Quesalupa Cheesy Breaking News

Convenience Foods

People are about convenience foods, and now it seems that fat cats who own the news marketplace are about serving up news that is just as cheesy. They also don’t want to have to do the research to know what is fact or fiction on the internet. Actually companies have cookie which track content you look at and spin everything into your ear that falls within the confine of your tastes, all to drive traffic.  News no longer is about truth.  The Kardashians (Sociological reasons) are news, Sarah Palin is news.  Prince William is news.

Fat Cat Press

Blogs

The quality of news is degraded by the blogosphere, many say. That’s because we can cut and snip out portions of news articles from reputable news sources, but the reputable is corrupted by the capitalism of the internet.  Yes, the advertising is what is paying the bills, and the fat cats who make money need the dollars to stay fat.  So really what is news on the web is only what fat cats think will draw money into their coffers. The chart below show the difference between what the public wants to hear about and what the news agencies place as content.

Oh, those two percent-ers. They could care less what is in the news, and they don’t see their owning newspapers, radio and TV stations and internet news sources as related to public service.  No, they see it from the penthouse view of looking down on their bludgeoning financial statements.  [Did I mention fat cats???]  Did the company make quarterly sales figures, and what we are left with is a Quesalupa new diet?  Cheesy and full of links to girls showing off their skin, what the hell has that to do with news?

Outrageous Carp mixed with News

Even news references are often paid spaces from those advertising, or those selling something, as I’m sure you are aware of half the links are pay-by-click sites driving money into someone’s pocket, and not yours or mine.  Having food, sex, fashion and popular culture, the popular menu items just waters down organization ability to generate decent news coverage.

Write it and they won’t come; Unless you link to popular culture! Then write consistently or your relevance fades fast.

As a blogger, I’m always microblogging and linking to content or cultural aspects of what I’m writing so that I can draw more points from the digital bots, (Google mainly) that reflect the relevance of my pieces. I’m at least up front about it.

[Notice that the first three years I was a super blogger, and now I’ve rejoined the rank ranks]

Do you really think my writing is good enough to put my blog up in front of a quarter million viewers, as it has over the past few years.  I’m writing this thing infrequently, and so I’ve found that to have a voice, I have to build a complex system of other people boxes to get up high enough to broadcast in the world of news and social commentary.  Maybe you are like me and lose interest if no one is reading your posts.  Sites like Yahoo and MSN are full of content they did not create, but snagged from other sources like the Huffington Post, New York Times, Reuters, Associated Press, and a load of sponsored site.   Companies like Taboola are helping drive information regardless of its character, authenticity and accuracy.  The ethic is making money now providing reliable news.

 

My social experience is that you need Darth Vader, Clockwork Orange, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Prince and Michael Jackson type focus to get any real traction on the slippery slopes of blogging. Without them, your content is just zeros and ones floating into a blackhole of the unseen.  Digital conversations with the ether.  The tags are the communication that connects us, not the content.  People are not caring or even wanting your insights and commentary blog world.  They want you porn, your gossip, your pictures of the famous or notorious.  If I could place Osama bin Laden ‘s corpse up, I’d have something that many might like to see especially if it had a video, regardless if the picture was real or not.  Heck didn’t they make an Osama movie focusing on that death scene????  You need some violent psychopathic tendencies to illicit the type of traffic in this “dog eat dog” world.

Advice Point:

When placing popular cultural items in you blog, who cares if they make any sense, they will drive people to your site.

Internet News and Regular News is Corrupt

This graphic depicts the real world of how news doesn’t meet the public’s interest in content. The lines are out of whack.  This is the same reasoning that keeps the cheesy fattening goodness of the Taco Bell Quesalupa on the menu.  Everyone knows this meal is more like a cholesterol and sodium through the roof.   As CEO Creg Greedy, oh I mean Yum Brands Greg Creedy has stated, “Easy trumps better!”  As Yum does care about nutrition and quality, neither does the news agencies we read each day.  So enjoy your cheese, and also don’t worry about indigestion.  The fat cats want your money and they don’t care if you grow stupid by reading the poor quality news and information they  control.  What are you going to get cancer – if it were so they would own medicine?  Oh know, perhaps they do?

Article References

http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/taco-bells-quesalupa-what-exactly-is-it-w163753

Schnell writes: While many lament the seeming lack of quality, in-depth journalism today, a Gawker article argues that the inescapable problem is that you need a paying (in some form) audience (of a large enough size) to do it. There are plenty of free “news” sources to be found online, especially blogs simply regurgitating and putting a spin on wire news reports. But as the article notes, “The audience for quality prestige content is small. Even smaller than the actual output of quality prestige content, which itself is smaller than most media outlets like to imagine.” Even highly respected news sources like the New York Times are resorting to wine clubs, and the Washington Post is giving free subscriptions to Amazon Prime members to drive more corporate synergy and revenue. Rich parent companies are giving up on boutique, high-quality, niche journalism projects like ESPN’s Grantland and Al Jazeera America because there simply aren’t enough TV viewers/online ad clickers to pay the bills. So how do we reconcile our collectively-stated desire for high quality journalism with our (seeming) collective unwillingness to pay for it?

