what we've learned ...

  .. is an horrifying[1] shocker ...

    .. and US hubris was the last nail

-=*=-

G'day Bob,

to your point at which the empire crumbled (a real bewdy), I would add:

December 12 / 14, 2008
What is to be Done?
The End of the Washington Consensus

  «Wall Street’s financial meltdown marks the end of an era. What has ended is the credibility of the Washington Consensus - open markets to foreign investors and tight money austerity programs (high interest rates and credit cutbacks) to "cure" balance-of-payments deficits, domestic budget deficits and price inflation. On the negative side, this model has failed to produce the prosperity it promises. Raising interest rates and dismantling protective tariffs and subsidies worsen rather than help the trade and payments balance, aggravate rather than reduce domestic budget deficits, and raise prices.»
[counterpunch/Hudson & Sommers]

Economics are indistinguishable from the military, when it comes to discussing the so-called, self-termed 'world leader,' the US. It turns out that the only place the US is leading us is to rack and ruin, aka right down the gurgler.

Today is as good a day as any (i.e. bitter-sweet) to draw a line, although as the King Canute myth has it, life will (must) go on.

To make 3 Hs, add hypocrisy; say one thing and do another. Possibly the very worst, is to have (realistic!) expectations dashed. The expectations I 'carried' out of child-hood were, quickly summarised, truth and justice. From 'Bringing up Baby:' "Don't tell me lies!" - "You will share that (object) - or trouble!" Simplistic? Perhaps, but we're going for brevity here.

Less simplistic would be that the Enlightenment would show us the way.

Wrong!

Did not, does not. What we have are lies, cheating theft and murder.

-=*=-

Consider so-called representative democracy, an informed and engaged electorate votes, the elected representatives then rule (wisely!); of the people, by the people and for the people.

Wrong!

As actually implemented, the people are deliberately dumbed-down (they are lied to and effectively turned into sheople®), the representatives fail to properly represent; the systems are pre-set to ever further enrich mostly evil, vested interests.

I mentioned above the very worst being dashed expectations; the very worst failure in our so-called democracies are the lies, aka swamping us in deliberately, psychologically designed, evil propaganda, what I call the pushed paradigm. Many electorates, pioneered in the US but adopted more widely in the Anglo/Judaic sphere and further, have been deliberately deceived - the exact, designed purpose of the lies they tell us. As we found out from Howard, "All politicians lie!" - well, perhaps not exactly all, and none quite so badly as that grim example, but it's not just the politicians; the mostly corrupt and venal MSM transmits and often amplifies the lies. (Even 'our' AusBC and SBS get into the lie-transmission/amplification act; boo! Hiss!)

-=*=-

It has been said that GWBush&Co were/are incompetent, that had they done a better job, they could've 'won' in Iraq (murder for oil), say, or in Afghanistan (murder for a pipeline.) IMHO wrong; GWBush&Co were following a filthy, neocon/neoliberal agenda which specifically set out to rip ever more of the world's resources off, and to allocate the plunder to the already obscenely rich, mostly US fat-cats, and at the same time to drive the ordinary people of the world (including their own!) into penury, forcing them into a Malthusian hell. This was well-illustrated just the other day, when the US Senate refused to bailout the US auto industry, on the grounds that the UAW wouldn't agree to a drastic slashing of wages/conditions. When correctly gauged, GWBush&Co made great strides in their agenda. One other thing, it is/was not only GWBush&Co, the rot has permeated the US for yonks, hardly a US president has anywhere near clean hands. One could say none.

The problem - and possibly our salvation - is that GWBush&Co performed sooo badly, that the rest of the world (well, some of us, we the truth-seekers) noticed. And when the enemy (the wannabe hegemon, its illegitimate sprog, the poodle with dag) are recognised, diagnosed, seen for what they truly are and the ghastly, murdering criminal things they do, then plans can be made to counter that enemy.

-=*=-

The Beatles wrote "And, in the end, the love you take - Is equal to the love you make."

Q: What did the US make, with Israel as the illegitimate 2nd fiddle (and especially in the case of Iraq, the UK as poodle with Aus as dag?)

