I headed into the gym early Sunday morning and jumped on the elliptical machine to get my blood moving before lifting. The wall of TVs offered up sports, that MTV Jersey Boobs and Biceps show, and various news programs...
Perpetual government gadfly Gene Sperling: bla bla bla... So our military and our old people can get paid... bla bla bla... The president is committed...
Mark Zandi of Moodys came on and said it would all be high tides and green grass and the economy would recover if DC would just raise the debt ceiling. Gloria Borger nodded in agreement instead of laughing in his face.
Fareed Zakaria asked why we even had a debt ceiling at all?
The funniest one of all was CNN asking the president of GM about how to be successful in a down economy. I was only looking at the captions, no sound, but I could imagine his answer.
"Well Gloria, just tell the feral government you'll collapse and destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs. Ha ha! Don't worry, they're too stupid to see through the scam. Ha ha ha! They'll stab the taxpayers and bond holders in the guts so fast it'll make your head spin. Before you know it, you'll be swimming in other people's money!"
All this was performed by our press and their government guests with a straight face...
Here's something the soap opera disguised as news won't tell you:
The military, retirees and social security recipients have already been paid, so the drama and the stupid Countdown to Debt Ceiling Armageddon clock are all BS, aimed to keep us all in a perpetual state of panic and looking to The Government like the Munchkins eagerly look to The Wizard when the wicked witch of the west mounts her broom.
We could go another month without defaulting. It would take some brains over at treasury to prioritize, so Geithner and Obama are not up to the task, but there are probably some wiz kids over there who can figure it out.
The World is a Messy Place, and Global Elites Want to Clean it Up, Organize it.
The international oligarchy looks down from on high and frown upon us, little ants going about life, doing what we will, refusing to march to the master drummer. They don't like it. They need us marching in a line carrying money to the governments, all to protect their rent streams.
The media is the Handmaid of the International Oligarchy
...doing it every bidding, unconsciously, reflexively. The oligarchy allows people like Thomas Friedman and Fareed Zakaria into the inner circle, the power conclaves, the Bilderburger Covens and the Davos gatherings. This fools the press into thinking they are in the club.
So now, the press afflicts the afflicted and comforts the powerful
We are being scammed, America...
87 comments:
WATCH OUT FOLKS! Here come the conspiracy theories.
Sounds like Silverfiddle got turned down by the Murdoch organization.
In my opinion the international oligarchy, if it exists, is super rich it resents the restrictions placed on its power by national governments. It would rather the governments were kept small and in their place, so that it can exercise its wealth and power unimpeded.
There is no need for a conspiracy theory, this is a natural common interest of the wealthy and powerful.
"'They' need us marching in a line carrying money to the governments, all to protect their rent streams."
Short of a revolutionary act, there's nothing we can do to ever stop the rent stream. Debt must continue to exist, be it national or personal.
Short of a revolutionary act...
...got turned down by the Murdoch organization.
Your right mr ducky... the conspiracy nuts on the Left are out in force today. (see above)
Wow. I agree with jez.
I agree with Jez also, except for the international elites wanting small governments. They want whatever size works. If they can hijack a government, then they would want it plenty big, all the better to implement crony crapitalism.
Duck,
FYI....There is a message for you in the post below.
Silverfiddle,
The military, retirees and social security recipients have already been paid, so the drama and the stupid Countdown to Debt Ceiling Armageddon clock are all BS.
Exactly.
All this drama is but a distraction and campaigning for 2012.
Wow. I agree with jez.
What, that organized "management" is much more dangerous to the world's freedom than communist loving organized "labour"?
You people are REALLY naive.
"If they can hijack a government, then they would want it plenty big,"
Yep fair enough. Maybe the truer the democracy, the smaller they'd want its government?
great post SF.
And people like Ducky are needed
by the left to "snicker" at those in opposition to diminish them.
That is Rules For Radicals #5:
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon."
Actually it sounds like a few of those "Rules" have been applied by this administration.
Speedy: Organized labor is chump change. They are good for propaganda purposes and for providing some grass roots manpower, but they are not the fundamental threat.
Organized labor is chump change. They are good for propaganda purposes and for providing some grass roots manpower, but they are not the fundamental threat.