3 stylized facts: i) particular quality news markets are dominated by merely a few providers, ii) demand for quality news appears stable, but provision of news has become specialized; mainstream news is decoupled from quality news, and iii) the dominant business model of internet news mirrors that of radio, television, and newspapers in that costs of news production are recouped via advertising.

6 companies own the America news media are swimming in the money:

The Trash Economy

In the trash economy, they even pay you for picking up trash.
You get fully state benefits, medical, and retirement. All
you have to do is vote!  The state will give you all you need
to live in one handy-dandy, little white-plastic shopping bag.

It’s all about the taxes. Without a balanced approach, states are left with serious problems economically to provide needed state services.  Seems the Republicans are buying power to budget cut their states at the benefit of big business by lower corporate taxation.  But there are serious consequences to this new right wing movement, and that is the cut of education and government services.

You see the logic used by these politicians was that if you cut the cost of government, people will be awarded with more jobs and less of a tax burden, but the tax burden was only lifted really for the businesses in those states. Were they afraid that businesses might move out of state to build plants and operations overseas, or even worst place their corporate headquarters under shell companies on remote islands and in places like Panama, so as not to pay any state or federal taxes at all. 

The problem here is that American governance has been sold by power hungry politicians to those with the money, big money, especially Wall Street banks and investment banks.

States where the governments have been taken over by republicans are in the worst shape – and remember we aren’t yet even discussing federal level politics, though that is also a huge problem. But the states are in sorry shape with the mantra of “Cut Government Spending” has actually taken place, where prisons have been emptied, education budgets halved and all sorts of services have been trimmed.  So who is going to pick up your trash, keep your water clean, your roads fixed, teach your kids, and incarcerate your drug addicts and sellers?

The combination of corporate America taking its work out of the control to improve the bottom line and the trashing of governance and public services has really screwed up states. Tax revenues are down. Stagnation has occurred.  The reduction in revenues has impact what states and local governments are willing to pay people as well.  In one state no one will work at the community centers because they can make more money working elsewhere.  And who really wants to be a prison guard after all for so little pay? 

Whacked by our politicians

How whacked is it? Think about it.  If the jobs are in the public sector and not the private sector, than the money generation for state taxes is taxing those who work for the state – smells like socialism.   We are a socialist country already, as the government already controls too much.  And the real problem is that that government officials are not beholden to the people, but to those who finance their campaigns, and who pay them to pass legislation, or to pull old legislation.  Do you remember the Glass-Steagall Act?

Glass-Steagall Act

Remember or learn that BACK IN 1999, Democrats led by President Bill Clinton and Republicans led by Sen. Phil Gramm joined forces to repeal Glass-Steagall at the behest of the big banks. Yes, the big banks wanted to make more money by handling investments.  When they earn more money, no new jobs are created, only more money enters the hands of their companies, their shareholders and consequently the rich get richer and nothing improves for the poor. The original reason for the Glass Steagall Act was to protect the country from the conflict of interest between investment and banking which caused the great depression in part.  The great serpent, that lying beast, the economic devil in disguise of glad tidings raised its head back at the Bush administration bailouts.

Corporate Bribery

 

Another reason things went south was by letting rich people and corporations hide their profits in shell companies.  That should be illegal.  Those con men selling that to the American people need to go to prison.  Also tariffs need to be place on foreign produced goods, so that manufacturing is driven back to American shores and so that real jobs are created for people to work at, and where they can get off government subsidies and aid. Just think about how many other panama type exposures could happen to reveal how much of America wealthiest hide their money!

 

The politicians have made their masters very happy, and they have gotten fat and rich, but they have devastated their local state economies, gutted state education and ruined state employees’ benefits and pay.  Educators need resources, people need education, and innovation comes from education, not in tax shelters, tax breaks and incentives to invest in the infrastructures of other countries.  Again the rich benefit, and they PAY THEIR FAVORITE POLITICIANS to keep it that way.  Just how the 2016 election is paid for by Wall Street.

Look at the following examples to see how screwed up state economies have gotten:

Misssissippi:

“County officials across Mississippi are warning of job losses and deep deficits as local jails are being deprived of the state inmates needed to keep them afloat. The culprit, say local officials, is state government and private prisons, which are looking to boost their own revenue as sentencing and drug-policy reforms are sending fewer bodies into the correctional system.”

