crises of global capitalism

This animated video illustrates David Harvey's speech that looks at how the current economic problems came to be.

WARNING: volume


The speech:
http://fora.tv/2010/04/26/David_Harvey_The_Crises_of_Capitalism

f-king useless leaders

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan was elected prime minister at both houses of the Diet on Friday to replace outgoing Yukio Hatoyama.

Another one bites the dust. Another year. Another prime minister. Someone tell these heads of state that one political misstep, one broken promise doesn't merit their resignation.

Whatever happened to responsibilities? Whatever happened to integrity?

Four prime ministers in the last four years. FUCKING USELESS.

/rant

May updates

Has the world always been so fucked up (short answer: yes), or have we just grown up? (another yes?) So what has the reality come to in this one month's time?

THE GOOD:

Elena Kegan as a US supreme court justice (if confirmed)
sees US seeking intellects to staff important public offices. It's time to move on. The world has changed. It is the 21st century. Now let's just wait for baby boomers (60 y/o) to die out so we can have a more progressive society.

Miss USA a Lebanon-born Muslim beauty
Whether she can keep her crown may be a different story. But if the world wants to survive the second half of this century we're going to have to find a solution to religious/cultural clash between the West and the Middle East. I think she qualifies in all aspects but beauty-eye-beholder. Now Israel why are you so Nazi-like?

THE BAD:

BP oil spill
Is oil gushing out thousands of gallons per minute a spill? By definition it still is. Fishing gone, marine ecosystem lost, pollution up 1000%, and no end in sight. We're fucked as ever.

Thailand anti-government demo
A full blown state-of-emergency war on the ground is going on between the battle-ready army and Red-shirt demonstrators. They're fucked. We can only hope there is a silver lining behind the massive clouds.

THE UGLY:

World population projection in 40 years
tops 9 billion. If the projection is correct (likely), by 2050 we'll have to double current food production, which already uses 99.9% of cultivatable land on earth, to accommodate the extra 2B people. Pretty much every single problem in the world can be solved by having a smaller population. Please, have fewer kids! China's one-child policy won't look so bad in 20 years (not that it's humane; educating women would probably do). We're mega-fucked.

spit on it while it's under your choke hold

Bill Maher's latest editorial on Real Time asks the Democrats to forget about bipartisanship now that they have won a hard fought battle of health care reform. I really want to believe the fairy tale of governments of a large country like the US care about the people.

It's a lot like teaching math. You can't teach everything from the get-go. You'll have to ignore the little things that still don't make sense to little school kids. Yes pi = 3.14, and that's all you need to know, for now.

Bipartisanship, partisanship, non-partisanship or the like = 3.14. That's what we have to know if we need to get anything done in the real world. We'd want to tackle the problems of politicians are in a happy marriage with multinational corporations where the only concerns are their very own well being.

BEING SELFISH

Why are we still at war?
Because with a "few" sacrificed young men and women, even we're at the wrong war, we send a strong message to the Middle East - Don't fuck with us! Other benefits include, but not limited to, global arm race, military industrial complex, country building (ironic), etc.

Let's pretend the world isn't run by a few rich private empires that operate and act on their own profits. If the lowly people want to get a little bit of a percentage of what we really want done, we'll have to stick to the value of our pi, for now.

no denying Joseph Andrew Stack makes you question

...all the things that are wrong with the society we're living in.

I'll reserve my judgment until more info surfaces.

Read the suicide letter.
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/b3piw/web_site_of_the_guy_who_crashed_his_plane_into_an/

US political reality

quoted from movie Good Will Hunting

Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

was reminded of this by a post on reddit.com, absolutely spot on.

signs USA is rotting

As if you really need any more.

Supreme Court rolls back campaign cash limits
WASHINGTON - In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down laws that banned corporations from using their own money to support or oppose candidates for public office.

By 5-4 vote, the court overturned federal laws, in effect for decades, that prevented corporations from using their profits to buy political campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

It leaves in place a ban prohibiting corporations and unions from directly contributing funds to candidates for any use. link

In layman's terms, big oil like Exxon Mobil, private military companies like Blackwater Worldwide, pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, special interest tools like lobbyists can literally choose the next president of the US, not that they weren't trying before.

While this looks like a small step towards what I just claimed above, the lack of comprehension among ordinary citizens, silence on media, apathy between law-makers disturb me to no end.

Like farm pigs, wolfing down their artificial feed, oblivious to the slaughter ahead.

This is the direct opposite of democracy. The USA is the corporation that is too big to fail now, until it systematically collapses.

Yes Japan can?

