The Con of Don

 I didn't think it would be long before the High Shade Grifter, The Fartful Fraudster, The Don of Con, The Abortion of Extortion, (I think you know who I'm talking about) made it back into my blog. What's it been three whole posts without him? Last time I was talking about how he needs to be impeached. Well, that didn't happen. He is embroiled in about 3500 lawsuits, here is a list of just a few of the latest (14 actually, but that's just a few for 45). And like Teflon, these charges likely won't stick to his oily hide either. But he remains relevant in the news, at least to me, while I cheer for the prosecution.

Occasionally, aside from his horse that he's flogged way past the point of decomposition, the "Somebody cheated ME" gambit he constantly brings up about the election that he says was fixed, he says or does something else so the world doesn't forget about him. Like complaining about "cancel culture" then throwing shade on all kinds of companies and telling his groupies to boycott them. MLB, Delta Airlines, JP Morgan Chase, Viacom (CBS), City Group, Cisco, UPS, and Merck, which is the company that makes it so he still has a few remaining strands of hair to arrange on his bald noggin. The best, of course, was when he was drinking a Diet Coke while condemning Coca Cola like the High Shade Grifter he is. 

But none of that was what brought him to my attention most recently. Read this article and watch the video. Go ahead. I'll wait. I recently talked with a Trump supporter about how money should be kept out of politics. He agreed and said that the best thing about Trump was that he was rich and therefore incorruptible, at least by money. A LOT of Trump supporters felt that way and have repeated this as at least part of their reason for voting for the Fartful Fraudster in 2016. Inconceivably, more than four years of cheap chicanery later, many STILL believed he was not completely corrupt and voted for him again! The corruption was so obvious, they didn't see it!

The person I was talking to, the Trump fan, used the Clintons as an example of why money shouldn't be in politics. "Where did they make all their money?" he asked me. He gave the figure of 120 million. That's Hillary and Bill and that's, as he said, "all their money." Now let's remember Bill was prez 8 years, governor of Arkansas 11; Hillary was First Lady 8 years, Secretary of State 4 years, and a senator for 8 years. That's 39 years in office between them, not to mention the fact that they are both lawyers and successful authors. With the average senator's salary at 174,000 and president's salary at about half a million including travel and other expense allowances, plus whatever money they made when they were not in government, you total that up and it's not gonna be 120 million. Not unless they got in on Apple stock on the ground floor.

I don't doubt the Clintons made it killing during their time in office. Everybody does. That's the root of all political evil. But in comparison, let's look at Jared and Ivanka, shall we? They profited from working in the Whitehouse to the tune of between 172 and 640 million. Dollars. American. In 4 years. Hello? Kettle, this is Pot. Come in Kettle! But wait! There's more! Here's an article that says Trump made 1.9 BBBBillion while he was in office. Uh, and oh yeah, that was just the first 3 years. So that's not including the scam for contributions allegedly to aid in his fight to, (irony cough) STOP THE STEAL.

But this is what it's like trying to reason with Trumpsters, isn't it? They'll point out Biden poking you with a needle (and I use this metaphor purposely) while Trump is impaling you with a jousting lance. You talk to them and they don't believe you. You give them news stories and it's fake news. I showed the Trumpster I was talking with the article from the NY Times and he immediately said that publication was on his "do not trust" list. EVERY publication should be on EVERY person's "do not trust" list, but there's something in legal jargon that has been used to constitute legally binding proof that the Trumpsters as a whole seem to be missing: it's called preponderance of evidence. It is, admittedly, the lowest standard of proof, but it is of common usage particularly in the courts Trump is the king of: (or at least head jester) the civil courts. To sum it up, if there is a pile of evidence so high that it becomes obvious that something is better than 50% likely to be the case, preponderance of evidence meets the burden of proof. Here's a more thorough explanation if you're interested.

Don't trust anything, question everything, but while reading with sufficient skepticism, keep track of the piles on both sides of the issues you're particularly interested in. Chances are good that if you try to remain as objective as possible, weeding out the obviously biased articles, the bigger the pile, the closer to the truth it should be. That's what I've found and as long as our world remains on the good side of 50%, which I still maintain it is, this method should work. Just don't let somebody else do your thinking for you. This is why, toward the end of our conversation on money in politics, I told my Trumpy buddy to check some of his preferred publications for the absolutely hilarious Bitch BlockConnell doing his best "I know you are but what am I" argument in support (need I say blind?) of the Abortion of Extortion saying, "Corporations need to stay out of politics." He was referring, no doubt, to the afore-listed corporations that have spoken out against the new legislation (361 bills in 47 States) that make voting more difficult. One of the ways voting is limited is by requiring ID. Passports and to a lesser extent, driver's licenses require proof that you are who you are and you need to fill out application forms. Questions on applications are about your background. Essentially, the new legislation is requiring background checks for voters.

Now, let's examine some different legislation, shall we? Soon, Joe Biden will be trying, again, to pass some restrictions on guns in response to recent, and let's face it, NOT so recent, mass shootings in the US. One of the main issues will be the HIGHLY popular universal background checks. About 90% of Americans support this idea. Slam dunk, right? Not so fast Kimosabe. Any gun legislation is a tough sell for the Republican party because - you guessed it - money. Financial backers of the Republican party, like the NRA, have gotten any legislation to do with guns blocked in the past 20 years. This same legislation was passed in the House before, but senate majority leader, Bitch BlockConnell just buried it. It was never voted on. McConnell, the top recipient of corporate funding in the 2020 election cycle, and 4.3 million in the last 5 years, is not the senate majority leader any more. So he's worried his benefactors may be disappointed, particularly in the state of Georgia, which is virtually neck and neck between the two parties. So he momentarily bit the hand that has been feeding him for years by telling the corporations who don't support voter suppressing legislation and are taking action and speaking out against it, to stop acting and shut up. But that was on Monday. On Tuesday, he went back to licking the hands (and other body parts) of the money-grubbing, soulless corporations that have pulled his strings for a price his whole career by saying something to the effect of it is fine for rich big shots to purchase politicians to gain unfair power and influence in America, just not to try to influence things when average Americans would be helped. 

The above is a GREAT depiction of Mitch the streetwalking whore McConnell taken from an article in Rolling Stone magazine entitled, "Mitch McConnell, The Man Who Sold America." It's a long article, but if you want to read how politicians "earn" so much money, there's no better example than Moscow Mitch. His campaign funds of 4.3 mil were a mere drop in the bucket. I encourage you to not get pissed off while reading this article. If you read the article, you'll find that as far back as '73 this jagoff was railing against corporate interference in politics even writing an article about it in the Kentucky newspaper, the Courier-Journal. Then in '87 he actually proposed a bill to end the ability of wealthy Americans to spend limitless cash on their own campaigns. McConnell didn't become one of the richest politicians by sticking to his guns on issues (and again, I choose the metaphor carefully) or having any discernable principles or allegiances. He went where the money was. Just read about it. It goes without saying that if you're a Trumpy, don't bother reading it - fake news!

They're scam artists. Crooks. Grifters. Guys like Mitch and Don ARE the proverbial swamp Trump claimed he would drain. Just like the mobster is the criminal element in your neighbourhood he says he will protect you from. And the reason they're so powerful and they've clambered their ways to the top of politics is money.

You may be thinking, "Yeah, this may ALL be right, but it really doesn't affect me." You couldn't be more wrong. Remember the days when politicians were honoured and revered and you didn't sound like a schmuck if you told your kid that some day he or she could grow up to be President (or Prime Minister)? Those days aren't gone. They've just changed. Presidents and Prime Ministers are still revered and honoured. Just not for virtues like honesty and ethics. They're now honoured and revered for modern virtues like acquisitive business "savvy" (greed) and moral relativism (spinelessly fluid principles). Money changed those virtues. And now those are the virtues that are imitated by regular folks.