Response; why should the local economy be tied to the working in prisons and drug law enforcement efforts. This is madness. Economies should not be derived from the business of government. Read the article about how screwed up Mississippi is here.

Kansas:

“The bulk of Brownback’s tax moves in 2012 and 2013 revolved around state income tax rates for individuals. Those cuts, which primarily benefited those already wealthy enough to shoulder a greater share of the cost of schools and roads in Kansas, are politically untouchable even in the current calamity. But Brownback’s other signature move has lost the support of several of his fellow Republicans and will likely be at the epicenter of any budget deal lawmakers ultimately achieve.”

Response: another case of cut taxes for the rich, and lose state services like education.  Who needs an educated population?  Voters need to be stupid to vote for republicans who slice the education budget in half.  Who needs trained engineers, nurses, scientists, doctors, civil servants and academics?

Final Thoughts:

What has destroyed state economies is the same thing that has created the Wal Mart American society, the trash economy. What has depleted the Middle class, made the poor dependent on Uncle Sam, and ruined the livelihood of regular Americans, is that the government is now in charge of ensuring the rich get richer.  Without productive jobs to go to, everyone can only afford to buy cheap foreign made goods.  The quality of American life, the American dream in is glory, is fading.  This is the Trash Economy.  Relying on jobs in the public sector where half the country, especially the darker colored ones, is the only economical solution, is bizarre at best. What has to be fixed is how we earn our money.  The rich need to have rules that apply to them.  Throw out congress and elect people who will change the rules on how profits are made, close the tax shelters.  Bring the jobs home, and make it unprofitable for companies to take their work overseas.

Now hiring: Workers are seen sorting as the conveyor belt moves recyclables to be sorted at the Waste Management Elkridge Material Recycling Facility on June 18, 2015 in Elkridge, Md. D.C. and other local jurisdictions send their recyclable materials to the Waste Management facility in Elkridge for recycling. The cardboard and paper products are baled and shipped to China for new product production. The facility is a one thousand ton facility, where it takes in a thousand tons and sends out a thousand tons daily. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

 

Articles referred to in this blog piece

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mississippi-jails-are-losing-inmates-and-local-officials-are-devastated-by-the-loss-of-revenue/ar-BBrLU3D?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=SL5BDHP

http://sandiegofreepress.org/2012/08/how-mitt-romney-set-up-offshore-shell-corporations-bank-accounts-and-paid-no-taxes/

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis

http://www.thenation.com/article/what-happens-when-republicans-try-destroy-public-education/

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/secret-and-lies-of-the-bailout-20130104

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/wall-street-is-putting-money-behind-these-presidential-candidates_us_55b143e7e4b08f57d5d414ad

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-25/what-s-destroying-middle-class-wages-china

http://usuncut.com/class-war/the-trickle-down-disaster-in-kansas-is-so-bad-that-even-republicans-are-trying-to-cover-it-up/

 

Love Your Enemy or Else!!!!

The Devil is known by those of the Christian faith to want to bring death and destruction on God’s people. He hates humanity. That is part of the reason so many uneducated Americans think that servants of Allah worship the devil. The world’s recent events have painted a crystal clear picture of those perpetuating criminal attacks on innocent people in the name of Allah. One was the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley, held hostage in Syria. The other was the abduction of school girls by Boko Haram. Americans look on these events, and their attention is drawn to the spectacular, the criminal and the crazed world of the middle east and central Africa, but is America ready for its own Jihad?

If these groups were residing in Georgia, or California or even Texas, these abductions and murders would be investigated by the FBI. But for now, they only appear on TV a world away. If the USA had people beheaded and their children stolen from out of a government sponsored school, Americans would seethe with anger and take actions. Yet, clearly a faith-based genocide has gone on in Iraq with the destruction of the Christian minority in the northern provinces and what has the US done? — well that’s a world away, remember!

Westerners can’t get their head around it. But the psychological message which metaphorically blazoned in our psyche is clear: Western thought, education and intelligence is outright rejected by those of the radical Sunni Muslim faith. Lope off his head, and he can’t think, can’t speak, and can’t question Islamic culture. Juxtaposed with the train of thought or the ideas westerners are taught; namely to be tolerant of others belief systems, divergent thinking and lifestyles. It is only when militants use alternative lifestyles and religion as a reason to execute people, that westerners take notice and writhe in horror.

The head of the journalist is the symbol that can’t be denied. It might as well be hosted up on a pike, with the blood dripping down the shaft — brutality in all it’s glory! One man thus becomes an image we can all feel. Western thought is to be rejected and those whose heads a filled with western thought need to be removed, violently.

What is in the Sunni thinking that so hates western ideas and western logic? This is a legitimate question, but the roots of why this problem has come up is so detailed and complex it spins the head, wrenches the neck, and stuns the brain. Unlike the modern west, the Muslim world still teaches the state and religion go hand in hand.

