I just ran like 10k, and I’m pretty pooped. Been mixing up tracks that we recorded a few weeks ago. It’s noisy and of shitty quality, but it’s pretty fun and there’s some interesting performances. Hope to bust out something solid one of these days. We’re getting better and better all the time.
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Meant to post about this yesterday, but Blogger was having some serious problems. So if the blog was missing or there was a post repeated 3 or 4 times yesterday, that was why.
Anyway, director Aaron Russo has a new movie coming out called America: From Freedom to Fascism and it looks absolutely gut-wrenching:
“FOUR STARS (Highest Rating). The scariest goddamn film you’ll see this year. It will leave you staggering out of the theatre, slack-jawed and trembling. Makes ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ look like ‘Bambi.’ After watching this movie, your comfy, secure notions about America — and about what it means to be an American — will be forever shattered. Producer/director Aaron Russo and the folks at Cinema Libre Studio deserve to be heralded as heroes of a post-modern New American Revolution. This is shocking stuff. You’ll be angry, you’ll be disgusted, but you may actually break out in a cold sweat and feel a sickness deep in your gut; I would advise movie theatre managers to hand out vomit bags. You may end up needing one.” — Todd David Schwartz, CBS
I can’t wait until it’s released (in late July I believe). I’ve been interested in this stuff for years. Not so much the IRS part, but definitely the mysteries of the Federal Reserve.
For those not in the know: In 1913 a huge scam was perpetrated on the American people when Congress gave away it’s right to coin money. This power was transferred to the newly created Federal Reserve System. One problem: The Fed is not federal. Whazzat, you say? I’m serious. It was created as a private money-lending institution. So who owns the Federal Reserve? Nobody knows. (Well, presumably the Fed knows, but they’re not telling). You can rest assured that you don’t.
Beyond that disturbing fact, the problem runs deeper. You see, the Fed creates money out of thin air. The dollar is no longer backed by gold, so any money that is created is just… paper. And most of it is electronic these days anyway. But how can that be?! you ask. Well, Congress gave the Federal Reserve that power when it was created in 1913. This is known as fiat currency because the government simply makes a law (a fiat) and says, “this is the way it is. This paper is worth X, even though there’s no precious metal (like gold) backing it. It’s worth something because we say it is.”
Isn’t this a little dangerous? you might wonder. Especially since the Fed is a private entity (that pays no taxes) controlled by unknown persons. You bet it is. Here’s what Thomas Jefferson had to say on the matter:
“I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”
Damn right, Jefferson. So, if you’ve ever wondered how our supposedly prosperous nation managed to get 8 trillion dollars in debt, now you have your answer. A private bank is loaning our government money that it (the bank) creates out of nothing, and it’s loaning our government this money at interest! What a scam!
But who’s going to pay this interest that the bankers are charging the government? I’ll give you a hint: You are! In 1913 (the same year, at the same time) Congress also created the IRS and the income tax. It started at only 1% of total income, but it has gone up steadily ever since then (as I’m sure you’re well aware, especially around April 15th). In any fraud or scam somebody has to get it in the shorts, and in this case it’s the American taxpayer who is getting royally screwed.
Of course, the Congress could always cut back on spending. How ’bout you hold your breath until that happens? 🙂 Not fucking likely, right? Well, that’s why the Congress loves the Federal Reserve; it’s a bank that let’s you go as deep into debt as you could ever want to go! 8 trillion and counting! They never ask for the principle; the interest is enough to keep them fat and wealthy. Congress simply raises the debt ceiling (or is it a basement?) and keeps spending like no tomorrow.
It was said by Alexis de Tocqueville that: “The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money.” Well that day has long since passed. We’re like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff. One of these days we’re gonna look down and then we’ll start to fall. The horrible reality is that America has been secretly taken over by a fascist cabal of bankers.
Throughout American history, a few brave men have stood up to the bankers (the Federal Reserve is our 3rd central bank; each one was worse than the previous one). They include Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. It seems that the last two may have paid for their courage with their lives.