Just the other day I was at Costco and I was at the checkout counter. I had a 6-pack of onion bagels. I was already going to store it in the freezer because I can only eat a bagel once in a while for a treat. Six would last me half a year. But the cashier said they were on special, one-plus-one. Well I wasn't going to walk back and get 6 more. I certainly couldn't use a dozen for myself, but I was there with a friend so I said to her that I could just give her six if she wanted. We asked and they don't have anyone who can run to get you something. You know, like every grocery store USED to have. So I said, "Whatever, just ring them up. I'll take six for the price of twelve." A nice deal for Costlyco! But even THAT was not possible! Two bags of bagels or none were my only two options. I find it hard to believe that there was no way I could have been accommodated there. It probably wasn't a scam but because of the ubiquity of the scam in this day and age in which scam artists are the heroes, I was SURE I was being ripped off in some way!

I've also been the victim of a similar scam to the Trump fleecing of his contributors. I don't know what I bought or when I bought it, but I'm being billed 29 American dollars every month for something I either wanted to pay for once or never wanted to pay for at all. Only thing I pay monthly is storage in Canada and my phone. It's probably one of the places I did my Christmas shopping at. But I've talked to my bank and they can't put a stop payment on things like this. The fucking banks are IN on these scams! Why could you not put a stop payment on something like this? All I could get was the company name and it means nothing to me. That's by design so I can't return to whatever website scammed me and uncheck the monthly payment box. I've looked up the company name on Google and it is listed as a scam site. It's attached to many websites evidently. But I couldn't find a list. The only thing I can do is cancel the credit card. Which I've already done twice in the past 6 months. For the same reason. I'm sure that's what I'll end up doing but then I'll have to give my new credit card info to everybody plus I'll have to go into Seoul and the bank isn't open after my working hours and even if it were, I'm farther away and there are fewer buses, I wouldn't make it on time, also I might have to be quarantined if I go to Seoul since there is now mandatory testing in the area for foreigners, I think...

I can't avoid bringing up my pet peeve scam perpetrated without legal recourse on every one of us every day and that is the widely accepted charges banks hang on us regular people to access our money. Bank machines, transfers, paying bills, writing checks, these are charges over and above the charges charged for us to GIVE the banks our hard-earned money so that they can make money with it. You just knew it wouldn't be long before THAT bullshit scam caught on didn't you? And in an area that directly or indirectly affects us all: school books. You can't blame McGraw Hill. If the banks don't get charged or fined or even frowned upon for this scam, why can't we do it? 

The legal fraud is endless! Non-refundable plane tickets should never be a thing. Your flight gets cancelled and you're fucked. People collecting your signature for purchases or refunds. Should be illegal but it's not. In fact, most of us don't know how often we give our signatures when it's totally unnecessary. Email, phone numbers, any contact information is valuable to scumbag advertisers and the collection and sale of it is only just starting to be punished. Here in Korea there are all kinds of scams perpetrated upon foreigners who are depended upon to just avoid the inconvenience of challenging them, in Korean, and pay. Housing surcharges, utility bills, removal of price tags, frivolous immigration documents and processes, hell, my landlord knows I get a housing stipend and used that as an excuse to overcharge me on my rent. My current apartment is worse in every way but I pay the same rent only because the landlord has rented to teachers before and is aware of the Gongju University contracts.

Actual exchange rates on the Korean won are easy to find out but impossible to get. Try using your Korean bank card in another country and see if you don't pay charges that amount to more than the allowable 23% in Canada. Having said that, there's always a loophole for the bad guy. Sometimes up to 60% is allowable. SIXTY PERCENT! What kind of screwjob capitalist wiseguy loan shark law is that? Here's a list of the most common scams nowadays, but not appearing on this list are a lot of overcharges we collectively just sigh and pay without complaint. Well this IS a complaint. I think the main reason we are so thoroughly scammed is because we're perfect chumps. We're the marks every con man dreams about. Socialized to believe all complaining is negativity. As I pointed out to a friend recently who had posted on Facebook one of those toxically positive "avoid negative people" posts, avoiding negative people is awfully negative behaviour! So we're mindfucked. And we're overworked. Too exhausted to bother. Surrounded on all sides by fraud so that it's become commonplace. 

I gotta believe all this wouldn't be the case if we lived in a world in which the con-man mentality was punished, not rewarded. I feel like the US, being by FAR the most represented country in all media, will have to be the country where this change is initiated. I see good signs from the Biden/Harris administration so far, but this is a monumental task I don't know if they're up to. 

At this point, I guess all a guy can do is hope...

Easter in Korea

 Happy Easter everybody! It certainly IS a happy Easter for me! Not because of the chocolate, the Easter egg hiding, hunting or colouring or Easter celebrations with friends and family, (there won't be any of that) and not because of the holiday, (we don't get one here in Korea) but because I'm back to work and all signs point to a better situation. I was getting a bit worried that I'd have to go without work for a semester again, or even worse, accept work in China or Saudi Arabia. But I got this job after the deadline. March 1 was starting day for most uni gigs here in Korea, but I started April 1. And that's no April Fool's joke!

You may be wondering about Easter in Korea. A better place to start would be Christianity in Korea. If you live here as long as I have, or for a month, you will get a sense that Korea IS a Christian country. Statistically, about 46% of people have no religious affiliation. That surprises me! About 20% are Buddhist and a whopping 33% are Christians. Here is a really good article on how that came about. I would also encourage you to read the article so that you don't think the next few things I'm going to say are the products of my imagination/any sort of prejudice, but are opinions shared by many, including members of Korean Christian groups.

Christianity in Korea is a different animal! While Christian Mammonism has always been one of many sources of confusion for me in ANY church, I haven't seen an integral connection between God and prosperity to the extent it exists in Korean Christian churches. You can find many instances throughout history of prosperity being linked to God's favour and even superiority of race, but there are few rags to riches stories like the "Miracle on the Han River." In about 50 years, Korea went from a nation of uneducated and destitute farmers to one of the top dozen economies in the world! It's no huge wonder that the people of that generation were deliriously happy at their good fortune! Short of saying exactly the following, the above article certainly hints at it: Korean pride, (and considerable xenophobia which led to the nickname "hermit kingdom") would not allow them to give full credit to the foreign countries upon which they were more dependent than most nations on earth, so they chose to believe it was their own hard work and God that created the miracle. This gave rise to the only miracle that surpassed the Korean economic miracle: the Korean religious miracle. Churches were filled with zealous worshippers faster than they could be built. 

In a discussion last week with one of my students about culture shock, he said short skirts on the girls and the number of churches were to two most shocking things for him when he first arrived in Korea. There are about 17 million Christians in Korea, which is the size of the state of Indiana. About 81.5% live in the cities, so you can imagine what it's like walking down any city street. There seems to be a church on every corner! When I first came here in 1997 I was asked about once a week if I was a Christian. 

Nowadays the churches are still there, but the zeal is not. The Korean economy couldn't possibly have sustained the trajectory that created that zeal. Things have levelled out and while the beneficiaries of the economic miracle of the second half of the 20th century still maintain their wealth and their belief that somehow God factored into it, the younger generation isn't prospering as miraculously. So here we have identical sentiments among the last couple of generations as we have in most capitalist countries in which unchecked capitalist aggression and greed has created unprecedented wealth gaps and funneled almost all the resources and power into the hands (and bank accounts) of so few. The younger generation here are discouraged by employment and happiness prospects. The term "Hell Chosun" has been created to describe their feelings. And you can bet that some of the tin-eared older generation believe that the youngsters need to work harder and get their asses to church instead of complaining.

As for Easter, it's not even a holiday here! I will work a full day Easter Monday. Christmas isn't big either. With the church being so dominant, and a third of the people I meet every day being Christians, it's just colossally confusing to me how Easter is such a non-entity here! It feeds into the belief, and once again, not just MY belief, that Korean Christianity is first and foremost a kind of socio-economic cartel of like minded people giving each other preferential treatment. How real is the zeal? 

I imagine conversation between the generations might be similar to the meme war we often see around Christian holidays between Christians and non-believers online. The Christians will be all like...

And Easter non-celebrants might be all like...

and maybe they'll refuse to go to church. The miracle generation might think, "Hmmm... that WOULD explain the Easter eggs and chocolate bunny rabbits. I've always wondered about them. I mean, like, wouldn't a phoenix have been a better symbol for Easter? Jesus wasn't really a symbol of fertility or spring or growing or mating and he didn't really get reborn, he rose from the dead." But then they will probably get all up in the faces of the younger generation saying things like, "This is exactly WHY things are going so badly for you!"

To which the younger generation might reply, "Come on Grampa, give it a rest you zombie worshipper!"

And maybe the logic of that might go through the heads of the elder generation. They might even recall chilling, and confusing Bible verses they'd read. Like...

 or...

... but they'll say, "Jesus gave his life for you!"

The young and cheeky will reply, "Well, not really. He was actually only inconvenienced for three days. Then he returned and scared some people."

"Don't be blasphemous! Jesus died for your sins. We celebrate Easter here in Korea, not with a day off, but by thanking Jesus for saving us and washing away our sins."

"Again Grampa, he was dead, but only for, like, two and a half days, and if the wages of sin are death, but those who believeth in Jesus will have eternal life, and if God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are all One, then isn't he technically saving us from himself? Couldn't we have all been forgiven without all that?"

"All that? You dismiss the crucifixion and the suffering of our Lord as 'all that'?"

"It's because I'm not so sure I believe in 'all that.' I think maybe Jesus puts the 'fiction' in 'crucifixion.'"

"Get out of this house!" 

"Fine! See ya later. I'm gonna go out and drink some Cass beer, meet up with friends and maybe commit a few sins... because:

"Yeah, sure, GO! Drink your beer! Do your partying! Coast through life working your measly 12-hour shifts taking advantage of the blessings that your ancestors worked so hard for! I'll go to church and pray for you! Lousy younger generation... mumble grumble... Don't know how GOOD they got it... mumble grumble..."

I'm not saying for sure that this is the way things go here, but I wonder... 

At any rate, I am celebrating Easter and my good fortune this year. The job is going very well! I will get immigration taken care of next week and submit my curricula for both online and face-to-face classes, then the next week is exam week so it's a week off for me! And the Wednesday of that week is my birthday so I'll be celebrating that most likely. 

Just in case it seems like I was favouring the Atheists this post, I will ask if any of the Atheists are going into work Easter Monday. What about Christmas? What do you say during sex? Just asking. And in case any Atheist gets too cocky, here's your fucking soup:

 

So, how 'bout we just get along? All religious and non-religious people? Maybe THAT'S what we could celebrate on Easter. Yeah, right! Happy Easter from Korea anyway!

A New New Deal

 It's another 4:30 wake-up for me. Still not working but trying not to go completely to seed. I got out and walked for a good two hours yesterday after watching my hockey and curling. It was a spectacular day for my sporting clubs, so I thought it'd be fitting to go out and do something, ANYTHING I could that even resembles sport in Covid Korea. Walking. That's about it right now. After getting home with some fresh veggies I made a salad. Then got an email from the job I'm hoping for, so it was a great day! I guess that's why I am up so early today. Two great days in a row is too much to hope for. But count my blessings. I'm not working so I can take a nap if I want. And I most likely will.

Waking up at 4:30 is good for one thing, however. For some reason I do some of my best thinking, and blogging, at that hour. It's often the thinking that keeps me from getting back to sleep and inspires me to drag my arse out of the warm bed and to the computer. Today it was my opinion of the current signs of the times that make me feel like we are in the midst of what I would call a second depression. Maybe a not-so-great depression or a Covid depression. I say this not only because of the struggles of some businesses and most people, but also because of the prevailing feelings and emotions that job/business losses, prolonged social distancing and being deprived of normal activities can lead to. In other words, it's not just the economy that's depressed, but a lot of people are too. 

Now I'm speaking of regular business and small business, which we are constantly told, is the backbone of our economy, not the big boys. They're thriving in the Covid depression because their competition is disappearing drawing them ever-nearer to the monopolies they all crave to be. 

If you continue the video from whence the above clip is derived, you'll see some scary examples of huge businesses getting bigger through consolidation, which is a euphemism for sucking up the competition. The pandemic has only accelerated this phenomenon. From 10 large airlines in 2000 to 4 today. Rental cars - three companies. Beer - 70% controlled by two companies. And you can check this all by searching on the one and only search engine that anyone really uses: Bing. Bing, the best way to Google something. I love that joke. lol

Kroger is one of the best examples of the cold-hearted capitalism that has defined the huge corporations in these times of crisis. They would rather close stores down in Seattle and California than give 2-5 dollar an hour hazard pay to their workers. They know that their workers don't have huge nest eggs they have saved for rainy days. So treat them like the livestock they are. 

Maybe never before have the consumers and workers who have made EVERY rich person rich, been shown so clearly the inhumanity with which those rich people regard us. Nor have their political representatives been clearer in their support for their inhumanity. 

This seems biased. The Rupublican'ts don't care a lick about the people that they claim to be about helping: the common man, which is who the Covid relief bill is going to help. Yet tax relief for the rich is as popular as ever because of this myth that has nourished the GOP lo, so many years, this statement of faith backed by not one drop, let alone a trickle of evidence that equates to the party's version of speaking in tongues. Words like Reaganomics, horse and sparrow theory, trickle down economics, the "free market," "supply-side economics" spring from idealistic memory and faith in their sources rather than contemplation and healthy skepticism, and travel directly to party phraseology with virtually no interlocutor. And if you try to introduce the facts, as the guy pictured above, Robert Reich, has repeatedly tried to do through pictures, videos, books, speeches and political advice, you will realize how deep and unassailable the faith really is. No matter how thorough or modern the study, it will be doubted.

But to remain as un-biased as I can, and so as NOT to blindly trust the source of info like the last two links I have provided for you and believe without questioning, the very thing I have criticized about the Republicans, what are the Democrats and their supporters up to? Before I get to that, it would seem if one does one's historical, economical, ethical and egalitarian studies, times were best right after the war. As the Pink Floyd song asks, "What happened to the post-war dream?" 

In that song, the question, "Oh Maggie, Maggie what did we do?" is posed, but it could be "Oh Ronnie," if sung by an American, and maybe "Oh Brian," for us Canadians. 

The 50's and 60's were largely liberal and largely prosperous for all three nations. We partied for two decades and if you measure on almost any scale, these were the best of times for all three countries. Then the 70's brought "stagflation" and we started wondering if we should be partying so much. And that was the opening these three needed to ooze through. Deregulation, privatization, tax reduction for the rich/tax hikes for others, reign in spending... you get the idea. 

Maude Barlow, a prominent opponent of Mr. Mulroney's free-trade agenda and the conservative revolution personified by Mr. Reagan, said the benefits of those policies were not worth the price paid by the poor, the middle class and the environment.

"It was the triumvirate of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney that brought the neo-liberal agenda to the industrialized world," Ms. Barlow said.

"Yes, it created wealth for some companies and some individuals, but the legacy has been the creation of a permanent underclass, a greater gap between rich and poor, an assault on social security and an undermining of public health care that continues to this day."

You can read about it in the following article. 

So while conservatives since the 80's have generally taken the above triumvirate's politics and skewed further right (and I DON'T mean "correct") with them, the liberal agenda has been moving to the left at about the same rate. Aside from the gap between rich and poor mentioned above, this has created the widest gap ever between political parties. To the point, illustrated best by the U.S., that there is no agreement between parties even on issues where there is philosophical equality. The Covid relief packages are a good example. I don't believe all Republicans are Krogeresque in their thinking. I know they want to help people who are suffering due to the pandemic. Well, maybe not all, but you can't tell me the whole party voted their conscience against Covid relief. They just voted against the other party.

