pictures...." (Sahih Muslim, vol. 3, no. 5271) [ 1 ]
Chagall is toast, Picasso's roast;
But, Matisse? Just compost in hell.
Rembrandt? He broils, while Brueghel boils,
And Rubens? He too oils to gel.
Magritte? He's tortured in Hell's Painters' orchard.
But is there yet more heard? Pray tell?
Dali's hard charred, and Van Gogh's well scarred,
Both feathered and tarred. Yeah, swell.
Da Vinci blazes, while Goya chafing braises.
Hell as critic appraises? What's that smell?
Michelangelo flares; Klimt's pained in his snares,
As Cezanne deep despairs. Art, farewell!
Escher is but ashes; Kahlo receives lashes.
Monet flares and flashes in Hell's show-and-tell.
Verily, ignite some painter tonight;
Hell delights in their pain, scream and yell.
Munch loud screams, as his scream did blaspheme
In colors extreme. Some old text says it well.
Chagall is toast, Picasso's roast;
So does some text boast and foretell.
Europe's art might burn, for so do some yearn.
Will Europe then learn? Time will tell.
Addendum of Humanity's Memory Being Targeted: "The Louvre Museum in Paris said in a statement, 'This destruction marks a new stage in the violence and horror, because all of humanity's memory is being targeted in this region that was the cradle of civilization, the written word, and history.' Amr al-Azm, a Syrian anthropologist and historian, on his Facebook page called the destruction 'a tragedy and catastrophic loss for Iraqi history and archaeology beyond comprehension'." In "What's Been Lost to the Islamists' Sledgehammers," by John Burger, Aleteia, 1 March 2015. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Seeking to Murder an Author: "With police protection, Rushdie escaped direct physical harm, but others associated with his book have suffered violent attacks. Hitoshi Igarashi, his Japanese translator, was stabbed to death on 11 July 1991. Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing in Milan on 3 July 1991. William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, was shot three times in an attempted assassination in Oslo in October 1993, but survived. Aziz Nesin, the Turkish translator, was the intended target in the events that led to the Sivas massacre on 2 July 1993 in Sivas, Turkey, which resulted in the deaths of 37 people. In September 2012, Rushdie expressed doubt that The Satanic Verses would be published today because of a climate of 'fear and nervousness'." In "The Satanic Verses," an article on Salman Rushdie's book, Wikipedia article. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Hoping to Destroy World Heritage Sites: "The preacher recognised by an Egyptian newspaper as Ibrahim Al Kandari reportedly said that just because early Muslims did not dare destroy them, it did not mean all present-day Muslims must follow them. 'The fact that early Muslims who were among Prophet Mohammed's followers did not destroy the pharaoh's monuments upon entering the Egyptian soil, does not mean that we shouldn't do it now,' Al-Watan daily newspaper quoted Al Kandari as saying." In "Kuwait: Muslim Preacher Echoes Isis Call to Destroy Egypt's Pyramids, Sphinx," International Business Times, 11 March 2015.
Addendum of Addressing: "Earlier this month, the Van Gogh Museum's new director, Emilie Gordenker, observed on Dutch national TV that while she is pleased the work is now hanging in the museum, she considers it important to address the question of 'whether female nudes are appropriate for people of all cultures'." In "Dutch museum mulls censoring Degas to avoid offending Muslims," by Abigail R. Esman, Israel Hayom, 18 February 2020.
See: The Dust Settles
NOTES
[ 1 ] This particular condemnation of "painters of pictures" is not present in the modern media discussion as to why Muslim radicals are destroying other culture's treasures. To do so would be to point back in time many centuries before much of today's memes try to speak, possibly to ignore the deep condemnation of traditional, historical Islam to art. "Sahih Muslim" is noted as "...a collection of hadith compiled by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Naysaburi." (after 815 – May 875).
So which shall survive? Islam's view as seen in Sahih Muslim or art as has been made for millennia?
Reversion
In an odd twist, one finds in the same sources: "It is narrated on the authority of Ibn 'Umar ('Abdullah b. "Umar) that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) observed: Verily Islam started as something strange and it would revert (to its old position) of being strange just as it started, and it would recede between the two mosques just as the serpent crawls back into its hole." Source: "001:0271: Chapter 066, Sahih Muslim. Book: 1. Faith."
Lest the imagery of the snake seem unusual, one finds the same prophetic imagery in other sources. "Belief returns and goes back to Medina like a snake.” In "Sahih Bukhari," 3.30.100, as collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari (810-870).
Similarly, "Verily, Belief returns and goes back to Medina as a snake returns and goes back to its hole (when in danger)." Hadith collection, Volume 3, Book 30, Number 100: as narrated Abu Huraira ( d.681).
What is the danger posed by a picture or a painter of pictures? What is the danger in sculpture and sculptors? Cartoons? And so the old themes play out more than a millennium later, unresolved and sure not to be resolved without either such hadiths succumbing or this, modern modern world succumbing. For this one understands book burnings and the destruction of centuries old cultural treasures, all the appease the old idol -- power over others.
[ 2 ] The article speaks of shock: " 'I'm totally shocked,' Amir al-Jumaili said by phone from outside of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. 'It's a catastrophe. With the destruction of these artifacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul's civilization.' Reaction from around the world, particularly from historians and archaeologists, expressed horror and sadness. Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, denounced the destruction as 'cultural cleansing' and a war crime that the world must punish. Bokova said she couldn't finish watching the video, which she called 'a real shock'."
A Worrying Trend
Cultural cleansing is of course a measure of the clash between religions and civilizations. One reads: "In the latest incident of its kind, a Hindu temple was attacked by fanatics in Pakistan, the temple was torched, the stone idol of Lord Hanuman blackened with soot, and some religious books burnt. This attack Nov 21 on the Hindu temple in the Tando Mohammad Khan area in Sindh - and reported in the Dawn newspaper - is however, not a one-off incident in a country where such attacks are increasingly turning out to be the rule, rather than an exception." In "Attacks on Hindu temples in Pakistan a worrying trend," Times of India, 29 November 2014.
In 1992, the demolition of a mosque in India was answered with the destruction of more than twenty temples in Pakistan. One may research many instances of such "cultural cleansing." But the conflict has gone on since long before the founding to today's nation's of India and Pakistan.
[ 3 ] That the Koran might have been sullied, Muslims reject with rage. Rushdie images a truth, for it has been played as indeed very murderously true. "Burn the books and trust the Book; shred the papers and hear the Word." Salman Rushdie, "The Satanic Verses." Those satanic verses as a part of Islamic history are truth as well, one which touches a deep wound in the hearts of many for whom frailty cannot lie within that which is worshipped, much like the black stone, broken in pieces and reassembled, or the collections of hadiths. many of which are so problematic for today.
The Rushdie affair is not over, though he lives and Khomeini is long dead. Consider the insightful modern scholarship of this dead issuer of fatwas: Celebrate Diversity?
Monstrous Disregard
One reads of attacks on journalists: "The terrorist organization, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighboring war-ravaged Syria, is portraying a "monstrous disregard for human life" by killing hundreds of civilians in ISIS-controlled areas, including Mosul, the United Nations said on Tuesday, warning that educated women in Iraq are especially at risk. 'Educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk,' UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said. 'In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicate that three female lawyers were executed.' Mainly, ISIS is known to force 'cruel and inhuman punishments' on any individual who has been accused of violating its 'extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, or for suspected disloyalty'." In "ISIS Killing 'Educated, Professional Women' In New Wave Of Horror, United Nation Says," by Rida Ahmed, Headline and Global News, 22 January 2015.
One reads further: "The United Nations on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Islamic State group, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk. The jihadist group is showing a 'monstrous disregard for human life' in the areas it controls in Iraq, the U.N. human rights office said." In "ISIS executing 'educated women' in new wave of horror, says U.N." by Al Arabia/AFP, 20 January 2015.
Sourced Predictions
One might muse on the prophetic imaging from the 9th century as applied to the 21st century: "There will be much killing during the last days of the Muslim." (Sahih Bukhari, 9.88.183.)
But this Muhammad al-Bukhari also included the following observation in the 9th century: "Muhammad’s contemporaries were the best Muslims; after three generations, the Muslims will be mainly treacherous and untrustworthy." (Sahih Bukhari, 5.57.2, 3.)
A war on the world's arts and architecture alongside a war on "non-believers" alongside an internecine war between various sects within Islam each accusing the other of apostasy, all mixed with the human predilection for Muslim kings and dictators to each see themselves as the caliph over others, all predicts a future of war without resolution until the Muslim world wearies of itself. Perhaps then another prophetic image might emerge: “Muslims will diminish in number and they will go back to where they started [before Islam]” (Sunaan Abu Dawud, 2.19.3029.)
What is assured is that artists will not give up their arts, free speech will stand and the many non-Muslim cultures and religions of "non-believers" as well as secular "modern" people will not easily "submit." Therefore there can only be violent confrontation until one side or the other "submits." I suspect the submission of Islam will be forced to submit.
After all, one also finds: "Muslims will be the scum and the rubbish even though their numbers may increase; the enemy will not fear Muslims anymore. This will be because the Muslims will love the world and dislike death…" (Sunaan Abu Dawud, 37.4284.) Thus the modern "terrorism" is a last battle, until perhaps another vision is played out: "There will be no trace of Islam in some believers…" (Sahih Bukhari, 9.84.65.) That is to say, Islam will have discovered it must live peacefully with other cultures, other religions, with art and music and free speech, or war will be without end until the above hadiths' imagery comes to pass, "and they will go back to where they started."
"Four times he struck: as oft the clashing sound/ Of arms was heard, and inward groans rebound./ Yet, mad with zeal, and blinded with our fate,/ We haul along the horse in solemn state;/ Then place the dire portent within the tow'r./ Cassandra cried, and curs'd th' unhappy hour;/ Foretold our fate; but, by the god's decree,/ All heard, and none believ'd the prophecy." (Aeneid, Virgil, Volume XVIII, Translated by John Dryden)
All had heard and none believed,
So is Virgil's tale told.
Millennia old and oft relived,
A tale so new, though old.
All hear, yet few will see
The calamities foretold,
For calamities are a given
For leaders far too bold.
Cassandra in each age cries out,
In voices hundredfold,
But still the world refuses sight
In errors manifold.
All hear and none believe
As in Virgil's tale of old,
And so pattern replicates
In creases in each fold.
Envoi: "If this could be accomplished, security might be provided by an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force. Many people have recognized this as a goal, but the way to reach it remains obscure in a world where factionalism seems, if anything, to be increasing. The first step necessarily involves partial surrender of sovereignty to an international organization." In "Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, and John Holdren, co-authors of the textbook "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment," 1978.
Addendum: "Intellectuals like to think of themselves as iconoclasts, he says. 'But you take a look through history an it's the exact opposite. The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests.'" In "Lunch with the FT: Noam Chomsky," by John McDermott, Financial Times, 15 March 2013. [ 1 ]
Addendum: "The principles underlying propaganda are extremely simple. Find some common desire, some widespread unconscious fear or anxiety; think out some way to relate this wish or fear to the product you have to sell; then build a bridge of verbal or pictorial symbols over which your customer can pass from fact to compensatory dream, and from the dream to the illusion that your product, when purchased, will make the dream come true. They are selling hope." Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World Revisited" (1958)
Addendum: "When a man is in despair, it means that he still believes in something." Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
NOTES
[ 1 ] One "respected intellectual who conforms and serves power" is quoted as saying, "...unfortunately for global warming alarmists, rising temperatures have no clear perpetrator. Sunstein notes, that there 'are no obvious devils or demons — no individuals who intend to create the harms associated with climate change… in the context of climate change, those who are the solution might well also be, or seem to be, the problem. In these circumstances, public outrage is much harder to fuel,' writes Sunstein. People are also more fearful of immediate threats rather than long-term ones, writes Sunstein, who adds that for 'this reason, they might fail to save for retirement, or they might engage in risk-taking behavior (such as smoking or unhealthy eating) that will harm their future selves'." In "Former Obama czar says we need more fear of global warming," by Michael Bastach, Daily Caller, 27 August 2013.
Behaving Like Preachers
As counterpoint to this "respected intellectual who conforms and serves power," one finds a differing view: "Storch: It's a strange idea. What state of the Earth's atmosphere do we want to protect, and in what way? And what might happen as a result? Are we going to declare war on China if the country emits too much CO2 into the air and thereby violates our constitution? / SPIEGEL: Yet it was climate researchers, with their apocalyptic warnings, who gave people these ideas in the first place. / Storch: Unfortunately, some scientists behave like preachers, delivering sermons to people. What this approach ignores is the fact that there are many threats in our world that must be weighed against one another." In "Climate Expert von Storch: Why Is Global Warming Stagnating?" Interview conducted by Olaf Stampf and Gerald Traufetter and translated by Ella Ornstein, Der Spiegel, 20 June 2013.
"Thirteen people were shot and two killed in six hours on Thursday. There have been 23 murders in the past two weeks, and 117 already this year. Chicago's murder rate is up 56 percent over last year." In "Chicago Murder Rate Up 56%," myFOXchiacgo.com, 30 March 2012.
Chicago is now more dangerous
Than are troops away at war,
Which begs the simple question:
What's Chicago's culture's score?
Chicago has a culture; one may fairly ask
To take this Butchered Hog to task.
Chicago's own, one from a century's beholders,
Wrote of the lakeside's big Big Shoulders.
Now they carry Big Debt, Big Death, Big Crime;
It's certain this city's running out of time.
Chicago is now more dangerous
Than are troops away at war,
Which begs the simple question:
What's Chicago's culture's score?
Cultural Addendum: "Chicago Public Schools officials revealed Tuesday that only 52.5 percent of the district's elementary students met or exceeded state academic standards in the last school year. That's a nearly 22-percentage-point plunge from a year earlier. Students didn't suddenly get less intelligent. They were not doing as well in the past as everyone was led to believe. The state had dumbed down the tests and lowered cut scores to avoid sanctions from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Educators fed parents an illusion that the vast majority of Illinois elementary students — more than 8 out of 10 last year — were performing well. Fed the illusion that they were on track to succeed in high school and go to college. They weren't." In "Editorial: CPS test scores plunge as reality intrudes," Chicago Tribune, 17 July 2013.
Financial Addendum and Layoffs: "Mayor Rahm Emanuel and interim CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz will lay out a plan Wednesday to fully fund the school district's teacher pensions. The announcement came after Tuesday's 11th hour $634 million pension payment. In a statement, CPS confirmed at least part of the money was borrowed and there will be 1,400 layoffs." In "CPS to cut 1,400 jobs after making $634M pension payment," ABCNews Chicago, 30 June 2015. [ 1 ]
Addendum of Pension Generosity: "One of every four retired workers from the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools is getting a pension of more than $60,000 a year. That’s 80,365 people in all. For 13,240 of them, those checks provide a yearly income of $100,000 or more, a Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association analysis of pension records has found. An additional 20,004 have pension incomes totaling between $80,000 and $100,000 a year." In "Generous pension benefits only one part of state, city financial crisis," by Chris Fusco, Dan Mihalopoulos and Patrick Rehkamp,Chcago Sun-Times, 17 April 2015. [ 2 ]
See: Chicago Poem VI
NOTES
[ 1 ] The Chicago Public Schools is near bankruptcy. But how is this possible?
And They Did Nothing
One reads: "...pension problems stem from 15 years of neglect and mismanagement at CPS and the city. From 1995 to 2004, CPS did not make a single payment to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, and instead used revenues to pay for operations. From 2011 to 2013, the school district got a 'pension holiday' that temporarily shrunk payments, but didn’t make a dent in the unfunded liabilities. Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, said the district should be 'front and center taking blame' for 'using the pension system very much like a credit card, running up debt and deferring payment of it until now. The City of Chicago has known that more money was going to have to go into the pension systems in 2015,' he said. 'They had four and a half years to plan for it and they did nothing'." In "CPS, Emanuel warn of deep cuts, layoffs to school district," by Becky Vevea and Lauren Chooljian, WBEZ91.5,1 July 2015.
Among the plans being discussed now, one finds proposals to spread the pension burden across the entire state of Illinois, or to attempt to tax beyond the borders of the City of Chicago, to draw in new revenue streams. When a city demands that a population outside its borders fund it, one finds at the minimum incompetence, as has been stated, "15 years of neglect and mismanagement."
As is being learned the hard way across the nation and around the world, this game has a known outcome -- collapse. The architecture of this may be seen as uninformed citizens Voted
One learns that a federal probe of the Chicago Public Schools is underway in 2015.
A Public Servant's Tale
"Federal investigators are looking into the inner circle of advisers Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett brought with her to Chicago, as well as a no-bid, $20.5 million principal-training contract to a company that once employed her, wide-ranging subpoenas released Friday show. And as Byrd-Bennett stepped aside Friday pending the outcome of the federal probe, replaced by the Board of Education’s vice president Jesse Ruiz, sources told the Sun-Times that FBI agents have searched Byrd-Bennett’s homes in Chicago and a Cleveland suburb." In "As her inner circle draws federal heat, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett steps down," by Fran Spielman and Lauren Fitzpatrick, Chicago Sun-Times, 17 April 2015.
Byrd-Bennett was being paid $250,000 a year, a public service position which would participate in Chicago's public pension system. One reads further: "It now falls to Ruiz to avert another teachers strike, fend off bankruptcy at CPS and persuade the Illinois General Assembly to grant CPS the pension relief it needs. CPS faces a $1.1 billion budget shortfall and a $9.5 billion pension crisis. The teachers’ contract expires this summer. Ruiz, a partner at Drinker Biddle who often had to recuse himself from board votes because of his law firm’s connections, will not collect a CPS salary."
That a part of the strategy to find revenue from state sources is thereby seen. By attempting to "temporarily" borrow to cover obligations, the current crop of politicians is simply yet again playing Kick the can
Why the focus on "funding pensions" while borrowing money to do this all the while engaging in layoffs? The answer for the politicians in the end game of a bankruptcy will extend for a while their own funding at the expense of the community. See: Bankrupt riches
[ 2 ] The pension promise is a political promise, as well as an arithmetic conundrum. The simple truth is explained by the Chicago Sun-Times: "State government, City Hall and CPS might have been able to avoid their pension problems had government officials steadily deposited taxpayer money into the pension funds over the past several decades. But not only did politicians keep skipping or shorting the pension funds on those payments — driving them closer to potential insolvency — they also kept borrowing to balance their budgets."