So, if I have piqued your interest, please see the movie! Make sure you check out the previews on the Freedom to Fascism site. It looks awesome; I can’t wait to see it. Let’s just hope there’s still a country left to save by July. With George Bush (an agent of the bankers) in charge, that’s not a sure thing!
I leave you with a quote from banker-extraordinaire Mayer Anselm Rothschild:
“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws…”
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I just found out about the outing of Armando over at DailyKos. There’s a good discussion over at Pandagon.
Personally, I could give a fuck. I’ve tangled with Armando before and I was shocked to discover that he is the worst kind of internet troll. I thought as a guest blogger he might try to stay above the fray, but no. He jumped in and quickly made an ass of himself in the single discussion I participated in (DKos is good for little more than Bush-bashing. I fucking hate partisans). He resorted to personal attacks right away, belittled and troll-modded people who disagreed with him and generally acted like his shit didn’t stink.
I’m shocked to hear he’s a lawyer. From what I could see he couldn’t argue his way out of a paperbag if you didn’t let him use troll methods. Well, he’s one more chunk of damage to the reputation of lawyers everywhere, I guess.
I suppose it’s too bad he was outed (I didn’t know he was anonymous), but it couldn’t’ve happened to a better guy. He’s a total prick and I don’t believe he’ll actually stop posting over at DKos for long. This is just a pity-party for a self-obsessed partisan hack with more arguments than brains.
The thing that pisses me off is that he represents Walmart and presumably other shitty corporations, while he takes Bush to task for being a corporate stooge. What rank hypocrisy! Bush couldn’t’ve done better himself.
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So Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed. I don’t think this matters much at all. The insurgency is much bigger than one man. We’ve still got a lot of problems to solve if we’re gonna get our soldiers out of that hellhole alive. Hope the Iraqis make it, but I suspect the root of their problems is the occupation itself, despite what Bush might say.
Bring our troops home. Let’s get out of Iraq and stay the fuck out of Iran. No more wars of conquest!
Ahh, that’s all I got. Read the last post if you want something witty and insightful.
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I happened to read this story about rich girls’ Sweet 16 parties in a month-old copy of Time.
The protagonists’ excesses alone make for lurid, enjoyably outraged viewing. (Surely one celebrant’s decision to dye her poodles pink should have prompted a call to the A.S.P.C.A.) A precocious celebutant makes her entrance via helicopter. A self-proclaimed “divo” (like diva but different) rents out the mall to stage a faux fashion show (prompting a backstage catfight over a limited supply of bustiers). There are hired dancers, a raj-like litter hoisted by hand-picked hotties and an apparent contractual obligation for someone to arrive in a stretch Hummer. I had no idea so many stretch Hummers even existed. No wonder we had to go to war in Iraq.
The series is like an infomercial for class war, and should the revolution come, an episode guide will provide a handy, illustrated list of who should go up against the wall. My Super Sweet 16 had its third-season premiere last week, building up to the broadcast with a drumroll of conspicuous consumption: four two-hour blocks of episodes drawn from the show’s previous seasons. To witness such unself-conscious acquisitiveness in one sitting is like eating an entire normal-kid birthday-party sheet cake, wax decorative candles and all. There’s the same queasy sense of monochromatic excess because all the shows are alike, from the fake panic that the party may not happen to the scary-sexy dry humping on the dance floor. And no matter what the nominal theme of the party–California beach party, Moulin Rouge, the color pink–each guest of honor is really after only one thing. “I feel famous. I love it,” says one. Another: “I definitely felt like I was famous.” Yet one more: “I felt like such a star.” The teenagers take on all the tics of fame, from tiny dogs to referring to oneself in the third person. We are all Paris Hilton now.
Not all of us, Ana. Not all of us by a long shot.
The pure god-awful greed and selfishness of these teens (and their feel-guilty-about-working-too-much parents) is appalling and disgusting.
