He Jerks Hard for the Phonies

"I work hard!" he told a room of openly uninterested listeners, something he did a lot of the time, especially after he left work at his private firm, his minuscule fiefdom. OK: especially at work, since his employees never listened to what he had to say because they were immune to bullshit. He didn't care. He was better since he made more money than they did, thanks to ripping off all of them through creative accounting and delusions of adequacy, and legally too.

"Goddamned deadbeats--won't work, plenty of jobs out there, I know!!*#^!" As was always the case, nobody acted as though they were listening, and on a conscious level, they weren't. The man kept going on anyway, yammering away while seven people in rags were lined-up outside clutching signs with various inscriptions on them, but all of them essentially said "Will Work for Food" in one way or another. Most of them had been working weeks before, and very hard.

"Spoiling my view!" he muttered. He was only 35, but came off as a moldering 88.

"For the love of God, would you please shut the fuck up, sir, asshole--whateverthefuck your fuckin' name is? Jesus, fucker." asked and projectile-vomited a young lady in black leather, festooned with tattoos and piercings from head-to-toe.

"Why don't you go get a job, like me? I'm even self-employed, eh, top that, you loud-mouthed Goth-cooze!" he growled, drool flowing from both sides of his mouth, a vein throbbing on his forehead, and a visible erection showing through his dockers. Baboons have their own male species.

"I have a job, bitch," she shot back instantly, visibly smacking him in the face with the comment. "But...everyone fuckin' works, you crybaby asshole. What makes you so special, fuckface?" and she sat back down in the booth she was in and turned her back to him disrespectfully. There was a round of applause for a solid three minutes, but a few in the corner slunk out after paying their bill, looking suspiciously ignorant, even furtively so, as they went across the street to do business at the asshole's unimportant fiefdom.

The New Devil's Dictionary: Friend

Friend, n.--A word whose original meaning fell out of use during the late Industrial-technological stage of human civilization while paradoxically growing in use that has made its misuse and misapplication practically universal.

In the second half of the 20th century, human beings decided to dispense with real social-ties and the bonds of friendship and solidarity to replace them with plastic and poorly-constructed consumer artifacts with no real use value to them. Certain scholars say that this development was determinist (inevitable), but nobody knows which came first, consumer goods or the decline in solid social relationships. One thing is certain: people came before them.

Social researchers and anthropologists have yet to explain why human beings would hand over their most cherished and important values and social and familial relationships for toxic garbage, but there you go. The general meaning in post-industrial/post-consumer society has yet to be determined. You're just jealous of our wrecked internal and social landscape.

Postscript on Sarah Palin...

Not only does Palin fakes orgasms, but also that she's part of the same species as the rest of us.

The Rapture sounds better to me now...

Hey, with all the Christian extremists gone, we'd have housing freed-up for the poor, the homeless. Jesus would be proud. Needless-to-say, I'd go grab a stereo system (their music collection would be LEFT BEHIND). Take that Emperor Constantine, and emperor penguins too!

From a recent Yo-Gabba-Gabba! show in Chicago...

The Manchester Guardian: "Sarah Palin's upcoming memoir knocks Dan Brown from top spot"

That's right dearie, everyone cranes their neck at the scene of a car accident, and Palin is a car accident par excellence. Oh yeah: Dan Brown can't write, and Johnny can't read; if you think Freemasonry has any secrets beyond the innate meaning found in eternal symbols, you have a reading comprehension problem too.

It's a fraternal and humanist social organization, get over yourself. Look at the traditional enemies of Freemasonry, and you'll find all the worst groups and people in human history, it's a simple fact. The intolerant hate the Craft. Hitler hated the Craft. Stalin hated the Craft. The Vatican and its office of the Holy Inquisition hated and hate the Craft. Radical Islam hates the Craft. Neo-Nazis and the radical right in-general hate the Craft. The ignorant hate the Craft, meaning Sarah Palin.

Once again: Check comic genius Eric Filipkowski's site, 'cuz he's a rocket man

This guy is a laugh-riot. Ever since I began this site I've had a link up to his, and he's just genuinely funny. Not only are his cultural observations usually spot-on, but his fictional routines are simply hilarious. You won't be disappointed, trust me, he's got the funny gene! (he's on my linkroll to-the-left, hit it!) Fuck you, I wish I was half as funny as you are, Eric! ;0)

A reflection on Jaenelle Antas...

WWW--Surely, a hot body, to be sure, although she could eat a hamburger or a steak more often, she could use a little more weight on her ass and her trunk. I know, I'm picky, I like a woman with a natural figure, call me a Nazi. Still, very hot, very physically attractive, but then--like many women in America--she'd start talking and ruin the mood, the ambiance...OK, the delusion that she and most American women are reasonable. I have to say that while very few American women deny that 6 million Jews were exterminated by the National Socialist state under Hitler, they sure don't give a shit about America's victims and prefer shopping to the exclusion of the sun itself.

