Thus knowledge flows like water

Twofer from Market-Ticker.org

Dr. Tom — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:23:40 +0000

First: THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WILL BE TOAST IN FIVE YEARS

(Reuters) – Gvernment spending for Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare programs will more than double over the next decade to $1.8 trillion, or 7.3 percent of the country's total economic output, congressional researchers said on Tuesday.

In its annual budget and economic outlook, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that even under its most conservative projections, healthcare spending would rise by 8 percent a year from 2012 to 2022, mainly as a result of an aging U.S. population and rising treatment costs. It will continue to be a key driver of the U.S. budget deficit.

That's not going to happen, because it can't. That number would represent approximately 1/2 of today's Federal Budget, incidentally.

The bad news is that it doubles again in another eight years.

This is the nature of all exponential functions folks. Compound growth just is, and it is never, ever sustainable over the intermediate and longer term. Yet we've played this game since 1980, with medical spending by the Federal Government expanding at roughly 9% for that entire 30 years.

What's worse is that the bolded text is false — in the private sector insurance costs are rising at least as fast as they are in the government. When I ran MCSNet in the 1990s we were seeing double-digit premium increases every single year, and this is still going on. The only way to keep it under some resemblance of control was to cut back on the offered services in the plan, but on a "like-for-like" basis there was never a year during my time running MCSNet that we saw increases under 10%.

Not once.

There is no solution to this problem that can be found with "reform" of Medicare and Medicaid. The problem lies in the underlying medical system in this country and addressing it must happen there, not through things like Obamacare or changes in the government side.

The ridiculous growth in medical costs have come from ridiculous cost-shifting and obfuscation, along with a completely-unrealistic set of expectations.

Consider the cost of putting a man on the moon. We can do it, but it's ridiculously expensive. Likewise, we can put men in space at the ISS, but on a per-person basis it's ridiculously expensive. Ditto for flying in a private jet — yes, you can do it, but it's ridiculously expensive.

Now consider what would happen if everyone could demand and enforce via government a ride in a moon rocket, a month at the ISS, or the ability to walk into any executive airport and demand that the Lear sitting there immediately take off for Bermuda, irrespective of how much money you had in your bank account!

That's exactly what we've done in the medical system.

Provenge is just one example. Dendreon developed the drug for late-stage metastatic prostate cancer, a terrible disease. Statistically it adds 4 months to your life, but costs $100,000. So for about a quarter of a million dollars per person-year, you can have it — the problem is that you don't need to have the quarter of a million bucks first, or choose to spend your own funds on the treatment.

Bypass operations and myriad other very expensive procedures, drugs and devices are also part of this problem. Many chronic conditions have costs in the tens or even over a hundred thousand a year, yet your access to those treatments is not conditioned either by your lifestyle choices that led to the problem (or lack thereof) or your ability and willingness to personally spend the money.

The medical industry capitalizes on all of this and then adds both anti-trust exemptions and intentional forced cost-shifting onto the backs of those who can pay for those who can't. This is why the aspirin in the hospital costs $25 — you're paying for Juanita the illegal immigrant who showed up last night in labor at 7-1/2 months, having drunk and drugged herself during pregnancy while receiving zero prenatal care, and pooped out a severely-underweight kid who's now in the NICU and is in the process of running up a million dollar tab. This happens every single day and it is why you can buy the same operation in India, performed by a US trained doctor with US medicines, devices, and operating room equipment with a hospital room that is equipped like a luxury suite in the Ritz-Carlton to recover in for 1/5th the cost of the same procedure here in the United States.

Then there's defensive medicine. You show up with a non-specific pain in the abdomen. The doc checks what he can and rules out appendicitis (an immediate emergency) and a few other things. Now there's a problem — he has a list of a dozen things running around in his head that could be wrong with you. There's a 10% chance that one of the couple of really nasty ones (such as cancer) are involved but ruling them out will require $5,000 worth of tests. The odds, however, are 90% that the problem is not serious and is something as simple as a mild case of food poisoning. Who's money and risk is involved in the decision as to whether or not to run those tests? Today, the answer is that they get run every single time because if he doesn't and you hit the bad dice roll you'll sue (and win.)

