Genetic Throwbacks, Miscreants, Dickweeds, and Freebooters

Draft from 03/11/11...I think maybe I published it, thought better of it, then drafted it back into hiding...


This started out as a Facebook comment on someone's post about this article, and it kinda got away from me.


Note that I didn't, and haven't (yet) read the article. I just went off on my own rant. So I'm not sure if it's even germane.


I don't think this is an issue of extreme-high-net-worth folks "earning" their wealth.


Whether it's the Facebook dickweed, or Bill Gates making software, or Warren Buffet making smart investments and helping other companies grow, or a family in Florida with thousands of acres of orange groves, or a family in New Mexico with several hundred thousand pecan trees, or a single mom benefiting from her family ties back to sugar cane in Louisiana, or a little old couple who made theirs in the grocery store business or another family in the business of selling us all our toilet paper - even if they do stoop so low in their commercials as to using animated bears with dingle-berries to do it. People who make things people want/need to consume, at a fair profit (mind you, not a windfall), I have no problem with.


Where I have a problem is the crooks, charlatans, carpetbaggers and snake-oil salesmen who manipulate the system to their advantage and don’t actually contribute anything with any redeeming social value to the planet. Investment bankers who make millions betting against a stock. Currency traders. The Enron folks. The new energy "traders"/manipulators. The crooked mortgage bankers and securities mofos. The credit default swappers. The payday check cashers and pawn finance world low-lifes. Reverse mortgage opportunists. The obvious Ponzi schemers like Bernie and the others.


But the lowest form of "serpentine-insect-life-lowest-of-the-low-most-worthless-pieces-of-shit-who-I-will-personally-break-their-fucking-pencil-necks-and-twist-their-heads-off-with-my-bare-hands-when-I-encounter-them” life are the pieces of shit who see the taxpayer, and the tax base, and future taxpayers generations into the future, and future tax dollars generations hence, who see all that cash flow (and not even the cash flow - start counting up the debt and interest flow as well) as their personal pile of cash to roll around and get a hard-on in.


Medicare and Medicaid (fraud), Social Security (basically trying to figure out how to siphon it off), the Military-Industrial complex, subsidies like a bad case of dysentery out the wazoo, all the fraud and graft and earmarks and sweetheart deals and special interests (and I could go on and on but I won’t), Americans with their (siphon) hose in the foreign aid pool whether it be the IMF, or USAID, or pallets of cash bricks being flown to our foreign “friends”, no-bid contract awards both at home and abroad. Lobbyists. Crooked politicians (Republicans and Democrats and Tea Baggers alike), public officials and public administrators at all levels. Bad teachers and police officers who don’t want to be there and don’t deserve a job but can’t be fired because they’re “union”. Warmongers. Planet rapists. Ecosystem destroyers. “For Profit” water/aquifer foulers/wasters.


These are the fuckers we need to be seeking out and going after as if they were the worst terrorists/anti-Christs/black holes/dark bits of matter/princes of darkness/profiteers/pirates/freebooters/plunderers/malignant maligners/we need a new word to describe them/ to ever walk the face of the planet for the last 10,000 years.


These are the fuckers we need to go after. With pitchforks and torches and broadaxes and tar and feathers in the streets. Miscreants. Genetic-throwbacks with aberrant genetics who seek to do financial harm to others to line their own pockets with the greenbacks, hard-earned by those others, with healthy genetics and blood, sweat and tears.


I remain convinced that in the old days the tribe would deal with these types with a single swift blow to the base of the skull with a stone club.


I remain convinced.


It’s gonna be a beautiful day out there folks! Enjoy! I know I will. And have a great weekend! Thanks for the opportunity for some vituperation on the subject!

The Internet is Lost :: On SOPA and PIPA

If there ever were a time for us, as citizens of these United States, to engage actively in our own governance, the time is now. Like right now. Before the upcoming Senate vote on PIPA [Protect IP Act] on January 24. That gives us three days to write, or even better, to call our Senators.

The House bill, SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act], has been tabled for now, but is scheduled to rear its ugly head again in February. So it's important to call (or write) your Congressperson too.

If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, here's a good, balanced explanation from Forbes Magazine titled "What Are SOPA and PIPA And Why All the Fuss?"

