Saturday, October 25, 2008

Politics Has Always Been Nasty

Politics Has Always Been Nasty

An argument is going around that says that American Politics has a long history of nastiness, and then are cited instances from before America’s bloody Civil War.

Duh.

The arguments that suppose it is normal to have nastiness in politics must also accept that such nastiness culminates in quite normal Bloody Civil Wars.

When talk between parties and factions becomes so poisoned that nobody could possibly see the use of continuing conversation, the last alternative is a total breakdown of Government, the kind of Constitutional Crisis that made America’s first Civil War inevitable.

Could there be a Second American Civil War. Well, certainly there are hundreds of Right Wing Militia Groups that have prepared for one. Their interpretation of the American Second Constitutional Amendment is that every American has the right to use firearms to kill politicians they do not agree with… and the Supreme Court has been allowing such an interpretation ( I suppose that America is only lucky that Bombs and Poison Gas Weapons aren’t given the same go ahead by the Courts as they have given to military-style machine guns, sniper rifles, and concealable hand guns. If only America could assume that its stupid Red Necks were really too dumb to improvise at least as well as their Brother Muslim Terrorists have proven able to do with bombs and such). Since there are so many guns in America, in the hands of those who are apparently eager to use them against their Government’s personnel and infrastructure, well, Second Civil War seem inevitable.

And all the bitter trash talk in Politics is only leading the way.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Police State, Left Right and All In Between

Many Students of Political Science have noticed that both Rightist and Leftist Regimes can come to favor an almost complete Police Surveillance of Society. Well, what is the common thread, if the inherent Politics is so different?

Well, both Right Wing Politics and Left Wing Politics are various reactions to the Decline of Religious Civilization… more long drawn out repercussions from the Fall of Catholic Civilization way back in the 16th Century. Essentially it comes down to this, that if people are no longer motivated by some binding sense of Moral Obligation, as is indoctrinated by a powerful Religious Influence, then it is necessary to adopt Legalistic Institutions, in an effort to achieve the same ends. If people will not behave themselves, then there must be Laws and Enforcements.

Yes, the West still has Religion, but just look how Religion had changed. Religion became a Popular Religion of Salvation and Forgiveness… hardly the type of Religion that is very strict regarding Moral Concerns. People convinced that they are Forgiven are likely to do anything. Really, since the 16th Century, the dominant Religion in the West has really been an Anti- Religion… a Religion that is largely Anti-Moral. So the very Religion itself demands, for the concerns of Civilization, that there be a Strong Law and Order component. Just notice that the Religious Right, so sure of its own Salvation, is the First to demand Long Prison Terms for Criminals. God will Forgive people, sure, but that is after they Serve their Time.

The Left, with its concern for Enlightened Atheism, may not have the concern of dealing with an Anti-Moral Religion, but they have the problem of having no Religion at all. No moral influence. Yes, yes, we have heard a thousand times that Atheists suppose there can still be Morality without Religion. But the history of it all does not bear this out. Yes, people still KNOW the difference between Right and Wrong. The Traditions and Customs still with us from Catholic Civilization, though dying out, still have their echoes in our Culture. But what we see is that where Morality Matters, it is being ignored. Yes, people know it is WRONG to cheat or steal, but if they SEE that they can get away with it, without getting caught… without tripping any Laws or Police Surveillance, then they are likely to do whatever comes to their advantage. Yes, it is WRONG, but if nobody finds out, then it really doesn’t matter. And the Trend toward this effective Amorality is only intensifying, every generation once more removed and distant from genuine Religious Civilization is increasingly predatory, selfish, and in its social actions, actively immoral.

As an instance, just look at what happened with all of those Upstanding American Protestants as soon as every Enforcement Mechanism and Regulation was removed from Wall Street. They collectively Pillaged the Entire World Economy. Knowing Right from Wrong, their only concern was that they were not breaking any Laws, or, if they were, nobody was on the job to catch them at it. Their Hope for some short term Advantage was neither opposed by any Fear of God or Fear of the Police.

So, Civilizations, Right or Left, can only function if people follow the Rules. If there is no Personally Compelling Moral Structures to contain and discipline Society, no Religion, then there must be strong Legalistic Structures – Police, Surveillance, Enforcement. So we have this meeting between Left and Right.

