Thanks a Lot
But NO THANKS!

I  think I'll pass. It's bad enough having the NSA, the DEA, the FBI and the CIA, not to mention GCHQ in the U.K. and Israeli Intelligence reading my mail and intercepting my calls (if I had a cell). I don't think I want all those folks operating my computer at will as well.

I don't need no storage in the cloud neither (I know it's bad grammar, sue me!)

I'm Alright Jack!
cuz I've got lotsa jack

Dem poor job creating rich folk

Some people are doing okay these days- indeed WAAAAAAAY better than just okay. According to the Economic Policy Editor for ThinkProgress, Bryce Covert, the Wealthiest Americans Take Home Biggest Share of Income Ever Recorded. (Bold parts chosen by kc)

 The top ten percent of earners in the United States  took home more than 50 percent of all income in 2012, the highest amount ever recorded since data was first collected in 1917, according to an updated report from economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty.

While the wealthiest took a big hit during the financial crisis, they’ve almost fully recovered. Last year, income for the top 1 percent of earners “increased sharply,” the report notes, growing by nearly 20 percent, while the bottom 99 percent only saw money rise by 1 percent. “In sum,” the authors write, “top 1% incomes are close to full recovery while bottom 99% incomes have hardly started to recover.”

 .........

The U.S. suffers from particularly drastic income inequality. It is worse here than in  Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, and Ethiopia

Of course anyone, especially a politician, who dares to mention such things is immediately accused of promoting "class warfare" and the politics of division (as if point at Welfare Queens, the gay couple down the street and what may go on in their bedroom, job stealing immigrants or criminally inclined black males is inclusive and inspires choruses of Kumbaya. Already Bill de Blasio, leader in the Democratic mayoral primary has been called out by his RePuke opponent for being a "class warrior."

 Lhota lost no time in throwing down the gauntlet to De Blasio, accusing the Democratic favourite of "class warfare" and of wanting to divide the city. "We may be five boroughs but we are one people, one city. The last thing we want is to send our people back to the age of fear and hopelessness."

 In a city with 25,000 residents earning more than $20,000 per day and 2,000,000 who have to live on less than that per YEAR, it is pretty obvious class warfare is almost totally over and won by obviously the side the Repukes represent. Warren Buffet is one of the few (if not the only) of the winners who admits what's happening and who's winning. 

De Blasio who is considered to have a good chance of becoming mayor would be the first Democratic mayor since Dinkins in 1993 and the first truly progressive mayor since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The NYPD or mental health authorities should be on the look out for the 5% of democrats that still voted for Anthony "Peckerhead" Weiner, who thankfully finished dead last in fifth. These people (Weinier's 5%) are obviously a danger to themselves and others!  Displaying his usual excessive "class" the Weiner was driven away from his concession speech exposing to the crowd a different part of his anatomy, of similar shape, and in his case maybe even larger than the world famous part, his middle finger.

 In a tear-filled concession speech, in which his wife Huma Abedin was notable by her absence, he said: "We had the best ideas. Sadly I was an imperfect messenger." He left in a flurry, and was pictured giving a one-fingered gesture of insult to reporters as he was driven away.

Meanwhile Speaking of Dipshits


There's a blog published by a somewhat challenged so-called Conservative in British Columbia that I read occasionally, especially lately since the King of Bloggers is on holiday, just to remind myself how little brains it actually takes to use a computer anymore and even publish crap online. This guy hates damn near everybody, at least that he bothers to write about and he is so busy writing letters of complaint to the CRTC, companies, networks, individuals and companies that you wonder how he can still find time to actually blog. But then, come to think of it, so many of his posts are little more than ccs. of his constant complaints. It would appear that even his fellow cons aren't that enthralled with him as they repeatedly refuse to nominate him for anything or elect him to party positions.


Like the Blogger King he also has (or creates) a flock of sycophants who make really stoopid, but repetitive comments, pretty much the same lame comments about the Media Party, or how disrespectful of King Steveie are all lefty retards. This gem's latest post is a copy of a complaint to the CBC about 22 Minutes' Shaun Majunder for publicly endorsing a, gasp, Liberal candidate for something somewhere.

I wonder if he is cool with BC's own Steve Smart, Legislative Bureau Chief for CBC radio and TeeVee in BeeCee while married to a lady who works for Premier Photo-op, Christy "clueless" Clark. Oh he probably hates that too.

