The REAL World Government

The Real World Government

Response to Bill Hodgson’s post on Wal-Mart’s collecting donations of food so their employees might have a happy Holliday.

December 03, 2013

ChinaMart, a 300 billion/yr mega corporation, demonstrates that corporations have more power in our contemporary world than any government, Including ours.  And "We the people" allow them to get away with it.  Electing officials who support this kind of abuse.  AND this is not new, it has been going on for 20+ years.  We are just now becoming aware of it.  This is as embarrassing as having no national health care, resulting in worse health care for the disadvantaged, the poor, the very young, our vets; than in many "developing nations".  How long are we going to put up with this????  The Koch Bros. and Rupert Murdock (just a couple of the many names that rule our country and the world), have more power than the US  Senate. 

There is an annual convention in Davos, Switzerland called the World Economic Forum, where the mega corps meet so set policy.  attendees come by invitation only.  Corporations must have annual sales of at least $1 billion to be considered and pay $40,000/attendee for the week, except the thirty or national leaders who are considered guests.  Together these corporations represent 80% of the world's industrial output.  That is the world government.  Think about it.

References: American Mania; When More is Not Enough by Peter Whybrow.   pp 206-7

“Only fools believe in the conscience of he markets,”  George Soros

“Markets do not obey the laws of reason, but the laws of desire.”

                                                                        -George Soros

“This new elite Champions the power of the market and the wisdom of laissez faire capitalism in shaping of all human societies

The anominoty of the international corporations must be broken and local economies must be nurtured if global capitalism is to benefit and not just those who are corporate managers and investors…”

                                                                        Peter Whybrow

Social Conflict: Violence Brewing

Social Conflict: Violence Brewing

Conversation on Facebook on a post by Bill Hodgson

Henry Giroux on Zombie Politics

November 22, 2013

In his book, Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism, author and scholar Henry Giroux connects the dots to prove his theory that our current system is informed by a “machinery of social and civil death” that chills “any vestige of a robust democracy.”

This week on Moyers & Company, Giroux explains that such a machine turns “people who are basically so caught up with surviving that they become like the walking dead – they lose their sense of agency, they lose their homes, they lose their jobs.”

What’s more, Giroux points out, the system that creates this vacuum has little to do with expanding the meaning and the substance of democracy itself. Under “casino capitalism,” the goal is to get a quick return, taking advantage of a kind of logic in which the only thing that drives us is to put as much money as we can into a slot machine and hope we walk out with our wallets overflowing.

A cultural and social critic of tireless energy and vast interests, Giroux holds the Global TV Network Chair in the English and Cultural Studies Department at McMaster University and is a distinguished visiting professor at Reyerson University, both schools in Canada.

November 30, 2013

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Morris Creedon-McVean That's the grand plan of the super rich: they return us to the late middle ages and become kings and queens and the rest of us as" wage slaves". One major problem with this plan: aristocracies have failed uncountable times in history. Who is going to fight for them? Not the American Military or any law enforcement agency, they are already wage slaves. And the wage slaves to be, are heavily armed, thanks to the NRA and the second amendment. I can perceive a brief civil war where the citizens surround the fortress homes of the super rich, high paid minions, and corporations. A siege takes place, demanding the perps of this plot come out and face charges of being traitors to the Constitution they are trying to destroy. The eventually give in as their mercenaries, decide they are not dying for these sad little old men who aren't even willing to fight themselves. With no dedicated support within the populous, at least no one willing to fight, they are alone. That means you GW Bush, Dick Cheney, and Carl Rove.

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Bill Hodgson The days of Kings, Queens government also had a strong Religious power that provided people control to backup the ruling class.
My lifetime has seen the people control function given to the local, state police and military who protect the lower class, ruling class, rich and powerful. The controlling class of the protectors are shifting more to the rich and corporations. For example, the city of Bellevue sent the police to Walmart today and arrested a few people from a very gentle group of protesters.
I remember the Chicago 7 trial and Ohio college campus shootings by the National Guard.
Today's police protection-gear is more like military gear.

Bill Hodgson, all good points.  It is all a sure sign that violent confrontation is brewing.  The nation is divided with one side who is so concrete in their thinking that they refuse to negotiate on anything. Rigid thinking and action resulting in the shutdown of Government and an international panic that the US might default on it's debt, sending the entire world into economic chaos.  Such idiotic mindless behavior to punish a very moderate President for trying to establish universal health care, which is a good thing for everyone in this country.  We are the lone prosperous nation without it.  Health care, a life and death issue, simply cannot be run for profit without unfairness that defies the purpose of this nation as defined by the Founding Fathers, and documented in the Constitution.  Most of the American population believes in these principles, even if they have not paid attention to the erosion until recently.  While the situation is frightening, on the side of the pro Constitutionalists is: Truth, history of the failure of aristocracies, a well armed populous that will make it almost impossible for the super rich to win a fighting confrontation (unless the American military obeys orders and supports the ruling rich---which would mean destruction of several American cities), at present I do not believe the military would fire on citizens because they are already wage slaves, and the Internet which prevents any surprise moves by the elite.

