Vote for the Pimp?

There's reportedly an upswell in Egypt against US/UK-trained  military strongman Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Surely the violence el-Sisi unleashed at Rabaa (14 Aug 2013) was terrible, butchering thousands. CC also demanded the heavy-handed mass death sentences imposed on his many enemies.

Who's pulling el-Sisi's strings? Those powers behind him don't care for Egypt. Surely these harsh cycles of violence and polarization have deeply wounded Egypt with scars to last for decades. The tourist industry is in shambles. The upcoming "election" is a stage-managed joke. Soldier/murderers roam the streets & seek to control all public interaction. Journalists are "detained" for months without bail. The world seems to have abandoned Egyptians to their captors, though there's some hope (link) the continuing repression might be investigated by the International Criminal Court. Common citizens of Egypt try to survive this newly-imported brutality & fear.

Film clips (here) allow a taste of official savagery. Terrible!

A wonderful culture and caring people reduced to tearing at itself...

انتخبوا العرص

Democracy?

Like a dumb kid prodding at his or her injury, I look again at the U.S. Government.

Certainly there are hundreds of thousands of government employees (including military and intel people and secret police) who faithfully do their jobs. Each is a career worker who cares.

But there are also elected officials who control the lot. Even when not fairly elected, each is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution and serve the nation's people.

How could a shithole like George W. Bush get elected? He'd not have finished high school if not for family leverage.

Maybe he didn't get elected. Someone 'cooked the books' and Bush was appointed. Twice.

Then it was so clear nobody was voting Republican, so Obama was appointed.

The only way 'our democracy' could support the huge fascist apparatus of secret police and torture camps and worldwide militarism is when it ain't democracy at all. Does secretive US spy pharaoh James Clapper support democracy?  It's his enemy !

The Comfort of Loss

A beautiful Spring day - birds chirping, smells of grass & flowers on a soft breeze.

Who wants to think about politics? So dirty, increasingly obscene. Big government crushing people in favor of a small elite. Shameless deception driving nations to senseless wars. Receiving a flag for your fallen family member, or a $211 payoff for loss of a limb, and belatedly understanding it's all a scam.

Economics is no better. Work hard, pay your bills, steadily get ahead? But a speculative bubble suddenly engulfs your home equity. You lose everything, yet you watch big government bailout wealthy bankers and industrialists. Or perhaps your retirement fund depreciated due to 'bad investments' that favored insiders, or maybe corporate reorganization allowed new (lower) pension calculations?

The bottom line? You're fucked. To ask an elected representative for help is an option. But it's as likely to flag your file as a troublemaker as to generate justice. Eat grief - and more misery is coming.

Recognize now - the domestic war already began; your side lost. Reason, justice, fairness, are words our masters use to wipe their butts. Your best option is organizing strategic retreat.

The USA created a chain of torture sites, illegal concentration camps, around the world. The USA is shamelessly killing its opponents & also its own citizens extra-judicially with drone weapons. Spending on military, on police, and on prisons is unlimited. Big industry says the nuclear waste dump built beachside is perfectly safe. They lie. There is no oversight - the torturers & murderers & profiteers answer to no one.

Find a bit of peace if you can. Retreat to the hills. Don't worry anymore about rising Fascism - it's already at the helm.

War & Weapons Winners

Yesterday Japan began construction of a new military base some 6o miles from Taiwan on Yonaguni Island (link), roughly 400 miles southwest of the Japanese mainland. Forward deployment of troops, weaponry and intelligence gathering functions are planned for Yonaguni base, which is also about 6o miles from the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands.

Munitions makers and arms dealers are surely cheered by the news. As tensions cooled around the European Union, many large markets for weapons systems dried up. But Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea can raise huge amounts of money for "security" expenses. Taxpayers in those nations have no leverage to resist -- it's all patriotic and grand.

Japan is Bad

This is a follow-up to my earlier post, Japan is Good (link)

After two weeks in Japan, here are some negative findings:

-- Most bus stops in Tokyo are without roof cover or benches.

-- Such extensive plastic packaging! Wasteful layer on layer...