You never heard of the Socialist International? The British Labour Party? The Norwegian Labour Party? WOW!
Talk about some pretty big "chumps".
The international elites don't care what size the governments are as long as they control the money. Crony capitalism is a myth. Crony socialism is not a myth.
Sun Tzu, "Art of War"
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.
The socialist international is NOT a myth or a conspiracy "theory". It is a reality.
Comintern is still out there... although it's "ducks" are still trying to fly under our radar.
I'm not disagreeing, Speedy.
Progressive statism is problem. I just think the old left-right argument is a less accurate way to look at present circumstances. I prefer "statism vs free markets."
Conservatives are just as capable and hungry to use statism to control out lives as progressives are.
This is all posturing for 2012? Wow, Obummer is a spineless zero who will go anyway the power blows. Who spent a minute to figure that out?
Look, the man is a complete nothing. He's vapor.
He's nothing. For a clue to the actual power dynamics look elsewhere. Obama the jellyfish wanted to govern in the middle and found out the middle has become something right of Goldwater and said fine.
He will not make waves. Do any of you realize that he is the only president (okay, it may have happened in another rare instance) to maintain the sitting Federal attorneys? Normal practice is to remove the group and bring in your own team. His team is the Bush team.
Bring in Rick Warren for your inauguration to show that your a centrist, you know the drill. No freak too disgusting.
The guy is simply spineless and was too bleeping foolish to realize he was going to get run over. So long as his political future stays intact he will play dead.
A truly disgusting man.
Conservatives are just as capable and hungry to use statism to control our lives as progressives are.
Progressive liberals and "Red-Tory (read RINO)" Republicans are. But not genuinely "classical" liberals. They were against English Monarchy controlled British East-India Company "state merchantilism" in 1776, and are still against union protectionist state imposed "positive liberties" today. Negative liberty is necessary if the individual is going to remain "sovereign" to himself and not become an "enslaved" member of a "disciplinary society" or a "society of control" (as I prefer to view the old left-right argument)
another link for the bad one, above.
We are being played as if we are fools. I will stick to being a hobbit, preferring to live in Middle Earth.
There is no doubt the world is ruled by an oligarchy. I don't think it's the top down control structure that many conspiracy theorists promote. But there are a lot of powerful people with a similar agenda who often collaborate. It's no coincidence that the U.S. Australia and whole Western world are heading in the same direction.
All one needs to do is research and connect the dots between Obama and Soros and you will find the answer to whether it’s a conspiracy theories or not.
Mark Adams is probably right, sadly.
As for your post? I couldn't agree more with any of what you wrote...great job.
I thinke Trestin has it right that it isn't a centralized conspiracy, but rather an almost mindless march in the same direction. Go to law school and practice law for a few years and you'll see what I mean!
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I thinke Trestin has it right that it isn't a centralized conspiracy
The Socialist International is NOT a centralized conspiracy? A WORLD WIDE POLITICAL PARTY is NOT a centralized conspiracy? Then I wonder WHAT a centralized conspiracy would look like, if THEY are NOT one.
Have you seen their membership list?
Barack Obama was a candidate for the Democratic Socialists of America's "New Party" when running for the Illinois legislature... the DSA is PART of the SI.
This isn't very hard, people...
Is there any comparable organized political party on the Right?
Why not?
...perhaps because the RIGHT is not IN on the conspiracy?
I'm for a balanced budget amendment immediately.
First: In a weak economy spending contracts creating more unemployment and further depressing the housing market.
Second: Federal revenue declines even further and Baggers refuse any tax increase.
Third: Federal expenditures fall and the cycle repeats.
Now sooner or later someone is going to break the cycle but by then enough damage may be done that several of you will have lost your jobs and be well on your way to The Full Ayn Rand with absolutely no relief in sight for a decade. Good luck.
Country: I don't think it's a conspiracy either. I essentially believe the same as you and Trestin.
@Joe: I didn't find your link very convincing. The Wikipedia piece begins with the disclaimer that it is in serious need of revision.
@Ducky: I'm reluctant to engage, but your comment "Second: Federal revnues decline..." is too funny for me to resist. Borrow $70k from China (or have the Fed print it). Extract $15k back in various taxes. Fire said worker. Of course revenues will decline, but you will also reduce the deficit, by $55k in this simple example!