Wiki also has a good informational page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

In the C|Net article "How SOPA would affect you: FAQ", the author points out that The Honorable Lamar Smith [R], the right-in-my-backyard House Representative for Texas Congressional District 21, and sponsor of the bill, has an interesting slate of major campaign donors.

Quoting the article, "As CNET reported in December, Smith, a self-described former ranch manager whose congressional district encompasses the cropland and grazing land stretching between Austin and San Antonio, Texas, has become Hollywood's favorite Republican. The TV, movie, and music industries are the top donors to his 2012 campaign committee, and he's been feted by music and movie industry lobbyists at dinners and concerts."

As I like to say with regard to pretty much any bill authored by pretty much any Senator or Congressperson, "FOLLOW THE MONEY".

FOLLOW THE MONEY!

CHORUS: FOLLOW THE MONEY!

It is a sad state of the Republic, that it's the special interests (money) driving most of the legislation in both Houses of Congress. It's the interests of the special interests, that our elected representatives are paying attention to, and not the interests of "We The People".

And as I also like to say, "IF YOU'RE NOT ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LIVID (about your perverted/impotent system of governance), YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION".

So the time is now to call or write - to help them start paying attention to we the people, and to help them start paying attention to what is in the best interests of we the people.

Personally, I plan to start dedicating an hour or two a week to communicating with my elected officials - both on the Federal and State levels. They are all now in my contacts in Outlook. We dedicate time to ourselves, our partners/spouses, time to family/friends, time to exercise, time to read/listen to music, time to meditate/go to church/bird watch, time for artistic endeavors like photography or dancing Argentine Tango, time to watch sports or other drivel on the boob tube, time to go hunting, play golf, bowl, macrame'/knit (male emphasis here), play video games, shopping at Cabela's or Home Depot and generally if not specifically time for jacking off and reading on the toilet.

Why not time to actively engage in one's own governance? Dedicated, committed time, especially, ESPECIALLY, in these troubled times.

Dedicated, committed, open/mindful, aware, loving time to read and study and write (or call) about the issues we each hold dear. Too many issues? Pick one.

Sorry to get preachy y'all. I'm not preaching to you, kind reader. I'm preaching to everyone. Pleading with the Universe to get with the program, wake up, and take an interest in this world we've created through our profound apathy and inattention.

So here are the links to make it easy...to find your reps and their contact info...


www.opencongress.org

www.usa.gov


And lastly, here is the seed for the title of this post. It's the scene from the film "Downfall" (excellent film by the way) - the scene where Hitler gets pissed off when his generals are telling him they are being overwhelmed/overrun/losing the war. The scene that has been hackneyed on YouTube with folks dubbing in new subtitles to make their point.

The subtitles on this one are gone in a flash, so it's a challenge to follow everything. Some of it is silly, but most of it (the subtitle text) is profoundly true. Not that the Internet could ever actually be "lost" over PIPA or SOPA, but the Internet as we know it, could be.

Bear with it to the end - 4:00 minutes - that's the best part...

Thanks for reading, and make that commitment to call (or write) your peeps in the next couple of days. I thank you, and the citizens of the world thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.



P.S. Plus I'm really pissed that Congress is spending our precious money and time on an issue that really doesn't need to be addressed. The existing laws are possibly just fine, perhaps with some tweakage. I'll share a reply letter I recieved from my representative, Lloyd Doggett in the comments below, that talks about this. My point is that in these troubled times with very grave issues before us - our Congress deigns to squander precious time on needless bullshit. Especially when they are all clamoring for less regulation and less spending and more job creation. These fuckers need to get with the program. And we the people are the only ones who can help them do that.

And up from the ground come a bubblin' crude...

Oil that is, black gold, Texas Tea.

Lately I've had the occasion to be stuck in a few stock-still traffic jams on The Capital of Texas Highway aka Hwy 360. I've been largely silent about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but it's not that I haven't been thinking about it. On a daily basis. My "Alex is absolutely fucking livid again" tag doesn't even come close to how I feel about this spill, which in its present scope and scale alone, is beyond Biblical proportions. The spill is a symptom of a much larger problem - which I don't have the time or room or energy to go into right now.

So, I'm sitting in these traffic jams thinking about how much oil is spewing from that hole in the flesh of our Mother Earth. Wondering how to quantify it in terms that I (and hopefully others) can get my head around. I came up with trying to figure out how many miles of roadway that crude oil would cover.

