400 Tons!!!

Four hundred tons of radioactive contaminated water leak out of the Fukushima power plant into the ocean each and every day...

Where To Invade Next

I was tepid at best about seeing Michael Moore's latest, Where To Invade Next. The previews looked, well... not only lackluster, but silly, seen it before and- no longer funny. But being that we hadn't seen a flick in quite a few, off we went- and I celebrated by taking... my first senior discount ($1.50- Woo Hoo!).

Surprisingly, the movie itself did not disappoint. Unfortunately, at this point, Moore's movies only preach to the choir- it's pissed off Trump Republicans that need to watch and learn. Watch and learn how the US has chucked, forsaken and forgotten what once made this country great- and what we could now undertake to heal, repair and restore. As usual, Conservatives go on and on about how the US is overtaxed, and yet they never mention the crippling amounts we have to pay for: health care, higher education and a whole host of other social/civic services that we either pay top dollar for- or (increasingly likely) learn to do without. Our health, economy and hopes breaking down before our eyes just as the very environment and infrastructure we so desperately depend upon. And as Moore points out, insult to injury- many of the very ideas that could alleviate so much suffering and right so many of our current economic and social ills that other countries so effectively employ... originated right here in the good ol' US of A!

Sadly we have allowed ourselves to become so tone deaf and dumbed down, so marginalized in our own frustration, that we can only now seek to blame others as we mindlessly chant on in ever increasing fervor- USA, USA, USA...

Remembering The Fall Of Rome (And It's Batshit Crazy Leaders)

As a kid I always wondered how mighty, kick ass Rome pretty much allowed itself to fall apart and rot from within as the barbarians trolled the gates. Of course, once you start reading just how insane its Caesars really were, you soon start asking yourself- just how was it that Rome managed to survive as long as it did?

Of course, our modern, interconnected world experiences everything at a considerably accelerated rate. And I have been amazed at what this country has been able to endure just in my lifetime, including a President who (while definitely not insane), at least kinda knew he was dumber than a rock in some round about, dry drunk kinda way- and didn't give a damn how many people lost their lives in his little macho military fantasies. Now we got someone running who not only doesn't have the slightest clue, but who actually thinks himself more intelligent than all human life combined. And even scarier, if such a scenario is even plausible (and it is)- there are people who actually think believe he is, while others simply revel in the fact that he'll forever be the ever lovin' dick that he truly is... (just like them- except w/o his $).

Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality.

          -Christopher Hedges
 

Because We're Stupid

Not stupid because we didn't understand exactly how the banks were conducting business, it was made purposely too complex for us to understand. No one can be faulted for that. Stupid because once they were finally exposed, finally exposed bare and naked and clean for all to see just how longingly and lovingly they were fucking us up the ass each and every day, we chose to... 

1.) Allow them to be rescued with our money,

2.) Demand no accountability whatsoever,

3.) Blame exactly who they told us to blame ("poor people, teachers and immigrants"), and-

4.) Smile as we continue to let them fuck us each and every day, to this very day!

The beauty and genius that was Jon Stewart and The Daily Show was that they broke down complex (and often boring) social, political and economic issues into logical, easy to understand bits and pieces that were... goddamn funny to boot. The Big Short does much the same, and does so brilliantly, covering the financial meltdown that happened under our watch (Anthony Bourdain explains CDOs, Salena Gomez breaks down synthetic CDOs)- and that continues unpunished and unrepentant, however disguised, as you read this.

But, hey, it's Christmas- grab the eggnog and a warm blanket; you can kick the dog when you're hungover after New Year's. 

PS- Oh... And when someone with a big, self satisfied smirk demands you explain just how the government could ever possibly keep a secret as overwhelmingly HUGE as UFO's under lock and key for soooo damn long- kindly just remind them that... it's all so easy, when we're the ones who do it for them; aliens are small potatoes indeed, compared to knowingly letting them rob us blind each and every day of our hard earned $$$...

Just try not to roll your eyes when you tell them.

Fantasy, Reality & A Few Bits In Between...

 A little levity for the masses...

Yes, things have been pretty quiet 'round these parts; ya know what they say- no news is good news. I was recently saddened to hear the ongoings at B&H, I had done business with them for decades and it was heartening to see a multi hued, multi ethnic sea of faces whenever I visited. Sadly, it does not appear all is at it seems... Cheap prices, come at a price and it's always interesting to hear how many people just don't give a rat's ass as long as they get a few bucks off their L lenses (and don't have to work in their far from public view warehouses). Not gonna rehash everything I said there, but the issues raised accurately encapsulate modern economics, prejudice and society as a whole.

Elsewhere, elephants continue to be slaughtered- forget the solitary big game assholes, I'm talking the wholesale slaughter for the continuing Asian market in ivory. And forget the glaciers, the tundra is now melting as we continue to mindlessly plunge this earth headfirst into the abyss, blissfully ignoring we seal our own fate as we do so...

Whatever photographs do survive into the next century will serve as bleak testament to a memory of how people happily carried on as the signs of the planet's demise danced all about them. They will view them with curiosity, longing, and utterly justifiable rage.

Donald Mussolini

Professionals with a lot more experience, who are paid a helluva lot more than me, have somehow yet to make the most obvious of obvious comparisons. The boasts, the posturing, the smirking disdain, absolute arrogance and utter disregard for anything resembling the truth; all so frighteningly  parallel and irrefutable, despite the disparities of time, ethnicity and  geographical location. 