That's right, Jaenelle's not the only good-looking fascist out there, and I'm sure that had she not opened her mouth, posted on Stormfront, and gotten a regular schtupping by Der Fueher Irving (maybe even gang-fucked by some Storm Troopers), you wouldn't have noticed her at all, would you? We all stand accused, just some more than others.

Quit fooling yourselves, we're all fucking liars headed over the cliff. We have a chance here to avert it, but would it surprise anyone if we piss it away? When you have a public that thinks their main responsibility is to pull a lever or push a button every 2-to-4 years, it's called mutually assured destruction, not democracy. Citizenship is a lifetime obligation and it's time that we all started accepting this responsibility.

Small wonder then that Jaenelle and her fellow morons think that they have a chance at mainstreaming their pathetic white hate bowel movement that's going nowhere fast, but they really do since they're just a part of the Lollipop Guild. Apathetic or pathetic? It seems to be an admixture of both. If you don't assert yourself and stand up to power and challenge it, you deserve the lousy life you have. Anything less is your own fault. Democracy isn't a microwaveable pizza, but if you approach it the same way it's going to be about as satisfying. Anything worthwhile takes work, real work. No wonder the elites hate us. I would too...


Postscript, 08.29.2009: A piece-of-shit named Chris Downie wrote a worthless comment that I'm never going to post for its inanity. He claims that Jaenelle's "brave" and that I "should provide a counterargument," not that he says to what, but I assume that he's saying it's on me to prove 6 million Jews died under National Socialism. It's on you, and I don't waste my time on idiots, but I felt like beating-up on you tonight since it's entertaining to me to do so to someone so clearly moronic and pathetic, so easily hateable.

Here goes:

Fuck you Chris, you troglodyte motherfucker, you are not a man, even if you were one of the Storm Troopers that gang-fucked Jaenelle and did so for the four years you claim to have known her. You're all dysfunctional, emotionally retarded sociopaths who probably can't get-it-up anyway, and I defy you and your worthless life. You are kitsch-made-flesh, a pathetic anachronism, even more sad than a politician. You are flotsam, puerile shit that was fashioned into a human form that somehow moves, is somehow animate.

Your beloved Adolph Hitler's "thousand year Reich" lasted a mere twelve, which makes you a loser who worships nihilistic losers. If you love Hitler so much, go to Moscow, ask to see his jaw, and tongue it, asshole. My grandfather shot at asswipes like you and came back with trinkets off their stupid dead asses. With luck, you'll die in prison. And that's right asshole, I'm a socialist and an actual man. You're a pathetic child without a fucking clue about anything.

"The Next Great Depression is coming": reflections on a prediction

WWW--Below is a link to a set of observations I wrote nearly three years ago. At the time, I don't think most people really "got" it at all or still do, not that I was the only one predicting an economic crisis, perhaps even a collapse. A groundswell was needed then and is needed today. I believe it's coming, and that Americans never rise to the occasion until their asses are pushed to the wall. So be it...

http://chickasawpicklesmell.blogspot.com/2006/10/next-great-depression.html

Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has another ethics complaint filed against him, this time by Louisiana Democrats

Baton Rouge, Louisiana--And it's about time. It seems that Davey is still unaware of or doesn't care about campaigning laws. In recent months, he attempted to and was allowed to used campaign funds to pay for his legal expenses surrounding the fact that he used the prostitution service of the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka "The DC Madam"), but it helps to have friends in the right places--put their through crony political appointments.

Now, it seems that Davey is going around on the taxpayer's buck (wouldn't you?) campaigning against Democratic U.S. Representative Charlie Melancon throughout Louisiana, very openly uttering the man's name in-the-pejorative. 

That's campaigning.

Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Chris Whittington filed a sworn complaint with the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics Thursday accusing U.S. Sen. David Vitter of using taxpayer-funded town hall meetings to engage in campaign activity.

Whittington’s complaint is based on Vitter’s statements at several taxpayer-funded town hall meetings criticizing U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, a potential re-election opponent. At one town hall meeting, Vitter encouraged the audience to “keep up the pressure on” Melancon.

Vitter has said that Melancon supported the health care revamp legislation proposed by the Obama administration when he actually voted with Vitter against the measure. ("La. Democrats file ethics complaint against Vitter," The Advertiser, 08.21.2009)

This is similar to the rules surrounding "franking." Sorry, you can only lie on the taxpayer's dime when you're in the nation's capital.
 
While they're at it, they might want to drag a dead madam into the picture. It seems that the Senator's counsel threatened Palfrey with legal costs around February 25th, 2008. Three days later, she sent this email to journalist Jason Leopold, cc'd to me and a co-researcher in the defense:

Jason… let’s put it like this, the bastards aren’t going to take me alive. Of course, anytime that you want to do an interview – I will make myself available. However, I doubt that I will be doing any interviews once I am in D.C., for the trial. –Best, Jeane

Did the threats from Vitter's counsel at Wiley, Rein & Fielding finally push Palfrey over the edge and onto a firm course leading to suicide? Don't ask Alex Jones, Geraldo, or even Alex Constantine, you won't get a rational answer anyway--not that that should be any surprise. Yet, it's all about the big, bad "government," that boorish catch-all, when it's really about morons like Vitter abusing their office and the bureaucracy. Like any tool, government is amoral. How it's used or abused is the real issue. Abusing power is what it's all about for morons like Davey.