You know, rich people and Republicans often accuse people of “waging class warfare” if somebody dares to point out how excessive and venal the rich act, especially their children. That’s such a bullshit argument. It’s the rich who are waging class warfare, not the poor. The rich are the ones who create poverty (it’s called “not sharing” to the Nth degree) by exploiting workers, keeping minimum wage low generally structuring society and government so that it enriches themselves instead of everybody else. Those of us who are in the middle class should feel lucky we live in such a great country, I suppose, but it’s really just a comfy version of poverty compared with the awesome wealth of the upper class. I mean, they can buy lear jets. Fucking lear jets, man. That costs more just to maintain in a year than most of us make the whole year.
So if anybody ever accuses you of waging class warfare by pointing out how selfish and nihilistic the rich kids are behaving, tell them to fuck off and get a clue. The rich are the ones who start all of our wars, figurative or otherwise. Not us peasants. We have no power as they like to point out when we try to change things (otherwise, politicians love to assure us that we have the power. Is that why so many of us are working for minimum wage?).
Well fuck Paris Hilton, that shrewish demon slut. We all know how vacuous the rich girls are now. They’ve been spoiled rotten by the money they never earned, so in a way I’m not jealous of them at all. But it would be nice to have a huge stash of resources to fall back on when times got tough. I’d like to have a house by a lake or river or ocean. But if acting like spoiled little shits is the price, I’ll take poverty, thanks. I guess even being rich isn’t free.
MTV is such a filthstream of elitist fascism and meta-satanic imagery that I doubt I could ever watch this show for more than 5 minutes. This is how Satan would raise his daughters; so spoiled you can smell her a million miles away. Obviously, the show is fake and staged, but the bullgod-worshipping creditcard-celebrity is real. Just buy happiness, kids!
My parents used to dislike MTV because it had suggestive videos and weird music. Now I hate MTV because it has corporate fascism, wealth-worshipping depraved materialism and shitty, shitty music, when it has music at all, which is during commercials.
I can only assume that the devil himself is the guy running MTV. It’s that bad. I’d rather watch the pope take a shit for 12 hours than watch a half hour of MTV. I’d watch the pope thing even if it had praying and a toilet-cam. Now that’s fucking gross, right? That’s how bad MTV’s sex-obsessed materialism grosses me out. It actually makes me feel ill. And not Beastie Boys ill; the bad kind.
//||baaarrrfff!!||\
Reasons why I don’t have a TV, number 3143.
I guess you could ask why I get so upset over materialism and flagrant displays of sickening money-flaunting. Honestly, I don’t know. I guess I’m just a spiritual person and so materialism seems like the enemy to me. Especially given my Gnostic outlook.
The weirdist thing to me, though, is the fact that the poor kids will watch these shows religiously. And that’s their fault. If you’re stupid enough to watch eMpTV, then you deserve to feel bad about yourself. Hell, that’s the whole point of MTV.
So why the fuck do they watch it? Cheap thrills, I suppose. Now turn the channel before I vomit.
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Arlen Specter does not sound very happy about Cheney’s hardball tactics. Cheney has been leaning heavily on various Republican members of the Judiciary Committee in order to get their word that no substansive hearings will be held. Specter, as chairman, does not like that:
In a letter to Cheney that the senator released to the news media, Specter said the vice president had cut him out of discussions with all the other Republicans on his own committee about oversight of the administration’s eavesdropping programs, a subject on which Specter has often been at odds with the White House.
The trigger for Specter’s anger was a deal Cheney made with the other Republicans on the committee to block testimony from phone companies that reportedly cooperated in providing call records to the National Security Agency.
Specter, who had been considering issuing subpoenas to compel telephone company executives to testify, learned of Cheney’s actions only when he went into a closed meeting of the committee’s Republicans on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after encountering the vice president at a weekly luncheon of all Senate Republicans.
What’s funny to me is how childish Specter seems when talking about how Cheney dissed him by ignoring him at that party last week:
“I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point,” Specter wrote. “This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican senators caucus lunch yesterday and I walked directly in front of you on at least two occasions en route from the buffet to my table.”
