It's All About Bullshit

  
Definitions of Bullshit

• Term of disparagement and ridicule of (mainly) ideas and utterances. 

• To try to persuade someone or make them admire you by saying things that are not true

• The faeces (poop)of a bull.

An important detector that has a universal application.

Interview by Aimie Birdwhistle, editor of Woman's Monthly, with Professor Algernon Twithead, PhD, University of Lardberg, Birdsville, Canada. Professor Twithead is a biologist/zoologist who has made a lifelong study of bovine feces and methane emissions.

The Interview:
AB "Good morning Professor Twithead."

ATPhD "My friends just call me Twit for short. In fact many of enemies refer to me as a Twit too. Either way I am known as a Twit"

AB "That's very funny, but Twit how did your studies of cow faeces come about?"

ATPhD "My dad owned a farm for breeding bulls and as a young boy I worked at cleaning the barns which involved cleaning out a lot of bullshit."

AB "Then what?"

ATPhD  "I earned my way through school, including my undergraduate studies, at Lardberg U shoveling bullshit out of the barn. My classmates jokingly referred to me as a bullshitter. It made sense then that I decided to take bullshit seriously and undertake my PhD in bull faeces and methane emissions. It is an important aspect of environmental studies. Did you know that bovine gas emissions (farting) are a major environmental pollutant contributing to global warming?
These emissions are more damaging to the planet than CO2 from cars."

AB  "Wow!! I now know that I have to take bullshit more seriously. But is this true or are you bullshitting me?"

ATPhD "Its no bullshit."

AB "So I can now see that bullshit is a very important issue that influences all aspects of our life. The environment, the mainstream media, most politicians, even academia. The opinions of my Uncle Birt and Aunt Maud on almost any subject were mostly bullshit so I have been exposed to a lot of bullshit.  I now understand why you have made bullshit a lifetime study.  Bullshit is everywhere and not just under our feet."

ATPhD  "Yes it is a complex subject aside from science because one man's truth is another man's bullshit. For example I believe that Mr Harper, our Canadian Prime Minister is - to use a shortened phrase - full of shit. This applies to many other politicians throughout the world and you no doubt have your own long list." 

BT "I certainly do. I think everyone has a long list. My sister, for example, has a high turnover of boyfriends because she always ends up claiming that they have bullshitted her about their intentions."  

ATPhD "To sum up there are two aspects of bullshit of vital importance, one that will affect man's survival on this planet: and we can begin to do something about, and the other that is a reflection of human behaviour that is usually out of control.

 Man's Survival on this planet: Several factors contribute to the accumulation of methane gas in Earth’s atmosphere,but one contender stands out above the rest as particularly repugnant: Cow Farts!! They are having an increasingly damaging effect on climate change as people are eating more meat.

New Zealand New Zealand in 2003 considered measures such as introducing a fart tax and feeding garlic to cows to reduces their farting. Further study is needed to determine whether feeding garlic to cows will affect the taste of their milk. As for the fart tax it was rejected by the public and I'm not sure why. As you may be aware humans produce gases daily, sometimes to their embarrassment, but nowhere near the extent of these animals."

BT "I never realized before how important it is to think about farting and not just because of bullshit. What can scientists do about it? What ab out affixing a balloon to the backside of the cow and capturing the gas as fuel? "

ATPhD "cows belching produce only half the gas so it is only a half solution. As for affixing a balloon the quantity of gas emitted by a cow daily is enormous and the balloon ends up much bigger than the cow and it would look unsettling in the meadow to see herds of ballooned cattle. Like milking the balloon would have to be expelled daily.*A barn in Germany exploded this January after a static electric charge ignited a cloud of methane gas inside the barn, the Associated Press reports.The source of the methane? The barn’s cows, about 90 of them, “belching and farting”

BT "If your story about the barn blowing up isn't bullshit then it logically follows there is an abundant amount of energy that can be harnessed from bullshit if we can learn how to do it and it would be less costly and far less damaging to the environment than fracking. I'm all for bullshit. It might be a good idea to promote this on Fox News because they are expert bullshitters.

ATPhD " I am a man of science and it has been enlightening for me to discuss bullshit with an intelligent and I might say a very pretty woman like you who understands bullshit. Thank you for the time you have spent with me. Might you join me for a pleasant dinner?

BT "I accept and would be delighted to spend a romantic candlelight dinner with you, but can we avoid talking about bullshit?

NATO - An Archaic Threatening Menace.

Offices in Brussels

Unfortunately, expanding NATO over the last two decades has turned what once was a military alliance into an international social club

 While there is much about which the U.S. and Europe should cooperate, there is no need for an American-dominated transatlantic military alliance.

 A Russian invasion of Eastern Europe, led by the core western members of NATO, is but a paranoid fantasy.
 Doug Bandow 

NATO 'Anachronistic Nightmare' and should be disbanded
Dennis Kucinich

I  think that NATO is itself a war criminal

I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.

Harold Pinter

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/nato.html#Cz8iQdkG4u1TGI2k.99

Harold Pinter 

Postscript May 30 2014 - US lawmakers urge France to sell Mistral warships to NATO, not Russia. Ask yourself, which nation is using NATO as a hegemonic battering ram? 

NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." The members agreed that an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The Treaty members at the time included the USA and Canada in North America plus 26 West European countries. It has since expanded to include East European countries originally members of the Warsaw pact.

It is a cost sharing organization  with about 22% of the budget carried by the US, Germany 14% ,the UK and France about 12% each, and the balance divided up by agreement between the remaining member states more or less based on their respective GNP's.

