A Right Turn in Yorba Linda

Briefly, the decline of America began under Nixon, and accelerated because of Nixon's descendents. From here on till today, each new iteration of the Republican Party gets worse. More evil. Nixon was the beginning, for who didn't like Ike?

Nixon had to resign! He was terrible, and yet his martyrdom at the hands of LIBERAL MEDIA has been the rallying cause for generations of "Conservatives" since, with many of the key players involved in all the acts to come. Dick Cheney, for instance. Roger Ailes, for another. However, America of the 1970's still had some sense left in her, and so rejected Ronnie for Jimmie Carter and sweaters and solar panels on the White House.

Yay Jimmy Carter! But alas, for Jimmy, and us all, the monster had been woken, and took power in part because of a total rat bastard deal with the Iranian Mullahs. Hail Saint Ronnie!

Thanks to relentless right wing propaganda, you may remember Ronnie as a kind hearted, awesome President who saved the world from evil. However, the truth was, and is, he was a puppet for far darker forces which effectively ruled in his stead once he began suffering from severe dementia circa 1985. It was this so called Reagan Revolution that loosed the Wing Nut Id on America and the world, and think of the damage this has caused - and will cause in the years to come. Millions of dead Middle Easterners, just for starters. Millions of Americans in prison. Plenty of straight up treason too in the Reagan Administration, ably covered up by:

Bush Senior, and for that he'll be remembered poorly. But alas, in retrospect, compared to the utter loons now dominating the Republican landscape, Bush the Elder was a moderate, sane man who I do believe genuinely wanted to do good by the country and the world. For example, I think he handled the fall of the USSR smoothly - a situation that was extremely dangerous. But being a moderate elite technocrat was also now dangerous in the Republican Party, so Bush Sr lost to Bill Clinton

A fine President in many respects, yet because of his human failings, and the explosion of the First Wingularity, he played defense for most of his two terms, which translated to enacting highly pro-corporate policies, which led directly to the economic collapse of 2008, and now have placed America firmly in the grip of ruthless tycoons who will bleed this country dry for their own betterment. So, mixed bag really with Slick Willie. He was perhaps the funnest President though, by far.

And you know all about W., I hope, by now. And so here we are in 2013, with the fires of mass insanity burning brightly in about 27 - 40% of the population, and we have the best President of my lifetime trying to control them. Good luck Barack, you'll need it!

The coolest President.

Bonus Nixon pic:

A single thread

There is a single thread that runs through the entirety of American history, right to this moment, and it's slavery. American slavery was created in Virgina early on, as a means to 1. Get cheap labor, of course (more on this), but also 2. Create a very effective divide and conquer tool. For you see, while slavery is pretty much as old as human civilization, racial slavery is an American (North to South) invention, and coupled with the plantation model (which is a riff on the European royalty and serfdom dynamic), it gave birth to just about every negative issue we as a country have faced, and face today. For, it pitted poor folks against poor folks and whenever that's the case, the rich laugh and laugh and bath in their money. "I may be a poor piece of white trash, but at least I ain't a nigger" pretty much sums it up, and this dynamic has been used by those in power to maintain and wield power since the Virginia Colony. It shaped all the founding American documents, including the Constitution, and was major factor in every election since. It shaped the number of states in the country, and the nature of the Senate/House. Slavery and the many related issues has shaped every major aspect of the USA. Obviously the Civil War was entirely about slavery (and the plantation system), but let us not lose sight of the post-Reconstruction implementation of Jim Crow laws across the South - divide and conquer, remember. Your life may suck, but it's better than "those" people's. Vote for me! Buford T. Richguy. Slavery was technically gone, but segregation worked ok. But then we as a country (let's be clear who the heroes of this tale are: Progressives) decided that was enough too, and the South let loose with:

Hop on board!

First day of school. Can you imagine walking in the front door to this:

Think how incredibly brave these kids were:

In the face of this:

"Honest", "Decent", "Hard Working" Americans.

Soak up these pictures, and try to imagine yourself living in those times, or any time earlier, as a black man, or as a poor white woman barely feeding her children. Look at the faces, and then look see here:

And know that these Teabaggers and Wingnuts and so called "Conservatives" are the direct descendents of the anti-busing racists of the 70's, and the anti-segregationists of the 60's and 50's, and the enforcers of the racist status quo in the years 1940 - 1670 or so. Poor white people fed steady diets of lies and hate until they well and truly internalize it, and live out the Master's wishes - and poor folk fight poor folk. Man fights man in the belief he's fighting "The Other", when it's really his own interests he's been fighting all along.

Make no mistake, the Tea Party is a wholly funded enterprise of wealthy Republicans - Freedomworks AKA the Kochs. Race is but one tool of the divide and conquer trade these days, but it still serves as the primary tool. But this - all of this, racism, slavery, serfdom - is but effect of the underlying cause: The powerful seeking to maintain their power. And this dynamic is as old as human society - kings and queens, popes and bishops, dictators and warlords, tycoons and oligarchs, it's all the same. The wealthy seek their own interests - which is getting even wealthier. They will employ whatever means available to their society/time in doing so. The only way the great majority of humanity can stand against them is to stand together. They know this far more than we do, so they divide and conquer, using race, religion, nationalism, tribalism, fear, hate, envy, all the base emotions to motivate people not to trust. Not to hope. And so it goes, from the first city, I assume. Before that, humanity was a species of literally dirty hippies living in drum circles.

