North Korea Finally Shuts Up Hollywood

The Conservatives couldn’t do it. The Christian Fundamentalists couldn’t do it. The Muslims couldn’t do it and certainly the Movie-Going American public couldn’t do it but somehow some computer hacker in a bare-lightbulb lit concrete apartment block in the frozen hills of North Korea managed to do what all others could not: Shut Hollywood up and make them actually think about the drivel they try to pass off as entertainment to the world at large and the kind of values they display.

Now despite, actually BECAUSE of the absolute certainty of the Obama administration that North Korea was behind the hack attack at Sony Pictures, I don’t believe for one second that North Korea was the hands-on perpetrator of this deed.

Some proxy either working at the bequest of the North Korean regime or some outraged Anarchist either inside or outside the Sony organization was the real culprit. The quick and whole-hearted ease of the current administration had in putting the finger of blame on North Korea just makes my antenna go up. Something smells about this. Who’s word do I trust more, North Korea or the Obama administration? Hmmmm.

Not that it’s a nice place or anything but we hear a lot of crap about North Korea that turns out to be false. An uncle thrown to the dogs but is seen alive walking around. An old girlfriend executed but there she is in current photos waving. Did Kim Jong Un have them killed or not? And if that’s not true why was it printed as fact?

Don’t you wake up some days and feel like you are a pawn in a huge game of manipulation? First off, who the hell cares what some coked out movie exec says about Angela Jolie? And we already knew she wasn’t a good actor, we didn’t go see Tomb Raider to see her spout Shakespeare.   We went to see her running around in a tight t-shirt and shorts. Was there anyone else even IN the movie? And should we be shocked, shocked I say, to learn that all these yo-yos have tremendous egos? Stop the friggin’ presses.

The world’s obsession with Hollywood is frankly bewildering and the Sony Hack really just serves as tabloid fair but the real story is that Sony did not release the movie “The Interview” and nobody, not the Holy Rollers, Pat Robertson or anyone else could have ever dreamed of doing such a thing as making a movie production company self-censor.

Now whether you think it was a chicken-shit move or not, it’s quite an accomplishment. There were protests to those movies that some outfit in Hollywood put out depicting the assassination of president George W. Bush while he was still in office but what the hey, nobody cares about offending a Republican. But a movie depicting the assassination of Kim Jong Ill, heh, that’s another story.  So in that vein there certainly could be a good portion of us reading about the “damage” to Sony Pictures and thinking, “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of cut-throats”.  And if this is any reflection on the United States ability to protect the nation from outside threats, I am not filled with confidence.  Just the fact that the Obama administration is asking China to help is absurd since if anybody had the ability to hack Sony, China is first in my mind. If the NSA knew it was China, would they tell us?

I don’t think we’re getting the truth as to the source of the hack and until we do, what’s the big deal? It’s all just wind and sails.  Just another distraction while we wait for the next thing to take your attention away from the economy. You buy anything with a credit or debit card at Staples lately?  

Perhaps Sony will pause and reflect upon what they put out for public consumption in the future, or not. It will most likely be business as usual once this blows over, if it blows over.

Everybody seems to be living in fear these days. Fear of losing their job, fear of being attacked on the street or at the shopping mall. Fear of their taxes going up and fear that the healthcare system in this country is ruined. Fear that things aren’t going to be getting any better any time soon.

For whatever the reason, this is not a feeling of optimism. The feeling that is gripping people is not one of happiness, hope or change. At least not change for the good. The more the government steps in to control the situation, the worse it gets. The less freedom we have the less secure we become. It is a paradox that people in government cannot comprehend and the American people are paying the price for it.

But let’s just say for the sake of argument that North Korea did do it, that they did reach in and subdue Sony Pictures that produced and sought to release through either arrogance,  avarice or greed  a movie the North Korean government didn’t like and put them in a bad light.

Good Job.

 

The Irony of Oil

Rather than go away, oil seems to be making a big comeback.

And heaven forbid that the oil prices have come down. All the hand-wringing over gasoline prices starting to approach the “Old Normal”. Gas prices have been so high for so long that nobody seems to remember when they started to skyrocket and think that they are SUPPOSED to be over $4.00 a gallon. NOPE!

There are far too many people in this country who hate to see the consumer win one. They can’t stand it. Somebody somewhere has made a big mistake!

It doesn't matter who you are, whether you’re in the country illegally or work a good job or a not so good job but especially a not so good job; high gas prices hurt everybody’s bottom line. Here in the formally industrialized North East, people drive crazy distances to go to work. Our highways are PACKED bumper to bumper from 6AM to 9:30AM and from 4PM to 7:30PM as a result of the regular commute of the working class. That’s an out-of-pocket expense that until recently had cost many people up to one hundred dollars a week or more.

The political class and their national media enablers are decrying the end of the world economy yet we will see the U.S. economy actually pick up if only from the mere matter of putting money into the beleaguered taxpayers’ pockets where it belonged in the first place. They’re going to spend it, of course.

And our long lost media are already setting up president Obama to take the credit for the upswing when he and his administration have been the biggest obstacle to American progress since the New Deal.

Although Obama is against the Keystone Pipeline for political reasons, I don’t think for a moment that he really believes in the environmentalist religion of Global Warming or the so called dangers of carbon dioxide and all that stupidity like his hardcore supporters do. I do believe that the president saw the movement overall and solar power in particular as an excellent way to pay back his political backers with taxpayer dollars. It seems that was the whole purpose of the government’s solar energy plan.

Russia Pays for its Isolationism

The added bonus in all this for the president is what the drop in oil is doing to Russia.  Without the West to trade with and since it’s in an active battle with what used to be their best trading partner, Ukraine, Russia has dug itself an economic hole. With interest rates quickly closing in on those of the Jimmy Carter administration, without trade and a product to sell, Russia is probably going to have to find itself somebody else to pick a fight with.

And if Russia is hurting, just think of what this is doing to Venezuela! Now there’s a one-product tin can dictatorship that is going from the rock to the hard place because of America’s re-emergence as the world’s number one oil producer. I envision even el "President" Maduro going to the refrigerator in the morning and finding no milk for his cornflakes. It's a Communist Plot! They'll be eating each other by the summer of 2015. 