This article points out how the Democrats are more "progressive" than ever. They're also becoming more popular than ever. This trend has come about in the last 30 years. During that time some politicians tried to foster some compromise between parties by appointing members from opposing parties to political positions, but the compromise has disappeared with the middle class. Economic, and emotional conditions are approaching the desperation of the 1930's and, hopefully without a world war, similar steps to bail our countries out of this dizzying tailspin need to be taken. We're starting to see signs of that. At least in the U.S. But Canada will hopefully follow their lead.  

Opening borders, taxing the rich and reparation payments to descendants of slaves are three examples of policies that are being suggested by the left trending liberals. They mention Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but I'd include AOC and maybe Kamala Harris as well. Very popular ideas like a 15 dollar minimum wage, universal health care, restoration of environmental protection, racial equality, (which was NOT part of the New Deal as you can read in the article below) job creation through government infrastructure projects and a national switch away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy in the Green New Deal... HEY! Have you heard the words, "New Deal" before? That's how FDR helped bail the US out of the Great Depression. He didn't save America single handedly. In fact I've read he didn't even really WANT to do the things he did. He was basically forced to do it by the people who were threatening an all-out general strike. 

Ever heard of the Winnipeg General Strike? Of course you haven't! Most Canadians haven't. The Little Guy only has power for short periods of time followed by much longer periods of powerlessness. So the media, most of which are controlled by the BIG Guy, makes it so battles won by the vanquished are harder to hear about. They don't want us to know how much power we have. 

Do you recall back to the beginning of the Covid layoffs and the first government relief packages, the cries of the conservatives and big business that their workers will become lazy and never want to work again? This is their greatest fear! As I've said before, we, the workers, have the employers by the balls, (remember the elephant tied to a tiny spike in the ground?) we just need to get pissed off enough to exercise our power and they're fucked! Well, we also need an economic situation, an EXTREME economic situation, in which money doesn't have total control over government, which allows radical change that actually HELPS the working classes to be implemented. They had both during the Great Depression, and we have both today. This article explains it more thoroughly, but this, I think, is what I just said: "There are special circumstances, however, when capital’s leverage over government is weakened. One of them is during deep economic crises: The threat of disinvestment by big business is no longer an effective weapon—there is already very low investment. It is in these situations when, according to Block, government officials have more leeway to effect extraordinary transformations of social policies in favor of the working class, assuming these officials are under the unbearable pressure of mass mobilizations and unruly unions. Such a concession becomes a major win for the working class. At the same time, the outcome has the effect of legitimizing the state in the eyes of the working masses, granting rights to a new section of workers and incorporating them into the state through institutional channels, effectively containing what used to be a rebellious movement."

I am on the side of Block in the above debate, but regardless of why FDR did what he did, the situation is similar today, in my opinion, and policies that help the working class are finally going to be passed again! I don't know that Biden really wanted to do much of what we have already seen happening, or wants to do what likely will continue during his term as president, I think he knows he HAS to. And, as I have blogged of, and as the previous quote states, the legitimization of politics is also at stake. The situation with Covid social distancing, job loss, economic upheaval, etc. is ripe for revolution. I think I'd prefer the revolution, but short of that, I think the new New Deal wave that has started, might be fun to ride for a while. Politicians are singing for their suppers, trying to keep their careers and the bogus, antiquated, crooked system that creates them. It's unfortunate that it takes disastrous consequences like stock market crashes and global pandemics for us to see politicians doing what they are supposed to do, but it's just further evidence of the futility of our political systems. Having said that, I think we are in for one of those short periods during which some good stuff happens for the REAL people of our countries. I hope it lasts for longer than I think it will... however,

"...even if AOC and Sanders (and now many other Democrats) push hard for these proposals, none of them will be delivered unless there is sweeping labor unrest and a credible threat to the system itself. Socialists and revolutionaries will play the lead role. The increasing number of strikes seems to be pointing to a new wave of labor unrest. The many decades of capitalist offensive with little or no response from organized labor have reduced workers’ rights to bare bones. Deprived of a public health care option and lacking childcare or paid sick leave, American workers are subordinated to market forces to the extreme: Imagine a cliff and a multitude being pushed by a behemoth, which is capital. It is no wonder that workers are standing up now. The level of contradictions in U.S. society has reached such a high level that the explosion this time will be big. Socialists of all stripes will play a leading role in it, and the political decisions we make today will shape our prospects for years to come.

The lessons from the New Deal are that environmental activists pushing for a Green New Deal and, in particular, labor organizers fighting for some sort of new workers’ bill of rights can’t rely on smart politicians. Only an independent workers’ mass movement will be able to force these kinds of concessions from the ruling class. The owners of capital won’t sacrifice a cent of their profits until they face the economic disruption that mass workers’ collective action can cause, and until they are legitimately scared of the threat of a working class that rises and reclaims what is theirs: the goods, the riches, the world."

The Heavy-Handed Right

 Although I have written an unposted blog entry, I haven't shared in a while. I've been trying to nail down gainful employment, a rather passive endeavor with so little of the good kind being available, and trying my best to enjoy my Covid-limited time off work by spending some of that time with friends. Well, the deadline was March 2 and, as yet, I have no gainful employment. So it's now time to change tack and more actively pursue online teaching as opposed to jobs at physical institutes I have been predominantly concentrating my job hunt on. The visa/payment situation may present some difficulties and the salary will undoubtedly be lower, but I'll likely get some results within a couple weeks to a month. Teaching online, even part time, for 6 months or so won't get me any closer to my financial goals, let alone retirement, but it will get me through the Covid period and hopefully come September, I'll be able to get a job at a school again and with any luck get back to teaching in person.

Before that, however, the world needs to deal with some of its major issues, not the least of which will be our major topic today, and what I am convinced has been the primary contributor to my current occupational futility, the Covid crisis. Well, to be more accurate, the major example will be related to the Covid crisis, but today's topic is something I've been noticing amongst people I like. I often in this blog have bashed, slagged, badmouthed, panned, rebuked, upbraided and criticized people I don't like, one in particular, but this time I'm going to criticize some people I'm going to call the heavy-handed right. I like the heavy-handed right because they are right. Not in the sense that their political leanings are to the right, rather in the sense that I have little doubt that they are right, correct, in their beliefs/statements/sentiments/campaigns. That being said, it is their heavy-handedness that I believe has come with increased support for their beliefs/statements/sentiments/campaigns, that I would like to bash, slag, badmouth, pan, rebuke, upbraid and/or criticize at this time. Not severely, cuz I'm on their side, but gently with a precautionary tale from history.

To use a bit of an off topic example of what I'm talking about, I saw a post from Robert Reich, a guy I greatly admire and respect, that said, well, here's what it said: 

This is something I've posted/warned about that I absolutely knew would be one of the bad things to come out of the recent election. I knew it was going to be used to try to legitimize a broken system. Reich, being a former politician, would never say this, so I will: there hasn't been a legitimate election in the US in his lifetime or mine. There is an endless supply of facts to support that suggestion, many of which you can find in the pages of his own books. I have sprinkled not a few of those facts within the pages of my blog as well. There are many who have availed themselves of these facts and do not trust the vote, politicians or the political system. I am among them. 

But he's right. There are Republicans who, whether they know any of the facts that bring the legitimacy of US politics or their latest election into serious question or not, are continuing a ludicrous, and already violent, campaign to get their Dorito Dicktator into power against what the wishes of the country might have been shown to be if they had been legitimately measured. We can't know for certain unless we trust the notoriously illegitimate election system, but most likely, these people are just douchebags refusing to admit the majority of their country is happy to wave bye-bye to Trump. So he's probably right. I think he is. But that is not what I question. I question the heavy handedness. What's to be done with these people? Remove them from office for supporting the despotic leader of their party, a guy notorious for firing people, particularly people who don't show loyalty? Your cause is gaining power, Bob, this is a good thing. But let's not get blinded by power and start punishing the opposition. This is not the way to win hearts and minds.

