How to win elections, regardless of the electorate's wishes.

Here and elsewhere I have documented the methods used by the Republicans to try to get the election result they want. They are many and varied, from vote suppression, intimidation voting machine "irregularities" to a partisan Supreme Court.

With the US elections close I have gathered a few articles on past and present election rigging.

First, how 2004 was done. A detailed piece well worth studying.

Next, an interview with Mark Crispin Miller.

On why he got involved in the issue:

MCM: What immediately drew my interest was the overwhelmingly obvious fact that the 2004 election was stolen. We already know the 2000 election was stolen because the Supreme Court intervened so flagrantly, but I think the 2004 election was stolen on an even grander scale. What struck me was not just that fact, but no less, the general refusal to admit it which was evident not only throughout the corporate media but on the left as well. Even now I can't quite get over how the left fell into line and dismissed the evidence as "conspiracy theory" on the basis of very sloppy reporting by very good reporters in progressive circles.

So the immediate reason why I got into it was because of this staggering miscarriage of proper civic procedure and a betrayal of democracy. The more I thought about it, the more I also came to believe that this is the most important issue, precisely because we can make no progress on any other front if we don't have the right to pick our representatives, and more importantly, reject those who don't represent our interests. That's vital, so I often say in my talks that regardless of what your issue is, you're kidding yourself if you think you can get anywhere when government is able to act with impunity

On 2008:

CB: What evidence do we have currently, in addition to the voluminous evidence that you've provided in your books, that the 2008 election may already be stolen?

MCM: I do resist putting it that way with all due respect to Greg (Greg Palast) and Bobbie (Kennedy). I don't like to say that it's already been stolen because it's demoralizing, but I will say that they (the Republicans) have made enormous strides toward a McCain victory already.

CB: In what way?

MCM: Well, election theft is a two-part process. On the one hand is vote suppression. The purpose of vote suppression is to shrink the electorate before the fact. In the last four years or so they have moved somewhat away from fraudulent manipulation of ballots cast toward grand pre-emptive tactics meant to prevent people from voting in the first place. So within the realm of vote suppression, they have managed to purge literally millions of names from the voter roles. In New York state alone, we learned last week, 1.5 million voters have been purged without their knowledge. That's New York; it's not even a swing state.

There was a report, I think on Daily Kos, that the Justice Department has managed to effect the purge of 13 million votes. I don't know how many of those are legitimate purges because a lot of peoples' names shouldn't be on the list because they're dead or something. But between legal purges conducted by the Department of Justice and illegal purges of the electronic voter roles carried out by various partisan secretaries of state, and voter caging and other tactics, they've managed to do a great deal to shrink the pool of voters who would vote against McCain. That kind of thing will require a lot of fighting and amassing evidence which means that there's got to be a lot of video interviews, polls, phone calls placed to the hotlines-what I'm saying is that this grand stroke of dis-enfranchisement before election day has to be exposed and evidence thereof collected and made available.

But that's not the only thing you do when you steal an election. You also engage in electronic fraud. Here, we have the testimony of an incredibly important person named Stephen Spoonamore who is the star witness in a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation in Ohio. He's a conservative Republican and a former McCain supporter, but most importantly, he is a prominent expert in the detection of computer fraud.

Finally, trying to divert attention.

Virtually the entire mainstream electronic media drank ACORN Kool-Aid this month brewed up by the Republican National Committee. Almost no one seriously challenged John McCain's comical assertions that ACORN, a grassroots voter registration group, "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

While the Republicans had the distracted media searching for links between Obama and ACORN, RNC operatives were busily completing one of the most massive voter suppression and purging efforts in American history, stealing hundreds of thousands of Democratic votes across the embattled swing states and striving to arrange chaos and endless lines at the voting booths next week.

In 2006 things did not work out the way the Republicans wanted - possibly due to an underestimate of the swing to the Democrats. The problem in 2008 is that the polls strongly favour Obama, which means the Republican narrative will have to work really well lest people smell a rat. Given the electorate's mood, there might be those prepared recognise the stink. If the MSM do the right thing, that is.

some 'small' improprieties ...

  .. and some not quite so small

-=*=-

McMahon: “the ecodomy is basically sound”[1].

Haw! Now we're gunna get 'negative growth' (detested US-speak, spit!)