And the doubling of the U.S. oil production comes despite all the efforts of the current administration and its hardcore environmentalist following to keep the country's oil production down and our dependence on foreign oil up, the Market and the innovations and efficiencies that it provides could not be stopped by the inefficiencies of government control.

These nuts must be apoplectic.

But all the solar and wind power in the world isn't going heat your house or keep your air conditioner going all day, all week.  Oil is still the biggest bang for the buck and the country is now awash in oil. And more will be coming on line world-wide with Iraq once again able to produce and sell oil on the global marketplace and from the position they’re in, they’ll take anything the market will bear for it.

This is why I love hearing these nitwits with more money than brains go on about how they are “saving the planet” by buying an electric automobile.  Like electricity comes out of a can.

With the more electricity they need, some guy in a power generating plant up the road is going to throw another shovel full of coal into the furnace that runs the turbines.

Petroleum products are in everything. They grease the gears in wind turbines, they are what electric cars ride on in the form of rubber tires and what the hoses coolant passes through from the engine to the radiator. Oil is what makes everything go one way or the other and to deny the fact is to merely fool yourself. While it's good to save money and to become more efficient to waste resources on less efficient means of energy production and passing the higher costs onto the consumer weakens the nation.

Now that oil is getting back to a normal price, it's time we examine how we can make better and more efficient use of this abundant resource.

Oil isn’t called the ball bearing of industry for nothing.

Obama Government Widens Racial Divide

Martin Luther King Jr. is spinning in his grave at 10,000 revolutions per minute.

The man who’s most sincere message was "Pride". Pride in one’s self and also "Character". The character of one’s convictions in the face of adversity. His campaign for equality was economic and effective. In America “What is good for the one is good for the many.” That’s what he said. He walked the talk too.

Nobody in this deal is quoting MLK. Not even his longtime friend Jesse Jackson who has profited greatly from his association. MLK wouldn't recognize him either. Peace is not the answer to an Anarchist, only destruction will serve their agenda.

Oh how MLK would feel if he saw everything he ever worked for and gave his life for brought to what we see today. The violence, the race-baiting instigators, the poor quality of education and lack of advancement that hangs like a miasma over this nation’s inner cities despite all the money and good intentions that is thrown at it.

The cause of civil rights has been hijacked into a bribery con with government attempting to placate instead of actually educate minority peoples in this country. They would rather they be yoked for political purpose than to actually be free to live their lives as best they can, succeeding or failing like the rest of us. Our major cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New York and Los Angeles have been turned into killing fields as a result.

Someday in the future social scientists will finally manage to prove to society what we already know today but continue to lie to ourselves about: That providing a government “Safety Net” for people is no safety net at all. Welfare turns it's recipients into trust funded Kennedy-types drinking and drugging themselves to death, screwing the baby sitter when their wives aren't around and getting away with murder.

We are reaping the fruits of the mythical Great Society. Institutionalized entitlement has lead to radical mob anarchy. And look who they chose as their symbol of social justice, Michael Brown?

Michael Brown was the wrong poster boy for police overreach in the black community. There was no grand jury that would ever indict even a civilian under the circumstances of a documented violent criminal with a long rap sheet charging either a civilian or cop. Yet we still have media race-baiters quoting the fiction that Mr. Brown had his hands up and that the cop PULLED him, a 6 ft 4 in 292 lb behemoth of a man, into the cruiser in order to justify shooting him. Why? Why perpetuate the lies?

To foment just this sort of violence. This is what our radical government wishes to happen.  

"Hands up, don't Shoot!" is based upon a lie. And it is an obvious lie. Can we trust anyone using this lie to be a champion of truth? The truth does not matter to an Anarchist.

In this whole scheme the government’s national media is yet again complicit. It is hard to control the situation when you can't control the message. They have broadcast fiction as fact and always mention, despite being big enough and violent enough to cave in a man’s scull with a single blow of his hand, that Michael Brown was “unarmed”. Unarmed maybe but not helpless and in this case, his last charge so to speak, no longer unaccountable for his actions.

Obama has also opened his micromanaging bigoted mouth and made things worse. Having sent his disgraced and somehow un-resigned head of the Orwellian named "Justice Department", William "My People" Holder into the fray, you'd think Obama wants a race war. At least that would make Charles Manson happy that he finally lived long enough to see what he was trying to make happen in the 1960s.

I don't see how American blacks will never move forward as a group until slavery is allowed to pass into history. But it's not just the professional black race manipulators pushing this scenario. There are racial guilt trips everywhere in media. From “period” television series set in the 1960s to antebellum movies. Remember the television series “Roots” from the 1980s? Well, it was all a hoax! Alex Haley never had relatives on the wrong end of the slave trade never mind writing an account of them.

Well how ‘bout dat?

But it all serves the purpose of never letting anyone ever forget that black people were once slaves in this country. We forget about the black African slave traders who actually did the capturing or the other people who were slaves, the indian population, the Chinese coolies, indentured servants and the like. No, just black people were slaves and don’t you ever forget it!  

So it's open season on Whitey these days but not just by the racial equality types but our radical race-based government. I've heard it a half-dozen times about how the Occupy Movement now Racial Equaligist want to make Whitey "Uncomfortable". That's the goal. And the only way to do that is through FEAR. But that strategy is going to backfire, again.

Change is not going to come by making "Whitey" uncomfortable. It's only going to make EVERYBODY uncomfortable. Just like how President Obama makes EVERYBODY WITH A JOB or a small business uncomfortable.

People in this country of all races who work towards something for themselves and their families, people who wish to build something and invest in a community where their kids will be safe and can get a good education and advance themselves, yes THOSE people are also made uncomfortable when they see buildings in their community burned to the ground, especially when it's a minority owned business.

And if they haven't already, these people will start to put some distance (with their spending money firmly in their pockets and their businesses in tow) between themselves and the people responsible for their fear and the places this is happening in. 

So much for integration now.

Obama a Luddite on Keystone Pipeline

It’s only progress when Obama’s contributors can profit. If it’s profit for anybody else, well, we must all reflect and study the issue…for six years and going.

When the government was passing out, and losing in the process, Billions of U.S. Taxpayer dollars in “loans” to manufacturers of solar panels and other so called Green Technology, all with a dubious rate of return in the marketplace to begin with, well this was “moving forward” in America.

