Selection vrs Election

       The Democracy Hype

Much has been made of the potential spread of democracy around the world.  The words Pax Americana, can be heard, and might not be far off.  Democracy has become a catch all media buzz word, generally used to justify some manor of intervention. Which likely looks anything but democratic in nature.  As an American I can not deny the obviously selective nature of our desire for other nations to experience the blessings of democratic rule. The examples of support for "friendly" dictatorships by the United States would be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical.  While media outlets tout the overthrow of one regime as a victory for the people, and blow for democracy. Movements in nations with western friendly dictatorships are in large part ignored, and often these governments are receiving aid, or military backing from the US.  Leaving it painfully obvious, that as a nation we are far more concerned with our perceived national self interest than any notions of self determination, or democracy.  In the US we pride ourself on our right to vote, yet how many feel represented? How many even know how our electoral system works?  Democracy is great, one of the most amazing innovations, but like so many things context plays it's role.

     The Choice We Can't See

To serve as an elected public official can be viewed in many ways, an honor, an act of duty, maybe even a burden. The one thing for the public well-being it would best left not thought of is as a career. By the time a candidate is offered for your consideration, they have already been approved by their party, and in the days of money equals speech, the contributors.  It's not really a surprise than to see that often organizations fund both parties equally.  Call it strategic planning, or corporate governance, the effect is undue influence to put it nicely.  If you did notice, there were many on that list that did not fund both sides, which is just as telling.  When you have only two main political parties as entrenched as and pervasive as in the US, they can not be opposites, they can only be opposames. The parties never leave power, they share power, just changing the distribution. We find ourselves in a the role of child being offered choice as a balm for all the no's in our daily existence.

    Factions

 In an absolute government there can be no... equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation." --Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, 1810. ME 12:377

"Warring against [the principles] of the people,... there is no length to which [the delusion of the people] may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore, however atrocious which may not be expected." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798. (*) ME 10:56   

Now revisit the idea that our parties never leave power, are backed pretty equally by most major corporate entities, in a nation who's currency is owned/controlled by a what amounts to a private bank.  Our two party system with elections, is seeming to offer less and less of real choice.


As always, make up your own mind
Jack
aka
PansyBard

B Movie Plot? or Hidden History?

          That is Just Ridiculous!

     From nazi's on the moon, zombie nazi's, alien nazi's, one might argue nazi's are more popular now than ever. Who can argue, they do make a bad guy not many would be willing to defend.  In the world of political correctness casting hero's and villains can be a minefield.  Enter the nazi's, a group so heinous, and dripping with the style of threat, and menace, and little to no current public representation.  For most the nazi threat disappeared with the conclusion of WWII, or shortly after, the known truth is much more complicated, and uncomfortable.  One that may not yet have been fully written, let alone fully told.  So what might my personal nazi b movie plot look like?

          Jumping the Shark

     Since I'm going for camp, I figure why hold back, something along the lines of  "Rise of the Alien Nazi's", or "White House Nazi", maybe even "Nazi, Slavers, from Outer Space".  The plethora of conspiracy theories combined with the sad twisted history, are so ripe with possibility.  Why not go for the grand overarching take over the world. It can't be true anyway, right?  Not so fast, some of the most outlandish do have at least partial basis in fact.  While it is true there was a public push, and show trial hanging some high ranking nazi's,  many more nazi's simplely reinvented themselves, with the help of various intelligence agencies.  The US had operation paperclip, operation alsos, and project ticom to grab as many nazi assets as possible. ostensibly to  keep them from the soviets. What of the people that were nazi supporters, or sympathizers that were in the US.  As laid out in much research american supporters of fascism, or Fascism Support Hitler US.  Backed up by a historically forgotten coup attempt, involving names almost everyone would recognize today.  Sprinkle with a dash of Tall White's control America, and we really got a fun story of historical intrigue.