What actions have western nations taken to be hated so?

In my opinion what the US did when they attacked Iraq was clearly an act of war, and it was not done lawfully according to the constitution. It was justified by very flimsy reasoning as being connected to the terrorists attack on 9/11. Where was the actual proof? How was it legal, peaceable, and reasonable? Governments in the west aren’t living up to the standards of right and wrong, aren’t following their own tenets and rule of law, and therefore are guilty of crimes against humanity. If we did this personally, we’d be sitting in prison awaiting judgement.

Then there are several hundred years of British colonialism that plagued the Middle East, the far east and many other parts of the world. It is the domination of the strong societies over the weak that make men cast off enlightened western beliefs. Medicine and engineering, mathematics and sciences all grew to where they are today through the western school of thought. Western Imperialism affected the whole world, oppressed people and systematically, and exploited human societies everywhere their greedy hands went — always at the tip of the sword or barrel of a gun. So the west’s immoral exploitation of the world’s resources is what propelled them to the top.

AnotherForeign Culture

The Boko Haram operates like a gang of thugs. Their idea of eliminating western education, is reflected quiet well in abducting school children. They are like a bunch of gang-banger dropouts who want to take over the governing, replacing a civil society with the rule of force. Terror allows them to manipulate people, paralyze them with fear, and to rob from the weak.

Though this radical form of Islam and the indoctrination it produces is a danger to the world, we are more at risk due to internal illegal acts are committed at home. The fact that our government doesn’t enforce immigration laws, spies on the congress, uses the CIA to disrupt foreign nations affairs, has done illegal operations such as arming terrorist in central America and Mexican drug cartels, doesn’t bode well for Americans.

But more importantly, the rise of most of these powerful extremist groups overseas is associated with one thing: poverty. They associate that with the influence of the west.

In Nigeria Boko Haram rose because people were living on one dollar a day, the barest subsistence income. Recruiting the impoverished and the neglected — especially children the cling to their faith for intellectual guidance. Having rejected western teachings about how the world works, they have a crazy idea that the Koran teaches that the earth is not round and that the only book they can study is the Koran. Most Muslims across the world do not reject western thinking and western ideas, especially when it brings better medicine and a better standard of living, but Boko Haram uses it as the premise for their argument against the western-influenced Nigerian government.

So for centuries the groups who did not benefit from Western Imperialism and the “global economy” lived in impoverished and prosperous conditions. When their neighbors, tribes and foreigners where making big bucks by being aligned with the ruling european powers. Western thought talked of savages and bring civilization, improving the social, political and economic infrastructure of the nations they possessed. But Imperialism of the west sucked the resources out of the native lands and brought prosperity to Europe and America. Starving people do not look fondly on the fetted rich, but “everyone is enlightened” when they eat well, have clean cloths, have cars, have entertainment – just look as Maslow’s theories for confirmation.

FATTEN YOUR ENEMY TIL HE CAN’T LIFT HIS WEAPON

In this world of great iniquities, the poor gather to the purveyors of “truth” who give them hope to throw of their oppressors. They don’t want this, but they have no hope. If they had food and clothing, they would chose a very different path, and one not filled with rhetorical nonsense. The wisdom of the west should bring about better conditions across the world. That’s a goal everyone should work for, but greedy, power-hungry men are bent on living lives of luxury. They aren’t interested in righting the social imbalances, bring a higher standard of living to all. Anyone from the west is seen as rich and become the targets of the militant poor.

How long will it be until Americans are living in third-world subsistence living. It may take another hundred years or so as it is still a very effluent nation. But the corporations of capitalism who control the western governments disconnect themselves from any nation states government, to avoid being controlled and taxed.   The duck social responsibility, and have no concern if their decisions are detrimental to a county like America.  When corporate entities are not beholden to a nation, then they push to find the most favorable and least restrictive environment so maximize profit, the only God they know. As the jobs are stripped from the USA, over time the same economic conditions begin brewing. Throw in social racism against blacks, and you create a highly volatile mix of economics and social unrest. Everyone knows that manufacturing jobs that once were the heart of America industrial cities have gone to China and India, Bangladesh and Taiwan.

But as middle class and blue-collar decent jobs give way to poor paying retail and service sector jobs, the great American buying power will wilt. This in turn will further erode the strength of America.

Ideologies

Radical ideologies drive e members of ISIS and Boko Haram. The impoverished and oppressed look to overthrow their oppressors and to take control of the government. Eventaully the impoverished oppressed groups of the west will radicalize their beliefs like groups on the fringe of the American polital scene, namely, the KKK and the neo Nazis? Any group that has hatred as the core of its rhetoric will gather strength as the nation’s economic power wanes? Today we hear the beginnings of a possible volcano of trouble when it comes to immigration reform. As poor white Americans find their standard of living continuing to fall, they will turn their frustrations against the rising illegal Hispanic population. The immigration reform rhetoric is already filled with hate and abuse. Americans are currently concerned as their standard of living continues to shift downward.