A: Lies, cheating theft and murder.

-=*=-

Fazit: Reform the systems, save the planet - or doom.

-=*end*=-

PS In plain text: Our so-called 'leaders,' our so-called 'betters,' have turned the world on its head. Instead of leading us to maximise human happiness, the best deal for the most people, they have worked almost exclusively to enrich themselves - essentially by crooked means (i.e. not 'fair prices' but what (the max) the market will bear, 'super' profits aka resource-rent, a swinish list of foul malfeasance), right up to and including murder for spoil (Iraq, ex-Palestine), all the while encouraging the devil to take the hindmost. A ghastly proof is the 'health' system in the US, which will bankrupt people and/or outright deny (unfunded) necessary life-saving treatment. In order for these villains to enrich themselves, they have deliberately deceived us, a truly filthy - treasonous - thing to do.

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] horrify
verb (-ies, -ied) [with OBJ.] (usu. be horrified) fill with horror; shock greatly: they were horrified by the very idea | [as ADJ.] (horrified) the horrified spectators | [as ADJ.] (horrifying) a horrifying incident.
DERIVATIVES
horrification noun
horrifiedly adverb
horrifyingly adverb [as SUBMODIFIER] horrifyingly flimsy boats.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Latin horrificare, from horrificus (see HORRIFIC). [Oxford Pop-up]

horrify

Øverb
1 she loved to horrify us with tales of ghastly happenings
FRIGHTEN, scare, terrify, petrify, alarm, panic, terrorize, scare stiff, scare to death, fill with fear, scare someone out of their wits, scare the living daylights out of, throw into a panic, make someone's hair stand on end, make someone's blood run cold; informal scare the pants off, make someone's hair curl; Brit. informal throw into a blue funk, put the wind up; Irish informal scare the bejesus out of; N. Amer. informal spook; vulgar slang scare shitless, scare the shit out of; archaic affright

2 Lucien was horrified by her remarks, but said nothing
SHOCK, appal, disconcert, take aback, confound, dismay, outrage, scandalize, offend, throw off balance; disgust, revolt, repel, nauseate, sicken; informal rattle, faze, knock sideways, knock for six; archaic pother.
See AWKWARD SYNONYMS at dismay.
-opposite(s): PLEASE. [New Oxford Thesaurus of English]

shocking! criminal! pity ...

  .. they're all barking up the wrong tree

-=*=-

The sensation of the day is that the Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has tried to 'flog' Obama's Senate seat.

Mass outrage! The FBI, Fitzgerald, arrests, the whole box-and-dice.

The pity - IMHO - is that no one puts any effort into bringing those lying f**kers 'responsible' for the deaths of upwards of 1mio Iraqis, 'mass-murder for oil,' to justice.

temporary setback ...

  .. or part of a trend?

-=*=-

Try this (the later bits, i.e. from December:)

Central Asia
Dec 9, 2008
NATO scuttles US plan to encircle Russia
By F William Engdahl

  «Translated into real political language, Washington has undergone a stunning setback in its agenda of encircling Russia with NATO. Despite the fact that president-elect Obama retained Bush Administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and named a person to be Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who has strongly supported bringing Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, key European NATO members, led by Germany and France, blocked what must be a unanimous membership decision.»
[atimes/Engdahl]

(Wouldn't it be nice to see a 'next positive step;' i.e. the abandoning of a (phoney! Aggressive!) missile 'defence' system in Poland & the Czech Republic, eh?)

Continuing the Russian theme; the next 'cab off the rank:'

South Asia
Dec 9, 2008
India, Russia regain elan of friendship
By M K Bhadrakumar

  «In sum, the Mumbai attacks may prove to be a watershed in Indian regional policies. Relations with Russia, China and Iran assume a new level of importance in New Delhi's regional strategies. The gravitation towards the SCO signifies the new thinking. Not too long ago, India visualized the SCO as primarily an "energy club". Actually, India's petroleum minister routinely represented India at the SCO summit meetings. Now, to envisage a crucial role for an SCO-led regional initiative on Afghanistan, New Delhi has indeed come a long way. Surely, Medvedev would have returned to Moscow quietly pleased that he met a long-lost friend.»
[atimes/Bhadrakumar]

Then, just to round the day off; win some, lose some:

1. Win? Pak 'militants' destroy nearly 200 NATO vehicles yesterday.

2. Win? Pak 'militants' destroy nearly 100 more vehicles.

3. Lose? Pak army attacks LeT base.

The Q: "Was the Mumbai outrage a false-flag/black-op?" is still wide open; we may never know. That the CIA and Mossad do such things, instigate such things, and that the CIA actually created Al Qaeda is IMHO not in dispute.