Clearly the original goal of 'keeping the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down' no longer makes any sense. How then can we justify NATO? We obviously can't without reinventing the Cold War because its designed to need enemies, so after Crimeans by a popular vote overwhelmingly decided to return to Russia, eureka !! the US policy wonks found a reason to vilify Russia. Mr Vershbow, The American Director of NATO, has announced that the Cold War is now back! This is much to the relief of all those companies supplying services, weaponry and people with careers dependent on NATO's existence. With an annual budget in excess of 1.2 trillion dollars and reportedly with 9 million people in member states depending on its existence for careers and employment, it has many mouths to feed 



What we have here is what was once a defensive organization having become a threatening war machine filled with a bureaucracy of well fed military personnel, strategic planners, clerks and technicians integrated like a giant football team with the controlling owner and coach selected from its  largest backer, namely the United States. With the US's abysmal track record of dismal failures in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and currently hoping to repeat their disaster in Syria (if Mr Putin would only let them) this coach is clearly incompetent and should be fired.

Yes NATO is too big to fail in its present form, but like the banks it can be broken up.


The problem is that with the revolutionary turmoil in the Ukraine it provides Cold War warriors like Nuland an opportunity to revitalize NATO as a giant cudgel to take into this deepening divide between the unelected government in Kiev supported by Washington and the obedient Brussels and the Eastern provinces where a predominately Russian speaking population have for the past 300 years shared a common heritage with Russia.

Why would Washington and Brussels support this Nazi dominated  government in Kiev? Clearly because it is consistent with their anger with  Vladimir Putin who has prevented their military strike in Syria, welcomed Crimea's enthusiastic return to Russia to escape the Nazi dominated misfits in Kiev, and condemned their invasion of Iraq and Libya.  Such arrogance in the eyes of Washington deserves punishment. Sanctions, sanctions and more sanctions with the vassal states under leaders like Merkel and Hollande goaded by Washington weakly considering sanctions of their own despite deep conflicts with their own economic interests. Only an absurd unwieldy integrating monstrosity like NATO can produce this mindless behaviour. In the meantime Russia is being welcomed by China, forming pipeline and economic agreements and leaving the sanction obsessed West looking self destructive and ridiculous.

Looking at the future it is an absurdity to assume that nations facing the inevitable crises that will inevitably arise will be prepared to operate from a Washington led song sheet. NATO is old, its mandate outdated and is is in the way of rational decisions. It must go.

How would the process of addressing each nation's national interests look like without NATO? Certainly less automatic interference by Brussels and Washington where their intrusion is often neither welcomed nor needed. Makes more sense for states to call upon alliances with whomever when deemed necessary. World War II brought the Allies together through leaders like Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt who agreed to coordinate their efforts to achieve a common goal, and in the process rallying many nations to the cause, to defeat the axis of Germany and Japan. Certainly a rigid NATO "to keep the Americans in and the Russians out" would have been an destructive absurdity that would have lost the Wars. The reality is that the combined effort of Russia (who took far and away the greatest losses) and the Western allies won the war in Europe. There was no great love between Stalin and Western leaders but great leaders have the wisdom to come together when facing a crisis.

NATO is an absurdity forcing a mindless lockstep acceptance of a belligerent form of US leadership that is bringing back the Cold War. What is urgently needed at this time while we face a revolutionary crisis in Ukraine is for rival nations to work together as they did in WWII to hammer out solutions that will unite Ukrainians. It will take bringing to the table less involved nations like China, India, and Brazil to knock sense into the thick skulls of visionless NATO bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington. NATO is now the battering ram these dunces want to move into Ukraine and with a rhetoric itching to inflame a conflict that could lead to war.

Apropos of this NATO's Deputy Secretary General is traditionally an American, currently, Alexander Vershbow, who has recently unilaterally announced that NATO is now compelled to treat Russia “as more of an enemy". The weapons industries will no doubt be overjoyed by this announcement.

 NATO is an archaic menace and not a solution. It should be dead and buried

Vladimir Putin - great leader or villain?

Preface  
 Augst 7 2014: US sanctions against Russia to no ones surprise are severely backfiring with the Russian PM Dimitry Medvedev signing a decree on the full ban for imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway. One wonders why these countries other than the US bothers to carry the overhead of governments since the all take their orders from Washington in this insane pursuit of self-destruction. The cost to Russia and the western nations of this food fight will annually amount to hundreds of billions dollars in lost revenues. While their unfit weak leaders fluff up their feathers and huff and puff their already weak economies face further damage. Wth the battle now extending to the airlines this is becoming an economic disaster. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Is leadership so weak now that there are no EU leader that can step forward and say "lets end this self destructive nonsense"?
.

May 1 2014: The Cold War is back as Russia and the US/EU battle over the Ukraine. On the east side the population is predominately Russian speaking and have strong historical relationships with Russia. To the West and in Kiev sympathies lean more to developing closer ties with the EU and accepting NATO. The IMF have just offered a loan to Ukraine in the vicinity of 17 billion US dollars and it has been accepted.  The demands for austerity and the selling  off of assets as part of packages produced an economic and social disaster in Russia during the Yeltsin period including imposing a brutal program of austerity to pay off the bankers. The IMF is now often referred to as global loan shark and has repeated these measures in over 70 countries including Greece and Portugal with the same disastrous results. The question at this point is whether the Ukraine, a deeply troubled nation with a highly educated population will accept living with the IMF's terms for austerity and the inevitable selling off of assets to the highest bidders. 