Whitlam succeeded McMahon; Whitlam's single-payer health system endures, although crippled and 'in competition' with medicine-for-profit (wha' d'ya get? Mainly profit), despite all the sly and malicious attempts at sabotage down through the years, but apart from any other problems, Whitlam had to contend with incessant corrosive criticism from the out-of-power 'born-to-rules,' the dirty Digger's (aka Murdoch's) 100+ days of lying 10cm black-ink headlines, and an external oil-shock.

The wheel having turned pretty-well full circle, here we are again.

After a decade-plus of booming exports under the Howard Liberal's 'economic genius' Costello, the Aussie economy is still deep in external deficit and the internal deficit has been converted to a deficit in services; after deliberately (halving CGT) caused asset-bubbles in stock- and house-prices (the latter having crippled the great Aussie dream for sooo many, perhaps for ever), after the Aussie sheople® have been coaxed, encouraged - or bludgeoned (via their Super, say) into becoming share owners, after the sheople having been encouraged to borrow themselves to the silly hilt via drawing-down on their home-mortgages or credit-cards or both, the born-to-rules are once more out of office and now these new-generation born-to-rules are reviving the same-old incessant corrosive criticism tactics, Murdoch's rags are once more on the vicious howl - and the great US-inspired, US-created finance-crash is setting the stage for another 1975, as well as another 1929 while they're at it. Clever, eh?

-=*=-

  «Oil prices dived underneath $US60 per barrel» - from about a $US150 peak a few short months ago.

Tell us that's 'supply and demand,' and not greedy speculators - eh?

  «... fears have sent world stocks spinning lower, with Tokyo hitting a 26-year low»

Tell us that's 'serious investment,' and not a gambling casino - eh?

-=*=-

The sub-prime mess blew up recently, and GWBush&Co tried to solve it by planning to hand out some $US700Bio (!!? - a truly stupefying sum, and by no means all of what's thought yet to be needed), this stupefying sum to be handed out essentially no-strings-attached to the very people - self-termed 'masters of the (financial) universe' - who caused the problem in the 1st place. Europeans, on the other hand, have suggested different approaches, including taking part-ownership in institutions under threat, and guaranteeing (savings) deposits. The latter path is also part of the Rudd government's response.

-=*=-

  «ELEANOR HALL: Yet another mortgage-based fund, Colonial First State, has frozen its redemptions as the sector feels the bite of the Government's deposit guarantee scheme.»

Tell us that "feels the bite" is 'balanced reporting' - eh?

  «JOE HOCKEY: Clearly the Government's action ... it is quite obvious that when the Government provides an unlimited guarantee at no cost as they did on October the 12th then it would create enormous distortions in the markets.»

Tell us that's 'clever commentary' - eh?

My comment: any 'unlimited guarantee' - as opposed to some 'capped' guarantee, can only be exploited by the real fat-cats, rapaciously greedy that they Oh-so obviously are. There are estimated to be less than 0.5% of Aussies who have $1Mio+ available to 'benefit' from such an 'unlimited guarantee.'

Q: Does Hockey really mean to imply that this 0.5% would deliberately cause trouble, themselves 'enormously distorting the markets?'

  «MALCOLM TURNBULL: Chris, the answer is, because look, you are making a debating point. We have got a crisis in our money markets now which has been going on for two weeks because the Government introduced an unlimited guarantee which has caused money, not just small depositors but large deposits to stream out of non-guaranteed institutions and funds into the guaranteed ones.»

Tell us that's a fair summary - eh? To blame this crisis on the Rudd government is a lie that the AusBC should not tolerate, let alone broadcast. Politicians will get away with lying like this as long as the media do not challenge them. That is after all the 4th Estate's job - and the AusBC are paid by us, we the sheople - so it's about time they actually started to work - for us - as opposed to against us. Earlier on, Turnbull said: «a new tax which will be a fee, a compulsory fee on all deposits over a million dollars. ... It will put upward pressure on interest rates.»

My comment: more utter rubbish, as well as outrageous scare-mongering. Even Blind Freddie can see that interest rates will not go up in any near-future, yet Turnbull trots out the scare. Worse, Turnbull is also saying that the 0.5% super-rich are a problem. Have both Hockey and Turnbull taken leave of their senses?