Awwwwww… isn’t that cute? Specter’s pissed because Cheney’s not talking to him. This is so fucking highschool.
Obviously, I support Specter in this little dustup because Cheney is clearly trying to squash dissent, as he always does. This time he might not be able to stem the tide. Well, we can only hope. It’s not like we have any power or say in the matter. This is just a squabble among the elites. The rest of us can only watch.
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This stuff with Ann Coulter insulting the 9/11 victims’ wives is a joke. I hesitate to even post about Ann Coulter because she’s such an obviously deranged demagogue. Let’s face it: she’s fucking clownshoes, man.
But on the other hand, she often serves as a mouthpiece for the GOP’s sick beliefs. She exists to say the things the rest of the hateful assholes out there wish they could say, thereby bringing their twisted ideas into the mainstream. Her job is to try to move the mainstream to the right. But today, I think people will realize what a fucking prick she really is. Here’s what she wrote in her book:
“These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV … reveling in their status as celebrities,” she writes. “These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9/11 was an attack on our nation and acted as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them.”
–snipped and flipped–“I’ve never seen people enjoy their husbands’ deaths so much,” she writes in the book.
Why does she hate these 9/11 wives so much? Is there something deeper here? Why even bother insulting them except for the publicity? I guess that certainly could be her only motive (would any of us put it past her?), but I’m suspicious that there’s something more going on here. I see her as a mouthpiece for the rightwing, as I said. So is it possible that the GOP is pissed at the 9/11 victims’ wives for some reason?
Perhaps they’ve been asking too many questions about that fateful day…
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I don’t get this whole gay marriage thing. Jesus was clearly gay. Here’s a historical image of him groping a follower:
Okay, I’m totally joking. But let’s not forget that Jesus was a rabble-rousing radical revolutionary. He is usually depicted in Christian imagery as being a bit of a hippy (long hair, beard, sandals, probably smoked weed, etc.). Heck, he was basically the original hippy, preaching nonviolence while evil festered and grew all around him. Instead of being thanked for his wisdom and optimism he was nailed to a cross, much like hippy war protestors were shot in the ’60s and ’70s (Four dead in Ohio).
How come the people who claim to love Jesus the most seem to act in a way that is directly opposed to everything Jesus stood for?
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Where exactly in the Bible does Jesus say:
“Hate your neighbor, especially if he’s a fag.”
‘Cause I couldn’t find that particular verse. Maybe it’s just not in my copy. I guess I must not be reading the same Bible that the Republicans in the Senate are reading. From the article I just linked to last post:
“The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2003. “A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law.”
In response, [Sen. Orrin] Hatch fumed: “Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?”
Uh, yes, Orrin. That is exactly what he is fucking suggesting, dumbshit. Glad you finally caught on.
So, Orrin, can you point me to the place in the Bible where it says we’re supposed to hate and persecute gay people? I’m having a little trouble finding it, you fucking bigoted, pandering piece of donkey shit. Oh, am I swearing to much for you? Fuck off, bitch. Don’t lecture me about decorum when you’re the one pushing a hateful amendment designed to make a certain class of Americans into second-class citizens. Meanwhile you claim to be Christian (well, Mormon in this case)? Fucking hypocrite slime. What a bunch of fucking bigots!
Christians: is this who you want representing you in Congress? People who HATE with every fiber of their being? People who will systematically, deliberately and consciously try to fuck over the rights of a group of people just because they are different? Does that sound Christian to you? Does that sound American to you?
Don’t let these assholes speak for you. I’m not a Christian because I don’t want to associate with people like Orrin Hatch and Tom DeLay or the rat-fucking pope either. The decent Christians out there need to speak up — LOUDER — and say that these assholes don’t represent you or your views. Otherwise, what am I to think? That Christianity, the religion of compassion, has become a twisted and evil shell of its former self, that’s what I’m thinking. Speak up, Christians.