Ducky: Thank you. You just summed up how it works in a soviet-style centrally planned economy.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/05/29/austerity-works.html
@Joe: I didn't find your link very convincing. The Wikipedia piece begins with the disclaimer that it is in serious need of revision.
That's okay. I didn't find your "absence of evidence" is "evidence of absence" argument very convincing, either.
Second: Federal revenue declines even further and Baggers refuse any tax increase.
The General Tax Strike is coming, ducky. If the Congress doesn't need to follow the law and annually budget for expenses, WE don't have to annually pay them.
Socialist International?
ROFLMAO
Democratic Socialists of America, their American affiliate has roughly 6,000 members.
Socialist Party USA 1,000
And I though the Libertarian Party was bad with only a quarter of a million.
Now you might allege in a conspiratorial manner that the Democratic Party is secretly allied with SI, but honestly I don't think we need a conspiracy to explain anything.
We've gone from Manifest Destiny to Manifest Incompetance.
Who needs a conspiracy when we've got the clowns we have holding public office.
Keep laughing, Finny. You don't troll the IMT. They INVENTED entryism.
Duck, the only ones loosing their jobs will be anyone hire by the feds after 2008.
Once there is a meaning full BBA and the feds have to stop turning our economic future over to hostile foes, like China, the private sector will be more reluctant to spend profits, which equates to a spawn of hiring, which in turn draws up revenue.
You'll reap more tax dollar by getting 1/2 of the already unemployed back to work then raising taxes on the wealthy by 5%, as the Dems want to do.
Now you might allege in a conspiratorial manner that the Democratic Party is secretly allied with SI, but honestly I don't think we need a conspiracy to explain anything.
No we don't. But just because we don't WANT to believe in conspiracies (for people will make fun of us) doesn't mean that there aren't any.
What do you think CPC is in Congress to do? Barrack Obama CAMPAIGNED for Bernie Sanders for the US Senate. Why?
You don't have to believe that there's a conspiracy in any of that. But then again, there's a Tea Party caucus now, isn't there? And isn't THAT an "open conspiracy" with a political objective? The Congressional Progressive Caucus HAS a purpose, and it wasn't formed to just play chess and read good books.
Of course, a large scale conspiracy is IMPOSSIBLE in America. Political statements endorsed by kooks like Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Mike Klonsky, all friends and co-workers of Barrack Obama in Chicago, would be irrelevant to any conspiracy, real or imagined.
By the way, Obama participation in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was all STRICTLY coincidental. The fact that Ayer's multi-millionaire father ran Chicago's public philanthropies had nothing to do with Obama's being named to legally oversea many of these operations.
I don't doubt it's coming, Joe Conservative.. You'll tank the whole economy by putting the demand curve on life support.
Should put a few of you on the curb with a begging bowl. But it's the only way a progressive movement, forget anything more extreme for the time can arise. I'm supporting Bachmann, she'll have us down the toilet in no time.
Not sure Niall Ferguson gives you much help, Silverfiddle (although you both yearn for the days of empire).
He's a good historian and a hack economist. Better to pay attention to him on history.
50 Facts about America that should Blow your Mind
PART ONE
#1 In 2010, not only does the United States have a central bank, but it also runs our economy and issues all of our currency. The Federal Reserve has devalued the U.S. dollar by over 95 percent since 1913 and it has been used to create the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.
#2 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that U.S. government agents can legally sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, place a secret GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of you everywhere that you go.
#3 The 50 wealthiest members of Congress saw their collective fortunes increase by 85.1 million dollars to $1.4 billion in 2009.
#4 The U.S. government has accumulated a national debt that is rapidly approaching the 14 trillion dollar mark.
#5 All over the United States, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have now turned some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.
#6 Americans now owe more than $849 billion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.
#7 In 2010, Americans waste an astounding amount of food. According to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management board, 63 percent of the average supermarket’s waste stream is food. When you break that down, it means that each supermarket wastes approximately 3,000 pounds of food each year.
#8 The city of Cleveland plans to sort through curbside trash to ensure that people are actually recycling properly. If it is discovered that some citizens are not recycling they will be hit with very large fines.