  «ALAN KOHLER: Well, we're witnessing a hedge fund crash. The global hedge fund industry is suffering a run on redemptions; a bit like our mortgage trusts.
And they have to repay the debt as well at a much greater rate that they get the removal of redemption. So they're having to sell everything, all the risk assets they've been buying; which is commodities, emerging stock markets and Australian dollars.
So you're seeing the hedge fund run exacerbated by the fall in commodities, which is also caused by hedge funds, and therefore the Australian dollar is getting sold off.»

My comment: great, 'a hedge fund crash.' In other words, this crisis has its roots in speculation - just like 1929. And guess what? The clever idiots - Repugs and Dummos both, have managed it, partly if not wholly, by dismantling all the protections installed after 1929. Again, clever, eh?

Just as measurable as the tiny proportion of rich having got ever grossly richer (their confiscatory 'share' having gone well past the merely obscene), is the reduction in living standards of the working class, the unions having been largely sabotaged, many workers having been turned into contractors who dare not complain, as they struggle to pay off their plant, and the middle-class having been hollowed-out by their borrowings and squeezed-out by job off-shoring. Globalisation, ain't it grand?

This is a bloody catastrophe, and it all goes back to greed and stupidity. The US-Repugs destroy the currency as they go to thieving, murdering wars-for-spoil. 1Mio essentially innocent but oil-owning Iraqis dead in their latest filthy 'escapade.' The Aus-Libs hang on the US-Repugs' coat-tails. The US-Dummos ape the Repugs, and the Aus-Labs hang on the US-Dummos' coat-tails. Altogether, the world is ripped-off by an exceedingly small, exceedingly greedy already rich-beyond-avarice minority, and we all know what's coming next - not 'just' a financial collapse, but 'the big one,' a possibly terminal climate collapse.

Where are the adults?

-=*end*=-

PS One thing that people might like to keep in mind, is that although the fat-cats may well be able to afford gambling, most of the sheople simply are not - in fact, quite the reverse. To see savings, struggled for years to accumulate, then wiped out in a few moments of greed-inspired madness - is not nice. We the sheople *demand* that our saved money be safe - and Turnbull and Hockey and their ilk be damned.

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] A not-so-random quote:

  «By early 1972, when I came to Canberra to work in the Commonwealth public service, the fragility of what Charles Kindleberger came to call “the long boom”, was evident to all. Or 2 nearly all, for the Prime Minister of the time, Billy McMahon, kept repeating: “the economy is basically sound”.»
[Ian McAuley/Insiders and outsiders]

erring ideologues, part ? ...

  .. hell hath no fury ...

    .. like a violated expectation

-=*=-

Apart from all the shocking negatives, we are left with one thing, and one thing only from the GWBush&Co catastrophe, and that is that they were just sooo bad, sooo hubristic - and so utterly criminal with it, that I, as many others, triggered into action by the perversion of democracy which was the bum’s rush to illegally invade Iraq, put the US under the microscope - and found it wanting in just about all respects.

Straight away, of course, I trigger some 'framing traps:' "Oh yeah, another anti-US rant." But really daaarlings, what else is there? We've had all the canards; "Hate America, love Americans," "Support the troops!" - all bulls**t. America is as America does, and what an eff'n disaster it really is. We have to abandon all pretence; see through all the carefully constructed furphies (keyword: Bernays); what we see (with eyes wide open) is what we've got. Then another canard: "(Mainly US-style) capitalism has brought more prosperity than any other system." Whilst it is true that the US, with only 5% of the world's population has garnered an obscenely whopping 25% of the world's resources to itself, they haven't done it by honest toil - Oh, no; quite the reverse. As the current financial crisis shows, the US has combined business and gangsterism, most of the graduates of the Harvard Business School (for sharks) and their ilk should more correctly be termed banksters.

