Second Amendment Hero murders old man and what it means to Gun Nuts

It's 4am and you awake, you're certain that whatever woke you was the sound of someone trying your front door knob. You and your wife get out of bed, she goes to the phone to call 911 you grab your trusty Glock. You go to the front door open it and see a figure in your front yard. You command him to stop moving and when he doesn't you gun him down.

God Bless America! Thank you right-wing jesus* for the second amendment and by this blessed firearm thy work shall be done.

So, the latest Second Amendment Hero to join the Pantheon of George Zimmerman, Richard Poplawski and Adam Lanza is Joe Hendrix of Georgia.

Hendrix murdered Ronald Westbrook, a 72 year old with severe Alzheimer's for "Disobeying his Commands".

As it turns out, Westbrook, was a fragile old man who wandered away from his nursing facility back to the neighborhood where he lived years before. He tried several doors, grabbed mail from a mailbox and rang the doorbell of one house before he went to Hendrix's home. Hendrix emerged from his home, saw an unidentified human form in his front yard, yelled at him, decided to stand his ground and fire 4 rounds blindly at someone whom he hadn't identified, who hadn't committed any crime and hadn't threatened Hendrix.

As the Pope properly observed Capitalism is the most dangerous and damaging force plaguing the world today and gun violence associated with Gang Crime is more dangerous but, I'm sure its' a comfort to Westbrook's family he was killed by a "Responsible" gun owner who goes to church.

Now, as we approach the anniversary of the NRA-endorsed Massacre at Newton the yearly sacrifice of children and innocent people on the Altar of the Holey Second Amendment continues unabated.

As with any legal construct the Second Amendment is being brought to it's most absurd conclusions, Second Amendment Fanatics will resist any regulation and have been quite explicit they will engage in mass violence against everyone and anyone who threatens their rights to kill at will. What the Gun Nuts are asserting is the Right to kill anyone they perceive as a threat and the Right to Resist the Government's power to curb their murderous intentions.

Such beliefs have to be decided by micro-level examples because the Gun Nuts big abstract, nebulous pronouncements of 'freedom', 'resistance to tyranny', and 'molon labe' are worthless in legal terms.

It comes down to two questions; Can a Second Amendment Hero exert the Bush Doctrine and murder someone they believe might pose a threat? And if I, or some other Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) comes to arrest you, do you believe you have the right to resist if you have concluded that my arrest is invalid or illegal or unlawful?

Now, these questions are moot when the "right people" are being killed by guns or being subjected to arrests or Stop & Frisk, but as with Capitalism, entitled whites can not imagine a day when "arbitrary" detention and arrests will be directed at them.

The United States is crumbling around Us. Disaster Capitalism is wreaking havoc and we are fragmenting and collapsing faster than people want to admit.

* - Right-Wing jesus is better known by the names Moloch or Zardoz.

The XLVI Super Bowl brought to you by Non-Union Labor

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants will be playing in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis on 02/05/12. The spectacle of the highest paid Union Members in the world playing in a state fighting to destroy Unions by adopting Right-To-Work-For-Less laws is a disgusting measure of the dirty lengths Republicons will delve to in their fight to service their Moneyed Masters.

I'm glad football players make as much as they do. We see as people get stronger, larger, faster and maintain a higher level of conditioning, the toll on these men's bodies and brains is horrendous. The average career is 3.5 years. As Derrick Mason stated at his retirement announcement this year,

"I leave it healthy and able to run and walk and not take a half-hour or 45 minutes to get out of bed."

But, while Indiana enjoys the financial fruits of the Patriots and Giants labor, Governor Mitch Daniels wants to restrict the rights, lower the wages and slash the benefits of workers in Indiana. Right-to-Work laws are nothing short of the 1% finding a way to get Government to outlaw Unions and enforce the 1% schemes of paying less and less for labor and avoiding deferred compensation or healthcare for their retired workers under the power of law. Information on the 3 Right-to-Fuck-Over-Workers Bills, Indiana HB 1028 and HB 1043 and Indiana Senate Bill SB 0395, proposed by the Indiana Legislature can be found at BadforIndiana.Org

In fact, if the 1% had their way, American Workers would have to ply their labor against Workers from around the world with the Plutocrats picking the lowest price, least benefits and ease of eliminating any worker who dared question his Neo-Feudal Lord. While we Wage Slaves gawk in awe as, Vulture Capitalists Stephen "Fuck Her" Schwarzman and Leon D. Black congratulate themselves for their "ingenuity" and "job creation skills" with Multi-Million Dollar Birthday Parties. It's the Global Race to the Bottom.