But when there is a project with an actual demand in the marketplace and a verifiable rate of return on the investment such as the Keystone pipeline, well that's a horse of a differerent color to our Leftist president.

President Obama’s arguments against the pipeline were always spurious but today appear downright laughable. That the pipeline would benefit Canada and overseas markets, but not the U.S.A.  As if we would only be doing Canada a favor by building this without any net gain to the builders. I believe their would be a slight charge for the use of the pipeline, Mr. President. 

Then there are jobs. Not just the jobs to build the pipeline but the jobs to maintain it. There will be added refinery jobs since the oil will need to be refined where it comes out of the pipe. That means Texas, U.S.A.  The estimated cost of the Keystone pipeline at $ 7 Billion, to put things into perspective, would be half the total cost of Boston’s Big Dig Central Artery project that squandered $ 14 Billion federal tax dollars by putting, basically, the highway cutting the city in half, underground. They didn’t even widen the road or put in a commuter rail and the land freed up for development has remained underdeveloped and has not returned dime one back to the Federal Government.

I heard a knee slapper of an stupid comment about the pipeline on that bastion of Democratic Socialism, Bloomberg Radio about how the country today is almost literally awash in oil so why do we need a pipeline now? Even to a feverish follower of all things Left, this has to sound very short sighted. Six years ago was the time to build this pipeline, not six years from now and need anybody need reminding that back in 1972 the nation had plenty of oil coming into the country…right up until the Saudis pulled the plug.

This leads me to an argument for the pipeline I haven’t heard yet. That the oil will be flowing in these United States. What a novel idea! You mean, we get to handle the oil in this country? Why didn’t anybody think of that before? Of course, in an age long since passed in this country, we did. We called the idea "Energy Independence". Now where have I heard that term lately?

Having control of the means of power production is something every nation would desire. It’s a matter of long-term security and national survival. Who wouldn’t want this?

Obama doesn’t.

There’s nothing for the president or his cronies in having a pipeline actually produce jobs and opportunity in any region of the country that Mr. Obama and the Central Planners hadn’t put forth themselves. It wasn't his idea and I'm sure it doesn't sit well with one group of Mr. Obama's staunchest allies, the Leftist Greens.

As we have seen yet again, the Central Planners do not pick what the market will bring the people but the people will demand and The Market will deliver.

Even as solar and wind have failed to provide the needed power for future development, and as the government marches against coal and condemns Fracking even as the later has put the United States on a more secure path to energy stability and the people in the U.S. are just now reaping it's rewards of lower gas prices which benefit the lowest income stata more than any other, something has to come into the picture to put the wind back into the sails of the U.S. economy and to shore up the still very much open-ended issue of powering the nation into the future.

What will it be Mr. President?

Boston Rock Clubs of the 1980s: The Rat

We were supposed to care more about Boston’s legendary rock club The Rathskeller aka “The Rat” than we actually did.  

It just wasn't important to us as a band since our business interests lay elsewhere. We, meaning our band Cool McCool, were a rock & roll band, not punk and not even approaching what would later become “alternative” or underground and nothing in the vein of the past bands that came out of The Rat that went on to Boston greatness like Mission of Burma, Human Sexual Response, Iggy Pop, The Neighborhoods or The Lemonheads.

Yeah yeah I know, U2 and the Police and other national and international acts played The Rat in the 1970s blah, blah, blah but I’m sure they played other hole-in-the-wall dungeons too. They didn't need The Rat, they just happened to have played The Rat and the odds are very good that all those big bad Boston bands that are breathlessly associated with the club DID NOT get their first gigs there either. By the mid 1980s they would have had to go to Chet’s or TT the Bears first.

All that legendary stuff about the place was primarily in the past by the time we walked in the door for the first time in 1985.

If The Rat was Underground, we didn't see it as such. At the time Boston was bursting with original music clubs. To us The Rat was just another place in Boston with a PA and a bar to play when we weren't hanging at The Channel, Chet’s Last Call or Green Street Station in JP, all rooms that fit our style and that of the people who came to hear us play. And when you look at the place from that perspective, without the word "legendary" attached to its name, The Rat wasn't all that great.

It wasn't like they treated bands any better than any other of the Boston rock clubs at the time. You drew a crowd, they liked you. Not much not to understand about the mechanics of the situation. 

Since there are only so many hours in a week, bands wishing to make “the scene” had to work the music rooms they wanted to play the most.  This does not change with the times.  Actually living in the city gives a band a huge advantage in the “schmoozing” department since they can bar hop more places while seeing the bands, talking up the waitstaff, the management and being seen. When management sees you there regularly and you keep asking, you’re going to get a booking.

Also daytime access was an especially important aspect of booking The Rat since the booking agent always seemed to roll in around 3pm, an impossible time for a 9 to 5er working in the 'burbs. It seemed to us that The Rat took a whole lot more hanging out to get noticed in the “Ok, I’ll give you a gig” department. There were a lot of bands that really wanted to get in at The Rat.

So Just what was The Rat all about anyway? 

For one thing, it had the best location of any rock club in the city, right smack in the middle of it all since Kenmore Square was the crossroads of the city’s nightlife throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Your night began and ended in Kenmore Square. You had Narcissus and Celebrations, the two biggest discotheques in town, right across the square and located just up Brookline Ave a little ways and around the corner was Landsdowne Street with its row of nightclubs operating in the shadow of Fenway Park's Green Monster that varied in entertainment value from the ritzy Metro, the dark and cool Spit discotheque and the not so great “five dollar dungeon” that was 9 Landsdowne St where you paid a $5.00 cover to basically listen to records and where they would occasionally lower a high school grade movie screen from the ceiling in the middle of the room without warning to show some music videos. 

If you kept going past Landsdowne there was Copperfield’s featuring quality cover bands, cheap beer and good sound. Then on the other side of the square just up Commonwealth Ave was the lounge at the old Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge which featured professional cover acts, mostly oldies. Continuing up Comm Ave there was, and still is, The Paradise rock club. Beyond that lay the many bars of Brighton and Cambridge. Kenmore Square at the time was just crowds of people hanging out, passing through, meeting friends before they headed off or just outside waiting for their band to go on. 