Along with their hubris comes hypocrisy; say one thing whilst doing some other. In clear text: they deploy lies[1] in an attempt to disguise their criminal acts. The lies are often sourced from think tanks, erstwhile innocuous unless employed for criminal purposes, as they are by our so-called ruling élites (mainly US, UK, Aus & Israeli), except that there's nothing élite about criminality. The lies form a web of deceit that I refer to as the pushed-paradigm, trumpeted by the politicians (of both 'stripes' in our largely two party systems, noting that bipartisanship is itself deeply undemocratic), augmented by purchased 'talking heads,' transmitted by, even amplified by, the corrupt and venal corporate MSM - and, to their great shame, many publicly financed broadcasters like the AusBC & SBS; boo! Hiss! - Traitors all! Another clear-text: we the sheople® are being deliberately propagandised by our 'Establishments[2].' Outside of the Anglo-Judaic-sphere others copy or emulate - but they must in order to compete; a real-world case of bad-apples spoiling 'the game' for all. This is not what they teach us starting in kindergarten, hence the violated expectations.

Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four[4] brought us the concept of thought-crime, but what of ruling-élite-crime? It is an incontrovertible fact, that not only do the rich get richer, but in the last few years (I like to begin my history with the most ghastly of war crimes, namely the A-bombings, but the story is much longer); the rich have increased their depredations to extreme, ever-more obscene levels. (Again, the 'framing trap:' no, this is not 'the politics of envy,' just the facts.) I have heard rumblings, (falsely) asserting that the current financial crisis was somehow caused by some sort of 'leftist' forcing of impossible mortgages onto the unable to pay (NINJA; no income, no job), but recall the ever-present, filthy think-tank/Luntz-playbook style framing. No; it was the self-styled 'masters of the (financial) universe' that invented the latest Ponzi scheme now collapsing[3].

Q: What will it take?

We, those who can see, see a world dominated by crime, mostly originating in the US. Extreme wealth, concentrated in extremely few hands (so few as in the order of the Forbes 400, say), effectively controls the world via the warned-about M/I-plex. They control commerce and politics, and through them the sheople, mainly via lying-by-design, manipulative propaganda, with brutal force not far off. But it's gone wrong; more accurately perhaps, it was always wrong. The simplest way of seeing that it's wrong is that they try to hide it all behind lies, with threats escalating to actual, murdering violence ("Economic Hit Man," then see [5], brrr!) It's gone wrong with the murder-for-spoil wars, literally millions slaughtered. It's gone wrong with commerce, keyword 'economic rent.' It's gone wrong with finance, keyword 'sub-prime.' And horror of horrors, it's going wrong with our once jewel-like planet's ecosystem, quite literally our one and only life-line, keyword 'greedastrophe®.'

A: The people united will never be defeated. We will posit two types of people, those with us (we the sheople), and those agin' us. Along with the perpetrators are their paid minions, those betraying us for $s. For them, both the corruptors and the corrupted, crime obviously pays - at least, currently. Then what of the amateurs, those I term the erring ideologues?

We need to save the world - because it is exactly 'business as usual' that is crashing our systems. Phillip Adams suggests it's time for any and all who have contributed to the crash, also those who merely 'support' those doing the crashing, to change their tune.

I repeat (looping) Q: What will it take - to save the planet?

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] lie2 —n. 1 intentionally false statement (tell a lie). 2 something that deceives. —v. (lies, lied, lying) 1 tell a lie or lies. 2 (of a thing) be deceptive.  give the lie to show the falsity of (a supposition etc.). [Old English] [POD]

[2] establishment ... 6 (the Establishment) social group with authority or influence and resisting change. [ibid.]

[3] Most Serious Financial Crisis in World History
Grand Theft America.
Financial Crime of the Century
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, September 29, 2008

  «... The result of unfettered capitalism's fatal flaw - unbridled greed in a rigged system that rewards the few at the expense of most others. First an explanation of how it works. Free-wheeling, "free market" Chicago School fundamentalism the way economist Milton Friedman championed it in his 1962 book "Capitalism and Freedom" and taught it to students for decades. He believed that government's sole function is "to protect our freedom both from (outside) enemies....and from our fellow-citizens." Preserve law and order. Enforce private contracts. Protect private property and "foster competitive (unregulated) markets." Everything else in public hands is "socialism....blasphemy." Not to be tolerated.»
[globalresearch/Lendman]

[4] How close does this come?

  «... has major significance for its vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive and constant surveillance of the populace, insidious and blatant propaganda, and brutal control over its citizens.»
[wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four]

My comment: the conscious manipulation of us, we the sheople, for nefarious and up to murderingly criminal purposes, constitutes an insurmountable affront to us, our democracies and the wider world.