Cover in a thin film. Like throw a gallon pail of crude oil on the concrete or asphalt. I'm assuming it would cover about 100 square feet, about a 10 foot by 10 foot area - as if you threw a can of paint out of its can. I realize crude oil is more globby/yucky and wouldn't likely spread like thin paint, but this is simply an order-of-magnitude estimate on my part.

So, I better wrap this up before I lose you. I won't delve too deeply into the math. Simple math really.

First, in this exercise I'm looking at total U.S. "Crude Oil" consumption (not just gasoline) per day :: 19,498,000 barrels per day @ 42 gallons per barrel = 818,916,000 gallons per day.

The Interstate Highway System of these United States of America is 46,876 miles long in total (as of 2006). That's almost twice around the Earth - the circumference of the Earth is plus or minus 24k miles at the equator.

So here it is:

The total U.S. crude oil consumption would cover the entire Intestate Highway System (46,876 miles) with a thin film of crude oil.

Not just once.

But four and a half (4.5) times. Both sides of the highway.

Four and half times. Every day. Three hundred and sixty five days a year.

Year after year.

Estimates put the daily rate of the BP Oil Spill at 30,000 barrels per day.

That amount would cover roughly 314 miles of Interstate Highway every day. That's about a third of the way across Texas on I-10.

And up from the ground come a bubblin' crude.

Deadly serious stuff :: Supreme Court allows unlimited corporate funding in political campaigns

[Foto by AlexTangoFuego]

Keith Olbermann: U.S. government for sale ::With no limits on campaign financing, corporations will take over the government

Here is a New York Times article, also on the subject of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday to allow unlimited corporate funding of political campaigns.

And here is the New York Times editorial about it.

This is deadly serious stuff folks (thanks Alberto, for sharing). If you ever
thought of writing to your representatives in Congress, now is the time to do it. Please also share and email this article to everyone you know. We have to correct this travesty of justice. How do we over-rule the Supreme Court of the United States of America? That is the question before us as citizens now.

My first thought is that our justices have been bought off, and to follow the money will lead us to the culprits. Unbelievable that this is happening in America. Un-*******-believable. Expletive deleted. Sorry, I can't, I won't censor my own brain and its inner workings.

UN...FUCKING...BELIEVABLE.

It's time for pitchforks and torches in the streets, and perhaps some tar and feathers. Oh, I do miss the good 'ol days...

Link to the House of Representatives - name & address search...

Link to the Senate - name & address search...

Another good contacts link at USA.gov...

"True patriots must be willing to defend their country against their government." [Attributed to author Edward Abbey]

The Earth is flat and Argentine Tango evolved...

The Earth is flat, global warming is imaginary, and Argentine Tango evolved in the U.S. in the 1950's as a result of foxtrot, waltz, two-step and 'whatever' dancers who couldn't figure out the steps to these dances and "improvised" Argentine Tango into existence.

The writer claims the origins of Argentine Tango can't be 'proven'. I don't have the expletives in my vocabulary to express myself after reading this.

Gotta go...heading into town to a milonga...

I toldya so...

The $300 billion housing bailout (passed by Congress this past summer) to supposedly help hundreds of thousands (+/-400,000) of homeowners avoid foreclosure has failed miserably.

Only 312 homeowners have filled out the application paperwork.

Of those 312 who applied - guess the number who have been able to forestall foreclosure and stay in their homes - ZERO.

Sad, but true, and I am not surprised in the least. This is our own federal government of the United States of America. It's time we admit that it is fundamentally impossible for them to do anything effectively, efficiently, or that actually results in the desired/planned/needed outcome.

It just ain't gonna happen.

Now here's my question...where's our $300 billion?

Here's the link to the video on NBC.

By the way, $300,000,000,000 divided by 400,000 equals $750,000 per homeowner. Something's wrong with our government's math.

Well you don't say? (in extreme condescending tone)

Headline : "China - Growth may not equal happiness"

And this: "China's middle class vents anger"

Why does the media (and everyone else) always seem surprised with these headlines about shit that I have known in my heart and soul since I was twelve years old?