#9 Once upon a time, U.S. industry was the envy of the world. But since 1979, manufacturing employment in the United States has fallen by 40 percent.
#10 Even though the U.S. population has exploded in size, the number of Americans with manufacturing jobs today is smaller than the number of Americans who were employed in manufacturing in 1950.
#11 Having one out of every eight Americans enrolled in the food stamp program is now considered “the new normal” and Americans continue to drop into poverty in astounding numbers.
#12 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.
#13 A family of four actually has difficulty surviving on an income of $50,000 a year in America in 2010.
#14 Barack Obama is backing a proposal to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime.
#15 In 2010, it takes the average unemployed American worker over 8 months to find a job.
#16 The U.S. government has made some parts of Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers. The federal government has actually posted signs more than 100 miles north of the Mexican border warning travelers that certain areas are unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers.
#17 One recent survey of last year’s college graduates discovered that 80 percent moved right back home with their parents after graduation.
(CONTINUED)
Submitted by FreeThinke
Ducky: I've read you and I've read Ferguson. It's no contest: He's way smarter than you, regardless of subject.
HMMMMMMMPH!
Parts Two and Three SAID they posted, and LOOKED like they got posted, but they just disappeared.
Too bad! I ain't gonna bother trying it again.
Temperamental software pisses me off.
~ FT
You want evidence that we are, indeed, being eaten alive just Google New World Order. It's out there, but too many "sensible people just refuse to believe it.
It's oft been said that Satan's greatest accomplishment to date has been to convince the "intelligentsia" that he does not exist.
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
~ FreeThinke
SF ... seriously, everyone in the room is smarter than Ducky.
"... everyone in the room is smarter than Ducky.
I beg to differ, Mustang.
Ducky is very intelligent, and extremely well read. He's just practicing Critical Theory on us. Alinsky got a lot of his ideas from The Frankfurt School, who dreamt up and launched Critical Theory as an all-out assault on the Bourgeoisie and on Christianity in Europe, Britain and the United States.
The Frankfurters set before themselves the task of making Marxism seem more palatable to the relatively comfortable, prosperous inhabitants of the the West, who felt no deep need for Revolution within themselves.
They've been hugely successful, may God damn their souls.
Listen to practitioners of Critical Theory too long, and you'll begin to doubt your own sanity -- which is exactly what "Critical Theorists" hope to accomplish.
Many malcontents who subscribed to perverted ways of thinking are extremely bright. They just don't think the way you and I do, that's all.
The ironic "in" joke, however, is that Marxists, the Arch-Conservatives, Blacks, Jews, Gays, Women, Cripples, Little Brown People Everywhere and the Islamic Fundamentalcases too have all been USED by the One Worlders to weaken resistance to the establishment of The New World Order. The Orderists do this by setting these various factions against one another and exacerbating the antagonisms among them to distract the world from the machinations of The One World Orderists who are the REAL villains behind all of it.
Ducky is partially aware of this, but he -- Marxist that he is -- wants to lay the blame solely on "Corporatists," who I realize are only one facet of the problem.
What Ducky says about Obama is true. Ducky doesn't like Zero anymore than we do, but it's because he believes Zero is not enough of a leftist, despite his total immersion in Communism from birth on throughout his formative years.
But Ducky is right. Obama -- like George H.W Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush before him -- is an ORDERIST.
HE's IN ON IT.
If there's nothing to this New World Order business -- as I think Finn would have it -- then why does anyone think that nothing ever changes regardless of which party is in power?
Vested interests WANT it that way. That's why.
~ FreeThinke
Cororpate lackeys are the right....
Pareidolia:
The imagined perception of pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist.
A type of illusion or misperception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct
Apophenia:
The unmotivated seeing of connections accompanied by a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness.
The observance of patterns or connections between random or meaningless data
Pareidolia is similar to apophenia, but is different in its interpretive focus. While apophenia focuses on seeing patterns between completely separate incidents, pareidolia focuses on the seeing of patterns in specific sensory based stimuli; turning something that was not present into something which was actually perceived.
"then why does anyone think that nothing ever changes regardless of which party is in power?"
Why?
Because we have become so homogenous in political thought that our political parties are two sides of the same coin, or more appropriately two factions within the same progressive party.