-- Rather scuzzy apartment buildings take ultra-grand names:
    zzzz "Royal Heights" or "Palace" or "Grand Villa" ...

-- Use of gauze face masks by public workers has increased.
    Perhaps 50% of such people are masked.
    It's difficult to hear a voice through a mask.

-- Noise pollution. Too many announcements continuing too long.

-- Employers require a standard health check - 健康診断.
    I had to push hard at the clinic to get a copy of my own data.
    It's as if the population are lab rats. We are not 「 マルタ 」 !

-- (Positively, there is great care in food presentation, but : )
    Negatively, behind the form, can be horrible fabrication.
    I've received thin tiny slices of processed frankenfoods.
    Pleasing to the eye, but poor taste & maybe even dangerous...
    Some food & drink coloring agents are unnaturally garish.
 
-- Fabrication is too often of poor substance. Surface finishing of
    buildings and public works is good, but substandard materials 
    soon deteriorate. Instead of wood & brick, it's fancy plywood
    and artificially concocted thin veneers that flake away to soon
    expose rust & cheap filler products. Surface beauty, with
    doubt inside.

-- Japan remains a monoculture in a multi-ethnic world.
    It's still very tribal here, perhaps racist. Imperial Japan
    promoted itself in the late 1930s as putting "all corners of
    the world under one roof" and for Co-Prosperity, but the
    reality then & now puts non-Japanese Asians as inferior
    (other peoples & races are valued as zoo critters).
    Not everyone feels or acts negatively if a non-Japanese
    human is near, but it's tough to swim against the tide...

Japan is Good

After two weeks in Japan, here are a few positive impressions:

-- So many flowering trees! In the parks, in people's gardens, along many rivers & streams. Great!

-- Food preparation care is typically high-quality. Attention to detail is really nice.

-- I had my first real smell of Spring the other day. Wow!

-- Tiny kids are commuting by themselves. It's weird but reassuring seeing such minis out & about.

-- There's much kindness here in the midst of crush & hurry.

I'm sure to remember more & add them later.
Japan's bad points will go in another post (link)...

Left Wing Snot

Reading masses of arguments & 'reports' by left-wing journalists & candy-ass lefty bloggers,  99% boils down to being clueless.

It's a jungle out there. Can lefty wake up in time?

America is beautiful, but we're deadly. We kill & torture. We pry, we spy & we lie. Deal with it. 

Lab rats live brief lives. We kill chickens & pigs & lots of cute critters - good eating. One day you folks could become the next meal option. Supersize it all.

Our rich folk own the rest of us. You'd better kiss ass to get along. 
Even the more well-off had best know their place.

In God's eyes, most of us are semi-precious...

Work hard & dream! But we're in a race for survival. Imagine the 100m where the favored start 90m ahead; they win, take the prizes, and also make the rules & laws.

Enjoy the natural world. B'fore Mr. Richy rapes it dead.

Japon toujours

La brièveté et ...
Une belle histoire collective
Maintenant, sakura !
 

Question of Need

We "must do this" and "need do" that
say the lying sacks of shit

Hired lips in Washington

Bernie Madoff billions

Whoever can you trust
It sure ain't them.

Spend our money
That's the least of it

Take your life
Enslave your kids
To militarize the world

Each suffering elder
Learns indignities
Before an early death

Lonely
Unavengable

The Master Race
is unconcerned

Erosion of the beach
A point of interest
Njoy while you can

The Greatest Target

Muhammad Ali.  Cassius Clay.  He surely riled The Man.

Listen (*) to his political speeches & banter.

Then, Ali was struck-down. 
Unnaturally convenient...

Where might someone leak a truly dark story?

Suffocation Torture

It's terrible the USA admittedly tortures people.

It's illegal to torture convicts. It's worse torturing people not yet charged or convicted, using torture to punish and intimidate. Torture is always illegal.

The 'waterboarding' euphemism is a deliberate fun park phrase. Let's be clear - suffocation is horrible, forcibly restrained, fighting for air, suffering pounding heart & quaking panic, knowing death by suffocating murder is within seconds.  Torture.