Where are the adults?

-=*=-

[5] Then, a PS: Don't think 1984 is here? Try Lendman again:

  «...The 3rd Infantry's 1st Brigade is for combat. It's not the National Guard or local police. It's trained for war. "Equipped to kill people" with potent weapons, and a last hurrah scheme may be planned to divert public attention from the financial crisis. A "terrorist" attack with "chemical, biological" or other dangerous weapons. A possible pretext for martial law at a time the administration and Congress are vulnerable. When people are angry about Washington protecting the privileged. Partnering with them in crime. Defrauding the public and stifling dissent. Moving one step closer to tyranny and away from silly notions about democracy. Proving crime indeed does pay and awfully well on Wall Street. "It's the economy, stupid." Theirs, not ours.»

information/psychological operations ...

 .. this is how they do 'em

-=*=-

The article in question was pointed out by/on ICH:

«Defense Dept. To Fund Pro-American Publicity In The Iraqi Media: The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.»

The link was not correct, so I searched for and found the item, published by WP:

«One official described how part of the program works: "There's a video piece produced by a contractor . . . showing a family being attacked by a group of bad guys, and their daughter being taken off. The message is: You've got to stand up against the enemy." The professionally produced vignette, he said, "is offered for airing on various [television] stations in Iraq. . . . They don't know that the originator of the content is the U.S. government. If they did, they would never run anything."

"If you asked most Iraqis," he said, "they would say, 'It came from the government, our own government.'"»

Propaganda is lies - must be lies, because if they were limited to telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they'd never be able to convince even the most dumbed-down sheople® to 'support' their Nuremberg-class wars (murder for spoil.)

Why the 'rest of the West' allows/tolerates such vile US(+Israeli) criminality is beyond me. Where are the adults?

-=*=-

The US kleptocracy, in league with the Israeli kleptocracy, aided and abetted by the UK & Aus dittos (the wannabe hegemon, its illegal sprog and poodle with dag), have swindled and raped the world, not 'just' in their Nuremberg-class invasions/occupations, but also in the finance sphere, (see current voracious-greed based financial collapse) and equally voracious resource 'harvesting,' keyword 'economic rent.'

The invasion/occupation of Afghanistan should never have been allowed/tolerated; even though the US claimed it as 'hot pursuit,' we now know that it was a pre-prepared plan pursued under the cover of blind anger, the latter possibly even contrived. But the subsequent invasion/occupation of Iraq was known at the time to have no justification, apart from some criminal US 'strategic objectives,' aka murder for oil. All this is known, all this was/is/will remain illegal.

Now that the 'masters of the universe' have been exposed as the lying criminal frauds that they always were, in multiple fields of endeavour, and them having prepared then precipitated a financial crisis of possibly 1929-magnitude, we have the opportunity, one could say the necessity, of cutting the US loose. Dump the $US, set up a proper world-bank, a proper world-currency - at a single stroke removing the obscene US-deficits dragging us all down, and removing the US-gun at our heads - and then get on with saving the planet.

somebody spoke and ...

  .. I went into a dream …

    .. "Whatever it takes..."

-=*=-

Q: What will it take?

The sand in Afghanistan was, still is being, re-arranged.

They're winning in Iraq, so they say - but "they" are not the Iraqis, oh no. (Filthy lying thieves - murder for oil!)

The bailout has been passed by the US legislators, US$1Trio (more or less; most likely more, lots more) will be thrown at the horrendous mess actually created by the self-termed 'masters of the universe,' no-one knows a) how much we, the (generic, US & other) sheople® will eventually have to pay (yes have to, no democratic choice – bi-partisan anything is deeply undemocratic), or b) how much of the US$1Trio will be 'trousered' (filthy expression, ugh: spit!) - just how much of the US$1Trio will be 'trousered' by those very same 'masters of the universe.'

Alternatives were offered - mostly by the (now newly derogatory) 'lefty-bloggers' - but (and natch!) - nobody listened.

The greedastrophe® gathers pace; Rudd (amongst all other risibly so-called 'leaders') spouts BS and does nothing effective.

Sooo, Q: What will it take?

What will it take, to save our once jewel-like planet?

A: Nothing short of a total disaster - or so it looks like.

