It's really only about 10% of the problem.

Corporations and the uber-rich are buying up our government with great allacrity and gusto. While this is pathetic and reprehensible, it is not the bulk of the problem.

90% of the problem is we have politicians who are, disgustingly, more than merely willing and able to be bought.

Our government is infested with politicians who are outright clamoring to be bought.

Could our government be purchased, without willing sellers?

Hell no.

And that is the biggest part of our current problem.

It Is Really About Maturity

The game is on, players are having fun, except for the person in last place, who decides they don't want to lose - so they cheat - and justify their cheating as a misunderstanding of the rules, or claim the game is rigged, or accuse other players of cheating, etc., etc., etc.

The cheater does not cheat primarily because they are dishonest; they cheat because they lack the maturity to practice honesty, they lack the maturity to play the game fairly, they lack the maturity to respect others.

Self-imposed ignorance describes a lack of maturity, as well. Acknowledging facts and behaving according to those facts is not part of the metric for the immature mind; rather, facts are barriers to such people, instead of guides. Epistomology teaches us facts are self-evident; they do not require proof. Accepting facts at face value requires the maturity to accept the world as we find it, while immaturity refuses to do so, often leading to much whining and crying (I wonder if Boehner owns stock in Kleenex...).

Greed is an expression of immature selfishness coupled with a conscious lack of respect for others, for rules/laws, for consequence. Those who practice greed do so because they refuse to care about anything except feeding their own appetites, and reject maturity and reality in the process.

Is maturity a choice, then? For most of us, yes - it is a conscious decision made every day, hour by hour, minute by minute. Maturity is the art of combining self-discipline and knowledge - of self, of the world, of the facts as one finds them - and allowing this gestalt to manifest in one's behavior and perceptions.

We are not fighting ignorance, or greed, or misinformation, or cheaters, in this world of ours; we are fighting immaturity.

Republicans cannot seem to win elections without rigging the game (voter suppression, purging voter roles, black box machines, etc.), and while this is dishonest, disingenuous, and displicable, it speaks more to their maturity level, than to anything else, for were they mature, cheating to win would not be a viable practice, especially when the stakes are so very high.

Perhaps we can refine our approach to dealing with Republicans, if we consider the possibility it is maturity they lack, rather than knowledge, or wisdom, or honesty. And it is this lack of maturity in which their behavior is rooted, manifesting in a manner which parallels the drama one experiences with a child who is deep in the throes of a temper tantrum...

RepubliBags want rid of welfare? I. Have. A. Plan!

I figured out today whilst engaging a card carrying Republican/Tea Partier (or as my wife calls them, RepubliBags) that these folks who think of themselves as "conservatives" - are just fucking...STUPID!

I read the Sunlight Foundation report, on the lack of braininess in the halls of Congress, and as I was "arguing" with this Tea person today, I thought of this report, and realized it felt like I was trying to explain something very complex and important to an eighth grader. I realized I was being forced to severely "dumb" things down, so this fella could keep up - very frustrating, it was...and not my main point here - I just needed to get that off my chest. Whew! Better.

Anyhoo, as the conversation developed, this person told me they voted Republican, in part, because they felt the whole welfare/financial assistance system using both Federal and State resources was an unnecessary drain on treasuries, and an unneeded expense for taxpayers. And also because Democrats wanted to turn the country into a socialist communist godless dictatorship. I ignored the last part, and stayed focused on social respopnsibility, getting him to detail what he felt we should eliminate from the government that is used to assist the poor - and why. He wants to eliminate anything that helps the poor, period. And his justification for doing this sounded like he was parroting Rush/Beck/Hannity all at the same time. It was weak, to say the least, and his concern for his fellow citizens, was pretty much non-existant. When I pointed out the Consitution mandated we promote the general welfare (which I told him meant we ensure every person in our country has enough to eat), this failed to sway him.

So I tried another tack. My mind was racing between outrage at this person's callousness and the need to be patient and set a good example for the small crowd gathered to witness the spectacle (it was lunch break, most of us have nothing better to do, we usually just stand around watching the paint peel), and in the heat of the moment, I found a path all the way through his position, and much to everyone's surprise - especially mine - he was left unable to respond with any counterargument at all.