Because we place more interest and attention on who is going to win the next superbowl or who is going to be the next 'American Idol' than on matters politic. Millions can tell you who Derek Jeter is, who the hell knows who Kathleen Sebelius is? (Present company excepted). Hell, half of us probably couldn't tell you who the vice president is.
Because American politics is less about ideology and more about electability. Few politicians adhere strongly to any ideology, they blow where the votes go. We have quite frankly, despite all the media showmanship, some of the most tepid politics in the world.
Because most of us vote in the same way we root for our favorite sports team... we might at times go to the stadium with bags over our heads, but we still root GO TEAM GO!
If the Tea Party has done anything, it is to get more people interested and active in politics than anything else.
Cheers!
B.D.
Nice, that was almost a sentence. Feeling up to a paragraph yet?
EATEN ALIVE:
#18 In one of the very first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a U.S. military judge ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.
#19 The average American worker now pays literally dozens of different kinds of taxes each year.
#20 In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.
#21 Christians are being arrested and thrown in jail in some areas of the United States for quietly passing out Christian literature on public sidewalks.
#22 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using cutting edge analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place “potential offenders” in prevention and education programs.
#23 Organic milk is now considered such a national crisis that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in the state of Pennsylvania.
#24 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that they are considering a crackdown on farm dust.
#25 According to a new CDC report, nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis.
#26 Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts says that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.
#27 Today, Americans are losing their homes in staggering numbers. One out of every seven mortgages was delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.
#28 Many of our leading scientists are now calling themselves “transhumanists” and are openly proclaiming that a future where men have fully merged with machines is inevitable.
#29 Americans who spend large amounts of cash are viewed as “potential criminals” by the U.S. government in 2010.
#30 New full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States can actually see through our clothing and produce very clear and very detailed images of our exposed bodies as we walk through them.
#31 The U.S. financial system has become a massive gambling parlor in 2010. As a result, a horrific derivatives bubble has developed that threatens to destroy our entire economy at any moment. Nobody knows exactly how big the derivatives bubble is, but low estimates place it at around 600 trillion dollars and high estimates put it at around 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Once that bubble pops there simply will not be enough money in the entire world to fix it.
#32 The U.S. government is spending an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.
~ FT
One man's Apophenia [sounds like the name of a Greek goddess!] could be another man's penetrating insight or astute perception.
I listen to the Bach Chaconne in D-Minor for solo violin played by Heifetz or Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, and it transports me worlds away to higher state of consciousness. Someone else could listen to the same performance, and feel as though he'd been strapped in the dentist's chair without anesthesia for a half hour. What strikes me as sublime could well be torture to someone else.
What does that tell us? Only that different individuals experience stimuli very differently. It says nothing about the rights and wrongs of the situation or the value of either viewpoint.
The Chaconne is widely recognized as a monumental masterpiece in music literature, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea -- nor does it have to be. But, if you hated it and defined me as an Apopheniac for thinking well of it, you'd be dead wrong.
Your diagnosis of our present condition vis-a-vis politics, knowledge of history, levels of intellectual curiosity et al. seems right on the money, Finn, but you give no explanation for how and why we got that way. As the atheistic evolutionists view the nature of life, do you believe everything that plagues us was the result of mere happenstance -- a series of purposeless, meaningless unrelated accidents?
It don't seem bloody likely to me.
There's too much smoke for there not tobe a fire at our house.
There's too much shit all over the place too. It's ankle deep, so it stands to reason there's got to be a pony -- or a minotaur -- in there as well.
Regards,
~ FreeThinke
"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years.
But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."
- David Rockefeller Baden-Baden, Germany 1991
So yes, Virginia, there really is a cabal of international elitists plotting to destroy American Sovereignty and establish One World Government run by elitist oligarchs.
Orwell's nightmare vision is becoming more fulfilled ever day. Orwell was not a fantasist, he was a prophet.
Submitted by FreeThinke
@Finntann "Millions can tell you who Derek Jeter is ..."
-------------
A shortstop who is useless trying to go more than a step to his left, no power, mediocre average. Lost a step to first.
Spankees suck.
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What does it tell us Freethinker? That some have the intellect to enjoy a complex musical idea and aren't satisfied with pop junk that tries to pass off a one bar hook as a melody.