But, of course, that may be ju-u-ust that little bit too late.

-=*end*=-

Somebody spoke and I went into a dream

Ah, ar ar ar, ah-ah, aar-aa-aa

Dum, de dum, dumb, dumb - dumb!

I read the news today oh, boy ...

living off immoral earnings ...

  .. society based on 'rule of law' ...

    .. how realistic are your expectations

-=*=-

G'day Bob,

 .. following one'a your excellent links, i.e. the Lindorff:

  «With the Bush Administration, the two leading presidential candidates, and the Congressional leadership, as well as a phalanx of Wall Street lobbyists all pushing hard for a massive transfer of taxpayer money to the coffers of banks and investment banks, the American people need to demand a halt to this bums' rush to a bailout.»
[BobW/opednews/Dave Lindorff]

(I repeat (looping): note that in a 2-party system, any bipartisan policy leaves the voters with zero choice and so is deeply undemocratic.)

-=*=-

"Here and now, boys!" (Huxley, Island.)

Starting at the beginning is problematic[1] for at least two reasons, a) it means going back and (perhaps worse), b) how far back is far enough? Take the example of "The Big Bang," the furthest back we can go (evidence-based) is to the CMB (cosmic microwave background, T0+~310,000 years), but theoretically to within a few seconds or less (a bi-i-ig theoretical stretch) - and the closer you go, the less accurate.

If we go back to the beginning of any individual's life, we find that 'the slate is not clean,' there is always an existing background of laws and morality (even the putative 1st 'bad-apple thief' was told beforehand "Do not do this!" - or so I recall the 'story.' Haw!) That morality and law differ is no surprise; there is no agreement on morality (partly for lack of trying and corruption both), and any law is a man-made construct, therefore by definition imperfect (for some of the very same reasons, namely lack of trying and corruption both. Boo! Hiss!) Nevertheless, each person has their own beginning; it is the responsibility of the primary carers to 'do their best,' and society as a whole to support this process, everywhere. This in turn invokes a loop; the primary carers and society have to a) know their business and b) carry it out responsibly. This is clearly hardly ever the (current) case: fail! Fail!

We can posit a practical 1st rule: "Get it right the 1st time!" A corollary is "... because there may be (Murphy: guaranteed) - no 2nd chance." Of course this seems, is, obvious - when you think about it, but popular culture depends heavily on "Der, I didn't think!" - I suggest that it's time (long overdue) for some effective change, to get us (i.e. our Anglo/Judaic society) 'back on track;'

"No more of the same!"

-=*=-

"In heaven there is no beer, that's why we have to drink it here!" (German quasi-joke.) As for no beer in heaven, so no police in Utopia[2]. (No joke.) Sooo, what about in our distopia[3]? Try this:

  «The ignorant, uneducated masses outside the Party are not normally subjected to its propaganda: "They can be granted intellectual liberty because they have no intellect", and hence no impulse to rebel either. Party members, on the other hand, cannot be allowed any deviation of opinion whatsoever. The danger of growing liberalism or scepticism within the Party is eliminated by massive indoctrination and constant surveillance of every member. A Party member "is expected to have no private emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. He is supposed to live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors, triumph over victories, and self-abasement before the power and wisdom of the Party."

To safeguard the essential notions that Big Brother is omnipotent and the Party is infallible, history is constantly rewritten...»
[Nineteen Eighty-Four/The Book]

Rewriting of history occurs, the cynical victors' history. The most famous example, actually of course most infamous, is misrepresenting perhaps the largest single-item war crime ever, then stupefyingly doubled, namely the A-bombing, as having been somehow justifiable.

Before we leave dystopia, what we really have is an anti-utopia, a pretend-democracy - which is anything but.

Backing up a bit:

  «The first chapter, Ignorance is Strength, begins with the observation that throughout history, all societies have been divided into a caste system of three groups or classes: the High, who are the rulers; the Middle, who yearn to take over the position of the High; and the Low, who are typically so suppressed that in their drudgery they have no goals beyond day-to-day survival (if they are at all able to formulate any political agenda, it is to establish a society where all people are equal).»
[The Book, ibid.]