A typical on the one hand, but particularly sad and mean comment on the Shaun Scandal post is:

  Just another CBC executive welfare case playing politics because he’s too talentless to work in the States 

There is so much that is sad, mean and wrong with that short piece of vitriol, I wouldn't know where to begin. But to the commenter who like the blogger himself who would probably love Canada the more it mirrors the Republican version of America the Empire.....why not just immigrate and leave Canada to those of us who like it the way it was before Harper turned it into something we don't recognize, just like he promised. I'm A Canadian by choice not chance and chose to live and work and raise a family in the Canada I found decades ago, when it was different than where I came from.   

Another example of the insanity to be found here in abundance is a comment on the most recent post. A post which is actually quite cogent about how Merv Tweed went from being an MP from Manitoba to big wheel at Ominitrax.

A registered lobbyist arranged a Parliamentary Restaurant lunch meeting between now former Manitoba Conservative MP Merv Tweed and the head of Omnitrax Canada Inc., which owns the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba, seven months before the Omnitrax executive left his post and was succeeded in the job by Mr. Tweed. (see here)

Tweed’s new gig as President of Omnitrax (see here) just got a whole lot stinkier.

Very good, and even admirable as the blogger is even being critical of his own team, fairness in action and a lack of partisanship and all. But then one of the leaders of the sycophantic pack of real or pretend commenters goes on a  completely unrelated tirade about politicians who make a career out of politics, conveniently naming a Liberal, Ralph Goodale who managed to get re-elected in spite of phoney allegations cooked up between Harper and his Gestapo, the RCMP, during one election which just disappeared after the election. 

Some people seem to be instinctively able worm their way around and politics is the perfect medium for them, they use it as a springboard for personal gain. Rather than a short term of good service to the people who elect them for some politics has become a long term job with a pension at the end which is paid through our tax dollars. We all know some who keep running and getting elected, Ralph Goodale comes to mind as one example. Thee really should be limits put on how many times a person can seek re-election, career politicians biding their time to pension off are not in the best interest of the country.

 That a girl Liz, get your irrelevant shots in on a "libtard." The post in question was so obviously NOT about career politicians, but indeed a politician using politics as a springboard for corporate entry, perhaps by doing favors for the future employer. But don't allow any logic to slap you in the ass on the way out Liz.As a bonus by your irrelevant, and unrelated comment you avoided having to say anything or even appear to condone anything anti-con being said. 

I won't sully my readers or give this goof the benefit of a link (anyone with a brain can find it if they have a strong enough stomach and really surplus time on their hands - like me) - I'm not tired, I'm RETIRED. Besides his comment board doesn't work for me, oh wait, that's right, he did accept one comment from me, so he could tell me I was stupid. You are only allowed to disagree with him about fine details of Reich Wing Whackery and he still tells you you are stupid or he doesn't care what you think if you don't tow the sycophantic line. 

Syria
Hysteria

A sane voice on and for Syria! Dr. Andrea Stanton

I was perusing a dead tree edition of the Stunned Vancouver Sun this weekend past and after being confronted by the usual drivel, stuff like the purposely convoluted financial structure of the Aquilini empire and how the unwashed masses could delight in seeing it opened to public view, thanks to the upcoming divorce trial of Roberto and his estranged soon to be ex-wife. Then on page one of Canada World, I was treated to both a tale of killer former Canadian Forces officer Russell Williams and his collection of victims underwear and our hero Andrew Coyne and his usual blind, stupid and/or mendaciously deceitful scribblings, this time on Syria (which as usual "promulgated the accepted corporate view, in this case bomb the bastards to "send a message" or bomb the village to save the village).

Then on page B7, I was astounded to find an article that actually addressed the current situation in Syria honestly, coherently and without the macho hyperbole and a lack of the preferred message approved by the Military/Industrial Corporate Complex. It was an interview by William Marsden of PostMedia with Andrea Stanton, an academic specializing in Middle Eastern history, affairs and religion who actually lived for a number of years in Syria before the outbreak of the current civil war. Today she is an associate professor at the University of Denver and from her page in the faculty guide:

Dr. Stanton is Assistant Professor of Islam, focusing on twentieth and twenty-first century Islam in the Middle East and beyond. Her research focuses on media and religious identity, and investigates the sometimes conflictual, sometimes cooperative relationships between new technologies and claims to religious authority. Her most recent historical work examines government management of religious broadcasts in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s, connecting this to a broader trend of Middle Eastern states controlling religious communities' access to radio and television.