What of Libertarians and their concern from Privacy. Well, we should remember the beginning of the 20th Century when the Establishment had two big Worries. They worried of Leftist Socialism… of Poor People taking over the Government Apparatus. Then the worried of the Anarchists, the Bomb Throwers, the People who wanted to abolish ALL Government, supposing that they had the most to gain within the ambiance of Chaos and Barbarism… Big Strong Guys who see that they would be more successful as Huns and Vikings, and that raping and pillaging would be a lot of fun for them.

Anyway, those who with great forethought and deliberation insist upon the suppression of the Police and the suppression of Surveillance and Enforcement, these persons are probably calculating on an eventual Collapse of the Present Order and hope that they can replace it with their own Scheme of Things… and then one can be almost certain that, when their own Regime is in place, there won’t maintain the same neglect of Law and Order… while they were willing that their Predecessors should fall to Crime and Rebellion, they would be certainly more careful of their own Viability.

One needs either a very strong Police Presence or a very compelling Moral Religion. And unless such a Religion rises much more quickly than expected, on the Crest of a Wave of some hugely influential Fad, then even if one finds it Philosophically distasteful, than Police will be extremely necessary.

Vice Presidents Very Important This Time

Vice Presidents Very Important This Time

American Politics has often been influenced by Assassination. No, it is not official in the Constitutional Sense, but it is one of those things that the Right Wing has found works for them very well. Indeed, that entire Reagon Revolution, the Rise of the Right in America, could only have worked after every compelling Leftist Leader was taken off the field and then buried beneath it.

No, it is not entirely necessary that such Assassinations be planned from the top. In the Case of America electing a Leftist Black Man for President, I think that the Right Wing Leadership can fairly step back and simply wait for what may well be inevitable, given the numbers of crazy white trash red necks who own all sorts of long range weaponry. Just look at the incentives these Crazy Red Necks would have. Killing a Popular Black President would touch off a Race War… the very thing they have been arming up for. If every Urban Center is burned down in Riots of Historic Proportion, this should hardly concern Rednecks living on the farms and in the trailer parks. Also, and this may be overly cynical, because Joe Biden, the Vice President would be so competent, many in the Government would not be so super anxious to prevent a tragedy to the Chief Executive. Still, nobody should mistake just how devastating the results could be, of a series of Riots destroying America’s Urban Areas, as well as a full out Race War. What was left of any Health in the American Economy would be blown away by it all, and the World would turn to other sources for Economic and Political Leadership. Honestly speaking, Obama really needs to spend his entire Presidency in a bomb proof bunker, surrounded entirely by Security People he hand-picked personally – Black Men from Chicago, whom he already knows on the first name basis. No one else should be trusted. It would be foolish for Obama to suppose that a Law Enforcement Infrastructure dominated by White Free Masons and Mormons would commit many resources against their Friends Back Home from carrying out their Plots.

I had been wondering to myself why some Red Neck Nut had not already taken a Shot… but then it occurred to me that the Red Neck Militia’s may simply be waiting for the off chance that Obama could lose the Election, and this Great Disappointment to the Black Electorate would be enough, in itself, to set off Nation Wide Rioting and then the Race War that the White Militias have been hoping and planning for all these years.

Anyway, now to look at the other side, what if McCain wins, though now the chances for that seem slim (but we are still waiting for the October Surprise… I expect the CIA will make it appear as though Iranians had attacked the World Series Stadium… good for McCain). Now, any plot against McCain would come from the Top, or from certain Intelligence Agencies. If these People thought that McCain would resist the Status Quo, or Plans Already Laid, and if they saw the Possibility that Eva Braun (Hitler’s Wife)… oh, I mean Sarah Palen would simply, pro forma, go along with the Craziest Right Wing Militaristic Policies, then the Right Wing would well consider a ‘shake up’. Probably they would simply make it look like McCain died of some age related thing… a heart attack or something. Poison. If I had to guess, it would be that a MASAD Agent would be willing to commit a Suicide Handshake… putting a slow but fatal poison on his own hand, and get in some Presidential Reception Line… and the Pro-Israel Lobby has plenty enough of them. Remember, the Villains do not necessarily have to be an American Intelligence Agency. The Israeli’s, with their MASAD, have a huge presence in the United States. Heck, Monaco Lewinski was a MASAD Agent, sent in to compromise the American President so that he could not make much ground in coming up with a Mid East Peace. Also, it really needs to be better understood that the MASAD had brought out the entire Allied Jewish Appeal the weekend before 911 to personally call every Jew in New York City, to tell them not to go to work on Tuesday, on 911… they either knew all about 911, before it happened, or planned it (and all it takes is using some Agent somewhere to supply a group of willing nuts with enough Money to do what they are perfectly willing to do in any case… and helping with documents and such).