In short you're not required to allocate the risk and cost on your own.

There's no fix for Medicare and Medicaid, nor for the Federal budget, without resolving all of this. And make no mistake folks, this will blow up and destroy not only the federal budget but privately-provided medical care as well within the next five years if we don't stop it right now.

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Second: DON'T BUY INTO THE FACEBOOK IPO!

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2856800

Students grow up to be teachers – and doctors – and politicians.

Dr. Tom — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:38:59 +0000

19 Crazy Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America

With each passing year, the difference between America's prisons and America's public schools becomes smaller and smaller. As you read the rest of this article, you will be absolutely amazed at some of the crazy things that school children in America are being arrested for. When I was growing up, I don't remember a single police officer ever coming to my school. Discipline was always handled by the teachers and by the principals. But today, there are schools all over the country that have police officers permanently stationed in the halls. Many other schools will call out police officers at the drop of a hat. In the classrooms of America today, if you burp in class, if you spray yourself with perfume or if you doodle on your desk, there is a chance that you will be arrested by the police and hauled out of your school in handcuffs. Unfortunately, we live in a country where paranoia has become standard operating procedure. The American people have become convinced that the only way that we can all be "safe" is for this country to be run like a militarized totalitarian police state. So our public schools are run like prisons and our public school students are treated like prisoners. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world by far, and our schools are preparing the next generation to either "do time" in the prison system or to live as good little slaves in the Big Brother prison grid that is being constructed all around us. But what our schools are not doing is giving these children the critical thinking skills that they need to live as free citizens in a nation that used to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave".

Of course very few people would deny that the character of American schoolchildren has changed dramatically over the decades. Back in the 1950s, some of the biggest school discipline problems were gum chewing and hair pulling. Today, kids bring knives, guns and drugs with them to school. Gang activity is rampant in many of our schools and in some schools kids are evenhaving sex in the school bathrooms.

So there is definitely a discipline problem in our schools.

But what is going on in many areas of the country is absolutely ridiculous. For example, in 2010 alone police down in Texas issued an astounding 300,000tickets to school children.

Yes, if a kid pulls a knife on someone the police should get involved, but teachers and administrators should be able to use some common sense and handle the vast majority of discipline problems that happen themselves.

What you are about to read is absolutely going to amaze you. The following are 19 really crazy things that school children are being arrested for in America….

#1 At one public school down in Texas, a 12-year-old girl named Sarah Bustamantes was recently arrested for spraying herself with perfume.

#2 A 13-year-old student at a school in Albuquerque, New Mexico was recently arrested by police for burping in class.

#3 Another student down in Albuquerque was forced to strip down to his underwear while five adults watched because he had $200 in his pocket. The student was never formally charged with doing anything wrong.

#4 A security guard at one school in California broke the arm of a 16-year-old girl because she left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning up some cake that she had spilled.

#5 One teenage couple down in Houston poured milk on each other during a squabble while they were breaking up. Instead of being sent to see the principal, they were arrested and sent to court.

#6 In early 2010, a 12-year-old girl at a school in Forest Hills, New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. "I love my friends Abby and Faith" was what she reportedly scribbled on her desk.

#7 A 6-year-old girl down in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#8 One student down in Texas was reportedly arrested by police for throwing paper airplanes in class.

#9 A 17-year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father's lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.

#10 In Allentown, Pennsylvania a 14-year-old girl was tasered in the groin area by a school security officer even though she had put up her hands in the air to surrender.

#11 Down in Florida, an 11-year-old student was arrested, thrown in jail and charged with a third-degree felony for bringing a plastic butter knife to school.

#12 Back in 2009, an 8-year-old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.