Lest you think slavery is gone, by the way, think again - it's just been re-branded. It's called "Globalism". How resourceful! America has outsourced its slavery.

As long as a majority of voters are sufficiently sated/scared, the system continues. Until something breaks. Are we approaching some manner of break?

Behind the Curtain

The Republican party is a quasi-fascist outfit at this point - seriously - and so is highly structured (as opposed to the Democratic party which is really a co-op amongst dozens of vested interest groups, often with conflicting agendas.). The structure is, from top to bottom, as such: Money.

 Two of the worst things ever to happen to America - Corporations were somehow declared actual people, just like you and me. Then, free speech was applied to political spending - that is, you can't restrict it. And so we have the Koch Brothers, heirs to Daddy's fortune. Their two claims to fame are 1. Increasing Daddy's fortune, considerably

and 2. Mainstreaming the mentality of the John Birch Society, of which their Father was a founding member. These are the crazy "FLUORIDE!" folks from the 50's, who were mocked and marginalized till Nixon, then Reagan took it to the next level. And all along the way were the Koch boys, spending freely. They are now the de facto power of Conservative America, coupled with Murdoch (and a few others), and they have two major means of control. 1. "Think Tanks", like ALEC listed above. ALEC is great - they essentially write laws whole cloth, then present these writings to Republican controlled State houses, who pass them. All the anti-Union laws that burst out of nowhere since 2010 are all ALEC written. There are many Think Tanks, and the Kochs fund quite a few of them.

There's some legitimately good stuff they do too, but consider that PR cover for their main aim. Here's another one of their Think Tank flunkies:

 Grover Norquist. Have you heard of him? Look him up if not. Basically, his "Think Tank" gets Republican officials to sign a pledge to never raise taxes. Literally - they sign a pledge to this guy, and it's taken very seriously. Why? Because if you break your word to Grover (AKA to the Kochs), they will pay big money to fund an opponent for your next primary election, which you will probably lose since you now have little money. And so everyone bends the knee to this bespectacled pudgeball with no apparent skill at anything. Odd! Again, there are many Think Tanks and they perform a variety of acts, all intended to enforce rich people's agendas. The second leg of their control is the media:

Fox is the obvious example, but I would argue all national media is duly corrupted by the power of these politically motivated billionaires - CBS, ABC, even the liberal MSNBC. The Washington Post, even NPR. They all carry the billionaire's water in one way or another. For an easy example, consider the next time you see/hear an interview with someone from a Think Tank talking about the need to reduce the deficit. You have a spokesperson for billionaires talking on a media channel owned by billionaires about ways to give these billionaires more money. It happens every day, and it's so common now as to not stand out. It's how our system works - their system. Next on the list, lower down the chain you'll note:

The politicians. Batboy here is Rick Scott, Governor of Florida and should be felon, but hey! Liberal lies. Scott was elected during the terrible year of 2010 and has followed the ALEC agenda to a T - consider that. All the Republican governors who swept to power that year were following orders from ALEC, AKA the Koch Brothers. Think of what that means for our country, you, and your family. It means we're pawns, sources of funding, dupes and goons and consumers to buy crap they've outsourced to the cheapest place they can find.

Now, many of us are waking up. I have a faint amount of confidence that the worm has turned and a majority of folks are realizing how screwed they've been by this "Conservative" movement. But not everyone, not the 27%, for sure:

Think of this: In the weeks following the massacre of Kindergartners at Sandy Hook, gun sales have set another record. They've been setting records, coincidentally enough, since 2008. Think of what it means that there are people out there who's reaction to that massacre is to immediately go out and buy a ton of assault weapons and ammo, on the assumption the Government (read: Barack Obama, the Enemy. If it was a Republican in charge there would be no panic) will take their guns. Consider these folks spend many thousands of dollars a year on guns, money they probably would be wiser saving/spending elsewhere. These are our future Brownshirts, and FSM help us if a Republican of this fold wins the White House again.

If you're still reading, you probably agree with me so far. Thus, let me conclude with an entreaty: Get involved. Get active. We can make a difference, and we must. We can't cede this country, and this world, to a handful of selfish rich fucks who would see us all burn to put a few more dollars in their portfolios.

Are you with me?

Lunar Coda

Luna and Venus - they're old friends in the sky. By David Cortner.

From the ISS. Look how thin our atmosphere is! All it would take is a big gust of solar wind from the sun to blow it all away, and there's nothing we could do to prevent it. We'd know it's coming a few days in advance, so I suppose bunkers could be stocked and whatnot, but surely, t'would be our doom.

Hurricane Emily, also from the ISS. Wouldn't it be awesome to be the official photographer on board - like, that was your job? All the other astronauts gotta turn nobs and shit while you just snap sweet pics all day/night - which occur like every hour.

Behold the power of the storm - precisely the same form we theorize blackholes to possess, if you could imagine it in 3 dimensions rather than the 2 here (A sphere as opposed to a plane). All points rotate towards the center due to the enormous change in pressure - low pressure, man. Real low. The lowest - and so all things fall towards it, increasingly fast as you get closer to the center. Speed causes heat and heat is energy which does work. Or, in this case, flip a ton of shit over.

Also, yay President Barack Hussein Obama!

In the fight against insanity and outright nihilism, Bronco Bamz is our greatest fighter, and deserves all our support. As you can see, even Luna supports BHO - so should you! That is, if you stand against nihilism. Some don't. They suck. 27%