Posts Tagged ‘america’

The GOP #TaxScamBill puts the Excess in Excess & Algorithms

Posted: December 18, 2017 in Excess and Algorithms
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

eanda logo

By @anarchyroll

No thing quite says the Republican party of the United States of America like a tax cut.

Did you notice how quickly and easily Congress was able to push through a tax cut for the wealthy? Almost every other piece of legislation (except for military spending increases) that has been attempted to be passed over the past decade has been a textbook example of two-party democratic government not working. If 1980s Dominos Pizza was delivering this tax cut, the oligarchs would get it piping hot and received no discount..

1C9BD3D3-8D10-4D19-970D-4CEA9BC739A5

Every aspect of this Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is a big, bright, and bold example of how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in America. Follow the money is an age old expression. Congressional gridlock shows just how true that is. Because the only bills that have moved quickly through Congress have been military spending increases and this tax cut. The military industrial complex (who own he Democratic Party like violent pimps) and the oligarchs. King Kong ain’t got shit on them.

This bill is less about the Republican Party and more about who they represent and who they work for. Is it half of the American population? Is it a loud minority? A silent majority? Follow the money, who does this tax cut benefit?

Passing legislation has come to a halt in America since the last two years of the George W Bush administration. There was that one big exception, but almost every other bill has been stuck in legislative gridlock hell that is the United States Congress. Healthcare reform, immigration reform, financial regulation, digital privacy protection, et al have moved at painfully slow speeds if at all. Even common sense, bipartisan bills have had a hard time even seeing the light of day on the floor of either house of Congress.

But a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans? A 500 page bill involving one of the largest transfers of wealth in the history of the country? Less than a month is more than enough time. How does that happen? Why does that happen? Is that not why we fled England in the first place? I guess no taxation without representation only applies to taxes going up and not taxes going down, on less than two percent of the population.

Is this a tax cut to benefit people making less than one hundred thousand dollars per year? Less than fifty? Less than thirty?  Many might snicker and say those making so little don’t pay taxes anyway. That is the problem isn’t it? There are vastly more people in the current society who will benefit more in the day to day lives from taxes collected on the wealthy (social safety nets, community services) than by a one time, minor at best, windfall from a tax cut/credit.

The tax bill moved so fast through both houses that they have needed double, if not triple the amount of time to take the bills into conference committees to negotiate and fix the numerous, egregious math and budgeting errors. Drafting and finalizing a compromise bill behind closed doors has taken the place of proper on the floor debate as a result of this Congress moving at lightning speed to pass a bill that no one had time to read, let alone make logical decisions based upon critical thinking.

lead_960

Congress rushed through this bill like a college kid rushing to finish a final paper or cramming at the last-minute for a midterm. There are two key differences there and that is that when a college kid waits until the last-minute to do their deep work it only affects them and their roommates. The legislative branch of the United States of America however, effects just slightly more people than a dormitorium.

Greed and corruption like this used to have the cover of a lack of transparency. In the era of telephones and television and newspapers and radios and telegraphs it was much easier for politicians to say X, do Y, and say the result is Z. The age of the smartphone makes it easier to be shady, but much harder to keep it a secret. The wave of careers being ended by sexual misconduct allegations from Hollywood to Washington is evidence of this.

What is also apparent when held up to the light of day is the fact that this bill is amoral. Ethics, budgets, math do not apply to this trillion dollar wealth transfer. Negotiated in secret, passed before it could be read, full of so many errors that both the House and Senate versions needed to be negotiated so much they were both essentially rewritten. How does the urgency of this compare to the passing of hurricane relief to Puerto Rico?

The tax cut of 2017 that has been instituted by the Republican party has been called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 by some and the #TaxScamBill by others. Terms of endearment or damnation depending on which side of the political aisle and socioeconomic spectrum one falls on. What are facts and not opinions however are that this bill was so rushed it wasn’t read or proofread by the people who wrote it. That there were so many earmarks in there in such short order that many proved to be illegible when held up to the light of day or a camera

This tax cut is like putting your coat down at a bar, turning your back for a minute, then turning back to find someone going through the pockets and them playing dumb about it. They know what they’re doing, but are hoping to use ignorance as a guise for willful immorality.