• Victoria Nuland travels to Kiev to hand out cookies to the riot police. It is not known whether she baked them or bought them from Lidl or Aldi.
• We are told  to vilify Vladimir Putin and this blog is an attempt to explain why.
• Ms Nuland was heard to say "Fuck the EU!! and Ms Merkel angrily asked for an apology. This offering of cookies might help.
•  
• 
• The New York Times and Fox News say that Vladimir Putin is a very evil so everyone in America who watches TV and the mainstream media know that he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin made an outrageous statement "Sometimes it seems to me that America does not need allies, it needs vassals." and this clearly shows the thoughts of a disrespectful very bad guy.
• He intervened but failed to prevent the CIA-NATO coup against Gaddafi that destroyed Libya as a nation-state with the loss of many lives so Obama and his Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, are very offended and Putin must be a very bad guy 
• He prevented the US military from finishing off the Assad Government in Syria while funding Jihad rebels and in the process forced a peace that eliminated chemical weapons, including the rebels use of  Sarin gas by blocking the Jihad. Victoria Nuland is upset again because she had her heart set on bloodshed and regime change. This arrogant defiance of US striking power was further proof that he is evil and  must be a very bad guy.
• He was very critical at the outset of the US invasion of Iraq that has left the country in ruins. Here again Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan of PNAC fame who led the charge into Iraq are very upset. This is a gross insult of the intentions and use of US power and therefore he must be a very bad guy. Hillary Clinton has finally admitted that in supporting the invasion she made a mistake so maybe Putin, the bad guy, was right but all the same if the NYT says he is a bad guy. 
• He accepted the will of Crimeans in a free vote to return to their original Russian homeland, Hillary strangely called him a Nazi for supporting this, Poroshenko the corrupt chocolate king President of Ukraine and his close friend and equally corrupt and self enriched ally Yulia Timoshenko that he freed from jail are upset too, so this surely makes Putin a very bad guy.
• He  builds troops along his border as NATO points its missiles toward Russia and Obama has asked him not to do this so Putin must be a very bad guy
• Obama feels insulted and hurt when Putin doesn't agree with him so he is sulking and has decided to stop communicating with him because he is clearly a very bad guy.
• Putin is supplying natural gas to Western Europe and this stands in the way of promoting US fracking and shipping liquified gas to Europe at much higher prices and this is not good for US business and again clearly makes him a very bad guy.
• The twin tower attack in Volgograd by a Saudi financed Jihadist killed 32 people and this is just one of similar Saudi inspired attacks. Putin threatens a retaliation on our beloved Saudi allies who also brought down New York's twin towers, and supplies arms and money to Jihad rebels in Syria so he must be a very bad guy.
• Putin described the Victoria Nuland led gang in Kiev as an orgy of unelected radicals, fascists and corrupt misfits. That is true but he is insulting our Washington and EU allies so he must be a very bad guy.
• The mostly Russian speaking population in Eastern Ukraine show more trust, loyalty and affection for their Russian neighbours across the border than for the collection of unelected misfits in Kiev and this is surely because of the influence of Putin who must be a very bad guy.
• Obama has ordered spying to find out whether Putin is richer than the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson (who enrich the US Congress) and if so this will prove that just like them he is truly an evil and bad guy. 
• Putin's popularity rating in Russia averages around 85% according to the Washington Post. This compares with a very popular Merkel at 69%, Obama at 41% and Hollande at 26%. This proves that the Russian people know something that we don't know about this truly evil and bad guy.

Summary: Does all this seem totally insane? Of course it is. Vladimir trades insults with Obama and fails to show the respect that this Nobel Prize winning US President so richly deserves. From this I am sure you will agree that he must be a very bad guy or just maybe he might be a very good guy.

NATO and Victoria Nuland - Ugly Cold War Relics

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
  Voltaire

 “War is what happens when language fails.”
― Margaret Atwood

  I bear solemn witness to the  fact that NATO heads of state and government meet only to go through the tedious motion of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat
Pierre Eliot Trudeau

 Critics of NATO claim its noble sounding ideals of “establishing peace” and constant “humanitarian intervention” during times of conflict are really euphemisms for a strategy of Western powered and financed imperialist expansion.
 Ashahed M. Muhammad

NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded in 1949. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay stated in 1949 that the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." The members agreed that an armed attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The Treaty member states at the time included the USA and Canada in North America plus 26 West European countries. It has since expanded to include East European countries originally members of the Warsaw pact. Today NATO members maintain a military strength of 3.3 million active and reserve military personnel and with an annual budget in excess of one trillion dollars. Clearly NATO provides a lot of employment. 

Much has changed since 1949 but NATO retains the same goals to keep an enemy out, and to keep anyone opposing the alliance down. With so many careers dependent on thinking within the box NATO is a mental trap they can't escape. Currently there are no enemies threatening the alliance so one has to be invented otherwise NATO becomes an unwieldy and inflexible behemoth that serves no unified purpose. It is self-evident that conflicts such as in Syria and Ukraine and tensions with Iran can be better handled by bringing together nations that include those outside NATO's orbit such as Russia, Iran and China.  For example Russia has negotiated the destruction of Assad's chemical arsenal and curbed the excesses of a mixed bag of rebels while American policy has floundered. NATO with its antagonistic view of Russia and Iran should not have any involvement in any of this. NATO has become a barrier to rational commercial and military alliances by identifying enemies where none exist. Its ancient mission is searching for a cause.

An overwhelming majority of Crimea's citizens (predominately Russian speaking) voted to rejoin Russia for a better life rather than continue as part of a corrupt Ukraine whose inept and unelected leader ( supported by a meddling US) stupidly threatened to deny Russian speaking citizens the right to use their language. The south eastern region of Ukraine is made up of 8.3 million Russian speaking citizens, amounting to 33% of Ukraine's population. If the Canadian Prime Minister decided to deny French Canadians the right to their language it is unlikely that the country would survive. This is the situation in Ukraine. By Crimeans voluntarily deciding to break away from Ukraine it rekindled the cause of NATO's old warriors who have viewed the Ukraine as their battle ground for placing missiles  pointing at  Russia's along its borders. They found their justification to bring back the Cold War.  The usual robotic response of Europe's NATO members was to accept American direction to apply sanctions and more sanctions and the fracking industry has found a justification for polluting the environment to produce this highly expensive gas to replace cheaper gas from those evil Russians.  Happily this is falling apart as German business barons are aggressively objecting  to any breakdown in their growing commercial ties with Russia. Also good news in Crimea when MacDonald halted their operations Burger King immediately announced they would take over, so the silly season is  breaking down.
 Helmut Schmidt, the much respected ex chancellor of Germany has commented that Russia's actions in Crimea are completely understandable and the idea of sanctions "a stupid idea" The BRICS group (Chinese, Indian, Brazilian,South Korean) take the same position supporting Russia, so NATO's American "Old Warriors" and their servants in Europe's members of NATO face quite a head wind. What we have here is a very large and obsolete institution  in search of a mission and unable to change course. With Russia, its targeted enemy a nuclear power, NATO is impotent and floundering.