#13 A police officer in San Mateo, California blasted a 7-year-old special education student in the face with pepper spray because he would not quit climbing on the furniture.

#14 In America today, even 5-year-old children are treated brutally by police. The following is from a recent article that described what happened to one very young student in Stockton, California a while back….

Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.

#15 At one school in Connecticut, a 17-year-old boy was thrown to the floor andtasered five times because he was yelling at a cafeteria worker.

#16 A teenager in suburban Dallas was forced to take on a part-time jobafter being ticketed for using foul language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.

#17 A few months ago, police were called out when a little girl kissed a little boy during a physical education class at an elementary school down in Florida.

#18 A 6-year-old boy was recently charged with sexual battery for some "inappropriate touching" during a game of tag at one elementary school in the San Francisco area.

#19 In Massachusetts, police were recently sent out to collect an overdue library book from a 5-year-old girl.

Unfortunately, what is going on in our schools is a reflection of the broader society as a whole. Our schools are being turned into prisons because our entire society is being turned into a giant prison.

Our nation is rapidly heading down the toilet, and the children of this nation do not have a bright future to look forward to.

If the police really want to find some criminals, they should start investigating some of the sickos that are in charge of some of these classrooms.

It seems like almost every day now there is a news story about some public school teacher that is involved in some kind of really perverted stuff.

For example, just check out what police down in Los Angeles recently found that one teacher was hiding….

A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher has been arrested for felony molestation of nearly two dozen students, accused of gagging children and putting live cockroaches on some of their faces. Deputies say the crimes were committed on campus.

Sickos who do that kind of stuff to kids should be punished very severely.

America's schools are changing, and not for the better.

Personally, I went to public schools all my life, but I would not recommend that anyone send their kids to public schools today. There is just way too much crazy stuff that goes on.

And our kids are learning less than ever in these public schools. As I have written about previously, many of them are coming out of the system as dumb as a rock. Instead of teaching our kids how to think critically and examine all sides of an issue, these schools are indoctrinating our kids and pushing particular social and political agendas on them.

There are a few public schools out there that are still good, but the vast majority of them are horrible. They are not producing the leaders of tomorrow and they are not preparing the next generation with the tools that they need to survive in a complex world.

You have been drafted. American citizens are now either militiamen (and women) or insurgents.

Dr. Tom — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:55:27 +0000

It remains the position of many conservatives and, I suspect, the Conservative Forum of Hawaii, that the NDIA merely codifies the ability of the US to defend against terrorism on American soil. That isn't true. What it actually does is move the responsibility for counterterrorism or SUSPECTED POTENTIAL TERRORISM, or even SUSPECTED SUPPORT OF POTENTIAL TERRORISTS away from the law enforcement community and hands it to the military, without oversight, and without any involvement of the due process provided to American citizens by the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

This bill was crafted by Republicans and signed into law by a Democrat. It appeared in an election year for several reasons. No one wants to be seen as 'weak on terrorism', so as long as the facade exists that this law somehow 'protects' us against the 100 or so illiterate al Qaeda fighters still wandering around in Afghanistan, it must be a good thing. But we have our military forces deployed in Afghanistan and if they cannot contain the threat – which they can't even find – because everyone in an occupied country is a potential fighter – it's difficult to explain how the forces being re-deployed from bases around the world back to American soil can contain a nebulous threat here by detaining people, including American citizens on American soil indefinitely without charging them with a crime.

The definitions used in this law are so ill-defined that a military officer could simply decide that anyone, anywhere, is supporting a terrorist organization by doing ANYTHING. For instance, shutting down the Port of Oakland because the Oakland Gestapo shot a Former Combat Marine who was not in any way a threat, or arrested a bunch of reporters who were not involved in the protests at all. At that point, the rights of citizenship simply go out the window and one person or thousands of persons can be 'disappeared' without any reason, without any rights, and without any recourse.