 

 

#SocialMedia has its Day on the Hill

Posted: November 21, 2017 in Meat Me @ Camera 4
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0


copypasteimage-2
By @anarchyroll

Do social media platforms or the people running them have a responsibility to the public or to the republic? Is it in the nature of the services to spread modern-day propaganda which has been repackaged as fake news? Are these mediums a cause for negative events or are they simply mirrors and microphones? Are they bringing the worst out of people and society? Or are they just the biggest magnifying glass in the history of the species?

Are these services really that much different from the mediums that came before them? Radio and television have the exact same purpose as social media services…..to sell ads and the information about the people who consume them.

There is no moral compass at play with Facebook, with Twitter, especially with Google or Instagram or Snapchat. They are capitalist enterprises with one reason for existing, to make money. So if one or all of the companies get offered a lot of money from a foreign country to run political ads during a presidential campaign, why wouldn’t they take the money and put the content on their platform?

Oh, the information was blatantly false? It was straight up propaganda from a foreign government? Yeah okay but, they paid up front. Money talks. In America the Supreme Court has literally said money equals speech.

If anyone thinks Facebook or Google has a moral compass or conscious, try and find out exactly what they’re doing with all that personal metadata they mine from everyone who uses their services and/or apps.

It is not just a little too late to have the “ so social media companies have a responsibility” argument. That ship sailed once the collective population decided we didn’t want our phones to be phones anymore. Once the companies realized they were able to tap into our collective dopamine addictions by turning what used to be a portable audio communicator into a slot machine that can fit into a skinny jeans pocket, responsibility went right out the window.

2017-08-03-uscapitol-ljdoyle-017-1-

Do casinos have a responsibility to their guests other than making them enjoy losing their wages? Of course not, the whole business model is built around taking money out of people’s pockets and into the casino safe. Well social media is the casino and our attention and personal information is the cash.

On top of all that, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Twitter, and Snapchat are publicly traded companies. So quite literally, their only responsibility is to maximize profits for their shareholders. Their collective interest in the health of democracy only goes as far as the stock market opening and closing on time.

Americans love social media. We also love seeing powerful people get yelled at in public by elected officials. Dogs and ponies are adorable, who wouldn’t want to see a whole show of them? Well we got the best of both worlds last week when lawyers representing the big social media players went to capitol hill and got a verbal spanking from some very angry public officials.

It was modern American politics personified. Verbal spankings, non answers, legislation proposed but not supported, visual aide charts, legal jargon, and pledges to do better in the future. The vitriol directed at social media is just a reflection of our collective anger at ourselves. We’re angry for thinking social media would be a tool for good and not just a tool to make money.

We’re angry at ourselves for being so readily fooled by fake news that we’re all to easily manipulated into believing are the real thing. We’re angry at ourselves because we thought the internet, and the web 2.0 that social media represents would make us more informed and more united. Instead it’s deepened our divide and by putting our preexisting confirmation biases on technological steroids.

Our elected officials can yell at high-priced lawyers all they want. Public berating is much easier than putting regulations into place. It’s easier for Facebook and Twitter to higher more lobbyists than more moderators to discern what is being put on their platforms, by whom, and for what purpose. It’s easier to apologize later than to do the right thing in the moments of choice. We know this. That’s why we’re not angry at social media for what happened during the 2016 election season, we’re angry at ourselves.

 

To the 1% #Healthcare is Just Another Term for #Tax Cuts

Posted: July 17, 2017 in Excess and Algorithms
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

eanda logo

104329295-gettyimages-649571592-1910x1000

 

By @anarchyroll

What does it feel like to tell someone they must remain sick or die so that you can have more disposable income? In America, you indirectly tell people through backdoor lobbying of elected representatives with dark money.

What is the cost of living? Is there a societal flash point where that question is addressed out in the open collectively? In 2017, it feels like that point may be boiling closer to the surface than ever before. It was thought that the question was asked and answered in 2010 with the passing of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law.

What was learned was that there were a great volume of people who benefited from having access to health insurance who didn’t before and there was a large volume of money spent to resist the legislation at every possible turn. It seemed like a vocal majority of the country enjoyed what the ACA did for them. We also found out from the 2016 presidential election, that the silent majority of this country (whites) knows how and when to make a stink.

