Why Go Into the Outside World At All? It's Such a Fright!

So first of all, I haven't had the cable teevee for about two years. I remembered seeing a lot of back and forth in the ol' blogosphere the past couple of years about Mad Men and True Blood. Frankly, I couldn't be bothered. Well, the queue finally hit my series chunk on Netflix, so I gave 'em a shot. Well, I don't got no high-falutin' intellectual criticizin' of them there shows, but I gotta say, I am thoroughly enjoying both.

I finished season 1 of True Blood on Netflix last week, and I am about halfway through season 1 of Mad Men for this week. How come no one told me that J. Pierrepont Finch was the big boss in Mad Men? That shit is hi-larious! How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is like, my fourth favorite movie musical of all time!



And yes, True Blood is truly awful. It's also fucking ridiculously fun; I don't think I've ever seen something so goddamn stupid that I've enjoyed so goddamn much. Supposedly, the second season is even more retarded than the first. I can hardly contain myself!


*******

So, in other news, I got's me a job, bitches! Tell you more later.

Also, MJNA is chilling at .40 cents a share. So all in all, pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Seriously, Dudes

MJNA absolutely roars to a close at .36 cents at the end of the week. I've made about $2,000 dollars in the past week. Are you seriously going to tell me you haven't bought shares yet? Come on.



ps - stuck in salary negotiation limbo on the job front. Please keep your fingers crossed for Matt out there, ScaryShitsters.

I'm Rich, Bitch!

So didja buy MJNA like I suggested when it was still .26 cents? Guess what? .30 cents right now, suckers! I just made a cool $500 dollars.

Go ahead, treat yourself to some Medical Marijuana, Inc. You deserve it. And remember, it's never too late to get in on a good thing.

Also, a personal update. I currently have in front of me, simply put, the two best job offers I've ever had in my entire life. And by a country mile, to boot. I don't know what I'm going to do, I've got a lot of hard thinking to do, and I need to figure this shit out yesterday. Talk t0 you folks later. Gotta get back to cogitating.

Matt Money

So, been dealing with a lot of stressful job-search stuff right now. Doing a lot of soul-searching, and trying to figure out what the hell to do next. Right now I have four or five really intriguing possibilities, and I need to make up my mind, and soon. I gots to cogitate, so I dunno how much bloggering I'm going to be doing right this second.

So, in the meantime, how's about a smoking hot stock tip?

MJNA, currently trading as an over the counter stock at .26 cents. It's our pick of the week over here at Matt Money!



Webistics, er, Medical Marijuana, Inc. is the name of the company. They have some sort of a debit card/automatic tax & book-keeping application for medical marijuana dispensaries. Is it gonna work? Turn a profit? Who knows! But seriously, where the fuck else you gonna put your money? GM? But of course, caveat emptor, this guy (who sure seems like a real smarmy cocksucker, if you ask me) calls them a "scummy penny stock," your classic pump and dump situation, if you will.

I don't know, I don't care. It's cheap (real fucking cheap), and as far as I know, it's the only publicly traded marijuana stock currently out there. I'm living in Oakland right now, in the heart of Oaksterdam, and I can tell you that there is a whole hell of a lot of money being made out here. Seems a shame not to get your slice of the pie, right? It seems to me that you can't afford not to buy it, it is only .26 freaking cents!

Don't be a sucker. Buy it. You know you want it. Come on in, the water's just fine....

Cheap Post

So, I have slightly updated my blogroll. A few old ones are gone, a few new ones are here, so whatever. Read 'em, and shit. By the by, IOZ has a great blogroll, I'd recommend reading those guys, that's pretty much where I begin my blog-nerding each day (and my sincerest condolences to the monsieur).

I guess the most obvious change is that I shuttered UsefulActivism for the time being. Frankly, it's not a discussion with which I'm particularly invested or interested. "Why should we hear about activism and such? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" I'm seriously pseudo-retired from politics and activism right now.