The torturers and those who protect them are criminal.

Swedish people believe our government should follow international law & condemn crime. We expect bold complaints, as we see ourselves as law-abiding & neutral. Sadly, our present Government of Sweden is corrupted by empty dreams of power - Swedish leaders say little and do nothing about continuing torture programs by the USA.

Moderate Swedish Tiger

Color my World

BBC editors map the Crimea (link) and color-out Russia, which is also clipped-away as peripheral. The map looks different if simply changing the color layout -- especially when the Crimea nears the color of Russia...

Here's the BBC map, and a recolor (without needed recropping):

(With poor understanding of events in the Crimea, Ukraine and Russia, I'll sadly know less if looking to US media or the BBC for perspective).

Formerly the BBC tried, somewhat reliably, to maintain a level of neutrality with their reporting. But since the deceitful reign of Tony Blair, the editorial slant has swung decidedly to the right -- in support of an (imagined) resurgent British Empire, "justified" militarism, and comprehensive corporate power, while no longer providing counterviews.

Right-Wing Hungers

Right-wing thugs in the Crimea push the rest of the people towards Russia - which is actively intervening.

Similarly, right-wing thugs seek to ignite national change in Venezuela. Global oil and the USA happily feed the fires of treason & insurrection.

The Russian gambit combines boots on the ground with democratic choice. Yankee South America continues the Dulles-Kissinger tradition and favors espionage & death squads.

Common folk hunting for food get caught underfoot as fierce hungry brutes maraud for enhanced resources, blood & power.

Camera Cap ?

Haiku by Genki :

Welcome to breakfast !
Webcam without lens cover
Window to the Soul...

Cubicle farm spy
Master of the Universe?
Snowy spilled the beans

Target Sweden?

The U.S. National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee was meeting at the White House with Vice President Cheney on 19 June 2002 with Cheney describing US cybersecurity partnerships (IEEE Spectrum, Dec. 2013, p27). The "Five Eyes" of the USA, UK, Canada, NZ,  & Australia were reported obvious partners, but as Dick Cheney began to describe a further partner that would "really surprise you" -- a security alert suddenly evacuated the room as an unidentified plane broached government-restricted airspace. The alert passed, but the conversation never continued. In "Writing the Rules of Cyberwar" author Kark Rauscher claims to have built his life's work around discovering Cheney's further suggestion. Is the cyberwar ally an Asian power? or Israel? ... or perhaps Sweden? ...

Sweden's leaders are very chummy with America, while posturing as neutral. Eager politicians in Stockholm want to be global players, and they trade Sweden's services for a few crumbs from Yankee's table. Can a mere nine-million Swedes truly secure a place at the global main table? Are Sweden's politicians naively trading national security for personal aggrandizement? Sweden gained leverage from neutrality in past world wars, and from being a (continuing) key member of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission monitoring the Korean truce. Sweden was a leading Cold War critic of US intervention in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, but also negotiated secret US military security guarantees against Soviet aggression. The strident anti-imperialism of Olof Palme brought Sweden much attention, but those years ended abruptly. The Cold War melted to a new mercantilism, and Sweden is open to trade. Can we, should we, play & fight with the big boys?

Sweden's Prime Minister & Foreign Minister -- Great Success ?!

On Sweden's end the butt-licking has continued from Social-Democrat to Moderate, from US Republican to Democrat. Försvarets radioanstalt, Sweden's National Defence Radio Establishment or FRA, has been subsequently widely reported an eager tool of US signal intelligence operations (see this link or a Pirate Party critique here). Of course, this brings Swedes into the cross-hairs and adds danger ...

Exciting?  Swedish foreign correspondent Nils Horner's murder this week in central Kabul cast a chill over many in Stockholm, who believe (believed) Swedish people were above the fray. This sudden tragedy shows a danger to becoming involved in big geopolitical games.

Can the USA protect us always?

Nuclear Waste Depository

Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station and Nuclear Waste Storage Facility are too similar to Fukushima.

It's a recipe for disaster.

People are foolishly unaware of the problem.