"Fine. Let's say for argument's sake that dropping welfare, child insurance programs, food banks, homeless shelters, school lunches, pell grants, and all the rest, will significantly reduce taxes, and the need for much of existing government infrastructure. So what should the poor do then - just starve?"

"They should get a job, and work, like real Americans do."

I knew trying to discuss poverty levels and such was a dead end, so I went for the throat.

"You know, Cleetus (not his real name, I swear!), I read an article a while back that said the CEO of this company makes about 400 times as much as the average employee."

"So?"

"So, instead of welfare, or school lunches, how about we raise minimum wage to just 1% of what our CEO makes, and those who cannot work - the eldery, disabled, and so on, go on social security adjusted to 65% of minimum wage?"

He thought about this for a few minutes. I'm not exaggerating - he pondered this for like three minutes. It was excrutiating. And surprisingly, he didn't drool once while doing so. I'm absolutely sure he didn't. Okay, I'm mostly sure...kind of...

Anyway, after what was (I'd guess) a "thorough" review of his positions as dictated by Fox News, the Boy Wonder finally spoke up. "Well, I suppose that sounds fair. So what would minimum wage be, then?"

"Let's see," I said, opening the calculator on my phone. "According to the article, our CEO made a cool $10,000,000 last year, including bonuses and stock options, so that means minimum wage would be..." I did some quickie math on the calculator, with Cleetus looking slack-jawed over my shoulder, "...let's round it off to $48 an hour, based on a 40 hour work week."

Well, 'ol Cleetus nearly had to pick his jaw up off the floor. Seeing this as a clear advantage, I pressed on.

"You realize, this means our CEO is making around forty-eight hundred bucks an hour. You know, if he actually works 40 hours a week." I gave him a second to absorb this. "So what do you think? Is this a plan you could get behind?"

"Uh...I'll have to think about it," Cleetus mumbled, shuffling away towards the exit for a final smoke before break ended. The rest of my lunch I spent discussing the income disparity present in our country with the rest of the crowd, many who had never realized how great the divide actually was (most of us make about $13 an hour).

And there you have it. If we want to end welfare, then employers must pay a substantially higher minimum wage, and we must substatially raise Social Security benefits. If it is something that would hurt small businesses, and by small I mean less than a dozen employees, then maybe we can discuss subsidization or something. I don't know, I'm not really a policy guy, and this may not even be a viable idea - but it sure shut 'ol Cleetus up.

Letting poverty persist and grow is not only not an option for us as Americans. It violates the Consitution. And let's face it; this actually means poverty - is unpatriotic.

Stick that in your teapot, RepubliBags!

US Police Forces: Little More Than Racketeers And Thugs

Being a police officer means becoming part of an exclusive culture which has become increasingly hostile, violent, vindictive, and arrogant. On any given day you will find multiple stories about police abuses - violence, killing, civil rights, lawsuits, militarization, stalking, theft, revenge, blatant corruption - it is an almost endless list.

You don't have to take my word for it; these stories are becoming unbiquitous. The big story right now of course is the Martin murder, and the possible attempted cover-up by the Sanford, Florida police. But there is so much more - in just two minutes spent surfing various websites I found these items:
--- --- ---
Pinal Sheriff's Office stockpiles, prepares to sell military equipment -- Uh, it's legal if the police are doing it...right? But don't ask such questions, or else...

Police taser pregnant woman for refusing to sign ticket -- Anything goes, anything at all, for law enforcment has no line to cross...

Rochester Woman Arrested After Videotaping Police From Her Own Front Yard -- What the police do in public, is private, even on your own property.

Ticket-fixing has been condoned for decades as part of the "NYPD culture." -- Police protesting because they have to follow laws. How dare us expect to have a law-abiding police force!
--- --- ---
And it isn't the big, newsworthy things, but rather the small, everyday things we all fearfully and resentfully accept, which are becoming more and more embedded in our lives.

