Can't Stop Thinking about the Roman Empire...

"You ever hear of Masada? For two years 900 jews held their own against 15,000 Romans.  They choose death over enslavement.  The Romans? Where are they now?

"You're looking at them asshole..."  - The Sopranos (1999)

So, this TikTok phenomenon of Ask Your Man how often he Thinks about the Roman Empire is super irritating...

Now, I know in Internet time I'm very late to this "issue".  But, the Roman Empire isn't going anywhere...

I guess part of this is the feeling I want to have that I was into Rome before it was cool (kind of like the phenomenon of liking a band before they were big) but, of course that's not in anyway reality.

The Roman Empire has been forefront in the minds of Europeans since Odoacer was named Rex of Italiae in 476.  And of course, Charlemagne thought of nothing but the Romena Empire before and after his coronation as Emperor in 800.  William Shakespeare (if you believe Shaxkspere wrote Shakespear) wrote 4 plays about "The Roman Empire", 

And Edward Gibbon's 6 volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is as old as the United States.

There have also been famous novels turned into films or series, such as Quo Vadis by Polish Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz and Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God.

And then there is The Film Industry, in Hollywood and abroad, which has been making films and TV series about Rome and the Roman Empire for over 100 years.  Certainly many of them are biblical in nature, Ben-Hur or The Robe starring Vic Mature come to mind.  Of course, modern revamped interest in Rome writ large probably stems from the Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott film Gladiator in 2000.

New Speaker Mike Johnson can't stop thinking about all the Gay Sex those virile muscular Roman sword swishing gladiators were engaged in.  But, it seems that the current fascination with "Rome" per se is this toxic masculinity nonsense associated with this Hard Times paradigm.

And this whole stupid Hard Times meme featuring a silhouetted faux hoplite is nothing more than a dumbed-down bastardization of the Polybius cycle of government.  and reminds me of all the stupid incels and men going their own way posting I Studied the Blade memes and We Hunted the Mammoth rhetoric.

I guess Chuck Palahniuk was 20 years too early with Fight Club...

Eat less Chick-fil-A Corporate Bully

Being stationed in CLNC (that's Camp Lejeune, North Carolina) for 4 years, one of the off-base fast food joints we had was Chick-fil-A. Their chicken sandwiches were decent, nothing to write home about, which is why I never wrote home about them.

However, before going into the specifics, let me ask you; When was the last time you mistook a quick fried chicken breast for a leaf of kale? Chick-fil-A is attempting to stop Vermont artist Bo Muller-Moore from using the phrase "Eat More Kale" because according to their bevy of Corporate criminal lawyers it violates their phrase "Eat Mor Chikin".

If Corproations are people, then Chick-fil-A is an ignorant, authoritarian, homophobic, self-righteous, chicken-shit bully with a cow udder fetish...

Now, to be completely fair the original founder of Chick-fil-A, S. Truett Cathy, appears to be an incredibly generous, hard-working and giving man (the opposite of the Ayn Randian Superman) as he spends time and gives vast amounts of money to charity.

But, just as Polybius described in the cycle of political revolution, once the goodly beloved king passes away or loses control of the realm (or in this case the Corporation) the small elite cadre which eventually takes over doesn't have the same benevolent aspects and descends into tyranny.

Of course, when the Mythical Age of Corporate Self-Regulation occurs we need not worry what a business like Chick-fil-A is doing because every cease-and-desist order or whatever they may be doing, it'll be with our best interests at heart.

Republicans Love when Miners Die

Once Republicans take political office they fight to re-enact slavery. Not based on race mind you, although there are unrepentant bigots in the Republican Party like Governor Robert F. McDonnell who longs for the Confederacy, most Republicans and Conservatives will accept anyone into their midst if that person espouses the GOP and Conservative principles of deception, theft, rape and murder.

However, there are levels in this club and much like the Church the upper tier of the Right uses its poor members to provide them with money and luxury and fulfill all their sexual proclivities (witness the Young Eagles and the RNC, John Ensign, Larry Craig, David Vitter, Mark Sanford, Mark Foley, Racist Limbaugh and on and on).

However, once elected a Republicans job is to undercut all types of protections the Democratic Party and Unions have created and adopted for the protection and help of the poor. Because what Republicans want are to have Americans work hard during their youth and die quickly once they are used up, old and broken down from years of wage slavery.