Her most recent contemporary work examines the emergent phenomenon of "Islamic emoticons," which appear in online Islamic chat forums and websites. Other recent projects include an examination of the role of the Olympic Games in fostering national and regional identities in Lebanon and Syria, and an analysis of themes found in US-based Syrian aid appeals and in Syrian political cartoons.

Her teaching interests include Qur'anic studies, contemporary fundamentalisms, globalization and its impact on religious identity and practice, gender and Muslim practice, and embodied practice and notions of piety, as well as the Internet and social media's evolving impact in these areas.

Would a U.S. strike open Pandora's box? (the piece on B7) turns out to be a Q and A composed of relevant questions and sensible and informed answers - a startling surprise in a paper increasingly full of meaningless fluff about celebrities or wannabe celebs, advertising disguised as editorial content or advertorials, and propaganda from the Fraser Institute, CAPP, the CofC, the BC liaRs and the StevieCons disguised as news or fair minded balanced opinion. Basically millions of trees are killed and pixels wasted to either sell automobiles, real estate and/or, or to sell lies to promote the interests of those who benefit from the tar sands, IPPs, wild fish killling farmed fish and so on.  For example when Mr. Marsden asks Dr. Stanton

Q If the U.S. were to arm the rebels, what is the risk of the weapons falling into extremists' hands?

 She thoughtfully (and from an informed position) replies

As Kerry has tried to paint a picture that draws a clear distinction between good and bad rebel forces. Syria expert Stanton laughed at this checkerboard vision. She said the issue is far more complex, adding that there is a limited knowledge about Syrian demographics, public opinion and opposition groups. "What we can say is the very simple picture of here are the good guys, here are the bad guys, here are the secularists, here are the extremists, here are the moderates is too simple," she said. Rebels of different colours and goals fight alongside each other. War tends to blur the lines. If the U.S. arms the rebels, any fighter determined to get his hands on them will get them.

Meanwhile  all the talking heads on TeeVee and stenographers in the Lamestream spew nonsense with no end that is reminscent of nothing so much as the lead up of lies that Bu$h/Cheney engineered to initiate their "shock and awe" campaign on Baghdad. The only thing missing this time around is Judith "Kneepads" Wilson and "Curveball." But they won't be missed as an army of prevaricators and fluffers have risen from the depths willing, able and anxious to pick up the torch they dropped or had ripped from their grasp. Our man Andrew Coyne spouts the same style of predictable meaningless drivel as usual in If Syria’s use of chemical weapons is not a reason to draw a line, then what is? or an article I saved a copy of titled cuckooCoyne.txt.

If chemical weapons are no different than conventional, why did Syrian President Bashar al-Assad use them? Or rather, why did he keep them in reserve at first, then try them out on a smaller scale, then escalate their use, in places where the resistance had proved particularly entrenched? Because they work where conventional weapons do not; because, like other “weapons of mass destruction,” they are the ultimate weapon — because of the high ratio of lethal capacity to resources at risk, because of their portability, their undectability, their sheer indiscriminacy, especially when used against civilians.

Here like the Obama administration and the rest of his useless Lamestream colleagues, he claims as fact assertions that come out of his ass. And then since he is almost as much of a genius as Tom Friedman, he even explains to we idjits why anyone would even use such weapons....thanks Andy you asshole. 

That is why they have been banned, by one treaty or another, since the Geneva Protocol in 1925. Were its signatories naive about war — having suffered all the horrors that conventional weapons could inflict in the First World War? Is it unrealistic to hold today’s combatants to a line that, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper has reminded us, even Hitler and Tojo did not cross?

In relation to the bolded part above, is Andy unaware that in the first world war they suffered quite a bit, indeed a hell of a lot of a bit of mustard gas and chemical weapons....indeed that was the motivation for Geneva 1925, not that they were weary of all the "horrors that conventional weapons could inflict."