So, anyway, looking at the dynamics and personalities involved in this Election, viewed from a Historical Perspective, it is really well to look at the Vice Presidential Candidates… for it is probably really one of them that will end in serving out the Full Term. Of course, I would hope that the Presidential Candidates are themselves as concerned for their own survival as I am, or that they have trusted advisors who likewise see these same dynamics, and can take the significant actions required to protect the Top of the Executive Ticket.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Dangerous Bush Legacy

The Dangerous Bush Legacy

Before George Bush W the World could believe that America possibly had a mechanism for keeping itself in compliance with past Treaties and Agreements, that the State Department and Foreign Relations Offices had some kind of binding influence over the Amateur Statesmen who were only elected, temporarily, to Office.

What George Bush W. showed to the World was that any American President could really abrogate any Treaty, any Agreement, any Tradition, any International Law, and do anything he wanted. This Truth really shocked the World. China, Russia, North Korea, who all thought they had standing agreements with America were dumbfounded to find that with the election of a Right Wing Nut, no business conducted, in good faith, in the past mattered the least little bit.

There will be a Bush Legacy. Don’t Trust America. Whatever Treaty, whatever Agreement you come to, lasts only until America, with the worst Education System in the Advanced World, elects another Dangerous Semi-Retarded Nutcase. Then America, automatically, has a completely different foreign policy.

America has destabilized the World. No new President can fix this problem. What America needs to do is Institutionalize its Foreign Policy Treaties. No New President should be able to simply start over again, tabula rasa, blank slate, ignoring all past agreements.

Maybe there needs to be a Foreign Affairs equivalent to the Supreme Court… some Agency that can simply call a halt to Executive Activities that go outside the lines of Curved in Granite Treaties, International Laws, and Solemn Handshake Agreements with other Heads of State… no matter how long ago.

Monday, October 13, 2008

The Left Should Welcome the Surveillance Society

The Left Should Welcome the Surveillance Society

I suppose the Left is still harboring some embarrassment concerning the excesses of the Stalin Period, but wait, didn’t all the corruptions, the criminals and the black-markets, which spoiled the Soviet Experiment, didn’t all that arise AFTER the so-called Stalinistic ‘excesses’ were brought to a halt. Hmmmm. History might examine for the possibility that the people that Stalin sent to the Gulag, in the effective majority of the cases, belonged there.

But the Anti-Soviet Propaganda, if not true, was very influential. So now that a Left that should by its nature wish to know everything, control everything, maintains, instead, a doctrine exactly the same as the most Nazi Anarchist Libertarian – that the most sacred right of a person in a Liberal Democratic Society is enough Privacy so that his criminal behavior cannot be detected. Well, we know why Libertarians wish to protect Crime and Corruption. But what interest does the Left have in advancing private predatory behavior?

And we should consider that the Left is always losing because it seems soft on Law and Order Issues. Well, this is a ridiculous surrender. The Left, in all of its History, should be quite comfortable with the most rigorous Law and Order. Russia had its Surveillance. China too. Why does the Western Left think it must blind itself and let the thieves run free?

But now the Left may have a more compelling argument for taking back its rightful heritage – International Terrorism. Yes, people can use the specter of International Terrorism to frighten people into adopting programs that would ordinarily be counter to the American Traditions of protecting the privacy of Corruption and Crime. However, the unfortunate Truth is that the threat of International Terrorism is real. As much as I can sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian, or share in the laments of the Pan-Islamic World that the West has been unfairly encroaching upon their Culture, Economies and Traditions, still, my first concern is that some crazy muslim fanatic not blow up any more buildings or airplanes (if not for loss of life, but only because all the NEW Security would multiply the irritations we must put up with).