People in the US already fill powerless against the policies of the federal government which fosters the growth of the global economy so that corporate America can gain. This policies are truly a madness. Americans without work and a decent standard of living will like the Boko Haram and ISIS members begin looking for militancy to address their grievances.  Jihad is inevitable.

To prevent social unrest, wealth has to be better distributed. But that isn’t happening. Actual what is happening is that rich Chinese folks are buying up stagnant industrial areas like Toledo and Detroit. The rich are selling off American assets. Striping them from American use. Not a pretty picture for the poor and middle class looking for work. Unless this bleeding of America stops, violence will ensue. Yet, the government’s response has been to militarize the local police forces.

Americans may not be able to stop the beheadings and the abductions internationally, but they better well work toward improving the American economy, and ensuring everyone gets jobs or radicalized Americans will rise to unleash a wave of crime the country has never seen before. This is most especially true for black men living in America cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock and Kansas City. We need to revitalize these cities, and start capital new ventures. But as long as everyone else is making a killing using coolies in Chinese factories, the bleak future of America is the only picture I can paint. Maybe not tomorrow, but at least in one hundred years.

As the core of Americas cities continues to disintegrate the criminal element will recruit the disenfranchised just like Boko Haram. They will eventually take up arms against the police state. At first the clashes will be limited, but eventually David will take done Goliath, and once law enforcement is stopped, the madness will begin. The ideologies of the organized hate groups will be let loose on the streets. The strong will rise up and kill maim and destroy. That’s why the rule of law must be kept in place. You don’t want American Jihadists stepping forward, the neo Nazis and the motorcycle gangs, you don’t want the rule of order from the Mexican Mafia or the Aryan Brotherhood, the Crips and Bloods. Without law and order, you would see our own Boko Harams and ISIS of our own cultural making.

What Nigeria and Iraq need are western ideas of law and order. They need school and education, and logic and reason. They need to arrest those who commit genocide and murder, kidnapping and extortion.

But the US is not the only nation with similar trouble. Look at Europe, with their wholesale open doors to foreign immigration, especially from the Muslim world. Yikes! Euro Mad Max in the making. As long as the rich seek to suck money and profit out of the world, and as long as they control the political machinery of nations worldwide, the situation will get worse.  Remember it’s all about the money!

Inflation and why you should fear

The money supply in the past few years has tripled.  What is the result of that tripling?  First the government has basically said a dollar is now worth 33 cents, or one third of what it was worth a couple of years ago.  You should be scared.

What does that mean?  You use to page $1.50 for a gallon of gasoline, and now what are you paying?  Here in CA at a shell station close to where I ride the train, the cost was already $4.37.  What’s means the $1 in 2007 is now worth 34% cents today.  The price is showing you the true inflation rate.

I also see that reflected accurately in my pay buying less.  don’t you.  So what happen to truth in reporting.  The government doesn’t want you to think about it.  They are using it (inflation) to effectively decrease their debt, by making the money’s value decrease.  So if they own 17 trillion dollars, and they keep pumping money into the money supply, then they really only owe one third of the value of that debt.

Think about how that works for your debt.  Let’s say that you owe $10,000 and now you want to pay it off.  Well the drop in value of the dollar is great for you, because in real terms you are only having to pay 33 cents on the dollar, or $3333 for the $10,00o.  This works for all debts.

Weird how your debt is better than your earnings.  But that’s the scary part.  Debt is a promise, and you are not really paying what you promised.  It makes you a big liar, like the government.  No integrity, like the white house.

The rich corporations and banks don’t want to inflate things, but the government is over its head in debt.  Because what happens next is that everyone raises their price so they can have more value to cover the rising costs.  But, at the same time, the pay for jobs will go down, because the profit margins for the rich, the stockholders and the CEOs won’t go down.  They need  higher prices and lower pay to keep their greedy little accounts growing with worthless money.

In real terms, the government is owned by corporate america and the banks.  They are beholden to floating the economy.  Because of that, they lie constantly about what things are worth.    Lance Roberts has written a solid piece in how those figures have been compromised.

The fabric of American society is totally immersed in the deception.  This series of lies and alteration of consistency in reporting inflation; the fact that the media doesn’t report these adjustments shows that corporations have something at stake in not reporting it; the fact that what the American government did in bailing out the automakers, AIG, and the banks was totally illegal.  This huge system of capitalistic control of government where both parties are owned by wall street and the banks, really should spin your head.  This total disregard for the law shows you how bad the situation really is.