The sound system at The Rat was easily overwhelmed by the amplification that many of the bands who played there brought with them. As a person who likes to hear the words, I was often frustrated by this. Only the better bands paid enough attention to sound good there and there were plenty of those too but as a spectator I would never characterize the sound night in and night out at The Rat as good.  As a performer, forget it, you never heard yourself on the stage at any of the original music rooms in town except The Channel.  Any place else the monitors were merely just music-related stage decorations.

The Rat’s exalted status did not disguise for us or our mostly suburban, over college age following the fact that it was an ugly little fire hazard/death trap of a room with its narrow stairway, black painted walls, dirty floors, wobbly tables, black leather jacketed clientele, fickle sound and just as legendary and notorious as some of the bands that played there if not more so, its noxiously obnoxious toilets.  In fact, the most consistent recollections of past Rat patrons, and anyone who had been there will tell you, had to be the river of “water” that ran from the toilets out onto the floor in the back of the downstairs club. It was an experience we all shared.

This really shouldn't be a surprise since The Rat was arguably the oldest rock club in the country’s oldest city with the historically oldest sewer system on the North American continent dating back to the founding of the city in 1630. Every now and then the city STILL pulls up a few hollowed out logs jammed together that were functioning as water piping from sometime back in the 1700s.

We played The Rat, we guess, maybe about a dozen times here and there, never in any kind of a rotation, from 1985 to 1989 and drew really well just once. We only ever did get one good night, our last, late in 1989, a Friday opening for The Lemonheads who were out for less than a year at the time but had the number one record in town with "Hate Your Friends".  We would't have played The Rat again after our first date except for the extraordinary efforts of our drummer, Tony, who would stop in almost weekly to try to get another gig. If not for that we would have been out of the loop real quick. As for James and I, we didn't care either way and felt our gig efforts would have been put to better use elsewhere. 

Most of the bands I saw at The Rat I had seen somewhere else first and I was less impressed with their Rat shows. The Bent Men played The Rat but they put on a better show at Chet’s. Ditto Throwing Muses, The Prime Movers, Scruffy the Cat and The Dogmatics.

Of the bands I had only ever seen play The Rat, I liked Johnny Angel’s band City Thrills which sort of had a Missing Persons meets Robin Lane thing going on. Also enjoyed the Condo Pigmies who were cool then and remain cool since I saw them play at Bill’s Bar on Landsdowne St in 2008 where they were the best band on the bill. I also caught the Sex Execs one night for the only time ever and they played their local hit "Princess Cheyanne" a song about a local "Exotic Dancer" who used to work Boston's red light district The Combat Zone. They were a band that, for me, represented what a good Boston band was. Tight, professional, uptempo and with quirky but catchy tunes.

One of the more enjoyable shows I saw at The Rat was another of Johnny Angel’s bands, the Swinging Erudites  which did song parodies of popular hits at the time like changing the Go Go’s hit song “Walk Like an Egyptian” to “Walk With An Erection” and a takeoff of Bon Jovi  with “Living on my Hair”. I don’t know, it was funny at the time and the record got lots of airplay on local FM stations WBCN and WCOZ. I still sing “Oh, Oh, I’m a millionaire, Wah-ah, Living on my Hair” to myself when I see something about Bon Jovi in the news. The Erudites were the biggest hit of Johnny Angel’s Boston musical career which he must have found ironic after all those years of sawing away in Boston bands like The Turbines who were really good but just didn't quite get there, then to hit with a parody group must have been bemusing. 

I was also at The Rat for a total riot that took place one night and closed The Rat for three days when some punk band I never got the name of and their aggressive fans took the place apart in 2 minutes flat. The band came on, and they weren't just playing punk rock, they were living it and their large following, who were hanging in the back unseen came forward and from the first power chord the room burst into full motion as these guys just started throwing tables, chairs, full pitchers of beer and anything else not nailed down and some things that were all over the place without regard to where they were going and what would happen once they got there. There was furious slamming going on at the same time, and I’ve seen slam dancing before or I thought I had, with stage diving, whirling fists and bloody faces. People who had no idea what was going were being knocked to the floor and a few of the regulars just dove right in. I remember this one guy, very clean cut in a red polo shirt and jeans just laughing and pogoing away while this chaos whirled around him in the fashion of Robert Duval's character, Lt Col Bill Kilgore in Apocalyse Now. But then there were the bouncers off to the side  and they were hammering some of these guys as they formed a sort of bucket brigade where one bouncer would grab a punk, slug him but good and then throw him to another bouncer who slugged him again and so on until they threw them out the back stage door into the parking lot where they staggered in bloody and disheveled protest at their shoddy treatment. Then they threw all their shit out after them.  Now THAT was a legendary show!

After the melee ended, the lights brought up and the bums thrown out and in the silence that followed the thing that stood out to me was Mitch, the owner of The Rat and he was no kid, getting down and picking up broken pieces of the plastic pitchers with his expensive three piece suit, ringed fingers and real alligator shoes. He didn't tell others to do it, he just did it. I found that impressive. I never really met the guy but he was always there and it had to be tough running a place like The Rat like few could experience.

Later in the 1990s, The Rat opened the upstairs to bands that played cover material so there were actually then three floors with something going on. There was the basement for original bands, the first floor bar and the upstairs.  I knew a couple of the bands that played "Upstairs at The Rat" like The Gypsys and The Visigoths. The bands that played upstairs got $50.00 a night…FOR THE BAND! Still, with my new group working regular I figured I’d go in and get a gig. I left the usual promo with the new booking agent and when I talked to him later he told me that, by listening to my tape, “that The World Renowned Rythmmen! were not ready to play The Rat Upstairs.”  He got that right.

That was my last experience with the room while it remained open since I was too busy with everything else to go there or any of the other original rooms left in town for that matter since I was working a different club circuit. Many of the original rooms had closed by then and none had taken their place. Then The Rat closed in 1997 and three years later became a cornerstone for a luxury hotel, The Hotel Commonwealth. 

The lasting legacy of The Rat can still be found every year when Boston’s Rock & Roll Rumble takes place at various venues around town. The Rumble started at The Rat crowning The Neighborhoods as the best band in Boston for the first time in 1976.

Seems like yesterday.

Socialism Suffers Setback in November Election

Well I guess there are still more of us than there are of them.

For the time being anyway.

The Socialist Democrats are bewildered. “Doesn't everybody want free stuff?”  They bemoan!