You'll run into the same issues with painting or film or any other art form although non fiction literature, poetry, sculpture, architecture etc. don't have much of a following these days.
Literature has become Laura Ingraham's latest junk screed.
Don't get me going on painting. The average person is not going to spend more than three seconds viewing a work and rarely attends a show or museum. Put them in front of abstraction and they're lost, no patience.
You think the average right winger is going to bother trying to understand the multiple melody lines in Schoenberg?
You think the average right winger is going to bother trying to understand the multiple melody lines in Schoenberg?
Yeah, there are SOOOOOO many "average" Left wingers listening to Schoenberg, and not the Decembrists. lol!
Of course, the more the merrier, I always say. There's nothing like someone who sticks to a rule, no matter how crappy it might work out to be. Makes 'em both predictable as all hell, and easy to kill.
Pareidolia...
Apophenia...
Paranoiac Critical Method - The aspect of paranoia that Dalà was interested in and which helped inspire the method was the ability of the brain to perceive links between things which rationally are not linked. Dalà described the paranoiac-critical method as a "spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena."
Employing the method when creating a work of art uses an active process of the mind to visualize images in the work and incorporate these into the final product. An example of the resulting work is a double image or multiple image in which an ambiguous image can be interpreted in different ways.
André Breton hailed the method, saying that DalÃ's paranoiac-critical method was an "instrument of primary importance" and that it "has immediately shown itself capable of being applied equally to painting, poetry, the cinema, the construction of typical Surrealist objects, fashion, sculpture, the history of art, and even, if necessary, all manner of exegesis."
And who was Andre Breton?. Just another one of those silly French Communist/anarchists that mr. ducky admires....
Sorry Farmer, Plato has no aesthetic response to Schoenberg. You'll have to pass.
Ah yes, Breton. From dada to surrealism ... I've always had trouble differentiating the two. I've come to think that the sexual foundation of surrealism is just more obvious than dada.
Sure he does. Inversion, Reversal, etc. are ALL symmetries. That they are un-harmonic, is what makes them cr*p.
btw - I know you're not into psychic automatism like Finntann & SF... but why you still enjoy listening to atonal works is beyond me.
oh, I get it. Since you know there is a "method" to it, and you're "in" on the secret, I'm sure you do gain some form of smug satisfaction...
...but it STILL sounds like cr*p!
That they are un-harmonic, is what makes them cr*p.
In other words, Shoenberg gives each tone a "proportion" of "equality". There is no "golden mean" OR phi in "equality. The proportions are ALL wrong.
It's like trying to solve a mathematical equaltion using naught but even numbers. Half the time, it comes up with the wrong answer.
@ Joe: btw - I know you're not into psychic automatism like Finntann & SF...
I don't even know what psychic automatism is!
...you don't? Well you've certainly gotten many of its' principle's down pat.
There is no conspiracy...
There is no conspiracy...
There is no conspiracy...
I've said it three times. Now it MUST be TRUE!
I knopw, it's all just sooooo much boojum! ;)
I did not say there is no conspiracy. I hold open the possibility that there could be one, but being an occams razor guy, I just believe the more plausible explanation is that the rich and powerful are like-minded and they have the means to control a lot of what goes on.
It's all out in the open.
The problem with conspiracies is there really is no point in arguing, since the believers dismiss all contravening evidence.
Good heavens! Now I feel like Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson confronting Audrey Hepburn's dark brown enthusiasm for an obscure French intellectual movement in Funny Face.
Hepburn worshipped the leader of the movement from afar, and couldn't wait to meet him when she got to Paris. He turned out to be just another cheap Lothario addicted to chasing skirts, of course, -- an intellectual poseur.
I don't believe those who think -- and those who think they know something -- should hold themselves high above the madding crowd just because they've acquired a lot of polysyllabic labels dreamt up by college professors and others who seek to distinguish themselves when in fact they lack any true spark of genius.
Those who can do. Those who can't think up quasi-erudite terminology to obscure their innate mediocrity, then bandy it about as though it were significant.
~ FreeThinke
"... I just believe the more plausible explanation is that the rich and powerful are like-minded and they have the means to control a lot of what goes on.
"It's all out in the open."
It is, indeed, SilverFiddle, -- all out in the open. And I repeat "There are none so blind as those who refuse to see."
