Bulger's Bitch Behind Bars

A fearsome story slowly draws to a close, as the long-time fugitive girlfriend of Whitey Bulger is sentenced to 8 years in U.S. Federal prison.

The story is creepy because James "Whitey" Bulger, a former Alcatraz inmate, was reportedly not only a mobster & multiple-murderer, but a U.S. government informant aided in his escape by U.S. Federal agents.

The story is further complex in that Bulger's brother Billy was one of Massachusetts' most powerful politicians for nearly two decades. Another brother was a Massachusetts clerk-magistrate (judicial hearing officer), a court official appointed for life (who was later convicted of felony perjury and sent to prison).

The fearsome dimension was those being strong-armed reasonably believed they couldn't rely on Massachusetts State officials or upon the U.S. Federal Government -- either was more likely to back bully-boy Bulger.

Even as a "Most Wanted" federal fugitive, anyone spotting Whitey took a risk: might a confidential tip-off create great personal danger? A $2 million reward went uncollected for 16 years...

Whitey Bulger & Catherine Greig were arrested in 2011 in Santa Monica, California, after 16 years as fugitives, much of the time on the FBI Most Wanted list. With them were $800,000 cash and 30 firearms, including pistols, shotguns & rifles -- still a highly dangerous pair. Greig nonetheless was offered a plea bargain without requiring she testify against Bulger. He's yet to come to trial...

Wild Thing

We celebrate the wild thing, enjoying song & excitement, honoring the dark & dangerous.

But when the wild approaches, pussies get nervous ...

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA is in an uproar over a single furry tourist: a black bear who likely swam across the Cape Cod Canal (or perhaps crossed one of the three bridges) and over two weeks gradually made his way down the peninsula to Provincetown, where the Pilgrims first landed.

Bruins fever has hit the Cape before, but this time there's a measure of conflict. Should the bear be left in peace (he's not as yet threatened anyone) or should he be captured and relocated?

Should the dangers of the wild be purged from among us?

Late last night, Massachusetts officials reportedly shot Cape Cod's only wild bear with an immobilizing dart, put him in one of their official vehicles, and carried him off.

State officials take sedated Cape Cod bear from Wellfleet's woods (Cape Cod Times photo by Lezli Rowell )

Formula Retailing?

Many formula retailing establishments are facing frictions in smaller towns. Revised zoning laws seek to "preserve local character" by limiting or prohibiting so-called formula restaurants or retailers that force patterned menus, uniforms, signage, shopfronts, etc. As ordinances are tested in court, the legal framework for such zoning control is adapting and gradually getting stronger.

Some argue this is simply an audacious barrier-to-entry imposed by greedy non-competitive local retailers. A new entrant might be severely limited in allowed retail space, but an existing business would be free to expand, devouring neighboring businesses with impunity ...as is natural in free enterprise.

Some see franchises and chain stores as a creeping illness, a disease that drains character from the local high street, making each Main Street nearly identical to many others, creating homogeneous retail districts, a bored subclass of clerks & consumers, and stale shopping experiences. Locally-owned franchisees send substantial franchise fees to far-off headquarters, while other local businesses may keep more money in the local community.

Formula retailing systems can be highly efficient, but efficiency may be expensive. Campaigns against formula retailing are growing in strength.

Thank you Dennis Kucinich

Rep. Dennis Kucinich early next year will leave the U.S. House of Representatives, after serving since 1997.

His persistence against American overseas militarism was often a lonely voice in top level American government. He advocated using such funds & energies at home, for American social services, and for peaceful outreach.

I thank Dennis Kucinich for stepping forward into the rough-and-tumble of public service, and for honorably persevering at a time when U.S. partisan politics often seems senseless and a tragic waste of life.

("Seems" senseless is used because what transpires is typically filtered by corporate news services - it's difficult for us common citizenry to gauge what really goes on). 

I thank Dennis Kucinich for his 2004 US Presidential Election efforts. Thanks to candidate Kucinich, the more contemptible dimensions of candidates John Edwards, Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama were clearly revealed (link). I'm deeply sad to have the pettiness of these other people clearly displayed, and but genuinely glad my own expectations and vote were not soiled by those bums.

Talent Wanted

Nobody wants to live or to raise their family in a shithole.

Place Appeal is an increasingly important dimension of management & government. Every locality needs talent, entrepreneurialism & jobs to sustain (or create) a viable community.

Labor has increasing opportunities for migration. Places are in competition with each other to attract & keep key people. Those whose ideas and energies can create and develop crafts, industries and jobs are most in demand.