I'd ask Vitter and his counsel about whether they think they pushed Palfrey too far, but I don't expect an answer that wouldn't insult my intelligence. Life is too short. Never let it be said that David Vitter is unwilling to crush anyone who gets in his way. Lying is fine, obfuscation is fine, and a general tone of ruthlessness runs through his political career as one would expect it to be in American poltics. I'm sure that if the people of Louisiana really knew the man for who he truly is, they'd recoil in terror and chastise themselves for being so delusional as to have ever voted for him. Nah...

Revised 08.23.2009

"La. Democrats file ethics complaint against Vitter," The Advertiser, 08.21.2009: http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090821/NEWS01/90821020

Guns don't kill people, Part I...

Guns don't kill people...

..., Phil Spector kills people.

..., morons who should never own a gun kill people.

...., people who say "Guns don't kill people," kill people.

..., a loaded gun pointed at a person and discharged at them, kills people.

..., an ignorant redneck pointing a gun accidentally kills people.

..., Libertarians who should never own a gun, kill people.

..., a pathological version of penis envy (in men) kills people.

..., gun and ammunition companies that sell guns to fools, kill people.

..., children with their parents' guns, kill people.

..., white supremacists who should never be allowed to own an air rifle, kill people.

..., mentally-ill people with the God-given right to own an assault rifle, kill people.

..., God created people, and therefore, guns, so God kills people and must be evil on weekends.

..., but my .50 belt-fed machine-gun is good for hunting deer.

..., a bad political culture fed by the ignorant coward, kills people.

..., but Ted Nugent kills animals, and thankfully, isn't allowed to kill people.

..., but America is very good at killing people to turn a buck.

..., a projectile going faster than the speed of sound crashing into a human trunk or brain-pan, kills people, usually for no logical reason whatsoever.

Health care: where's my change?

The campaign trail--Where's my single-payer? 70% of the public wants it. After that, it's all confusion, lies, and political theater, there's nothing left to discuss. Enough of the smokescreen. We want single-payer, make it happen.

And to all these morons shouting everyone else down: we're on to you, and shut up and let the rest of us speak our minds. The president's so-called "deal" with the drug companies is a total sham, it will save a mere 2% on drug prices over ten years, something he's not willing to discuss in much detail. That's a honey deal.

Will he really allow the Bush II tax-cuts for the richest expire? As nutty as his decisions have been for the last few months, it wouldn't surprise me, one might be excused for thinking he and Congress were high. They just don't get that the profit-motive is what's destroying everything and that the public could use a break from unremitting social darwinist policies.

Sadly, President Obama is proving himself to be nothing more than another kiss-ass lawyer, for sale to the highest-bidder.

Postscript, 08.16.2009: This weekend, the White House is making their scripted move away from a public health care option. Why? Because they never intended to pass one. But no worries--the economy will just keep crashing, again and again. Then, at least, there won't be money for our bloated military and two illegal wars raging in the Middle East. Obama never intended to pass a public health care option, wake up, and regret you ever voted for him, because I didn't. Being naive isn't exactly being hopeful, is it? But ask any economist worth their salt, and they'll tell you that without any real leadership in reforming the economy, we're just never going to have a recovery. Believe it or not, I can live with that, so long as the rich lose it all too. I'm sure they will.

Arlen Specter's Town Hall and the articulate, gesticulating chick in the blue shirt

Lebanon, Pennsylvania--A very well-spoken woman, I must say. One might be mistaken in thinking that she was the ringleader of all the jackapes yelling at Senator Specter, but certainly not their paymaster.

Here's some problems:

--She went out of her way to state that she was 35 since--let's be honest--most of the morons yelling and violating other people's right to speak (a clear violation of the First Amendment, meaning it's OK to drag them out) are old fools. Not many young people...OK, virtually no young people at all...

--She stated that, "This isn't about TARP [right, why would the right-wing care when the people sending them there benefited from it?]...this isn't a left-right issue...I don't want my country turning into Russia [sure about that one?]," and a bunch of other inane comments about "dismantling our country" that aren't worthy of repeating.

--She and the other jackapes engaging in political theater for the benefit of the health care trusts have no concept of the social contract (look it up), so Arlen Specter, yes, Arlen Specter, had to explain it to them like the overweight schoolchildren that they are.

The main problem was that she was most certainly a handpicked activist/actress put there to appeal to a specific demographic of stupid American woman--reactionary, greedy, narrow-minded ones. You know, Kate Gosselin, that flaming shrew extraordinaire, part of the minority of 30% who don't want socialized medicine, and "you're just jealous." No, I'm not. We're not. Happy? I don't think so, and it's obvious. Her point-of-view is most definitely to the far right of the political spectrum when put up against public opinion, but she shares this with many politicians currently holding office.

