Japan ink ?

Perhaps Japan's greatest tourist attractions are the many hot springs, especially open-air baths in the mountains, beautiful countryside, or overlooking the ocean.

Sadly, for many visitors the public baths & hot springs are forbidden. Not because the Japanese officially dislike foreigners, but because hot spring spas, public bathing facilities and even beaches are often off-limits to anyone tattooed.

This means U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy cannot try these delights (with a butterfly tattoo on her right arm). Japan can't use their onsen for international summit meetings, as Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his Haida raven tattoo will be excluded (along with British PM David Cameron's wife Samantha and her dolphin)

Many Olympic sports stars will disappointingly be shut-out from using hot springs if Japan is allowed to host the 2020 Olympics. (Hosting remains in doubt due to public opposition, lax construction, and atomic radiation hazards).

Some say tattoos are criminal symbols, but often criminals have no tattoo, while many non-criminals are inked. More to blame is Japan's forced homogeneity, prohibiting variation. Why else would supposedly populist Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto victimize all tattooed municipal employees? (link) Hashimoto sought to push such people from public sector work - perhaps over a tiny sea turtle. By condemning slight differences, Japanese authorities create both irrational fears and a non-innovative society raised solely to labor and die.

Horray Europe

Europe is supposedly facing a migrant crisis.

But much better this than the Total War brought upon us by belligerent chauvinistic nationalism and the global arms industry.

Since the EU lowered our internal borders, we've saved many millions of hours from national border administrative procedures and associated corruption. We've cut defense spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, while the engines of the USA are still (poorly) propelled by defense expenditures, military employment, etc.

American overseas warfare in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria generated much of this refugee crisis.

Europe has accomplished much, richly deserving the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

Heroic Dissent

Corporate media (& manipulative politicos) trumpet about Dissidents from Russia, the Soviet Union, China, etc. We learn heroism from Solzhenitsyn, while our dissidents (Assange, Manning, Snowden, etc.) are labeled scumbag criminals.

Oligarchs, elites, the 1%, or "nobility" -- deliberately employ media to restrict your vision with donkey blinders.

They demand & require total transparency.
We're kept in darkness or artificial light.

Resist Secrecy Laws.
Or you & your offspring remain farm animals.

Anti-Democratic US Democrats

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is in the news for challenging the Democratic National Committee & DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The DNC has limited & monopolized Presidential candidate contact: any debating elsewhere will be barred from all remaining of the official six debates (the Republicans have 11).

Gabbard argues to bar unsanctioned contact is ludicrous -- we must instead encourage more interaction with and among candidates, more public discussion on key issues, and more accountability. Gabbard was 'disinvited' from attending the 13 October Democratic Presidential Debate in Las Vegas.

This scandal has grown from the debacle of 15 Jan 2008 (link) disinviting candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) from a key Presidential debate (also discussed here - link). That debate eventually featured Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) & Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) -- None of these scumbags complained of antidemocratic manipulation. They jumped through the lovefest hoops, smiled, lied and colluded. Same shit today.

2008 Democracy Censored:  The Ugly Truth

Damn TPP

First corporations drafted the ideas in secret.

Now, bureaucrats have agreed the secret TPP.

Corrupt politicos and corporate media  say it's a done deal.

But in democracies, we have Voice.

Refuse the Trans Pacific Partnership -- You ain't a partner.  Why'd they keep it secret? Cause it butt-fucks everyone but insiders.  Vote against those supporting TPP.

TPP will change labeling requirements. TPP is to infiltrate your home, your body, and your mind with artificial additives and subterfuge, and TPP will shorten your life. TPP self-certification & shortcuts bypass monitoring of predatory corporations. TPP is a trojan horse for mega-corporations.

TPP is anti-democratic, rooted in corruption. TPP dooms your grandchildren to low-wage servitude. TPP will flush your community down the shitter.
 

Government Fuckups

Giving bureaucrats the budget & freedom to compile "Total Information Awareness" is stupid and shortsighted. More scandals, blackmail and corruption are ahead.

They spy around the world, and also on our own communities. Because they can never keep a huge data collection both useful and secure, we are less secure.

The Washington Post published a story highlighting this spying foolishness (29 September, link) full of unattributed comments by U.S. officials, and where "The CIA declined to comment."

>> That menacing article itself has an oddly long address:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-pulled-officers-from-beijing-after-breach-of-federal-personnel-records/2015/09/29/1f78943c-66d1-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html

Today the story was picked up by the BBC (link): data breaches earlier this year in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) put America's spy networks at grave risk.

Details of professional intelligence officers were reportedly not kept with the stolen files of regular government employees. Seems smart, but surrendering the details of normal workers highlights who is abnormal.

Of course, the CIA may not be so dumb - in fact creating jackets with false details for essential undercover staff. To withdraw & sacrifice some personnel builds enemy complacency.

Overall, one thing's clear: the enemy's us.
Bureaucrats & politicos will reliably fuck up.
All of us depending on data are at greater risk from their foolishness.

Racist Rockefeller

Most Americans are racist, brought-up with a peon mentality.

Nobody thinks twice when rich folk of the Rockefeller clan inherit land & wealth from their grandparents or great-grandparents. Nelson & John D. Rockefeller III and many siblings weren't dispossessed for being half Aldrich and only a quarter Rockefeller. All be rich rich!

But when it's an injun, or Aleut, or Hawaiian, we've learned racist blabber of "blood quantum"

Colonist rich man hijacked our thought process.

Smearing our inheritance, Richie gobbles more.
Racist intimidation.

Judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree & it's reckoned stupid lifelong...

Ignorance & envy fuel Tribal genocide -- yes, still today.
You need not open your home to everyone. That's not racism.

Dramatic scripts by outsiders disenfranchise, divide & subjugate.

Tribal families are swindled & deprived of inheritance. 
Colonialism endures by messing with our heads.
Be Proud.