But it's not enough to offer a good salary. Lifestyle and living environment are also vitally important. Talented people with choices look for a creative, fun & prospering community, and a nice place to raise a family.

Systematic development of place appeal is thus essential.

Nuclear Cheat

The whole world now knows:
            Fukushima = nuclear disaster

Japanese nuclear operator TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company's) Annual Report is thus frightening reading for us all (link).

The financial accounts show something of how the operator prepared & responded. The 11 March 2011 disaster circumvented a planned dividend payment for the end of March 2011. But though the firm suffered huge losses & liabilities, and received large injections of public funds, no explicit attempts were made to claw back the dividend handouts disbursed 30 Nov 2010 and earlier that year (some 81 billion yen, or nearly US$1 billion).

We can also see (p.14) TEPCO's total power generation capacity was 64,988 thousand kW, of which only 4 thousand kW were renewables (wind & geothermal). German energy supply was then (early 2011) 20% renewables, over 300 times TEPCO's percentage. TEPCO's pitifully small proportion of 0.006% renewables shows that management & those with policy oversight were terribly, perhaps criminally, shortsighted.

Due to TEPCO, Fukushima's glow now lights the world!

Stop nuclear profiteering.

Corporate Shirks, Up Yo'Ass

Not "sharks" misspelled - but a pervasive, expensive problem.  
We cannot allow corporations to shirk & escape paying full cost for mistakes & crimes. We've been lectured on "fiscal discipline" while the owners of corporations have been able to avoid responsibility for grave errors in hiring and operations. Corporate owners must face full & true liability for corporate activities. Otherwise it's looting, as we pay for their downside.

Limited liability loopholes must be closed. Corporations escaping full cost force the rest of us to pay their bills. Corporate oversight & responsibility will be encouraged when limited liability is dissolved for costs stemming from criminal acts.

Corporate crime is real crime.
Society can't afford corporate limited liability.

No Nuclear Flash

Japan's power industry shut down all nuclear generators today for the first time since May 1970. Fukushima's disasters have raised awareness of many ongoing dangers. Let's hope the industry does not recover, and Japan's 50 nuclear reactors stay shut down.

Nuclear power generation is built on lies! True costs are not covered by producers, operating under strictly limited liability. Dividends should never be paid until all nuclear waste is safe & disposed of securely.

Dividends paid by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) before the 11 March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns should be clawed back. The public needs compensation for huge involuntary subsidies and recovery efforts subsequent to the disasters.

In a major nuclear accident your property values might drop to zero. You can be forced to leave your home, and (as in Japan) whole towns & cities may be emptied. You could enjoy miserable lingering decline & death from radiation poisoning. Nuclear promoters can melt away with no responsibility. Why do we grant them limited liability?

The downsides to wind power, or geothermal, are very mild in comparison. Nuclear energy has been shoved down the throats of the public. The blunders in Japan highlights a need to stop all nuclear plants worldwide. None are properly funded. The potential for disaster is too high. Whole regions have been destroyed for generations, while operators wash their hands with limited liability and "so sorry"....

Free Hawaii from the Military

The U.S Department of Defense announced this week that 9000 US Marines currently stationed in Okinawa, Japan, will be redeployed to Guam, Hawaii & Australia.

Hawaii is due to get 2700 of these Marines, plus their families.

The United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) deploys 300,000 military personnel in its wide region of operations. A large percentage of these military people pass through Hawaii. They bring money, energy, and a measure of protection. Costs to Hawaii include military occupation of huge tracts of scarce land, frictions between locals & vacationers & military-related youths, pollution by military-related industries, and the targeting of Hawaii by potential enemy forces (largely due to the military concentration).

US military deployment in Japan is about 50,000 personnel in total (link to BBC report).

Bring US military families home to the US mainland!

National Amnesia

 

The Korean people suppress inconvenient & embarrassing facts, "forgetting" conditions or events seemingly in the blink of an eye. The ability is shared by those from other nations, and maybe not to a lesser degree. I've always been astounded that Americans in the 1970s so quickly migrated from war opposition to ignoring their genocide in Southeast Asia. The massacres of American Indian peoples in earlier decades remains conveniently forgotten by those who displaced & butchered their territories' prior inhabitants. Surely the imagery of Columbus "discovering" America is characteristic of this syndrome.

Perhaps a global truth-finding panel could root out such anomalies. Some myths cause huge harm, but are conveniently ignored by proud national populations, corrupt leaders and feeble media. Dangerous harm too easily recurs, again & again.

Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik condemned multi-culturalism at his trial this week and praised "racially pure" Korea & Japan... Breivik proudly "supports the model in South Korea and Japan". Not nice. Multiple views and opinions are inefficient, but it's safest to involve women & minorities in the decision-making process. Peace grows from pluralistic involvement, by all generations. Too narrow a viewpoint leads to foolishness and widespread perilous exposure.

In such regard, let's not forget the nearly mythical case of Korean Hwang Woo-Suk, "Supreme Scientist" (황우석, "최고과학자"); Great Hero until exposed for fraudulent cloning data & ethics violations. Koreans wish it never happened, and suppress their memories. It thus can occur easily again!  

Hero of the Nation became someone to forget 

As stories unraveled, Prof. Hwang collapsed to hospital 

Remember Pearl Harbor

This week the Dalai Lama draws attention in military-occupied Hawaii to peoples still colonized. Tibetans & Hawaiians face heartbreaking encroachment, each ruled from a distant megalopolis by an alien culture. Resilient peoples, pawns in global geopolitical belligerency, yet widely admired for joyous living, naturally greeting each day's blessings. Dispossessed, but standing together. Recently freed nations, help speak up for us! Please work for future peace.

 

Romney's Silver Spoon

Ann & Mitt Romney with his parents in 1969. George was
then a U.S. Cabinet Secretary in the Nixon administration.

Mitt Romney is an ass. He claims he wants "to serve the people" but his self-centered arrogance makes clear he'll help himself and his cronies, doing nothing for the rest of us. He's a wealthy brat who refuses to recognize his debts to others. His father was five times the greater man. Mitt's as "self-made" as George W. Bush and Mickey Mouse. Oh sorry - he's made an ass of himself.

Scrooge's Ghosts

Where are the ghoulies when we need them? It's time skinflint Republicans got flogged with Christmas chains and made to see the error of their ways.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being rich. But squeeze working folk too rudely and backfire is likely. Worse, too many fat pale 1%ers believe they've done it all themselves. Community contributes greatly to anyone's wealth and success, but now they are misers, scorning all in continuing selfish tantrum.

Jeju 4.3 Butchery

The history of Jeju 4.3 is still now being uncovered. Bitter ideological infighting in Korea between 1948 and 1954 killed 30,000 people on tiny Jeju island, with thousands more systematically raped and widespread destruction of property. Jeju 4.3 was held secret and suppressed for many decades (a 1978 novel Aunt Suni that discussed events led to author Hyun Ki-Young's arrest & torture). It's now admitted that Government forces were responsible for the great bulk of the outrages (link).

It's terrible people can refuse to recognize such horrors, as if turning our thoughts away makes reality disappear. But massacre of indigenous peoples by "settlers" still takes place in our world. Terrible.

Here's a key article about Jeju 4.3 (link)

Below is part of a poster illustrating continuing struggle, as local activists seek to stop construction of a naval base threatening a UNESCO World Heritage site & national park in Gangjeong, Jeju island.

Colony Afghan

The U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement is a sham. In fact, a proud noble people will be denigrated to servile raghead status. America has no proper business occupying Afghanistan. Get out America! Go home, and in your own nation build bridges and trolleys and clinics.

While foreign military occupation continues, of course a few will fight back...

Unregulated & Unafraid

From cases such as Enron, Bernie Madoff & Co., WorldCom, etc., few of us gullible guppies believe in corporate nobility.

Rich folk fleece & cheat too often; among themselves as well.

We need regulation, regulators, and penalties for non-compliance.  The cheats poison the system. They avoid paying for pollution. They pass their costs to us. Selling inferior products, they swindle & steal.

Did you get the proper volume of gas / petrol when you filled your car? Can you trust the indicated volume on the pump? Who owns that pump?

Unregulated = Unafraid
too often a prelude to us being hoodwinked & cheated by professional scumbags.

Surveillance State, Techie's Dream

Many nations now seek to monitor communications of their entire populations (UK plans are reported here - link). The State can access our information; they try to assure us we're thus better protected.

Internet and telephone provider firms are forced to pay for surveillance & storage equipment, costs passed to consumers. These ludicrous systems will cause many multiples more problems than potential successes. The banks & credit card companies are already thus regulated, but at least (because of the money) security & secrecy are part of their basic mandate.

Giving anyone access to such telephone, email, and computer interactions is monstrously problematic. Under existing & proposed laws, private sector providers will be required to store data for many months or years. From a security perspective, your data is at grave risk of hijacking. Technical entrepreneurs are sure to hugely profit from some such files or metadata. Resale? Blackmail? Piracy? Government snoops are angelic in comparison.