It isn't important whether it's an actual conspiracy or not. The point is that it might just as well be, because the results these high and mighty forces are trying to achieve will have the same ill effect in any case.
I just think it's time we knew who our real enemies are. The "show" in Washington DC is just that -- a SHOW. The real business of the nation is conducted behind closed doors. Liberalism v. Conservatism is just a Punch and Judy show these days.
We don't elect members of representative republican form of government, we elect a bunch of Vaudevillians whose act has long grown stale and decidedly unamusing.
Finn is right that we are for the most a nation of uninformed, uninvolved, self-indulgent ignoramuses, but WHY is that the case?
I believe it to be the result of pernicious influences who long ago took advantage of the "Let George do it" mentality that prevails in most organizations. When "George" turns out to be a Marxist, a Satanist, an Embezzler, a Bernie Madoff or any other sort of militant pervert, we're in big trouble.
I think "conspiracy" is a term that should be retired. It has too many prejudicial connotations. Our current plight is the result of something far beyond that. We've been infected with a sickness of the soul that very well might kill us in the long run.
If not kill in the literal sense, it surely will transform us so that we will no longer be able to recognize ourselves or feel any connection to our history. I don't think there can be any question that forces unaccountable to us have been softening us up for the proverbial kill for a very long time.
They have been so clever about it -- and so insidious -- they've brought to bear influences that have engendered suicidal impulses in us. We've been brainwashed over decades to embrace policies that will destroy us.
Finn seems to disdain the idea that there could be such a thing as Mass Mind Control. Well, if it isn't strictly that, TV gives a remarkably good imitation.
~ FreeThinke
by the way, was the horrifying image at the top of the page by any chance created by William Blake?
Just curious ...
~ FT
Francisco Goya.
Thank you, Joe and FJ, for the good information.
Goya was great at portraying horror of all sorts. Astonishing he put an image like Saturn Devouring His Son (not named so by Goya) on the wall of his DINING ROOM.
What a macabre sense of humor! EIther that or he didn't enjoy entertaining guests for dinner, and painted this to discourage them from ever wanting to visit his house.
The Rubens study on the same theme may be painted in a more refined style, but is no less terrifying. The look on that child's face will never leave me.
In a sense I was right about Blake, because he too was a great master of portraying disturbing grotesque images -- Red Dragon being high on the list among them since it evokes the quintessentially satanic image of a powerful, predatory beast.
I suppose Hieronymous Bosch must fit into this somewhere too?
~ FreeThinke
If y'all want to believe the world is run by green reptilian alien communist illuminati bankers, there is nothing I can say or do to convince you otherwise.
Sure there is. You can take off your mask and reveal yourself. ;)
Freethinker, you think Funny Face is her best?
I vacillate between it and Roman Holiday.
Hey, Ducky. Funny Face was really Kay Thompson's picture. I wish she had made more film appearances. Terrific performer. Who could ever forget Think Pink and Ringa dem Bells?
Thompson's whimsical creation Eloise (the mischievous little girl who lived at The Plaza) was one of the delights of my young life. KT was a great talent, but hardly anyone remembers her today.
I can't think of a bad Audrey Hepburn picture, with the possible exception of Robin and Marian, which I thought was a mistake with a capital M.
Loved Sabrina as much as any. The unlikely romance between Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart remains touching. Roman Holiday is a gem. Holds up beautifully even in today's cynical age.
Funny Face is an all-around charmer. I never miss a chance to see it when it comes on TCM.
~ FreeThinke
Okay, you've outed me, I'm a green reptilian alien communist illuminati banker from the planet Neptulon.
And by the way, last time we were flying past Uranus, we saw a polyp...might want to get that checked out.
The point is, your argument for a conspiracy is irrefutable, because you don't have one. You throw out wild conjecture as if it were fact and expect me to disprove it?
If the Bilderberg group gathers once a year... it must be a conspiracy, ergo... all those bikers gathering in Daytona once a year must be their mechanized infantry. That's the kind of logic you offer.
Socialist International: Do they want to implement socialism all over the world? Of course! They're Friggin Socialists!!! It's their agenda... it would be kind of silly if they were attempting to found Democracies, wouldn't it?