I quibble; me'n me mates do not wish to overthrow our putative 'rulers,' to man the barricades would be madness in the extreme - under the current regime(s), they'd more'n likely machine-gun us. Nor do I suffer from the filthily-framed 'wealth-envy,' it should be obvious that we're not talking penniless paupers here, nor do I dream of "a society where all people are equal," since equality under the law would do: one rule for all. But a bit more than 'just' fair rules - in fact, a whole lot more - universal justice and nothing-but-the-truth would not go at all astray:

"Fair go, ya mugs!"

-=*=-

Some things have changed; even though severely deprived, Orwell's 'proles' could be trusted not to rebel and were thus spared the state propaganda - our sheople® clearly are denied such a luxury. It seems that the current 'rulers' dare not trust the sheople with a 'free' vote; the sheople are not only immersed in the lying pushed-paradigm propaganda (Hollywood rubbish, venal MSM lies, these lies both transmitted via *and* augmented by the corrupt MSM - and even then more and worse, keyword Bernays), the sheople are denied any effective choice (Lib/Lab ugly twins in Aus, Repug/Dummos 'over there,') and no matter who gets elected, they (the putative representatives) do not properly represent us, we the sheople (their electors) anyway, rather the reps are in league with the (shadowy?) true rulers, variously referred to as the M/I-plex, MNCs or just 'the big end of town.' Recalling my recent discoveries, we have Ponerology & Pathocracy, then my old stand-by kleptocracy, and all the usual et ceteras.

One of the comments to the Lindorff article includes this:

  «A psychopath only thinks of themself. They don't care about all the chaos and destruction they cause. In fact, some of them FEED OFF the chaos, destruction, suffering, misery, death, poverty and illness they cause!

It's been proven by psychological research: Psychopaths actually get a buzz off of be-deviling [sic; bedevilling] those under them in power! They get a rush from harming others!

These guys are snakes in suits just like many politicians.

It's obvious they have a dark agenda because of the insistence to rush the legislation through.»

Sounds about right. Even the fact that politicians could be suspect is a shocker - but we know it's gone far beyond suspicion and on into actual, serious criminality - right up to murder for oil, say; 'the system' is not just 'slightly broken,' it's damn' near to if not actually terminal.

-=*=-

Some things have not changed; for our propaganda we have a modern MiniTrue, the corporate, corrupt and venal MSM - but not 'just,' the public broadcasters are in it too, *double* traitors. As already noted, our modern MiniTrue does not just conduit the lies, it often actively augments them. MiniPeace is out'a control, see murder for oil in Iraq, no honour there. MiniPlenty has been down-sized, out-sourced, sent off-shore. Like the spiteful 'junior spies' reporting to the thought-police/MiniLove, we have erring ideologue 'pushed paradigm' apologists, appeasers (a lot'a bad 'A's[5]) and then out-and-out blog-terrorists, aka utterly despicable, filthy, lying trolls.

Backing up to the psychopaths, and Ponerology & Pathocracy. Here is some of it:

  «There are basic facts that all people of conscience need to grasp, fast. 6% of any given population are born genetic psychopaths. But then why do some fall under their spell and other not? The vast majority of 'paths remain undetected as they manipulate and plunder their way through human relationships consuming our emotional and financial energy. In this sense, they are 'successful'. They insinuate themselves into networks throughout society by sharp observance of our behaviour and mimic/act to get what they want: power over others - in fact, the pinnacle of achievement for a psychopath is TOTAL AND RUTHLESS DOMINANCE OVER 'THE OTHER'.

Political Ponerology expands this dynamic out onto the societal scale to explain that periodically a concentration of psychopaths (thanks to negative selection - think 'Old Boys' Network' taken to its extreme) coalesces 'at the top' to form a 'Pathocracy' wherein 100% of key positions of a state are run by people who have a permanent and incurable deficit in their worldview.»
[from a comment on a BobW/alternet/Naomi Wolf article]

-=*=-

Fazit: Power is fully half of the problem; misuse is the other. Power delegated must be responsible; no taxation without (proper!) representation. Power is delegated under a 'social contract,' force may only be deployed in support of the social contract, not - as with Bush&Co, actually against the very people who put them there (supposedly; doesn't help if the elections themselves are corrupted.) That psychopaths have infiltrated the 'leadership,' so widely and corruptly, must now a) be stopped and then b) prevented for all time. It's no good to talk about 'law and order' unless it goes for the entire population; one set of laws, applied to rulers and ruled alike.