D I S A S T E R  !

Could it be more clear?

We can at least demand truth in labeling: 
 - nuclear generators &
- nuclear waste depositories
should be properly indicated.

Local people are misled by the hidden & mislabeled Nuclear Waste Depository.

Demand appropriate & separate labeling.

No euphemisms, no disguise.

Nuclear waste bottles-up the gateway to Cape Cod.

Vacation at your peril. Accident means NO ESCAPE

Feast of the Jackals

We hear of trouble only

     when they feed on each other ...

Senate investigates CIA "intimidation of investigators"  (link)

Feinstein accuses ... CIA torture  (link)

Costly SPI

SPI, Secret Police Investigations, have infiltrated almost every computer. The shadowy American secret police can reportedly monitor most of our conversations.

Aside from the disagreeable image of Barack Obama, General Alexander, Admiral Rogers, General Clapper, General Petraeus & CIA Chief Brennan worming & sneaking like furtive rats into my bed & my crapper (along with ghostly buddy Reichsführer-SS Himmler) -- it's a highly costly effort.

They tell us these secret police investigations are necessary, and don't hurt at all. 

But the programs take funds from school lunch budgets, highway safety and public health. Spying cultivates a fundamental distrust. Lesser class people recognize powerlessness. We have allowed the bosses to construct an intrusive government, without sufficient protections against brutality, error and corruption.

Hårvård ? Harvard? Harvard®

Hårvård  Harvard  Harvard®  rah rah rah

Hårvård is Swedish for "hair care" -- with nearly a million (link) web mentions. But Swedes commonly drop their Swedish characters when using internet, substituting the Latin alphabet's "a" or "o" for Swedish letters å and ä or ö.

Swedes may laugh if visualizing a hair care university, but there's no true confusion with the great US institution of higher education. Trademark lawyers might salivate if imagining their billing for reconciling "easily confused" terminology. But it's the merchants, lawyers & private interests who deliberately infringe on our common heritage by re-purposing keywords and trading on generic goodwill.

It's a topic to lampoon, but language becomes tricky when generic words clash with multi-billion dollar trade names. Apple® Inc. uses the imagery of an apple - a conscious choice. Maybe the industry wonks now feel the humble fruit infringes on their business? An apple for the teacher has become more expensive.

A Picture of Pehr Kalm

I've enjoyed reading Travels in North America, an English translation of Pehr Kalm's En Resa til Norra America.

Also known as Peter Kalm or Pietari Kalm, he wrote of his research & travel along North America's east coast from 1748-1751. A protégé of Carl Linnaeus, and in the close scientific lineage of Johannes Palmberg, Kalm was commissioned in 1747 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to explore and report about the natural sciences in the New World, with a special eye for agriculture that might prove promising for Sweden - notably, mulberry for the silk industry. He was then a 31-year old professor, both highly skilled & energetic enough to succeed on a multi-year voyage. He subsequently returned to Sweden and served as professor and three-time rector of Turun Akatemiaan (Royal Academy of Turku; Kungliga Akademien i Åbo), until his death age 63 in 1779.

Kalm met & worked alongside many key scientists of the day, including Benjamin Franklin.

I'd like to find pictures or drawings of Pehr Kalm - the image in his Wikipedia entry is reportedly disputed. Surely such an influential person would have drawn attention...

 

Figure skating fiasco?

The Sochi Olympic Women's Figure Skating finished yesterday, with Adelina Sotnikova of Russia winning gold, and defending champion Yuna Kim of Korea winning silver.

Korea's newspapers today are full of criticism about the competition. Some reports very precisely cite bias & error (link). Some in Korea now call this the "Suchi" 수치 Olympics, using a word for humiliation or black eye. There's a great global search for allies abroad - people & reports who reconfirm: Yuna Kim and the people of Korea were robbed.

I know the extent 김연아 is beloved by the Korean people. And she surely gave a very strong performance. But good sportsmanship at minimum requires we also consider Sotnikova's performance - which surely was excellent, and perhaps she had more sparkle.

Kim seemed a bit tired and bored - not wholly the dynamic elegant brilliance we've much enjoyed in the past.