The West is broke so all they can offer the Ukraine is the arrival of the IMF who as in Greece, Portugal and formerly in Yeltsin's Russia, undertook IMF programs of propping up banks while implementing severe austerity programs to pay for it. The end result is a lowered standard of living, the country faced with selling off its heritage and assets to the highest bidder to pay off the bankers and the emergence of carpet baggers who become a wealthy oligarchy. Putin brought this to an end in Russia and brought the nation out of poverty. He has also subsidized the Ukraine, offered additional funding as an alternative to the West's cashless IMF program and approached the EU to sit down and discuss it.  But NATO members cannot consider talking to the enemy although cracks are showing.

The Trouble Maker - Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs
 

 Contributing to chaos in Ukraine and irritating Russia along its borders seems to be its only course of action for NATO and this is  being assisted by the notorious Victoria Nuland,, (of "Fuck Europe" fame), who claims that the US has invested 5 billion dollars meddling in the Ukraine. Ms Nuland's specialty is 'Regime Change'. Her husband is historian Robert Kagan, Council on Foreign Relations member, and co-founders of the think-tank "Project for the New American Century" (PNAC). The PNAC called for, among other things, regime change in Iraq and a strategy for securing America's global control.

 

As Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney from 2003 to 2005 and later as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from July 2005 to May 2008, Victoria Nuland previously held important insider roles during Washington’s decisions to invade Iraq, occupy the country and later increase the number of American troops during the “Surge” of 2007.

Victoria Nuland's 'Regime Change'  objectives in Ukraine and now in Venezuela are consistent with realizing PNAC objectives. Founded by William Kristol and Robert Kagan (her husband). The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) stated goal is "to promote American global leadership." In other words world dominance or global hegemony.

A leaked phone conversation between Victoria Nuland and the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt clearly reveals their meddling in governing issues in Kiev. The EU and US have carried out a classic coup d'état in Ukraine using ultra-right forces as human resources that includes anti-Semites, Nazi movements, and racial purists. What's the objective in all this? Clearly the setting up of an American/EU puppet leader and the arrival of NATO as a bayonet pointing to Russia. Understandably Putin's response has been to place a strong military presence on its border. Its a Mexican Standoff. Putin defused Nuland's attempt to initiate regime change in Syria by negotiating the destruction of all chemical weapons. She is angry and is using regime change through Kiev to get back at him.

Where do we go from Here?

NATO can't offer a solution; it's the core problem by thinking of nations as friends and enemies. Its also largely financed and driven by US leadership (75% of its military budget). Since WWII US leadership hasn't performed very well; defeated in Vietnam, destroyed Iraq, entangled in Afghanistan, messed up Libya, currently confused in Syria and propping up and forming alliances with right wing and backward governments like Saudi Arabia who finance radical movements throughout the Middle East.
 
Where do we go from here and what do we stand for? I really don't know. I just know that NATO is obsolete and a dangerous communications barrier that no longer needs to exist.  All nations need alliances but not through NATO's monolith .

I would like  to hear the comments of anyone who has taken the time to read this. 

Made in China

"A new survey shows that 1 in 5 Americans believe that God steers the economy. Mystery solved: God is Chinese."
 ---Conan O'Brien
 "Chinese President Hu Jintao had dinner at the White House with President Obama and first lady Michelle. They were going to exchange gifts from the two countries, but unfortunately everything in our country is now made in their country, so they couldn't do any exchanging."
–Jay Leno
“I want to have a bunch of kids so I can open a factory and have free labor. Beat that, China!”
― Jarod Kintz
“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. ”
― Charles de Gaulle 

“Most imports are from outside of the country”

  ― George W. Bush

Just finished cutting my toenails. Started off using a very attractive manicure set in a leather case that has 'Roots' printed on the case. Roots is a very prestigious and successful Canadian company that manufactures clothing products and sells them through over 200 Roots stores scattered throughout the world. Each tool in my manicure set has Roots clearly marked on one side but China discretely marked on the other. The tools proved to be useless. The clippers don't open up properly and the cutting  edges are dull. In short, it is crap and a toe is bleeding as I write this. We had for many years a manicure set made in Germany and everything worked, but I doubt that the Germans make these anymore. The boutiques and the open markets here in France are filled with Chinese goods. Unemployment is high because we helped to improve the profits of French businesses by closing up their factories so that they could buy things more cheaply from China to sell in their stores and now my Chinese made underwear has the seams falling apart. Chinese tourism is up so some good will come from all of this. 

And lets accept the fact that the Chinese are a highly intelligent people with education a top priority and are now producing many high quality products at very competitive prices. After all, they now make high speed trains and can put toy sized vehicles on the moon, just like the Americans do. It is only a matter of time before they make manicure sets that meet German quality standards.

But why in hell is there such a rush in North America and Europe to throw our workers out of a job by scrapping our factories and small workshops to seek a Chinese Nirvana? Who makes these decisions for us? In North America Walmart, the largest retailer in America has made the Waltons the richest family in America by buying most of what they sell from China and paying their American employees poverty level wages. They are leaders in vacuuming manufacturing jobs out of the country. Fortunately Walmart doesn't blight the landscape in Europe because their labour practices are unacceptable, but we do suffer from some of the same disease here. I don't blame the Chinese who are quite reasonable in wanting to sell everything they grow and make; I blame our sappy politicians who pave the way to support our business leaders and bankers in their devout (and very profitable) rush into unregulated Globalization. Let's face it, if we raise our unemployment we do save a few pennies for those who have a job or are clipping coupons, and who cares about our neighbours anyway. 