Repeal and Replace has been a battle cry for over half a decade for the Republican Party and the top one percent of economic earners whom they represent. Obamacare was nowhere near unflawed. Despite its limitations, holes, and warts it did accomplish something that those on the left have been championing for almost a century; access to free/low-cost healthcare to millions of people regardless of political affiliation or belief.

The masses have had a whiff, a taste, a sample of universal health care…there is no going back.

Republicans currently control the United States government. They have the executive and legislative branches and are gaining control of the judiciary. With such deep and vast control, they have been unable to eliminate Obamacare. How? The only thing that’s stopping them is the voting public. Who would’ve thought that an approval rating of 24% as a Congress compared to a 55% approval rating of Obamacare would create obstacles in a democracy?

There used to be this thing called give and take, compromise for short. In terms of economic policy in America for the past half century, it has become take, take, take. Income inequality is at eye-popping levels. Social media has put a magnifying glass on the haves in America. Their appetites of ego and greed has had them binge sharing their lives via smartphones for a decade. One thing all of these filtered and geo tagged pictures, videos, and stories have made clear; is that the 1% can never get enough.

I suppose it would be great to live our lives on permanent vacation. Is that not the end result of the American Dream? Going from the beach, to the boat, to the club, to the rooftop bar, to the personal jet, to the invitation only party, in the unlisted restaurant, at the private island, etc. This lifestyle requires opting out of the social contract, it is an evolution of the gated community.

To live these contribution-less lifestyles, there must be a transfer of wealth without physical labor or violence. The American Health Care Act of 2017 has been independently shown to be nothing more than a tax cut for and transfer of wealth to the top one percent of income earners in America. It is a money grab through the legislative process. It is a bank heist through legal channels.

Okay, that might be too cynical of a view. We should be glass half full kind of people. It’s better to just think of the repercussions of this bill, as a cost of living adjustment.

The #ForgottenAmericans Must Be Remembered Before November

Posted: March 8, 2017 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

4886

By @anarchyroll

In his first weekly address, Trump made sure to speak to what he called the forgotten Americans. Do you know who those people are? If you don’t, you are apart of the problem, not the solution.

If you live in a major metropolitan city, with a job dependent on technology, an artistic mindset, a liberal paradigm: with no understanding or empathy for the old, rural, industrial, rust belt, baseball, apple pie Americana folks who have been left behind since the 1970s…then your faux rage, uproar, rallies, marches, and hashtag revolts are not only irrelevant, but also impetice for Trump’s re election.

Remember how galvanized the left was after eight years of republican rule in America. When two wars were stared. Stem cell therapy was disabled. Religion was prioritized over science. Then a mixed race gentleman ran for the highest office in the land with the potential to make history, The level of enthusiasm, effort, and existential encouragement to reach beyond the brass ring for annals of history was no longer a wet dream of ideology but a forgone consequence the rise of a political base.

2016-03-12t182817z_01_col105_rtridsp_3_usa-election-trump-300x187

Empathy and compromise must be paid to the south and rust belt at some point. The former Confederacy has been guaranteed red on the electoral map for many generations now. The former manufacturing havens of the mid west have turned electorally red year by year. If the deep blue states of California and Illinois can have red governors multiple times over in recent years, then red states can change majors in the electoral college as well.

The Affordable Care Act has caught on quite well in the Bible belt and the new Pope says a lot of leftist things. Is there not common ground to be gained there?

Trump winning the elections defied many perceived norms. But one old school norm that holds true is that all politics are local. There must be focus paid to state elections. One vote doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot in a national election. But in state, county, and township elections one vote can go a long way. There must be national emphasis paid to state elections. That may sound like a lot. But in the era of the never-ending news cycle and the unquenchable thirst for content of varying quality, a national spotlight paid to local elections is a natural fit. Think I’m stretching here? Watch a major sports network during an off-season or a preseason.

Solar power is creating more jobs than the coal industry. Legalized marijuana will be creating more jobs than the manufacturing sector. Both of those things scream common ground for liberals and conservatives. But can that common ground be found if we are all lost in the trees of pundit reactivity?

There is a decent percentage of people on each side who are lost. Too dug in the trenches of their side as if it will give them bonus points in this life or the next. But there are vastly more people who simply want a to live a happy life without hurting anyone. If everyone had more income than debt, only the freaks would care about getting rid of second amendment or transgender rights.