According to recent data, the median income for a household in the city was $38,625, and the median income for a family was $42,724. Spoken of in terms of the current political jargon of income inequality, one finds that many "public servants" do no more work in the public's behalf, all the while some are receiving double and more the median income for a citizen of the city.
While the median income for a household was $38,625 per year, the city's total public payroll is $2,547,690,152.24, according to CityofChicago.org, "Current Employee Names, Salaries, and Position Titles," with 3919 public servants earning over $100,000 per year, or two and a half times the average resident of Chicago. All of these public servants will seek their pensions, in addition to the burden already extant. A fair conclusion may be drawn, that government lives well in comparison to the hoi polloi. This is the nature of the governing and the governed.
"The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office. The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush's last day in office, which coincided with President Obama's first day. The National Debt also now exceeds 100% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services." In "National Debt has increased more under Obama than under Bush," by Mark Knoller, CBS News, 19 March 2012.
See! BS is noticed in the news,
And the numbers do most of the talking.
CBS has sung the big numbers blues,
And the numbers are truly shocking.
Greece, it's said, has a problem with debt,
Which makes an interesting pickle,
For debt rises as a growing threat,
Proven by a busted hammer and sickle.
Nations go bust and parties go broke,
Because of their red ink blunders.
This time it's the Democrats' sad little joke,
As debt rises up and thunders.
Eye on the news? One big logo'd eye
Now sees through the wordy words' blather.
The National Debt's rising up, sky high,
As more problems just gather and gather.
See! BS is noticed in the news,
And big numbers prove a flood of errors.
CBS has sung the big numbers blues,
And the numbers Cassandra their terrors.
Stuck on stupid is political pelf,
Which blames and blames and blames,
But never ever blames itself
For its insolvency's red ink games.
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)
See: De fault in de plan
Creative Folklore - to help your energy bills soar
"Danske bilister betaler en merpris for millioner af liter biodiesel, som formentlig udleder mere CO2 end gammeldags diesel." In "Grøn diesel er skadeligt for miljøet," by Lars Attrup, epn.dk, 19 March 2012
The Danes now learn
of creative folklore.
Green diesel emits
"as much or more"
Cee-Oh-2,
when keeping score,
Than regular diesel.
Furthermore,
green diesel is
A resource whore.
Who could have known?
Bright boys swore
Green was the way
economies soar.
Ah well, such things
are hard to ignore.
The end of the story?
I n f l a t i o n ' s G o r e . . . . .
Australian Addendum: "And finally, from Australia, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd just announced a plan to kill the national carbon tax, an editorial in the Herald Sun begins with these words: 'And so the great global warming scare dies. Around Australia, bruised taxpayers will ask each other: ‘What the hell was that about?’ You can take those words to the idea bank. When historians look back at this era, they will write about the billions of dollars swindled out of ordinary people all over the world, in the interests of saving the world, to which we say: Chill already. Just chill." In "Global warming scare is dying," by Charles Adler, Toronto Sun, 18 July 2013.
US Naval Addendum: "The still-experimental fuels are also expensive — about $27 a gallon for the fuel used in the demonstration, compared with about $3.50 a gallon for conventional military fuels." In "Military Spending on Biofuels Draws Fire," by Diane Cardwell, New York Times, 27 August 2012. [ 2 ]
Addendum of John Holdren's Coming Ice Age: "In the 1971 essay, 'Overpopulation and the Potential for Ecocide,' Dr. Holdren and his co-author, the ecologist Paul Ehrlich, warned of a coming ice age. They certainly weren’t the only scientists in the 1970s to warn of a coming ice age, but I can’t think of any others who were so creative in their catastrophizing. Although they noted that the greenhouse effect from rising emissions of carbon dioxide emissions could cause future warming of the planet, they concluded from the mid-century cooling trend that the consequences of human activities (like industrial soot, dust from farms, jet exhaust, urbanization and deforestation) were more likely to first cause an ice age." In "Holdren’s Ice Age Tidal Wave," by John Tierney, New York Times, 29 September 2009.
Addendum of John Holdren's Global Warming: "Last week, amid the media furor over the 'polar vortex,' the White House did something pretty unusual. It released a highly produced scientific video titled 'The Polar Vortex Explained in 2 Minutes.' In the video, White House science adviser and physicist John Holdren dismantles silly claims that cold weather refutes global warming. 'The fact is that no single weather episode can either prove or disprove global climate change,' explains Holdren. He then describes how, in fact, climate change could make extreme winter weather in the mid-latitudes more common. 'A growing body of evidence suggests that the kind of extreme cold being experienced by much of the United States as we speak is a pattern that we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues,' Holdren asserts." In "The White House Releases Its Climate Heavy Hitter on the Polar Vortex," by Chris Mooney, Mother Jones, 15 January 2014.
Addendum of planned Global Energy Costs Inflation: "It didn't take us long to find Barack Obama's original quote, which came from a videotaped interview he did with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board very early in the presidential campaign, January 2008. 'Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,' Obama told the Chronicle. 'Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers'." In "Contends that President Obama "literally said (if) his cap-and-trade proposals were to pass, that utility rates, his words now, would, 'necessarily skyrocket'," Politi-Fact.com, 11 June 2009. [ 3 ]
See: Cherished Cultural Myths
NOTES
[ 1 ] Time Magazine covers from 1977 and 2006: "How to Survive the Coming Ice Age" and "Global Warming." What will be the message in another cycle of climate predictions? As with both an "ice age" and "global warming" (now morphed into "climate change"), one may follow the ever-constant politics of money and power more easily than one may dissect the changing assertions of competing scientists. In 2006, another cover of Time warned, "Be worried. Be very worried."
Worry seems apt, as one notes that the magazine's circulation declined from 4.2 million in 1997 to 3.4 million in 2009, according to Wikipedia. Like some icebergs, the magazine's number of readers is shrinking, now by more than 80 percent. Therefore someone may be "worried. Be very worried."
[ 2 ] One reads: "Since the 2022 ethanol mandate is twice that level and another federal law mandates increasing fuel efficiency, one can only guess how big the hit will get. Why would Congress fleece consumers in this way? There's only one reason: to please a well-organized farm lobby, which collects most of the money consumers are forced to waste. All of the energy independence goals that the ethanol mandate was supposed to meet in 2022, have already been met — surpassed in fact — by developments that would have been unimaginable a few years ago." In "Ethanol quotas pump money from your pocket: Our view," by The Editorial Board, USAToday, 18 August 2013.
[ 3 ] The footnotes in Green Job
One additionally notes that the "creative folklore" of a presidential science advisor once forecast an ice age and now forecasts global warming proved by severe cold weather is a cog in the machinery of energy costs rising, or in the folksy parlance of Obama -- soaring.
One may also note that the creative folklore of "green" in the hands of the Obama-led administration has demonstrated that "green" quickly became Bankrupt green
So many collapses and so much wasted fund money must surely be allowed, however, because of The Privileges of Intellectuals
"It was an odd fact to come out at a city council meeting, but again, these are not normal times for the city of Allen Park. On Tuesday night, it was revealed that the city is now paying finance charges on a credit card bill from the Home Depot because it can’t pay off the balance of a couple of hundred dollars." In "A City at the End of Its Rope," by Anne Schieber, Michigan Capitol Confidential, 15 March 2012
At one end of the rope
Hangs in the balance a thread
As insolvency blooms
Washed in finances inked red.
The council which ruled
Was incomparably schooled
In political savvy,
But by numbers were fooled.
These are not normal times,
For normal times make sense,
While leadership civic
Was just a lame pretense.
At one end of the rope
Hangs in the balance a thread
As bankruptcy blooms
Gorged with finances inked red.
Envoi: "Interest on debts grow without rain." Old Yiddish Proverb
"In preparing the March 2012 baseline budget projections, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have updated estimates of the budgetary effects of the health insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). That legislation comprises the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) and the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152)." The Congressional Budget Office, "Updated Estimates for the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Affordable Care Act," 13 March 2012
An earlier year projected once;
Projections rising double to twice.
Affordable seems to mean
Doubling costs are twice as nice.
Government pencils erred
When guesstimating costs:
Figuring now doubles and
Old numbers out are crossed.
Was it perfect ineptitude?
Perhaps it was the perfect lie?
Was it just -- hmm -- political?
Where do numbers go to die?
Affordable now costs twice
What affordable was said to cost.
What does affordable even mean
When the meaning's now so lost?
A rancher might afford a bull
A chance to procreate:
It involves a bit of screwing,
And a steer with which to mate.
Affordable? Afford a bull?
The pun's a joke, as such,
Until the numbers are new crunched,
Inking red with more than much.
See: Passed on to you
A poem by Basho floats in spacE
Or in a CaGe or common space.
While the older one is Erik SAtie
The younger one's still Johnny C.
What, you say, with wheN and why
Because He was just that kind of guy.
Something's been done almOst everywhere,
You'll see it if Just once you stare.
Voices stilled at the end of the race
So is John's cage actually commonplace.
"Join HLSRJ and Good Vibrations for a short discussion of sex-positivity, a demo of lube and some popular sex toys, then Q&A. Free Food!" In Harvard's "Sex-Positivity and Slut- Pride: Sex Tips for a Modern World from Good Vibrations - Sex Week Schedule," 26 March 2012
Slut is bad and slut is good;
Now slut is offered with "free food!"
Such is the humor now accrued
To slut as good and slut as crude,
Yet slut is slutty with certitude.
Slut is spewed and slut is rude,
Or slut is sexy when in the mood.
Slut is fine and slut is screwed,
In truth, slut is now a word well skewed.
Slut is bad and slut is good,
And slut's now offered with "free food!"
Slut well baked and slut quick brewed
Means nothing now in the slut-slut feud.
Envoi: Harvard's motto inscribed on its shield - Veritas" in Latin, for "Truth."
Addendum in Black: "Despite the progress, troubling trends remain: 47,500 new cases of HIV infection are diagnosed each year in the U.S. 'Many young people consider it just another STD,' and aren’t as likely to practice 'safe sex' and get tested, said Lange, chief of the division of infectious diseases at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson. That’s because they know if they get sick, there 'is medication that provides patients with an almost normal life like diabetes or hypertension,' he said."" In "African-Americans face uphill HIV fight," by Mary Jo Layton, NorthJersey.com, 25 February 2013
Addendum for the Men: "Data released last week found that 62 percent of American men who self-reported being HIV-positive said they had unprotected anal sex with a male partner in the last 12 months. The Centers for Disease Control report, 'HIV Testing and Risk Behaviors Among Gay, Bisexual and Other Men who have Sex with Men,' noted that the population of men having sex with men (MSM) is a small proportion of the US population; however, this group represents the majority of people diagnosed with HIV." In "CDC: 62 Percent Of HIV-Positive Men Have Unprotected Sex," CBS News Atlanta, 3 December 2013.
See: Sexy acrostic
There's nothing like having innocent fun,
And nothing's like doing a job well done.
There's nothing like a race when you've won
And nothing's like a story when brilliantly spun.
Finding nothing like this, it's luck you shall have,
For such nothing can be a restorative salve.
Seek nothing but the good and the kind,
For nothing is more than such riches well mined.
There's nothing like having your place in the sun,
And nothing's like nothing when newly begun.
Between rhetoric and reality - on the reality of socialist Cuba's healthcare system
"The Cuban health care system has long been applauded within the international health community for its equitable, efficient provision of superior care and its enviable health status indicators. Therefore, it is surprising to learn in this ethnographic account by a US medical anthropologist that the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books. In chapters 1-4, Hirschfeld (University of Oklahoma) describes her problem-fraught experience of fieldwork (and personal illness) in Cuba in the late 1990s, an account informed by observations on gender, social structure, economics, and kinship, as well as health. Her idealistic preconceptions dashed by ‘discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,’ she observes a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on ‘militarization’ and short on patients’ rights, with state-employed ‘family doctors’ responsible not only for health but also for exposing political dissent. No less compelling is the ‘revisionist history’ of chapters 5-10, in which the author, resorting to historical documents, concludes that the regime did foster public health gains after 1959, but concomitantly manipulated both health statistics and the impact of earlier US involvement in Cuba to highlight the 1959 revolution’s alleged successes. A revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism. Highly recommended.” Review of "Politics and Revolution in Cuba Since 1898," by Tassie Katherine Hirschfeld, PhD, in Choice Magazine, Reviews for Academic Libraries, 2007.
Between rhetoric and reality
An expanse lies broad, lies deep.
Between rhetoric and reality
Is a truth to make one weep.
For sickos who would cheer the game
Its proved that game was rigged,
And scores were fiddled wildly
As the social stance was jigged.
Between rhetoric and reality
More hear cheap pabulum spewed,
For that's the goal of fiddlers,
Unjust verisimilitude.
Between rhetoric and reality
An expanse lies deep, lies broad.
To rhetoric from reality
Plain truth stand up to fraud.
Applauding rhetoric, dumb and blind,
Avoids reality, so oft maligned.
Addendum: "Political detentions rose dramatically in Cuba in 2012 and will likely increase again in 2013 because of a lack of 'real reforms' on the communist island, a Cuban human rights group said on Thursday." In "Cuban group says political detentions rose dramatically in 2012," Reuters Havana, 3 January 2013.
Addendum of a System and Its Cutbacks: "Cuba's system of free medical care, long considered a birthright by its citizens and trumpeted as one of the communist government's great successes, is not immune to cutbacks under Raul Castro's drive for efficiency. The health sector has already endured millions of dollars in budget cuts and tens of thousands of layoffs, and it became clear this month that Castro is looking for more ways to save when the newspaper voice of the Communist Party, Granma, published daily details for two weeks on how much the government spends on everything from anesthetics and acupuncture to orthodontics and organ transplants." In "Cuba campaign takes on 'free' health care," by Peter Orsi, Associated Press, 25 August 2012. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
Addendum for the Cuban System in Venezuela: "Venezuelan doctors and medical students turned out in their white lab coats with signs denouncing the state of health care in the country. 'Not only bullets kill, the lack of medicine does too,' read one sign. The president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas Leon, said 95 percent of hospitals have only five percent of the supplies needed to take care of patients. 'The hospitals are deteriorated, supplies aren't available and we have to tell patients to buy their own,' medical student Caterine Acosta, 20, told AFP. Meanwhile, at the Miraflores presidential palace, Maduro touted the 2,500 medical students who he said will graduate this year from programs in partnership with allies like Cuba. Cuba provides an estimated 40,000 doctors and health care workers to staff clinics for poor and hard to reach populations in Venezuela. In exchange, Venezuela supplies Cuba with 100,000 barrels of oil a day at preferential rates." In "Doctors stage protest in Venezuela," Agence France Presse, 10 March 2014.
See: Chains
NOTES
[ 1 ] One notes that the "health sector is enduring budget cuts. Might this be for the enormous sums doctors reap? Demonstrably, no. "During the current crisis, a complex web of markets has evolved on the island, which Cubans use according to their resources and connections. Bear in mind that the monthly salary paid by the state to an average worker is 150 to 200 pesos, while that of a state doctor is between 300 and 400 pesos—and the exchange rate is some 20 pesos per U.S. dollar." In "Cuba: The Crisis of State Capitalism," by Hector Reyes, International Socialist Review Issue 11, Spring 2000.
Doing the Simplest Math
Doing the simplest of math, a Cuban doctor earns between $15-20 per month. How then is this "state capitalism" or Cuban socialism unable to meet its "system of free medical care?" The terms as fumbled about by socialist apologia simply cannot account for such low salaries for physicians all the while the system crumbles.
A comparison is in order, via quasi-capitalist systems. One reads: "The lowest-earning specialists were similar to those in Medscape's survey report from last year: internists ($185,000), diabetes physicians/endocrinologists ($178,000), family physicians ($175,000), and pediatricians ($173,000). HIV/infectious disease physicians ($170,000) dropped to the lowest-earning position, which was previously occupied by pediatricians." In "Physician Earnings: Income Is Up, Morale Is Split," by Mark Crane, 25 April 2013.
For Britain, one reads: "There are around 45,000 hospital consultants who are paid between £74,504 a year and £100,446 a year. Salaries for the UK's 42,000 GPs vary from an average of £103,000 a year for partners in practices to anything between £53,781 and £81,158 for GPs employed by Primary Care Trusts." In "Most doctors are not paid six figure sums, figures show," by Christopher Hope, Telegraph UK, 30 May 2012.
The Recipe
Meanwhile, Cuba's doctors earn between $15-20 a month according to the International Socialist Review, and even with such minimal salaries, the Cuban system is failing. The Review also notes of the impact of Cuba's system, call it socialist or state capitalist, for the words become meaningless: "The net effect of the shortages and austerity measures has been a severe erosion of living standards. Before the crisis, each person was allocated a monthly quota of rice, beans, meat and other foods. Periodically, they would also receive items such as soap and shoes. Now, the food ration lasts half a month and shoes and clothes are no longer available by this means. As a consequence, the daily adult caloric intake has fallen sharply from 3,100 in the 1980s to 1,863 in 1994—72 percent of the minimum recommended by the WHO."
This underscores the assertion above, that indeed "the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books."
[ 2 ] A somewhat popular American made film, "Sicko," used Cuba as a backdrop to a larger documentary.
One reads: "...the group moves on to Havana, where they purchase inexpensive medicine and receive free medical treatment at the elite Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital. Providing only their names and birth dates, the volunteers are hospitalized and receive medical attention. Before they leave, the 9/11 rescue workers are honored by a local Havana fire station." In "Sicko," a WIKI article on Michael Moore's 2007 film.
Free -- But Of What Value?
In an article about the film, CNN noted "In most other countries, there are quotas and planned waiting times. Everyone does have access to basic levels of care. That care plan is formulated by teams of government physicians and officials who determine what's to be included in the universal basic coverage and how a specific condition is treated. If you want treatment outside of that standard plan, then you have to pay for it yourself. 'In most developed health systems in the world, 15 percent to 20 percent of the population buys medical services outside of the system of care run by the government. They do it through supplemental insurance, or they buy services out of pocket,' Keckley says." In "Analysis: 'Sicko' numbers mostly accurate; more context needed,' by A. Chris Gahilan, CNN, 30 June 2007.
