Free Speech, Gun Rights and American Dreams

I wish as many Americans were as angered by Actual Constitutional transgressions of free speech instead of theoretical transgressions of gun rights. It seems that most of our gun-toting countrymen and women are unaware how moot their weapons become if we can't even assemble peaceably. I don't advocate the use of guns in politics, but many Americans regularly talk about how their "guns are the only thing standing between us and the New World Order" and other such statements. If that is what you really believe, don't you at least want to be able to gather together in groups to protest without your guns? What makes you think you have our military out-gunned anyway? And ammo? Have you ordered as much as the U.S. military? My point is twofold: 1. you're not going to "save america" with guns 2. even if you could, wouldn't you also need the right to gather in groups in public places? It's been 11 solid years of rolling back rights on free speech. Wake up to the real threats, America.

"Obamacare": The Road to Health or a Subsidy for Wealth?

I had a terrible day Thursday what with all the name calling. I support universal health care and think it's fine to tax the very wealthy for the benefit of society and those with the least. Still, after the court's ruling I dared to speak up and say that the outrageous health care COSTS we currently have, the lack of incentives for preventive care and the pay per procedure system should be reformed BEFORE we write a blank check to the health industrial complex. I also dared to point out that we will have to borrow money to pay for it (unless we raise taxes on the wealthy, which seems unlikely in this climate despite that it is the right thing to do). I repeatedly asserted my support for universal care throughout making these points. Nevertheless, I was attacked by a surprisingly large amount of people for being "tea party" (which is a ridiculous accusation given my politics) and a Fox news watcher, etc. It was VERY hateful by people I only assume call themselves "liberals". The sad thing is that without reforming the overpriced and substandard health care in this country, universal healthcare will further bankrupt our country (again, unless we raise taxes on the wealthy). When we get so much debt that we can't afford to pay interest payments anymore, austerity (aka structural adjustment policies in the third world) will eventually make its way here, making "Obamacare" ENTIRELY MOOT since at that point we would lose control over our own fiscal policy decisions. It's like every liberal in the country is whistling past the graveyard on this one, so delighted due to their enormous lowering of standards. It's sick. "You are all diseased" as George Carlin once said. I guess you feel it's easier just to make your grandchildren pay for today's corrupt health care instead of actually reforming the health care system so we can afford it. No amount of health care will save you from your own greedy, diseased minds.


Without reforming the outrageously high cost of health care in this country we are just writing a blank check to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Since we borrow the money to pay them, we will be going into debt much faster than we are now (which is at a pretty fast pace mind you). Don't you understand what happens when you can't pay your interest payments anymore? They have control over your fiscal decisions. THEY WILL SHUT OBAMACARE, FOOD STAMPS, MEDICARE/MEDICAID ETC. AS SOON AS WE FALL BEHIND ON OUR DEBT OBLIGATIONS PEOPLE. Consider that we are only able to make our current payments by borrowing. What would happen if just one of our debt holders decided we had too much? Well, look it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_adjustment


I'm sick of being attacked like I'm a tea partier. I'm NOT! I'm for raising taxes on the wealthy BY A LOT. BUT that isn't happening, now is it? Not when you've got millions of poor people convinced they might someday be rich and therefor vote AGAINST their own economic interests.

A friend said that it's better to go broke while trying to help sick people than going broke without trying to help sick people. I agree. A former professor asked if I thought it was better to sit on our hands and 'let people die'. I was embarrassed to have to correct a professor by pointing out her simple fallacy. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma


It was a long day.

Most Sophisticated Cyberwarfare Tool ever Created, In Use For Two Years Already

The now two year old (but only recently made public) cyberworm/virus "Flame" is widely accepted to be created by a nation-state. Since 9-11, our own government has been using all formerly unavailable techniques to monitor as many citizens as possible, whether there is a warrant or cause or not. An incredible bureaucracy has formed around this freshly legal system of spying on innocent citizens. While it is widely believed already that smart phones can be used for monitoring, Flame takes this monitoring into your home as it uses your computer instead. Flame can do a great many different things, but some of the more disturbing abilities include: activating your computer's microphone and webcam for monitoring everything near your computer(s), access nearby Bluetooth devices, monitor IM and take screen shots. "The virus then uploads all this information to command and control servers, of which there are about a dozen scattered around the world." http://www.pcworld.com/article/256508/the_flame_virus_your_faqs_answered.html
"The UN has urged countries to seek a "peaceful resolution" in cyberspace to avoid the threat of global cyberwar. The comments by the head of the UN's telecommunications agency came a week after Flame, one of the most complex cyber-attacks to date, was uncovered." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18351995

http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/us-wasnt-behind-flame-virus-says-un-security-chief/

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/why-the-un-cares-so-much-about-flame-malware.php

Austerity, Death by A Thousand Cuts

I guess the average American who doesn't think about politics much will be quite surprised when they no longer get pell grants, food stamps, medicare, medicaid, social security, veterans' benefits, unemployment insurance, disability, ANY food, water and air pollution regulation, earned income tax credits or the like, community medical clinics, community youth programs, services at national parks (or maybe no national parks since they could bring in some money from logging and mining), community services for the elderly, community development block grants, federal financial assistance for schools and roads, publically priced utilities (since they will be privatized and the price goes way up), a dollar that is worth much, any environmental, humanitarian or labor protection from multi-national corporations that will demand (and get) unfettered access to our markets, and a fraction of the money spent on education and public infrastructure including needed sanitation and water quality maintenance and improvements. These things together makes an economic "development" strategy often called Structural Adjustment Policies (and the Washington Consensus) and they've been used with devastating results in the third world for 50 years or more. Now they call it "austerity" as it moves out of the "third" world and into the "first". Whatever they call it, it is a death by a thousand cuts.

"If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it." - Ken Livingstone

I do believe in the power of voting but I think in this country it is highly over-rated. I believe each and every dollar you spend is a vote for what kind of world you want to live in. Added up, I believe your total lifetime spending has more of an impact on the world than all the people you did or didn't vote for. To me, it is clearly propaganda to suggest that we can actually solve our serious problems through a corporate-sponsored media event lasting almost two out of every four years. Even if we elect someone with good intentions we don't know how she/he would hold up in D.C. under various new pressures to sell out in small ways here and there (to accomplish this or that goal, of course).

Daily Kos: Social Media Revolution being Infiltrated, Co-opted and Undermined

"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online. And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters  and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth. 

I GUESS THIS LITTLE GIRL IS ONE OF THE EVIL PROTESTORS TOO

  LOOK WHAT EVIL CAN MAKE PEOPLE DO; RISE UP AGAINST THE OPPRESSORS