And yet, in this age when we may repeat the same said mistake, with the same sad and sorry said consequences-  I have yet to see this most relevant of comparisons...  anywhere.

Chris Hedges- "Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality."

American (Non)Jurisprudence

Monday morning before work I was hit with a double dose of how monumentally insane our court system in these Semi-United States has become. One video lays out how utterly and completely fucked you are if you are poor (a lawyer will be provided for you- for say... 7 minutes); the other describes just how determined the judicial system can be to guarantee they kiss your ass into eternity- no matter what the evidence says...

The Trump Coward Family

No matter how much money I've inherited and made on the backs of others- I'm still a little shit... And look- I can prove it!!!

I have nothing against hunters who actually eat what they kill- I'd be some kinda hypocrite otherwise, since I eat meat. As far as these Big Bawanas who wanna prove how big theirs are by shooting defenseless animals for... sport are concerned- if you want to prove your manhood with a gun, there's many a government sanctioned organization that will happily send you off where you can "be all that you can be." But these Trumps, Nugents and lying dentists are just cowards to the core.

Elizabeth The Great

Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses GOP Financial Exec

Liz, Liz- I think I'm in love. If only you were in that big white house!

 - Alas, you'd be dead within months...

"I Was Appointed To Be Duped."

The Hoffman Report- How the APA, the CIA and the US Military colluded to excuse, allow and practice torture...

SOB Robs Wounded Vets

This SOB bastard started a totally needless war based on the lies he had manufactured to sell it, had thousands of our boys killed and maimed for life so that his Dick friend could make millions, performed a "comedy skit" about not being able to find any WMD, and is still not satisfied until he can reach into their pockets and make a few bucks off what's left of their bodies.

The man knows NO shame...

96- Per Day...

RIP- Kalief Browder

Kalief Browder, 1993-2015.    PHOTO: ZACH GROSS

An innocent kid left to rot in jail for three years with no evidence against him other than that he was Black. Beaten, abused, imprisoned for a goddamn backpack he didn't even take. A budding life needlessly stolen and lost without apology issued or responsibility taken. All committed under the perversion we now call justice.

"We Need To See Them...

Because we created them."

Army Spc. Jerral Hancock sits for a portrait with his son Julius. It is believed that Hancock was trapped under the wreckage of his Army tank in Iraq for half an hour before he was rescued.

Courtesy of David Jay/Unknown Soldier

And for what? We're all made to feel guilty for not "supporting our boys" once the shit hits the fan- but we're never, ever asked to question why we put them in harm's way to begin with.

There are now countless people in and around Iraq who hate us; perhaps because they had nothing to do with 9/11, and yet had to suffer the revenge and full onslaught of the world's foremost military might. An yet the thousands we killed and maimed there for no good (or sane) reason will never get even this most perfunctory of acknowledgements.


Addendum:  David Guttenfelder also has an amazing essay on the plight of vets w/PTSD who are taking their own lives at home- an alarming 22 suicides each and every day! (via: PetaPixel)

America = Corruption

Less than 1 officer in 1000...

...reported police killings of civilians resulted in charges (not convictions, charges) of wrongful death.

Traitor or Hypocrite?

The Daily Show
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Self Explanatory...

Operation Tomodachi

The Fukushima catastrophe changed the world. Nuclear reactors melted down on live television and twice as much radioactive material was released as during the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The disaster drove 150,000 people from their towns and villages, poisoned entire landscapes for centuries and killed hundreds of thousands of farm animals.

AFP/US Navy

There's an old Saturday Night skit in which a Black janitor (Garrett Morris) is ordered to get his mop and bucket and clean up... a radioactive spill at a nuclear power plant. It was one funny skit- it's also basically what  Navy Captain Thom Burke told his crew to do on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when they entered the radioactive plume dispersed by the critically damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Not so funny...

Many of those sailors lived and worked well within that radioactive plume for days, cleaning radioactive fallout without protective clothing, drinking contaminated water. Hundreds of them are now suffering from advanced cancers and "unexplained" debilitating diseases that the Navy says they cannot explain, and for which they take no responsibility and admit no accountability. Of the 500 sailors stricken ill, 247 are now attempting to sue Tepco (the Japanese power company that ran the plant in question), they're legally prohibited from suing the US Military itself due to the Feres Doctrine).

 

 How much of this have you heard or read about on the news???

Honesty And Mass Murderers

On one hand you have those that kill innocents seemingly for the hell of it, sometimes even killing themselves in the process- then there are those who claim to be beyond such outright barbarism, kill anyway- then proclaim innocence. I'd say they're both small minded, murderous bastards- and very much deserving of each other. But one is definitely the bigger liar.

But... Stan! Over a dozen innocent people were just slaughtered in Paris- where's your so called compassion for them!? And over 2 thousand more in Nigeria- and don't forget the hundreds of thousands we're personally responsible for in Iraq for no good reason (making Sniper doesn't count), not to mention our ongoing drone collateral recruitment program... that never does gets mentioned. The point is, it's time we stop playing whack-a-mole throughout the world and start addressing this global problem as a human one, one that can not be addressed, let alone solved strictly by military means... Ours, or theirs.

And another thing's for damn sure- Houdini in all his greatness could not have pulled off what the US of A claims these three did one night (in their zeal to get back at us)...