We have the technology. A Total Surveillance World would quickly put an end to the possibility of anyone ever being able to purchase weapons or bombs, transport weapons or bombs, or plan for their deployment. Will Privacy suffer. Sure. But Honest People have nothing to hide. And if you are not Honest, then screw you and you deserve it!

Friday, October 10, 2008

The October Surprise, Don't Go to the Ballgame

The October Surprise, Don’t Go to the Ballgame

The Americans have an informal custom concerning their Presidential Elections – the October Surprise. What it consists of is this, that those already rooted in Power manipulate some huge event, close to Election Time calculated to influence the Electorate to vote en mass for their desired candidate.

In America today, McCain stands to continue all the Institutions of the Military Industrial Complex. Indeed, the man is a crazy bad tempered War Hawk, in other words, the perfect choice for that entrenched Class of War Mongers who now control so much Money and Power from their perches in Washington.

Obama represents only the Future. All the Established Interests of Today probably suspect they have everything to lose and nothing to gain from an Obama Presidency. They’re probably right. So much Fear and Anxiety, so much to be lost, might make people do some really crazy things. And they are all Christians, so, really, they can do anything, are capable of anything, since they are assured that Jesus will love them and Save them no matter what they do. Forgiveness does little for supporting Moral Responsibility. This can make Good Christians extremely dangerous.

Every Political Expert will assert with every certainty that a National Security Emergency would be good for the Republican Candidate – McCain’s only chance, since the collapsing Economy would tend to favor the Democrat, Obama.

So the October Surprise will be a National Emergency Disaster.

Nine Eleven gave Bush 4 more years, and gave him a strong enough Mandate to make the War Interests paramount, and meanwhile pushed the price of Oil, for his Texas buddies, to 5 times the price from when he got into office. Nine Eleven was a huge money maker.

For this up and coming October Surprise I think they will use Iranians, because they want to stir up a War against Iran. What happens is the CIA or the Israeli MASAD funnel money to honest to God Terrorists through a false chain of command and steer them toward whatever is the preferred Target. With Nine Eleven, the CIA found a Cell of nice young men from Saudi Arabia who really did fly the planes into the Twin Towers, but it was the CIA that had planted the explosives in the building and reduced them to rubble. For this next time I have heard rumors that there are many Radical Groups in Iran, loosely disciplined, and they would be easy for the CIA to infiltrate, fund and direct, all while the Radicals themselves would think they were being funded by, oh, Saudi money, and directed by Osama himself. The Target? The World Series. And I think that the CIA will not be happy unless the body count exceeds that of Nine Eleven. This time the CIA might blow up an entire Stadium. How many people fit in one of those places? Even ordinarily sane American will be overwhelmed by a shock wave of unbearable rage. The rush to war will be unstoppable. And they will look to the Republican Hot Head to lead them, not the Democrat who wants to ‘talk’ to Enemies.

My advice? Watch the games on TV. Then vote Democratic anyway. Don’t reward those CIA or MASAD pricks for their continual killing of Americans just so they can keep the War Machine dividends rolling in for their bank accounts. Yes, they will prove the Iranians did it, but they will omit to inform the World that it was, for all intents and purposes, a CIA operation.

Okay, okay, you think all this sounds crazy. Well, it is, but its not my fault. The fault belongs the National Security System whereby any Military or Intelligence Agency, with absolutely no oversight, is perfectly free to declare any of its dealings TOP SECRET. So anybody can do anything they want with almost certain assurances that nobody will find out, or if anybody does find out, that they can be prosecuted by the Law for telling anybody. So they can shoot Kennedy, blow up the Twin Towers, or anything else they want and laugh about it because nobody can ever know, or if they know, can never tell. The Freedom of Speech doesn’t really matter if nobody is allowed to say much of anything because the most important stuff gets Classified.

Oh, remember the Corollary Truth to the National Security State – that you will never hear the Truth because somebody somewhere in some Office or Agency must have Classified it. The only thing they can tell you is Lies. If it didn’t happen or does not exist, they can’t put a Secret Stamp on it. What this means is that any Information released by a National Security State is necessarily Not True, or they would not be allowed to tell you.