I'll take it a few steps further - "growth" and "development" and "more/good/better/best" not only don't equal happiness, THEY ARE ACTUALLY BAD for the human condition and humankind, mother nature, and all the cute little plants and animals. This applies all over the world, in every country, for every government, dictatorship and democracy alike, every ideology, everywhere, under all circumstances.

Growth ≠ Happiness

Happiness = Good

Growth + Development = Sprawl = Not Sustainable = Not Good = Bad

I'll put a positive, hopeful spin on it with this caveat - "unchecked, rampant" growth and development. Were we smarter about it, less motivated by greed and more motivated by good as a species, we could have built a sustainable Utopia over the past two hundred years.

We still can.

He stops typing, and mutters under his breath..."I need some tango, quick, someone give me some tango".




[Stay tuned for my next post - "De Luxe :: Luxury, something we deserve or a disease that infects us?"]

$700 billion bailout lacks oversight :: The Livid Level

Read the article here on MSNBC.com.

Does this surprise anyone? I'm not surprised. I have been telling everyone I know that the U.S. Government (and its Department of Special Interests) is stealing the U.S. Taxpayer blind. Robbing from the poor and the middle class and giving to the rich.

Pallets full of $100 million in cash - bricks of $100 bills - are air freighted to EyeRACK (I say Ear-rock...with a slight roll of the "r" - one little tongue thrust into the roof of the mouth - the proper way...), disappears, and no one knows what happened to it. I know what happened to it. It's back in the good 'ol U.S. of A - in the form of big houses, big boats, big vacations. Assholes.

$100 million is piss-ant. A drop in the bucket. Not even a drop. A droplet. $100 million will barely buy you four Gulfstream jets. $100 million will barely buy you ten nice sized houses in Aspen. By "nice sized" I mean at least 6,000 square feet. Red Mountain quality level.

So now we're talking $700 billion. AIG has already asked for another $40 billion and continues to blow OUR money on luxuries and posh-ass amenities at out of town retreats or whatever they are doing under the guise of rebuilding their failed business model. No doubt with the same corporate leadership philosophy and oversight that built the business model that failed. You really think they are doing anything different? These are corporate Republican assholes. Moneygrubbers. They are doing the same old thing, only with our money backing them to do it all over and fail again. Key point here - they are skimming their 'vig' in the process.

Does anyone really believe that our Federal Government (or local, county or state for that matter) can really do ANYFUCKINGTHING right? I'm not just talking about the current DUMBFUCKS of the current administration.

I sorry to burst everyone's bubble here. I'm a big OBAMANOS supporter. BUT DOES ANYONE REALLY BELIEVE THAT ANYTHING WILL TRULY BE DIFFERENT UNDER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION???

The momentum of the (Fed) behemoth is so great, that I don't think anyone can change the way "business as usual" has been going on at the federal level for years and years and years. Not Obama. Not God.

Alex is not pissed anymore. Alex is absolutely fucking livid. Foaming at the mouth type livid. Spitting and choking and sputtering livid - as I sit here calmly at my keyboard at 4am.

If you get 10 or 20 million livid folks - out of work - hungry - their houses and their SUV's and their boats and their jetskis and their RV's and their bigscreen plasma displays repo'd - watching AIG (and other banking executives) using tax dollars to enrich and luxuriate themselves - watching all government employees and Senators and Congresspeople safe and sound in the cocoon of taxpayer funded salaries and benefits - healthcare - retirement - lots of paid vacation days - etc. - watch what happens.

Watch what happens when you get 10 or 20 million people who finally reach the livid level.

Watch what happens.

It's called a revolution.

P.S. This is one of those posts that I usually go back and hide within a few minutes of posting it...although this time, I'm leaving it up.

Okay. There's a little glimmer of hope peeking through my lividity. Call your Senator and Representative today. Call their office directly. Tell them you read about this on MSNBC and you want to know what they are going to do about it. What are they going to do about it today? Right now.

Their numbers are below.

Call.

Now.

No excuses.

Tell them you are disappointed in them. Disappointed in the job they are doing.

Tell them you have faith and hope that they can do a better job.

Tell them that they must do a better job.

Tell them you expect them not only to "do the right thing", but to also "do the thing right".


Congressional Directory

Senate Directory

We're all going to have to get off our collective asses and get involved. Directly involved. Obama can't do it alone. It is time.