Sometimes you just can’t buy ALL the votes you need on the way to bankrupting the country.

People still want to own stuff and have stuff and they want a means to get what they want as in having a LIVELEYHOOD. Not just money from the government but a real something to work at and which they are interested in. A way to spend their day in creative and productive pursuits instead of going from handout to handout thinking you’re really putting something over on the government when they know they have you right where they want you, on a string.

One interesting observation of the political left in this country: They are looking especially deranged in their response to the rejection of their socialist ideals.

In fact they are downright delusional and seeing how their brains can’t rationalize the rejection they respond with anger and malice. They will get us.

Reminds me of the school system right here in Obscurity, MA. One year about 4 years ago, the town attempted yet another Proposition 2 ½ override. Prop 2 ½ was a law put on the ballot by the taxpayers that limited the amount of property tax could be assessed to 2 ½ % of the assessed value and could not be raised more than 2 ½ % of the value in total. Assessments come usually every 3 years.

In order to tax property beyond the 2 ½ %, the town has to have a vote. The Obscurity, MA school system had attempted and succeeded in passing 3 other Prop 2 ½ overrides in the past 5 years to pay down shortfalls in the school system but THIS 4^th override attempt didn't pass.

So what did the school system do?

They decided to “show them taxpayers” by cutting back sports programs, doubling the participation fees, abruptly laid off several teachers and cut the hours of the high school so short that the high school didn't meet the state requirement for minimum school hours and actually lost their state accreditation for the next 3 years.  How’d you like that if you were a graduating senior looking to get into the college of your choice?

This is the malevolence of entitlement by a socialist government. Never mind they continued to run deficits after the first override, you have to just continue to pony up the dough every time they ask for it. Otherwise you will be accused of trying to "run the government like a business!"
  

But it seems the opposition has grown to take back both houses of the people. Their first reaction is rejection of the results. Their second reaction is to plot the usurping of the victors. The propaganda has already begun. The floating of compromise and that the people still accept the glorious ideals of the New Normal. But there is no compromise in the tearing down of such vile pillars of national destruction that is the Orwellian named Affordable Care Act. It’s better to lose it now than to wait until it collapses because nothing on God’s Green Earth that is going to keep it from doing so. It was Chaos on paper yet here it is, a law. Such is the state of things.

But the world does not want Socialism, a form of economics that has failed every time it has been tried. Never has there been a successful society under Socialism and its sister misery Communism. History will vouch for their track record. “But only if it was done correctly” the mantra goes on but how many times can one try and fail? How many tears have been cried as a result? Millions and Millions.

From bloody Mao to bloody Stalin to bloody Chavez to bloody…etc. But they aren't all bloody I suppose with Francois Holland just plain the French equivalent of Barak Obama or maybe just Jimmy Carter who has now become the SECOND worst president ever. Holland should be the next leader of a major nation to be swept into "the dustbin of history" by the electorate.

So the American System has a chance once again to show it’s rigidity by using its flexibility. There is a reason the wheels of government moves slowly.  The system of checks and balances can be defied but the people, when push came to shove, came out to reject the collectivist sentiment of our would be overlords. If they had wanted a different result then they would have chosen it. If they wanted compromise with the Democratic President then they would have voted for the Democrats.

That’s the good news.  

Obama Business Model on Display In Venezuela

This is what awaits us under the iron fist of Big Government. They know better than you about how to spend your money and they see that you don’t get to keep too much of it. After all, there are others that need it more than you do.

Shortages, hardship and pain await the Socialist Nations of the world more so than the still productive countries of the world who are struggling to throw off the yoke of their benevolent self-destruction disguised as social justice. You can’t give what you make or do away for free. The world does not turn on the redistribution of wealth and it NEVER HAS.

If nobody minds lining up for the most necessary of sundries like laundry detergent, paper towels, sugar, rice and beans then by all means let us continue the path we are on to it’s ultimate conclusion.

Imagine the police, and we have A LOT of police in this country, telling you how much you can charge for goods in your store just before it turns into yet another empty store front and you are out in the street with everybody else vying for a piece of an ever shrinking pie.

The politicians RIGHT NOW are talking about improving education when the State run education system sucks up so much of the taxpayer resources, more than half of every town budget, and gives little to the point where taxpayers are supporting the public schools from their property taxes and then ponying up more money to send their kids to a private school. And the people who can’t do that are left with the standard, substandard, public school. This is most prevalent in the nation’s cities where the public school system is SO BAD. So how is more of THAT going to do ANYTHING?

And what good is an education, nobody seems to mention, if you don’t have a JOB to go to?

The streets of Venezuela awaits us all if we continue down this path. It may already be too late but if something happens tomorrow, if someone still cares about doing a good job and is interested in the American Ideal of Independence, Self-Sufficiency, Self-Reliance and doing the right thing, who knows?

But if we don’t get it, it’s every person for themselves anyway. There’s no reason to continue acting like the money is good and that the law is on your side. We must all turn to the golden rule of boxing:

Protect yourself at all times.

The prepared will suffer. The unprepared will starve. 

Government Tells You What To Do

They bribe you with your own money. They take the means you need to support yourself and withhold it. They’ll keep you from spending your money on the things you want by forcing you to pay more for the things you need and the things they control.

We are not the freest nation in the world. We are also no longer the least enslaved.

We have become slaves of our government. The government tells you to vote and they’ll tell you who to vote for. You only see what it allows you to see and you only get what it wants you to have. You are not in the drivers seat but they'll let you buy a shiny new car and tax the shit out of the purchase. 

The television and print media are all in on it. They’ll back the government because it’s the government that will put them out of business and they’ll lose their high-paying propaganda jobs if they don’t tow the line. A free press? Right. There is no free press in America. They sold their souls to the devil and you have to pay for that too.

Why are you even watching, because you always watched? 

The municipal police and fire departments negotiate their fat pension plans at the public’s expense. You only need to pay for it, otherwise you’re participation is not needed. Then they send you letters asking for money to support their police and firefighters funds or to solicit your vote for their preferred political candidate. Don’t even think about the irony in that, just do as they say or it’ll get hard for you. They should be answering to you but you answer to them. It could get ugly if you don't, their entitlement to your finances has made them brazen in their demands. 