Also they haven't been used much since 1925, except for when Saddam, with Saint Ronnie Raygun's blessing, support and most likely gas supply, gassed the Iranian army repeated during the war started by Iraq's invasion of Iran. Then there was the George H. W. Bu$h and Donald Rumsfeld approved gassing of the Kurds in the early nineties by Saddam. Let us not forget the years of contamination of Vietnam by the US with Agent Orange and napalm or the current day Israeli and US use of white phosphorous on civilians and the US military use of depleted uranium everywhere they swagger into to kill brown folks with funny head gear.

Sure Bashar is a BAD MAN, but he certainly doesn't have a corner on the market, and compared to Saint Ronnie, DickHead Cheney and Bibi the  Butcher, he's a small scale amateur.

Since Colin Powell is now looking at himself in the mirror with shame, John "one time anti-war hero" Kerry has taken his place as designated liar from State. Joe Biden is Dick Cheney with a warm working man's face and style and Obama has replaced Bu$h the Lesser with the ability to actually speak English.

But they are selling the same old crap, and this time it could lead to even worse consequences, though Iraq was pretty bad. This time around most of the rest of the planet has lost patience with the assholes from Amerika that read their mail and listen to their phone call and if there really is a coalition of the willing, they're not willing to be identified. Poor John Kerry, one of the few countries he has actually named in his claimed growing list of supporting nations is the United Kingdom, in spite of the fact that wannabe Tony "Poodle" Blair - David Cameron seems to be the only inhabitant of that verdant green jewel Merry Olde England that isn't totally opposed to the idea of whacking Syria.

No one will actually produce the "proof" that Assad actually had anything to do with whatever happened last month in suburban Damascus - unless one considered unverified youTube videos proof of anything, much less who the perpetrator is of what the video claims to portray.

And other than Obama and gang, who is perhaps the stupidest sounding (though unwilling to participate, thank God!) cheerleader for whacking Syria? Stephen Harper, quelle surprise!

As of today things MAY be cooling down as the Russians suggested to John Kerry that perhaps some kind of international supervision, and even eventual destruction, of Syria's unconventional weapons would be acceptable. The Syrian foreign minister immediately indicated he found this acceptable. It remains to be seen if the warmongers will accept this, after all, what a drag it is to not bomb folks when you are all geared up to go.  And of course our Stevie, who would believe a turd was caviar if Dubya or Obama told him so, has his doubts and won't accept this until he understands the details (in other words never, cuz he is too dumb and ideological to understand anything) and for now figures it is just another stall. Hmmmm. his BFF's except for China in Israel have been stalling on every agreement made since 1967 with the Palestinians, and will continue to stall until they have built "settlements" on all the real estate that could have been Palestine.

For more on this late development, how it came about and its prospects see Robert Scheer;s  Obama Remembers He’s Not George W. Bush an excerpt:

Surely President Obama can recall his own earlier warnings about the danger of such military adventures, and the disarray in Libya is a constant reminder that even once promising attacks quickly lose their luster. He has also realized that it is necessary to finally bury the legacy of the Cold War and recognize, as the Chechnya-connected Boston bombing demonstrated, the common stake in dealing effectively with terrorism. It is also Obama who acknowledged that the U.S. shares with Russia the ugly reputation of being the developers and possessors of nuclear weapons of mass destruction that make the Syrian arsenal seem insignificant in comparison.

Perhaps this bold Russian initiative will have been discarded as an option by the time this is read......

One guy who called into the CBC had an excellent suggestion when the call was out for people to call in with their thoughts. He thought that Syria should be BOMBED. (Scroll down)


With food, medicine and GAS MASKS.......

I'm with him!!!!!!!!!

Andrew Coyne,
Supercilious Denial
MUCH?

Blind, Stupid, or just Mendaciously Deceitful?

 I was at the grocery store today and as I walked out I noticed the front page of the money losing propaganda sheet that was started by Conrad Black, not to make money necessarily but to be a colorful and flashy daily advertisement in defense of the entitled elite and GREED!  I was startled to see a colorful headline in the middle just below the banner in black and blue (a similar blue to the one I use in my titles here) that proclaimed the Post's frontpage:

The myth

of INCOME 

inequality 

It's the 1%

who are flatlining, while the

99% surge

 For some reason this eye catching fancily formatted headline or illustration doesn't appear in the online version of the column of lies. Although the commentators there give Andy kudos for proving that those concerned about inequality are WRONG, they are folks who read the Con filled Post and are either entitled themselves or confident they soon will be among the higher ups.