Don Blankenship, the owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy that claimed the lives of at least 25 miners, has worked for years and donated millions in support of Republicans. The reason Blankenship supports the Right is once he gets Republicans and Conservatives in office they gladly do his bidding and ignore, underfund and undercut all safety warnings and reports of violations from the EPA, OSHA and Mine Safety and Health and take no action to help the poor wage slave. (Mine owner ran up serious violations, 495 violations last year alone.)

This is exactly why Republicans hold office. Republicans hate Americans. The Republican Party secret goal is to destroy the federal government and pave the way for their Corporate, Banking, Industrial and Military Controllers to enslave the American people and work them to death.

Related:
Disaffected and it Feels So Good: Republicans Are Everything They Say They Hate
Racist Limbaugh tells Mike in Atlanta he should work till he dies not retire at 55. [Crooks and Liars]
Steelworkers’ President Leo Gerard: If Miners Were Union, They Could Have Refused Unsafe Work at Massey [FireDogLake]

Vote Them All Out?

Government is not the solution to our problem; Government is the problem. ~ Ronald Reagan

The Federal Government is broken. It's the legacy of Grover Norquist and the Reaganites. They wanted to defund, deregulate and destroy the Government so that the Moneyed Kleptocrats, the Plutocratic Tyrants could exert total control over the nation.

Well, it worked. Deregulation of the housing market allowed the rampant bank speculation which lead to the multiple bubbles of the Reagan, Bush 41 and W43 years; which precipitated the Republican controlled bailouts of the Savings & Loans and Mega-Banks. It's not that Government is the answer but it's not the problem. Government's role since the Founding of America has been to curb the voracious appetites of Moneyed Power.

The Founders knew history and were versed in the classics. The knew the cycles of Government laid down by Polybius, they knew the underlying reasons the Roman Republic ended, they knew the how the Aristocratic classes controlled and destroyed the Byzantine Empire, they knew the fragmentation of nations and the devastation of Religious Wars caused by the establishment of the one true faith.

They warned us to be ever vigilant, to guard against letting the Kleptocrats take over, to staying out of Foreign Entanglements, that War is a Racket. They laid the groundwork to guide us and help us, but like any system, those invested in corrupting and subverting the system work ceaselessly to undermine it and through the years they have succeeded. Our Founders and their Sons named them, The Bankers, the Capitalists, the Military-Industrial-Complex, but despite the warnings of those who have seen the naked aggression of the Moneyed Tyrants, the Kleptocrats are Ascendant.

They craft the Legislation, the choose how the that Legislation should be interpreted, they tell us how we can dissent and when they don't like it they craft false dissent. They give the orders to the President, to the Congress regardless of Party Affiliation. Because they are the Party; the Party of Property, the Party of Power, the Party of Money. They are the United States, We are their Thralls.

The Weak Dollar and the Republican Recession

Every time he turned the wheel,
It was a dollar down and a dollar a week. ~ Woody Guthrie

In 2003 while liaising with ISAF assets along the Jalalabad Road, some Brits came over to talk with us. They asked me where I was from in the States, when I told them Chicago, they perked up and wanted to know what great things to do in the city. They explained the pound had incredible purchasing power against to the dollar.

Now why was the dollar losing power even back in 2003? Because the blatant and profligate thievery of Bush was sending our American Economic Power and Health into a death spiral, culminating in The 2007 Great Republican Recession, the chinese control of a Trillion in US Debt (all run up by Bush), Republican handouts to the Banking Industry and the removal of Billions of Dollars to semi-secret Swiss Bank Accounts for the Kleptocracy of America which supports Republicans and hates Americans.

It's all part of the criminal Republican Party Corporate Welfare Gang's plan to ceaselessly Privatize Profits and Subsidize Losses and their Socialist Pathology of funneling Trillions of Dollars to the Gang of Corporate Criminals.

So, the Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Republican plan begun by WWII Chicken Hawk and Beirut Coward and Photo-op exploiter Ronald Reagan and continued by George Bush and his Master Dick Cheney to destroy the Middle Class almost succeeded. By deregulation, curbing and ignoring law enforcement powers of the government the Republicans nearly destroyed the US Middle Class.