This is not some thought experiment which conservatives can use to accuse liberals of being socialists. This is an actual law, now in effect, written by conservative Republicans, which removes the rights of Americans to be protected under the Constitution, and removes our Constitutional guarantee to the ABSOLUTE right not to be attacked or occupied by the American military on American soil.

Because America has been legally defined as a 'BATTLEFIELD', the US military has begun to conduct joint urban warfare exercises with US police departments in an effort to integrate their joint strike capabilities IN AMERICA. No doubt all the fanatical conservatives and pansy liberals believe that's just dandy, and that the filthy hippies and socialists and liberals who are aligned with the Occupy movement – and the reporters which dare to report on these atrocities deserve to be 'disappeared'. But they cannot think clearly and cannot follow the reasoning. BECAUSE the President signed it into law, after he obtained the stipulation that HE had the right to order such detention – instead of simply vetoing it until that provision had been removed, he was covering his ass legally. He would do that ONLY, and I repeat, ONLY, if it has already happened AND the possibility exists that the facts will become known at sometime in the future. He just pardoned himself and, retroactively, Bush and Cheney. Why does no one 'get' it? This is already happening. Now. Today.

The militarization of law enforcement in America is not a good thing at all and it is a tiny step from shooting protesters in the streets of Oakland to 'disappearing' people who dare to disagree with…say…a County Council decision. By saying that class warfare is fine as long as it isn't against MY class, people are making a fundamental mistake. By saying that military can decide who can be detained – without ever having been in the military, people are agreeing that the government can be run on trust – like the banks – and that it can police itself without being concerned with the Constitution; which, as Dubya Bush famously said, is "Only a Goddamn piece of paper".

This law will not lead to a smaller government, less taxes, more safety, or more freedom. It will lead, and already HAS lead to the US military assuming the role of civilian law enforcement, except without any civilian (read Constitutional) oversight. And the prevention of that very occurrence is the ENTIRE reason for the SECOND AMENDMENT. IT EXISTS SECOND TO PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM FORGETTING THE FIRST AMENDMENT! It isn't there by mistake.

The Constitution, with the Bill of Rights, are the foundation of our republic. They codify all the rights we have – or HAD. They, and NOTHING ELSE are the basis and touchstone for EVERY ONE OF OUR LAWS. And they have just been repealed. Everyone in America now lives, legally and factually, on a declared BATTLEFIELD. Anyone who thinks the combatants are not American is insane.

The justice department will continue to use the TSA to cower citizens. It will continue to ignore excesses by police departments against Constitutional legal protests asking for redresses of grievances. In fact, those peaceful protests will be oppressed more and more brutally. Justice will continue with programs like Fast and Furious and, when they are caught, will plead the Fifth Amendment and be promoted. When they aren't caught, they will make a stronger and stronger public case against private firearm ownership until they start sending the military 'round to confiscate all the registered firearms.

Make no mistake. The only reason we have firearms is because the government is afraid to take them away all at once. They are chipping at it slowly but, as with everything else, they have not thought it through. You do not remove the firearms from people who live on a declared battlefield or you condemn them to certain death or slavery. By actually codifying in law that America is a 'battlefield' the government has MANDATED to every American that the police cannot protect you and the military might not be patrolling your neighborhood today; that a horde of terrorists, maybe dressed as policemen, may appear at any time; and that every American is now, OFFICIALLY, a member of the federal militia and has a duty to be armed and prepared to defend themselves at any time and place. You have just been drafted into the war on terrorism.

http://verdict.justia.com/2011/12/21/the-national-defense-authorization-act-explained

http://verdict.justia.com/2012/01/02/the-ndaa-explained

Make no mistake. The REPUBLICANS wrote this law and by doing so they insured that Obama, a thoroughly useless and ineffective President, will get four more years. Place your bets, folks. A thousand dollar minimum. Obama is now two-to-one. I hold the money, but you know where I live and that I pay my debts. I'll tell you up front that as of today it's a sucker bet and no one will take it.