How many times does it have to be repeated? A firm, unmovable 70% of the American public strongly desires socialized medicine, like a Medicare program for everyone. You know, that program that dirty hospitals, doctors, and all the rest like ripping-off whenever they can because free enterprise doesn't need to be regulated, and other unicorns and animals that couldn't fit on Noah's Ark.

One old moron in the audience really put it well, though: "I don't think we have bad attitudes, we're just being Americans." Yes, retarded ones, and yes again, this isn't about left or right, it's about what the public really wants, meaning socialized medicine. And this means these people are hardly representative of the public by any stretch of the imagination. But keep yammering, I'd love to see the crappy bill (as opposed to H.R. 676, the real deal) that the Obama administration, Big Pharma, the insurance companies, and the best Congress money can buy, are trying to float through.

Even if they do, it's just going to keep wrecking the economy with the cost.

A bolder contention: the entire thing is a sham, these town hall meetings are nothing but political theater, and there are no real "sides" being represented, certainly not the public one. How could it be with all the shouting? Now you know the whole point of this charade, this Shibboleth. Hey, you could be easily forgiven in thinking Billy Mays was still alive-and-snorting...

Postscript, 08.14.2009: The woman at the Specter town hall was Katy Abram. She was recently taken to task on MSNBC with a little rundown on it here (hit the link below) at Crooks & Liars. (http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/hardball-town-hall-protester-exposed). Of course she's ill-informed. But I'm sure someone put this pushy monkey up to it...

Purple Mays, all in my brain...

WWW--You know, who woulda thunk? Me. Millions who aren't pathetically naive. Billy Mays, a not-a-man who was a carnival barker for fifteen years of his unnatural life, and who hawked a bunch of products I'm not going to mention, was a coke-head. Well, duh.

Far be from me not to speak ill of the dead. This one's worthy of it. And besides: he's dead Jim, he can't feel anything, just like most of corporate America and Wall Street, hence the need for all the coke, hookers, amphetamines, alcohol (sorry, they don't make ludes anymore in America, but that's not good fuel for these folks), and whatever other addictions can fill that gaping-hole in their souls.

When did it all start, and who cares? For over fifteen years, this not-a-man has yelled at me and America, blaring his inanities to sell crap nobody ever wanted or need for rich asshole investors to...get richer. No, I don't think that's a good thing, nope. Again, I'm obviously "just jealous," so please bear with me...

It's doubtful that the autopsy report's going to be impeached--ever--even if someone gets sued or bribed to do it, we now know he had metabolites of cocaine in his system, it's out. Science can be a tad tenacious like that, as seen on TV. Yet, his family and backers are scared shitless about the stiff's image, making statements that contradict--I don't know--a valid autopsy report by the accredited and licensed Hillsborough County medical examiner? You know, a mean guy, so he's probably just doing his job and was just telling us the truth, so money is surely at-stake somewhere in all of this.

"We were totally unaware of any non-prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results," Mays' family said in a statement.

The statement said the family was "extremely disappointed" by the release of the information by the medical examiner's office. The report "contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one's health."...

Longtime friend and colleague AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of the "As Seen on TV" product company Telebrands, said Mays never exhibited any signs of drug use and was always prepared for his many commercial [sic] shoots.

"I'm just shocked," Khubani said. "He was the model of a responsible citizen." ("Autopsy: Cocaine contributed to Billy Mays' death, AP, 08.07.2009)

Mmmm-hm. Life's full of disappointments, or didn't you get the memo? I know I did. Hey, if I was all coked-up, I'd be "prepared"most of the time too, locked-and-loaded, baby. Mr. Khubani: define what a "model" and responsible citizen is for me some time. I'm assuming it means making you rich(er).

No, I would never think that someone yelling at the top of their lungs showing absurd and abnormal degrees of stamina for the majority of his adult life was taking stimulants, no. Considering that the examiner has listed cocaine as a "contributor" (no, not that kind, silly) to his death (make more sense now?), that he did cocaine just a few days before his departure from this dimension, and the fact that his head appeared poised for explosion since the public first heard of him from all that yelling, I'd say he was at least using the drug off-and-on much of his life. You could say he was probably driven to it, but that he was wrong-headed appears pretty obvious to these eyes and ear, and these ears are still ringing.

Whether he abused the drug is another story, but clearly the man had lifestyle problems. Mays' family made a public statement:

We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one's health.

Given the hectic nature and pace of Billy's life, especially during the past 10 months of his exhaustive travel across the country, it was not surprising to hear that hypertension was the cause of his death.

We were totally unaware of any non prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results. As those who were close to Billy knew, he had been in chronic pain for more than two years and was about to have his third hip surgery in 18 months.

His use of prescription pain medication for his hip condition was guided by his physician and was at recommended usage levels. This has been a very difficult period for our family and we appreciate the respect for our privacy that Billy's many clients, fans and members of the media have extended.

We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers for the family and will not have any immediate comment beyond this statement.

If you think that I don't pity Mays and his family or mourn him, you're sadly mistaken, I do. The bastards that made a mountain of money (and concomitantly polluted our minds, bodies, and our world, and still are right now) took this poor little man--this barker--and used him up until there was no more to take. Now he is gone, and the madness continues on, but for how long? Until they've made our world uninhabitable.