Corporate america has we the people by the balls.  They own the news media and the government in which most people trust.  As Ralph Nader stated, ”

It isn’t just the government under the CONTROL of corporations–the government IS the Corporation now! The corporation IS the government!”

The Media you watch is controlled by corporations!

6 media companies

Suggested readings:

Aftershock by Robert Reich

20 biggest Donors for 2012 election — Mother Jones

Deadly Monopolies — P2P Foundation’s Blog

Ralph Nadar on Corporations

 

 

 

White on black

Good and evil are represented continually in movies, and the use of color to demonstrate the right from wrong has always been white good black long. Black is usually collected around gray and red. White often with earth tones. In Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s infamous movie the colors are shifted. Is he saying that the gang of thugs are in the right, and the wicked purveyors of societal order are in the wrong.

The uniforms of the four droogs look like this:.  They do have black hats.  I think white might have been to “Singing in the Rain” – isk. Most of use in the real world wouldn’t run around in white jump suits with crotch protection.

Compare that with star wars.  George Lucas used the traditional colors.  The empire runs around in gray, black and red uniforms.  Only the clone trooper wear all white — but they are controlled by the man in black, Darth Vader. The characters is the film associated with the rebellion were also very connected to mother nature.  They are the tones and shapes of vegetation like  Yoda.  Many of the creatures like wookies, gungans, ewoks and jawas.  The unif0rms of the rebel alliance are camouflaged according to the location of their base.  In the movie that means usually tan or green with the exception of when they are hiding on the ice planet Hoth.  The presence of white as the good guy in hollywood films.  Especially righteous are the white hats.

Growing up these colors were in the Cowboy movies and in the cartoons as well.  John Wayne wore a white hat in Fort Apache.  And Snidely Whiplash hat the lovely black cap. White of course is a crazy color in reality.  It is impractical.  It turns brown of black with a mere smudge of experience.  Black hides all the dirt.  So colors do have in a sense realistic long lasting characteristics when worn.  Evil hides behind smokes and screens, grays and browns.  Good is pure and had nothing to hide.

We expect the colors of blue, green, brown and yellows are healthy, neutral.  In the movie Avatar, the people of the land are all in a world of color, which the expansion of man is desecrating.  The machinery and the weapons of men cut down the peaceful and nature-bound inhabitants.

The avatar people are blue, and probably represent American Indians or the indigenous peoples of earth.  Even the natural resource the men are trying to pry out of the hands of the tribe is colorful.  Their whole world is full of color, while the imposing unnatural arrival of men from our world has destroyed all the remains beautiful, sacred and holy.  Again the movies are showing us what is really happening in our real existence.  Here we have the greedy rich corporations and investors, bankers and other insatiable capitalists stripping the planet of its natural resources and subjugating the peoples of the earth to wage slavery.

Civilization Requires Borders

Have you ever thought about the significance of borders?  This is a real question of unexpected value for those of us living in the world today.  Borders, and the crossing and crisscrossing, whereupon cultures pour in to change the mix of society.  The illegal immigration of millions should have brought some reason to think about this issue.  Why do we have borders, and what are their value to society or more importantly to civilization.

History is doomed to repeat itself, or so they say, so what is inherent in the downfall of American society is the porous nature of the borders she holds.  When  Rome fell, there were years of using cheap outside labor (slaves acquired though various wars),, so are Mexicans the slave labor of today’s world of Americans?  I certainly looks that way sitting here in California.

Other global ramifications of borders is that borders control the flow of goods and services.  The controllers of the gates control the flow of money back and forth.

For the common American is the plight of the common Roman may be quite similar.  Bread and circuses, food stamps and television: both contain the roots of a moral decline in the citizenry.  The devaluation of the dollar – and the coinage.  Clinton pennies are so cheap today, that once the hit the streets, almost no one picks them up – what can you buy with on any way.

Borders  were first established to keep the bad out of the good; like a way of fencing of the barbarians from the edges of civilization.  But the bad roams the streets here in the U.S.A, so what good would propping up a dead republic from the immigrations of people just looking for a better life.

The world, many muse, is headed toward one world government, and with it the elimination of borders, but don’t let the logic fool you, their will be controls, and controls between people is always a border issue.  Controlling the immigration of people is always part of the master plan of the rich to control the poor.  If the rich had ultimate power, they would demolish whole cities, and rebuild, and then they would need to police out the scum – the poor.  Ever heard of imminent domain?

The morals of capitalism is that rich equals a moral citizen, and poor equals a wretch who must be pushed outside of the few of the rich.  I’m honestly surprised the rich aren’t getting the cops in LA to escort the homeless out of their view.

