Sunday, October 30, 2011

Socialist Anonymous

I’m sick of attending these socialist anonymous meetings

I want to go public

but that propaganda would smack me so hard

hard like 50 years hard labor

that by the time the misinformation got through with me

I’d look like a peasant from Stalin’s Russia

I’m not for Dictators ruling with iron fists

but I’m sick of these corporations with their golden gloves

a left to the chin, a right to the gut

I’m left swollen bruised and cut

as I hand them my money

in exchange for bandages and ice packs

as if the market is going to save us

from all the problems the market has made for us

we look to the troublemakers for discipline

but they are responsible for the mess were in

The only problem with capitalism

is that most of us live lower case

while supporting the bold fold

and our fonts keep shrinking

but When I suggest it is our economic system causing our sinking

I get strange looks

and is sent off to rehabilitate my thinking


I’m sick of attending these socialist anonymous meetings

like the first step is admitting that I have a problem

but it wasn’t me who waged this class war

All I did was point and say “look there it is”

“Don’t you know it is impolite to point

Now get back in line

complete your purchase at the checkout

and everything will be just fine”

We are give plenty to occupy our minds

hypnotized eyes fixed on whatever shines

meanwhile our government has become a free market

supply and demand is no longer just for the economy

we treat these bills like they are comities

Market value for policy is more than I can afford

Fascism is what the invisible hand is pushing towards

even Herbert Hoover, Who hung out with Edison and Ford

reflected on the crash and would insist

“The only problem with capitalism is the capitalist”

I don’t sit on any board of trustees

I’m too busy paying interest and late fees

so sell my share of the American Dream

because this whole economy is a pyramid scheme.

Makes me cringe, I’m on the fringe

as I go on another Marxist reading binge.


I’m sick of attending these socialist anonymous meetings

like “Hello, my name is John

and its been one month since I last talked about class war”

But in that time the gap in wealth has only grown more

is there a connection between record quarterly profits

and records records of poverty?

you see, the only problem with capitalism is

that it just doesn’t work

sure it looks good on paper

paper printed from the treasury

generating massive wealth of the backs of the peasantry

Only I’m forbidden to say so

well, I can say, but somehow unable to be heard

mind control through language control, redefine words

like socialism is slander

and liberty somehow belongs to the right

my head spins when I think this Orwellian double speak type

The frame is drawn around the status quo

applied parameters to the mind

all content is keep under control

and the debate is predefined

I wont even be invited to the table

until I’m a reformed socialist, and a self proclaimed liberal

But I’m a radical,

screaming “LETS GET TO THE ROOT CAUSE OF THIS”

but they want me silence and remain is Socialist anonymous


I’m sick of attending these socialist anonymous meetings

I’m going public

and I’ll say it loudly, proudly

That I am a Socialist for equality, abolish poverty

and if at first the individuals words sound absurd

I’ll say it again and again

until it is the message that is heard.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Party lines for the people, Bipartisan for the 1%

The American Jobs Act can’t make it through congress. I’m not arguing the merits of this bill, but it is to help the American people, and it comes at little expense to business and tax payers. The Act pays for its self with 5% tax on millionaires and closing some loopholes. Here is a bill set to help the 99% and it is can’t make it through congress due to party lines.


At the same time, three free trade agreements passed with bipartisan support. These agreement were drafted under Bush, and pushed ahead under Obama. The AFL-CIO estimates that 150,000 jobs will be sent out of this country. It makes our labor force compete with Colombia, a country that has a history of murdering union organizers. This is the largest free trade agreement since NAFTA, which has proven that free trade is terrible for the 99%, both here and abroad, and very good for the 1%. So when it come to benefiting the 1% at the expense of the 99%, there is bipartisan support.


How can these two things be true? Democrat and Republican are divided on whether or not to help the American people, but at the very same time are united when it comes to screwing us over when it is good for business.


It is also important to note, that one of these stories gets headlines, and one slips through unnoticed. The focus is always on the lines that divide us, blues blame the reds and the reds blame the blues, and we all bicker among ourselves along party lines, while simultaneously both parties are working together in the interest of big business. The occupy movement encourages us to drop the left vs right thing, and look at it as top vs bottom. The media and politicians are certainly working hard to reinforce the right/left narrative, which keeps us divided, and ignores the bottom/top narrative, which unites 99% of us.


I don’t know if much of politics is a song and dance to distract us. I don’t know just how close allies Democrats and Republicans are. Maybe they just agree where their money interest overlap. I have no idea how to explain this. It is without logic. They certainly are not looking out for us. Policies for the people get blocked with party lines, and 1% somehow gets a united congress. Stop blaming each others through right and left lenses, and recognize we are all getting screwed. And Occupy!


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Military Budget and the 1%

Our Military Budget, not counting emergency spending sent through congress, is 48% of the world’s military budget. We could just about take on everyone and be evenly matched. Add in our Allies, and we have nearly 75% of the world’s military budget. The second largest military is China, and we spend 7 times as much money as they do. We spend 85 times more than Iran. Why is this necessary?


The reason for our gross military spending is simple: Profits. Our military operations are increasingly being carried out by private profit making companies funded through our tax dollar. War is big business, besides winning Oil contracts for companies like Exxon-Mobile and BP in Iraq, private military contracts have gone up and up. There are companies that provide products such as Lockheed Martin, who was given 7 billion tax dollars last year. Other Companies provide services, they known as private military and security contracting companies (PMSCs). Xe, formally know as Blackwater are one such PMSC. They are basically private profit driven mercenary Amries. During the 1991 Gulf war, there was 50 soldiers for every PMSC operative, ten years later there was 10 troops for every PMSC operative. Today they are the 2nd largest force in our military. There are so many problems with the US relying more and more on private mercenaries, I don’t want to bog down the blog with.


For me, here is the kicker: this is a huge amount of money that travels in a circles and makes a few people very rich. These companies make huge profits from tax dollars, those profits can then be used to lobby to keep our war machine alive, and to grant them additional contracts, which makes them more profits, those profits can then be used to lobby to keep our war machine alive, and to grant them additional contracts, which makes them more profits, and so on. This is why are military is so grossly huge.


Here is one example: Bechtel is the 3rd largest company in US, has large contracts in around the world. The CEO, Riley P Bechtel, is the 50th richest person in the country. This company doesn’t have a good track record on human rights issue, or environment. They are now heavily involved in developing and producing our nuclear weapons. This is a company that has always put profits over people, and the are making NUKES?!?!?! I don’t feel safe about that. We can already destroy the whole world many times over, what do we even need nukes for? Well, companies like Bechtel, lobby to get Iraq contracts, get back door deal type contracts, that guarantee profit. Bechtel’s Iraq contract was worth nearly a Billion of tax payers dollars. They can then use the power and influence to affect policy, the policy then gives them more tax payer money, that they can use to influence more policy.


This trend of privatizing our military, and making war profitable, is criminal. And it is all funded by our tax dollar, and supported through our complacency. W Bush made steps in this direction, as does Obama, as would Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Herman Cain, or anyone else who stands a chance of getting elected. This is one of the sick injustices that we are given no political alternative to. Which is why we occupy.