So, it's not that I hated Billy Mays the man, it's that I hated the image he had to project out there at-the-behest of a bunch of evil businesspeople and investors. Bearing witness to his death is almost like watching the statues falling in the former Soviet Union: Crash, crash, crash. Watch the Shibboleths fall, one-by-one. Historians say that the late Richard M. Nixon was a barker for the gambling-tents during the Great Depression. Makes sense.

"Autopsy report: Cocaine use contributed to death of Billy Mays," 10 Connects.com, 08.07.2009: http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=111143&provider=top

"Report of Diagnosis and Autopsy on William Darrell Mays, File 09.04082," Hillsborough County, Florida, Medical Examiner Department, conducted 06.29.2009: http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/wtsp/pdfs/2009/mays-autopsy.pdf

"Toxicology Report, Mays, William Darrell ... ," 07.27.2009: http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/wtsp/pdfs/2009/mays-toxicology.pdf

"Manners" and democracy

WWW--Manners are for a police state, not a democracy. But it's good to stay well-manicured, yes. How about growing a pair and finally growing-up?


Postscript, 08.06.2009: "Unity" is for totalitarian societies. Those who yearn for this are of a similar mindset to those people who want to march-in-line. Democracy is contentious and bitter with plenty of flinging-of-bile. There will be no great moment of unity beyond the shared expression that we all want liberty and that we all yearn for freedom. There's your real "unity," but it doesn't mean things are suddenly going to nice and neat. Democracy means getting in their and arguing, disagreeing. If you don't get that, you don't understand democracy and are probably authoritarian-minded, which is un-American.

For the love of God, please bury Michael Jackson and place several concrete slabs above the sarcophagous.

Los Angeles, Cali-forn-ia--As the world rapidly and dramatically moves towards a wide conflagration, ecological catastrophe, and as the global economy starts really looking like a village (and none of this in the same order), we get wall-to-wall coverage of everything "Jacko."

Considering all of the aforementioned, it's not hard to understand why the coverage is everywhere, ubiquitous, and of course, pathetic.

Jacko, Jacko, Jacko, and more Jacko, 24/7 Jacko, until it feels like the 1980s all over again when the first three listens of Thriller were great until that 339th one came along. But fortunately for the young, nobody has to listen to the radio or watch television if they don't want to, the "captive audience" syndrome being a dead letter. There must be a God, after all.

There's a smell in the air, and it's the smell of dumb-laced fear with a twist of formaldehyde-impregnated clothing from China that we're told is "safe for humans," and a dash of dying free market extremism.

That's great, I hope that doesn't work out for you...

It goes without saying, so why not say it again since it's not sinking-in: yes, he was the "king of pop," and yes, he made a lot of moronic and corrupt assholes richer, just as Ronald Reagan did back in the "glory years" of the 1980s. Yet, the 1980s weren't that great, the economy was in the shitter just 26 years ago according to solid economic statistics, the time of "Thriller" when America was in-the-process of sticking its collective head in the sand just as we're attempting to do now.

It won't work, and it didn't for the last 20+ years, but nothing exceeds like failure and Americans think that they can just change the channel and things will go away. When that fails, firearms and widescale hyperbole are necessary.

Michael Jackson's story is America's story, and it's a pathetic one because he never owned or controlled his life. Like the rest of us, others who didn't mean him well and wanted to exploit him did, and that's not the worst of it amazingly enough: there's every reason to think that he was physically, if not sexually, abused by his ostensible "father," Joe Jackson (not the British pop singer). Call it the vagaries of poverty, but there was no excuse for it.

Jackson detailed Joe's emotional abuse in a few interviews over the years, as did some of his siblings and other witnesses to their lives. Joe Jackson was hardly the first or the last person to maim Jackson's life. Racism coupled with greed destroyed the pop icon, disfiguring his face and his mind.

If Michael Jackson's life embodies anything at all, it's that the American Dream has been a lie, a nightmare, and something that we're all waking-up from after sixty years. The music and entertainment industries exploited him (and still are), pushed him, used-him-up, and threw him away, just as businesses are throwing-away millions of American workers right now in their feeble and dying game of dazzling profits at everyone else's expense.

Did they ever care about Jackson's well being beyond how much money it might generate for them? Of course not, and they still don't. And yet, nobody is likely to ever hold them accountable, which is more than a little sad...and pathetic.

2012, redacted

I finally understand the connection between 2012, the war in Iraq, and Aztec religion:
the world will be plunged into eternal darkness if Quetzalcoatl isn't fed warrior-victims.
It all makes sense now.
Gee.

W-W-II, a satire of the American mind

T'was back in W-W-II, when Columbus crossed the ocean blue.
"Seriously, who wants to go hunt for bigfoot with us in the Sierra Ancha Mts.? " said
the social networking status update.

Wouldn't you? If it was true.

For years and years nobody thought the Japanese and Germans were funny--
were I kidding--but it's true.
But read haikus,
you'll get the news.