However, rich have no master of moral life.  According to Christ it is the poor man who has the best chance to enter heaven.  The rich have their own heaven, one of their own making.  Funny the dichotomy between wanting to live a good life in the United States,  the land of milk and honey, and living the better life in the next world, but even then isn’t there a gate at the border?

Starbucks and the insatiable appetite for power

I recently read in the Los Angeles Times that Starbucks was going to be offering wine and beer at several locations.  What is it with this company?  Is this the coffee king of greed: of course.

It is said that America is home of the brave, land of liberty, and a proud nation of consumers; however are people going to applaud mixing a coffee shop with a bar?   Seems absurd.  But that’s one thing about consumerism, the people actually have a voice in what’s going on: consumer freedom reigns supreme, like an aftertaste of democracy.

Can you think about something the more twisted than mixing beer and coffee? Well that’s where the fun begins.

Now personally most of the people I see at a Starbucks are the type who would not normally hang out at a bar.  In my neighborhood there is a Starbucks next to a Blockbuster.  The folks at the Starbucks are usually in their 20s or 30s.  They meet the others to study to read to research.  Reminds me of a college campus.  Their minds are quick and engaging, and the idea is to meet others like themselves, to socialize and to meet new friends.  Such a good thing.  But when you add alcohol, that changes the chemical mix.

Starbucks is going strong, and the store is often crowded, but the Blockbusters is closing down in February.  The business of entertainment has changed rapidly over the years, and the streaming video that is possible makes having to check out dvds unnecessary, but at Starbucks people still can get what they can’t: companionship, at a cheap price.  People don’t go to blockbusters to socialize of course.  As long as people can get what they want they will keep coming.    Anyone can select what they want to watch on their networked device at home now, thought for some they won’t like not having the choice any longer.  With people not getting out to get their videos, the somebody’s going to have to build tougher and more rigid furniture to put up with the weight of people gain couch-potatoing in front of their 50-inch plasmas.  America needs new business ventures, so solid furnishings is a go.  Leather is car seats needs to be replaced too with something tougher like Yak Hides for those heaven-laden rumps.

Not like I’m not part of the movement or anything.  After 150 hours of sky rim, my virtual world is just as large as the common Joe‘s.

The social dynamics of a bar are not unlike the social dynamics of a Starbucks except in the fact that the type of clientele drawn in can be worlds removed.  A coffee addict may like to purchase a scone or muffin to complement their latte, but what will the alcoholic think about tasty breakfast treats.  No, really demanding beer nuts and pizza.  I just can’t see Starbucks merging with Pizza Hut.

I wonder if the management has had too much to drink: do they really want drunkards in their stores.  The knock to hire a bouncer, and someone to card, and then they’ll add live music, and paint the ceiling black and the walls to.  It just hurts my mind thinking about it

But the people will vote. They vote with their dollars.   Too bad politics doesn’t work that way.  The way it actually works is that only those with big bucks can really influence the vote.  You have to have a couple million to donate to a candidate you like.  Funny how capitalism works and democracy doesn’t because of capitalism not working.

I wonder how much Starbucks gives to candidates each year.  I wonder what their politics are like:   take a look.

http://www.economist.com/node/21531476

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/politics/Starbucks%20Fairtrade.htm

The CEO of Starbucks seems to think capitalism and politics in America is broken too.

So America understand this.  Your vote doesn’t count for much any longer.  Your politicians do hear one thing, and that is money.  You want to change the world then change your consumer habits, and buy things that represent your politics.  If you don’t like the fact that some company owns your representation, then don’t buy their products.  If you don’t like the fact that some company is using slave labor overseas, or that a company has dropped 2,500 jobs in the USA and moved their factory operations to China, then stop buying their goods.  If you don’t care, then maybe you should.

Bureacracy: Splitting Education into Two Camps

One side says, “Come partake of wisdom.”      The other side says “Where is the money.”

I have never been hurried out of a room so fast. The whole thing surreal and awkward – such is life. This blog entry looks at the politics of disability along a personal narrative with respect to college life. It is about exclusion, collusion, and the civil war of educational values. Names have been changed as to avoid the posturing and nastiness of past exchanges. Reader discretion is advised. The first thing that need to be spelled out, is the double-edged sword that is organizational bureaucracy.  In the Cal State University system, this is especial true – and it should be noted that this organizational ‘fat’ at times, truth be told, can radically and covertly deal with a problem infecting the organizations’ standing. As LeBon pointed of ‘crowd’ mindset; the gathering calumniates into a beast quite formidable. Throw in some office food, cake and favors, and a common threat into that crowd; a force to be reckoned with. While that force can tackle an issue, whereas a social benefit, this blog will focus on the contrary:  how the meetings instrument waste, the resulting feature being a tribe full of minions in contrast to the few that care.  At a time when the classes slashed, and fees on the consistent upward surge; the Disabilities office, thought better not to double down effort – not to pull closer the students with disabilities, in their charge.  Instead of being accessible, they locked their doors and hide in the VP’s posh conference room where no students could hassle them.