So what am I gonna write about? Dunno. I imagine I'll be writing a lot about how I don't write about politics. But whatevs. I'll leave you with a thought for the day. Dennis Perrin really distilled a lot of how I've been feeling lately with this nugget:

Outside, the world continues to burn. It always will. I read headlines, stay aware, but it's becoming more abstract to me. Is this imperial privilege? Or do we all lose the edge that once informed our lives -- assuming we ever had it? Any explanation will suffice. I'm tired and open to suggestions.

Oh, and Robot? Why the fuck was I not informed about the Shit Split cover show in Mpls. on May Day? Dude, I would have seriously flown up for that. Blatz is like my favorite band evah, yo.

By the way, lemme tell you a little something about something else. "Super-liberal hypocrites, what the hell is this hippy shit anyways?"


Oh yeah, and "Oakland rulz!!!!!!!!!!" -- Jesse Luscious

Never Mind the Poltroons, Here's Arthur Silber

Help Arthur Silber. Please donate to him here, he desperately needs whatever assistance you can offer. I "unretired" from blogging in large part to write this post.

Arthur is simply one of the most generous and beautiful people I've ever had the pleasure to converse with on this here internets, and I hope to hell that he is doing alright. No one writes with his power or clarity, and on a myriad* of subjects to boot. No one.

I'm just gonna cut and paste Chris Floyd's post from last week in its entirety:

Arthur Silber has been silent for quite some time, and his last post spoke of horrific problems with his health -- which has been declining for a long time, and now seems to have taken a deep plunge.

I don't know his precise situation at the moment, but it is likely to be dire. I imagine too that in addition to the health problems, he is facing the usual crush of bills at the end of the month. He is one of our strongest and most thought-provoking voices, yet is forced to live at the margins of society, while witless poltroons and egregious time-servers swim in gravy.

I am not authorized to speak for him, and am not speaking for him -- but just on my own volition, I would urge you to go to his site and, if you have anything to give, give what you can to support Silber in this difficult time. We need his insight, we need his wit, we need the disturbing, productive fire in the mind that he can light.

And while you're there, avail yourself of some of the "Major Essays" listed on the side; this is powerful stuff, and you won't see anything like it anywhere else.

Please donate. Even if it is just a few dollars.

Thank you.

*Hey Smilingdork, if you're reading:

usage Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective. As the entries here show, however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it.

PS - Arthur, I promise to write soon. And guess what, it's mom's birthday today!

A Story...

Once upon a time, there was a guy with a facebook account. The guy works in the political industry. The political campaigns industry, actually. Specifically, the political campaigns for shitbag Democrats industry. This guy has also been friends with a former (reformed?) blogger for about 6 years, give or take.

The guy wrote this the other day on his facebook page or wall or whatever the fuck the kids these days are calling it:

if there is no public option, i am not voting in federal elections any more........

To which the friend/blogger (duh, me) replied:

Give me a break man. I would think that being perpetually "surprised" and disappointed by the actions of politicians, especially Democratic politicians would finally get old. Or at least exhausting. Stop being a chump. Stop voting. And Jesus Hector Christinez, stop voting for "More, and better, Democrats." Buy a fucking clue, please.

I then proceeded to post these two links:

http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2009/07/thats-not-change-america-can-believed.html

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2009/07/postpartisan.html

Well, a bit of not-so-pleasant back and forth then ensued, and the guy ended the conversation thusly:

honestly matt if you knew what i thought aside from a quick tidbit on facebook expressing my frustration about this bull shit healthcare, then you could talk but until than dont talk to me about what you believe is going through my head.

And you know what, he's right. I simply haven't the faintest as to what is going through this dear friend of mine's head. It was unfair of me to assume that he may have been "surprised" or "disappointed." Frankly, I don't know how he felt, nor do I care.

So, the proper way to have expressed my frustration with my friend would perhaps be better phrased, "You are part of the problem."

I love this guy like a brother, and we have literally spent hundreds of hours arguing over and discussing "politics." If he still doesn't get it, he simply never will. And he is not alone. He is like the vast majority of those of us who follow (i.e. waste our time reading about/listening to/talking to others about) politics.