I decided to write a murder ballad about bigfoot in the shower,
a daunting task sure to bring derision.
But that was my right,
my decision.

"That was nobody but some Mexicans," said the Colorado naturalist,
but no one would listen.
We murdered the neanderthals,
and they haunt us with precision.

Wouldn't you? You know it's true. It wouldn't do.
Someone might sue, but I paid my dues.
Because back in W-W-II,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

I believe it because I want to.

More cries of "coup," this time regarding AIG from Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone Magazine--I haven't read a copy of RS since 1992, so you probably know from this fact that they don't elicit much respect or admiration from me.

At best, the publication has been patently mainstream from its inception, a cheerleader of the consumer model, and a part of what's gotten us into the economic crisis we're now inhabiting.

Occasionally, the dinosaur ownership realizes at RS how inane and unimportant that they've become (once, the criticisms came from old school RS writers like the late Hunter S. Thompson) and pays someone to write something substantial about where things are at.

Their political articles are often belated pieces that would have had a better impact had someone commissioned them when the corruption and crimes were everywhere--occurring literally out in the open, down the street from RS's NYC offices--but advertisers don't like political coverage, especially when they're involved in the mess, and that would mean spending the money on a full time investigative team.

This doesn't fit into all the wonderful business models of recent times, so they don't have one, because since the introduction of CBS's "60 Minutes," the news is supposed to be profitable and entertaining.

Somehow, in this peculiarly adamant pro-business environment, we're being entreated to ditties from the Fourth Estate itself that "democracy will be inhibited without newspapers," yet when we had all of them they did little to protect it, making for a zero-sum loss in the age of the Internet. Yes, coverage will definitely become deeply "impaired" for a time, and there will likely be further consolidations of media, but what future will the survivors have in a generally wrecked economy? Being king is fine, but king of the garbage dump doesn't sound very grand to these ears.

One might also factor-in how hard it is to do business during widespread strikes and insurrection, but that's what defense contractors are for.

Into this bloody fray comes a Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi on AIG and--please bear with me--the notion that the Wall Street bailouts have been a "coup."I don't believe that it's that simple, that many of these critics have been dangerously naive about our system and its promises because of their own "successes" ("You're just jealous."), and that they're finally discovering how America really works. You know: the American people are usually the last to know, because there are "unknown knowns," in the thankfully inimitable words of Donald Rumsfeld.

...["]When one considers the comparatively extensive system of congressional checks and balances that goes into the spending of every dollar in the budget via the normal appropriations process, what's happening in the Fed amounts to something truly revolutionary,” a kind of shadow government with a budget many times the size of the normal federal outlay, administered dictatorially by one man, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. "We spend hours and hours and hours arguing over $10 million amendments on the floor of the Senate, but there has been no discussion about who has been receiving this $3 trillion," says Sen. Bernie Sanders. "It is beyond comprehension." ... ("Back to the Big Takeover," Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, April 2, 2009 issue)

If it's a "shadow government," it's only because Congress delegated those powers to the executive branch and consciously did so over a period of decades. The article at least makes this point clearly enough. It should be added that Sec. of Treasury Bernanke has to answer to the President of the United States, ultimately, since he might have problems with how the money gets spent...or not. Taibbi is wrong--it really is all about money, the only thing Americans can be roused to action by. In other words, the Treasury Department isn't a separate branch of government, although Taibbi and others seem to be suggesting that it is. Were it that simple.

But this has been a real point-of-contention with me, since a "coup" means a real world transfer of power, generally to people who weren't originally "in-charge," with at least some essence of "finality" to it, however fleeting. Paradoxical--yes--and welcome to the world of power politics where language and logic break down above the atomic level. Sure, the Treasury Department and the Fed have significantly more power at the moment, that's true, and that's really an expansion of the power of the executive branch in the end. Former Vice President Cheney must be proud of his contribution to all of this.

Not since Hitler has so much confusion been sown in the halls of a modern government. It helped to have enablers and other fellow travelers along the way. So, these calls of a "coup" are more than a little belated--they actually sound weird coming at this moment. Habeas corpus has been nominally restored through the courts, but significant breaches in our Constitution are still there. There were many voices on the left who warned about the economic crisis and the war on terror's rollback of our rights from the start, and a few on the right, and so on.

But they weren't especially passionate voices, and they were ignored as they usually are.

Where were all these cries from the right and the mainstream media during the passage of the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act? Off making money at the time, they couldn't be bothered to care at the time. When I question some of the "coup counters," they tend to settle on the term "paper coup," and neglect to go into any further details. A real world analog would help, like Yeltsin's creation of the Oligarchs through the Russian State granting them mineral rights, or similar moves in South America during the last sixty years. That would have been a business luncheon for the Bush II administration.

Perhaps it just sounds good to the ears, that "c-word." It gives one the appearance of being prescient, prophetic, like Ronald Reagan (in appearance only). Granted, the term "coup" is taking over (pun intended) throughout the political spectrum.