What about the people who may not even be Republicans, the MANY people who don't trust the fucked up American system of government? From gerrymandering to supercandidates to corporate interference to the electoral college to the brother of one candidate being the governor of the deciding state in the election and hugely influencing the attempted "recount" of votes there... there is very good reason to wonder why else something that should be so simple, one vote for one person, would be purposely skewed and discombobulated if it WEREN'T to fix the elections. Will it help to get rid of certain members of the US government ostensibly for doubting the outcome of an election we can all safely suspect to have been the usual bag of political tricks, sleight of hand and deception? This would be an awfully harsh precedent to set. It might even result in the opposite of what it is trying to accomplish.

Again, I believe the majority of Americans want Biden/Harris over Trump/Pence. In this way, Reich is right. I also have a demonstrable distaste for the crazies Reich is talking about. But sweeping statements like these are grouping clear-headed folks with the crazies. There are plenty of American citizens who have no more faith in this election than the ones before, some of which we all KNOW were illegitimate including the one that got Trump into office. There's a reason his statements of election rigging were so easily accepted. And shame on America for that! 

Some election doubters are Republican. Some would refuse to admit the legitimacy of the recent election. But they aren't supporting any "stop the steal" nonsense. Are they too helping to incite violence? Will they be punished too? This is the trend I'd like to point out in a tone of extreme caution today. 

Here's an interesting article. It's not long. Read it if you haven't exhausted your four free WSJ articles for the week. Or read this one if you don't want to sign up for the Wall Street Journal. Both articles talk about privileges and freedoms that are being granted to people who can prove they've received their Covid shots, and NOT being granted to people who haven't. When you get past how seemingly unfair this is to those at lower risk or who are just not vaccinated due to the greater needs of other people, you will come to those who are voluntarily avoiding the vaccinations. Many would call them "Anti-vaxxers," a term I have described as ignorantly dismissive a few times on this blog already and I will illustrate again in this post. 

At this time, I would say that the people getting the vaccinations against Covid 19 are right. They are doing what will most help the world... most likely. Their ethics and intelligence are what I currently side with. Those refusing are in the wrong. But are they wrong for not trusting this new, VERY new vaccine? Absolutely not. All vaccines have setbacks. And to dismiss them as ignorant without the facts could show your OWN ignorance. I'm not saying all vaccine refusers even know the facts, nor do all people who take them. What I would like to do is give you some facts here so that the people who believe God will protect them from Corona and Trump said we'll have herd immunity soon so it's gonna happen, don't get grouped with the people who conscientiously object to inoculation on the grounds of legitimate concerns about vaccine safety and ethics related to their creation, production and distribution.  

In order to achieve this, let's look at the history of the yellow fever vaccine. It's a vaccine that's been around for over 80 years, it's safe and almost everyone gets it once and is yellow fever-free for life. This is a vaccine "anti-vaxxers" might even get. But its history comes to bear on our current Covid 19 situation.

Like the examples in the articles above, certain privileges are given to people who can prove they've received their yellow fever shots, and not granted to those who cannot. Entry into some countries is an example though I don't know if it's a privilege to go to a country with yellow fever-sporting mosquitoes buzzing around. The vaccine is recommended for travel to high risk areas like parts of Africa and South America. About 15% of non-vaccinated people contract the virus and severe yellow fever develops. About half of people with severe yellow fever die within 7-10 days. So this is no joke. Frigging mosquitoes!

The name "Yellow Fever" comes from jaundice, a yellowing of the skin, which is one of the symptoms associated with yellow fever. It has noting to do with liking Asian girls. That's just terrible! And only a naughty blogger would even mention that. Let's move on. 

In 1951 Max Theiler won a Nobel Prize for making the yellow fever vaccine better, but it had been in use since 1938. At the close of the 1800's yellow fever was sometimes known as Yellow Jack because of yellow flags that contaminated ships in quarantine flew. It was a huge disruption to trade in this way. For this reason, a yellow fever vaccine would be valuable so there were a lot of investigators claiming to have found the bacteria responsible for yellow fever and the first "vaccines" were produced. Dr. George Sternberg, an investigator appointed by President Grover Cleveland to investigate the investigators, determined that the early "vaccines" were ill conceived and ineffective. So at the beginning of the 20th century there was no progress being made. Only fake vaccines being made by people who wanted the notoriety and money that would undoubtedly come from the discovery of a yellow fever vaccine. This, you will find with research, has been a problem with many vaccines. It happens in the early stages of a vaccine's history, which we are currently in with the Covid 19 vaccine. Not saying these vaccines are fake, just that it wouldn't be as surprising as you might think.

Fortunately for the world, at the beginning of the 20th century there were billionaires like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller who were trying to help the world with their money even though they had no obligation to do so! The Rockefeller Institute chose to make yellow fever a project of theirs. In 1918 a medical team was dispatched to Ecuador to research yellow fever there. The team included a young doctor named Hideyo Noguchi who had risen from extreme poverty in Japan to get a medical degree. 

Noguchi, the mustachioed guy in the middle, had done successful work with syphilis and venomous snakes, but he would represent another setback for the research on yellow fever, and in the end actually died from it. He was an interesting character being nominated for several Nobel Prizes, but never winning one due to criticism of his work as inaccurate and even a scandal over inoculating children with syphilis. His theory on yellow fever was that it was a bacteria, not a virus and he became increasingly secretive working mostly at night by himself, and in the end paranoid and sloppy with his research. He never doubted his theory even after it was proved wrong. He produced a yellow fever "vaccine" that went into extensive use in the US, Latin America and French African Colonies. He published "successful" results in 7,964 vaccinations, but his results couldn't be replicated. By 1926 distribution of his "vaccine" was quietly discontinued by the Rockefeller Foundation. Maverick doctors, another possible problem with vaccines.  

An early vaccine was produced after the virus was isolated and used for its production and WWII created a massive need for that vaccine. It still needed tweaking, but epidemics of yellow fever in North African war zones led to virtually all US troops receiving the vax from Jan. 1941-April 1942. 7 million doses were distributed at no charge by the Rockefeller Foundation. 

Unfortunately, 60-150 days after vaccination, 26,771 cases of jaundice were reported by US personnel and many more were unreported. Three of every 1000 of the soldiers who reported died. Most press kept this quiet due to wartime secrecy, but the Chicago Tribune noted that 20X as many soldiers had fallen victim to the vaccine than had been wounded in the war to that point. Not to mention the, whoops, hepatitis that came with it.

Then in 1962, avian leukosis virus was detected in the vaccine. Thousands or millions of people had been inoculated with potentially oncogenic viruses. Potentially disastrous, but luckily, 10 years later this issue was laid to rest with no evidence of excess cancer found in the vaccines. 

There have been other issues since including rising incidence of severe viscerotropic (internal organs) disease after vax mostly in the elderly and the introduction of other viruses such as dengue fever and Japanese B encephalitis using the yellow fever vax as a vehicle. So even LONG after its general use, there are problems. 

However, the benefits outweigh the risks. If a person were afraid to get the yellow fever vaccine for the reasons above, I'd understand, but it would be unreasonable given the long term safety and effectiveness the vaccine has shown. After 1962 that is...

But if a person were to refuse the Covid 19 vaccine, which is yet in its infancy and doesn't have such a safety and success record, I wouldn't be too harsh on them. Don't buy a video game until the glitches are worked out. Don't get hair replacement surgery until it stops looking like a corn field on your head. And don't get the vaccine until you are sure the bugs are worked out. Those bugs could actually be life-threatening. But you can be sure in the months and possibly years ahead, people who are thinking logically like this will be grouped in with morons who think they are being shot full of microbots that will record their every move and transmit the details of their private lives to George Soros' computer... or some such craziness. 

And let's not forget that there is no Rockefeller Institute footing the bill for these vaccines. Pfizer and other businesses are. So they are going to want to make a profit. There have been stories about these companies reigning in their greed and keeping prices reasonable, but I doubt that will happen. I doubt even more that a last-minute discovery of a possible danger in the vaccine would hold up the continued distribution. Just watch The Fugitive for another legitimate reason to be wary here.