However, the Punk Ass Bitches on the Right have taken it upon themselves to reframe truth for their followers. In this new Truth: 9/11 was inherited, the Iraq War was a rousing success, the economy never tanked until ACORN began receiving billions of dollars and Fannie and Freddie all-of-a-sudden began giving out millions to the unemployed to purchase Tear Down McMansions.

Typical Bullshit Republican Revisionism.

And the battered and cowed supporters of the Republican party, who desperately want to believe Republicans are moral upright christians, flag waving war heroes and fiscally responsible let themselves be played by the Immoral Deviants, Chicken Hawk Cowards and Socialist Kleptocrats which comprise the unscrupulous debauched Modern Republican Party.

Republicans Hate You but, so do the Democrats

"What? Why would you do that?!?!?"
"Because I hate you Trebek..." ~ Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek and Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery from SNL Celebrity Jeopardy

Mitt Reagan Redux flanked by Bush III is urging Americans to rise up and violently overthrow the Democrats in the Federal Government so they can once again enjoy the spoils of the Kleptocracy with their Republican allies.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Reagan Redux compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

Both parties hate you. Those in high office really think you have nothing to offer other than to provide them with office. To accomplish this they will use any and all propaganda techniques they can imagine to make you hate the other toiling workers to support them. It's quite ridiculous.

High ranking Politicians are all members (or at least imagine they are) of the Better Class so they are merely looking out for their interests. Their interests are too use the government to enrich themselves, their families and their cronies.

The history of the United States is of Class Struggle. The Founding Fathers knew this. James Madison hoped the United States would not succumb to extremes of poverty and wealth, because of commerce and manufacture, but he was a fatalist who thought his Constitution would eventually become impractical.

Unfortunately, the rich-poor gap in the United States is the worst it has ever been.

As Warren Buffett noted, "The rich people are doing so well in this country. I mean, we never had it so good. It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be.

Gonna Go Galt

"It seems to me that one of the predictors of a happy versus an unhappy outcome, has to do with the role of the elite or the decision makers or the politicians, or the rich people within the society. If the society is structured so that the decision makers themselves suffer from the consequences of their decisions, then they are motivated to make decisions that are good for the whole of society. If the decision makers can make decisions that insulate themselves from the rest of society then they are likely to make decisions that are bad for the rest of society." - Jared Diamond, Interview with PBS 02/12/2009.

All the people talking about "Going Galt" do just that they talk, pout and throw tantrums but they never, ever leave. So, ruck up and leave already. Go... Go... Go... However, remember to bring some long underwear when you make your "Capitalist" Wunderland in the Colorado Rockies, because none of you has the comic book abilities of a John Galt.

None of those threatening to leave are the mythical supermen producers of Atlas Shrugged they are the parasites. The bankers, the high priced lawyers, the lobbyists, the brokers, the bureacrats, the Jim Cramer short-selling paper shufflers, who demanded deregulation in order to bilk trillions out of the US and then when everything crumbled wanted a bailout.

And society won't miss your sorry ass. The niches you currently exploit will quickly, readily and easily be exploited by someone else.

Of course the parasitic plutocrats never leave because it's a hollow threat, a childish temper tantrum in order to get more billions from the government. So go on and hold your breath until you get your way because we all know you wouldn't last a month away from civilization.

Update 03/12/09
John Amato at Crooks and Liars highlights Stephen Colbert's Galt Exodus.

Blogs 4 Blago

So, Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) is quite the corrupt politician. The recent (legally obtained) wiretaps reveal him to be a profane, narcissistic, and spiteful man. The criminal complaint included the following quotes:
- "if you feel like you can do this and not fucking give me anything, then I'll fucking go."
- "motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.”

Of course, those sites which determined Obama is the spawn of the tri-headed Beast of Satan, Hitler and Bin Laden want to connect Blago to Obama.

But... but... Blago is a Democrat therefore I am obliged to defend him, and make excuses and point out all the corrupt Republicans in high office including but not limited to: Senator Ted Stevens, Norm Coleman, Representaives Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Dennis Hastert, Governors George Ryan, Matt Blunt and, of course, Bush and Cheney.