Taibbi continues:

...The state is now being asked not just to call off its regulators or give tax breaks or funnel a few contracts to connected companies; it is intervening directly in the economy, for the sole purpose of preserving the influence of the megafirms. In essence, Paulson used the bailout to transform the government into a giant bureaucracy of entitled assholedom, one that would socialize "toxic" risks but keep both the profits and the management of the bailed-out firms in private hands. Moreover, this whole process would be done in secret, away from the prying eyes of NASCAR dads, broke-ass liberals who read translations of French novels, subprime mortgage holders and other such financial losers. ... (Ibid)

And this is new in American history, because...? Frankly, I don't get it--these are the very same people in control of the system in the end (the original ones, the ones whose names are being withheld on TARP payout papers), the same super rich "investors" and business bureaucrats inside and outside of our government who played, and lost. Welcome to the inherent ( il)logic of our economy, you missed the memo. Was there some arch-conspiracy, or some kind of a plan to this? Were you paying attention?

This makes a grand leap of logic that these people on Wall Street were and are competent.

Are you kidding? Does it really look like they're good at anything done above board, legally? They aren't good at business, they cannot rule or govern effectively or sustainably, and it will all crash no matter how much they attempt to leave the rest of us with the bill. Their time is up, it's a given, even with these machinations that induce the apathetic, cynical, and gullible, to ascribe godlike powers to a bunch of Wall Street (and truth be know, Main Street) clowns.

That they're not good at business is a given, but that most of them are criminals has yet to be proven, but will be. They're going to keep playing the same games because it's all they know, and when the rules don't favor them they change the rules. Does that sound sustainable? Let them have their fun, playing with their Monopoly money, but if they get their way, any recovery is going to be short-lived in a system whose time came at least a generation ago, the rest being mythology.

Americans have often wrongly measured their freedoms and liberties through economic indicators and their ability to purchase while neglecting the very existence of a quality of life and the social contract. There will be plenty of time to reflect on that now.

"Back to the Big Takeover," Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, April 2, 2009 issue: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

Marcus Schrenker, evil genius

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"--W.B. Yeats, "The Second Coming (Slouching towards Bethlehem)."

Indiana--We've topped the 1920s in every respect. Once, dumb formerly-rich people used to jump out of windows, off of ledges, or off of bridges. This was fine, and it had the dignified sense of not leaving such a mess. Schrenker wasn't from aristocratic-stock--he couldn't be, he's leaving too much of a mess.

Things are more complicated these days: Now, crooked and unlucky businessmen get into a plane, radio in a false distress signal, bail-out (pun intended), hit the chute, then somehow head North 225 miles to a pre-picked location in Alabama...to a waiting, rented motorcycle at a rental storage shed, and they disappear. See simple jumping-off a ledge is? They were smarter in "good-old-days." This guy wanted to be Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, to be able to enjoy the fruits of being dead without all the hassle. Who can blame him when it's "fight or flight"?

Having lost a Federal District case against one of his wealth management firms in Maryland, and knowing his assets were going to be frozen after December 31st, the time had come to face the music. Maybe read Twain in High School, but I'd imagine the lessons were lost on him. Anyway, his wife wisely left the schmuck before the events that began on Sunday...

This guy reminds me of all the morons I had to endure in college, and not people that I knew directly back then, but the business majors and that curious species known as the free market advocate, the Young Republican, the Chamber of Commerce cardholder, but really, the eventual businessman. Schrenker was this last sort of individual, a real card, no doubt, and he never really became a "real"one. Being stupid hurts, and Schrenker appears to have been "the stupidest guy in the room."

At 38, Marcus Schrenker is a creature I've met and know all too well. If you've ever had the misfortune of working for someone like him or entrusted your investments with his used car salesman (future politicians) ilk, you have my sincere sympathy and condolences. I'm sure you want that part of your life back too. Schrenker is that special kind of Midwestern jackass--the boss and petit bourgeois personality who thinks that they're a god after they've made their first $1,000,000 (after taxes). Frequently, they start out in fast food, but that's a story for another time.

Yes, yes, I'm "just jealous"--it's true--but these folks know everything. Just ask them, but it's going to take a time machine to do it now, the hang-dogs. That's just how the market crashes, that'll learn ya'.

Time machine? No problem. The Republican Party has violated most human laws, so why not the laws of physics? They appear willing and able. Yes, some people have a "funny" way of not thinking, and it's not just me. But hey, Schrenker (say it fast, win a prize!) could fly an airplane, he just couldn't run a sustainable business, that's all, no big deal. Perhaps he might have focused on his flying-abilities as a career--just a thought--but the former-business aspirant is at least getting more air and sunlight and experiencing some self-actualization.

Funnier still, I'm familiar with the city he took-off from--blessed Anderson, Indiana--which is not exactly the kind of town fit for human life (nearby Muncie isn't either), but a great place to build a Church (CHOGS occupy the town), discriminate against a Black person on the way home from work, or burn a cross on those hot weekends when the nits are biting. That the people there have almost no real culture, personality, taste, or intelligence, is a given, but not atypical of Indiana. Hey, at least it's a place where one has plenty of time to contemplate. But Anderson is a squalid town in a squalid part of the Hoosier state. Expect it to die almost entirely with the American auto industry along with a whole string of similarly stagnant Midwestern towns.