But that common ground must be diligently searched for through action and policy. Rhetoric and campaign promises are simply not good enough. The forgotten Americans have been left behind for almost half a century. Their anger is as justified as it is misdirected. Who closed the factories? Who outsourced the jobs? Who cut the aide checks? The answer is not liberal elites.

It isn’t ridicule nor parades that will convince the forgotten Americans about the wonders of social progressivism. It is a path out of poverty that involves a purpose. For generations politicians have leveraged social issues against economics to channel the angry attention away from the people who closed the factories and outsourced their jobs towards the sex, science, and sin of city dwellers.

anti-trump-protest-locations

Getting angry or nasty and marching in the streets of major metropolitan cities does nothing but satisfy ego and social media content appetite. The actual work must be done in the broken rural communities of the country that have been so economically depressed and culturally starved for so long that they have become nationally infamous as centers for the meth and opium epidemics of the past decade.

So instead of trying to cram fringe left-wing issues down America’s throat from New York and LA, try putting boots, brains, and plans of action on the ground one flyover state at a time. The rust belt must be acknowledged and tended to. From factory towns to mill villages. These people need to be explained, then shown through action, a plan for sustainable economic success in the knowledge worker age. Until this entire section of the country, until these forgotten Americans are given a hand up from the other side of the aisle, transgender rights, environmental accountability, progressive income taxes, and marijuana legalization are all mere pipe dreams of a voting block too apathetic and naive to bring about the real change they publically pout about with placards and impotent anger.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRUAYA7DVWF/?taken-by=berniesanders&hl=en

#Trump Serves as Check & Balance for Political Engagement

Posted: February 24, 2017 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

By @anarchyroll

Have you heard that Donald Trump is the POTUS?

People are either in ectasy or agony with very little middle ground. He won the electoral college by a large margin. An electorate of very excited, engaged, angry voters who wanted change. Does that sound familiar? It should, that’s how Obama surged into the White House in 2008.

I had a female in my social circle shed a few tears saying she was worried Trump will bring about the apocalypse. The apocalypse? I literally had to calm her down by taking some deep breaths and then consoled her using positive skepticism. I told her, that Trump is a businessman, if he destroys the world, how is he going to make any money?

There is a limit to how bad Trump can make things. It is built into the Constitution as well as the Democratic party’s bureaucracy machine that like the RNC and lobbyists, is dug into the D.C political scene like a tick. Try not to get lost in the media industrial complex’s nonstop coverage and punditry of what Trump is doing. Bullet point reviews will do just fine, you know where you stand on the issues he is tackling, there is no need, nor any good to come from watching hours and hours of talking heads enveloping what he is doing.

https3a2f2fblueprint-api-production-s3-amazonaws-com2fuploads2fcard2fimage2f2779192f6358417b488d4d3fa4a46a8d9c58a19e

I proudly voted for Bernie Sanders in the Illinois Democratic Primary Election. I voted for Jill Stein in November because I live in Illinois and in Illinois the vote for President doesn’t matter…Dukakis won our state in 88 after all. I am also a white male, I can’t pretend to relate to what women and immigrants are experiencing internally with Trump in office.

I do feel that the ramifications of Trump’s potential actions are being sensationalized in the name of a never ending loop of creating content to sell to advertisers. Evoking intense emotional response for the sake of ratings and revenue regardless of where one gets their news, fake or legit.

I also feel that the galvanization of democrat, liberal, independent, female, minority, and youth voters is exactly what our country needs and has needed for a long time. Too many people, myself included, checked out when Obama took office. Obama ran a campaign on hope, once elected, the left felt victory had been achieved permanently. A natural human instinct to think that since we just swept the floor, the dust and dirt will stay away forever.

Unfortunately the floor gets dirty again, the dishes need to get rewashed, the hamper fills back up, the bills keep getting sent. The same goes for voting. The other side of the aisle doesn’t pack it in just because they lose one election or two or three. One must continuously go to the polls to further push or cement their political agenda whether liberal or conservative. And by one, I mean EVERYONE!

Trump has certainly lit a fire under the ass of a lot of voters. That is a good thing in the long term. Yes, in the short term it will be painful especially for immigrants, women, the impoverished, and environmentalists. But in the long term if those who are angry, nasty, marching, protesting, paying attention, and getting involved can stay that way, then actually show up in mass to the fucking mid term elections then maybe “progress” can begin anew.