Except no. Politicians at high levels of Government are corrupted by the offices they seek. It's the nature of politics. The power, influence and money end up destroying even the rare high-minded and strongly grounded who seek office. And those who play loose and fast with rules and ethics (Bush) end up wallowing in a mire of slime from which the nation is struggling to recover.

Blago being a Democrat is not the problem, Blago being a "Chicago-style" politician is not the problem Blago being an unethical, vulgar human being with the power of the State, with which to wield, is the problem.

The flag

You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us. ~ Radiohead, No Surprises

Jon Lilyea over at This ain't Hell and others have accurately observed the victory of Obama is now an occasion for those who flew the flag upside down or refused to fly one at all the opportunity to be proud to be an American again.

The election of Obama is not going to be an occasion for me to go out and buy a (cheaply made Chinese) American flag. Because the flag still stands as an empty symbol.

I know what the flag was supposed to represent: honor, courage, unity... But, at best, it's a thread-bare ghostly representation of those things. It is not those things in and of itself. The flag is not the people. The flag did not raise itself upon Suribachi, men did it. Those who continually drape themselves in the flag do so in order to invoke nationalistic feelings and to convince the people, the Nation as a whole stands behind their personal gratification, whims and desires.

I didn't fly a flag during the Clinton Regime, I didn't fly one during the Bush Junta and I won't fly one during Obama's Rule.

How does one resist their Government?

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries t change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are. ~ H. L. Mencken.

What is the difference between a terrorist, a patriot, a freedom fighter and a rebel? The McCain Camp has been pushing a connection between Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground and Obama. Why?

ZombieTime published a post highlighting, Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism a book produced by Ayers and other members of the Weather Underground. Interestingly, the post starts with the following: William Ayers is a communist. Then disclaims there is nothing illegal about being a communist but ends with the (I suppose) stinging reproach;

William Ayers is a communist. By his own description. He was a communist then, he is a communist now, and he was a communist for the entire time that Barack Obama worked with him and was associated with him.

The Weathermen conducted activities against the United States Federal and State and Local governments (across the US but also in Chicago, the Weathermen twice destroyed a statue of a police officer which stood in Haymarket Square) during the US war in Vietnam and stated they planned to "seize power". The Weathermen used bombings, demonstrations and prison breaks.

There is a loud contingent, led by such luminaries as Sean Hannity and Bill Cunningham, claiming what Bill Ayers did in the Sixties was beyond redemption and when Obama wins, have convinced themselves he will install a islamic marxist police state, which will take their property and curb their freedoms. But, what can they do to resist such an evil government? Clearly they can not physically resist because of their stance against violent resistance used by Ayers. They have placed themselves in a quandary.

The problem is these people who are touting Ayers as ultimate evil have constrained themselves into accepting the Hobbesian Ideal of Government. Once a government takes power the people have no voice and no role in government and the every action of the government is by axiom, legitimate. This is clearly the view of the two Dicks, Nixon and Cheney. As typified by the famous Nixon line ‘If the President Does It, That Means It’s Not Illegal’ and Cheney's 'So?' in response to the fact 2/3rds of Americans think the war in Iraq is not worth fighting.

So does Bill Cunningham think resisting the government is immoral or prima facie evidence of treason? No, Bill Cunningham has stated many times if Obama is elected he will fight like a Scottish Warrior Poet or like Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn.

But by what LEGITIMACY does Braveheart Cunningham have in resisting Obama's Federal Government?

The early history of the United States is founded on the Polybian belief in order to avoid revolts a simple government of one of the 3 classic types (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy) is to have a balanced government combining the 3. The One, The Few, The Many. The problem is those men were the product of the Enlightenment as well versed in Ancient Greek and Roman History as with contemporary thought. Such men are in short supply today. But, to them the problems of modern America are not new, they are simply an extension of the problems faced in Ancient Greece and Revolutionary America. However, the United States was founded with the active resistance (The Revolution) to the ruling government. Which causes a problem; If violent struggle can legitimately be used once can it be used again? Or was the American Revolution a one-time aberration?

Toranaga: There is no mitigating factor for rebellion against your liege lord. Blackthorne: Unless you win. ~ from James Clavell's Shogun.

On what side would those who rage rage rage on the Obama/Ayers connection have fallen with regards to Sophie Scholl and White Rose, with the government or the radicals?