Locally, if the crafters of the Consent of the Governed Act had actually believed they could get it passed when they proposed it with great fanfare in March of 2010, they would have taken my wager, offered in writing, that they couldn't even get it on the ballot in 2012 much less get it passed. I also mentioned that It would be Newt in 2012, not Sarah. Instead, I heard "Just wait until 2012! You'll see! " Yeah. I do see. I see the future. That's why no one ever takes my wagers. And that's why some of my blog entries get 15,000 hits.

The Trial of Judge Baltasar Garzon » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:05:05 +0000

Patty again. Rock on, Pats!

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/31/the-trial-of-judge-baltasar-garzon/

Small Wars, Big Prices | The AfPak Channel

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:01:27 +0000

H/T Patty Golden

http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/27/small_wars_big_prices

US EPA and NOAA, Tsunami Debris Bulletin

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:55:16 +0000

Japan Tsunami Marine Debris Bulletin

January 2012

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region 9 and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continue to collaborate with Federal and State partners as well as external stakeholders to assess and monitor the movement of the Japan tsunami marine debris. Because computer models predicted that debris may begin impacting Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge now (January/February 2012), our recent efforts have focused on monitoring strategies in the vicinity of Midway and the other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands including the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

NOAA, USEPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) collaborated with the US Coast Guard (USCG) on a routine law enforcement flight over the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). USEPA, NOAA and USFWS each sent observers on the USCG flight in January to concurrently look for any marine debris in the area northwest of Midway Atoll. No debris was sighted by the observers. Again, the models predict that the debris may find its way back around from the West Coast to the Islands in 2014.
USEPA is continuing discussions with the US Navy regarding possible assistance with debris sightings in other parts of the NWHIs as well as the main Hawaiian Islands and along the West Coast of the U.S. mainland.
USFWS is continuing systematic shoreline monitoring and removal of debris on Sand and Eastern Islands on Midway Atoll as well as Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals.
USFWS continues to collect marine debris deposition data from Tern Island in French Frigate Shoals.
The State of Hawaii continues shoreline marine debris monitoring on Kure Atoll.
NOAA continues working to obtain high-resolution satellite imagery of marine debris in the open ocean in areas where models have predicted Japan tsunami marine debris may be. Results of the first area of imagery review, roughly north of Kure Atoll, revealed no noticeable marine debris. NOAA has convened a subject-matter expert group in ocean modeling to refine the area in the North Pacific where the debris front would be expected. Representatives from various agencies and institutions with potentially applicable models are part of this group.
NOAA has developed an assessment and response framework for all regions potentially impacted by Japan tsunami marine debris. The framework is currently focused on the NWHIs and includes various subject matter expert (SME) groups. The first workshop to discuss Japan tsunami marine debris across the Hawaiian archipelago was held in Honolulu on January 19 and brought experts together to develop contingency plans. Representatives from 40 management and response agencies and organizations across Hawaii including USEPA, USFWS and USCG, as well as Hawaii State and county agencies and academia participated in the workshop.
USEPA and the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) are hosting a California Statewide Japan tsunami marine debris planning meeting on February 14 to share information with State and county agencies on what is known about the Japan tsunami marine debris as it heads toward the West Coast and to assist the agencies with contingency planning. NOAA, USCG, Department of the Interior (DOI) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are invited to attend as well.

Report sightings of potential Japan tsunami marine debris. Please send information and photos to: disasterdebris@noaa.gov

For more information:

The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) can provide information to individuals or groups interested in undertaking shoreline monitoring studies for Japan tsunami marine debris. Effective monitoring of changes in environmental conditions, such as the abundance of marine debris, requires a good deal of forethought. For more information or to request a copy of the NOAA MDP Shoreline Survey Field Guide visit http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html#monitor

NOAA Japan Tsunami Debris FAQ’s
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html

EPA Region 9 Marine Debris
http://www.epa.gov/region9/marine-debris/

International Pacific Research Center – Tsunami Debris Models
http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/news/marine_and _tsunami_debris_news.php

US Environmental Protection Agency, Pacific Southwest, Region 9
75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
www.epa.gov/region9

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And, with the extra troops, we can suppress the American public.