On this day, the staff chose to make war, and further divide.  Whereas the office is already closed every other Friday, they chose to lock themselves away from their needy students, to have a banquet despite the plight of humanity.  A Friday like no other, and on this day, the two camps were more evident than ever. The administration is itself split in this civil war of values.  Some are in the support camp, busy refining students’ academic skill sets, mentoring, tutoring, and advising.  The other camp discussing internally how disabled students are problems and that they only live with them to have jobs.

Well in my experience, the students gravitate to finding the souls in the first camp and see right through the insincerity of the second camp’s advertisement of value, their tone of plastic charm.  The real gold is soft, the coated coin hard to the bite.  In this case in point, the students with disabilities were finding that in the last hours of their week before finals, that they even more than the ordinary need the real pragmatic assistance.  They spend hours laboring away in the computer lab, and the staff were readily available to help out those students, to the point of delaying their arrival to the luncheon of the organization, being oblivious to the meeting the other camp had orchestrated.   There could be no argument the dedication, the resolve, and at times obvious improvements made about that camp. The person charged with this lab micro-management, we will call him Frank, the care camper.

On this day, Frank, remarks of the Cal State’s ( students)  lack-luster attempt to protest the rising cost of California education; saying that though the students want to fight, they have no real targets.  Frank makes has a valid point. Personally, I understand that ancient desire of expressing my own frustration through destructive means to show the administrative bureaucracy that lives in their self-focused world that they offer  no practical answers to redress problems that common students face – like lack of classes, impaled financial aid awards, professors who grade subjectively, etc.  That destructive impulse, glad to say, has been abated almost entirely due to the healthy connections fostered – quite slowly, and quite grudgingly – by the few, the proud, the positive deviants about the fat; themselves subjected to administrative heat, for caring.

So Frank, who has been a proud sponsor of my own professional future, being from camp care and knowing that I, a student with little capital and coffee money, might benefit from sucking off the fat.    But NO!  Camp “we are here for the money, honey” and students are not invited nor welcomed in the fat room.   They are there to wine and dine, and they do not socialize with the students.  What is the point of working with students unless you want to see them succeed says camp care; while camp don’t care says, we are here to keep you, the mass of students, from catching these “administration building” on fire – as students = problems.  Faculty and staff that take time to address you as a person when you are a student says something about their philosophy of service, their care for humanity, and their character as people.  The care camp are there, and don’t care camp are self-serve only, baby.

The fat, had other plans for my getting some – and Frank, being frank, was appalled.   The top office, with the most ribbons, like a dutiful soldier, questioned this “rude”  intrusion, and forbade the exception to military rule (never even asking why a grunt should join the ranks).  No student can suck the fat with officers in the club (PERIOD).  Staff only.   How embarrassing it was for me, and angering it was for the care camp.  Frank lost, and needless to say I walked away with an empty coffee cup.  Will Frank lose a stripe, have his own ribbons shredded, or his hand slapped?  Probably.  Will a grunt learn a lesson in how the rabid crowd spits on outsiders, for sure.

Frank does have a valid point with respect to the students’ lack of  fire. This generation has no Vietnam to incite their feelings against of social injustice, nor do they have the same anger about the oppression of minorities.  I do concede that much, but there is another side to it. Too few care, about the public agenda disemboweling education, and too many bureaucrats commit to wasting the funds given to quality education — instead embarking they do, on privatized agendas, not well aligned with the interest of the student.  It is what makes public schools look bad.  It is what drives an argument for a charter school system and all out private education — corruption. It is what will result in the dampening the fire that is being frank, rather than flourishing; dies young in college.  My money is that Frank won’t stay very long for just that reason. Not well paid is one thing, but to alienate the one being frank — that makes for a bad party.

So remember that there is a game called cops and robbers.  The cops chase and apprehend the bad guys, but if there was no crime, who would they apprehend?  The justice system needs criminals to succeed.  They need people to live in oppression so they feel a need to steal, get angry enough to kill.  Crime won’t go away; cops need it, lawyers, parole officers and prison guards too.   The disabled offices in this country have a mix of employees.  Some are in the help you camp, the others are there to stop their schools from experiencing student trouble, including civil right cases.  The difference in intrinsic and extrinsic motivators really shows.  Just ask other, more senior, students, and they will tell you which ones are feeding off you or who tie you down in the red tape of bureaucracy and which one will teach you the ropes.  This holds true across the entirety of all campuses.

Sound off with your experiences!  Have you found Frank, and are you fighting with political civil servants who would love to give you less time and earn more pay doing it?