The obfuscation is amusing, for "free medical treatment" is a phrase devoid of qualitative detail. But as one learns that Cuba's "free" system of hugely under-paid physicians is failing, one must look to the reasons why this is so. One such reason is that "free" simply does not and can never pay for itself. As CNN notes, "basic levels of care" are available in "most other countries." And the level of Cuba's "basic levels of care" has required of this socialist revolutionary nation "millions of dollars in budget cuts and tens of thousands of layoffs." For those tens of thousands laid off, this too is 'sicko.' And it is, as above, a "revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism." Or state capitalism. Or totalitarianism. Or revolution.
"A report by the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the way the EU's 31 agencies manage their budgets. The findings are likely to fuel the debate about the usefulness of the bodies in a time of austerity." In "Auditor: EU agencies mismanaging their budgets," by Valentina Pop, EU Observer, 16 February 2012
Little Miss Management
Gobbles what's overspent,
Absorbing the public's great tax.
Along comes austerity,
That economic verity,
To frighten the waste and kickbacks.
What shall they do
When all is askew
And red ink is eyeing the axe?
Justify, bluster
With flibbering fluster,
Using statistics to paper the cracks.
Spittle from management
Says nothing's overspent,
And their propaganda are not attacks.
Little Miss Management
Shoulders on, malcontent,
Saying there yet must be more tax.
Yet each little Miss Muffet
On a bureaucrat's tuffet
Trembles for coming cutbacks.
Miss Management's eponymous
And governments' synonymous
With waste such as ever subtracts.
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"The world is on the threshold of what might be called 'peak people.' The world’s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with “peak oil” theories – which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability – the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they’re very big policy challenges." In "The world’s losing its workers. How will we compete?" by Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, 11 February 2012.
Ole grandpa and granny had themselves a bunch,
And scraped and saved for there was no free lunch
To come their way nor did they seek
Such nonsensical things. Now, let's sneak a peek.
Our pops and moms, with more had yet less,
And so did the family's numbers regress
Into fewer, and those sometimes spaced far between,
That numbers then shrank, as we've read and we've seen.
Now? Well, demographics stands ready, bill in hand,
For by having less, then less still yet planned,
The matter evolves to who'll work and will pay.
Shall surplus morph to scarcity someday day?
Peak people? Peek, people, for this question looms.
The answers apparent will lie in the wombs
Of those who have children while others do not,
For that is reality, and the woe which we've wrought.
Which model pays dividends as time passes by?
Does shrinking make sense when debt climbs sky high?
That's more for each to shoulder the load,
While fewer remain as the numbers erode.
While growth has its limits, so does decline,
And that is a fact one foresees, I opine,
When rose-colored glasses and politics green
Are shed for reality's harsh, blinding scene.
Ole grandpa and granny had themselves a bunch,
And scraped and saved for there was no free lunch
To come their way nor did they seek
Such nonsensical things. Now's man past his peak?
Envoi: "There has been a cheering reduction in birth rates, but sadly not far enough in rich countries such as the United States and Australia, and not sufficiently widespread." Quote by Paul Ehrlich, in "Q&A: Stanford's Paul Ehrlich fears the worst for a planet with 7 billion residents," by Sarah Jane Keller, Stanford Report, 26 October 2011
Addendum: "Demographers and economists foresee that 30 million Europeans of working age will 'disappear' by 2050. At the same time, retirement will be lasting decades as the number of people in their 80s and 90s increases dramatically.” The crisis, they argue, will come from a 'triple whammy of increasing demand on the welfare state and health-care systems, with a decline in tax contributions from an ever-smaller work force.' That is to say, there won’t be enough workers to pay for the pensions of all those long-living retirees." In "No Babies?," by Russell Shorto, The New York Times, 29 June 2008
Addendum-de-dum-dum: "Around the globe, fertility rates are plummeting. Countries like Japan and Russia teeter on self-imposed fertility cliffs, facing dramatic population shrinkage and the potential collapse of their welfare states. Europe, with stagnant birth rates, isn't far behind -- and, contrary to popular opinion, neither is America, according to Weekly Standard writer Jonathan V. Last. His new book, What to Expect When No One's Expecting: America's Coming Demographic Disaster, documents a remarkable demographic shift: the global baby un-boom." In "When Babies Disappear," by Heather Wilhelm, RealClearBooks, 14 January 2013
See: The Scourge of the Planet
"But European officials, rather than listen to the alarms that the market was raising about Greece, promptly began to deny that the country needed a bailout. Greece’s prime minister at the time, George Papandreou, began a global trip to whip up new bond buyers by insisting that 'we will not be needing help.' In February, at the first of many summits, Merkel flatly refused to discuss a bailout, noting that 'Greece has never asked us for support.' Papandreou also claimed that 'traders and speculators' had unfairly ignored Greece’s 'deep' fiscal reforms. The prime minister’s European counterparts backed him up. Of course, Greece did need a bailout and got it." In "Farewell to the Free Market?" by Nicole Gelinas, City Journal, Winter 2012
Once upon a time,
So the stories start,
Tell their sorry tales,
Wisdom to impart.
Once upon a time
Primed Ministers were heard,
"We'll not be needing help,"
Which turns out 'twas absurd.
Once upon a time
Politicians vowed
Some things very wrong.
Were they over proud?
Once upon a time,
So these tales tell,
Is supposed to be forgot,
As lies begin to smell.
Once upon a time,
Everything was fine,
And then but months beyond
Some bright boys did resign.
Once upon a time
Comes like clockwork's tick,
And what such bright boys said
Turned sour, sad and sick.
Once upon a time
Leaders ignored alarms,
And so the stories lead
To bankruptcies' dark charms.
Once upon a time
People once believed
And as they did so
Time saw them harsh aggrieved.
Once upon a time
Comes around again,
And just as was before
The lessons were as then.
See: In black-and-white
"The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers. The Espionage Act, enacted back in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to our enemies, was used three times in all the prior administrations to bring cases against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media. It has been used six times since the current president took office." In "Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth," by David Carr, New York Times, 26 February 26, 2012.
Sshh, don't tell a soul,
But someone's noticed now.
What government would silence,
Free men shan't allow.
The New York Times reports,
And they've been fans and chums;
But something this most obvious
Is something that wicked comes.
Silencing those whistle blows --
Because they're proved so prone --
Means all the talk was empty
In its smiling baritone.
Three times in almost a century
Yet six times in but years
Suggests that government now
Doles out coercion's fears.
Sshh, don't tell a soul,
Reporters have noticed now.
This government will silence
Ignoring its campaigns' vow.
NYTimes, don't tell a soul.See: Sir Veiled Lance
"La démocratie étend la sphère de l'indépendence individuelle, le socialisme la reserre. La démocratie donne toute sa valeur possible à chacque homme, le socialisme fait de chaque homme un agent, un instrument, un chiffre. La démocratie et le socialisme ne se tiennent qu par un mot, l'égalité; mais remarquez la différence: la démocratie veut l'égalité dans la liberté et le socialisme veut l'égalité dans la gene et dan la servitude." In "Discours prononcé à l'assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail", by Alexis de Tocqueville, in Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546.
The old words still remain,
To be read and read again.
Rereading them, these same,
Tells much about us men.
The conflict of two sides is,
One would be free from chains,
And the other is that tyranny
Which stokes a people's flames.
Democracy allows men speech
While collectives reach and grasp,
Laboring hard, consistently
Fitting speech with lock and hasp.
Freedom is a word requiring
The preposition's phrase,
As in freedom from each tyranny,
Its mandates and its maze.
A fist is raised by tyranny
When freedom's fist droops low,
And rising tyrants use their fists
To mute freedom with a blow.
Independence of the individual
Is freedom's greatest claim,
As the discourse circles round again,
And the old words still remain.
See: Freedom is freedom is freedom
"Like drunks at a bar door, the euro zone's governments and banks are leaning unsteadily on each other for support. The banks know they have to sober up, but governments are urging them to have one more for the road." In "Analysis: Euro zone gropes for way out of state-bank dependency," by Paul Taylor, Reuters Paris, 20 February 2012.
One more for the road
To lighten any load
Is logic that's bereft of sense,
Drunk drivers' crashes showed.I see you, and lift your glass,
Which shatters in the hand;
Like as not it says as much
For that one more which is planned.
One more for the road
Is heaping a-la-mode
Obesity's plate with calories
Emptiness swallowed.
"One more for the road,"
Bar room drunks bellowed,
While fumbling for their keys
As out that door they strode.
One more for that road
Means more is ever owed,
And this too surely fails
As economies implode.
Envoi: "Debts and lies are generally mixed together." François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553)
Addendum: "The European Union, which is not directly responsible to voters, provides an irresistible opportunity for European elites to seize power in order to impose their own vision on a newly socially regimented Europe." In "Eurofascism, Lite," by Maggie Gallagher, UK Express, 15 July 2003
See: Europe 4 all? Yea!
"The Jewish nigger Lassalle, who fortunately leaves at the end of this week, has happily again lost 5,000 Thaler in a fraudulent speculation. The fellow would rather throw money in the dirt than make a loan to a 'friend' even if interest and capital are guaranteed. He acts on the view that he must live like a Jewish baron or baronised (probably via the Countess) Jew." (Letter dated July 30, 1862; Vol. 3, Marx-Engels Correspondence, German edition, page 82.) [ 1 ]
Jewish nigger,
so Marx wrote,
Is explained away
with sugarcoat
As Marxists chat
and spin and say,
The old boy was in
foul mood that day.
So let's forgive
and let's forget,
For such nice words
aren't epithet.
Bygones be bygones;
let's skip this, his word.
Marx was a saint, as
one believes the absurd.
Jewish nigger,
so Marx wrote,
Is forgivable. Why?
He was just that sort of guy.
Marxists love their Marx
and like to just omit
That lovely Marx lived
in a pig's proverbial shit.
He schnorred loans,
read, capital, cash,
Because he poorly managed
so his tiny monthly stash.
But now he's the rage
and a guru great,
A economic sage
and heavyweight,
Who speaks of capital
with which he fumbled,
Because he's Marx,
and never stumbled.
Except to write
a thing or two,
To disparage the Negro
and insult the Jew.
Icons at the Ninth Annual Party Congress, April 1969, China
Envoi: "It took only a few more years before I became disillusioned with the radical slogans. Maybe it was Jesse Jackson announcing at a rally in the early 1980s that he had been to Cuba and knew that it was a true democracy. Or Edward Said, whose hostility to Israel troubled me, writing that the Marxist state of South Yemen was a model for the Middle East. But I also learned something else about Trotsky: During the Bolsheviks’ war on the peasantry, he was responsible for the deaths of millions of human beings. In the end, that was all that mattered." In "Karl Marx: The Greatest Intellectual Fraud of the 19th and 20th Centuries," by David Mikics, Tablet, 18 June 2013.
Black Americans as Ernesto "Che" Guevara fans
Addendum of the Indolent Negro: While Marx made this statement, it is interesting to note the fine words another icon of revolutionary socialism has stated: “The Negro is indolent and spends his money on frivolities and drink, the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent…The negro has maintained his racial purity by his well known habit of avoiding baths.” Quote of Ernesto Guevara, cited by Humberto Fontova, Babalú Blog, 5 April 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Germany's Language Conundrum: "Tahir Della of the Initiative of Black People in Germany ('Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland'), a non-profit that fights for racial justice, welcomes Duden's explanatory note because it provides 'self-identifiers' similar to the designation 'people of color.' He rejects terms such as 'black African,' 'dark-skinned,' 'colored,' etc., which he considers 'foreign identifiers.' 'These are based on attributions, on categories that ultimately have nothing to do with the person they are applied to and have never been entirely apolitical,' he says." In " 'Always derogatory'? Germany battles over the N-word," by Verena Greb, Deutsche Welle, 14 February 2020. [ 3 ]
Addendum of Plain Talk: "Marx was, in short, a slob." Paul Kengor, The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism's Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration," TAN Books, 2020.
NOTES
[ 1 ] In the original German: "Der jüdische Nigger Lassalle, der glücklicher Weise Ende dieser Woche abreist, hat glücklich wieder 5000 Taler in einer falschen Spekulation verloren. Der Kerl würde eher das Geld in den Dreck werfen, als es einem 'Freunde' pumpen, selbst wenn ihm Zinsen und Kapital garantiert würden." London, Mittwoch, 30. Juli 1862.
I have found it interesting that so many devotees of Marx ignore his own personal money management, all the while these true believers so easily accept that Marx as economist offers sound advice. Such is the nature of true belief and true believers.
In a similar vein, the word, used and abused, is found in the mouth of an American politician. One reads: "White nigger was a derogatory and offensive term, dating from the nineteenth century, for a black person who deferred to white people or a white person who did menial work. It was later used as a slur against white activists involved in the civil rights movement such as James Groppi of Milwaukee. The term 'white niggers' was uttered twice by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia in an interview on national television in 2001." In "White nigger," Wikipedia article, n. d.
One among many responses to this was made. One reads: "...could it be that Senator Byrd had President Clinton in mind as a qualified 'white nigger'? After all, Senator Byrd has very little respect for Clinton - as he made clear in the Fox interview. And when one couples that fact with the belief held by many that President Clinton is the first Black President, one can only wonder...." In "On Senator Byrd And 'White Niggers'," by Cedric Muhammad, Black Electorate, 12 March 2001.
Such arguments have been made recently. One might consider notions of Black and white
.
After all, it has been argued that White is black
[ 2 ] The mass merchandising of the now-iconic "Che" represents the utter simplification of the complex into chic meaninglessness, testifying to chic meaninglessness.
Positive with the Negative
An apologist places Guevara's words as above into a class of youthful indiscretion. One reads: "I will give you another passage, from the same mind and man that wrote the aforementioned text. 'Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom?' I hope that instead of passing on negative news you would pass on the positive." In "Che’ Guevara a Racist? A Glimpse Into His Diary," by 'The Establishment' aka Faraji Touré," AfroPunk, 4 March 2011.
Symbol and Source of Inspiration
Youthful indiscretion replaced by "the positive?" This is of course an apologist's stance.
Even more sincere in appreciation is the following: "Guevara was and still is, together with Fidel Castro, a symbol of the Cuban revolution and moreover of the struggle against oppression throughout the world. His spirit of self-sacrifice, his rigour and his intellectual honesty are a source of inspiration to us all." In " Notes on the ideas of Che Guevara," by Roberto Sarti, marxists.com, 9 October 2017.
Well Worth millions of Atomic Victims
"This little snippet from a 1966 speech by Guevara ought to have given Zetsche some pause: 'Hatred is the central element of our struggle! Hatred that is intransigent...hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold- blooded killing machine...We reject any peaceful approach. Violence is inevitable. To establish Socialism rivers of blood must flow! The imperialist enemy must feel like a hunted animal wherever he moves. Thus we’ll destroy him! These hyenas are fit only for extermination. We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm! The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!' But rebellion was something only reserved for Guevara and others in government. In an earlier speech spurning 'the spirit of rebellion', in 1961, he made clear that government was in charge. 'Youth must refrain from ungrateful questioning of governmental mandates,' he said. As for Guevara's views on race, he did not mince words. After the Revolution’s victory in 1959, he famously said, 'We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing'." In "El Che: The Crass Marketing of a Sadistic Racist," by Michael Gonzalez, HuffPost, 12 March 2012.
[ 3 ] Sorting out the positions, Tahir Della's observation that "attributions, on categories that ultimately have nothing to do with the person they are applied to and have never been entirely apolitical" speaks directly to the use of skin color to assign value -- positive or negative -- to an individual. And yet postmodern idiocy busies itself in this era with "white supremacy" as a category of skin color, and one finds additionally in the United States "black supremacy" also being touted. See: Black on black is hard to read
Two streams of thought tear at a modern and diverse world. Marxism and Islamism, with Marx' use of the now-worrisome "N-word," and Muhammad with a reported and oft-contested statement: "Ahmad ibn Abi Sulayman, the companion of Sahnun said, 'Anyone who says that the Prophet was black should be killed.' Ibn Musa al-Yahsubi, Qadi ‘Iyad, p.375," in "Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars: Muhammad's White Complexion," WikiIslam, n. d.
Attributing meaning and value to skin color is a fine definition of racism, which confronts all who would make such attribution. But there are many who state: Everything's about my colored skin
What is assured is that Marx' attribution applied to Lasalle was a pejorative, and apparently to Marxists "justifiably" racist because....
Yes, we have no good answers - to be sung to the tune, "Yes! We Have No Bananas," a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn (circa 1922)
"We're not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don't like yours." Quote of United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in C- SPAN3 coverage of a House Committee Hearing on the federal budget with an official 1.3 trillion dollar deficit, 16 February 2012.
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
And yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
There’s a bank man at the helm
Whose tiny name is Tim,
His answers underwhelm,
For when you hear him limn
And you ask him anything,
He never answers no,
He just “Yeses” you to death
And then he takes your dough.
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got charts and graphs and drafts,
Yes, statistics gimmicked well,
So yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
Testifying ain't his best routine;
He calla his chums to say,
“Help! Corzine! Frank! I mean,
I need you right away.”
When they're all together, oh,
There is fun, you bet,
Someone asks for answers,
And then the whole quartet....
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.
We've got words and words and words
and rhetoric topped with words,
Oh yes, we have no good answers,
We have no good answers today.But we don't like yours....
Envoi: "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." John Adams (1735-1826)
Addendum of the Same Argument: "In today's press briefing, Jay Carney was asked about the number of Obamacare premium payments that have been made. In other words, the total number of people actually, factually covered, not including window shoppers and unpaid accounts. 'We dispute their numbers. We don't have hard, concrete numbers, but we dispute them,' the press secretary reasonably explained." In "Carney On Obamacare Enrollments: 'We Don't Have Hard Numbers, But We Dispute Their Numbers'," by Caleb Howe, Truth Revolt, 1 May 2014.
See: Partisan artisan
The man who knew too little
Said he knew a lot;
It had been really quite enough
To earn him his big shot.
One big shot was all it took
To show a little man
Had nothing but his ego
And a big then failing plan.