The National Disgrace of the #DAPL

Posted: November 30, 2016 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , ,
0

By @anarchyroll

What could be a more authentic way to celebrate Thanksgiving in America than rich white people trying to take land and resources away from Native American tribes?

It’s practically a reenactment going on in North Dakota. Although instead of small pox infested blankets, the weapons of choice are water cannons, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades.

What is going on in North Dakota in the bigger picture is truly a teachable moment for those paying attention. It teaches all of us who is in charge of America. It teaches all of us what American values actually are. It shows us and the world the true colors of America.

American history is literally impossible to tell without telling the story of genocide against the indigenous population that preceded the Europeans who settled here. I guess that’s not fair to say. To be fair it was more a cycle of forced evacuation, genocide, reparation, reneging, repeat.

fb_img_1480389579195

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Don’t let the virtual reality, rise of kale and loot crate economy fool you. The world is more or less the same for more people as it was decades ago. That point can be disputed but what can’t be is who is in charge in America. The election of Donald Trump was an emphatic reminder of that.

The old, rich, white men who posses the resources and finances are who controls America regardless of who is in the Oval Office.

Want to guess the demographic of the person in charge of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)?

One might think the outgoing, minority President, who understands a thing or two about discrimination might be speaking out about the DAPL. One might think the recent loser of the presidential election might be making noise to further endear her to minority groups feeling scared, threatened, and cheated by her loss. One might think any prominent member of the Democratic party might be speaking out about the treatment of the DAPL protesters, given that the party has been tagged with being only working for the economic elitists, who are neutral on social issues. One would be wrong, total media silence.

Double emphasis on media silence as the media has been too busy talking about glutenous eating, shopping, travel, and the recent election to inform the masses of what is happening at Standing Rock.

I’ll give you one guess to figure out who the most prominent politician who is talking about the Dakota Access Pipeline. You only need one guess, though if you voted for Clinton, you probably don’t want to know who it is.

Any public school student in America from the last half century knows how much the Native American people have had taken from them…repeatedly. What is left to take?

Who gives a shit about North Dakota? Exactly, that’s why we gave land to them there. Can we not let the people who we have taken everything and then some from, have some land that we don’t want? North Dakota doesn’t even qualify as a flyover state and all of a sudden this real estate is too valuable to continue abiding by the law of the land that federal treaty protected?

Something stinks and if the ETP has its way that stench will be oil polluted drinking water.

#waterislife

Condoning #Clinton’s Sabotage of Sanders Sewed the Seeds of #Trump’s Triumph

Posted: November 24, 2016 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , ,
0

By @anarchyroll

Were you one of those “With Her”? If so, your consent and endorsement of documented sabotage, corruption and collusion of the Bernie Sanders campaign in the primaries is to blame for Trump’s presidency. Your protest of the general election result is as sad and pathetic as it is hollow and immature.

Your single minded, arrogant, elitist, sexist ideology that it was time for the first female president rather than the most qualified candidate with the best chance to win; is why we now have a climate change denier as leader of the free world.

You, thinking you know best and she knew best because of her gender allowed your rationality to be blinded to her historic unfavorablility rating. You wouldn’t listen to reason, you listened to your emotions. You endorsed a candidate being investigated by the FBI during her campaign. You locked yourselves in echo chambers of glad handing pseudo news to only be informed about what you wanted to hear.

You castigated a majority of your political base with rhetoric and hubris who desperately pleaded with you for months to side with facts and rationality rather than homogenized matriarchy.

imwithher.jpg

Even now, you refuse to look in the mirror and accept that you sabotaged your own best interest and the future of our country, our planet. Opting instead to literally cry, shout obscenities, and refusing to accept reality.

But why act differently now? You refused to accept the reality of who was the actual most qualified, democratic candidate, whose time had come was. The person who was drawing such huge crowds to hear them speak that the term revolution was placed upon them, rather than artificially formulated by political public relations sycophants.

Refusing to accept reality, instead demanding that fairytale of the princess becoming queen be (wo)manifested into reality. As for the signs, scandals, protests, polls, and investigations into your chosen one? Ignore them! Pretend they don’t exist! After all, you already booked the hotel lobby with the glass ceiling in Manhattan, why let something as pesky as pragmatic realities and facts get in the way of your sexist symbolism?