[cross posted]

incompetence ...

  .. of the absolute 'highest' order ...

    .. 'war on terror,' CIA etc. just make things worse

-=*=-

I'm fed up. All we get is *more* violence.

Whatever it is that the US is doing, has been doing, is not working, but not 'just' not working; we've got militarised police, we've got grievously injured civil rights, we've got the so-called 'leaders of the free world' kidnapping, torturing and murdering - and all the while we're getting *more* violence, both against *and by* the US, not less. Also all the while, as they 'divert' themselves with their vile (invasive!) wars, the excess-CO2 caused climate-catastrophe gets ever closer, ever more unavoidable, as the US regime hands out US$trios(!!?) to Wall St. No money for any services, Oh, no! - No money for a health scheme, but *lots* for unproductive (counter-productive!) banksters.

Basically, daaarlings, I don't think they could make things worse if they tried; it probably means they *are* trying - to make it worse, and succeeding. Murphy says that if it can happen it will; the biggest force for evil in the world is obviously the US M/I/C-plex, with the I/J/Z-plex in clear 2nd place. All they can do is make and deploy guns, all the better to kill someone. Like, 1mio+ in Iraq, say (murder for oil!) - and 60+ years long in sadly now mostly ex-Palestine; no end in sight other than evermore murder for land and water.

They talk about 'peace-processes' - but all we see is more killing, more theft of others' sovereign resources.

Say one thing, do the opposite; so much for the self-termed 'Masters of the Universe.'

Hypocrites! Incompetents! Idiots! Fools!

Lying, murdering thieves.

every day, every hour, every minute - without ...

  .. the (effective!) action Oh, so urgently required ...

    .. is another nail into our once jewel-like planet's coffin

-=*=-

Preamble: Our planet is being assaulted, pillaged and plundered[1,2,3]; we are confronted and ripped-off, not by 'simply' greedy but by excessively-so, greedy beyond avarice liars, cheats and murdering thieves. The lying overwhelms the people; the psychologically-refined propaganda turns otherwise innocent people into TV-comatosed sheople®, who in turn act-out the "Monkey see, monkey do" paradigm, with attention to "Best country in the world" - "See no evil" exceptionalism, turning themselves into witless (and hopeless!) passengers. We (the honest ripped-off people) are being swamped by evil, drowned in lies, as the planet is being abandoned to burning-up, due to the threatening excess-CO2 caused climate-change catastrophe, a shocking, avoidable greedastrophe®.

-=*=-

We do know the 'who,' the 'how' and the 'why;' what we don't know is two, namely Q1: How can the perpetrators be so utterly bad (suggested A: psychopaths), and Q2: Who is going to put a stop to the rot - and save our once jewel-like planet?

The 'who:' Is the mainly US M/I/C-plex, with Israel, the UK and Aus (i.e. a self-selected subset of Anglo/Judaic regimes; the wannabe hegemon, its illegitimate sprog plus the poodle with dag). Note that a change of government does not appreciably change the policies. So much for so-called 'democracy,' so much for the people's choice.

The 'how:' Is the 'Washington Consensus' with its WB & IMF instruments; keyword 'neoliberal' with its so-called 'free' markets, privatisations, down-sizing, out-sourcing and off-shoring, ending with globalisation. Note well: when all quasi-legal methods fail, the perpetrators turn to violence; see Iraq, illegal invasion morphed into brutal occupation ('murder for oil'); see the "Economic Hit Man." In extremis, they go to 'murder for spoil;' see the sadly now mostly ex-Palestine, I/J/Z-plex murder for land and water, 60+ years now and still no end in sight. (So much for that particular 'peace process.')