I find it fascinating that given his "zombie" hypotheses, he fails to even mention Marshall McCluhan's (now proven) theories that TV has a "heroin like addition".  Sometimes it seems, the academics once they have an established theoretical basis and a following of readers and students, they stop exploring other thinker's work.  I have found this type of oversight many times in my years of reading "what is new" in various fields.  I read such a book from the "New Releases" table at B&N, and observe that Professor Smith published the exact same set of ideas 6 mos. ago.  This clearly demonstrates the value of well read generalists to keep the intellectual community "honest".

Cruz Big Mouth Little Understanding

Freshman US Congressman Cruz from Texas

November 9, 2013

This man was chiefly responsible for sending the world financial markets into a panic for fear that we were going to default on our loans.  His reason: he doesn't want health care distributed more fairly in this country.

 Simply put, the rich get the best care in the world, and every one else get a watered down version of we are capable of.  The less money you have, the more watered down your care gets.  In addition, even though the lower your economic class, and get watered down care, it costs the rest of us more.  ER visits are 5-10x what office calls cost for the same care.  Hospital corporations take their profits (30%!) off the top and spend what's left on care.  So how do they make up for the huge losses they rack up for having and ER and running it in a responsible way?  By jacking up the prices of procedures that are more profitable, and those who have "good insurance" pay for in the form of increased premiums.

Obamacare will save money, not "ruin the economy" which is the latest false claim by FOX and other media owned by the super rich like Rupert Murdock.  Don't tell me to get my facts straight---I am a retired physician, an insider who knows exactly how the system works after over 30 years of practice.  You neo-con are just plain wrong about Obamacare.  To use something good for the country to blackmail the Obama Administration's plans and intimidate those who support it, to the point of shutting down the government and threatening the international money markets, is morally and ethically indefensible.

To this country’s good fortune, the man sitting in the Oval Office, NEVER panics even under this kind of cruel criticism and baseless attacks.  Obama will not back down.  He is old school, ethically and morally, he will “do the right thing”, regardless of the short term personal price.  This nation used to have a government filled with politicians who did “the right thing”, even if they paid a personal price.  But they have been run out of Congress by the new breed of greedy “my party right or wrong”, “we’re only in it for the money” who do the wrong thing even when 80% of the American people adamantly oppose their position.  That is just what happened as they voted to shut down the government to punish Obama for the outrageous act of making health care more accessible to all people and saving money at the same time.  No wait!  Obama didn’t make this sensible reform law, CONGRESS did.

Hypocrisy at the highest level of arrogance, disregard of ethics and personal responsibility.

The final assessment is that Mr. Cruz can make a lot of noise about issues that he knows little about, and has given little thought to the ramifications for US citizens or the rest of the world.  His knowledge is a mile wide and a quarter of an inch deep.  We cannot afford this type of man making decisions for this country.

Morris Creedon-McVean

Self Mutilation as Signal of Loss of Hope

Self Mutilation

Response to post by Sheli Lundberg concerning radical self mutilation

November 14, 2013

The medical problems are almost endless. He has no idea the price he will pay for looking cool, even if this a creative form so self mutilation, it is still self mutilation, which is a terrible signal of what is happening to today's youth. It signals total hopelessness, and a giving up on life. It is a correct read in many ways about the suicidal direction of our society. With the super rich and their allies destroying the ecosystem as fast as they can to maximize pro fits with no strong resistance by "good men who remain silent", this is justified. What is tragic is that they cannot see any hope for change. This idealistic collapse has been setup by two recently understood and proven by science in a rigorous way: the mental illness caused by the "heroin like" addictive qualities of television; and the biological nature of the sociopath. We now have the understanding and the tools to reverse the trend which began when TV was introduced in the 50's which set up exploitation by sociopaths who turned American culture into a "consumer" obsessed dumbed down society where the 99% stopped paying attention to what is important in life, including what the sociopaths politicians were doing, and they took over government at every level in two decades. They are now so entrenched, it will be a major struggle to regain control of our Government. a shooting civil war is a definite possibility.