As is well known by now, Marcus Schrenker's Icon Group ( along with his other "wealth" mismanagement "firms") was under an Indiana Securities Fraud investigation, partly because the fun is over with George W. Bush and most of the GOP leaving office, the other part because what goes up, must come down when you're selling lies and air. He chartered an airplane and flew it out of Anderson on Sunday, January 11th, ostensibly to fly down to Destin, Florida. Schrenker radioed a distress signal over Birmingham, Alabama. Unsurprisingly, he'd already rented a storage shed in Harpersville on that Saturday and placed a Yamaha motorcycle with loaded saddlebags. Maybe he's in Mexico by now.

Unlike during 9/11, military interceptors had actually been sent up promptly to--uh--intercept his plane; they got close to the aircraft before its crash, noting that a side-panel door was open and that nobody was inside, fancy that. FAA authorities authorized that the plane be safely put onto autopilot so that it could crash in an unpopulated area, God bless them. It was just one more mess left by the business community that law enforcement authorities are going to have to clean-up, an era of the lie. Lies are what this story is all about.

Like most of his life--and the lives and values of the average Indiana businessman--it was all a sad lie. He probably lied about the orgasms too. Schrenker wrote his neighbor Tom Britt: "I embarrassed my family for the last time. By the time you read this I'll be gone. ..."Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out. [I] just made a 2 million dollar mistake...I did not tell them [the Alabama Police] about what happened as I was embarrassed and scared." You could take the email at face value, and his comments to Britt are still going to be ridden with half-truths and outright lies. Of course he'll embarrass his family again. No, this not is amazing, and the full original must read like a Burroughs-Gysin cut-up thanks to its twisted logic.

What's not amazing is that Schrenker is clearly a pathological liar who cannot stop lying whether it benefits him or not, even in an ostensible "suicide note." He premeditatively bought the rental shed, put an also rented motorcycle in it, and is presumably riding it right now after his escape from the very stupid Alabama Police whom he earlier lied to, telling them he'd been in a canoe accident. Exactly how do you get into a canoe accident and only end-up wet up to your knees? I would have noticed this, but I'm just being observant here. Unfair, I know. At that previous moment in Childersberg, he was 225 miles from the scene of the plane wreck in Florida.

Schrenker bailed-out (pun intended) of his plane D.B. Cooper-style (Cooper was smarter) and probably landed in a Florida swamp thanks to a trusty parachute he'd packed. There's every reason to believe he had some kind of vehicle waiting down there as he did in Alabama. The problem is, he didn't figure-in the fact that the FAA would take it all very seriously, or the fact that those investigating him were going put the word out there on him, that he was fleeing. Now, Federal Marshals are looking for him and he's left a very good trail for them to follow.

Now, in this, the final week of the Bush II administration, the SEC and numerous other state, municipal, and federal law enforcement investigators can untie their hands for the first time in eight years and actually start shooting all the ducks in the mostly GOP-constructed barrel.

Schrenker is just a footnote, but his behavior has made him a noteworthy coda to an era of unparalleled business corruption under the Republican Party's stewardship. He is a clown, but he's not the only one wearing a suit-and-tie and doing the ordering. Marcus Schrenker isn't likely to kill himself, he's too much of an egomaniac, he loves his ass too much.

Postscript, 01.14.2008: Told you so. He couldn't carry it out properly, and he embarrassed himself and his family again. Yes, he tried to kill himself by cutting his wrist, but you cannot be half-pregnant, he failed again. "dual personality" my ass, he was liar who led a double life, end of story. Good riddance to Reaganism, it's over folks, praise God.

$$$ In hoc signo vinces. $$$...

"Schrenker's wife issues statement," WTHR (NBC), Indianapolis, 01.14.2008:

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=9672899&nav=menu188_2_8

"Delta filings unveiled adviser's shaky record," AP, 01.14.2008: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/01/14/planeside.html

"Wanted pilot's life had been falling apart," AP, 01.14.2008: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/01/14/planecrash.html


The statement from Michelle Schrenker's counsel:

"Michelle first contacted me this past summer to discuss a divorce from her husband because he was having an affair. At the time, she wanted to work on reconciling with her husband. However, he continued his affair and, as a result, on December 30, 2008, she filed a petition for dissolution of her marriage to Marcus Schrenker. Her decision to file for divorce was based on her husband's infidelity and in no way was based on the investment fraud of which he is accused. In fact, Michelle first learned of the allegations against him when, on December 31, 2008, the police and investigators came to her door to search her home. To Michelle's dismay, at the time her home was being searched, Marcus was in Florida with his girlfriend.

Clearly, Michelle and her three young children are victims of this man's deceitfulness as well. She is not guilty of anything other than trusting her husband of 13 years. Everyone should remember that Michelle and her children are suffering through a terrible time right now. Through no fault of their own, they are having to deal with the repercussions of this man's behavior and will be doing so for a long time to come."