The 'why:' Well, we've covered that; basically, greed. Out'a all control greed, greed beyond avarice. 'They' just can't get enough.

-=*=-

Intermezzo: Not only can 'they' not get enough, they cheat as well; see the current world-wide financial imbroglio, 101% created by the self-termed 'Masters of the (financial) Universe.' It wasn't enough that 'they' gave themselves almost an eternal 'free lunch' with their (otherwise worthless!) US fiat-dollar rip-off, 'backed' by oil for their double rip-off pleasure, they had to poison that well with their toxic clever-dick derivatives. Wham! The entire show may well collapse. 1929 and possibly, IMHO quite probably worse, here we come.

-=*=-

Update: As if all that wasn't enough, the most recent outrage - the 'terrorist' attacks on Mumbai, which are now being referred to by some as "India's 9/11." The possibility here is, that the US will use this outrage as an excuse to attack Pakistan, as another 'brick in the wall' the US M/I/C-plex is constructing around (massively oil-possessing!) Iran. (Looping - as usual - 'they,' the US fat-cat criminals just can't get enough!)

And all the time that all this carnage/theft/murder is going on, the greedastrophe gets ever closer and more unavoidable. Idiots!

-=*=-

The Enlightenment, the hope and aspiration of fair-thinking people everywhere (one might suppose), is being over-run by lying brigands, who chortle 'Economic Darwinism' as their fig-leaf for 'Law of the Jungle,' 'Might makes Right' murdering theft.

We return to Q2: Who is going to stop the rot - where are the adults?

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] assault —n. 1 violent physical or verbal attack. [POD]

[2] pillage —v. (-ging) (also absol.) plunder, sack. —n. pillaging, esp. in war. [French piller plunder] [ibid.]

[3] plunder —v. 1 rob or steal, esp. in wartime; loot. 2 exploit (another person's or common property) for one's own profit. —n. 1 activity of plundering. 2 property so acquired. [German plündern] [ibid.]

they ...

  .. have a screw (or three) loose

-=*=-

Consider this item:

  «Oil prices soar towards $US55
Posted November 25, 2008 06:03:00

Oil prices have roared higher towards $US55 as equity markets surged on government action aimed at tackling a severe economic downturn.»
[AusBC/justin]

Some keywords used: 'prices soar,' 'roared higher,' 'equity markets surged,' 'rallied,' 'closed up a massive,' 'pumped billions,' and 'mammoth financial stimulus,' 'prices also benefited,' and 'cut production.'

'They' told us that the oil price 'soaring' to US$150 was 'supply and demand.' Then when it fell back to US$50, that was 'China and India reducing demand.' What utter bulls**t, it was the clever d**k speculators all along - apart, that is from the (illegal!) Iraq war effect. 'They' tell us many things; most, as it turns out, is just more bulls**t. The AusBC, as we can plainly see, is right in the s**t with the rest.

-=*=-

'They' (GWBush et al.) told us that "They hate us for our freedoms!"

'They' (GWBush et al.) lied.

'They' (GWBush et al.) screeched "We will disarm him!"

'They' (GWBush et al.) lied.

'They' (Cheney et al.) told us that invading Iraq was not for the oil.

'They' (Cheney et al.) lied.

'They' (Murdoch et al.) told us that invading Iraq would give us US$25 oil.

'They' (Murdoch et al.) lied.

'They' (Howard et al.) told us they'd 'keep interest rates low.'

'They' (Howard et al.) lied.

'They' (Costello et al.) encouraged us to borrow and spend up big.

'They' (Costello et al.) cut the CGT in half, triggering the house-price bubble which took average house-prices to around nine times average earnings, effectively ending the 'Great Aussie Dream' for far too many Ockers.

(I haven't got all day to continue this list - it couldn't be finished in a month of Sundays anyway.)

-=*=-

You can't have democracy when people are lied to (B, B & H; they all *knew* that Saddam had no WMDs.)

You can't have democracy when the MSM retails and extends politicians' lies (almost any media outlet, including AusBC & SBS. Filthy, lying propagandists!)