A common goal does not a conspiracy make... nor is there any such thing as an open conspiracy (outside of an H.G. Wells novel). In pretty much all the definitions I've looked at, secrecy is inherent in a conspiracy. I suppose you could conspire loudly and in a public place, however most conspirators that stupid are called convicts.
From a legal standpoint, the end result must be illegal. Ergo, SF and I can get together and agree to vote for the Libertarian candidate, and to get as many other people as we can to vote that way also... isn't legally a conspiracy since no unlawful act was committed.
Like it or not, we can legally advocate for the transition of the US government to communism, so long as we aren't advocating that transition be via the violent overthrow, etc. etc. And if we get together, hold meetings, plan strategy... it does not a conspiracy make.
You might not like it, and Joe, whose last name might be McCarthy if I had to venture a guess, might not like it either. But it would be perfectly legal and constitutional.
By your reasoning Caesar Augustus was part of... after all, wasn't he trying to establish a one world government? Closest thing we've ever come to it.
Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the New World Order?
Well, yeah, I guess I have... since the oft repeated and oft mistranslated Novus Ordo Seclorum or New Order of the Ages refers to the founding of the United States of America.
Up the Republic!
"The international oligarchy looks down from on high and frown upon us, little ants going about life, doing what we will, refusing to march to the master drummer. They don't like it."
Yep, we know now how much it irritates them. It's our bad luck that there are masses of liberal idiots too stupid to see this and who are most willing to hand over our freedom to them.
FT: I recognised the Goya, but I wasn't aware that he'd hung it in his dining room. I love the picture, but I don't think I could handle it being in my house!
And if we get together, hold meetings, plan strategy... it does not a conspiracy make.
Does you plan include a little "civil disobedience" or black bloc activities?
The S.I.s do. Remember Wisconsin.
When the Fatah Youth Movement sends a contingent to your party's youth summer camp... I've a feelin' that there NOT there to learn how to bake cookies... but I could be wrong.
Finntann,
I hate to tell you this, but I think FJ just flew a few rings around Uranus.
...Yepp.
As you can see, Finntann. I'm a conspiracy of 1. ;)
"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall." -Che Guevara
...and now, a musical interlude preceding a word from our sponsor.
THE LAST ROUND
#33 Today, 10,000 people make 30% of the total income in the United States.
#34 A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation discovered that 250 employees of the Defense Department used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. However, the investigation also found that the Pentagon investigated only a handful of those cases.
#35 According to a recent poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.
#36 Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama’s 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.
#37 A recent Department of Justice guide for investigators of criminal and extremist groups lists “constitutionalists” and “survivalists” alongside organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Aryan Brotherhood.
#38 The U.S. trade deficit has exploded to nightmarish proportions over the past two decades. Every single month tens of billions more dollars goes out of the United States than comes into it. Essentially, the United States is becoming far poorer as a nation each and every month.
#39 Factories are closing in droves across the United States because the American people would rather buy things made in China.
#40 Millions upon millions of good paying middle class jobs are being shipped off to China and they are never coming back. Meanwhile, U.S. politicians stand by idly and do nothing.
#41 Some analysts now believe that China could become the largest economy in the world by the year 2020.
#42 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the annual U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five trillion dollars.
#43 According to one recent survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one person that is currently searching for a full-time job.
#44 The U.S. dollar continues to rapidly decline in value. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 will cost you $112.35 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 will cost you $440.33 today.
#45 Major international organizations are actually proposing that the United States start considering the adoption of a truly global currency.
#46 Students at a high school in Missouri have built a car that they claim can get up to 450 miles per gallon. On another note, some of the top energy experts in the world believe that thorium could solve our energy problems and supply very cheap energy for society for hundreds of thousands of years. But in today’s world technologies such as these are endlessly suppressed by the rich and powerful.
#47 One Colorado high school student is seeking an explanation from officials at his school after he was ordered by security guards to remove American flags from his truck because they might make other students at the high school “uncomfortable”.
#48 Three California high school students were recently forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.
#49 Memorial crosses erected along Utah public roads to honor fallen state troopers have been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court and now must be removed permanently.
#50 One group of high school students made national headlines recently when they revealed that a security guard ordered them to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.
Submitted by FreeThinke
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