The court system and the lawyers are in on it too. If you have a beef with them, even if you are right, they will only back each other against you. This is because they know that the average person in America cannot afford the cost of justice in America. Even the people with money and who are willing to spend it will wait years of their life for a verdict.

That’s because, in case you haven’t noticed, that there is no longer swift justice in this country for the average citizen. Those arrested now face years before they get a trial. And that time costs money. This forces them to negotiate. 

If you play by the rules you’re screwed.

We get nothing for our money. They take it and ask for more. They’ll pass a tax, like the gas tax and say it’s for the roads but when we see the roads turn to shit and complain they say they need to increase the tax if you want good roads. Where did the money go? We don’t know and they won’t tell us.

The government drives up the costs of your health care by forcing doctors and hospitals to give away care for below market rates or for nothing at all. You pay that. That's why you pay a bundle for a healthcare plan yet still have a $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 out of pocket deductible. Why even have insurance? 

This is because we’re suckers.

Then you receive a jury duty notice in the government mail asking you to participate in their sham court system for free even though you couldn't afford to be on the other end of the dock. Who pays for that? You do. Don’t think about the disconnect, just do as you are told. Otherwise they will arrest you. They won’t arrest a drunken illegal alien ramming their unregistered uninsured car into yours but they will arrest you because YOU are playing by a different set of rules than they are. It’s their ball and you’re playing on their court.

We are constantly forced to provide evidence against ourselves. Our rights are constantly violated via unauthorized search, seizure and surveillance. Our license plates are scanned when we drive down the street or park on the road. Our phone conversations are monitored. Our bank transactions are scrutinized and our accounts can be laid open without a warrant. 

The government limits the right of the people to protest to “free speech zones.” I've got news for you, the whole country is a free speech zone and that’s the law of the land regardless of whether a court of law will back you on it or not. These rights are inalienable and God-given. Stand up for them.

We are targeted by the Internal Revenue Service and our assets seized without trial or notice.

The National Parks Service takes over massive tracks of land to “preserve” and then keep you from using it or as we have recently seen, forced you off of it even though you have a lease agreement. That’s because it’s THEIRS and it’s not YOURS. The law doesn't matter to these people so why should it matter to you? 

We are going to have a vote next week but it’s going to be rigged. There may be enough people to override the criminality of these Vile Leftists in this country but maybe there won’t be. 

And what we get, the Establishment Republocrats, won’t be any better. They like Big Government Control just as much since they are the other side of the same coin.

Big Government has taken over and tells you what’s good for you. It decides what you have access to purchase and what goods it will allow you to have and it decides how much money you have left in your pocket. If you should need more, the government will then provide for you once you come crawling to them. And crawl you will. This is what it’s about.

This is why the country has turned to shit. This is why you have to go on paying and paying regardless of who is in the White House or in the Governor’s office. This is why the quality of life for many people has become degraded. 

Your only job is to pay for being jobbed. 

This is why small business in this country cannot get off the ground. This is why the storefronts are empty. 

If you have an idea for making a buck and improving your life then the government that is there to “help” you wants a piece of it UP FRONT. We are regulated, taxed, monitored and prosecuted because we want something in life and because other don’t have what you have built so instead of building them up, you must be torn down. The illegals can go about their business but you, YOU must pay the toll for both.

How foolish to go along with this abuse. This must all be undone.

Don't go along and do not participate in your own demise. 

Do not participate in jury duty: Just chuck the letter. You never received it. The post office is in such a state of disarray, it could conceivable have gone anywhere. My car insurance bill always ends up at the neighbors but I'm supposed to be convinced the jury notice they get right?

Do not contribute to any government organization charity fund: If they aren't using your tax money for what they told you it was intended for, what makes you think the charity money is going to go to its stated purpose. How many lies can you rationalize? Tell them to screw. Hell, they’re screwing you.

The time for the end of politeness and civility is fast approaching its end. There is too much government and they take too much from our pockets and do nothing but tell us to shut up and sit down. Stand up for yourself. Use the tools available to circumvent the government whenever you can. 

Living on your knees is no way to go through life. 

The Distraction That Is Ferguson, Missouri

After waited far too long for the information to come to light, it seems that everyone knew that the shooting of Michael Brown, a very big and aggressive kid from the streets of Ferguson, MO, was, in the terms of gun owners everywhere, a “Good Shoot”, meaning that the officer was justified in using deadly force even though young Mr. Brown was unarmed. Being unarmed has nothing to do with anything when two people are wrestling for the same gun or when a guy who is 60 pounds heavier makes a rush at you.

When I was younger I had a roommate who was a State Trooper for the state of Massachusetts. One time he gave me a quick demonstration of how easy it is for an officer to lose a gun to an experienced criminal. He had me wear his gun belt with the (empty) pistol in the holster and the security strap snapped in place and while facing me with a quick and singular movement of his open hand he unsnapped the restraint and removed the pistol, upside down from the holster with his finger on the trigger before I had a chance to react. “It still shoots upside down” he said. Yes it does and that would have been it for me. It didn't take much practice for me to do the same thing. It was quite an education.

The real crime in Ferguson, MO is that it took this long for the information to come out when everybody knew this a few days after the shooting. The Obama Regime and the disgraced criminal who heads the Department of Justice, Eric Holder, was hoping to use Ferguson as a race-based distraction in order, I presume, to keep the economy and the looming government debt out of the news although there are so many controversy and intrigues happening in government right now that to point out just one thing proves difficult but for the most part the economy and the precarious financial pins we are on should be the nations biggest concern.

The economy is not getting better regardless of how much the national press, Bloomberg news, Reuters and PBS glad-hand it and now we are pledging millions more on renewed interventions in the Middle East and on the Ebola scare that has threatened to knock Ferguson, MO off the front pages of the news and it is pitying to see the lengths the race-baiters will go to put it back. A trial for Officer Wilson, the policeman who shot Michael Brown, would serve that purpose very well. Then there could be a new round of indignation when he is acquitted. That should be good for half a years' worth of headlines. 

But despite all this it is the lack of jobs and the lack of opportunity for America’s educated youth that is the 800 pound gorilla in the room and anything to keep this from being discussed prior to the November elections is a result that is dreamed about in the upper reaches of Washington, DC. And for President Obama and his shifty crew, if it’s an issue that will divide America upon racial lines, even better!