Your power hungry political penis envy has put a person who admittedly can’t take criticism in charge of mass surveillance and nuclear weapons.

il_570xn-806184843_9v95

Now you take to the streets and shout not your president? If only your impotent protest placards could patch hole in the ozone layer that will only grow larger with a climate change denier in the White House.

Filming yourselves crying on your smartphone to post on social media? If only your tears could be used as medicine to millions who will loose insurance under someone who wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Pride comes before the fall. Hillary Clinton and those “With Her” displayed not just arrogance but open contempt for and denial of disputing facts and figures that repeatedly pointed to her unelectability. In many cases she refused to comment or address negative facts and figures. Her supporters openly pled ignorance, were ignorant, or played the feminist martyr card when her nomination at the DNC convention received 3x the protest of Trump at the RNC.

And now your failure, your fall, is all of ours.

All of us who believe in climate change. All of us who believe healthcare to be a right. All of us outside the top 1% economic class who need government regulation of capitalism to ensure a more even/equal playing field. All of us, men and women must now endure half a decade of potential societal setbacks and draconian policies.

You sabotaged your own access to abortions and  potential to receive equal pay for equal work by tying yourselves to an anchor in the middle of the ocean. Then refusing to take the hand our potential savior, because he was an old white man.

Now because of your by any means necessary feminist fairytale, Donald Trump has got his hands on this countries balls. Or in this case, because of you, he has been given complete reign to grab the free world right in the pussy.

Closing the #TerrorGap Stalemate Paints Unfortunate Ugly Portait of #America

Posted: July 13, 2016 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
0

 

download

By @anarchyroll

Suspected terrorists not being allowed to legally buy guns in America sounds like a no brainer. The type of legislation that is only a formality to pass because it is such common sense. What type of law-abiding citizen who exercises their right to bear arms for the purposes of hunting, stamp like collecting, and/or personal protection of property would object to such legislation?

Congressional legislation is rarely black and white or red and blue. The shades of gray, along with the devil, are in the details. In Congress, the devil and the details are earmarks, appropriations, and general language. Previous attempts to close the Terror Gap have stalled for all three of the aforementioned reasons.

There are so many mass shootings in America, it seems like something like the Terror  Gap would at least be used as a token gesture of good will. A way for the Congress to convince themselves and their varying constituents that they aren’t tone-deaf to the scare and suffering going on around the country at the hands of gun violence.

In the wake of the Pulse nightclub Orlando shooting, it is natural to assume that something needs to be done about guns in America. There are crazy, angry people everywhere in this world. In America however, those crazy, angry people just like the sane, happy people have consistent easy access to automatic weapons and military grade assault rifles.

Wishing for pie in the sky fantasy bills like a total ban on automatic weapons ie the Australia way, is not helpful. As far as America goes, file that under if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Filibustering and staging sit ins to draw attentions to Congressional gridlock although well-intentioned, do nothing to move forward tangibly or pragmatically in a country where gun ownership is not going away anytime soon. We need cooperation and Congressional compromise literally  now more than ever at the most polarized political point since the Red Scare.

Closing the Terror Gap with a bill sans earmarks or strings tied to appropriations is only a first step, not a cure-all. A first step forward on the issue of guns is just what the doctor ordered for America right about now. Resistance to closing the Terror Gap puts law-abiding gun owners in a negative light. An insatiable desire to go take away all the guns casts progressives as nothing more than the yang to the yin of the redneck, gun clutching, bible-thumpers they claim to be better than through an ego centered in education as opposed to ideology.

A new normal of never-ending mass shootings in America is the time for pragmatism in terms of gun control. What can we do in this situation, at this time, to take a step forward as a nation and a species. Critical mass has been reached and we are long past the tipping point. Something most be done about guns in America.

To think things will change going forward based upon our current actions is insanity defined. There are simply too many guns freely available in the United States of America. Action must be taken. Whether that action is drastic or pragmatic, remains to be seen. But closing the Terror Gap is a first step that can be taken regardless of whether the next step is that of a baby or a giant. And the time to close the gap was yesterday. We need the easy choices like closing the Terror Gap behind us so that we can face the real hard choices like adults, with the kiddy pool decisions already behind us.