We'll soon be hostage to minimally-trained private sector tech staff who recognize the value of information they collect & control.

RIP Trayvon Martin, Afghan Hero

Teenager Trayvon Martin was reportedly stalked & shot dead in Florida. His attacker misread the situation, acted hastily (perhaps he was scared), and used deadly force to kill an innocent person.

This is a microcosm of the blundering American military in Afghanistan, often brutally killing innocent people as we stumble through their neighborhoods. We've no right to be there. We've no clear purpose there. We should pack-up the occupying armies and leave the Afghans to handle their own affairs.

Many people we've slaughtered never left home. Perhaps trying to protect family members, killed in their ancestral villages, many never heard of Washington DC, Obama or the twin towers.

But the American cowboy continues to execute those in his path. After decades of amplified threat from Soviet nuclear weapons, the deadly Vietcong, Nicaraguan Sandanistas, Somali pirates, and Al-Qaeda militants, the American people are terrorized and quickly over-respond... Too many are oddly eager to kill.

We can't afford to continue murdering innocent people. Trayvon is now a symbol for misguided violence. Trayvon Martin, Afghan Hero (1995-2012), RIP.

Integration of Migrants

Went to a seminar this evening about Migration & Identity (thank you Michelle Mann). A key consideration is determining what is successful integration?

Is it enough that a migrant becomes self-supporting, and stays away from trouble with the law?

Migrants from different cultures should not all be expected to mirror a native ideal of their adopted homeland. (Surely many local-born people often fail to observe each tradition). Society would be far poorer without individual characteristics of a disparate population.

Sure some will study & enjoy local traditions, foods, and culture. But those who march to a different drumbeat (or don't march at all) are not signs of failure.

Health Care for All

A healthy society is impossible without health care for all. The US system is horrible.

Obama's reforms preserve the medical profession's iron grip on health. Self-serving barriers to entry perpetuate high medical costs. Professional providers cite freedom only as it suits their own interests. Citizen self-treatment is not an option. We can only buy care at sky-high prices, from the AMA company store.

Public health is vital to all. We cannot have people in our midst with undiagnosed easily-communicated diseases, such as tuberculosis and hepatitis. Too many preventable problems get bigger, often involving children. "Preventable dental conditions led to more than 830,000 emergency room visits... straining already stressed emergency room staff." (link). "In 2009, 56 percent of Medicaid-enrolled children did not receive dental care, not even a routine exam." Perhaps their parent(s) knew nothing of health care options.

The main problem with health care is too many don't care if neighbors live or die. Political bombast condemns too many people to needless suffering.

The USA needs a universal health care system. Partisan lobbyists & politics lead millions to early death, at uncounted cost. 

Cheney's Change of Heart

Dick Cheney take heart.

Cheney's new heart is sure to get tongue's wagging. Did the old heart wither through misuse? Was love of money insufficient to keep it fueled? Can we imaginable someone was butchered-to-order, filling the gap in Dick's brokenhearted life? 

I'd like to think Dick Cheney is simply misunderstood, maybe misquoted, a monster in our minds.

But no - Dick is selfish & unabashed - a defiant, deceitful capitalist. Dick Cheney is a me-first social Darwinist who believes wholeheartedly the strong & assertive deserve the fruits of the world; the weak are in the way, and to cheat is OK. Whereas I believe no society can sustainably survive dog-eat-dog competition -- we're all weak sometimes.

Oops - if unmended Dick reads such talk, he might blow a gasket.

After Occupy comes...

Occupy has been beaten-down, gassed & subdued.

But the war isn't over. What's next may be more dangerous.

Violence against peaceful protest was a bad mistake.
Corruption & costly militarism enslave people with little to lose.

Hide the problem -- it becomes more threatening.

We must work together creating community opportunity.

Authorized Violence is not acceptable.

Crazy Jason Russell?

I'd never heard of Jason Russell before he was reported to have run naked in daytime San Diego, yelling incoherently about the devil and swearing at bystanders (link). It seems the guy was overloaded by sudden fame after a project he began in 2003 "went viral" in March 2012. He'll now spend some weeks in hospital. Get well soon!

He's lucky to be WASPish (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) -- otherwise he'd be shot by police or tazered. Maybe his deluded mind shortcut to fame?

Performance pressure made him already creepy-looking. Celebrity America...

Corporate-Owned Justice

Prison assignments for The Pirate Bay convicts have been finalized by the Swedish government. The four founders of the guide, which lists bittorrent information, were sentenced to imprisonment and fined nearly US$4.5 million (30 million Swedish kronor). Any of their assets are liable for seizure, the fines remain unpaid.