The small stuff eats away at our culture. Stuff like the cop who goes flying past you on the highway - no lights, no siren - just burning up the passing lane, driving with a posture which suggests you'd best not get in his way...and then a few miles down the road you see him pulled over, socializing with another cop in a different car.

Or the knowledge (I would say) every American not in law enforcement shares, that pissing off a cop, is a very bad idea - don't do it while he's on duty, don't do it in a social setting - don't do it EVER...or he can, and likely will, change your life.

In so many ways, society's relationship with its police force has eroded and devolved.

I ran across a Facebook page a while back called "Big City Cops," which proudly displays the Caligula phrase (next to a skull, of course...apparently cops don't mind sharing sensibilities with sixth graders) : "Let them hate, so long as they fear." You should check the page out, it's quite the eye opener - but I won't link to it. Hell, no.

I'm not suggesting there are no good cops - quite the contrary. I would guess the good ones far outnumber the bad.

For it is not indivudual cops so much as it is the cop culture - and the self-perception of being powerfully righteous, which is driven by this culture - that is so damaging. Cops who speak out against the culture are ostracized, fired, or worse - and there are stories of this nature all over the place, too. Thus the good ones end up protecting the culture, further perpetuating and strengthening it.

Very, very soon, we must take action; we might consider instituting federally mandated police standards which include psychological testing, Constitutional education backed up by testing to ensure a basic understanding of their relationship to the citizenry, continuing education in rudimentary psychology and sociology, ongoing crisis intervention training, job performance standards for departments and individuals, and maybe even set a maximum number of years an individual can be a police officer.

And perhaps the most pressing item - police need to be re-armed; their military-grade weapons, vehicles, and assault equipment needs to be substantially reduced - or eliminated altogether.

This is an intolerable situation, and another divide which continues to accelerate and widen. We must face this, and we must act, else the police will be little more than racketeers and thugs, preying at will on a defenseless society, wearing the guise of their protectors...

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. --- Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Love this sign at a local store

The owner has a whiteboard he's always putting quotes on, often his own obervations and thoughts. I saw this (he laughed when I asked to write it down and post it) and had to share it with DU:

So we have a black man in the White House, and he's probably going to be there another four years.

Good grief. It is 2012, not the 1850's!

Seriously, you people need to just get over it.

But you probably won't.

Therefore, I have a bone to pick with you, since you want to engage in irrelevancies.

I didn't hear you people bitch when the Muppets put pigs in space.

Pigs in space? Really?

Unbelievable! Outrageous! Think of the implications!

The Muppets must be stopped before they destroy us all!

No more pigs in space, dammit!

There Will Be Blood.

An interesting thread about tomorrow's Occupy general strike is on fire right now, as the OP predicts it will be a "flop," though by what metric he is determining this, is unclear.

A couple of things - one, the general strike tomorrow is not intended to, nor is it alone capable of, bringing about revolutionary change.

And two - I would classify the strike as a potentially catalyzing event, one that can, and likely will, bring renewed attention, and thus energy, to the Occupy movement. Or it might have the opposite effect; either, is quite possible.

That being said, I have a prediction of my own: Be prepared, for tomorrow will turn bloody.

Cops all over the country are polishing up their riot gear, pulling out extra rations of tear gas, stocking up on bullets (rubber, beanbag, and lead), and standing shirtless in front of full length mirrors, alternately flexing their chest muscles as they dreamily stare into their own eyes in order to avoid acknowledging the diminutive penis size which almost certainly lies at the root of their penchant for violence...

All right, I'm totally guessing at that last one...but...I'll betcha...

Cops are going to be a vivid force tomorrow, and believe it - they will get carried away, and people - Occupiers, bystanders, passer-bys, journalists, and even children, the elderly, and dogs, will be in their line of fire.

As to the "success" of the strike tomorrow - we shall see. I hope we pull it off, I hope it makes an impact, and I hope we can continue to move forward.

I'll be there, taking my chances with the rest...

So good luck to us all - and watch out - EVERYONE!! - for those madly swinging batons.