Are these they same people who cheered when the US military rolled into Iraq and deposed the ruling government of Saddam Hussein? Would they have been pro-Sadr when his father was against Saddam and anti-Sadr when the son is against the current government of Iraq?

Do these people cheer the Kurds on against the government of Turkey? Do they champion a Kurdish Free State? Or do they snicker and roll their eyes at Biden's not new idea of a tripartite Iraq?

Are these the same people who cheered Georgian military aggression against South Ossetia?

Do these people think the Irish resistance to British rule is unconscionable and the deaths and bombings in the Troubles are all the fault of Irish criminals who have no basis for resistance?

Getting back to the Weatherman bombing tactics. What is the difference between the bombing of the Haymarket Square statue and when the American Founding Fathers and Patriots destroyed a statue of King George III, which stood at the foot of Broadway on the Bowling Green in New York to make bullets?

Sometimes, in the beginning of an insane shabby political upheaval he is strongly moved to revolt, but he doesn't do it - he knows better. He knows his maker would find out - the maker of his patriotism, the windy and incoherent six-dollar subbeditior of the village newspaper - and would bray out in print and call him a traitor. ~ Mark Twain, As regards Patriotism.

Funny how Twain knew what tactics would be used against those who stand against their government.

A Real Maverick & Raging Nationalism

For Starters, the Flag is a piece of cloth, most likely, nylon and nowadays often printed in China. The National Anthem is just words. The Anthem won't clothe, feed, pay your mortgage, cover your health costs or comfort you if your loved one is killed fighting in Iraq to "protect" America. When the symbol takes on more power than what it was supposed to represent, than it's time to ditch the symbol because we've become Idolators.

Josh Howard got in trouble when during the national anthem he stated, "“The Star Spangled Banner’s going on right now, and I don’t celebrate that shit. I’m black. Obama. Obama '08.”

This caused immediate "controversy" as fervent nationalists immediately began to pillory Howard. However, after reading some of the comments made about and to Howard as posted on the blog of Mark Cuban, my choice of words is to kind and too intelligent for the bigoted racist trash that spewed forth from unthinking buffoons, who also used this as an excuse to castigate Obama, including the mega-patriots at FreeRepublic.

It's easy to wrap oneself in the flag. The flag provides armor. One need not examine any positions, question whether or not a policy undertaken by the Federal Government could have repercussions for the American people. It's an unthinking persons line of attack and defense.

As a juxtaposition, listen to the comments of Michelle Bachmann (at 4:29 in the video) as she whips the crowd into a zealot-like frenzy with her appeal to God and Country. As if she knew anything about either.



This is the same Bachmann who claimed, "God called upon me to Run for the United States Congress." Any politician who invokes the almighty as a supporter of them and who claims the Divine Right of Leadership as god's choice has immediately abrogated the right to be in a position of authority.

Those who use this rhetoric and fall back onto God and the Flag do so to cover their evil motives which do not benefit you. The politician who speaks of God’s Will is really speaking about Their Will. And in order for Their Will to be done they need your tacit or active approval. Their actions are done in order to enrich them, their families and their cronies and when the evil of their actions rebounds upon the nation and innocent Americans they use the whirlwind they created to further ensconce themselves in power and further delude and shackle the people they Lord over.

Lobbyist of the People, the People being one Dennis Hastert

I wonder how Dennis Hastert's first week as a lobbyist for Dickstein Shapiro went?

Hastert, the infamous former Speaker of the House, who shielded Republican Pedophile Mark Foley, made millions when the federally funded Prairie Parkway 'happened' to pass through his real estate holdings near Plano, Illinois and was caught abandoning his Hydrogen powered photo op car for a 6MPG fully armored Chevy Suburbuan, is the latest to pass through the revolving door of Congress/Corporate Lobbyist...

Who could have known politicians use their positions and influence to enrich themselves?

But here again when children inherited this position of authority from their fathers, having no experience of misfortune and none at all of civil equality and liberty of speech, and having been brought up from the cradle amid the evidences of the power and high position of their fathers, they abandoned themselves some to greed of gain and unscrupulous money-making, others to indulgence in wine and the convivial excess which accompanies it, and others again to the violation of women and the rape of boys