The people of Ferguson, MO may very well be getting hosed by the local police but they aren't going to change anything by being on the wrong side of the Michael Brown shooting. To deny the evidence won’t garner any sympathy with the people who can only read what has happened and who have doubted from the beginning the contradictory nature of the local “eye witnesses” to the shooting. Once the truth is known the American people will be on to the next distraction.

At my bank there are 4 year college graduates who are working as Tellers. They make $11.00 an hour 3 and 4 years after they graduated. Individually they are all over $40,000.00 in debt to student loans.  How are these people going to participate in the economy? They can’t borrow more money because they are already in debt and they are struggling to make the minimum payment on their student loans. What the hell are they going to buy? A new car? A house?  Don’t think so. And these young graduates are far from alone. I know a young lady who is also 4 years out of college who works in marketing. She said that she is the only one of her peers who is actually working in the field they went to school for. 

Retail banks aren't making much in the way of money right now either. With the Fed keeping interest rates the lowest they have ever been in the history of American Finance, it costs more to write and service the loan than they receive in return payments on interest.  This leads to slow to no growth. No growth means employee raises remain sparse. Add to that the rising premiums employers have to cover for healthcare and profits are eaten up before they find their way into anybody’s pockets. This is our “recovering economy”.  Not a warm fuzzy feeling for most people around here.

So sure Mr. Obama, distraction and division are the new normal for our national government. It has become so unwieldy, so morally corrupt, so grasping, so unabashedly spendthrift and devoid of irony or guilt as to have rendered itself almost totally ineffective in doing almost anything right. It neither goes far enough or cares enough about doing the job it was intended to do; provide a level field for business, assess and address foreign threats to the nation and to protect the American people.

In all facets of its purpose, America’s government has clearly failed.  

The Great Alaskan Walrus Ice Melt Hoax

From the usual suspects in the National Media: CNN, The Washington Post, NBC News and PBS comes the “Great Ice Melt Beached Walrus” crisis.

Yes, walruses are gathering in record numbers on the Alaskan shore Point Lay because the ice that they live on has melted and they must go ashore, all 35,000 of them.

It’s unprecedented!

That would be incredible…if it were true.

It’s not and N.O.A.A. the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and some shadowy organization known as The World Wildlife Fund knows it isn't true.

Witness this interactions on National Public Radio between Judy Woodruff of PBS and Margaret Williams of the World Wildlife Fund.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So why are the walruses doing this? What’s going on?

MARGARET WILLIAMS: Well, walruses are one of the many species in the Arctic that are highly dependent on the Arctic sea ice.

So the mothers raise their calves on the sea ice. They use — these animals use the sea ice as a platform from which to dive to reach their food. Walruses like the eat clams and shellfish. And when the sea ice melts, as it is right now, they have to go somewhere to rest and to reach their food.

So they’re coming ashore in large numbers. And the sea ice is melting so rapidly. It’s melting earlier in the summer and later every — and forming later in the spring. So the Arctic sea ice is changing dramatically.

Now check this next answer and how well it is carefully couched. I heard this on the radio this afternoon and it is word for word what was said on the radio…just before I shut it off in disgust.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, how unusual is this? Has it ever happened before?

MARGARET WILLIAMS: This is the largest number of walruses we have seen in Alaska. It’s a sign of tremendous change. It’s a sign that Arctic wildlife distributions and life’s history patterns are actually changing pretty much before our eyes.

We have seen large haul-outs on the Russian coast. And World Wildlife Fund works closely with Russian scientists and communities. So they have told us about these large numbers on the Russian side. But this is first time these numbers have been seen in Alaska.

That was not an answer to her question. The answer would be: YES, this has happened before.

The ice melts EVERY YEAR. The walruses either land on this side or the Russian side. We are given no numbers concerning how many walruses have ever been known to gather on the Russian side. I could guess maybe...35,000 or so?

And how long have they been counting walruses in Alaska in the first place, the 1970s maybe? This isn't even a blip on the radar of climate history.

So why be so evasive in answering a simple question?

Because Margaret Williams KNOWS this has happened before. Her answer is only that this is the first time walruses have been seen in these numbers on the beaches of Alaska. That’s it. That’s all. It was a Weasel Answer just short of a lie, In that case, they could have been there every year but this is the first time they've SEEN them. Weasel Words for a misleading weasel report.

This is what passes for journalism? If this what our tax dollars are going to support on the Public Channel? This is what we are supposed to believe is a result of GLOBAL WARMING? Excuse me I mean, GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE! Wait, I mean GLOBAL CLIMATE DISRUPTION?

The World Wildlife Fund is just another anti-capitalist front group of dead-ender environmentalist fascists who would rather make up reasons not to allow freedom in the marketplace and the pursuit of happiness for people with fewer means to achieve their dreams in this world so that they can instead force them to turn to government for their sustenance. They aren't in if for the wildlife, the environment or the people, they are in it for their own power and control of the means of production so that YOU will need THEM instead of relying on YOURSELF.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the propaganda session:

JUDY WOODRUFF: So what do — so, in other words, they need sea ice for survival.

MARGARET WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, what are the implications for the walrus, for other marine mammals, for humans, if there are any?

MARGARET WILLIAMS: Well, the humans are absolutely connected to the story of the walrus, because this is a story about climate change.

The walrus depend on that sea ice habitat, just as polar bears do, just as bowhead whales do. The Arctic is an incredible sea ice environment. And, as it changes, the Arctic Ocean is changing. And there is increasing evidence that changes in the sea ice are influencing the jet stream, which then has implications for weather patterns in the Lower 48 and really around the country.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What can be done about it, Margaret Williams? Is it — it seems like it’s so — such a remote area. Can humans do something specifically about these walruses?

MARGARET WILLIAMS: They absolutely can. And we’re so lucky to have fabulous scientists with NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service out working with communities.

And communities have taken a great role in protecting the walruses while they’re on shore, both in Russia and Alaska. So, they’re trying to reduce disturbances while the walruses are ashore. Walruses are very skittish when they’re in these great numbers.

This really is tiresome. They think we're all stupid.

Only the Consumer Can Save the Economy

Only Government can continue to take more and more money out of the pockets of working people and then sponsors a study, using taxpayer dollars, to study why people aren't spending.