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:48:16 +0000

Of course it makes no sense to go to war with Iran to keep oil flowing to America. We are already facing economic ruin, and that would merely accelerate it. We will have no homes left, no jobs and no viable economy – the entire reason the government is ratcheting up the TSA. The reason American soil has been declared a 'battlefield'. Not to protect us, but to control us. Now we are going to strike Iran. China, which owns most of our debt, and Russia, have both told the US and Israel not to do it. They have strategic interests too, and theirs coincide with Iran as well as with us.

What will happen? The US is already deploying purpose-built (and purpose NAMED) weapons designed to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203363504577187420287098692.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_News_BlogsModule

What is also clear is that Panetta's statements are not quite true. Every explosives engineer in the world knows how to break rock. You do that by sequencing explosives to go off at slightly different times to create a rolling shock wave. It's certainly possible to sequence several warheads in one conventional munition, and one can assume that the additional $82 million dollars Boeing got to 'enhance' the Iran bomb is for that purpose. But these things are designed to ride two-per B-2, so sequencing a second one down the hole after the first one is likely the strategy. We supposedly have twenty 'Iran' bombs, but we have substantially more than that and multiple delivery systems, although I'd hesitate to put B-52s over Iran. If the Iranian facilities are no deeper than a few hundred feet, that would do it – and we have a cute nuclear bunker buster that could go down third and just about guarantee the result.

Unfortunately, it's not the result we want. It's the result Israel wants, but it is a pre-failed strategy. We are joined at the hip with Israel for many reasons, not the least of which is their willingness to rebuild nuclear warheads for us. That's necessary because nuclear warheads degrade quite rapidly. By outsourcing that job, or part of it, Israel insures that it has a stock of nuclear weapons in the pipeline ready to go – at our expense. And Israel gets the newest technology from us to do it. In 2006-7, they destroyed some of their old centrifuges testing the STUXNET virus – and got new ones. Two years later, the Iranian centrifuges (cans) started self-destructing. The virus had been in their systems for over a year, working slowly. Stuxnet, a modular design, is brilliant – at least the current 2012 version is. It is an order of magnitude more advanced than the 2008 versions, most of which are still undiscovered. And which Iran still cannot get rid of so it has resorted to ripping out entire computer and control systems and replacing them. Also a pre-failed strategy.

Still, it's an act of war, and merely makes Iran more determined rather than dissuading them. If they need more nukes, the Pakis have quite a few and their borders adjoin – which is why we are in Afghanistan and trying to be allies with Pakistan (which will never work). We are trying to keep the lids on too many cans of worms (double pun not intended).

Michael Klare, writing in Tomgram, explains the corner we are painting ourself into and wonders why the President keeps calling for more paint.

“>http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175496/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_no_exit_in_the_persian_gulf/

90% of success is showing up. Getting the math right is the other 50%.

-T

Aut viam inveniam aut faciamaut viam inveniam aut faciam.

-Hannibal

People are meat, too.

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:33:02 +0000

See You in the Spring?

WEEKEND EDITION JANUARY 27-29, 2012

Revolution as Assisted Suicide

by ROB URIE

Last Fall New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, apparently fearing the early demise of New York’s number one tourist attraction and occasional pain-in-the-ass Occupy Wall Street, set up a series of meetings called “court dates” where we could come together to discuss politics and strategy and generally remember why we rebelled in the first place. With these government facilitated meetings scheduled to last for the foreseeable future, there should remain some residual dissent as the rest of America settles back into meditations on lesser evilism and the frothy mix of fecal matter and lubricant that sometimes results from anal intercourse (google: Santorum).