I guess in all fairness to our stock brokers, business owners and conservative politicians it stuffs their pockets with easy money if companies like Apple join the rush to hand over their businesses ( and the technology that goes with it) to the Chinese. Its like winning the lottery.

I just wonder what the wise Chinese think about us for this Lemming-like behaviour.

Complacency! We Become Too Comfortable With What Is

 “All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”
― Noam Chomsky"

“Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.”
― Mae West


“Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream.”
― Chuck Palahniuk,

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99

Once conform, once do what others do, and a kind of lethargy steals over all other senses of the soul
- Michel de Montaigne

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

Michel de Montaigne

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

Michel de Montaigne

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

Michel de Montaigne

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

Michel de Montaigne

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/micheldemo125531.html#rbx0s0LoKf0Y6ZcE.99

When you are in a steady job or securely retired you are likely to become too comfortable with what is. You might whine a bit about local problems in your community but you just adjust. It is an easy lethargy. The common comment of friends and neighbours is, "Why waste your time trying to rock the boat because you are powerless to do anything. Just get on with enjoying your life". It reflects a conservative philosophy of the financially secure avoiding unpleasant issues, respecting authority and self preservation by accepting what is.

• It explains why the so many are complacent less likely to vote in local elections. "Rob Ford (mayor of Toronto) is a liar and a incompetent drunk lacking any vision for the city, but he keeps the taxes low, is a political conservative like our Prime Minister and shares many of the conservative beliefs of my family and neighbours. Why change anything?"

• It explains why conservatives dislike demonstrations in the streets, no matter what the cause. "It's because they are noisy and disruptive, hold up rude signs, block traffic, are disrespectful of law and order and our flag, and set a bad example for kids. They always want to change something but I like everything the way it is" 

•  It confirms why conservatives support a grossly overpriced and  unworkable euro that benefits a productive Germany and the wealthy few throughout Europe but assigns many of the citizens of southern European nations to a life of unemployment and poverty. But the few wealthy can say "I can still afford my Mercedes so  we need to manage this unrest by accepting   some German generosity to ease the pain. And don't revalue the currency because it will diminish my wealth!" Live with what is! For ten years we have tinkered with it while Southern Europeans suffer from staggering levels of unemployment and a bleak future. We live with what is to no effect when it is obvious that Germany should break off from the euro and return to the Deutschmark (as George Soros suggests) thus letting the rest of Europe take control of their destiny by settling on their own banking system with one or more competitive currencies that would encourage entrepreneurship and put people back to work.

I live in Narbonne, a city too small to hide its human problems. I meet daily on the street with normal citizens, the passing tourists, the shopkeepers, the unemployed, the beggars, and the physically and mentally impaired.   In large cities in Europe and North America with populations of several million you can live in secure sections of the city and only learn about the city's underbelly from the local newspapers and the TV. Complacency sets in as problems are hidden and we learn to accept as normal the economic conditions whatever they might be. We  live with what is. For example, what the employed public complacently accept as normal in parts of Southern Europe is a 25 to 50% youth unemployment rate whereas in Denmark normal is closer to maybe 5%. It  is just what is, and wherever we live we see what is as normal. 

With this prevailing attitude politicians whether, on the left or right, respond by tweaking the system and changes, if any, are minor, usually ineffectual and painless. We learn to live with what is. 

This attitude in part explains why we put off addressing universally threatening issues such as global climate change, the steadily widening  wealth gap in a once predominately middle class society that was the foundation of democracy, the acceptance of tax avoidance schemes, and the thievery of bankers gambling with the nations wealth.

The wake-up call happens when a disaster occurs that threatens the very survival of the financially secure as well as the destitute. Then a conservative tinkering with what is hits a brick wall. A strong leader is then needed who realizes tweaking will accomplish little and undertakes fundamental changes. Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle and Nelson Mandela are examples of brilliant and powerful leaders who understood this and realized that fundamental changes in direction and not simply tweaking 'what is'  had to happen.

Teddy Roosevelt

Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt as President broke up the large industrial and railroad monopolies , a defeat for JP Morgan and Wall Street. He was a man of many talents with no patience for living with what is; historian, naturist, Nobel Prize  winner, trust buster, adventurer, hunter and military leader (Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders). His face sits on Mt Rushmore along with Lincoln and Washington.

Franklin Roosevelt

 Franklin Delano Roosevelt assuming the Presidency at the height of the depression recognized that fundamental changes in the financial system had to be initiated. Nothing would be accomplished by tinkering with what is. He defied Wall Street and undertook a major change by passing the Banking Act of 1933 with it's Glass-Steagall component that separated commercial and investment banking, designed to wall off customer deposits from the risk-taking inherent in securities underwriting. This was followed by social legislation enacted between 1933 and 1938 known as the New Deal

He had no patience with the the foot dragging of Republicans determined to work within what is.

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle recognized tweaking 'what is' following the 2nd World War would not resolve France's governing problems. He cleaned the slate with the 5th Republic thereby liberating the colonies and reforming an unworkable constitution. He also boldly announced that France would become a nuclear power with its own bomb. (interesting to note that Iran has currently made the same announcement but sacrificing the bomb)



Nelson Mandela was a young anti-apartheid revolutionary who (unprepared to live with what is) spent 27 years in jail for his beliefs. Pubic pressure gained his release and  joining negotiations with President F.W. de Klerk abolished apartheid, led the ANC to victory and became South Africa's first black president.