        Tall Tale

     How might a rough outline of this fantastical alternate history farce look?  Well how about we take a look.  Likely we'd flash through some real history leading up to and through the war, slowing briefly to highlight some prominent figures.  Leading to a slow revelation of the alien backing of the nazi's, leading the US not to recruit the nazi's to counter the soviets, but initially to oppose the aliens. Cut to the Byrd mission operation highjump played out as a loss, and agreement to work with the Tall Whites.  This new shadow organization initially made up of portions of the intelligence community, and the military industrial complex, guided by the Tall Whites.  This group has no moral guiding compass easily shown through US foreign assassinations, 1960s era of assassination, or CIA drug involvement.  Of course we have to highlight some of our key players, tying our supposed villains to the cause.  A few well placed dramatically sinister scenes with loads of creative license, linking the Bush family as central players, in not just JFK, but all of the 60's removal of opposition, and various nefarious doings.  Being certain to add in social engineering, hippy movement, and ultimate takeover of media ala operation mockingbird. As if this were not enough, we'd also need to breeze through the economic changes.  So now that America has been taken over by alien nazi's, who is our hero?  Well why not just go all the way with our farce, and make The Bush family also be the hero's, protecting the human race from outright enslavement, or elimination at the hands of the Tall Whites.  Perhaps we make a story where the truth is so bad, that even an ugly lie is preferred.

as ever, make up your own damn mind
Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Flag Yourself for Privacy

     Just wanted to throw out this idea.  There is a list of keywords that flag your communications as needing closer inspection.  Some of these are obvious, and most people would hardly ever use, some are pretty common, and you have likely used them recently, and often.  Here are a couple of places for this list, I'm certain it's only partial as things are added.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/05/26/department-of-homeland-security-forced-to-release-list-of-keywords-used-to-monitor-social-networking-sites/2/

http://realityviews.blogspot.com/2012/05/full-list-of-374-keywords-and-phrases.html

Here is my idea, it's based on the concept of a DDOS attack hackers use to bring down websites.  Instead of people actively staying away from these.  What if as many people as possible used them as often as possible.  Putting em places where they don't even make any sense. Fill posts with them, put them in sig's for forum pages, in headers or footers for e-mail.  Just blast em all over the net on a continuous basis by as many ordinary net denizens as possible.  

If they are watching, give them something to watch.

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

Who Owns your Phone?

         I've posted a few times my thoughts on how silly the notion of privacy is. There are ways to make things hidden, but nothing is private.  In a creation based on fundamental unity what can be private, and just who is there to keep it private from?  How many people actually do anything that anyone else really cares to look at.  Though even as I have little concern for privacy for myself, I do understand others are keenly intent on maintaining at least the illusion of individual security.
         Obviously with the news that the NSA has backdoors into so many devices, this becomes a valid question.  So Just who owns that phone in your pocket?  For me the answer is sadly Motorola, and Verizon. Why do I say that?  Like so many people I got a discount, and got my phone for free by signing a contract with Verizon for service.  So my phone which I pay for is not actually mine till the contract is complete.  If I violate the terms of the contract I can lose service, and suffer fees for early termination which make that unattractive. Now it's an android but does that really matter?  Not really as I am stuck using the provided OS, and a bunch of bloatware that locks up much of my phones resources.  There are even questions about if gaining root access will void my warranty, let alone using custom roms.  I've already lost most end users of these devices, that is biggest problem in taking control of your device.  We don't as a norm understand what we are using.  The idea that your phone should be treated more like your desktop PC is a novel concept for most people.  Honestly that is my point, most of us walk around with a device we don't actually understand, even if we are able to use many features.  They are generally top level functions, with most of the control of the device being transparent to the user, and for most people this is fine.  How many people need to know how the video they just took ends up posted to their favorite site.
         We walk around with a computer in our pocket, or purse or whatever. It has an always on connection, that we will complain about if we lose signal strength. This computer has audio, and video, and most of us have no clue about the device beyond a few apps they use on a regular basis. Then we scream bloody murder when we find out the cloak and dagger world has been using our ignorance against us.  Seriously as a famous genie once said "wake up and smell the humus".  If you are unwilling or unable to control your energies what ever form they might take someone else will control them for you, and usually to their benefit not yours.  This is a truth of the model we have set up, is it the only model we are capable of following? of course not.  We live in a world where we spend more money to be able to "defend our interests" then anything else.  As I've repeatedly said, when you do not own a thing like your phone, or the internet, or the frequency your data travels through the air on, you have no right to privacy.  All you can do is make it tougher for those trying to watch you to do their job.  Learn about encryption, understand how your device works, and if it's actually yours or not.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard