I haven’t churned out many posts during 2013 (or in 2012 and 2011 for that matter) due to a variety of factors. I am surprised that I’m still around to post these feeble Yuletide Greetings to my TMV colleagues and readers (that wonderful handful of stalwarts).
Keeping with tradition, I must review the past and look forward to the future – keeping an idiotic “positive” outlook. I wouldn’t mind if this were only a December “thing” but most people; businesses; the 24/7 corporate new/media entertainment machine; our lying, corrupt politicians; and the criminal oligarchy of banks, financial institutions and global enterprises believe this should be a year-round fetish. Perpetual “positive” propaganda is designed to cover up the dismal reality of planetary degradation, ever-expanding human poverty and criminally-obtained riches, lawlessness, corruption, nastiness, stupidity – and that’s my take on some of the positive developments.
My spouse, our son and I are all in good health and the weather in Phoenix, AZ is always pleasant. My spouse has been working continuously full-time for the same Federal contractor since 2008 and her modest earnings are still larger than 60% of other U.S. workers – which only magnifies the bleak conditions of the majority of U.S. workers and the nearly 100 million working-age adults who are no longer part of the U.S. economy – a statistical record.
Continuing to look for positive things, our son just started at Sunnyslope High School and is passing all his advanced courses. I have some sporadic work with a few local business clients and I continue to improve my cooking, laundry and cleaning skills. We don’t save any money but then we don’t have any debts. We started renting a new condominium this summer and the complex has many lemon, grapefruit and orange trees which are producing plenty of free fruit for the pickings. We had to move into the Sunnyslope school district (many studies indicate it is the best public high school in the city of Phoenix) but we are looking at other rental properties in the same district that will also keep us close to where my spouse works.
I would have preferred that Time Magazine named Edward Snowden as “Man of the Year” but they went with the New Pope Francis. There are valid reasons to name this most likable, open, and re-focused leader of over a billion Roman Catholics. However in 2013 he is a work in progress with great potential to shift the global ethical debate on what humans should value and pursue – our collective betterment or more wealth for a very few by degrading the health of the planet and the rest of humanity. It’s entertaining to see many morally and ethically challenged individuals go apoplexic over the recent pronouncements by the Pope
.
Mr. Snowden’s extensive revelations concerning the NSA’s unconstitutional national and global spying on everyone, everything, and at all times was more significant for 2013. Even if Mr. Snowden provides more revelations in the future, the criminal oligarchy that runs the planet will ensure his impact will be very limited. A few recent Federal Court rulings, the comments by many former political leaders, plus the opinions of a vast majority of citizens, people and human beings in the U.S. and around the world, will have very little effect on the operations of an out-of-control NSA. We might never limit the things the NSA and other spy/law enforcement agencies collect, but we might focus our efforts to strictly limit how they may be used against individuals and organizations to prevent blackmail, intimidation, false prosecutions, and other subtle forms of mind, thought and speech control.
Our technological advances are now geared to expand the meta-date collection – and the extensive spying will continue under different guises and by many other entities such as the CIA, FBI, DHS, private corporations, and other local/state police entities. As Mr. Snowden commented (and the facts have shown) massive NSA data-gathering is not about fighting terrorism or protecting the American people. It is about maintaining power and control of the criminal oligarchy over everyone else. This might be positive news for our “elites” but the well-being, autonomy, privacy and sanity of the vast majority of citizens no longer matter.
We are probably approaching “Peak Propaganda” (aka peak bullshit) in almost every aspect of human activities. Albert Einstein observed the difference between human stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. In order to sustain the current corrupt and dysfunctional national and global political, economic, business and financial systems, the professional shills, public relations spokespersons, and the little armies of governmental and corporate media representatives must continue to expand their mendacity to cover up their failures, crimes, incompetence, greed, pride, arrogance, nastiness, obtuseness and corruption (and these are their positive virtues) in order to keep fooling enough people for long enough to steal as much as possible before the whole Rube-Goldbrick edifice collapses.
On a positive note, more and more people across the U.S. and globe no longer believe, accept or pay attention to this endless stream of crapola, bullshit, horseshit, chicken-shit, merde, mierde, mental garbage, diversionary entertainment, and perverted propaganda emanating from our self-appointed leaders. When the revolution will begin and how it will progress are open to debate – but it will come during the next 10 years and it will manifest itself in such shocking violence in order to bring down most of those currently in power.
I will try to touch upon and write about other ideas in 2014. I haven’t yet heard the NSA, FBI, and DHS knocking on my door – but hope springs eternal. Except for the 2nd Amendment, the U.S. Constitution is moribund. My vote, ideas and opinions – along with those of over 90% of my fellow citizens – mean nothing to our elected and appointed political leaders because we don’t come with large campaign contributions or threats to finance opposition candidates.
Business entities and our wealthy criminal oligarchs don’t care about Americans – there are billions more people around the globe still to fleece, abuse and rape. Their prosperity is now completely divorced from the country that provided the excellent environment for their unique luck and success. A reversion to global fascist feudalism run by corrupt corporatists, sociopaths and psychopaths could be the future for this planet.
On a positive note, I’m going to stop here before I go too far over 1,000 words. That’s my holiday gift to the editors and readers of TMV.
“Positively” submitted by Marc Pascal, ranting from Phoenix, Arizona. You can reach me at avenir99pm@yahoo.com. Here is a list of my favorite blogs, including aggregators and those that concentrate on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)*** that are must-reads for all followers of TMV:
BILLY BLOG*** by Bill Mitchell (http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog)
BUSINESS INSIDER (http://www.businessinsider.com)
FABIUS MAXIMUS, Chet Richards, Editor (http://fabiusmaximus.com)
GOLEM XIV by David Malone (http://www.golemxiv.co.uk)
HISTORY UNFOLDING by David Kaiser (http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com)
IAN WELSH (http://www.ianwelsh.net/)
Jesse’s Café Américain – (http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)
KUNSTLER by James Howard Kunstler, formerly blogging under the name “Clusterf*ck Nation” (http://kunstler.com)
MICHAEL HUDSON*** (http://michael-hudson.com)
MODERN MONEY MECHANICS*** – MMT Simplified by Senexx (http://modernmoney.wordpress.com)
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY*** by Rodger Malcolm Mitchell (http://mythfighter.com)
MOSLER ECONOMICS*** is written by Warren Mosler (http://moslereconomics.com)
NAKED CAPITALISM*** written & edited by Yves Smith & Lambert Strether (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com)
NEW ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES*** (http://neweconomicperspectives.org)
OF TWO MINDS by Charles High Smith (http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html)
PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM*** by Cullen Roche (http://pragcap.com)
SCIENCE MAGAZINE (http://www.sciencemag.org)
SHADOW GOVERNMENT STATISTICS by John Williams (http://www.shadowstats.com)
THE ARCHDRUID REPORT by John Michael Greer (http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com)
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Charles Kinsley Michaelson, III (http://ckm3.blogspot.com)
THE BURNING PLATFORM by Jim Quinn (http://www.theburningplatform.com)
THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE by Michael Snyder (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com)
THE HIPCRIME VOCAB (http://hipcrime.blogspot.com)
THE TRANSPORT POLITIC By Yonah Freemark (http://www.thetransportpolitic.com
WASHINGTON’S BLOG – (http://www.washingtonsblog.com)
ZERO HEDGE edited by Tyler Durdin (http://www.zerohedge.com)