We can make a start by identifying lies and liars, criminals and their 'A' retinues[5], and start lockin' 'em all up.

No destroyers, neither liars nor psychopaths nor any in between should go unpunished.

Oh, yeah; and no bailout for already obscenely rich fat-cats.

-=*end*=- (but don't miss [5])

Ref(s):

[1] problematic adj. (also problematical) attended by difficulty; doubtful or questionable.  problematically adv. [Greek: related to *problem] [POD]

[2] Utopia n. imagined perfect place or state of things.  Utopian adj. (also utopian). [ibid.]

[3] Distopia (actually, dystopia[4]) - a real or imagined society that is totally dysfunctional to its citizens, e.g. the society pictured in 1984, Doomsday Forecast - A forecast where a future catastrophe is the focal issue.
[mnfuturists/FuturistDictionary]

Comment: I think there are two entries run together here. Serendipity? Nope; (bad!) karma? Prolaby®.

[4] dystopia

  «A dystopia (from the Greek d?s- and t?p??, alternatively, cacotopia, kakotopia, cackotopia, or anti-utopia) is the vision of a society that is the opposite of utopia. A dystopian society is a state in which the conditions of life are miserable, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution.

Some academic circles distinguish between anti-utopia and dystopia. As in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia does not pretend to be utopian, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was intended to be so, but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian world or concept.»
[wiki/Dystopia]

[5] Some real bad 'A's: actual criminals, i.e. active perpetrators, then accomplices, accessories, appeasers, apologists ...

Q: Any more bad 'A's?

A: Yes, the finance market smart-As, the ones who created this sub-prime mess in the 1st place. I saw this problem coming, although I didn't fully realise it at the time. I posed this Q to a mate of mine: "How can this be sustainable?" The finance market smart-As have built a bubble on consumer/household debt, at the same time as depressing the wages - and 'market share' of consumer/household income (the difference having been confiscated by the already rich fat-cats). What happens, I asked,

Q: When the consumers/households get maxed-out on credit - and run out of 'spending' money?

A: The whole consumer/household market house of cards will - must collapse.

Sooo, even if some bail-out does go ahead, that'll only be shuffling the deck-chairs; the toxic debt may be moved from one place to another (and in any case is only one half of the problem) - since the deficit of demand will - must only get deeper.

Wham! 1929 here we come.

A Parthian Shot.

We have been seeing a surge of activity from pro-Zionist elements recently - and again. The usual routine, ie., demonise a certain person and state with misrepresentations, distortions and outright lies. The same tactics are used to defend against charges of Israel's crimes.

A retiring Israeli prime minister has fired some shots at much those described in the preceding paragraph promote and defend. From an interview in the New York Times:

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all of the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto would have to be exchanged for the same quantity of Israeli territory.

And:

He also dismissed as “megalomania” any thought that Israel would or should attack Iran on its own to stop it from developing nuclear weapons, saying the international community and not Israel alone was charged with handling the issue.

Try this:

He said that maintaining sovereignty over an undivided Jerusalem, Israel’s official policy, would involve bringing 270,000 Palestinians inside Israel’s security barrier. It would mean a continuing risk of terrorist attacks against civilians like those carried out this year by Jerusalem Palestinian residents with front-end loaders.

“A decision has to be made,” he said. “This decision is difficult, terrible, a decision that contradicts our natural instincts, our innermost desires, our collective memories, the prayers of the Jewish people for 2,000 years.”

The government’s public stand on Jerusalem until now has been to assert that the status of the city was not under discussion. But Mr. Olmert made clear that the eastern, predominantly Arab, sector had to be yielded “with special solutions” for the holy sites.

Fair's fair:

On peace with the Palestinians, Mr. Olmert said in the interview: “We face the need to decide but are not willing to tell ourselves, yes, this is what we have to do. We have to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, the meaning of which is that in practice we will withdraw from almost all the territories, if not all the territories. We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace.”

The reaction has already started. Expect outrage and outrageous comments and not a little hysteria and histrionics. I caution some to be careful lest they hurt themselves in their excesses. It might even be entertaining to watch them in action.

Whether it has any larger impact is yet to be seen.