Photo by John Hayden
“If democracy deadlocks here, we raise doubts about democracy everywhere.”
Sen. John Kerry made that sobering comment during his farewell address to the U.S. Senate this week. He’s leaving the Senate to become the new U.S. secretary of state, America’s ambassador to the world.
U.S. 2012 ELECTION RESULTS, BLUE STATES FOR OBAMA, RED STATES FOR ROMNEY. FLORIDA, THE LAST STATE TO BE DECIDED, WENT BLUE. (Map via Wikipedia)
“This is the America that Obama will govern in his second term: A place divided not only by ideology, race and class but also by the very perception of reality. . . . The president who spoke ambitiously at his first inauguration about uniting America instead arrives at his second with the country further divided.” — Eli Saslow, The Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2013
Note: This post was published in 2013 following the 2012 presidential election. It seems more relevant than ever as America prepares for the 2016 presidential election.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
That sums up America in the decade leading up to the Civil War, as described in “Team Of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s history of Abraham Lincoln and the politicians, abolitionists, generals, and ordinary people of his era. The similarities between the present time and the decade before the Civil War are striking and frightening. Continue reading
The Republican Party has exacted a pound of flesh from the people of New York and New Jersey.
It’s more than a slap in the face. It’s a kick in the teeth. Continue reading
What a bizarre spectacle of irresponsible brinkmanship! The ultimate House and Senate votes may have narrowly averted immediate fiscal crisis and tax increases, but they do not restore one iota of confidence in the legislative branch of American government.
President Barack Obama, after failing to exert the leadership the American people hoped for, immediately boarded Air Force One to resume a Hawaiian vacation with his family. What can he be thinking?
To put the cherry on top of the whipped cream, Continue reading
I was planning to write an updated report on how much I’m enjoying my Kindle Fire. There was a learning curve when I first opened the box, but once I figured out a few basic functions, the Kindle became a breeze and a pleasure to use.
I’ve enjoyed browsing the Kindle store, and found a number of books I’ve been wanting to read. One is “Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy,” by MSNBC’s Christopher Hayes. (This “Twilight” isn’t about vampires.)
“Twilight of the Elites” is a great book, examining our collective loss of trust in virtually all the major institutions — the pillars — of society. In particular, Hayes analyzes how and why the “elites” who rule by virtue of “meritocracy” have failed us.
I’ve been reading the book for the past few evenings, highlighting many informative sentences using the Kindle highlighting function. This morning, I opened the book on the Kindle and found that all my painstaking highlighting is gone. The highlighting has disappeared!
Photo by John Hayden
It’s 10 days since I last posted on Work In Progress. The Earth continues to spin. Gen. John Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, et al., were pushed from the front pages by a deadly rocket battle between Israelis in Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
Full-out war appeared imminent, according to cable TV news. But a ceasefire was called in time for Thanksgiving. (Appropriate that it’s an American holiday. We have so much to be thankful for, compared to the rest of the world. And we take it all for granted.)
The waning of the Middle East crisis made room for a seasonal story: Walmart employees threatening to disrupt kickoff of the Christmas shopping frenzy. (Starting time for the frenzy advanced from Black Friday to Thanksgiving Day, henceforth to be known as Black Thursday.)
The Walmart protests fizzled, naturally. They had as much impact as Y2K. Walmart workers stand exposed as powerless against the energy of American consumerism.
Now we return to the dreaded “Fiscal Cliff,” at least until the next distraction. Be not faint-hearted! In the grand scheme of things, the fiscal cliff is a bump in the road.
Most importantly, the fiscal cliff provides a unique opportunity to put the brakes on the runaway military-industrial defense complex. Seize the day! Continue reading
The U.S. defense budget, worldwide military overreach, and the influence of the military-industrial complex — these are the root of America’s economic and debt crisis.
Not Social Security, not Medicare, not Medicaid, not government pensions, not anything else you want to label as “entitlements.”
MAYBE THE FISCAL CLIFF LOOKS LIKE THIS sand dune in Ocean City, Maryland, after some serious pounding by Hurricane Sandy. A sudden drop off at the top, followed by a sloping hill of sand.
Ever notice how the terminology we apply to important issues in the public sphere can blow things all out of proportion. Continue reading
“Seasteading” is a long, amazing post that is very much worth reading. It’s “1984” all over again, but worse.
Are we really about to enter an age of extreme, anarchist wealth? I was aware that many of the ultra-rich are hoarding their money offshore. And many more have secured and stockpiled luxury survivalist redoubts in isolated areas.
Given the results of the 2012 presidential election — disappointing in the extreme to the super-rich — it’s not unreasonable to think that some of them might be of a mind to give up on democracy. Not that they ever liked the concept of popular rule.
Many among the wealthy seem to have a paranoid, survivalist bent. Are they crazy, or do they know something we don’t?
And why would they want to coop themselves up in some mountain hideaway or aboard a luxury oil rig or ocean liner, when they already have the Cayman Islands?
Obviously, there are many things I do not know or understand. — John
Related articles
- Blueseed: Floating Bilderberg Cities Where the Elite Control the Masses (federaljack.com)
- PayPal Founder Peter Thiel Offer $100,000 in Matching Donations to the Seasteading Institute, Makes Grant of $250,000 (prweb.com)
- Blueseed: Floating Bilderberg Cities Where the Elite Control the Masses (occupycorporatism.com)
- Ambassador Lasse Birk Olesen at TEDx Copenhagen: Seasteading + Technology > Politics (seasteading.org)
- Floating Cities? Bon Voyage, Rich Libertarians. (slate.com)
- Nanotech Pioneer Takes Plunge Toward Settling the Sea (prweb.com)
- Blueseed: Floating Bilderberg Cities Where the Elite Control the Masses (thedailysheeple.com)
- The Seasteading Institute November 2012 Newsletter (seasteading.org)
- Brave new sea worlds to redefine society (newscientist.com)
- Pioneers Wanted! Fresh New Cities On and Off Shore (blogs.asce.org)
For years now, slow-news days have brought us the breaking news that the world’s richest people — and hence the world’s best — fed up with taxation, government regulation, and having to co-exist with the unwashed masses without hunting them for sport, are about to go off to live on a modified oil rig, a “project” known as ”seasteading”. Alternatively, they may inhabit a giant cruise ship.
On the surface, it looks like a perfect futuristic Galt’s Gulch, a cluster of manicured, pastel-colored apartment buildings separated from the world of “parasites” by the forbidding ocean, but yet within a safe distance of some friendly country, one that does not mind having billionaire excrement, broken champagne bottles, and an occasional dead body washing up on its beaches. There are no taxes to pay, no building codes, no labor laws, no zoning regulations, no legal protections for non-residents (you know…
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ELECTION DAY 2012, 11:48 p.m. It was as cold as expected in Maryland today. I was wearing Obama T-shirt over my winter jacket (layering is key in cold weather). This is supposed to be a conservative precinct. Almost no minorities. Not many men, either, I guess. Women, esp. young women, voting in much higher numbers than men. (I can’t explain it.) Young women and young men — many first-time voters — voting in surprisingly high numbers. I didn’t know we had so many women under 25 here. Lots of them signaling a quick thumbs-up. Obama wins this precinct, unless my eyes deceive me. Ohio has been called. Looks like Obama will be a two-term pres. Health care wins. Women win. I hope Obama wins the popular vote too, or it may be a long four years. — John
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 