I am done. I try (and it is an effort) to not pay attention. To not get dragged into these asinine discussions of bafflement over Obama/The Dem's actions/decisions. I am much happier now. I recommend that you try to do the same.

So to my friend, I again apologize. I have no fucking clue what could possibly be running through your head. I know for a fact that you are an intelligent person, with a good heart, and someone that I care about a lot. So why you spend your days working to elect and re-elect these awful people, let alone waste your time talking about "politics" in your precious few hours away from work, I will never know.

I did the same for many years. I promise I never will again.

On Hiatus

Dealing with a family emergency right now. Be back sometime.

The Scariest Shit of All: Anarchists!

So, from the quick news coverage I had seen of the St. Paul Heffelfucker report, it appears that the ruling class has done again what it always does best, namely change the terms of the debate. I had recently discussed some of the more recent leaks about the St. Paul RNC protests, and the fact that the US military (NORTHCOM), working with the FBI, MN state and local authorities, the NSA, and various other spook agencies, set up a total security and surveillance system that allowed them to target and monitor activists, with the help of the telecom companies that your Democratic congress so nicely decided to immunize from any possibly prosecutions for oh, um, spying on American citizens. (wait, actually, this has nothing to do with FISA. supposedly the phone companies were only spying on people talking to "potential terrorists" overseas, right? I remember a lot of talk about "splitters" and "trunks," and where calls were originating, and some other boring stuff. It's all kinda hazy now. Like I always say, lotsa weed. Brain gets fuzzy. Besides:

Next, I remind you as forcefully as I can of FISA's actual nature. As I wrote in "The Ruling Class Unleashed":

I must immediately interject that to discuss these issues [pertaining to liberty and privacy] with regard to FISA is ludicrous in a much deeper sense. As Jonathan Turley explains here, FISA itself is a secret court whose very purpose is to circumvent the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. The FISA court is no protection against illegitimate government intrusion at all. But as Turley notes, that we are fighting over whether to grant the executive branch and FISA still more untrammeled authority to disregard constitutional rights is a measure of how far we have already marched toward tyranny. And look at this chart to see just how compliant the FISA court is.

As I argued in the earlier essay, if we were genuinely concerned about civil liberties and privacy, we would return to the Fourth Amendment and the procedures it requires, and the FISA regime would be abolished entirely. That's right: it would be abolished. No one wants to do that. Too radical, doncha know. That's scary talk, much scarier, it would appear, than the tyranny which daily strengthens its death grip on all our throats. Nonetheless, if you want to understand the nature and scope of the decades-long attack on individual liberty, you had better remember what FISA is.

Moreover, understand the nature of the old FISA regime, which appears to be just fine with almost everyone, Republicans, Democrats, progressives, everyone. Steny Hoyer has helpfully spelled out the near-omnipotent powers of FISA under the old scheme. Understand how comprehensive it is, and how comprehensively it destroys civil liberties. Quite inexplicably, though, Hoyer declined to summarize the government's powers under the old FISA scheme in easily understandable, everyday language. So I helped him out:

We can already spy on everyone. Everyone! Got that, you schmucks? And we don't even need a warrant a lot of the time! Every once in a while, we kinda think we should get a warrant. No reason for that actually. But it looks better, you know? Keeps the stupidly annoying civil liberties crowd happy. But those idiots at the FISA court will give us one nearly every time! [See here again.] And since FISA is a secret court, none of those peons (otherwise known as "citizens") will ever know a damned thing about what's actually going on anyway. It's good to be an Empire!

I repeat: that's the old scheme, which most people think is the bee's knees, a gentle zephyr cooling a moist brow, a benevolent moon keeping watch over a peaceful world below.

So, anyways, we're talking about widescale domestic spying, not some Foreign Intelligence Some-such-or-other Act with secret courts and "overseas terrorists".)