And yet he knew well enough
To earn the trust of men
And then he brought a gaggle
To swill in his pig's pen.
We are so smart and so elite,
He bragged and preened and brayed,
That in our farm of animals
None should be afraid.
The man who knew too little
But said it was a lot
Demanded all obey him;
Dissent would come to naught.
The man who knew too little
But said he knew a lot
Wished quietly he could command
A skeptic could be shot
With bullet or with drug
Or re-educated, hard and well,
Such that a skeptic then meekly turn
To the big shot's carousel.
One big shot meant many more,
Each twisting force to fist.
Complaints on deaf ears rained
And only made him pissed.
The man who knew too little
Knew well revenge and spite
And ordered force to make that fist
For him and his to fight.
He said he knew well enough
To break the backs of men
And then he loosed his struggle
Well planned for his time, when
That man who knew too little
Would know one thing very well,
That his right was almost divine
To silence his opponents' yell.
Dictate or mandate by force of law
Yet fail across the years,
The man that knew too little
Blamed others for the jeers.
The man that knew too little
Spoke in passion's heated lies
To prop up his great ego
With a knowing sort of guise.
One big shot was all it took
To waste, to cheat, destroy
With nothing but his ego
And his cadre to employ.
The man that knew too little
Excepting speaking lies
Is always toppled in the end
As histories advise.
Of which man do these quatrains' rhyme
Speak in scansion's time?
Of yesterday's man and this day's too,
And tomorrow's paradigm.
All men that knew too little
Have hubris on their side,
And this has always, ever served
To lead men towards genocide.
"'Americans are tired of being tired,' Joe Biden said." In "VP Biden: 'Americans Are Tired Of Being Tired'," WXII12 Television, 24 February 2012
Are you tired of being tired?
Weary with weariness? Are you worn out being worn out?
Are you stale from staleness? Are you trite for being trite?
Sleepy from lack of sleep? Are you exhausted from exhaustion?
Does crying make you weep?
In circles one might speak
Which brings one back around Being tired of being tired,
Revisiting the same old ground. Circular circles' thinking
Of circles all going around Is what some folks still follow
Although their ship's aground.
Are you tired of being tired?
Weary from weariness? Drained because you're draining?Am I leery for my leeriness? Oh yes, we all can circle round
About the sentence tree, When sense is hard to come bySpeaking vice-presidentially.
"We choose truth over facts." Joe Biden, 2019.
Addendum of the Nation of Africa: " 'There’s no reason the nation of Africa cannot and should not join the ranks of the world’s most prosperous nations in the near term, in the decades ahead,' the vice president said on Tuesday in Washington, D.C." Biden's quote from a C-SPAN broadcast, sourced in "Biden: 'The Nation of Africa'," by Andrew Johnson, National Review, 5 August 2014.
Addendum of Six Years Hard to Explain: "To state the obvious, the past six years have been really, really hard for this country. And they've been really tough for our party. Just ask Steve, I mean they've been really tough for our party. But together, uh, it's because together and together, we made some really, really tough decisions. Decisions that weren't at all popular, hard to explain. Hard...." In speech to the House democrat Caucus in Philadelphia, aired on C-SPAN, 30 January 2015.
Addendum of Having Been Vive President under Obama for Seven Years: "Sounding very much like a candidate for president, today Vice President Joe Biden spoke at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Pa. 'I'm mad, I'm angry,' Biden thundered, attacking the U.S. economy as 'devastating for workers'." In "Biden Blasts Economy; ‘'Devastating for Workers', 'I’m Mad, I'm Angry'!" Grabien, 7 September 2015.
Addendum of an Open Secret: "There’s a guy that follows me - right back here -- has the nuclear codes. So, God forbid anything happen to the president and I had to make a decision the codes are with me…" Quote of Joe Biden, CNN, Scranton, Pennsylvania, 15 August 2016.
Addendum of Walking Back Words: "Former Vice President Joe Biden has walked back his remarks about beating up President Donald Trump if they were in high school together. 'I shouldn't have said what I said,' Biden, 75, said in a Friday interview with the Pod Save America podcast, which is hosted by several former Obama administration officials." In " 'I don't want to get down in the mosh pit with this guy': Joe Biden backpedals on remarks about beating up Trump 'behind the gym'," by Daily Mail, 25 March 2018.
Addendum of the Circuitous and the Miscue: "He takes circuitous routes to the ends of sentences, if he finishes them at all. He sometimes says the opposite of what he means ('I would eliminate the capital gains tax — I would raise the capital gains tax' he said in this month’s debate). He has mixed up countries, cities and dates, embarked on off-message asides and sometimes he simply cuts himself off. ...Mr. Biden’s verbal miscues have long led to challenges. He was forced to withdraw from the 1988 presidential campaign after he presented biographical details from the life of the British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock as his own. His gaffe-prone tendencies made national headlines during his 2008 presidential bid when he referred to Barack Obama as 'the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean'." In "The Many Ways That Joe Biden Trips Over His Own Tongue," by Katie Glueck, New York Times, 31 October 2019.
Addendum of Questioning: "...questioning why it was not taken into account when the lobbyist was appointed to a $50,000-a-month post on the board of the Ukraine oil company Burisma in 2014, when his father, as vice president, was the Obama administration's lead official on Ukraine. A year after the arrest, Joe Biden gave a speech in which he said the federal government needed to 'hold every drug user accountable' because, 'If there were no drug users, there would be no appetite for drugs, there would be no market for them.' He neglected to mention the drug use in his own family." In "Revealed: Hunter Biden 'possession of controlled substance' charge kept under wraps while father led drug war from Senate," by Alana Goodman and Joseph Simonson, Washington Examiner, 12 December 2019.
Addendum of Money and Influence: "Political figures have long used their families to route power and benefits for their own self-enrichment. In my new book, 'Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite,' one particular politician — Joe Biden — emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain. In Biden's case, these deals include foreign partners and, in some cases, even U.S. taxpayer dollars. The Biden family's apparent self-enrichment involves no less than five family members: Joe's son Hunter, son-in-law Howard, brothers James and Frank, and sister Valerie." In "How five members of Joe Biden’s family got rich through his connections," by Peter Schweizer, New York Post, 18 January 2020.
Addendum of Campaigning, 2020 Version: "Biden said it was legitimate question, but then turned the spotlight back on her, asking: 'Iowa’s a caucus. Have you ever been to a caucus?' When she indicated yes, he rebuked her 'No, you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier'." In "Biden jokingly calls voter who asked about Iowa a 'lying dog-faced pony soldier'," by Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post, 9 February 2020. | [ 1 ]
Addendum of Joe Gibberish: "...despite speaking primarily in platitudes, the former vice president still managed to bungle the appearance when he cautioned that 'the cure' for COVID-19 'will make the problem worse, no matter what.' Come again?" In "Joe Biden Torn Apart After 'The View' Appearance: He 'Reminded Everyone Why He’s Been in Hiding'," by Claire Spellberg, New York Post, 24 March 2020.
Addendum of Being a Good Democrat: "New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Joe Biden's shocking response to his demands that the White House do something about the migrant crisis was to 'be a good Democrat, Eric.' The embattled mayor claimed Biden's reaction to the crisis wreaking havoc on his city was just one of many reasons the Democrat Party 'left me and it left working class people'...." In "Tucker Carlson stunned as NYC mayor Eric Adams reveals the outrageous five-word warning Biden gave him," by Stephen M. Lepore, Daily Mail, 21 January 2025.
Addendum of the End of the Story: "...Biden completed his one-man race to the bottom of ethics by issuing preemptive pardons to members of his own family. The pardons were timed to guarantee that the media would not focus on yet another unethical act by this president. He need not have worried. For four years, the media worked tirelessly to deny or deflect the corruption scandal surrounding the Biden family." In "The final corruption of Joe Biden," by Jonathan Turley, The Hill, 20 January 2025.
Addendum of the End of the Hustle: "Even though the Times and others predictably defended Biden’s pardons by saying he did it to protect his family against 'retaliation' by Trump, it began to dawn on you that you’ve been played for a sucker." "In "Joe Biden’s corrupt last act as president proved his family hustle always superseded the truth, the law and the country," by Michael Goodwin, NY Post, 21 January 2025.
NBC October 2021
Consider: Doing the math
NOTE
[ 1 ] The Washington Post opines that Biden "jokingly" addressed the student. The student disagrees.
One reads: "Moore said: 'It was kind of humiliating to be called a liar on national TV by the former vice president. Instead of answering that question straightforward, his immediate response was to attempt to invalidate me by exposing my inexperience. He has been performing extremely poorly in this race and the fact that he couldn’t just straight answer my question without bullying or intimidating just exacerbates that fact'." In "Student, 21, says she was insulted by Joe Biden when he called her a 'lying dog-faced pony soldier' after asking about his poor Iowa results and says it shows how poorly his campaign is going," by Cheyenne Roundtree, Katelyn Caralle, and Nikki Schwab, Daily Mail, 10 February 2020.
"Chicago is the corruption capital of America, and Illinois is the third most-corrupt state, according to a new academic study on the science of sleaze. 'Unfortunately, when it comes to political corruption, we're numero uno,' Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-author of the report, told me Wednesday. 'It's not something we should be proud of. But this is the corruption capital.'" In "Kass: We're No. 1 — in political sleaze, Chicago is corruption capital, report shows" by John Kass, The Chicago Tribune, 16 February 2012.
Headlines read,
Corrupt all over;
So says the Tribune
Waking, hung-over.
The science of sleaze
Is decades of change
Which resulted in none;
Now isn't that strange?
Reform, renew,
Refresh, rethink;
From Sandburg to now
It's the same old stink.
Headlines read,
Political sleaze;
So prints the Tribune,
Amid larcenies.See: Chicago Poem V
"One of the things that has forced the Greek people to the precipice is the corrupt [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and inefficient government that everyone agrees must shrink. For decades, politicians have been handing out jobs - with generous benefits - in return for votes, and now the country is broke. 'We all know what needs to be done,' said Apostolos Apostolakis, one of Greece's hardworking young entrepreneurs. 'The problem is, who will take the political risk to do it? We need people who will place the country above their personal interests.'" In "Latest layoffs, cuts drive Greeks to despair," by Elizabeth Palmer, CBS News, 15 February 2012.
And there it is
In black-and-white:
That truth which tells it all.
'Twas government
That broke the bank,
And conjured up the squall.
It's debt on debt
That's become the threat,
And now we taste its gall.
Yes, there it is
In black-and-white:
Government which once was small
Fattened, bloated,
Borrowed much,
Must suffocate and fall.Hard to ignore
What's plain to see:
The truth should plain appall.
For a view of similar tales in the United States of Corruption, see: Corruption
NOTES
[ 1 ] "In reality, says Bakouris, an incompetent political class continues to govern the country -- the same people, the same story. For decades, they have created a sick system that permeates all segments of society." In "'We Are Greedy and Asocial': Corruption Continues Virtually Unchecked in Greece," by Julia Amalia Heyer, Der Spiegel, 16 October 2012.
One reads further, "Greece has scored the worst ranking of all 27 European Union nations in a global league table of perceived official corruption, falling below ex-communist Bulgaria as public anger about graft soars during the country's crisis." In "Greece takes bottom EU spot in global corruption index," by Gareth Jones, Reuters, 5 December 2012
[ 2 ] "A Thessaloniki criminal court on Wednesday ruled that the city's former mayor, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, is guilty of embezzling almost 18 million euros from municipal coffers over the course of his two terms in office, handing him a sentence of life in prison. Papageorgopoulos and 17 other officials stood trial for allegedly embezzling almost 52 million euros from the municipality’s coffers, though the Thessaloniki court on Wednesday said that there was proof of 17.962 million euros having been misappropriated by the former mayor and his cohorts." In "Thessaloniki court hands ex-mayor life sentence over embezzlement," ekathimerini.com, 27 February 2013.
"One out of five jobs in Greece is held by a bureaucrat, which is why unemployment among the under-24s runs at 42%. A 2010 poll shows that seven out of 10 Greek college graduates seek to leave. Some 9% of Greek college graduates and at least 51% of Greece's Ph.D.s are already gone, according to University of Macedonia demographer Lois Lambrianidis." In "Greece's Bailout Socialism Penalizes Youth Most," Investor's Business Daily Editorial, 21 February 2012.
They say it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only it was done right
And wasn't as it seems.
They say mistakes were made
When last the game was played,
But next time, we're assured,
Socialism earns a higher grade.
But, why do young folks leave
When old socialist schemes fail?
And why do bright folks walk
When the buckets start to bail?
Why leave what is good?
Why not stay as you should?
Socialism's centuries-old buggy
Has no motor beneath its hood.
Soviet Socialists imploded
Into broken mirrors and smoke,
While National Socialism
Was a vicious, murderous joke.
Castro's Revolution
Creaks and limps with age,
While Britain's NHS is
In its life support stage.
Greece is slipping off the rails,
While fingers wag and wave,
But fattened bureaucrats all say
Somehow, some way they'll save
The teetering, toppling system
Which becomes so often frail.
This is why bright young folks walk
When the buckets start to bail.
They've said it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only we could do it right
And wasn't what it seems.
It seems, when looking into it,
Old socialism bloats,
And fattens into awful health
As debts it floats and floats.
And then the time just rolls along
When something's overdue.
It's then that socialists all shrug
And hand the mess to you.
They urged this thing so wonderful
On generations' past,
And then defaulted, warred,
And then they all collapsed.
Is there a lesson in all this?
Well, no, not if you hold
That socialism might yet work
As socialists have told.
The track record is rather poor,
And failures abound,
And yet evangelizing socialists
Convert the world around.
They say it's wonderful,
The answer to your dreams,
If only it is done right
And isn't as it seems.
For minootes toidytree sekunds
keeps notsingin johnz crazy
but therez a limit to sittin
after that u
for
measured
the ha
if you've dr
for minoo
oddy
ever
and listens too as wi
yup applaud this red
you k
thatz the
cause its all music -- s
im goin to not hum that spr
or at least
cuz its catc
and whateve
for minootes the sh
appr
and li
so with its
cut to the
to hear n
but
countin minootz n sekund
For minootes toidytree sekunds
Ol tune
U kin reckunds --
R rootin tootin immune
Minootes hemorrhoidy sekunds
In the stop -- watch
Nds tick off what beckunds --
Unk nuff from suchy klatsch
Tes verily hoidytoidy fekunds
Ences will patiently sit
So each appreciatively reckunds --
T applauds it
Herring u hear/d go tick
In page turn or cough [sic]
Rick
Top music
Y shtick
Try a spoonful
Hy and rightfully tuneful
R else it's wry
Eep will buy
Eciatively dulled
Sten enthrulled
Edgy devant guard
Chase they pays their reward
Othing yes no thing
Noise from them self
Dutifully like stock on some shelf
S
cleverly cagey, huh? Nah.
Addendum In Fringe: "Shortly after the album was released (and went to number one in the UK classical charts) Mike was contacted by Peters Edition, the publisher of Cage’s work, demanding one-quarter of the royalties from the sale of the song. They argued over this for a while – interestingly provoking the kind of discussion which Cage had originally intended when he first performed the piece: does it truly qualify as a work? If not, why not? There was even a side-by-side concert performance of the two pieces in London, so that the, errr, differences could be illustrated. Batt eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed six-figure sum. However, he pointed out that Peters had acknowledged they didn’t have much of a case, and that he was donating the money out of respect for John Cage — to the John Cage Trust." In "The Stupidest Music Lawsuit Ever – Infringing on Cage’s 4’33?," Classical Convert, 12 July 2007.
Addendum of Cage on Stravinsky: " 'The sooner the world forgets Stravinsky the better,' wrote the young John Cage to a friend, in 1935, 'If he gave us the primordial, as you say, I swear it was a cheap imitation.' Igor Stravinsky, for his part, was scarcely any kinder about Cage. Though the composer of the Sacre du Printemps would admit, in one of his many conversations with his friend, the conductor Robert Craft, to finding some of Cage's work 'enjoyable' he admitted, finally, that 'his performances are often, to me, the frustration of time itself'." In "Cage, Stravinsky, the Long Now," Robert Barry, The Bomb Party, 12 November 2011.
Addendum of Stravinsky on Cage: “Now that Mr. [John] Cage's most successful opus is undoubtedly the delectable silent piece 4'33, we may expect his example to be followed by more and more silent pieces by younger composers who, in rapid escalation, will produce their silences with more and more varied and beguiling combinations.... I only hope they turn out to be works of major length.” Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, "Themes and Episodes," A. A. Knopf, 1966
See: A setting of Busch's Die Selbstkritik hat viel für sich, variations on C-A-G-E - (2012)
"Ex-Gov. Bill Richardson is one of several former top U.S. government officials pocketing large fees to speak in support of an Iranian group that is listed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization." In "Richardson Is Paid To Promote Listed Terror Group," by Thomas Cole, Albuquerque Journal, 10 March 2012
Pockets of corruption pocket some change
To chatter the matter for terrorists. Strange?
Not when one thinks of the greed, yes indeed,
Whenever a politician mounts up his steed.
Speaking fees line all such pockets as his;
They're astonished when noticed. Gosh, golly. Gee whiz!
It's only a speech for five figures or more,
And only to terrorists. That, not much more,
As pockets of corruption pocket their change
In quid pro quo bargains, in moneyed exchange.
Is this greed that progressively shows?
Or yet another emperor's old clothes?
Step by step, one path drops deep,
Step by step, one way grows steep,
Step by step, the weepers weep,
Step by step, each step a creep.
Another log for the fires of hell,
Another dog for their hounds, as well,
Another peal from that tolling bell,
Another soul that's sinned and fell.
Step by step, another calls,
Step by step, it upward sprawls.
Step by step, to mount the walls,
Step by step, to gilded halls.
Another joy, in circles bright,
Another time comes into sight,
Another step in pathways right,
Another tread to scale the height.
Step by step, each path is built,
Step by step, as blood is split.
Step by step, as guilt by guilt,
Step by step? Which way to tilt?
"The acts that are at once the means and ends of education, knowing, thinking, understanding, judging, are all committed in solitude. It is only in a mind that the work of the mind can be done." In "The Graves of Academe," Richard Mitchell (1981) Akadine Press, 1999.
There is something about being alone,
that all too many people bemoan.