I'm going to repeat, I am on the side of the people who are getting the vaccine and those who are endorsing the decision. But I hope, given the very good reasons why a person might refuse it, people will not be too harshly penalized for refusing the Covid 19 vaccine. I know those people could transmit the virus and endanger others. I know they could prolong the social distancing and mask-wearing and I will quietly hate them for that, but I can't heavy-handedly say they HAVE to get it or else. I don't think that is the right course of action and doing so just might accomplish the opposite of what is intended. I think the probable outcome of forcing every person in the world to get the Covid 19 vaccine would end the pandemic. This is why I think vaccine supporters are in the right. However, doing so would almost certainly create larger problems by strengthening the resolve of already militant believers in freedom limitations. Also... what if there are some as yet unknown but possibly disastrous side-effects of the vaccine? 

This will be interesting to follow...

Here's a cartoon from the 1920's. It's a bit heavy-handed, don't you think? 

Cigarettes and Elephants

 A peculiar instance of youthful racism from my past surfaced in the rinse cycle of my semi-consciousness today. I had just woken up and in these glorious days of vacation while I am still under contract, but have exactly no work to do for my employer, I am afforded the leisure of not bolting out of the sack, driving some coffee and breakfast into my belly and showering before I'm fully awake. I can ease into an awakened state. I can evaluate the dream I was having just before opening my eyes, mull over some options for the day like chores or meals, writing a blog post or maybe seeing what a friend or family member is up to. I can think about my employment situation and the many different possibilities that lay ahead. And, as I almost always do, I can contemplate the unnatural disaster that is our world. 

Today, during that last part, I was reminded of my high school years and some details jumped up out of long-long-long term memory that brought a smile to my face. The name of a corner store, which wasn't exactly on a corner, but it WAS across the street from the liquor store corner, of the town I went to high school in, Castlegar, popped into my head. Jo Alves! I remembered what may have been one time or it may have been many times, going to buy smokes with my best friend Brian Manning. To be clear, I didn't exactly smoke, I was one of those leeches who never really had enough money to commit to the habit, but was always bumming cigarettes from friends in financial positions in which they could, and had. Brian smoked Player's Filter. No! Wait a sec, I think he smoked Player's Light. 

He sometimes got a full pack, and he sometimes bought what was alternately called a "half-pack," "poverty pack," or a "ten-pack." Not every store sold these. In fact it might have been illegal. But Jo Alves' sold packs for $1.30 and poverty packs for $0.70. How do I know this? Well this is where the youthful racism comes in. The owners of Jo Alves' were Portuguese. They spoke English but with heavy accents that Brian and I found entertaining. Like I say, it might have been once or it might have been more than once, but Brian asked the price of a pack of smokes and the cashier replied, "Dollere therety," with heavily rolled r's. We got a kick outta that and repeated it a thousand times to each other afterwards. Then Brian asked about the half-packs and didn't hear the response, so he asked the cashier to repeat it. "Seventy! Seventy, boy," was the response. So "seventy, boy" was another endless source of mockery for us. Like I said, it was youthful racism and I'm not at all proud of it. I bring it up only to illustrate one aspect of this unnatural disastrous world of ours. 

25 smokes for a buck thirty! That is just over a nickel a cig! I don't smoke, but if I could find cigarettes today at those prices, I think I'd have to start! To be honest, if I could find cigarettes at that price today, I'd buy them by the truckload and sell them all black marketly. I'd be rich before I got caught. But what a foolish thought! That's not the way the Canadian (or ANY) economy works, is it? It's not possible for the little guy to get rich. Only the big guy. But the mechanism is the same, only in reverse. If I found a good price (dollere therety) to buy smokes and then sold them at a greatly increased price that I knew people would pay, I'd be doing what Player's has been doing for years. Difference is, it's illegal for me to do it. But why? That's the billion dollar question. It's exactly what the businesses do! They MAKE cigarettes for a cheap price, then sell them for a greatly increased price that they know people will pay. 

And where cigarettes are concerned, there is a HUGE advantage for the people who sell them: addiction. The manufacturers, distributors, merchants, ANYbody can raise the price of them and addicts will still pay. Do you know what the price of that same pack of smokes would be today? $15.50! I think it would actually be MORE because that is a stat from 2019. And it depends where you buy. Here's a modern photo of a pack of Player's cigarettes:

So let's do some math here. At the time of the story, I believe I was making $7.35 an hour at my after-school job washing dishes and slicing meat and cheese at the Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli. A pack of darts at a buck thirty would have been... let's say 18% of my hourly wage. If I were to spend 18% of my hourly wage on a pack of smokes that cost $20.50, I'd be making... I hope you're sitting down for this... $114.00/hr. Anybody out there pulling in a hundred and fourteen bucks an hour? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? ...

Here's another way of looking at it: I was making $7.35 an hour and that was minimum wage. The price of cigarettes went from $1.30 to $20.50 from then to now. So if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation since the 1980's when I was going to high school, a guy washing dishes at the Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli would be raking in $116.13/hr!!! Minimum wage in BC right now is a whopping $14.60/hr. And business owners are crying about it! 

The Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli was a happenin' joint! It was so busy, they needed TWO guys in the hot, steamy back room washing dishes, bussing tables and slicing. Me and Chris Schurren (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) worked our arses off! And after the place closed down, we were the guys who stayed behind to sweep and mop and clean the grill. YOU wanna work an hour there for $14.60? Me neither! 

I think the Homestead closed down long ago, but if it were still open, there'd be some poor schmuck bustin' his/her ass for an hourly wage that can't even buy him/her a pack of smokes! And, once again, the owner of the Homestead would probably be whining about the minimum wage laws being too harsh. She/he would say that salaries eat up far too much of her/his profits. 

How did we end up here? Well, if you've read my blog regularly (and who hasn't?) you'd know that there are three things that contribute to the answer to that question: 1. Corporate greed 2. Gov't working for corporations 3. "Weak" people.

We all know of MANY examples of inflation that is completely out of control! Even youngsters. We KNOW we're getting screwed! But we are conditioned by a certain belief system that allows us to accept this injustice, in fact, to add insult to injury, the popular mentality of recent times is that we are not just supposed to accept it, but be happy in it! Does that elephant look happy? No? Well then I don't wanna spend time with her and allow her to infect me with her negativity! Sound familiar?

When I say "weak people" I certainly don't mean it. Does that elephant look weak to you? Me neither. But allowing itself to be restrained by that puny rope and stake IS weak. That's how I see the strong Canadian people. We're elephants! We have a LOT of power, we just prefer to settle for a miniscule portion of what our country OWES us. That elephant could easily rip that stake out of the ground and rampage. Why doesn't she? Well, if she does tricks, they give her peanuts. That's the majority of us. The average Canadian does tricks for peanuts. And we settle for that. We do our best to be happy in that. And when we can't, we just ACT happy in that. Anybody other than me sick and tired of ACTING happy? Anybody else think our country is many times over rich enough for all of us to actually BE happy? So what's stopping us? Effective socialization. A bullshit belief system. 

Let me give you an example of the kind of socialization that we've all had, whether we know it or not, that has subdued our power. Is there anyone who read that line, "what our country OWES us," and didn't have some kind of a knee-jerk entitlement distaste? Be honest. You did, right? Hell, I had one while I wrote it. We're conditioned to believe that feeling entitled to things is wrong. But it's not. Frivolous entitlement is wrong. Proper entitlement isn't. Guess who conditioned us into these feelings that proper entitlement is wrong. The people from whom we are entitled to, absolutely entitled to, a lot more shit than we are getting! Big companies, banks, government. That's about it. 