Consider Kim's short program:
"Send in the Clowns" is a dark song, full of regret. It talks of farce, fools, and "Losing my timing this late in my career..."

Sorry. Not an uplifting theme.

Was Ms. Yuna Kim predicting -- even forcing -- her own rejection?
"Making my entrance again with my usual flair.  Sure of my lines. No one is there..."

Here are additional analyses: for Sotnikova (link)  and for Kim and here's an NBC scored & annotated video comparing their performances (search for sotnikova-kim-free-skate-routines-side-side if link is dead).

Congratulations to all Olympic competitors !

Here's one further great analysis, by Joe Posnanski (link).

I prefer track & field. Athletics measures time, distance and height objectively, with far less subjective judgement and minimal potential for referee interference (events hotly contested in Olympia 2800 years ago). Perhaps, in present form, figure skating & synchronized swimming should not be Olympic sports at all. Should we add further medals for aerobics & square dancing, pottery & violin?

Sắm? mua sắm

I've never studied Vietnamese.

If born a few years earlier, I'd perhaps have been sent
by my government to Vietnam as  (choose one):
  · an emissary of peace
  · a pawn of imperialism
  · fertilizer

Anyhow, we in America now enjoy hard-fought freedoms won in part by the Vietnam carnage:  We've no required military servitude (draft, selective service) thanks to the sacrifices of Vietnam. No longer can America's wealthy, aging evil arseholes use federal funding to beat & brainwash our youth - shipping them abroad, forcing conflict with local enemy young'uns to battle unto death.

That American process is now open solely to volunteers  (and this season they're battling elsewhere).

But back to the word sắm - a word for the war we fought and lost - "SHOPPING"  - (sắm means "shopping" in Vietnamese).

Better shopping than suffering... But we were told the Vietnamese people were threatened with hell. That's why America & its allies bombed everywhere, and killed with abandon.

Why did we fight?   Did the average shopper win?   An online image search for  sắm  (link) shows scenes that might highly disturb the 50,000+ Americans (and 5000+ South Koreans, and 500+ Aussies) sent to horrible deaths in Vietnam. We killed over a million people in Vietnam, and badly lost (!?)   Was it simply corn-fed Daddy Warbucks vs. Tycoon asiatica? President Nixon & Nobel-laureate Henry Kissinger warned of horrors and fed us lies. Travel to Vietnam -- see for yourself. The shadow of war is unpopular with Vietnam's youth. But asking questions is vital to us, because America still fights elsewhere. Every American should examine the perversity of U.S. government deceit & understand it extends well beyond Dirty Dick Cheney. Our history of slavery, and genocide (native Americans), should indicate a need for careful checks-and-balances to counter psychopathic abuse of weaker folk.

"sắm" and "mua sắm" -- let's go shopping ...
It seems we fought for consumerism, for shopping, for love of profit and glitz.

Let's pray our leaders don't mislead us.
But expect they do & will....

sắm.com

Social Disgrace

Last Friday my former school district (where I was a student) decided to layoff 42 staff members, including eleven regular teachers, due to lack of funds. It's now the middle of the school year - an outrageous time for layoffs.

America funds overseas adventurism and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We keep huge permanent military bases in Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Germany, etc., and give bountiful aid monies to Egypt's puppet military rulers and to Israel...

The local school district claims the cause of budget problems is "special education" for children diagnosed with irregularities. More reasonably, such funding should come from the national budget, but social services are also threatened there.

Thus we've not enough money to run decent schools in America...

Education of the average kid now comes from Fox News, CBS, Disney, MS-NBC, etc.

The result is permanent subservience. Sure, a local child might secure success as a hip-hop artist or pro golfer. But for most onward opportunities, the public school kids won't be competitive with kids from more proper private schools.

Our communities create more & more restless proles, shut out from the elite workforce.

But this "elite workforce" is actually insecure. Employers typically cannot be loyal to staff. A business downturn or supply source recalculation may mean any worker might suddenly be told to clear their desk and escorted from the workplace. 