I haven't read the full report. It's 88 pages long, and I honestly don't know if I'll have time to do so. But I have read a bit of news coverage on the hearing and presentation of the report, and its executive summary. Basically, here's the gist: "It was a mixed-bag. The police mostly did a pretty good job, but they should have shown public service commercials of evil anarchists throwing dumpsters through Starbucks' windows or something, so that the people of St. Paul could have worked themselves up into a proper hate-frenzy. A lot of people freaked out about the authorities' reactions to the protests, so we clearly didn't do a good enough job of demonizing the protestors as "anarchists" (wait, preferably "violent anarchists!" -- much better) or terrorists, or whatever. But we're sure as shit not gonna make that mistake in our whitewash!"

So, let's go with the highlight reel:

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

"In general, the conduct of law enforcement during the RNC was restrained and professional under the circumstances."

"There were, however, several specific incidents or situations of potential inappropriate conduct, including the improper uses of pepper spray and potential mass arrests, that warrant further review."

"Law enforcement was not fully prepared for the anarchists to descend on St. Paul on Sept. 1 as early as occurred and in as violent a way as they did."

"Because of the high expectations created for this convention, the public was unprepared to witness riot gear outfitted officers and to see the use of pepper spray, smoke and other chemical devices to clear crowds of anarchists from the streets of St. Paul ... and the security fencing surrounding the Xcel Energy Center." - my emphasis

See? It wasn't the police tactics that were the problem. It's the fault of those anarchists. And, the dumb shit civilians who freaked out when they saw what full spectrum dominance really means, in a pretty up close and personal way.

Please take the two minutes to watch this video below. This is from the AP:

I received a really great link in the comments to this excellent post at UsefulActivism by LudditeRobot dealing with the Oakland riots. Please, read it in its entirety. But anyways, check out this quote from an article at Counterpunch written by some of the anarchist protesters:

Anarchists tend to show up at all demonstrations prepared to act should the situation escalate, and this case was no different. Yet it is simply incorrect to suggest that there was some conspiracy of anarchists from the 'outside' who were able to manipulate the helpless youth of Oakland as part of their sinister agenda. This is a paternalistic misreading of what was unquestionably a spontaneous outpouring of rage, led by youth of color. There, temporary alliances were made as those who were motivated to act in the moment experienced a unique cross-pollination that cut across the inhibiting social boundaries of everyday life.

So the allegations of an anarchist takeover are destructively misleading...

...What manifested during the Oakland rebellion was a moment of interchange and revolutionary transformation that rarely happens within the rituals of left organizing in the Bay Area. Between white "community organizers" overtaken by guilt into an impotent politics of servitude, professional activists worried about annual reports and grant cycles, and vanguardist marxist sects continually looking to use the next demonstration as a recruiting drive, many radicals find themselves in a desert devoid of revolutionary activity and thought. Within this barren landscape, it is rare to find new possibilities for radical social change while combatting racism and the constant oppression of capitalism. Resisting the police shoulder to shoulder, destroying property (albeit with different emphasis), helping one another evade arrest, exchanging tactics and gestures of solidarity across racial barriers pushes the desire for a multi-racial revolutionary movement ahead, more than any speaker at a rally ever could.

Anarchists are very accustomed to accusations of spoiling carefully managed demonstrations, and in some cases this is true and necessary. The Oakland rebellion was a different story. Those who are truly committed to revolutionary change in this country need to appreciate the significance of what unfolded in the streets that night and move forward without falling into the usual sectarian traps.

Mark my words, we are going to be hearing a hell of a lot more about these scary anarchists "taking over" protests. It's their most effective way to delegitimize protest, and to ignore the actual reasons that people were taking to the streets. "Outside agitators" and puppetmasters and such, these anarchists. It's an oldie, but a goodie.

Like, Totally. And Shit.