Nelson Mandela

 

To summarize, great leaders invariably recognize in times of crisis that they must take on the risk of battling for fundamental changes. Conservative opposition ( that always exists) by those protecting what is might be tolerated as a force but must not stand in the way of fundamental changes. 

The future,as in the present and past will build on what is, namely societies laws,cultural values and functioning institutions. It is vital however that leaders also recognize that many challenges will be facing the world in the future, both known and unknown, that cannot be handled by tweaking what is and new and fundamental solutions must be found. For example we know that the seas will rise and flood the coastal cities as the polar ice caps melt and massive amounts of methane will be released from the arctic seabeds. Building sea walls and dykes may help to slow the damage from what is but the solution may ultimately lie in reducing our dependency on carbon fuels and the wasteful energy consumption of a rapidly growing consumer society. 

At the time of Christ the world's population stood at about 250 million. In the next 20 years it will probably rise from the current 7.5 billion to about 10 billion, a 40 fold increase of  humans with 2 to 3 times the life span of their ancient ancestors. Our wasteful consumption is clearly negatively impacting on the climate and if current trends continue unabated it raises serious questions about human survival on many parts of this planet. Can the old governing systems with its short time cycle of four to five years to satiate immediate appetites successfully guide us through these challenges? I don't think so. We can tweak and build on what is but that won't be enough. We will need very different and more stable governing structures, new break through sciences and enlightened leadership with a vision of a distant future in order to address these more fundamental and critical long term survival issues. 

Globalization has created a grotesque integration of world banking systems, industrial enterprises and worst of all NATO that binds nations to interconnected commitments and limiting the freedom of individual nations to act. It is a system of sticking with what is and destroying those who don't. 

Can great leaders rise up from this or do we destroy them? Chavez and Castro failed, Dilma Rousseff Brazil's President is defiant and Vladimir Putin is attempting to lead Russia in a different direction, building alliances in the East and attempting to break the dollar monopoly, has stared no wars, does not spread his armies around the world , has intervened to stop America and Saudi Arabia from military interference in Syria and is understandingly opposed to the warlike NATO leaning against his borders.  For this the integrated forces of what is led by America declares Russia as an enemy that stands in the way of hegemonic power. 

Can great leaders to lead real change emerge in this globalized and highly integrated world or will the globalized forces to prevent it prevail? Will we remain accepting what is and avoid the critical decisions that will enable human life to survive on this planet? Wait and see.  

   

Vladimir Putin, a voice for sanity, update 03/2014

 

Why Putin Is Still so Popular in Russia

Russians seem to prefer a strong, authoritarian state to the weak government and economic chaos they experienced under Yeltsin. 

Putin, on the issue of Syria  has shown more integrity and wise judgement than the U.S. and French governments.

Many Westerners have a negative view of Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, because of the unjust portrayal he receives in the Western media. If one were to believe everything they saw in the American media, they would probably think Putin to be a ruthless dictator who was anointed by birth rather than a politician born into a working class family with approval ratings higher than all of his Western counterparts.
The Bilzerian Report

Update: March 26th 2014
Crimea by a popular vote overwhelmingly has declared its separation from the Ukraine and has joined with Russia. There are many precedents of this where a public elects to change allegiances. For example, Kosovo chose to separate from Serbia, The Czechs chose to separate from the Slovaks and Canada accepts the possibility that Quebec through a referendum would be allowed to separate from Canada.  The Americans are outraged because for years they have been using the Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia's borders with their construction of a missile shield while wooing Ukrainians with financial enticements to join the European economic community and with it the American inspired NATO and military alliances. Old 'Cold War' warriors are still looking for employment and some meaning in their useless lives.

The Ukraine is deeply divided with the largely Russian speaking people on the eastern border shared with Russia opposed to joining the EU and with many favouring the route taken by Crimeans, while on its western border they favour joining the EU. Orchestrated by the US, the weak European nations have leapt onto the bandwagon and are expressing their outrage at the will of Crimeans to join Russia. 

The noise and propaganda in the press is deafening as though we have all become like demented lemmings on a voyage of self destruction. Strong independent leaders like Degaulle, Helmut Schmidt and Willie Brandt have departed the scene and we now have the spectacle of the 'blanc mange' leadership in Brussels of Lady Catherine Ashton and José Barroso orchestrated by America's Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs.   As an extreme right wing ideologue under Cheney and Bush she led the charge into Iraq to bring about regime change and most recently upset Merkel by using the words F--- Europe! Clearly this Cold War warrior with her dealings in the Ukraine with unelected right wing corrupt politicians that includes in their midst disreputable anti Semites, Nazis and other known  right wing trash is intent on setting up regime change to install an American controlled  puppet government. No doubt undermining Putin is on her agenda.
 
Putin has been a consistent voice for sanity in the midst of this international rush to go off to war and has been using his influence aggressively to oppose unjust and internationally illegal wars. He opposed the war in Iraq and he was right. He opposed the killing of Gaddafi and the collapse of Tunisia and he was right. He opposes the sanctions and threats against Iran and he is right. He opposes the rush to war in Syria with scant evidence and unclear objectives and he is right. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared ‘utter nonsense’ the idea that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons on its own people and called on the US to present its supposed evidence to the UN Security Council. He is right. He had every right to protect Snowden who had committed no crime and yet faced, like Manning, a lengthy prison sentence if returned to face US justice. Only through Putin has Snowden been able to express his views about NASA and the obstruction to the freedom of information. Listen to the TED series out of Vancouver to learn more about this. Obama has discovered he is dealing with an equal he can't push around and Putin is right and doesn't mind that Obama now refuses to meet with him.
What has he accomplished for the Russian people?