So in fact we must help train young people to become more self-reliant, more entrepreneurial, and more independent. It's either that or our youth is only prepared to be mired in low-wage service jobs.

GOP Dunderheads

The Republican Party of the USA treats people as idiots.

They gave us Vice-President Dan Quayle, who dreaded travel to Latin America cause he never studied Latin. We were saddled with George W. Bush, an idiot & asshole who only advanced past 8th grade cause Daddy was rich and Grampa could get you fired. Sarah Palin is another washout - an icy drip to fade away unless summary justice finds her first...

Republicans offer shit, then beg us to forget: Nixon, John Mitchell, Robert Bork, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Palin, Mitt Romney. Each a scumbag loser no more momentous than yesterday's trash. They each fade to rich retirement while the typical American gets nothing but grief. Thank Republicans each time you're reamed (& Democrat dogs won't help - Wake Up - to the cost of apathy!).

Don't Sit Back

      Complacency  =  Consent  =  Captivity

Conquer Babylon!

Corruption & blackmail are cunning, quick-growing, costly parasites.

Americans today are taught it's discourteous to talk politics; meanwhile, politicians steal our wealth. Our kids are shipped abroad by the military: to kill & die for some asshole's greater profits.  

Grey grit, icy stairs
The world outside is frightful
Conquer Babylon!

"引蛇出洞"

Blizzard!

It's foolish to slowly release the "Snowstorm snippets" of Edward Snowden.

Snowy and his cohorts could be terminated any time.

Spread the information now around the world. Let's see how we've each been raped.

Show Us the Information.

Super Bowl Tuesday?

What if 2 teams forever challenged the Super Bowl?

Their fans choose the lineup.

Seems like a bad idea? Welcome to politics USA, where Election Day offers Republican Dickwad vs. Democrat Dork. Both funded by (and fully indebted to) Richie Rich.

Keep telling yourself -- it's the best system possible.
Baaaa--

 

Poisoned Trust - NSA

Let's assume the NSA is well-meaning and truly trying to promote public welfare.

(In fact, I'm skeptical - I believe the NSA and its private contractors serve corporate interests and other paymasters before they get around to helping us common folk, but...) Let's assume the costly secretive spying is non-political, public-spirited, purposeful and professional.

A key problem is that comprehensive monitoring and data accumulation by the NSA shreds & dirties the provider-customer compact. If a firm asks us to take a survey or seeks feedback, we must assume our responses are copied to government databases and ultimately not confidential. Participation increases our secret police files. As threatened in elementary school - "it goes into your permanent record!"

NSA = Nothing Secure Anymore

Major telecom providers, hardware vendors, and software service companies have become untrustworthy. Their hands are tied. The upshot: our secret police implanted uncertainty & distrust into all our telecom relationships -- the insecurity is very costly for otherwise competitive American businesses.

Poisoned trust does far more damage than a few crazed zealots could inflict.

Transient or Immigrant?

I've been a transient, I've been an immigrant. They are different conditions.

Communities invest in themselves, which creates a prosperous society. Communities need not accept & support everyone around the world who demands access and use of local common or private resources.

By investing in local development, places become more attractive. Visitors are typically welcome as tourists. But this does not mean that transient visitors must be given part of the common wealth. If we're forced to accept all comers, and cannot make rules limiting support, we become swamped. With diminishing incentives to invest, our better communities are targets to deteriorate.

Our rules and laws on inheritance and immigration are not always fair. But lack of law is worse.

The Massachusetts legislature is considering an appeal to allow those in the state illegally to obtain an official Massachusetts driving license, typically used for identification (link). This is a big mistake.

Undocumented workers undercut & erode community. This isn't to say such people are uncivil or bad, but they ultimately assert we've no right to administer our systems -- that their personal saga supersedes law.

Illegal residents are difficult to protect -- their lack of status leaves them open to shakedowns & manipulation. Many become victims to sexual abuse & economic blackmail (link). To attract & encourage more illegal residents is reckless & costly.

We can encourage immigration and enforce our immigration laws.
Let's welcome proper immigrants & refugees, and respect the law.