(2009 Japan's election results, taken from wikipedia)
DPJ - Democratic Party of Japan (民主党)
LDP - Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党)




Below are four BBC news clips on their fairly thorough coverage of Japan's 2009 general election, its brand spanking new prime minister Hatoyama and his cabinet. If you're pressed for time, watch the first and fourth videos. This probably sounds cliched BUT 2009 election may well change modern Japan.




about the party
new ruling Democratic party founded only 11 years ago
ran on a platform of aggressive change (Obama and Kimutaku?)

bold promises
reduced relationship with US militarily
serve the people, not big businesses

Japan in deep water
Japan in its worst economic slump since war
a significantly shrinking middle class
national debt no less impressive than US

recap on what happened last month
--------======================--------
TOKYO — Japan’s voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history on Sunday, handing a landslide victory to a party that campaigned on a promise to reverse a generation-long economic decline and to redefine Tokyo’s relationship with Washington.

Many Japanese saw the vote as the final blow to the island nation’s postwar order, which has been slowly unraveling since the economy collapsed in the early 1990s.

In the powerful lower house, the opposition Democrats virtually swapped places with the governing Liberal Democratic Party, winning 308 of the 480 seats, a 175 percent increase that gives them control of the chamber, according to the national broadcaster NHK. The incumbents took just 119 seats, about a third of their previous total. The remaining seats were won by smaller parties. NYTimes
--------======================--------

govt officials for sale

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Health Care Reform's hurdles

Happy Birthday, USA!

Well tomorrow anyway.



Watch all the way through and perhaps a second time. Thank you!

tell it like it is

Haruki Murakami accepting award in Israel

60 year old Murakami speaks about the conflicts between Israel and Gaza.

Murakami compared human beings to fragile eggs in advocating the preciousness of life.

"Bombs, tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are the high wall. The eggs are unarmed civilians, who are crushed, burned and shot by them.

"We are all human beings, individuals regardless of nationality, race or religion. And we are all eggs -- we are all fragile eggs faced with (a) solid wall, called the system. Take a moment to think about this. Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to destroy us. We must not allow the system to (have) a life of its own. The system didn't make us -- we made the system," he said. Mainichi

inauguration live online

If you're away from the TV set, if you're not in the country, here is where to watch it live:

http://www.pic2009.org/page/content/live

or

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27721638/

or

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/08/national/inauguration09/main4707733.shtml

or

http://www.hulu.com/live/inauguration

Watch it because
1 it's a historic event
2 Obama is the embodiment of hope
3 the US has been through its worst
4 one good thing can lead to another
5 we want to be united not divided
6 it's time for equality
7 the possibilities!!

Now that the US is cool again, our job is to help Prez Obama realize the Era of Responsibility.

warning: volume


The most admirable part of this speech? His tone.

Happy New Year

Now some fireworks...

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Strip Maul

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Jon Stewart. Make sure you watch his last analogy in this segment.

lies, put into perspective

War president fuck yeah! America! USA! USA...

now you've won

WE WILL HOLD YOU TO YOUR PROMISES! GIVE US WHAT WE WANT - A NEW WAY TO DO BUSINESS IN DC. ARE YOU LISTENING, Prez Obama?

state of the union

It's a little long, but worthy of your time.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.-BF

dire fate

The US, as a whole, is gradually becoming more prone to a total collapse each day. Its politics dominates the parts of my brain that respond to feelings such as concerns. The USA is not only an American problem. When it does go under, it will take a good size of the global community with it.

Money problems:


Even though there are some reasonable doubts (e.g. 9/11 Pentagon attack) in this clip, the overall message is clear.

Some of us are tired of hearing, seeing, or reading about current US political drama

but when you're, excuse the language, FUCKED IN YOUR ASS by said politicians later on, don't complain!

I'm tired too.

I'm tired of hearing Palin's incoherent pie hole trying to utter a complete sentence.

I'm tired of seeing a proven war hero, over 26 year's time, has slowly turned into a coward who sinks ever lower every week. Presidential debates? Presidential campaign? Responsibilities? WHAT THE FUCK?

I'm tired of watching the US dragged down by asshats whose best qualification on their resume is being able to spill empty rhetorics, which are evidently bought by a large number of ill-informed, ignorant Americans.

FUCK!
Fucking thing sucks. We won't do it live.

the Bush Doctrine

taken from reddit.com

The Bush Doctrine works like this:

Imagine you're walking down the street, minding your own business. You're a God-Fearing American (GFA), so you have all kinds of concealed weapons on your person and a grenade in each boot.

As you walk down the street a strange person catches your eye. There are four basic scenarios we're concerned with:

Scenario 1

Said strange person pulls a gun and shoots you. You pull a gun and shoot back.

This is "self-defense".

Scenario 2

Said person pulls a gun on you, but you pull a gun and shoot first.

This is "imminent threat".

Scenario 3

You pull your gun and shoot the person because you think the person might have, at some point in the future, pulled a gun on you and so you "couldn't take the chance'.

This is "the Bush Doctrine".

Scenario 4

You just start shooting because they're there.

This is "the Bush Doctrine" without all the fancy pants legalese and rhetorical solemnization.

Anyway, everyone has pretty much agreed that scenarios 1 and 2 are justified, whereas 3 and 4 are not. So instead of admitting that's what they're doing they hide behind this screen whereby they say "We really thought they were going to shoot us so it's still okay because it's scenario 2 and not scenario 4!" link