Alone in one's thoughts may be filled to replete,
while alone in one's dreams is merely discrete.
In solitude one creates, invents and learns,
and in it one grasps that for which one yearns.
There is something wondrous about being alone,
when all one's thoughts may be truly one's own.
See: Witness
Fat cats richly rich of late - a comparative and sourced criticism of the nouveau "fair share" folks
"A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share. Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year." In "36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes," by Andrew Malcolm, Investors Business Daily, 26 January 2012.
Fat cats richly rich of late
Seem to evidence a spate
Of "you, not me" and abdicate
What they for others must apply.
Top cats topping out their place
Demonstrate in the income race
A "you, not me" as their state of grace
Which we lessers should not espy.
Fair share is bright rhetoric,
So some think, I think, a trick,
A slimy gambit, a surly shtick
Which the underclass should just buy.
Gosh and golly, the Fair Share folks
Seem to calculate their Fair Share jokes
Perpetrated on the littlest folks.
All is fair when you've climbed that swing.Double standards dance and sing.
More for them; and we bear the sting.
Envoi: "Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” Aristophanes, in "Plutus" (c. 388 BCE)
Addendum of an ex-Secretary: "Napolitano is expected to more than triple her salary, from about $200,000 to the $601,000 gross pay earned by the University of California’s current president, Mark Yudof." In "DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announces resignation," by Vince Coglianese, Daily Caller, 12 July 2013.
Addendum for the 263rd richest person in the U.S.: "In late 2009, President Barack Obama appeared on '60 Minutes' and said 'fat-cat bankers'" were smothering his efforts to craft new rules for Wall Street. As soon as the reforms cleared Congress six months later, the president's top advisers launched a campaign to try to repair the White House's damaged relationship with business. In Chicago, they turned to Penny Pritzker, the billionaire and record-breaking Obama fundraiser who is now a potential nominee for U.S. commerce secretary, according to sources." In "Will Penny Pritzker become the next U.S. commerce secretary?" by Melissa Harris, Chicago Tribune, 3 March 2013. [ 2 ]
Addendum for just another Multi-Millionaire: "Five years after Caroline Kennedy refused to release financial information during her bid to take over Hillary Clinton’s US Senate seat, newly filed documents reveal a personal fortune that could be as high as $500 million. She also reports almost $1 million annually from speaking engagements and royalties from books. In a letter Kennedy also explains, 'I understand that a heightened prospect of a conflict of interest could exist as to companies that maintain a presence in Japan.' She goes on to say she’ll step down from roles with the Institute of Politics at Harvard, the Kennedy Library Foundation, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and her husband’s Edwin Schlossberg Foundation if she’s confirmed. Kennedy could not be reached for comment." In "Caroline Kennedy discloses financial information for ambassadorship," NYPost, 19 August 2013.
Addendum of Some 1%-ers: "On July 30, 2008, HERA established FHFA as the regulator of Fannie Mae [ 1 ] , Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System.6 Generally, FHFA is responsible for overseeing the safety and soundness of the regulated entities (i.e., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System), supervising their efforts to support housing finance and affordable housing goals, and facilitating a stable and liquid mortgage market. In "FHFA’s Oversight of the Enterprises’ Compensation of Their Executives and Senior Professionals," Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General's Evaluation Report: EVL-2013-001,Dated: December 10, 2012 . [ 3 ]
Addendum of More 1%-ers: "Executives at Medicaid- funded not-for-profits in New York are hauling in massive salaries, with one raking in $2.8 million and 14 others topping a half-million, an explosive congressional report has found. And more than 100 other executives from Medicaid-funded agencies in New York are pulling in more than $200,000, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." In "NY Medicaid exec pay is sickening," by Carl Campanile and Chuck Bennett, New York Post, 5 February 2013. [ 4 ]
Addendum after Addendum on the 1%-ers: "The avalanche of cash that made Washington rich in the last decade has transformed the culture of a once staid capital and created a new wave of well-heeled insiders. The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible. They are the entrepreneurs attracted to the capital by its aura of prosperity and its super-educated workforce. They are the lawyers, lobbyists and executives who work for companies that barely had a presence in Washington before the boom. During the past decade, the region added 21,000 households in the nation's top 1 percent. No other metro area came close." In "D.C. awash in contracts, lobbying wealth," by Greg Jaffe and Jim Tankersley, Washington Post, 18 November 2013.
Addendum of the Government Giveaway: "...in California, where a state psychiatrist was paid $822,000, a highway patrol officer collected $484,000 in pay and pension benefits and 17 employees got checks of more than $200,000 for unused vacation and leave. The best-paid staff in other states earned far less for the same work, according to the data. Rising employee expenses are crowding out other priorities for state and local governments and draining resources for college tuition, health care, public safety, schools and other services, Schwarzenegger said in an e-mailed response to questions." In " $822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway," by Mark Niquette, Michael B. Marois and Rodney Yap, Bloomberg, 10 December 2012.
Addendum of Six Employees Wrapped in One Little Man: "There are double dippers and then there is Patrick DeBlasio, a man with five public jobs in New Jersey. He now wants one more. DeBlasio wants to increase his workload by adding at least 10 hours a week as Highlands' new chief financial officer. His annual compensation totaled $244,606 in 2012, according to state pension and payroll records. If hired in the new position, DeBlasio would be paid up to $65,000, a portion of which could be shared with an assistant, borough officials said." In "N.J. public servant wants job No. 6," by Kevin Pentón, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, 18 December 2013.
See: The rich
NOTES
[ 1 ] "Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB), the biggest source of money for U.S. home loans, said on Wednesday it would seek $4.6 billion in additional federal aid after reporting a fourth-quarter loss. Earlier on Wednesday, the government-controlled mortgage finance company posted a loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter ended December 31. That pushed Fannie Mae's loss for 2011 to $16.9 billion from $14.0 billion a year earlier, the company said." In "Fannie Mae seeks $4.6 billion in aid after Q4 loss," by By Margaret Chadbourn, Reuters, 29 February 2012.
[ 2 ] "In 2011 the Forbes 400 list of America's wealthiest showed her as the 263rd richest person in the U.S., estimated net worth of US $1.8511 billion, and the world's 651st richest person. In 2009 Forbes named Pritzker as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world." In "Penny Pritzker," Wikipedia.
Approving a Billionaire
Of the 651st richest person in the world, Obama announced, "I am pleased the Senate took bipartisan action to confirm Penny Pritzker as our next Commerce Secretary. Penny is a proven leader, a successful entrepreneur, and one of the most accomplished and highly-respected women in business today. She knows what it takes to build companies from the ground up, and she shares my belief in doing everything we can to help businesses and workers succeed and make America a magnet for good jobs. Penny will be a key member of my economic team as we continue to work to grow our economy and strengthen the middle class." In "Statement from the President on the Confirmation of Penny Pritzker as the Secretary of Commerce," The White House, 25 June 2013.
Of Pritzker and other White House "friends," one reads further: "A deal involving the federal government’s most expensive lease in Chicago produced millions of dollars in profits for a development group that included Penny Pritzker, a top campaign fund-raiser for President Barack Obama who is now his commerce secretary, a Chicago Sun-Times / Better Government Association investigation has found. The developers also included Jack Higgins, a friend and political backer of former Mayor Richard M. Daley. Over the 14-year term of the lease, the government will pay $280 million in rent and operating expenses for the Near West Side property, which houses the FBI’s Chicago headquarters. That’s more than double what it cost to build the complex at 2111 W. Roosevelt Rd., which opened in 2006, records show." In "Big profit for Pritzkers on costly Chicago FBI deal," Better Government Association's Chuck Neubauer and Sandy Bergo/Chicago Sun-Times, 14 September 2014.
This is one example among many of how a hand might wash another hand.
[ 3 ] From the report cited above the salaries for the top management in a failing financial enterprise in the majority by taxpayers: Executives - 23 EVPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $1,718,200 - subtotal - $ 39,514,000, and 62 SVPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $723,500 - subtotal - $ 44,857,000, and Senior Professionals - 333 VPs at Medium Cash Compensation of $388,000 - subtotal - $ 129,204,000, and 1,650 Directors at Medium Cash Compensation of $205,300 - subtotal - $ 41,745,00, for a grand total for all Executives and Senior Professionals -- $ 255,320,000.00 for 2,068 "workers." Putting the number into words, the top management of a consistently failing enterprise run by the government of "fat cats richly rich of late" is over one quarter of a billion dollars, or about ten percent of the bailout money requested from Congress to pay to "compensate" two thousand bureaucrats whose job seems to be to lose many billions of dollars consistently over the last five years. Such is the state of "executives and senior professionals" who are "fat cats richly rich of late."
[ 4 ] A quick tabulation from the text suggests these "not-for-profit" entities funded by government pay out approximately $ 29,700,000.00 to 115 "executives" who might well be described also as "fat cats richly rich of late." For comparison, "Per capita money income in the past 12 months (2011 dollars), 2007-2011 - $31,796.00" for New York State. In "State & County QuickFacts," U.S. Department of Commerce United States Census Bureau. And for further comparison, "The average federal civilian employee makes $74,311 per year," in "The Top Paid Federal Employees," by Danielle Kurtzleben, US News and World Report, 30 November 2010. As an addition insight to the "fat cats richly rich of late," one reads, "The roster of state workers raking in six-figure pay skyrocketed last year by an astonishing 12 percent to nearly 7,700 employees, according to a Herald review — a budget-busting bombshell that has fiscal watchdogs howling 'enough.'" In "Mass. gives out 100 grand like candy," by Joe Dwinell, Boston Herald, 16 February 2013. See the footnoted details in: Doctor Oppression comes to call
[ 5 ] "The numbers are even larger in California, where a state psychiatrist was paid $822,000, a highway patrol officer collected $484,000 in pay and pension benefits and 17 employees got checks of more than $200,000 for unused vacation and leave. The best-paid staff in other states earned far less for the same work, according to the data. Rising employee expenses are crowding out other priorities for state and local governments and draining resources for college tuition, health care, public safety, schools and other services...." In "$822,000 Worker Shows California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway," by Mark Niquette, Michael B. Marois & Rodney Yap. Bloomberg, 11 December 2012.
Fat Cats and Idle Cats
The fat cat mentality of California is shown as well in another egregious example of using the "state" to make an individual rich: "With a gross salary of more than $333,000, BART's highest-paid employee last year wasn't its general manager, police chief or a worker who racked up gobs of overtime scrubbing grime from filthy train seats. It was someone who did no work at all for BART in 2012: Dorothy Dugger, the agency's former general manager who resigned under pressure more than two years ago. Under a lucrative retirement scheme, Dugger, 57, quietly stayed on the books, burning off nearly 80 weeks of unused vacation time, drawing paychecks and full benefits for more than 19 months after she agreed to quit in May 2011, according to an analysis by this newspaper. By remaining on BART's payroll, she accrued almost two extra months of vacation, while sitting at home drawing a six-figure salary for unused time off. The months of extra pay were on top of the $920,000 that BART paid Dugger to leave after the agency's board botched an effort to fire her by violating public meetings laws." In "BART's top-paid worker of 2012 never worked a day," by Thomas Peele and Daniel J. Willis, Mercury News, 9 June 2013.
Also one reads as yet another example of "fat cats richly rich of late" the following: "The township police chief will soon retire with an annual benefit of $131,951.76, according to state Department of Treasury spokesman William Quinn." In "Retiring Parsippany police chief to get $132K a year, state says," by Brendan Kuty, nj.com, 14 February 2013. By way of contrast, Wikipedia states in "Household income in the United States, the "U.S. median household income fell from $51,144 in 2010 to $50,502 in 2011. Extreme poverty in the United States, meaning households living on less than $2 per day before government benefits, doubled from 1996 to 1.5 million households in 2011, including 2.8 million children."
And so to contrast the statistics of poverty in the United States, one sees: "...212 pensioners collect six-figure paychecks, with the top five retirees earning $200,000 or more annually." In "Under 50 and grabbing state pensions," by Erin Smith and Chris Cassidy, Boston Herald, 10 April 2013. See: Income Inequality
Pulling Back the Veil
Government is being more closely examined with access to public records, and such examination is eye-popping as regards "fat cats richly rich." One reads of Transparent California's effort to pull back the veil:
"Center President Mark Bucher said he hopes the data will 'empower anyone interested in this issue … We’re trying to put the power in the hands of the people, in the hands of candidates running for office.' Harvey Robinson, president of the 28,000-member Retired Public Employees Association of California, said that pensioners will be 'outraged' as word about the database spreads. 'We certainly are concerned about that information creating vulnerability for retirees,' he said. A center press release announcing the database notes that nearly 100 former government employees received a quarter-million dollars or more in annual pension payments in 2012, that more than 1,700 CalPERS pensioners received at least $150,000 from the fund and that California’s two university systems paid 27,115 retired public employees pensions of $100,000 or more. 'It’s indefensible,' Bucher said." In "Government reform group launches public pension database," by Jon Ortiz, Sacramento Bee, 4 February 2014.
From the Center's revealing information are fat cats surprisingly fat, the following only lists those above $300K in public pensions: Top pensions in the State of California according to public records courtesy of Transparent California: Total pensions and benefits above $300K per year: Bruce V. Malkenhorst, $540,882.24; Diane Bellas, $527,254.92; Michael D. Jackson, $371,042.88; Larry Waldie, $329,844.48; Michael Judge, $327,642.48; Carol Meyer, $321,058.44; Joaquin M. Fuster, $320,998.08; Harry Stone, $318,054.48; Thomas Orloff, $314,612.52; Rinaldo Canalis, $313,227.48; Stephen Cooley, $312,632.64; David Goldstein, $310,471.20; Raymond Fortner, Jr., $306,447.48; Stephen R. Maguin, $304,661.04; Bernard C. Parks, $303,174.12; Ramesh Verma, $302,355.24; Donald R. Gerth, $300,994.68. (of 1,096,250 records found).
Lifting the veil from public-funded pensions has also begun to show the fat cats of state government and current salaries: Top salaries of public employees according to public records: Arturo Gomez, $1,074,375.00; Mark R. Laret, $935,006.40; David T. Feinberg, $900,011.52; Andrea L. Snow, $851,507.00; Ann Madden Rice, $800,000.04; Maureen F. Martin, $776,685.00; Hollister Brewster, $757,744.44. (of 2,203,441 employee records found)."And if you work a normal full-length career? Buried on page 169 of CalPERS FYE 6-30-2013 Annual Report is the answer – after 30+ years the average pension is $60,312 per year." In "New Transparency Website Reveals True Costs of Payroll and Pensions for California’s Public Employees," by Ed Ring, Fox&Hounds, 6 February 2014. Given that Transparent California shows the lowest public payment of just $21.00 - the low number is unexplained -- on the last of over 44,000 pages, the range is enormous, as is the top-paying pension.
But "the average pension is $60,312 per year" for California's public employees -- paid for doing no current work -- should be compared to the media worker's salary in the state, and that is: "Per capita money income in past 12 months (2012 dollars), 2008-2012, $29,551," and "Median household income, 2008-2012, $61,400" from "State & County QuickFacts," US department of Commerce, 6 January 2014. Thus a single worker's median income is half of the retirement of a public worker, and it takes a "household" of people employed to equal the median "public pension" of a state ex-employee. Fair? The public fat cats will argue yes, while the "per capita" individual might well see it as enormously unfair. But what would the average Californian with his $29,551 "per capita" income say about a public pension of $540,882.24? Ergo, "income inequality" is in part caused by public salaries and public pensions, another instance of government incompetence, at the minimum, and public corruption in some cases.
As a clear "per capita" example, see: Three Little Democrats
For a small but informative summary of public sector corruption, see: Corruption
[ 6 ] "And we believe that success should be rewarded. But what gets people upset – and rightfully so – are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers." Quote of Barack Hussein Obama II, in "President Obama’s Remarks on Executive Pay," 4 February 2009 And for this "subsidized by the U. S. taxpayers" remark, specifically see: Lying continues
[ 7 ] To illustrate that this problem is worldwide, one also finds massive payouts to leaders of "charitable" organizations, such as the following: "Human rights group Amnesty International has paid more than £500,000 in a secret pay-off to its former chief, it was revealed yesterday. The organisation paid out another £300,000 to its deputy leader, who quit at the same time in December 2009. Amnesty declined to discuss the payouts to former secretary general Irene Khan and her deputy Kate Gilmore. But the scale of the payments throws a harsh light on the group’s management decisions following years of increasing criticism." In "Revealed: Amnesty's secret £800,000 pay-offs to two bosses... which it doesn't seem very keen to talk about," by Steve Doughty, Daily Mail UK, 19 February 2011.
As if this seems like a one-time event, one follows the news with this: "Last year, Amnesty paid 36 people more than 60,000 pounds a year and seven of them received more than 100,000 pounds. In 2007, there were only seven people earning more than 60,000 pounds, three of whom received more than 100,000 pounds." In "Amnesty International workers start strike," by Danica Kirka, Associated Press, 20 November 2012.
It becomes obvious that fine, upper-class salaries can be found in government as well as in charitable foundations. Public servants and charitable work seem now to be well characterized by the phrase, "Fat cats richly rich of late."
An egregious example has been announced in the blog of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Muranishi has been with the county for 38 years, and she’s 63. When retirement day comes, she’ll be getting a lot more than a gold watch. That’s because, according to the county auditor’s office, Muranishi’s annual pension will be equal to the dollar total of her entire yearly package — $413,000. She also has a separate executive private pension plan, for which the county chips in $46,500 a year." In "Alameda County rewards boss: $400k…for life," Matier & Ross, 25 March 2013.
This in a state where the average income is slightly over one-tenth that amount.
See also: Freddie and Fannie and Barney and Frank
Greek disability groups expressed anger Monday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action 'incomprehensible,' and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants. The Labor Ministry said categories added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists — were included for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance." In "Furor in Greece over pedophilia as a disability," by Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press, 9 January 2012.
Hey diddle diddle,
To the chaps that fiddle,
And the boys that like to moon,
As the thieves all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is its own lampoon.
Hey twiddle twiddle,
To the folks that piddle,
And the arsonists in the commune,
As the gamblers all laugh to see such sport,
And disability is a Greek's cartoon.