In one recent government inspired get-together the discussion turned to the upcoming presidential election, with the question put forward: is the goal of voting to microscopically slow the nation’s descent into a militarized, impoverished, plutocratic, terror state (Obama / Romney) or to hand it the quart of Scotch and bottle of Seconal it needs to choke on its own vomit (Santorum / Gingrich)? Your response to this conundrum is most likely a function of your perceived place in the social order. So the follow on question is: which strategy will cause the least harm to the most vulnerable while maximally facilitating the self-immolation of the beast?

The issue at present is this: the U.S. is a behemoth that is armed to the teeth and that has a developed infrastructure of social control. Nothing less than millions of people in the streets willing to bring the thing to the ground will force real change. So (1) where the fuck are you? and (2) passive strategies are an important part of any effort. You can continue to sit on your couch and still push the movement forward. You will eventually be replaced due to natural attrition by actual human beings and we’ll see where things stand then. But until then, you can do your bit to help those actually interested in living without that much effort on your part. Your help is appreciated.

Step one is to understand what America is in 2012. America is a global murder machine run as a business by a bureaucracy that kills without passion for the profit of a few plutocrats. National economic policies are designed to impoverish you as said plutocrats steal your pension, your house and your life and force you through debt penury to work for nothing for their benefit until you die. Enough plutocrat-empire insiders understand the political unsustainability of the current arrangement to have built a surveillance and social control infrastructure including a brutal, intrusive police force for political repression, and to have written laws that falsely accuse you of doing what they do (terrorism) for which you can be arrested without charges and without recourse and sent to an undisclosed location to be tortured until you die. Welcome to America.

But the plutocrats require basic cooperation, even if coerced, with the state-plutocrat apparatus for it to function for their benefit. So the first step to passive resistance is to stop cooperating. All U.S. military adventures are misdirections designed to murder innocent people so that plutocrats can steal their stuff. Don’t believe anything that you hear / read from the plutocrat-empire regarding purported military threats and don’t join the military unless you want to be thrown into the garbage just like the people that you are sent to murder. Stop buying anything but the bare essentials and then buy them used for cash outside of the credit and mainstream goods distribution systems. Stop watching television to clear your mind of plutocrat propaganda. Everything (everything) on television is empty, mindless propaganda selling you the idea that Glorious Leader is your friend and is on your side. Glorious Leader isn’t your friend and only wants for you to shut up and buy crap that you neither want nor need for his benefit. Meat is murder. End oppression where you find it, including on the dinner table.

With respect to the upcoming election, the question is more ethereal / aesthetic than you imagine. I point to the unimpeded growth and trajectory of the empire’s bureaucracy of destruction and despair from Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama to whichever pathetic stooge you delude yourself into believing you helped choose this season. The degree of perceived differentiation denotes your place in the social hierarchy. Obama’s public persona is slightly less grating than Bush Jr.s moronic belligerence. But if you are black or brown, poor or middle class, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or any of a thousand other non-Christian religions the policies are not differentiable. With respect to “don’t ask, don’t tell:” great, now openly gay people can murder poor brown people so that plutocrats can steal their stuff. And how many of those poor brown people that you now get to murder were gay?

So New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has arranged for some of us from Occupy Wall Street to continue meeting in government-owned facilities for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we the people can extend a similar opportunity to his banker and war criminal buddies in the not too distant future. My sense is that OWS will be back in force with warmer weather in the East. Regardless, without the numbers in the streets, and that is millions of people, we can’t change that much. So the invitation is extended. Passive resistance can be constructive if it is persistent and well conceived. Active resistance can change the world. See you in the Spring?

Rob Urie is an artist and political economist in New York.

Magic: The only way Newt will ever be elected.

Dr. Tom — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:32:07 +0000

2nd Witch:

"Eye of Newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)

Yes, and it’s here already.

Dr. Tom — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:51:29 +0000

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/01/30/big-brother-internet/