As many of my proggie friends are preparing to trek to DC to whoop it up during the "inaugurager" (good one, Kev), Arthur Silber reminds us again why all of this shenaniganary is simply a disgusting distraction, and other than a few buzzkills, everyone is ignoring the real issues of significance. Why anyone who is supporting this jefe (new boss, same as the old boss) is beyond me, but the pull of belonging, the need to be part of the "winning team" is pretty damn strong. I can understand it. I understand why people who believed that everything wrong with this country, with the world, with, well, everything can be laid at the feet of President Bush and the "Rethuglicans" in general just want to turn off their brains and party fucking hardy! These last 8 years have been truly horrifying. The mask has been removed, etc. etc. "We worked hard for HOPE and CHANGE, and finally, mirabile dictu! we have won! Evil has been vanquished, a thousand year reich of peace and prosperity and hope and vacuity begins, a new day dawns, etc etc and now I finally can go back to dicking around with my iPhone rather than blogging about Obama, and worrying about yucky 'politics' and such." (or whatever it is the kids these days are saying).

Arthur, quoting David Swanson at Counterpunch:

I want to focus on a few points in particular. I recently mentioned again in passing (with links to lengthier discussions of this subject) that no meaningful prosecutions of war crimes will be pursued with regard to even one of the major criminals from the Bush administration. On that subject, Swanson notes the following at the very end of his article:

Conyers goes on in his Foreword to enumerate his many reports and announcements, investigations, hearings, lawsuits, etc. Conyers opened a hearing on impeachment (but not really on impeachment) this past July by bragging about all the hearings he'd held. To him, these hearings and reports are, to some degree, ends in themselves. Actual substantive steps that impact people's lives can get lost in the shuffle. One such step would be impeachment, which could happen right now if Conyers wanted it to. Another step would be Conyers' clear and active support for a special prosecutor.

While prosecution of Bush and Cheney would be hard-pressed to fail, and politicians who supported it would be hard-pressed not to rise in popularity, Cheney has given us a preview of his legal defense: "We were never impeached."

I urge you to reflect for at least several minutes on the horror of this result. This is one of the bitter, deadly fruits of cowardice in the face of evil. It helps to illuminate a critical principle, one that would be very simple to appreciate if it were not for the unstinting efforts made by Democrats like Conyers and the most vocal of Democratic apologists to evade the truth and refuse to acknowledge the obvious: each retreat from battle makes the next battle that much harder. The Democrats are always talking about "saving their gunpowder" for the next fight, which will be the genuinely important one. But each act of cowardice of this kind -- and it is cowardice, we should call such acts by their rightful name -- weakens them, rather than making them stronger. At the same time, each concession to evil makes evil stronger, while the coward reinforces his own cowardice. Thus, evil consolidates and expands its reach -- and those who would fight against evil are pushed farther offstage.

That's it man. Game over man, game over.

No impeachment. Complicity all around. (oh yeah. and this. and this. etc. etc. ad nauseam)

The clock runs out on the Bush/Cheney administration, all is right and good in the land once again.

PS - I do not support.

Thus, the lesson: when you choose to be a critical part of a system that has become this corrupt -- and the endless corruptions of our corporatist-authoritarian-militarist system have been documented at great length here and in other places -- you will not ameliorate or "save" it. The system will necessarily and inevitably corrupt you.

Finally, that is the choice that confronts Conyers, and all of us: you can remain or become part of a system dedicated to destroying liberty and peace -- or you can choose to withdraw your support, to whatever extent is possible given the particulars of your life. I have never suggested, and I am not suggesting now, that the choice is always obvious, and it is certainly not easy -- but that is the choice. It is long past time to pretend otherwise.

Choose with care, and wisely, if you dare. As I have said before:

[T]hese horrors are now what the United States stands for. Thus, for every adult American, the question is not, "Why do you obey?" but:

Why do you support?

Or will you refuse to give your support? Will you say, "No"? These are the paramount questions at this moment in history, and in the life of the United States. We all must answer them. Our honor, our humanity, and our souls lie in the balance.

Echo Chamber

So, still waiting for word on the RNC report due to be presented today by Heffelfucker et al. In the meantime, check out LudditeRobot with a roundup of new links on the Sheriff Bob Fletcher shenanigans out of Ramsey County, MN.