 Fortunately, the GOP is fragmenting and self destructing, and lacks any leadership. The Tea Party may turn out to be gift, because if they can get a candidate on the next Presidential ballot, they will take votes from the GOP, who is already being seen as a destructing force after the farcical shutting down of the government to punish Obama for being the stimulus for making health care more accessible and cheaper. Health care reform is a good thing even with the initial difficulties inherent in such a major change, but we are the only prosperous country in the world that does not have universal health care. In spite of the vigorous adolescent fabricated attacks on Obamacare (a complete misnomer---Congress crafted the legislation and passed it---supported by both parties; Obama just signed it into law) I do not believe the GOP can stop it. It makes our profit obsessed health care system more fair for everyone, and saves money. Americans have a long history of supporting fairness, from the abolition of slavery to the civil rights movement and women's rights to control their bodies through contraception. Doing the right thing will win out again in spite of the vituperous hatred and lies that the opposition musters.

Morris Creedon-McVean

New Calculation on When Travis County Runs Dry

Central Texas prairie after 8 years of the most severe drought in recorded history.
LEVELAND

The NCRA (North Colorado River Authority) posts, continue to be under Governor Perry's thumb, and preposterous numbers that they post on the official State web site, become more absurd by the day.  There are some good scientists working for the NCRA, but they are restrained from getting anywhere close to saying the truth "Austin is at great risk for running dry", is painfully restrained because if they do they will loose their jobs.  Perry fired Neal Wilkins, Phd (A&M Wildlife Environment and one of the most respected land mangers in the country, check his pedigree) last year on June 29th when he dared to do the right thing by recommending dramatic cutbacks on our use of water and electricity.  He recommendations we never made public and Wilkin's was fired by Perry the same day.  Wilkin's say it coming and was working at a private willdlife preserve in Corpus Christi within a monthe.  He was the chairman of the Texas Water Commission and a very effective in that position.  His loss was a great loss of Texas in this time of unprecidented drought.  But Perry does not care what happens to the people of Travis County.  Business in the county is just as stupid as everyone else, builders are still putting up new housing and new everything everywhere one looks all across the county.

The NCRA keeps focusing on the drought of record, the 1951 drought, and the 600,000 acre feet record low recorded then.  But this comparison is absurd.  In 1950 Austin’s population was 132,000.  The current population is 843,000, a 6.38 times increase, and water usage per capital was much lower that today's 168 gallons per person/day, and we didn't have water hog industries like chip fabrication plants. So even with a record low 600,000 acre-feet, Austin was still years away from running dry.  Our yearly usage is 400,000 acre-feet, and even if we ignore the higher usage per person and our water hog industries, the folks in 1951 used 1/6.38 times as much water, or 62,700 acre-feet per year.  Dividing the 600,000 acre-feet historical low by 62,700 gives 9.57 years until the would have run dry.  Figure in the much lower usage per person and the water hog industries, the actual number was close to 20 years before the would run dry.

Today is TOTALLY DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCE.  The governments posting now has our reservoirs at 35% full after the recent mid October rains, but one of the two reservoirs has been visibly empty for a year and a half.  So even if they are telling the truth about Lake Buchanan, there cannot possibly be but half that amount.  Yes, Buchanan holds more water that Travis, but their inflow areas are about the same size so they both suffer or benefit from decreased inflows or increased inflows about the same. January through September, the inflow were only 13% of normal, almost as low as the record 2011 of 11% of normal.  So the idea that Buchanan has not lost water as our usage remains the same, and FOR AT LEAST 18 MONTHS BUCHANAN HAS BEEN THE ONLY RESERVOIR TO DRAW WATER FROM, since Travis is empty, is absurd.  You think the same government that tells us the bald face lie that Travis is 30% of capacity, is going to tell the truth about Buchanin???The Perry administration is either a bunch of fools or they are playing us for a bunch of fools. Matters not, the raw truth of the numbers is the same.

Since, the most water that we can posssible have in reserve is 700,000 acre-feet (today's current lie); half of that is 350,000 acre-feet.  Less that one years average usage, which is going up and there is no sign anywhere of any conservation to counter that. In fact, with people still moving here by the tens of thousands every year (2011 had 26,000 people move into Travis County)  housing is being built as fast as the developers can slap it together.  There is also no effort by any level of government to enforce state laws dictating conservation measures.

Now if there is only 60% of what the government says, not a far fetched deception for a government that says an empty pit is 30% full, that means that there 0.60 x 350,000 = 210,000 acre-feet.  This is only 6 months of water before we run dry.  Considering the bottom 10% is too full of sediment to be useable, the number drops to less than 6 mos.  Not even enough time to plan an orderly migration, IF ANY ORGANIZATION SHOWED ANY INTEREST IN DOING THAT, WHICH THEY DON'T.  NOT A GOVERNMENT AGENCY AT ANY LEVEL HAS ANY PLAN, OR EVEN A PLAN TO MAKE A PLAN AT THE PRESENT. So, it's every citizen for himself, which will mean a panic sickened anarchy when we suddenly run dry.

I see neighbors installing solar panels; but those are near useless in the scenario I describe.