First a bit about his predecessor, Yeltsin:  Yeltsin became President in 1991 and  turned to the advice of Western economists, and Western institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, Harvard experts, and the US Treasury Department, whose recipe became known as the "Washington Consensus" It was a disaster for Russia. The so-called reforms devastated the living standards of much of the population, Russia's GDP fell by 50 percent, vast sectors of the economy were wiped out, inequality and unemployment grew dramatically, while incomes fell. Personal savings were wiped out, and tens of millions were plunged into poverty. Added to this, a classic rape of Russia's assets occurred.  Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a small group of oligarchs. Much of this Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, gangland murders, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems.This era was commonly referred to as a period of "Gangster Capitalism".

Vladimir Putin: In 1999 Yeltsin resigned and Putin was elected as President. He has cleaned up the economic mess left by Yeltsin but what specifically has he accomplished since then?

• Under Putin’s reign in contrast with Yeltsin era, he turned the Russian economy around and it has grown every single year, with an overall GDP increase (net of inflation) of more than 70%. 
• During the same period, investments rose 125%, industry grew by 76%, and poverty decreased 50%. 
• He dealt with the oligarchs, imprisoned the most corrupt who hadn't fled to live under British protection, and regained control of vital assets.  
• Average monthly salaries in Russia increased from $80 to $640, and the middle class grew from 8 million people to 55 million.
• He introduced a 13% flat tax and the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 24%.
• The national debt stands at 10% of GNP because of a wise use of national income. This compares with figures in excess of 100% in the US, GB, and many European nations. 

Putin positioned Russia as an energy super power that Europe has come to rely on.

Putin’s business acumen, just foreign policy decisions, and humanitarian leadership should be congratulated throughout the world. If only American Presidents could respect freedom and other nations’ sovereignty like Vladimir Putin, the planet would be a lot more peaceful.

Sept 13th 2013 update: Putin's latest agreement with the Syrian President to place all chemical weapons storage facilities under international control, but also for its further destruction and then joining the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is an example of his enlightened leadership.

Putin despite the demands of the Presidency has time for a personal life that I suspect he enjoys showing to the World. Some of it is clearly staged such as his flight with the birds and displays of his athletic prowess, although the hundreds of photos of him with wildlife and without a gun other than to stun and tag illustrates a man who loves and respects life in the animal kingdom. His advocacy of avoiding wars with other nations may reflect he respect for human life as well. Unlike many world leaders he is no sociopath.

Click on this to read the speech he made to the American people about Syria
 

WALMART*, America's Welfare Queen

 

Now I know that Walmart's policies do not reflect the best way of doing business and the values that I think are important in America.

Hillary Clinton 

 "More and more Americans are asking about the price that we have to pay when Walmart comes into a community, treats workers poorly, violates immigration laws and squashes small businesses."

Anthony Weiner 

 "You know, without China there is no Walmart and without Walmart there is no middle class and lower class prosperity in the United States." 

 Arthur Laffer, economist 

https://twitter.com/UniteBlueOK/status/406303923918475264/photo/1

Each week one third of the US population visits a Walmart store. With 3500 stores and 2500 related outlets in the US and elsewhere, it is the country's largest employer. World Wide Revenues in 2011 amounted to $405 billion (about 70% in US) and profits $15.7 billion.  The products it sells mostly come from China. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2006 this resulted in a trade deficit with China that eliminated 200,000 US jobs. 

With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These issues involve low wages and inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union policies. Critics point to Walmart's high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors are involved. Approximately half of its employees leave within the first year.

THE GERMAN DEBACLE (an example of what is wrong with Walmart):
The Walmart way of doing business was clearly a non fit in German and they eventually left the market Here are some excerpts from an article in the Huffington Post written by David Macaray that makes for interesting reading about why Walmart failed. 

•  Germany was too "green" for a slash-and-burn outfit like Walmart, with its plastic bags and plastic junk 
• Walmart couldn't hack the pro-labor union culture of Germany.
• German consumers prefer small neighborhood stores rather than large and remotely placed impersonal chains.
• Walmart requires its checkout people to flash smiles at customers after bagging their purchases. Plastic bags, plastic junk, plastic smiles. But because the German people don't usually smile at total strangers, the spectacle of Walmart employees grinning like jackasses not only didn't impress consumers, it unnerved them.  
• Walmart employees are required to stand in formation and chant, "WALMART! WALMART! WALMART!" while performing synchronized group calisthenics.Unfortunately, this form of corporate boosterism didn't go over particularly well with the Germans; a group-think too reminiscent of the one that that occurred in Nuremberg several decades earlier
  
• in other northern European countries where as high as half the shopping population either walk or take bicycles to shop in nearby small and medium sized specialty stores the NA style Walmart located in a remote location is a non fit. 
  
  WALMART IN AMERICA
  

A Walmart store can only prosper in a country where minimum wages are below the poverty line and with labour policies that allow companies to deprive workers of social benefits and full time employment. It is active in China but it could not prosper in countries such as Australia and most of Europe where minimum wages for working adults are more than twice what Walmart offers, unions exist and labour legislation is in place.

Here are is a example of what Walmart has to offer America

• The merchandise is manufactured abroad, mainly in China thereby eliminating mostly well paying middle class American manufacturing jobs.
• They push suppliers to move offshore by demanding lower and lower prices. Most suppliers to stay in business have been forced to comply
• A race to the bottom by competitors and suppliers in order to compete thus setting  a labour income pattern for America
•  They lobby for policies that make it easier to move jobs overseas.While this money was paid to influence a range of legislation, from promoting corporate tax cuts to opposing a bill to guarantee paid sick time to working people, trade policy was among the issues Walmart lobbied on most aggressively. They actively promote Free Trade Agreements.
• Walmart has set the template for today’s economy; one in which increased economic productivity is not shared with working people, and the vast inequality that this creates is seen as the nation's norm.
•  Today the six members of the Walton family who inherited the Walmart fortune enjoy wealth equal to that of the least-wealthy 30 percent of Americans ( that's over a hundred million Americans). These billionaires are the ultimate beneficiaries of Walmart’s push to cut costs, condemning retail employees to work in poverty and American factory workers to unemployment. 
•  Walmart wages are so low that most of its workers rely on food stamps and other government aid programs to fulfill their basic needs. It is estimated that the  government subsidy to employees amounts to about 2.7 billion dollars a year or on the average about 402 thousand dollars per outlet. This certainly certainly qualifies Walmart and its beneficiaries in the Walton family as one of the nation's leading Welfare Queens.