Again, don’t go into any stadiums until after the Election. Or don’t complain to me when your dead. Oh, and if you are a remorseless sick ghoul, or merely just a Republican, it probably would be a good time to buy into Defense Stocks, probably the only stocks that will go from now until the End of the World.

The Big Problem with the End of the World

The Big Problem with the End of the World

Much On Line Prophecy has projected that the year 2012 will bring something akin to the End of the World. That year happens to coincide with the stop point of the Mayan Calendar. Catholic Prophecy has already conceded that the List of Popes has run out, with Old Cardinal Ratinger, the Ex-Nazi, taking the name Benedict which everyone knew was the Last Name on the Pope List of Prophecy (see Saint Malachi of the 11th Century, friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux). There are a few 2012 Pages that can fill us all in on many more details of Prophecies that are afield.

A great many prophecies had set forth the notion that the End of the World would be preceded by approximately 3 and a half years of troubles and tribulations. Darn! If the End of the World would culminate in a quick snap, then it would be so much easier to deal with. Those who will survive into the Next Dispensation, or the Next Level, or the Next Vibration… whatever it is which will come Next… well, they would survive, and if they had not been forced to live through any prolonged period of suffering might survive to live happily ever after. But surviving after 3 and a half years of prolonged agony, we could expect that the Next Age might simply be an Age of Damaged Goods. For those who don’t survive, well, if it had been quick it would have been merciful. But a three and a half year decline, calculated to kill by slow grind, well that seems only cruel.

As often as I had maintained that the End of the World was on its way, secretly I would have been quite relieved to find that it had all been just one more On Line Exaggeration, or another Dud of Prophecy that had been propelled along by a grand Public Hysteria but finally dropping off to nothing when nothing failed to ever happened. Well, now, apparently right on schedule we have the Collapse of the World’s Global Economy.

There is little comfort in the Irony that the Liberal Capitalist Democracies had so recently gloated over the Fall of the Planned Economies, their blame being that the Planned Economies supposedly “did not work”. I suspect the real problem was that a somewhat malicious Competition had done its utmost to put the Planned Economies out of business. The problem was murder from without, not any self inflicted systematic suicide. Without such avid Enemies we might have seen the Planned Economies even prosper. Indeed, China is not doing so bad.
But now that Capitalism has melted down, the only alternative to a Quick Collapse of Civilization is exactly the type of Planned Economy about which we still hear derisive echoes. Oh, and while Planned Economies certainly had their challenges in decades past, now, with all the existing infrastructure for an Information Society, Planning would seem to have come into its own. With a Completeness of Information we might expect a Sufficiency in Planning.

There are of course Pure Capitalists who insist that Capitalism must be allowed to have its inevitable Cycles, that we must take the Bad Times, the Busts, along with the Good, the Booms. To them it makes all the sense in the World. But I suspect they hardly deign to think about Millions of People starving to death in the unsupplied Urban Centers of the World. Indeed, the Wealthy throughout History have never discerned when their End was near. They always thought their Estate Walls and Private Security Detachments would be enough to secure their personal survival. It was either a chronic failure of imagination or intelligence that failed to give them the hint, that in the collapse of Everything, their own Security People would turn on them, as money would lose all its value (when do the Security Guards grow tired of paper money that can buy nothing, and instead begin to admire the Golden Candlesticks and the Rich Man’s Pretty Wife?). And as money would decline in value, we could expect that weapons and Armed Force would appreciate significantly. The Effete and Decadent Rich have never survived any Collapse of Civilization to play any part at all in the emergent Barbarisms. The focal points of all righteous anger, the Rich were almost always the first to be swept away by the various Reigns of Terror. So much for their own Advice, from these Pure Capitalists, to simply let the Economic Disasters run their course… if they really knew what that meant, they would hardly be so earnest in welcoming their own Doom. The Last and Hardest Economic Cycle of Capitalism, as Marx predicted, is a Doozy!