Hey fiddle fiddle,
The government's a riddle,
And the economy's in a swoon,
As the fools rejoice to make such sport,
And disabled is the government buffoon.
Addendum of an American Diddle: "Former Illinois State Rep. Keith Farnham was charged Monday with using both personal and state-owned computers to trade hundreds of images and videos depicting child pornography and engage in graphic online chats in which he allegedly bragged about sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl. The federal criminal complaint alleged that Farnham, 66, a Democrat from Elgin, possessed two videos depicting child pornography on a computer that was seized from his state office in Elgin a week before his abrupt resignation in March. Authorities also linked a Yahoo! email account used by Farnham to a online trading forum in which he chatted with other users about his sexual preferences, according to the charges. '12 is about as old as i can handle,' Farnham allegedly said in one online chat in November, according to the charges. 'i love them at 6 7 8' Farnham – who twice co-sponsored bills in the House that toughened penalties for child pornography -- is scheduled to make his initial appearance at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Wednesday." In "Child porn charges filed against ex-state Rep. Farnham," by Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune, 28 April 2014.
Addendum of a British Diddle: "One of David Cameron's closest aides has been arrested on suspicion of offences relating to child pornography. Patrick Rock, who was one of the government's advisors on policy for online pornography filters, was arrested last month after police examined computers in No 10 Downing Street. Mr Rock resigned as a policy advisor to the Prime Minister soon afterwards. No 10 said he was arrested last month "a few hours" after Downing Street contacted police." In "Cameron aide Patrick Rock arrested over allegations relating to child porn," by James Kirkup, Telegraph UK, 4 March 2014.
Addendum of a Worldwide Club: "Canadian police have led a global strike against one of the largest child pornography rings ever seen. Some 350 people have been arrested in countries all over the world. The investigation dubbed project Spade began back in 2010. Authorities said they were able to rescue over 300 children from abuse and exploitation." In " Hundreds arrested in global child porn raids," Deutsche Welle, 11 April 2014.
See: Down the drain
"'Perception management' can be usefully shortened to a one-syllable word: 'con.' The confidence-man's most basic tool is to create the surface sheen of success with minimal investment of time and capital. Thus the con-man buys a couple of designer suits, rents a cubbyhole office with a prestigious address, leases a 500-series Mercedes vehicle, counterfeits some diplomas or other signifiers of Elite status and achievement, and then goes to work conning his credulous marks." In "The Grand Game of Perception Management," by Charles Hugh Smith, Financial Sense, 16 February 2012
The prose of cons is flowery bright
And darkly shines throughout each night.
Believe me, friends, all will be well,
So place your cash on my carousel.
The prose and cons stand off, aloof,
Deflecting those who would seek proof.
Not wishing to be seen as one,
The pros pretend it's all just fun.
The prose and cons are slippery tricks,
Guiltless as the Bolsheviks,
And honest as the day is wrong,
So lilting is their siren's song.
The prose and cons seduce, accuse,
Badger, bluster and amuse.
Such words as open wallets wide
Are all the cons on every side.
The prose of cons is glistening bright
And shines with words of love and fright,
With one intent over other goals,
To chat up all their rigmaroles.
Would you see through twaddle? Trash?
Gibberish? Nonsense? Balderdash?
They think you won't; they think you can't,
And if you do then comes the rant.
Denier! Fool! Skeptic! Ass!
Racist! Sexist! Hardnosed! Crass!
The prose of con turns to its edge
To cut, to hammer with its sledge.
In the end with light enough,
The prose and cons receive rebuff.
Believe not in their siren call,
Thus prose and cons will ne'er enthrall.
See: Ponzi states
Naturally no one steals anything
"Naturally, no one is stealing anything. Like Ermanna Cossio, the youngest pensioner in the world who retired at the age of 29 on 94% of her final salary, the stenographers can say that they didn’t make the rules. Fair enough. But those rules enable Senate staff to quadruple their pay in real terms over their career, thanks to a ridiculous system of automatic increments. Today, the rules generate sky-high earnings at a time when the rest of the county is being asked to make big sacrifices." And "In the meantime, parliamentary staff who head for the door are being showered with gold. " In "Senate Stenographer Paid As Much As King of Spain, Stenographer’s €290,000 salary. Salaries quadruple by end of service. Clerks receive up to €160,000," by Sergio Rizzo and Gian Antonio Stella, Corriere della Sera, 4 gennaio 2012.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are only showered with gold.
Okay, that's all hyperbole,
But the showering is bold.
Naturally no one steals anything;
They are raking in by rules.
Okay, that's understandable,
Say bureaucrats to loyal fools.
Naturally no one steals anything;
Though they enjoy ridiculous perks.
Okay, that's the way the game is played,
And how such corruption works.
Addendum of Not Stealing by a 1%-er: "The superintendent of the Centinela Valley high school district negotiated a contract so loaded with out-of-the-ordinary perks that he managed to amass more than $663,000 in total compensation last year. Documents obtained by the Daily Breeze from the Los Angeles County Office of Education show that although Jose Fernandez had a base pay of $271,000 in the 2013 calendar year, his other benefits amounted to nearly $400,000. On top of that, the district just over a year ago provided Fernandez with a $910,000 loan at 2 percent interest to buy a house in affluent Ladera Heights. In "Centinela Valley schools chief amassed $663,000 in compensation in 2013," by Rob Kuznia, The Daily Breeze, 8 February 2014. [ 1 ]
Addendum of the High-Class Errand Boys: "To earn €136,000 ($181,590), a browse of the internet suggests, you need to be an IT operations director at a British firm, governor of New York state—or an usciere (usher) in the Italian parliament. An usciere’s duties include carrying messages, accompanying visitors and looking dignified in uniforms laden with gold braid. The sole occupational hazard is of a punch in the eye while intervening in the occasional brawl between lawmakers. Now, however, the uscieri face a second danger: a cut in their salaries." In "High-class errand boys," The Economist, 9 August 2014. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Civil Seizures by Police: "Cash seizures can be made under state or federal civil law. One of the primary ways police departments are able to seize money and share in the proceeds at the federal level is through a long-standing Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program known as Equitable Sharing. Asset forfeiture is an extraordinarily powerful law enforcement tool that allows the government to take cash and property without pressing criminal charges and then requires the owners to prove their possessions were legally acquired. The practice has been controversial since its inception at the height of the drug war more than three decades ago, and its abuses have been the subject of journalistic exposés and congressional hearings. But unexplored until now is the role of the federal government and the private police trainers in encouraging officers to target cash on the nation’s highways since 9/11. 'Those laws were meant to take a guy out for selling $1 million in cocaine or who was trying to launder large amounts of money,' said Mark Overton, the police chief in Bal Harbour, Fla., who once oversaw a federal drug task force in South Florida. 'It was never meant for a street cop to take a few thousand dollars from a driver by the side of the road'." In "Stop and seize," by Michael Sallah, Robert O’Harrow Jr., Steven Rich, Washington Post, 6 September 2014. [ 3 ]
Addendum of the Traffic Cop Bonanza: "Thirteen agency police officers received more in salary, overtime and other payments in that period than did Executive Director Patrick Foye, whose annual salary is $289,000. Most of the top overtime earners are police officers, including one who has been averaging an estimated 100 hours of work a week this year, including 60 hours of overtime. That is the equivalent of working more than 14 hours a day, seven days a week. The top 10 overtime earners are averaging an estimated 46 extra hours each week, a workload that experts say raises questions about efficiency and public safety, and is quite high even in a profession where significant overtime is routine." In "Overtime bonanza at Port Authority; 13 officers set to make more than agency’s director," by Abbott Koloff, North Jersey, 25 December 2014.
Addendum of Billion Dollar Connections: "Ever wonder how lowly paid lawmakers leave office filthy rich? Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing how it’s done. The US Postal Service plans to sell 56 buildings — so it can lease space more expensively — and the real estate company of the California senator’s husband, Richard Blum, is set to pocket about $1 billion in commissions. Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014." In "Senator’s husband stands to profit big from government deal," by Richard Johnson, New York Post, 16 January 2015. [ 4 ]
Addendum of New Jersey's Dipping: "...Gov. Chris Christie and the State Legislature have done little to halt the abuses that have profited well-connected Democrats and Republicans over the years. One of the bigger beneficiaries is Sen. Fred Madden, D-Washington, a triple-dipper who receives nearly a quarter-million dollars a year – $85,272 from his state police pension, $113,810 as dean of law and justice of Rowan College at Gloucester County and $49,000 as a part-time state legislator. 'Obviously I don’t have a problem with people doing it,'” Madden said in an interview with New Jersey Watchdog three years ago. 'I’ve accepted that in my own personal life. I don’t have a problem with it at all'." In "Three-fourths of NJ sheriffs double-dip, led by 25-year ‘retiree'," by Mark Lagerkvist, New Jersey Watchdog, 30 August 2015. [ 5 ]
Addendum of New Jersey Again: "Former Gov. Jim McGreevey has begun taking his state pension with a little help from Hudson County taxpayers, who will pay for his lifetime health benefits thanks to his recent four-month stint as a county attorney. The decision to allow McGreevey to work for the county for four months and then retire with lifetime benefits has the county's payroll officials livid, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, but county spokesman James Kennelly said the retirement package is worth it for Hudson County." In "Four months on Hudson County payroll gets Jim McGreevey lifetime benefits," by Terrence T. McDonald, Jersey Journal, 16 September 2015. [ 6 ]
Addendum of "Former" Congress Staffers: "Two aides to former House Speaker John Boehner are earning over $10,000 a month in his taxpayer-funded 'Office of the Former Speaker,' according to congressional records. Both longtime aides, Amy Lozupone received $26,414 for work done in November and December as Boehner's administrative assistant, and Michael Sommers was paid $22,185 during the same period." In "No longer speaker, but two Boehner aides being paid over $10,000 a month," by Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, 4 March 2016.
Addendum of New York's Fattened Port Authority: "The average salary of the Port Authority’s workforce exceeded $100,000 last year, fueled by sky-high overtime run up by the bistate agency’s police officers, a report released Tuesday reveals. One in 10 Port Authority cops — a total of 170 out of 1,649 — was paid more than $200,000, according to figures compiled by the Empire Center for Public Policy. Of the 36 workers making more than $250,000, 25 were cops. The OT champ at the agency was chief maintenance supervisor Stephen Olmo, who racked up $186,846 in extra pay to boost his total income to $325,880 — more than PA executive director Pat Foye’s $305,111. The highest-paid PA worker was real estate and development chief Michael Francois, who made $366,698." In "Port Authority salaries are so out of hand that the average worker makes $100K," by Carl Campanile and Danielle Furfaro, New York Post, 22 March 2016. [ 7 ]
Addendum of Dis-disability: "A retired police detective earning a whopping $90,000-a-year in tax free NYPD disability payments is working full-time as a security boss for the U.S. Army, the Daily News has learned. Anthony Hernandez, 43, of Staten Island, retired as a detective from the NYPD in January 2014 and began receiving $7,443.62 a month in coveted disability payments from the city, records show. Within a few months, the former general manager of the NYPD’s football team then began working as a security official at the sprawling Brooklyn military base in Fort Hamilton, making about $50,000 a year, records show." In "EXCLUSIVE: Ex-cop with alleged ‘back problems’ reaps $90G from disability pension, works full-time as U.S. Army security boss," by Graham Rayman, New York Daily News, 9 October 2016.
Addendum of Fat Cats in International Sports: " 'The evidence appears to reveal a coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves through annual salary increases, World Cup bonuses and other incentives totaling more than CHF 79 million ($79.7 million) – in just the last five years,' said Bill Burck, a partner with Quinn Emanuel, the U.S. law firm leading the investigation into corruption in FIFA." In "Investigators: Top FIFA officials split $80 million in bonuses," by SI Wire, Sports Illustrated, 3 June 2016.
Addendum of Income Inequality in Theocratic Iran: "...not just inflated salaries, but what appear to be bonuses, interest-free loans and significant overtime payments. In one instance, a bank manager at a state bank was shown to have received £50,000 in one month. By contrast, other public servants - including those who identified themselves as teachers, nurses and journalists - have published monthly payslips showing some of them are paid much more modest salaries of £300 a month or less." In "Iranians are angry about big bonuses paid to bureaucrats," BBC. 27 June 2016.
Addendum of Paid Naps: "PA spokesman Scott Ladd said the agency’s inspector general was investigating the allegations but refused to comment further. The abuses have 'gone on for years,' said a PATH employee who asked to remain anonymous. Besides sleeping, workers take long lunch breaks, watch TV and fiddle with their cellphones while piling up regular and overtime hours." In "Port Authority employees get paid overtime to nap on the job." by Susan Edelman, NY Post, 26 November 2016.
Addendum of Bonuses for Losing Money: "... big pay hikes and bonuses to executives and staffers last year while reporting a $38 million loss, new reports show. The taxpayer-funded nonprofit’s CEO, Jonathan Abbott, got an $85,000 bonus in the 2016 fiscal year, boosting his annual compensation to $624,930, according to tax reports filed with the state attorney general’s office. WGBH gave out a total of nearly $300,000 in bonuses to 10 employees, including Abbott, according to their financial reports." In "Salary hikes, bonuses abound at taxpayer-funded WGBH," by Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 30 June 2017.
Addendum of Planning for the Pension Check for Not Doing Much: "...Bookstaver explained that he didn’t need to show up 'because they took away all my responsibilities and left my pay.' At one point, he lamented having bragged about his ability to play hooky. 'They left me alone and look, I have a big mouth. I told people I’m not doing much. I do take a lot of time off,' he said. 'I kind of asked for it. You know, if you have a big mouth, you know it catches up with you.' Bookstaver, who’s planning to retire Oct. 1, also raised the possibility he could get fired 'because of a story in The Post,' but said it 'would probably affect my pension check by $6 a month'." In "Court 'big mouth' butt-dials reporter, admits he barely shows up for $166K job," by Rebecca Rosenberg and Bruce Golding, New York Post, 16 August 2017.
Addendum of Not Being Retired: "Most people have to wait until they're out of a job to begin collecting retirement benefits they accrued while working there. That's not the case for at least 13 part-time suburban county board members who are receiving as much as $82,124 in annual pension payouts from the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund for jobs in which they're still getting salaries of $21,000 to $43,018." In "How some county board members are already collecting public pensions," by Jake Griffin, Daily Herald, 17April 2019.
Addendum of Getting Sky-High Over Time: "Gov. Cuomo on Sunday voiced his harshest comments yet about workers at the MTA’s Long Island Rail Road who claimed they worked an outrageous number of hours to jack up their paychecks. 'This is about stealing. This is about fraud. This is about people saying they work and charging the taxpayers when they didn’t work. It’s stealing. It’s criminal,' the governor said during a news conference at his midtown Manhattan office. 'So this has nothing to do with overtime. It has to do with theft and fraud, and that’s criminal'." In " Cuomo: MTA workers’ sky-high overtime is theft," by Mark Moore, Reuven Fenton and Craig McCarthy, New York Post, 12 May 2019.
See: Corruption
NOTES
[ 1 ] "The median household income in the Centinela Valley high School District ranges from $33,000 to $49,000." In "CA School Superintendent Salary $660k+ in 2013," by William Bigelow, Breitbart, 10 February 2014.
Other school districts are assisting the creation of the wealthy class as well. One reads, "The number of teachers and administrators raking in six-figure annual pensions in New York state nearly tripled between 2009 and 2014, according to a new report. Data from the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based think tank, show that more than 4,800 school retirees were eligible to receive pensions of more than $100,000 in 2014, up from 1,600 in 2009. More than 4,100 retired educators received six-figure pensions in 2013, according to the data. Although most of the pension jackpot winners are from suburban school districts, a few come from within the five boroughs. That includes pension king Edgar McManus, 90, a retired Queens College history professor who took in $561,286 last year, and Madeleine Brennan, 88, who raked in $417,466 last year after 50 years as a principal in Brooklyn." In "Nearly 5,000 teachers cashing in on six-figure pensions," by Leonard Greene, New York Post, 12 February 2015.
[ 2 ] "In Italy, the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is 24,724 USD a year, more than the OECD average of 23,938 USD a year. But there is a considerable gap between the richest and poorest – the top 20% of the population earn close to six times as much as the bottom 20%." In "Italy," OECD Better Life Index, n. d.
Plenty of Room to Cut Bureaucracy
Of Italy's government, "Johns Hopkins University professor Steve Hanke argued recently that there was plenty of room for cuts in European bureaucracies. Italy was an outlier, paying senior government officials 12 times the national average salary, and will remain one now that Renzi has capped civil servants' salaries at $321,000, about 10 times the national average." In "European Austerity Is a Myth," by Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg, 19 August 2014.
Naturally no one steals anything, so alleges governments and their apologists. But one learns that cries of austerity from government spokesmen are whines, at best. One reads: "Only four European countries – Bulgaria, Ireland, Latvia, and Lithuania – have actually decreased both spending and revenue as a share of GDP since announcing the implementation of their respective austerity programs. This is real austerity, as cutbacks are shared between the public and private sectors. Meanwhile, nine countries pursued the exact opposite policy, increasing both spending and their tax burdens. This is no austerity in any reasonable sense of the term, as businesses and individuals already hemorrhaging from the recession face increased taxation from a government engorging itself at their expense." In "Beware the Myth of European Austerity," by Matthew Melchiorre, US News and World Report, 9 July 2013.
See Fat, fat government
[ 3 ] The Washington Post's reporting is noticed in other nations. One Canadian writes: "News outlets here have reported many such abuses over the years. But the Washington Post’s latest investigation exposes money-grabbing as big business. It involves a nationwide network of enforcement agencies (except in the few states that have banned it) that operates with the help of a vast private intelligence service called 'Black Asphalt' (police forces pay an enrolment fee of $19.95). The network uses consultants and trainers who either charge fees or operate on contingency, keeping a percentage of cash seized by their police pupils. Police forces use the money to finance their departmental budgets, sometimes spending it on luxury vehicles, first-class tickets to conferences, and lavish quarters. They regard the money as rightfully theirs. One prosecutor used seized cash to defend herself against a lawsuit brought by people whose cash she seized. It’s just human nature, really. Give police the legal ability to take someone’s money, and to claim it’s in the national interest, and then tell them they can keep a nice chunk of it, and what other result could there be?" In "American shakedown: Police won't charge you, but they'll grab your money," by Neil Macdonald, Canadian Broadcasting, 11 September 2014.