If you've ever wondered what our government does, or more specifically, what our government does with our tax money every year, this is it. They condition us. In 1867, the government didn't need a budget. They governed, they didn't buy shit. When the world wars started happening, the government asked for a little and the people gave. And just like the cigarette companies, they have increased the amount little by little in accordance to how much a weak bunch of people will give. You don't need to look any further than the fact that we are still giving to fund wars that have long since ended and been paid for to get an idea of HOW weak the Canadian people are. Here's a little quote from a Fraser Institute paper on the history of Canadian taxes:

"Paying for this expenditure changed over time. From 1867 to World War I, the federal government’s revenue was dominated by customs duties, which peaked at 66% of revenue in 1912. The needs of the war effort sparked the search for new revenue, which led to the creation of the first personal and corporate income taxes and the first federal sales tax. Over time, the importance of these three new revenue sources grew and it is anticipated that by 2017 the personal income tax alone will make up 51% of federal government revenue, corporate taxes, 13%, and commodity taxes (GST, excise taxes and customs duties), 17%."

Of course with a purposely supercomplicated tax code that is over 1500 pages, you can't expect the numbers to come out correct. 51+17+13 is only 81. There is 19% missing. But of the 81 mentioned, regular people pay 68% of it while corporations pay 13%. People get zero subsidies and corporations get enough government subsidization to render their overall tax output to either zero or below. That's right, in Canada we are PAYING many of our corporations to make money while we are charged to be their labour force. Another Fraser Institute paper calculated 144 billion over ten years between 1995 and 2004. More payroll tax is paid by employees that corporate tax is paid by the company in most cases. Who do you suppose is footing the bill for that missing 19%? Feel like that elephant now? 

Compare corporations to Canadian people. We were born in Canada. Most of our corporations are not Canadian. They owe the most to Canada for their fortunes. But they don't give SHIT to Canada. Canada is the people, not the government. What they pay for the privilege of doing business in Canada is 13% or less depending on the subsidies our corrupt government gives them. The people who owe the most pay the least. The people who are owed the most receive the least.

Canadians have a birthright. We were born in Canada and have a far more legitimate claim to the riches of the land than do the corporate parasites. Our major industries, mining, logging, oil, wheat, water, that is the land and the land is Canada. The people are part of the land. When someone sells our natural resources, they sell part of us and we get 0% of the sale. This is NOT frivolous entitlement in any way. This is theft. But we have beer. Hockey. If we pull up this stake, maybe we won't get this meagre living we've grown used to.

You'd think that the more tricks the trainers force the elephant to do, the closer that elephant gets to just stomping them and going back to Africa or India or Southeast Asia where it's from. But it seems the longer it's in captivity, the more shit its owners can throw in its face.  Is there a breaking point? 

I remember my Mom's 2nd husband, Phil swearing, before my high school days, that as soon as cigarettes reached a DOLLAR a pack, he'd quit. He's dead now, probably from smoking. He smoked Player's too, but PLAIN! No filters! UGH! Anyway, if he were alive, he'd be obediently paying $15.50 for his cancer sticks just like Canadians are paying more and more tax every year. What we get hasn't changed and our salaries haven't gone up. When indexed against inflation, they've gone down. But we continue to pay our dues in humility and servility.

I'm sure any Canadian who is reading this has already thought of several things that have gone up on par with or faster than cigarettes over the years. If I were to hazard a guess or a few, I'd say beds, glasses, hockey equipment (except weirdly skates), and maybe the number one victim of inflation in Canada has been university/college tuition. A few of our cities like Van, T.O. and Calgary have condos that have shot through the roof, but most housing HAS gone up, but not like the above listed items. Gas? I dunno. If EVER I needed comments on a blogpost it's now! What has risen in price in Canada? Meat? Eggs? Cable? I haven't been there to see.

$100 in 1980 is supposed to be only $330 bucks today if indexed for inflation. So you can see that cigarettes FAR overinflated during the time between the 80's and the 2020's. What other items have gone up outrageously? Here's an article that might give some perspective. It also includes one thing that has actually gone DOWN in price since the 80's. Can you guess what it was? I think you can but don't bust your block over it, just read the article.

Like the frog in the pot who slowly boiled to death, we have had prices creep up while our salaries have stagnated and rather than jump, we've gone down with the frog soup. All of us. Really old people will tell us we just need to work hard to get a cozy retirement like they have, but we know that's a practical impossibility. But we'd rather argue with the old folks than DO something about it. And that's what the evil triumvirate are banking on. Corporations, banks and government are sure we'll acquiesce. Like captive elephants. 

The Impeachment Imperative

 I am up at 4 AM. Not for golf, not for fishing, not for work. I am up at 4 AM watching the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Part deux. Why is this trial necessary? Most think it is not worth getting up early to watch, indeed, I believe a huge majority of people think this trial is trivial. It won't make any difference. Let's move on. This is the precise state of mind necessary in the good members of the general public under which evil revolution thrives. It is also the precise state of mind that is being pedaled by almost every member of the Republican party at this time. They can wait 4 years. Nothing to see here, folks. In fact, removal from power could be an advantageous position from which to strengthen and define the party's novel and extreme Trumpian ideology. 

It is understandable that people, busy people, people who may not closely follow the exploits of the Trumpian revolution, could have missed portions of it or even not made certain associations between what the Republican party under the leadership of Donald Trump was doing, with other dangerous and bloody revolutions. But when you listen to people like Ted Lieu and Stacey Plaskett reminding us of the progression of the revolution in detail, giving timelines, quotes from speeches and tweets, videos of crowd reaction at the Trump rallies, those rallies start to appear more like what they really were: repetitive inculcation of the young and weak-minded into followers through blind faith rather than intelligent conviction. Toward what end? That too becomes difficult to deny... revolution. 

A lot of people like Donald Trump because he uses simple words unlike a lot of politicians who speak over the heads of the average member of the electorate. I would suggest that because he actually DOESN'T possess all of the best words and is intellectually stunted is only part of the reason for this. History has shown us how effective and efficient this tactic is and how it can be used for revolution. Use language that can be easily understood by the young and simple in order to recruit them to your cause. It's something so simple, even Trump could figure it out! I think of China and Cambodia and how children were informing on parents who would not conform to the revolutions there. Think about the videos you saw of the attack on the US capitol. What do you reckon the average age of the insurrectionist was? Or more difficult (but not always) to discern, the average intelligence level? I used a quote from Thomas Kuhn, the man who wrote the book on paradigm change and how it happens, in a recent post. He talks about manipulation of the suggestible youth and letting the old people who refuse to conform to the new paradigm die. He noticed this (as did I) in science, but it works the same with socio-political revolution. 

And on Jan. 6th, when he came to the conclusion that his revolution was hitting a roadblock, or at least a setback with the election loss, Trump prematurely made his move only to discover that recruiting for his revolution will take more than four years. That is what happened and that is highly impeachable. Without impeachment, the revolution will not die. 

You doubt me. You think I am being extreme. Then read on, please. 

A friend recently tried to convince me of the ingenious nature of Trump's word selection, a topic that he had tried a few times before to batter me about the brain with and one I felt I had to discourage once and for all. He was saying that Trump cleverly calls people nicknames like "Sleepy Joe," "Crazy Arnold," "Crying Chuck," and "Low Energy Jeb" to manipulate public opinion on them. Well, I didn't disagree, I simply said that 5-year-olds do the same thing for the same reasons. It's nothing ingenious. In fact, the 5-year-olds I've known in my lifetime were more creative with their name-calling. However, Trump's handlers, the brains behind the brainless, also know that what works for a 5-year-old can and DOES work for a large portion of any population that has been deterred from being taught how to think, and have settled for being taught WHAT to think. Any of us in education who can't face the reality that this is exactly the direction our field is headed, are probably already victims of this perversion. Some might call it replacing education with religion, or rational thought with blind faith. I'll use a lengthy, but salient quote here from H.P. Lovecraft and I will replace the words "religion" and "religionists" with "Trumpism," and "Trumpists." See if this doesn't work:

"If (Trumpism) were true, it's followers would not try to bludgeon their young into and artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth." "With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth." "The fact that (Trumpists) do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction." 