Many Christian assholes have a persecution complex wherein they constantly bitch about persecution just because they don’t get their way. But then they turn around and try their damndest to persecute others?!!
Ever hear of the Golden Rule, fuckers?
Come on, I know there are still some good Christians out there. SPEAK UP! Speak out against hate! One day you will have to look God in the eye and explain to him why you did nothing.
SPEAK UP!
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Rolling Stone has an interview with Republican DeForest Soaries, the first chair of the federal Election Assistance Commission. He basically claims the EAC was a joke; an agency that was set up so that politicians could say they “did something” about the 2000 election fiasco in Florida.
Soaries goes on to lament the fact that there are no standards about what is acceptable in elections as far as machine failures and waiting times:
Here’s what I found troubling. Look at Ohio. Is a two-hour line appropriate or inappropriate? We don’t have an answer to that question. What we say is that democracy means that you have the right to vote without intimidation and undue burdens. But if you stand in line for six hours, technically, today there is no document, no standard, no law that says that that’s wrong. And the problem is this is six years after Florida 2000! What number of votes is an acceptable number to lose in any race? We don’t have a performance rate for machines. If we discovered that of 10,000 Diebold machines model XYZ, 1,000 break down during the day, is that acceptable or unacceptable? If it were a toaster we could tell you, it were a tire we could tell you. If a certain tire malfunctions a certain number of times then they have a recall.
We have no basis for having a recall of any particular type of voting equipment because there are no standards. And when we do have standards, even these standards are required to be voluntary. So is a one percent error rate good? Is a two percent error rate good? 5,000 votes cast, only 4,000 counted? Is that success or failure?
So when you ask me about Ohio, you can recite to me the worst data that anyone has unearthed in Ohio, I would have to say to you — very technically — so what? What does it violate?
It may violate your sensibilities, it may violate my sensitivities, it may violate someone else’s sense of fair play. But the Secretary of State of Ohio has proven that you can get straight through an election by saying: We broke no law. You see the problem?
That is indeed a problem. It raises the specter of an election that was stolen fair and square! Republicans could say, “Sure we stole the election; but it was all 100% legal!” and they’d only be lying a little bit. I’m sure it wouldn’t be 100% legal, but since they were in charge in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004, they were able to make the laws and set (or strip) the standards. This is a classic conundrum in democracy: Who watches the watchers? Who polices the police? Who votes in the election officials that count the votes?
Soaries is right. This system is an embarrassment; a national disgrace.
So what did our elected representatives do today? Did they tackle the problem of election reform? Did they work hard to fix a broken system in time for the 2006 midterm elections?
No. They voted on the gay-marriage amendment.
Useless fucking pieces of shit! The goddamned bigots did nothing but try and split the electorate and rally their base by pushing a hateful, pointless and utterly un-American piece of legislation designed to discriminate against a small and vulnerable group of Americans who have done nothing wrong.
I’m so fucking proud. [/sarcasm]
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Wow. These two are major players in Democratic circles, and they’re basically accusing their own party of rolling over and playing dead. Jesse Jackson seems especially pissed:
JJ: Ohio was more thievery than in Florida. I was amazed and astonished in Florida and Ohio about Democrats’ unwillingness to fight back, to fight to the hilt. It’s beyond my capacity to comprehend why you should score a touchdown and not fight for your points to be counted.
RS: So you believe that John Kerry was wrong to have conceded?
JJ: Kerry won in Ohio. And Gore won in Florida. And neither was willing to put it all on the line to demand a full and fair count. I cannot explain the gutless factor. I cannot explain this desire to look presidential and not be president. Kerry gave up and wouldn’t come back to Ohio and fight. Gore gave up and wouldn’t come back to Florida and fight. That’s inexplicable to me. They chose order over justice.