Money Grab
Power is easily corrupted, thinkers have often noted. "Giving government the power to seize property at will based on mere suspicions of criminality opens the door to corruption and abuse of power. Incentivizing law enforcement to fund itself off the backs of low-income motorists, most of whom lack the means of fighting back, without hard evidence of criminal activity is no way to run our justice system. These are principles that we should all be able to agree on." In "End Policing for Profit," by Scott Bullock and Vanita Gupta, Huffington Post, 12 June 2014.
The American Civil Liberties Union notes that such uncivil "civil" forfeiture is an economic incentive to abuse: "Under civil asset forfeiture laws, police can take people's money and property without making an arrest. They just have to suspect the assets are tied in some way to illicit activity. Since much of the money police seize ends up paying their own salaries and bankrolling their departments, they have a strong incentive to abuse these laws. Some states are working to stop this type of abuse. But even when state laws are strict, police often take people’s money and property under federal law and keep on pocketing forfeiture money. Because of a loophole called “equitable sharing,” state cops can seize property under federal law and keep up to 80% of the proceeds. This loophole isn’t right. When states decide to stop policing for profit, state cops should have to obey their laws." In "Policing shouldn't be for profit," American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.
But as to the federal government itself, one also reads: "Churning has become the self-help solution for some federal agencies. The most recent example of this trend was highlighted by an investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Justice Department's inspector general found that the ATF conducted dozens of unauthorized undercover investigations into illicit cigarette sales and lost track of 420 million cigarettes worth $127 million. The investigation concluded that the ATF was engaging in churning operations designed to fund its operations and misused $162 million in profits." In "Police addicted to drug money," by Jonathan Turley, USA Today, 30 October 2013.
Cash for Freedom?
Sadly one learns of the uncivil pressures placed on the poorer citizens. "Most infamously, police in Tenaha seized over $3 million from hundreds of drivers and even made “cash-for-freedom deals” with drivers. As The New Yorker reported last August, drivers 'would go to jail and their children would be handed over to foster care. Or they could sign over their cash to the city of Tenaha, and get back on the road.' 'The Texas criminal justice system wages war on the politically powerless and the poor are just grist for the mill,' remarked Robert Guest, a former prosecutor in Texas and now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)." In "Cops In Texas Seize Millions By 'Policing for Profit'," by Nick Sibilla, Forbes, 5 June 2014.
Using the rationale that "naturally no one in government steals anything," such uncivil "civil forfeiture" has become another hallmark of government at all levels, when simply hungry for more funds.
One learns that "civil forfeiture" is uncivil though legal for the moment, an incentive for abuse, and said to be profitable. But only for those who "seize." This mirrors the whole notion of extortion via a form of protection in which the "protected" are extorted under the threat of even greater extortion. This has been understood for a long time, as the state has been encouraged to free itself from such protectionist strategies, which Macdonald calls "human nature."
Confine the State to Proper Limits
One reads: "We would see the state confine itself within its proper limits, which is, to secure to each the exercise of his faculties, and the free disposition of his possessions. We would see it free itself at once, both from its present vast but unlawful functions, and from the frightful responsibility which attaches to them. It would confine itself to restraining the abuses of liberty, which is to realize liberty itself! It would secure justice to all, and would no longer promise prosperity to any one. Men would learn to distinguish between what is reasonable, and what is puerile to ask from the government. They would no longer overwhelm it with claims and complaints; no longer lay their misfortunes at its door, or make it responsible for their chimerical hopes; and, in this keen pursuit of a prosperity, of which it is not the dispenser, they would no longer be seen, at each disappointment, to accuse the legislature and the law, to change their rulers and the forms of government, heaping institution upon institution, and ruin upon ruin. They would witness the extinction of that universal fever for mutual robbery, by the costly and perilous intervention of the state. The government, limited in its aim and responsibility, simple in its action, economical, not imposing on the governed the expense of their own chains, and sustained by sound public opinion, would have a solidity which, in our country, has never been its portion; and we would at last have solved this great problem—To close for ever the gulf of revolution." In "Protection and Communism," Frederic Bastiat (1859).
This is the kernel of truth as regards policing for profit, that those targeted provide the "expense of their own chains." This truth applies to all levels of government, as one finds government hungry for funds and justifying confiscation to get such money. Civil forfeiture is simply uncivil, even if politicians and some Department of Justice declares it otherwise.
[ 4 ] When "no one steals anything," and yet the seeming corruption and egregious moral smudging is condoned by politics as by major media such that this is not important news, one understands that the rich and powerful gleefully ask the average Joe to Pass the foie gras
From Ermanna Cossio to Jose Fernandez to Richard Blum, one sees that "naturally no one steals anything" because they no longer have to, because plunder of society was legal under the feudal lords and remains legal under the so-called democrats, irrespective of their party names. Thus one may clearly discern the real purpose of modern Politics
It is a helluva party made up of partiers in parties partying, the party favors worth millions all across the spectrum. Most of the world is not invited.
[ 5 ] When approximately $200,000 per year marks an American as in or above the 95th percentile in riches, the notion that defined-benefit public pensions around the country are creating wealthy Americans by taxing the public should be a scandal, in light of the political notion of Income Inequality
A Dean Among Double-Dippers
The article tells of one wealthy public servant: "A dean among double-dippers, he draws $207,289 a year from public coffers – $144,896 in salary plus $62,393 from pension as a retiree of his own office. Today is the 25th anniversary of Fontoura’s faux retirement. So far, he has collected $1.35 million in retirement cash without ever giving up his full-time county paycheck. On Friday, Aug. 31, 1990, Fontoura retired as county undersheriff at age 47. The following Monday, he returned to work at Essex County with the same salary and duties, but a different title – sheriff’s officer chief. One year later, he took charge as sheriff, a post he’s held ever since. 'Does it look bad? Yes,' admitted Fontoura. 'No question about it, it looks bad. Was it legal? Yes'."
[ 6 ] The circle keeps closing, as we connect the dots
[ 7 ] Given that fattened government features so many types of employment, one can survey some academic fat cats ruling the fiefdom of "social justice" education, such as remarkably well-paid faculty and administrators running the schemes beggaring students and public treasuries by which a Doctor Oppression comes to call
Multiplying examples from various government entities across the many states, one may be assured that "naturally no one steals anything" everywhere and often.
a circle's a square,
as your spoon is a fork,
and more debt surely solves
political pork
yup is sure nope,
and why asks how
while most of the world
is having a cow
a square is a circle,
a fork is a spoon,
and the cow surely never
jumped over the moon,
and debt hasn't solved
one crisis of debt,
as stupid plays smartin its solo duet
See: Debt
"Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure. The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found 'millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.'" In "Feds find failures in Cook Co. homeland security project," by Carol Marin and Don Moseley, Chicago Sun-Times, 8 January 2012.
Let us feign surprise again;
More waste is found. Hooray! Amen!
That government would waste is true;
Who does not think this? Is it you?
Government defines most waste,
And spends and spends and spends in haste.
All the prattle, the rhetorical bull
Is meant to make government coffers full,
That they be emptied double quick,
To show them acting politic.
Come to hear there's waste? Ah then
Let's all feign surprise again.
See: Mandate waste
I need no boots for me to lick,
and need no cures that make me sick.
I need no guru to guide my path,
and need no banker to take a bath.
I need no counsel to rob me blind,
and need no posture pre-assigned.
I need no one who rules over me,
and need no bar to my liberty.
The boots which demand that I hobnail lick,
and cures which serve to make me sick,
The gurus demands' to guide my way?
Such as these I disobey.
I need no counsel to stay my course,
no more than I need a charley-horse.
I need no rulers to measure me,
But need them all to leave me be.
Envoi: "And because a man is a man, / we won't tolerate a boot in his face! / He will not come to be seen as a slave / nor have a master over him." Translation of a song lyric by Berthold Brecht (1898-1956) in a circa 1920 song set to music by Hanns Eisler, titled, "Die Einheitsfront."
Addendum: "I am sure there was no man born marked of God above another for none comes into the world with a saddle upon his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him." Last words of Richard Rumbold before being hanged for planning an insurrection against Charles II, 1679, the speech being referred to often in discussions about defining treason, during the American Constitutional Convention of 1787.
See: Leave me be
"People are less dissatisfied by what they lack than by what others have. And when government engages in redistribution in order to maximize the happiness of citizens who become more envious as they become more comfortable, government becomes increasingly frenzied and futile." In "Government: The redistributionist behemoth," by George Will, The Washington Post, 7 January 2012.
You got it; I want it.
I'll get from you.
You got it; I'm envious
Quite through and through.
You got it; I'll have it.
I'll wrench it from you.
Coercion is justice,
And debt revenue.
You got it; I'll take it
By law as by force.
You dare not resist
Or you're beaten, of course.
You got it; I'll have it.
At least you will not.
If all is a loss,
Well, that's what you've wrought.
You've had it; resentment
Filled me with ills.
And for this my actions
Are justified kills.
See: Gimme
Red is a game, much like Green
"Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue." In "China Communist Party bureaucrats like their cars high end," by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, 8 January 2012. [ 1 ]
Some Reds, it seems, are millionaires;
Some Greens do very fine.
Bentleys in a lovely blue
Among the poor can shine.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen.
Some Reds, it seems, have needs
Quite like unto some Greens,
While the poorest classes serve,
Slaving for philistines.Red's been a game, much like Green.
Its openness is byzantine.
Chinese Red games, much like Jolly Green,
Where social justice lies
Like words which lie on lips
As the elite aggrandize.Red is a game, much like Green.
It rewards the few with a fine limousine.
Some Reds, we learn, are billionaires;
Some Greens pursue the same.
And why, one asks politely,
Play Red and Green this game?Red is that game, much like Green.
It waddles fat, among great hunger mean.
Bentley has an answer,
In chocolate as in blue.
Reds and Greens will often
Others clearly screw.Red was a game, much like Green.
Its outcomes were truly all foreseen.
LoaGai contain the riff-raff
Who never will ride fine.
Red gulags hold the poorest,
So the wealthy bright may shine.Red is a game, much like Green,
Such games only freedoms contravene.
Communism has its panda face
Which bears a grin at times.
Such smiling happy leaders
May beam through all their crimes.
Socialism shows its caring side
While piling debt on debt,
But shifting sands and angry hands
Are rising as a threat.
The threat? It is to Bentleys
Of blue or chocolate hue,
For such things tyrannies
Must have by robbing -- you.Red is a game, much like Green.
It is the blind which have not seen. [ 2 ]
Addendum of Thugs at the Trough: "...Green Climate Fund a 'slush fund' for the world’s dictators, and he’s exactly right because Mugabe won’t be the only one to dip into the treasure that was made just for them. One by one and in groups, they will come with their demands, and they will leave with their hands full. The productive citizens in advanced nations will be poorer, and so will the poor souls who live under the tyrants’ boots. Only the malevolent leaders and those in their elite circles will be better off." In "Mugabe First To U.N. Trough In Global Warming Shakedown," Editorial Board, Investors, 16 February 2016. [ 3 ]
Addendum of the Green Game: "Congressional investigators have obtained an internal audit from George Mason University that suggests that one of its professors—a major proponent of man-made climate change—mismanaged millions of dollars in taxpayer money by 'double dipping' in violation of university policy. The professor, Jagadish Shukla, received $511,410 in combined compensation from George Mason University and his own taxpayer-funded climate change research center in 2014 alone, without receiving required permission from university officials, the audit found." In "House Probe Reveals Audit Detailing Climate Change Researcher’s 'Double Dipping'," by Kevin Mooney, Daily Signal, 2 March 2016. [ 4 ]
See: Capital for Communists
NOTES
[ 1 ] One reads: "The number of millionaires is now 1.05 million, 3% up on the previous year’s figure (1.02 million) – the slowest increase in five years. Beijing remained in first place with 184,000 millionaires, and the first nine cities in the rankings remained unchanged. However, Tianjin rose to tenth place, with 19,000 millionaires, up 11% from the previous year, the fastest rise of any city. Tianjin’s total GDP last year was almost 1.3 trillion RMB, a price-comparable increase of 13.8%, one of the fastest growth rates in the country and a clear sign of the boost given to the local economy by the Tianjin Binhai New Area." In "The Millionaire Class," Hurun Report, The GroupM Knowledge – Hurun Wealth Report 2013.
[ 2 ] It is amusing to compare hard news of "wealth" in Communist China with the Western Marxists who fail to see the irony in "capital for communists" as with the huge amassing of wealth by key "green" advocates, as by "socialists."
Failure of What, Where and When?
One reads: "Though the report never puts it this way, one interpretation of the data is that inequality naturally grows from unfettered capitalism. Marxists won't be surprised, but the report should be disturbing for centrists who believe both in free markets and social equality. If free-market capitalism works so well for every income level, why have so many people seen income pass them by with capitalism working more efficiently than ever before?" In "Income Inequality Around the World Is a Failure of Capitalism," by Kentaro Toyama, The Atlantic, 13 May 2011.
The logic in such a political outlook is remarkable, for given the reports of Chinese Communist billionaires one should be consistent and observe that "income inequality around the world is a failure of Communism too." For the editorial writer of the Atlantic should more wisely conclude that "Marxists won't be surprised" because any dictatorship of the proletariat has repeatedly been used to create income inequality, from the now-collapsed USSR, to today's billionaire-spawning China, to the privileges afforded wealth -- capital -- to socialist leaders everywhere who live far above the "average" income and average man they purport to nurture.
This would then require a greater insight into the role of government -- any government in the world -- into income disparity than today's Western Marxists have as yet shown. Please see: Income Inequality
[ 3 ] The assertion of "malevolent leaders" and "elite circles" rings true for Mugabe and his Zanu PF Marxist circle.
Another Millionaire Marxist
One learns that the Marxist president presiding over an impoverished nation is indeed rich. "It's been a rough year for the political figure, but at least he has his millions of dollars to ease the pain. 91-year-old Robert Mugabe has taken the No. 1 spot on People With Money’s top 10 highest-paid political figures for 2016 with an estimated $46 million in combined earnings." In "Robert Mugabe Highest-Paid Political figure in the World," by Carol Kearney, Media Mass, 17 February 2016.
The wealth is spread around the elite of his party. One learns: "Though Zimbabweans are aware that some prominent members of the ruling Zanu PF party have grown very rich since independence in 1980, it is unusual for the details of these fortunes to be exposed. The economy teetered on the verge of collapse for several years before picking up recently, though the World Food Programme is still seeking funding to feed about two million people." In "Robert Mugabe's cousin worth £180 million claims wife in Zimbabwe divorce case," by Peta Thornycroft. Telegraph UK, 4 December 2013.
Thus one finds the World Food Programme is both attempting to alleviate hunger in Zimbabwe while furthering the wealth accumulation of the "ruling elite," because hunger like climate change have become pawns in the game of "malevolent leaders."
How poor are the people of Zimbabwe ruled by such a wealthy elite? "The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports that in 2001 Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP) was estimated at $28 billion. The per capita GDP was estimated at $2,450. The annual growth rate of GDP was estimated at -6.5%." In "Zimbabwe - Income," Nations Encyclopedia, n. d.
Additionally, while the majority of Zimbabweans are poor, they also suffer unemployment at an estimated 95%, according to the CIA Fact Book (2009).
$2,450 < $46,000,000
With this arithmetic clarity, one finds the Investors' editorial factually incorrect. It reads: "Zimbabwe tyrant Robert Mugabe is asking the United Nations for $1.5 billion a year to feed his people, who he says are hungry due to global warming. The looting begins."
What the editorial should have concluded was that "the looting continues."
To Redistribute Wealth by Other Means
In further assessing the red-green game one finds admission that this is the green goal. One reads: "...listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer: 'One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,' said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015. So what is the goal of environmental policy? 'We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,' said Edenhofer." In "Another Climate Alarmist Admits Real Motive Behind Warming Scare," Investors Business Daily Editorial, 29 March 2016.
One may compare this "world's wealth" mechanism -- one consistently abused as world's socialist elite skim off wealth for themselves -- with overt, fascistic statements which are so often a part of The Privileges of Intellectuals
Edenhoffer, like other climate change advocates who are in fact anti-capitalists, condemns those who would disagree with his intellectual superiority. One reads: "... some perspectives cannot be tolerated. 'Denying out-and-out that climate change is a problem to humanity, as some cynics do, is an unethical, unacceptable position'." In "Getting hundreds of experts to agree is never easy, Ottmar edenhofer takes a firm, philosophical approach to the task," by Quirin Schiermeier, Nature, September 2013.
His particular "firm, philosophical approach" in his words is "We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy." Opposition to this redistribution cannot be tolerated, say the public's betters. The details in the footnote below demonstrate how such "redistribution" sometimes works.
[ 4 ] One finds "a major proponent of man-made climate change" ascending to the one-percent economic class by raking in "$511,410 in combined compensation from George Mason University and his own taxpayer-funded climate change research center in 2014 alone." Such is one way that Income Inequality
Double-Dipping Again
One finds that this professor sought racketeering investigations from the federal government against "deniers" all the while he did not deny himself the "one-percenter" income funded by the public. "Shukla’s name appears first among 20 signers of a letter to Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking them to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, to investigate corporations and other groups skeptical of man-made global warming, also known as climate change. The audit by Shukla’s employer, George Mason University, suggests that the professor misused tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding by 'double dipping'” in federal and state funds in violation of university policy." In "Science Agency Eyes Climate Change Professor’s Use of Millions From Taxpayers," by Kevin Mooney, Daily Signal, 23 March 2016.
Of Skukla's non-profit entity, the article noted: "IGES has apparently received $63 million from taxpayer-funded grants since 2001, comprising over 98 percent of its total revenue. These grants were awarded by the [National Science Foundation], the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Since 2001, as president of IGES, Dr. Shukla appears to have paid himself and his wife a total of $5.6 million in compensation–an excessive amount for a nonprofit relying on taxpayer money. This information raises serious questions about Dr. Shukla’s financial management of IGES."It stands to reason that someone funded by public funds to this degree would reach out under the color of law to silence his critics. Serious questions? Indeed, especially when one examines the far larger picture in which academic and government elites seem to so easily "redistribute" wealth to their own personal use. One may link this to endemic political Corruption
Green is a game, much like red, as red is a game much like green, and atop the heap are those eager to redistribute wealth through their own sometimes very sticky fingers.