This has been the goal since the end of World War II when the Industrialists and their Multi-National Conglomerates saw an opportunity to get Governments to finance the construction of plants and factories in other Nations while they get to steal all the profits. They front no risk and reap all the rewards. And if the Nation the Corporate Monster invades gets uppity, say like Ecuador, then the Corporation takes to the IMF or WTO and sues them demanding Billions of dollars in blood money be forcibly extracted from the people.

But, it's not limited to foreign shores, the Vultures are more than willing to descend on your local town or use America's Favorite pass time to steal wealth. Lowe's got the Village of Schaumburg, Illinois to front the costs for laying the foundation, running the wires and plumbing to their store, got millions in "tax breaks" and when their store wasn't making as much money as they'd like, they simply up and left. Billionaire Hank Steinbrenner, extracted $1,200,000,000 Billion dollars in Taxpayer money to finance his baseball stadium while stating,

“Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer.“

Of course, it works. If you're Rich.

It's the Goal of the Plutocracy. Push the burden of business onto the people while keeping the benefits for themselves. Socialize their Losses and Costs and Privatize the Profits.

Where in the World are Mitt Romney's Millions?

Spurred on by One Angry Zebra, let's talk about the money Mitt Romney makes as Income. Romney has described his regularly taxed income of over $374,000 dollars as, "I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

Not Very Much! that's why a $10,000 dollar bet was such a lark to Vulture Romney. His walk in' around monies alone are more than 99% of Americans earn yearly. Mitt still won't reveal how many millions of dollars (20? 50? 100? more?) he has received from Bain Capital as deferred income which gets taxed at 15%. And every more disgusting comes the revelation that Mitt Romney has quietly spirited away millions to the Cayman Islands the one time Tax Haven Du Jour for the 1%. Remember at the end of the Bush Presidency some 52,000 American criminals moved under cover of the Republican White House untold Billions into secret Swiss Bank accounts at UBS.

So, it's not surprising Mitt Romney will not release his tax records because they will show everyone in America the kind of outright thievery Mitt has accomplished and how the Rich have revamped the Tax code to place the burden of the American Government squarely on the middle class and poor.

But, in reality, Mitt Romney's salary of $374,000 for "Speaking Fees" is a pittance amongst the Hedge Fund Vultures, that disgusting cadre of thieves, cutthroats and murderers with whom he associates.

Paul Singer, Steven Schwarzman and Mitt Romney aren't content anymore with merely blowing up American companies and carving off millions from their dead carcass or reaping bonuses just from the fired American workers' salaries. No, these members of the 1%, these butchers and thieves leverage entire Nations to fill their bloated bellies.

These men take hostage entire Nations. Using the WTO or the IMF or powerful international courts these Vultures steal millions in international charitable donations destined for those countries. And with Mitt Romney at the helm of the US, the 1% will be able to carve off the last and sweetest bleeding chunk (Social Security) from the American people pushing the 99% into perpetual Wage Slavery, undoing the last 125 years of struggle and entrenching the Neo-Feudalist Randian Dream State of Plutocratic Domination. Because remember it always comes back to THE RICH! WANT! THAT FUCKING! MONEY!

The Rich Rule so to be Poor is to be an Unperson

Seeking to cement his Title as President of the Plutocrats Mitt Romney related some of his favorite childhood stories, 'Once daddy told me To Be Rich is To Rule so in order to be as Rich as possible I began a career as a 'Job Cremator' because I like to able Fire, on a whim, the scared miserable plebeians who service me at my lesiure.'

The American Capitalist System is designed to impoverish a vast majority of Americans and enrich a very small few.

And still even so-called left-wing Media Villagers talk of Austerity programs for the Poor and Tax subsidies and bailouts for the Wealthy,

"This is just one piece, getting the money out of politics, the first step. But ultimately what's going to have to happen, and this is my little drumbeat, is that the American people are going to have to let members of congress go to Washington to make the tough decisions. To make the hard calls that are really going to be uncomfortable, maybe even painful," Jonathan Capehart.