Do the Walton family need to be Welfare Queens to carry on? I don't think so.

Here is a headline they should think about."Costco Pays Well and Soars, While Walmart and Others Pay Peanuts and Sink"

While their second biggest competitor, Walmart, only saw a 1.2% rise in year on sales, Costco’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed an 8% rate of growth in year on sales, a 5% rise in same-store sales, and an almost $70 million rise in membership fees.

Wake up Walmart!! Its possible to change and offer your employees a better life and money to spend if you want to. 

US National Security Agency (NSA), Spying, Secrecy and Whistle Blowing

 ^]

 Transnational technology corporations are indispensable to the government’s surveillance of the American people. In short, when you use products produced by these corporations you are consenting to the act of being surveilled.
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com 

The Crux of the NSA Story in One Phrase: 'Collect It All'

The actual story that matters is not hard to see: the NSA is attempting to collect, monitor and store all forms of human communication

by Glenn Greenwald

The all knowing state is watching over us. They have decided that they have the legal right to know everything about us and to monitor  our daily activities. The NSA is their information collection and spying system that employs between 30 and 60 thousand employees (actual figures are confidential) and is housed in Maryland pending the construction of a much larger facility in Bluffdale Utah. Their PRISM program collects all user information from cooperative arrangements with Microsoft, Google, Face Book, Skype, You Tube, Apple, AOL and many others. 98 percent of PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. Whatever you say when you turn on your computer is captured. Don't talk about poisoning wells, blowing up bridges or overly insulting your leaders because the NSA will pick it up and you may have a visitor knocking on your door. 

The estimated power of those computing resources in Utah is so massive it requires use of a little-known unit of storage space: the Zettabyte. To give you an idea of its capacity their 5 Zettabytes will provide enough storage to store at least something on the order of 100 years worth of the worldwide communications, phones and emails with plenty of space left over.


As the whistle blower Edward Snowden revealed the NSA spies on the citizens, governments and businesses of the world. Evidently the US Government believes it has this right and Snowden is a criminal for revealing this to the World.

The US monitors Germany as closely as it does China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Daily, an average of 20 million telephone connections and 10 million internet transactions are collected by the NSA. The NSA does not spy in the same way on the UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, who are viewed as friends.


 
 

The NSA can unilaterally access data and perform extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information; examples include email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP chats (such as Skype), file transfers (like your banking statements), and social networking using any device like your hand held phones. Since so much of its operations are classified as confidential the NSA  are apparently legally free to do anything they want in the name of National Security with or without the agreement of foreign nations whose information they exploit.

 The NSA continues to grow uncontrollably and where will it end? It is fair to assume that with its potential to control nations and the lives of the 9 billion citizens that will soon live on this planet it will never end short of an environmental disaster occurring. If they can just insert an electronic chip in our body they will track all of us, just like our dogs.

Charles Darwin:"Ignorance more frequently begets Confidence than does Knowledge".

"Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known."  
Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

 

Charles Darwin once said: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." This sounds like a strange idea. Is it true that confidence sometimes signals ignorance? Is it true that people who are very confident about their opinions may actually be more ignorant than people who are less confident? Is there evidence that confidence and ignorance may go hand in hand?

What might this mean? When disagreeing with someone who is very confident about his point of view, it may work counter-productively to argue directly against his views. After all, the person is very confident about being right. In other words, he is ignorant about his ignorance.

 

Charles Darwin born in 1809, was a British scientist who transformed the way we think about the natural world.  He published his findings in 1859 in his book On the Origin of the Species. It explained his theory that of all species evolved through adaptation over many millions of years including man evolving from the apes. Most people at the time believed in a Biblical interpretation of how the World was created in seven days and how Adam and Eve arrived in the Garden of Eden and ate the Forbidden Fruit that has caused us problems ever since. Now Darwin had come up with his theory that  all species evolved through adaptation over many millions of years including man evolving from the apes. It turned the Biblical tales into Fairy Tales. The anger and resentment of millions of people after publishing his findings gave rise to his observation that "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."  In other words the dumber people are the more rigidly and fanatically they cling to their convictions and therefore have little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions. The fanatic therefore refuses to think further and consequently, there is no way to change course.  

I recall when I was working in the lumber camps in Northern Ontario during the summers when I was a teenager, if I raised questions about a view expressed by a coworker it would commonly be interpreted as questioning his integrity resulting in an angry outburst and on occasion a challenge to fight. It was 1947 and 48 when the work was labour intensive and a few hours on the job sufficed to gain the skills required. The average level of education was much lower than it is today and illiteracy was common in the workforce. This in no way limited their confidence in their many convictions. Just don't humiliate them by asking them for an explanation. In the dining room the tradition in the camps was to eat quickly and to remain silent throughout the meal. The reason for this was the history of fights breaking out when views expressed at the table were challenged.

Darwin of course was right; ignorance begets a confidence that cannot be challenged.

Much of what we interpret as political discourse is nothing more than rigid positions taken by mentally limited politicians expressing a fanatical confidence that cannot be challenged. Nothing changes but it is an opportunity for endless babble.


 

It certainly explains the rigid and uncompromising  political positions taken by Republican extremists as expressed by the Tea Party and the irrational ravings of Bachmann, Perry and others like them that only Fox News can accept. And consistent with these close minded rants has been the endless filibustering without discussion led by Mitch McConnell and John Boehmer, confident in their ignorance and, committed to closing off all debates on the issues at hand.