They fucking sold America out, Jesse. It’s not just gutlessness, it’s treason. Who are these Vichy Democrats anyway? I’m no Democrat (for reasons such as this), but it is extremely disturbing that our only viable opposition party seems to be in bed with the neo-fascist party that’s currently in charge. How will we ever achieve change if Democrats are throwing elections? Personally, I think throwing an election is just as bad as stealing an election, so the Democrats and the Republicans are sitting at about the same level on my disgust-o-meter. However, it is nice to see somebody as high up in the party as Howard Dean take a stand on the fraudulent election:
HD: What are we going to do about it? It’s frustrating because we don’t control the levers of power. This is going to be a very critical election in 2006. We’re very aware that there’s huge potential for additional mischief in 2006. We have no doubt that some of the folks who were active in vote suppression will be active again. It’s very, very difficult to deal with it. We just have to keep pushing forward doing the best we can. The real question is why the mainstream media won’t write about this.
RS: You’ve been sounding the alarm on touch-screen voting machines, particularly Diebold machines. Why?
HD: Touch-screen voting machines absolutely cannot be relied upon. Our recommendation was optiscan ballots — where you actually have custody of the actual ballots after the ballots have been passed through the computer. That’s the most reliable system to use. And people should not use the electronic voting machines. Even electronic voting machines with paper trails can be manipulated.
The struggle continues.
Fucking Democrats took a dive and now we have to deal with 4 years of Bush’s Mussolini-style fascism. Pelosi is already saying that if the Democrats win in 2006 there won’t be any impeachment hearings. So basically, we’re already fucked either way. Hopefully things will go better in the Senate, but that’s a worry for another day. First, we have to ensure that the 2006 elections are fair, which won’t be easy if you consider the last 2 or 3 elections to be fraudulent. How can we ensure our elections are proper if the people in charge cheated their way into office? It’s quite the conundrum. I think we need to take to the streets and demand fair elections come hell or high water.
How did America come to this?
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Jun.5,2006As a poster on Salon’s website mentioned, Manjoo totally avoided the subject of Coingate. Wonder why? Something to do with exposing major Republicans in Ohio as criminals who abused their power in order to get Bush reelected? What’s really odd is that Salon has previously covered the issue in depth.
Before the 2004 presidential election, northwest Ohio was one of the most hotly contested regions in the most hotly contested of states. At that time, Republican insider, fundraiser and Bush “Pioneer” Tom Noe presided over George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in Lucas County, which encompasses the city of Toledo. Noe, a Toledo coin dealer — and former chair of the Lucas County Republican Party — now presides over a Byzantine political scandal involving fraud with state money, political cronyism, alleged kickbacks and a federal investigation of illegal contributions to George W. Bush.
The “Coingate” scandal erupted when the Toledo Blade began reporting on Noe’s contracts with the state to invest a total of $50 million in coin speculation — apparently the only public investment fund of its kind in the country. Noe got the money, ostensibly, as an investment for the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, whose chief executive, James Conrad, recently resigned over the affair. In 1998, when Sen. George Voinovich was governor, Noe set up Capital Coin Fund to buy and sell coins on behalf of the state, with 80 percent of the profits supposedly going back to Ohio. Noe was given $25 million for the fund, and in 2001, he launched Capital Coin Fund II with another $25 million from the bureau.
The problem with Capital Coin, as detailed in the Blade’s ongoing investigation, is that it operated with little to no oversight from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation or any other state agency. After weeks of media pressure and public records lawsuits, Noe’s attorneys recently admitted that Capital Coin cannot account for $10 million to $12 million — and this after Noe’s repeated insistence that the funds were turning a handsome profit for the state.
It turns out Noe used the funds to invest in several subsidiary coin companies, one of which was run by Mark Chrans, previously convicted of laundering drug money through his own, separate coin business. (Capital Coin severed the relationship with Chrans as a result of $850,000 in bad debt Noe had to write off.) Also in the state’s portfolio were other collectibles such as artwork, sports cards and autographs. When an auditor for the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation flagged the coin deal in 2000 and cited the lack of oversight, he was ignored, the Blade reported.
This is just an example of the corruption we know about. How will we find out about the corruption we don’t know about unless we investigate further into election improprieties?
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