We see this across the globe. In Japan the government has raised the sales tax on consumer goods from 5% to 8% and are now shocked, shocked I say, that the economy is doing worse!

Here in the United States the government’s fingers are in every pie and taking a buck here, $.50 there from every corner of the economy. Your gasoline, your phone bill, your cable bill, gas and electric bill, if you eat out at a restaurant, buy beer, well, everything you spend money on is that much higher because government siphons off a piece of the action.

They just never stop nickel and diming you to death.

There are other costs too. Like the cost of permits, the cost of a driver’s license, a fishing permit in Massachusetts for fresh water is $27.50. Sport fishing is $45.00. To fish in the OCEAN off of Massachusetts is $10.00. 

Hunting with a gun: $27.50. With a bow: $27.50. Trapping: $35.00. These have all gone up recently. The Ocean fishing license doubled from last year. The line of defense is always: The state needs the money to manage wildlife areas. Are they managing the Ocean now too? I can’t tell the difference by looking. What was free 4 years ago is not $10.00. That’s just $10.00 less to put towards something else.

There isn’t enough space on this blog to list all the fees associated with starting and running a small business. And this is combined with taxes and insurance costs. Without small business, the country does not run. Without the ability to start a small business, a nation has three choices: Big business, which, contrary to what some people believe, are not the nation’s largest employer and cannot employ nearly enough people that need jobs. Government: Many people want the government jobs because they have great hours, great taxpayer funded benefits, oftentimes a pension plan and a lot of times pay better now than their private sector equivalent. This is especially the case for public school teachers who make crazy money in comparison to the private sector. And the third choice: Government dependency. This could also be confused with the second choice but in this case there is no return whatsoever for the money spent. This is the public assistance or welfare program.  People collecting relief.

Right now in the U.S. we have working people who qualify for and are receiving food stamps. It is estimated that 44 million people receive this assistance in this country. And it’s all coming out of the pockets of the consumer.

Oh, but spending this money is good, right?

Well, no it isn't really. Spending government money, or money taken or transferred from the taxpayer does not result in a net gain for the economy. You see, the people who transfer this money also draw a paycheck. This is called Overhead and the increased overhead that government adds to the cost of the transfer, reduces the amount of money distributed. As I have mentioned before, government does not produce wealth, it takes wealth for its projects and spending schemes. Only the private sector can produce wealth which comes to them as Profit and the best way for that to take place is to let the private citizen keep more of the money they earn so that they can make that money work for them. It is this Profit Motive that makes the world go around. Why work hard if you don't get to keep the fruits of your labor. Why transfer funds when a consumer to transact person-to-person thus reducing the overhead and saving money that can be used for other things? Why should government decide where that money can be better spent and thus defying market forces and basically just wasting it on wrong decisions? Let the consumer decide what to do with the money they earned.

Places that have done this have thrived. Like the United States itself has done…in the past.

Only the growing, grasping hands of government has interfered with the marketplace and disrupted the marketplace to a point where, after taking so much money from working people in the form of taxes, permits and licenses, they now are compelled to give some of it back in the form of public assistance programs like Food Stamps. This is insane.

Only the consumer can save the economy. Without putting the money back into the pockets of the consumer, the economies of Japan and the United States as well as Greece, Britain and Italy will continue to founder.

This isn't anything new.

Justice Pursues Eric Holder

Almost three years after he should have resigned, Eric Holder has finally seen the writing on the wall.

Although it hasn't been getting any radio airplay that I have heard, a U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates, has turned down a request from the Department of Justice to delay the release of a list of Operation Fast and Furious documents currently under protection since June of 2012 by President Obama's invocation of executive privilege. That's right, for over two years president Obama has been stonewalling the U.S. court system in an attempt to shield the corrupt head of his Department of Justice.

This lawsuit I might add, was not brought by the U.S. Congress, because the mainstream Republocrat Party doesn't have the time to attempt such a thing since they are too busy trying to beat back the Tea Party, but by a government watchdog group named Judicial Watch.

These documents are therefore due to come out well before the November midterm elections.

This is why Eric Holder resigned.

In his interminable way-to-long tenure at the Department of Justice, this evil racist of a man sought to usurp the U.S. Constitution at every opportunity. Ignoring statues one day and inventing statutes the next. Holder intervened where he didn't belong and never lifted a finger in matters that were his responsibility. His selective action on the law were his most glaring insult to the American taxpaying public. His attempts to achieve “equality” of result by inaction and favoring one group over another ran counter to reason and the law.

His job was to uphold the law and in this he is a FAILURE. Blind justice indeed.

Holders actions alone during the Fast & Furious gun walking scheme meant to discredit defenders of the 2^nd Amendment and to further the Obama Regime’s onslaught against legal gun ownership has killed more people that even former DOJ head Janet Reno under the Carter administration. You will recall Ms. Reno gave the go ahead for the action that killed 68 men, women and children at the Branch Davidian enclave in Waco, TX in 1993. An incident that motivated Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Oklahoma Federal building two years later killing 168 people. If Waco didn't happen, neither would have Oklahoma City. 

Mr. Holder has come close to beating Reno's official record. In addition to the scene of the killing of boarder agent Brian Terry, American arms had also turned up at crime scenes in Mexico. The Mexican government estimates that 211 people had been killed in that country by Fast and Furious arms. This includes Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, the police chief of Hostotipaquillo in the west-central Mexican state of Jalisco and his bodyguard. This estimate could be under counted.

It is estimated that 2000 guns crossed the border and only about 710 were every recovered.

It is fitting that Holder presented Janet Reno with the Justice Award on April 17, 2009 which, among other things, recognizes her ensuring equality under the law during her time at Justice. How absurd.

These killers hiding behind the shield of American Justice should be pursued to the grave. They should never rest comfortably knowing the pain and suffering they caused for the reason of political gain and fleeting power. It never lasts and now that he is out, I hope Holder can live with it. And live with it he shall. He should never have a moment’s peace and everyone he meets should ask him about how he sleeps at night or how can he stand to look in the mirror. 

America will live to rue the day this trailer trash masquerading as scholars ever gained power in this country and Eric Holder is the regimes poster boy.

Now that he has resigned, justice will find Mr. Holder.

And after it does, he can go to Hell.