Well, an optimist might see the impending Election of Obama as a large plus. He may be open minded enough to actually try organizing a Plan, a mobilization of Labor apart from Capital. Also, as I said before about the Power of Force in Barbarism, under the Wrong President America would be a significant danger to the remainder of the World. After all, we do remember the Republican Party’s Doctrine, the Bush Doctrine, of Unilateral Attack on any Nation that might be considered a Threat. Well, with America being frightened of declining into an impoverished Equality with all other Nations, wouldn’t many of the most ruthless Republicans see EVERYBODY as a qualifying Threat. As resources become increasingly scarce, Americans who had once thought of Capitalism as their Tool for International Competition and Domination, might naturally resort to the only trump card they had left – Nuclear Weapons and their proven Will to use them. In this I do not suspect that Obama would be nearly as trigger happy as McCain.

However, America does not have a good track record on allowing its Liberal Leftest Leaders to live long lives in Office, particularly if they are of the Black persuasion. Millions of Americans are avid gun owners and enthusiasts, and exactly the kind of people who had always been most uncomfortable with the Progress in Black Equality. And it only takes one nut with a clear field of fire… But, à la rigueur, the future Vice President seems a sensible man. More than ever before, it is crucial that the President and Vice President never be together in the same venue. The World cannot risk them both. I don’t trust the Secret Service. I don’t trust the FBI, the CIA, the Military. If Obama has ANY SENSE, he will fire all White House Security foisted upon him by those who had only opposed him – chase off the Secret Service, loyal to who knows who!? (will a White Free Mason Secret Service Agent, or a Mormon for Christ’s Sake, take a bullet for a Black Man that he didn’t vote for?, or rather, that he voted AGAINST! Indeed, the Secret Service could be the very source of any Threat to the Executive, just as the Roman Emperors had most to fear from their own Praetorian Guards). Obama needs to hand pick his own Security Detail – every one PERSONALLY loyal and trustworthy beyond any doubt. Ask John Kennedy… oh wait, he’s dead, and probably because there was not a single Irishman between himself and that Bloody State of Texas that killed him.

Anywayt, how bad could things get. Well, duh, we WERE talking of the End of the World. But the suffering. First consider that all the highly populated urban areas are supplied only because people are paid to drive the trucks, and because there is still fuel for the trucks. And the trucks aren’t empty. If economies collapse, will there be the Political Will to order people to stay on the job? Republicans or Libertarians would hesitate before regimenting complete Societies. And Democrats lack the knack for effective Organization… well, until Obama who has had a famously well organized Campaign… but could he regiment a Society stripped of its Money? Would there even be sufficient Loyalty, Honesty and Self Discipline in the People, or will they instantly turn to rioting, looting, hoarding, black-marketing – of trying to save themselves while almost intentionally advancing the death and agony of others?

Again, America presents a huge challenge. Ordinarily, if the Best of Human Nature did not automatically Triumph, and Discipline needed to be exerted upon a restless Population, then a kind of Marshal Law imposed by Police and National Guard could keep people on the job and assure that the necessary functions would maintain as required. But, again, things in America are complicated by the over-abundance of Firearms combined with a Individualist Survivalist Mentality… of people who had planned for years on ways and means of killing everybody and taking their land and food for themselves… sort of Zionism transplanted to America.

Some Americans think that Hardship will pull everybody together. But that is not why so many people have been stockpiling guns and ammo. I really think that America is predisposed to destroy itself – the Lights will go out and America will become a land of a thousand battling War Lords, with millions dying in the crossfire.

All the densely populated Areas will have problems. Surprisingly, the areas most likely to do the Best are the areas that are now doing the worst. They have hardly nothing now and they are used to it. Chronic Need has fused some of these Social Units together into Cooperative Bodies that do the most to make the best of whatever little they have in common. The future will not represent such a drastic change for them. Indeed, as the Populated Areas depopulate, the presently disenfranchised will be able to move into the relinquished space and finally have their chance to thrive.

Are there any large Societies today where cooperation and self-discipline are Characteristic? Are there any Cultures that haven’t made virtues of Greed and Competitive Hatefulness? Where riots aren’t automatic? Where hoarding isn’t reflex? Where if people are called to work without pay, they’ll show up and do their best for the General Good? Such a Society will be the Survivors who will live to see the Next Dispensation.

But Societies that are just huge conglomerations of competing individuals… Capitalists at heart who were the ones to bring us to this Brink… for them it will truly and irrevocably be the End of the World.