Let me ask you if you haven't noticed another thing at Trump rallies: repetition. Endless repetition of slogans, chants, nicknames, and revolutionist strategies. If you've never seen or heard of Jordan Klepper, he's about the best Trump-buster there is. If you think the average Trump supporter is a member of his revolution through intellect rather than brainwashing, just give this a gander. This, by the way, is only the tip of the iceberg. 

How do you suppose these people got this way? Do you suppose they took the "honourable course" outlined by Lovecraft above? Or do you suppose they were just singing songs without considering the lyrics? And I'm not saying these are bad people. One quote Trump takes a lot of heat for, but that has an acorn of truth to it, is when he said there were very fine people on both sides of the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. I believe brainwashing CAN cause very fine people to believe and do horrible things. 

Slavoj Zizek is a guy from the only European country that has suffered three totalitarian regimes in the 20th century - Slovenia. He has a lot to say about the "sheeple" that were mentioned in the Jordan Klepper vid above, but he says it in a no holds barred manner that I like. No bullshit is probably the way he'd describe it. For instance, he said, "Humanity is okay, but 99% of people are boring idiots." That'd be your sheeple. I'm not sure of his calculations, but I like the quote and have sometimes felt like this. You can read it in at least half of my blog posts!

“Property taxes' rank right up there with 'income taxes' in terms of immorality and destructiveness. Where 'income taxes' are simply slavery using different words, 'property taxes' are just a Mafia turf racket using different words. For the former, if you earn a living on the gang's turf, they extort you. For the latter, if you own property in their territory, they extort you. The fact that most people still imagine both to be legitimate and acceptable shows just how powerful authoritarian indoctrination is. Meanwhile, even a brief objective examination of the concepts should make anyone see the lunacy of it. 'Wait, so every time I produce anything or trade with anyone, I have to give a cut to the local crime lord??' 'Wait, so I have to keep paying every year, for the privilege of keeping the property I already finished paying for??' And not only do most people not make such obvious observations, but if they hear someone else pointing out such things, the well-trained Stockholm Syndrome slaves usually make arguments condoning their own victimization. Thus is the power of the mind control that comes from repeated exposure to BS political mythology and propaganda.”
― Larken Rose

Have I not said this before? Add to this certain aspects of, or the entirety of marriage, politics, banking, religion, economics, democracy, social mores... there are so many forms of mythology that are popularly subscribed to! Given a brief, objective examination, any of them could be accurately described as lunacy. Sometimes I think maybe 99% is the right number. Or is it too low? 

But let's return to Zizek. He's an interesting guy! Even though Communism was one of the horrors his country endured, he remains a Communist. His reasoning is something I have also given on this blog a number of times, and it's the extent to which I, gulp, agree with Trump on that one statement of his. Here is how Zizek describes it: "...the horror of Communism, Stalinism is not that bad people do bad things - they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great." The video below of this nose-wiping, lisping, swearing madman includes a portrait of Stalin hung in his home for shock value alone, and some awfully thought-provoking insight into how MOVIES have contributed to the American mythology that is almost unanimously followed. 

My favourite, and again something I've shared here before, concept he talks about is misdirected violence. Right now Trump is on trial for the violent insurrection he induced. Like Manson didn't murder anyone, Trump didn't storm the capitol. But he incited violence. In a way, violence is on trial here and in that way, I see a danger. I believe there NEEDS to be violence in most societies to bust us out of this horrific mythology we are in. Zizek believes we need to violently bust ourselves out of our somnambulistic states. I totally agree. Even if it takes the form of the "Fight Club" self-ass kicking, it is necessary for us all. 

To better define the "mythology" that has ravaged America, and I think most of the world, who better to define it than Uncle Noam? 

“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation.

Now, it's long been understood very well that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited: that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage-can. At this stage of history, either one of two things is possible: either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community-interests, guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others; or, alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control.

As long as some specialized class is in a position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole and, by now, that means the global community. The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass-communication, and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely, to impose necessary illusions, manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena. The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival.”
― Noam Chomsky

I believe it is possible for society, even on a global scale, to take control of its own destiny and concern itself with community-interests, but we can only do so by coming to the Fight Club self-ass kicking, mind-blowing realization that we subscribe to so much mythology and that it is fomented upon us by a small number of people with the intentions to control and exploit us for their selfish gain. Zizek says something else profound toward the end of the above video. "Every revolution, if it is an authentic revolution, is not only directed toward the future, but it redeems also the past failed revolutions."  

What Trump is on trial for now is not some "march" on the capitol. Even the people who participated in the assault on the capitol hate when that term is used to describe what they were doing, as Plaskett pointed out. He's on trial for inciting a revolution, one of ignorance and violence. One that would knock the US back to times when racism was enforced with violence. These, presumably, would be the "great" times in the MAGA slogan. These times, in some areas, existed fewer years ago than a lot of people know. In some places and in many ways, they STILL exist. Hence, BLM. Give "Mississippi Burning" or "In the Heat of the Night" a re-screening at your place tonight. It'll do you good. 

The American Revolution was a failed revolution for the people who supported these ideals. Trump's was just a more recent one of the same kind. And if he is not found guilty (which he won't be) there may be another in the future. The work America has to do must start with recognizing that every member of the Republican party who is averting his/her attention from videos of the violent revolt being played during the trial is a co-conspirator and needs to be purged from politics. And then they need to completely remove money from politics and clean up the mess money has made of politics. Jack punches himself in the face. They then need to take some "smirking revenge" on the corporate fat cats who have been constitutionally exploiting the people (protecting the "opulent minority" from the majority) since independence in 1776. Jack blasts himself in the face again and falls on a glass topped table shattering it. 

I'll stick this article between these two changes America needs to make because it is about the best example of the lunacy Larken Rose talked about and the embodiment of both changes. (And just to be clear, I don't agree with Larken Rose on everything) This is a satirical article in a satirical source of satire, yet this CEO, a genuine object of derision and scorn, is not a rarity, but LITERALLY represented in a great many actual human beings, including, you guessed it, Donald Trump. To give you an idea of how messed up our world is, the satire, the hyperbole, the extreme opinion put forth in so obviously a comedic way that it couldn't possibly be construed as libel, is undoubtedly Darren Woods' opinion. I'd go as far as to say that he wouldn't be CEO if it weren't. We KNOW this, don't we? Yet it's an accepted part of the corporate mythology.

They need to abandon the vulture capitalism and greed that is infecting the entire planet and is a scourge on Nature and the environment. Jack picks himself up and throws himself at the wall unit. They need to recognize the power of love over the love of power. They need to stop being assholes to each other and everyone else. Jack feeds himself two more quick jabs. And, they need to regulate Wall Street and the financial institutions in their country so they will go back to the boring entities they were before they turned into a world casino using Jack's money to make themselves rich, or blowing Jack's money to make Jack poor. Jack climbs up his boss, getting blood all over him and making it seem the boss was guilty before the SEC storms in and concludes the obvious.

This is a fight I'd dearly love to see, but it's unlikely to happen. I believe it will be a far more likely possibility if Trump is found guilty and never allowed to participate in politics again. A LOT of people voted for Trump, so his revolutionary rhetoric and inculcation was successful even though he lost the election. His followers might reconvene at the church of MAGA if he were to run again in 4 years. If he is still alive then. And not in prison. It would likely go a long way toward discouraging a proxy revolution lead by a loyal follower or member of his family. And THIS, my dear reader, is the impeachment imperative. 

Now, maybe it's because 99% of people are boring idiots, maybe it's because people are sheeple, I don't know, but impeachment is a far off dream. Realistically, I am just hoping for a few people/sheeple to wake their asses up and see the reality of the situation. Though he won't be found guilty, and most people aren't watching the trial, let alone getting up at 4 AM to do so, I believe it to be important. If only a few people are "punched in the face" by these proceedings, then they are not a waste of time. That's the violence I am hoping will be incited.