One might survey other academic fat cats -- of which there are many funded by the "public" taxation -- as the ever-popular and mightily-excused Doctor Oppression comes to call
"He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a 'Bugs Bunny' signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it." In "Judge rules for Walker campaign in case against state election officials," by Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel, 5 January, 2012.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Well, some would have it so.
It's a matter of procedures,
They'd like to have you know.
Donald Duck's ballot?
Someone quacked is there,
To say that it's procedural
And so a fake is fair.
Hitler's signature?
But defend it, so some did.
It seems such loony tunes
One must now not forbid.
Bugs Bunny votes?
Who argues for this view?
Politics now is cartoon land
Where sanity's askew.See: Never forget
"There are eleven things which are impure: urine, excrement, sperm, bones, blood, dogs, pigs, non-Muslim men and women, wine, beer and the sweat of the excrement-eating camel. The urine and feces of man and any animal whose bloods spurts when a vein or artery of its body is opened are impure. But flyspecks or the droppings of mosquitoes or others small insects whose blood does not gush are pure." In "The Little Green Book, Selected Fatwahs and Sayings of the Ayatollah Mosavi Khomeini," translated into English by Harold Salemson, Bantam Books, 1985.
Purely pure purity, one reads in strange evidence,
Makes for purely purity in insects' droppings; thence
When those who'd puree purely such insect excrements,
I'd decline to dine on insect dung -- their spices and their scents.
But then again such sayings say I am unclean, impure,
So I'd not be invited anyway by such a bearded epicure.
But then he's rotten in the way of spoiled fleshly things,
And left us his droppings in a book about such seasonings.
See: Islamophobia
"Where would you rather live: Congo, Algeria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Myanmar; or HK, Singapore, NZ, Switzerland, UK, US, Australia, Canada, Ireland or Luxembourg? If you favour the second set of countries - because you imagine, rightly, that they enjoy a much higher level of income and personal freedom - you might also be interested to know that they all benefit from a high level of what this book's contributors call 'economic freedom'; that is, the rule of law, private ownership, personal choice, voluntary exchange and free entry into markets. The first lot, by contrast, are at the bottom of the 'economic freedom' index." In "Making poor nations rich," a book review of "A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures, Princeton University Press, 2000," by Elisa Nay, published by Nth Position.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But, what is that you say?
In order that others might have theirs,
You need erode mine away?
Okay, you really mean only
Degree by step by cause,
But still it's freedom eroded,
And that should give us pause.
Freedom is freedom is freedom,
But the brightest and the best
Say and vow and argue
That freedom should be finessed
Into less and less of freedom
As chains grow link by link.
Some proclaim this progress,
Pushing freedom to the brink
Of that which is no longer free
And best known as plain slavery.
Envoi: "People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take." Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Addendum from an Outspoken Voice: "A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims." Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Addendum from another Outspoken Voice: "The democratic principle, enunciated in the words of the Declaration of Independence, declared that government was secondary, that the people who established it were primary. Thus, the future of democracy depended on the people, and their growing consciousness of what was the decent way to relate to their fellow human beings ail over the world." The final thoughts in "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn, Harper-Collins, 1980, p. 682. [ 1 ]
Addendum of a Clear Statement: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.' Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Addendum from Mother Teresa: "Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." In "Teresa of Calcutta," "Notable and Quotable," Wall Street Journal, 25 February 1994.
Addendum from a Pedagogue: "The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to eject this image and replace it with autonomy and responsibility. Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion." In "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," Paolo Freire (1970)
Addendum fo Serving, not Ruling: "Money and other political and economic means must serve, not rule, bearing in mind that, in a seemingly paradoxical way, free and disinterested solidarity is the key to the smooth functioning of the global economy." In "Pope to G8: Money, politics and economics must serve, not rule," Vatican Radio, 16 June 2013.
Addendum of the Difficulty of Freedom: "It is harder, Montesquieu has written, to release a nation from servitude than to enslave a free nation. This truth is proven by the annals of all times, which reveal that most free nations have been put under the yoke, but very few enslaved nations have recovered their liberty." In " A Letter by Simón Bolívar," otherwise known as "Reply of a South American to a Gentleman of this Island,: Kingston, Jamaica, 6 September 1815. Translated by Lewis Bertrand in "Selected Writings of Bolivar," (New York: The Colonial Press Inc.,1951).
Addendum of Freedom from the European Union: " 'I voted for Brexit ... what it is with me, I'd rather be a poor master than a rich servant. It wasn't about the racism, immigrants or anything, it was about freedom'." In "Sir Michael Caine: Brexit 'was about freedom'," by Katie Spencer, Sky News, 6 April 2017.
Addendum of the World: "'I Smashed The Treadmill But The Golems Repaired It. Why? And I Let The Animals Go But They Just Milled Around Stupidly. Some Of Them Even Went Back To The Slaughter Pens. Why?" / 'Welcome to the world, Constable Dorfl.' / 'Is It Frightening To Be Free?' / 'You said it.'" Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay (1996), pp. 406. [ 2 ]
Addendum of the Fascist Strategy of Shutting It Down: "Armed with a megaphone and raised fists, the protesters shouted about the university’s rising tuition, a perceived corporatization of public higher education and my support for free speech on campus — a stance they said perpetuated 'fascism and white supremacy.' I have nothing against protest. It is a time-honored form of communicating dissent. Often, the concerns students express very much deserve to be addressed. But the tactic of silencing, which has been deployed repeatedly at universities around the country, only hurts these activists’ cause. Rather than helping people who feel they have little power or voice, students who squelch speech alienate those who are most likely to be sympathetic to their message." In "The Misguided Student Crusade Against 'Fascism'," by Michael H. Schill, New York Times, 23 October 2017. [ 3 ]
See: It's lovely to learn a new sterling phrase
NOTES
[ 1 ] The notion of quoting Ayn Rand and Howard Zinn together is amusing, as today's professional Left cheers Zinn while disparaging Rand, while the professional Right cheers Rand while disparaging Zinn. I hold that statements by both illuminate one another.
A Consistent Realization
As with poets like Mühsam and activists like Goldman of a century ago, there has been a consistent realization that society and the state are different entities, all too often in opposition, one to the other.
Socialism in all its forms is a political philosophy of government, usually viewed through the lenses of Marx and historical determinism. Capitalism has been proposed throughout the later 20th century by socialists as its polar opposite. If an opposite, then one might well conclude it was a political philosophy against government, but this would be fallacious. Capital does not easily fall into an "ism," any more than social falls into its now mythic "ism."
Socialism's opposite is freedom, while its sister political philosophies have been the "divine right of kings" and other ruling class justifications. Capitalism's supposed opposite is the state control of economic behaviors, not society's. Society may exist with a minimum of government, but when a pervasive and demanding government feeds mightily off of the society about which at times it pretends to care, society is not strengthened but rather weakened.
Government and society are indeed different entities; many of the rhymes I have written and many of the news sources I have quoted from across the political spectrum of Right to Left demonstrate this, from the lies of government to the overreach of government to, ultimately, the brutality of government. Society when distanced from government generally is about individuals acting in a free manner, doing as they will, making buying and consuming choices as they will. Some choices are good, and some catastrophic. But they are free choices.
People and Their Rights
Even so, Rand says correctly that "government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights," and Zinn correctly concludes in his history that "government was secondary, that the people who established it were primary." This is the summary of both their themes and theses, which highlight society over government.
Consider the mandates which proponents of various forms of socialism always assert in the rhyme: So shall ism
Less "so shall ism" means more freedom for society.
[ 2 ] Mahatma Gandhi states without ambiguity: "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." The modern government of the 20th century has busied itself with posturing about protecting the individual from poor choices, from National Socialism to Soviet Socialism to Sino-Socialism as to small examples like Jonestown and an "apostolic socialism," to today's European Union and the current United States administration. For this, society must be lessened that the "caring" of such government be "enhanced." And thereby is liberty diminished, again and again in modern history.
See: I don't care
[ 3 ] That individuals and crowds act to "shut down" an event -- so often a speech or public appearance -- is not anti-fascist. Rather it is fascist, camouflaged as its opposite.
One only need review the documented Italian Fascist stance of Everything within
To shut down a college employee's speech based on the assumption, as noted above, 'fascism and white supremacy," is to simply alter the way the message was given. In this case that message was delivered in an online version of that which was "shut down." The assertion that students felt "no longer safe" on a campus in Oregon is a fiction constructed to heighten the notion of student as victim, aggrieved and unsafe. The individualist response to such a student is to suggest they attend some other academic institution in which they may feel more "safe" or less aggrieved. They are free to do so. That they do not is also an expression of their freedom, a fact which escapes their passions.
Shut It Down as Power Strategy Against Power
In a similar "shut it down" event, one reads of the public greatly inconvenienced by such passion predicated on grievance. " 'The lives of people of color, young black men of color, young women of color, poor people — they are not respected and valued by the NYPD,' said Josmar Truillo, of New Yorkers Against Bratton. He pointed to the police-involved deaths in 1994 of Nicholas Heyward Jr. and Anthony Baez as proof that nothing has changed over the last 20 years. Heyward, an unarmed black teenager, was killed in a public housing project stairwell, just like Gurley. Baez died after being put into a chokehold, just like Garner. 'Connecting the dots between Brooklyn, Staten island and Ferguson is exactly what the mayor of this city does not want us to do and that’s something we must make sure happens,' Trujillo said, noting that Mayor Bill de Blasio only last week said that Gurley’s death appeared to be an 'accident,' and shouldn’t be compared to other instances of alleged police brutality." In "Protesters Shut Down Three New York City Bridges In Reaction To Ferguson Decision," by Carly Schwartz and Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post, 25 November 2014.
Though elections and the politics underlying as well as civil litigation are meant to be remedies for the "oppressed," the more visible "shut it down" game stokes and rewards the sense of "doing something," even though most often counterproductive. This is the stance of shutting down political dialogue of all sorts in favor of bringing a speech or the entire flow of traffic in a major metropolitan area to a standstill. And as such, it is neither democratic, civil nor freeing. It is fascist, as the demand that all accede to "protestors' demands" is the politics of attempting to apply totalitarian force, even if fleeting.
On The Window of Discourse
Theory sees this, in part, as manipulation of the so-called Overton Window, in which discourse is broadened or narrowed. One reads: "The Overton window, also known as the window of discourse, is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse. The term is derived from its originator, Joseph P. Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, who in his description of his window claimed that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within the window, rather than on politicians' individual preferences. According to Overton's description, his window includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office." In "Overton Window," Wikipedia, n. d.
Unthinkable / Radical / Acceptable / Sensible / Popular / Policy / Popular / Sensible / Acceptable / Radical /Unthinkable
From "less free" on on side to "more free" on the opposite side, the window as a visual metaphor identifies a possible range of views. Ideally within intellectual discourse the window should be wide enough to allow for investigation into divergent views.
In the case of "shutting it down," that window is narrowed, perhaps even to the point of collapsing it, such that only one view is allowed. This is the stance of the totalitarian. Mussolini's notion of "everything within" hegemonic state power is a textbook definition of fascism. Those other "isms" which demand that a populace be dictated to, from National Socialism to Soviet Socialism to Sino-socialism and more, all have portrayed themselves as "liberating" and yet they consistently collapse the window such that dialogue and dissent are minimized and freedoms eroded.
This is the deep irony of today's postmodern "shut it down" activist who would cut off discourse, and apply their "power" to quash some other "power," thereby mimicking that which is supposedly hegemonic. The clearer and more civil path through disagreements is debate, dialogue and that dialectic which can take in new ideas, newly understood and interdentally tested data and deal with all in a more free social fabric.
This is also the deep irony that political opponents become so seemingly polarized, both becoming radical in the eyes of the opposite, the "other," the one "oppressed" raging against another "oppressed." No longer even "acceptable" one to the other, the opposites abandon civility. That being rejected, one finds the "oppressed" of a generally free West becoming quite like Hector Bullhorn
And this is why many in Western academia in this moment in time adopt a stance of the knowledgeable and supposedly "independent" adjudicator as they play out the often partisan but very lucrative game, as Doctor Oppression comes to call
The Wikipedia article on the "Overton Window" sensibly included the following: "In his 'West India Emancipation' speech at Canandaigua, New York, in 1857, abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass described how public opinion limits the ability of those in power to act with impunity: Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress'."
All that is needed then to identify tyrants is to test yourself as well as the tyrant. To what measure will each of us as individual "quietly submit?" Those requiring such that others be "quiet" -- "shut it down" -- self-identify as tyrants, small as well as large. Where the Overton Window is collapsed, tyranny, large and small, demands that any "acceptable level of discourse" be silenced.
"If it is once accepted that people have the right to kill 'unproductive' fellow humans--and even if initially it only affects the poor defenseless mentally ill--then as a matter of principle murder is permitted for all unproductive people, in other words for the incurably sick, the people who have become invalids through labor and war, for us all when we become old, frail and therefore unproductive. Then, it is only necessary for some secret edict to order that the method developed for the mentally ill should be extended to other 'unproductive' people, that it should be applied to those suffering from incurable lung disease, to the elderly who are frail or invalids, to the severely disabled soldiers. Then none of our lives will be safe any more. Some commission can put us on the list of the 'unproductive,' who in their opinion have become worthless life." From the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral.
Übermensch and Untermensch
Might sound so very German,
Though Fabian Socialists, Shaw for one,
Did with English words determine
That folks like him and others bright
Should query plainly men,
That they justify to them their lives
Or be snuffed right there and then.
Un-man is a vision dark
Allowing some to kill,
And this is championed round the world
In subtle words and shrill.
Unproductive? Aren't you just?
Then you, man, fetus, frail,
Are ripe for picking, plucking, plain
Discarded by the hale.
Worthless life, so says some judge,
May be discarded quick.
The quick then soon become the dead,
And history repeats its sick
Sad story, told too well
Of culling herds of men
Which some determine have no worth
As the saga starts again.
Übermensch and Untermensch
Tripped off philosophers' lips
And fell into usage, common, mean,
And led to dictatorships.
A courageous Clemens' courageous stance
Spoke out in dangerous times,
Lest we forget and never learn
Of evil's paradigms.See: In a kindly manner
He's the bride at every wedding,
So well groomed is this best man;
He plays his roles bright blithely
As if it were not a plan.
He acts the corpse at every wake,
As he lies and lies in state;
He's the star of every story,
Himself to accentuate.
He's the hero, he's the savior,
Above you many he's the one.
He's the one that he's waited for,
And shines as moon and sun.
He's archenemy of evil
And advocate of your good;
For all your snares and errors
He must rule your neighborhood.
He's the top dog of his pack,
And the headline when you wake.
He's Dear Leader in all tongues
And he serves for his own sake.
He's the judge at every trial,
Retribution for all wrongs.
He's a jury and executioner,
Who loves adoring throngs.
He's right: it must be you
Who is in the wrong this day,
And by his right, your wrong
Must be made to pay.
To pay for all the weddings,
The trials and the plays,
The mourning and adorning,
Requires payments many ways.
You Toil - words of Abraham Lincoln
"It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, 'You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." Abraham Lincoln, in the Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, at Alton, Illinois (15 October 1858). [ 1 ]
You toil, you dreary little ant;
I, grasshopper, shall fiddle.
I'll protest, march and chant
This tyrannical little riddle.
Who'll toil and work and earn the bread
That I feed off such labor?
Is that not right that I be fed?
Aren't we each the other's neighbor?
Labor on and store up fruits
That I might have of yours;
Who makes, who takes are both pursuits,
In supplying the omnivores.
You toil and work for both of us,
For this is how I feed.
Such is the system; it's a plus
For me, I say! Indeed!
Now toil, you dreary little ant;
I, grasshopper, shall trifle.
I'll politic to get my grant
To through your gleanings rifle.
You'll toil and work and earn the bread
That I feed off such labor.
Is it not right that I be fed?
Asserts the greedy neighbor. [ 2 ]
NOTES
[ 1 ] One finds this sentiment in several, disparate sources:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even asunto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many becalled, but few chosen." From Matthew 20:1–16, King James Version, as quoted in Wikipedia, "Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard."
The often-edited Wikipedia purports to contrast this with other quotes or offer interpretations. Whatever interpretation a theologian or political scientist wants to make, the answer is that the value of the same "coin" paid for a complete day's work in the first, a half-day's wage in the second, and a partial day's in a third. That is the storytelling element, plain and simple.
"If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." (Second Epistle of Paul, II Thessalonians 3:10) as cited in Wikipedia, "He who does not work, neither shall he eat."
The article mentions in parallel: "The socialist principle, 'He who does not work shall not eat', is already realized; the other socialist principle, 'An equal amount of products for an equal amount of labor', is also already realized. But this is not yet communism, and it does not yet abolish 'bourgeois law', which gives unequal individuals, in return for unequal (really unequal) amounts of labor, equal amounts of products." Note herein that the distinction between labor and products, through some mechanism to be equated in value.
The article continues, "This is a 'defect', says Marx, but it is unavoidable in the first phase of communism; for if we are not to indulge in utopianism, we must not think that having overthrown capitalism people will at once learn to work for society without any rules of law. (Chapter 5, Section 3, “The First Phase of Communist Society” in The State and Revolution, 1917)."
[ 2 ] "Asserts the greedy neighbor?" Might one as well write, "Asserts the needy neighbor?" It becomes a question of words and their definitions, especially hidden and assumed meanings, as much as of public policy and personal philosophy. Is the seriously poor substance abuser who seeks financial support "needy" or "greedy" to take from others what he might provide for himself, were he not incapable of work by reason of substance abuse of doing so? What is the work component in "welfare," as various government programs from Britain's Labour Party, on the one hand, or the Clinton administration, on another, necessary? Or mean spirited?
The imagery of Aesop's fable still rings across millennia. There are, as there have been, grasshoppers and ants. The stories remain the same, for the modern myth of "You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it" is proving popular among the grasshoppers, but not among the ants. So it seems the question is, which are you? Which am I? Which politician represents which of us? And why?
See: Lazy Bones