You can't have democracy when voters are ignored (Howard, calling anti-wars "a mob.")

You can't have freedom when people are concrete-walled in (Iraq, Israel/ex-Palestine.)

You can't have free-trade when the US (and some others) subsidise their own farmers.

(Again I don't have the time to go anywhere near finishing this list.)

-=*=-

'They' are guilty of many more sins, inspect the labels 'neoliberal,' 'privatisation,' 'out-sourcing,' 'off-shoring' and 'neocon.' Add 'free-trade,' 'freedom' and 'democracy.' (And so on; add your own failing/lying keywords.)

The US is the source of all the evil flowing from those labels (and all the etc.s), the only one of those labels which that has a meaning close to the actual word is 'neocon,' not from 'conservative' but as in con-men - which is what they are.

Bush was 'aped' by Blair and Howard following the principle of "Monkey see, monkey do." The whole foul neoliberal, neocon lot of them, 'inspired' by Greenspan have dumped the world deeply into the s**t. Note that it wasn't always Repugs, Clinton had his filthy fingers in there too. Now Obama is 'employing' lots'a Clinton-types. Rudd, whilst being *infinitely* more preferable than Howard, still mouths the same-old same-olds, like "poverty-busting power of free trade."

This blog is called 'nomoreofthesame' for impeccable reasons; if Rudd and Obama only do more of the same - and the indications are so - then we can't expect to climb out of the s**t 'any time soon' (detested Ameri-speak, spit!)

Where are the adults?

culpable ...

  .. and/or incompetent ...

    .. but in any case, wickedly criminal

-=*=-

"All politicians lie!" - or so we were informed, as that ghastly fact became unavoidably obvious in the 'run-up' to the US-led (with UK and Aus as poodle with dag) illegal invasion of Iraq - murder for oil.

Equally obvious - at least to those who wish to see and look closely enough - is that it's not 'just' the politicians who lie; it's also the MSM (main-stream media: largely corrupt and venal), including some public broadcasters, like the AusBC and SBS, say. (Boo! Hiss! How dare they take our dough - then lie to us!!?)

The MSM - and the AusBC, SBS etc. go so far as to deploy 'talking head' so-called experts, many of whom were actually briefed by the Pentagon ('over there;' one suspects a similar process to be under way in the UK and Aus, after the principle of "Monkey see, monkey do." Recall the AusBC 7.30 Report's pre-Iraq war 'make-over,' and the subsequent 'expert' analysis segments.)

That we are being deliberately lied to was exposed largely due to 'citizen journalist' efforts associated with (against!) the illegal invasion of Iraq (now been morphed into an equally brutal and murdering occupation), and we won't forget that Iraq is only one modern occurrence, there's the almost concurrent invasion of Afghanistan (murder for a pipeline), and a looong list of US transgressions stretching at least from WW2 - the A-bombing war crime, my own chosen 'starting point,' but plenty more before that - right down to this day. The US is a war-oriented organization, they murder for spoil. See Blum's "Rogue State," Chomsky's "What Uncle Sam Really Wants" and Perkins' "Economic Hit Man" for examples.

That we were being deliberately propagandised occurred to me relatively early in my own investigations into the Iraq imbroglio, stimulated by the crooked works of Judith Miller (NYT) and Tony Parkinson (theAge) amongst other journalist-traitors. "Why that?" I cried to myself. Finding the answer took some deep digging, and a bit of serendipity.

We all should know by now the chilling implications of "the big lie;" try reading that ref. as a refresher to see if it rings any alarm bells anew. I draw particular attention to this bit:

  «His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.»
[wiki/Big_Lie, ibid.]

(Any viewer of AusBC's "The Howard Years" could keep the above in mind.)

But there was a predecessor to 'The Big Lie,' namely Bernays.

Reading that reference exposes nearly all, to wit, that we the sheople® are being deliberately propagandised - but worse: with malice aforethought.

In a nutshell, that's how our so-called democracies - US, UK, Aus & Israel - most of the Anglo/Judaic group and possibly, probably many others - are being deliberately corrupted. I regard that, and the subsequent results like murder for oil in Iraq (and all such lies and transgressions) as being filthily criminal.