 

On Wall Street, #LegacyMatters Matter More than Leaving a Legacy

Posted: May 5, 2016 in Excess and Algorithms
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

eanda logoby @anarchyroll

What does a white-collar, wall street economic terrorist have to do to go to jail?

Write billion dollar checks with strings attached and an ability to make money back off the deal I suppose.

That is what Goldman Sachs recently did in New York as a means of settling their Legacy Matters related to the 2008 economic collapse that they have now admitted to being at least partially responsible for.

Usually when a person confesses to a crime, they still go to jail, they still face a righteous punishment. Maybe instead of the death penalty they serve life in prison. The deal that Goldman Sachs cut with the working group headed by the New York Attorney General, is very Manhattan, a lot of bluster for the sake of appearances that stinks like garbage when brought into the sun.

What good is restitution without a righteous penalty? What is the value of a fine to people with unlimited money and unlimited capacity to get free money from the US government?

05101278

A penalty isn’t a penalty if it doesn’t hurt the person or party being penalized.

Fining Goldman Sachs five billion dollars is like fining the ocean enough water to run a water park for a summer. Not only is it less than a minimal but its a pretty salty reward  that cant quench anybody’s thirst.

In the developed world money equals power. The purpose of news is to inform the common person about what those in power are doing. The event of the 2008 economic collapse and the ripple effects in the aftermath of it effect more people directly than any presidential election in modern times

Yet how much coverage did the announcement of this multi billion dollar settlement get compared to any aspect of the presidential primary or anything Donald Trump has said in the last year?

Legacy matters.

Most people would agree that it does. On Wall Street that means a whole different thing. Then again what doesn’t? The announced five billion dollar settlement by Goldman Sachs sums up their legacy and the legacy of the 2008 economic collapse quite well.

Smoke screens, legalese, under the table deals, double talk, fine print, more mystery than truth, more PR than pure.That is the legacy of the 2008 economic collapse and the Great Recession that followed it.

That is the legacy that matters to Goldman Sachs, and the royal we of Wall Street. The legacy matters of the too big to fail institutions on Wall Street are nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet…just like everything and everyone else in the world.

On Wall Street, legacy matters are things you put behind with shame. In the rest of the world, it’s something you leave behind with pride.

Mainstream Goes #BernieSanders

Posted: February 11, 2016 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

150125100442-bernie-sanders-780x439

by @anarchyroll

There is something about the genuine article that attracts and magnetizes people.

Deep down inside, we know when we are dealing with a human being who is the real thing, and one who is an imitation/impostor. Granted, that line of thinking exists in the same world as the concept that it’s a shame to let a sucker keep their money. But people tend to know the truth in the gut if they are not having their senses bombarded with fear based propaganda.

Ten, twenty, thirty years ago what would the general perception be of a socialist running for President of the United States? How would the public react? What would the polls say?

Twenty, thirty, forty years of the masses being nickeled and dimed as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer piled on top of $475 BILLION of taxpayer money as a reward to Wall Street for causing the second coming of the Great Depression…..and all of a sudden a socialist in the White House is less much less far out or radical than any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle catch phrase.

The most successful Independent politician in United States history was Bernie Sanders ten years ago. A self identified Democratic Socialist, Sanders spent 16 years as a United States Congressman before being elected as a US Senator. People of a certain age would love to believe Ross Perot’s run in the 1992 election is the shining example of independent candidates making a splash, but Sanders has already erased all of Perot’s accomplishments outside of Dana Carvey’s SNL impression skits.

Sanders is the real thing, the genuine article. A very white male who was arrested during a 1960s civil rights protest. A socialist who says very loudly, very often that he is going to raise taxes. A leftist who makes not attempt to move to the middle regardless of how politically prudent it is to do so. A man who speaks openly of the NEED for revolution on the reg.

I personally know three people who hate Bernie Sanders and respect him at the same time. They all hate him because they are well off and know he’ll raise their taxes, they respect him because he’s authentic. Well guess what folks?

In the year 2016, in the United States of America, there are WAYYYYYY more legal voters who respect Bernie Sanders for being authentic than rich people who hate him because they know he’s going to raise their taxes.

That is why Bernie Sanders is a legit general election threat, not just a primary darling. That is why Bernie Sanders has NOT gone mainstream. Mainstream has gone Bernie Sanders.

Older Entries