So the Government of Sweden, along with the U.S. Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), seem to have broken further threat from these criminals.

Is this proper? I don't think so.

The logic that convicted these publishers should threaten a newspaper publisher whose paper is used to start a fire. It condemns the postman for delivering mail, and auto industry executives when their product is misused in a crime. Librarians are thus evildoers.

Who should bear the burden to protect & to censor? The systems protecting industrial rights and intellectual property are failing, with major, fundamental inadequacies. Why should taxpayers foot the bill, and pay to protect unguarded assets? Rights holders should be interested in protecting the system. Are they investing appropriately? It is unworkable & non-sustainable to push government officials to simply shoot the messenger.

Sympathy for Murderers

The recent slaughter of 16 Afghan civilians in Kandahar is notable as a lesson in misplaced sympathy and lack of contrition. Sure, US government spokespeople expressed regret, and President Obama says the incident (where nine kids were massacred) was "tragic and shocking" -- but the faraway military occupation continues.

Western corporate media now widely reports the accused killer had a friend injured in Kandahar the day prior to this violence.

We're not instructed to feel tragedy or pity, but the back story is notable: because nobody bothers to explain background or disclose justification for peoples bullied & bloodied by overseas occupying forces. Foreign armies take huge tracts of land, cause great damage throughout the social system, and park themselves in the country for untold years. Damage and slaughter has led some Afghan people to hit back - but they are labeled terrorists, often summarily condemned to detention or execution. Overseas military-occupation is a cruel, unjust colonial obstruction. Until we withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, The Rape of Kandahar continues...

Hawaii's military occupation should end too ...

Corrupt Whitey

Why could Catherine Greig, girlfriend of mobster Whitey Bulger, avoid giving evidence in open court? Corruption continues between the US federal government, FBI and Bulger. Filth & disease reaches to the highest levels of Massachusetts state government. Collusive deals stink. Continuing to laugh at justice, Bulger & cohorts triumph again.

Cheney Avoids Arrest in Canada

Dick "Chickenhawk" Cheney cancelled a planned speaking engagement in Toronto next month, evading possible apprehension for human rights violations (link).

Former US Vice President Cheney was a major proponent of overseas adventurism in Iraq & Afghanistan. His commitment & support for "harsh interrogation" led to allegations he promoted torture of captured suspects, and thus put his own US forces at greater risk.

Syria & the Khmer Rouge

The BBC reports today that "more than 8000 people" have died in Syria over the past year, including many women & children. Innocent people are being massacred.

Every day, the Western corporate press reports outrages.

First, is this civil war in Syria? If so, intervention is illegal.

Second, let us remember the butchery of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, who killed between 800,000 and 3 million of their own people after 1975. The Western powers supported the Khmer Rouge and kept them in the United Nations through 1993, long after genocide was widely-documented.

Certain key decisionmakers consider their own wider strategies. They are interested in resources, markets, enslavement of whole populations. Ambitions are rendered by their employees into our understanding of reality. They don't care how many thousands or millions are butchered. Their policies slaughter, but we pay the bills, and our own young people are their foot soldiers.

 

The corporate press seeks to stoke our outrage ... very selectively.

Employing New Methods

The limited liability corporation is a way capitalists exploit good times while abandoning responsibility when gambling incorrectly. Can we use these corporate forms & methods to develop progressive change?

Ayeland LLC could become a venture employing thousands of the unemployable or otherwise underemployed. What benefits can we bring to the collective? Health insurance? We can offer the self-assuredness of being part of something greater. We must plan defenses against demagoguery, and grave mistakes such as fascism. The corporate system can easily be multi-ethnic & secular. We can construct a corporate form that supplements the benefits & responsibilities of national citizenship, and perhaps in some cases, supplants national citizenship & the ugliness of certain patriotic posturing.

Disasters Japan 3/11 - Continuing

On 11 March 2011, a severe earthquake shook Japan's Tohoku region. The quakes & subsequent tsunami killed 20,000 people and damaged a wide area, including nuclear energy facilities built on the Fukushima coast.

Please spare a moment and reflect on the scale of these tragedies, and the continuing impact on survivors. A huge region remains evacuated & uninhabitable. Pollution is a major threat. Radioactive contamination and stress from fear of exposure engulfs millions.

One year later, the Japanese people remain deeply shaken by these events.

A valiant nation struggles in sudden glare, plodding into the future, Japan is now a radioisotope economy.

We learn: there is no fail-safe ... never trust industrial capitalists or the politicians they employ.