Since every reputable set of data indicates that the current level of inequality is even higher than it was in 1929, just before the big crash, when the banksters and fraudsters had turned Wall Street into a casino of speculation, completely divorced from an actual PRODUCTIVE ECONOMY. Every time the richie riches decide to not use the stock market to provide investment into making widgets, rockets or any other actual thing to eat, drive or sit on and decide trading imaginary paper is the way to maximize

profits and screw main street, manufacturers and builders - it always manages to end badly. It did in 1929 and kicked off the Great Depression and again in 2007/2008 which triggered perhaps the even Greater Depression which certainly ain't over yet and its even looking like it will take massive war to wise the Masters of the Universe who have highjacked the 99 percent of not-entitled, non-elite.

Last time, in 1929, at least lots of the a-holes who created the mess had the courtesy or self respect to jump out of windows - though many hung onto life and spent the next few years trying to thwart FDR, just like the current crooks are more successfully thwarting Obama and anyone in Congress who would deign to attempt to rein in their shameful GREED! So far this time they have managed to believe in socialism, but only for them, as they somehow swindled the rest of the country who were losing their jobs, savings, retirement plans and homes to bail them out. Now of course they are back to the same old highway robbery, only more so and taking bigger fees and commissions, basically ripping everybody else off, even harder. 

Dudes like the supercilious Andrew Coyne, born a son to the Governor of the Bank of Canada at the time, make it their mission to enable, excuse and explain how and why everybody is doing better, as food banks feed more of the population and homelessness reaches new highs almost monthly.  These losers should feel sorry for those poor rich folks who are "flatlining." Give me a break. 

I was really disappointed myself in the charts and other stats Andy uses to "prove" his assertions. Rather than the poor rich folks suffering and the lowlifes "surging" at best his choice of graphs shows some amount of staying static amidst already gaping inequality. But the main way Mr. Coin hides or turns the truth on its head is by concentrating on INCOME. The one percent don't live by "income," and any discussion of inequality is meaningless without taking "wealth" into consideratiion. Most of the "income" of the really rich isn't considered income, even though it COMES IN to their pockets. Thats why even a minor league rich guy (though in the lower levels of the really rich) can pay so little in taxes, the majority of the money incoming to these guys isn't income and often is invisibly stashed away out of sight of the IRS, the CRA and the Harper handicapped (more like kneecapped) Stats Can.  

This isn't a new idea that just came to Andrew, back in July he beat the same drum in Fewer people sit below the poverty line now than ever before. Why are we not talking about it?

 Little Andy isn't working alone on this deception and denial to cover the asses of the rich, no way. Countless Stink Tanks like the Fraser Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Chicago School of Economics and flapping gum operators like Kevin "I love being an asshole" O'Leary produce an unending chorus about why we should treasure the rich and someday we will benefit. Well, perhaps bar-b-qued with a good sauce. A Fraser Institute paper that spends over 30 pages telling us how good we've got it and how much better it would be if we only listened to them even lists in the bibliography this absurd citation.

Coyne, C. J. (2006). Income Inequality Benefits American Society. 

In R. Sims(Ed.),Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing?

Greenhaven Press.

I don't know if this guy is related to little Andy, but there is no link for it, I guess you gotta buy the book, after all he wants to be a rich guy too, you know! Academic publications don't generally lead to riches, but they could lead to wing-nut welfare at the Fraser Institute or Heritage Foundation.

The current situation in Europe, Canada and especially the US is not sustainable, there will be some kind of growing movement for change, it was part of the Occupy Movement and growing crowds of Greeks, Spaniards, French and even English folk that didn't go to school with David Cameron are taking to the streets, only to be put down, somewhat less violently than in say Syria or Egypt, but violent or non-violent, it will come. That is if we are here long enough. Obama might bomb Syria and then Russia or even Syria itself with sophisticated Russian anti-ship missiles might take out an American aircraft carrier or destroyer of shoot down an F-18 or F-22 or two and then who knows. Maybe we'll wind up getting out of this depression the same way we did the last one and work wonders on the population problem at the same time. At some point everybody isn't gonna just be happy sitting on the sidelines watching the USA play Bad Cop where ever and when ever in the world it wants to do so!