Don't expect your Social Security funds to be there people, the 1% want it! You may find it uncomfortable. BUT, THE RICH! WANT! THAT! FUCKING! MONEY!

Medicare and Medicaid? Yeah, those are going away, too. Don't worry the amply rewarded Congress will still have programs they call Medicare it just won't help provide you with Medical Care.

Why would the 1% want programs which they have no need of? The 1% wants No Regulation and is involved in the Greatest Con Game in history, The American Capitalist Model, a system which privitazes profits and socializes losses. Everything else done by the Government is a effrontery.

"Because the education is a government function. Part of it is frankly because we have lousy teachers. Part of the reason we have lousy teachers is we have teachers union that say won't deal with those issues. So there are lots of reasons why education is not being properly handled in this country. But to me if I could think of one thing that would change it, it would be to change our system of education and make sure that our children were properly educated." - Mort Zuckerman,

No, Mort, you are incorrect. "Greedy teachers" are not to blame. They did not create Too-Big-To-Fail and the Military-Industrial-Complex. But, Zuckerman is a Billionaire (147th Richest) so of course he has nothing but animus towards Teachers as they do not properly instruct Americans to genuflect to him and the 1%.

And even if you had a scintillia of hope from your Congress member they're going to be kept in the dark.

On Thursday, the Fed released transcripts of its meetings in 2006, offering a new window into what was on the minds of some of the nation’s top economic and financial thinkers just ahead of the financial crisis and subsequent great recession. The transcripts, which are customarily released after five years, show that Fed leaders, armed with the best economic data available, had little idea of what was looming less than two years off.

Greenspan has acknowledged in recent years that he was “partially” wrong for allowing banks to operate without enough regulation.

The 1% are not content with making profits while paying for expenses like infrastructure or worker pensions. They've been getting their marionettes in Government to funnel them taxpayer dollars to cover the costs of their gambling. All the Corporations and Media talkers who intone the "Free Market" as a mantra actually want Government to cover their costs and provide them welfare.

And the 1% have enough right-wing rubes duped into carrying their banner of Corporate Corruption. Listen to every Tea Party demand, Regulation stifles Job Creation! The Free Market is best instrument for Capitalism! Privatize! Eliminate Capital Gains Taxes! Lower Taxes on Corporations!, they sound as if they were crafted in the criminal boardroom of Goldman Sachs and BP.

I would say all of the policies of Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Economicshave failed, except they have not. They have succeeded brilliantly, as they were designed to, in transfer the bulk of the Wealth of Nations upward to the 1%. Since the advent of a Government which responded and aided the 99%, the 1% have been scheming for a Neo-Feudalist Revival.

And on cue, Republicans have explicitly demanded a Return to Feudalism.

New Hampshire House Bill 1580 is the product of a brainstorming session this summer between three freshman House Republicans: Bob Kingsbury of Laconia, Tim Twombly of Nashua and Lucien Vita of Middleton. "All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived."

It's all the part of the Con. It's not just the system of Debt, the Wage Slavery, or the billions-per-second trades by thousands of interconnected servers located physically next to Wall Street to gain that pico-second needed to rig the Stock Market. It's the fact that the Plutocracy has nothing in common and sees no reason to be part of the America populated by the 99%.

Lowe's, Let's Destroy Something Together

Lowe's Home Improvement store in Schaumburg, Illinois snuck out in the middle of the night on Tuesday, closing the doors on it's 116,000 square foot store. The store had been open for 5 years. Lowe's also closed a nearby store in Elgin, Illinois.

Schaumburg is famous for Woodfield Mall which brings in a billion or so in revenue for the Village but, here's the question everyone should be asking; How much did tax incentives, deferred lease payments, quickly approved construction permits, free electricity, water and sewage did Lowe's get for convincing Schaumburg officials of all the wonderful jobs and money Lowe's would bring in?

Meanwhile, a nearby ACE hardware on Negre and Plum Grove Road is owned and operated by a family that has lived in the Schaumburg area for years, do you think they received any assistance?

Well, this is the crack-like allure Big Box Stores exert upon Village officials. They come in with an easy smile and visions of big time tax revenues for a town and like addicts, Village managers bend over to accommodate them. Of course, Lowe's, Wal Mart, target and the rest of the Big Box Conglomerates can easily slide from friendly to menacing by threatening to just open up in a neighboring town.

And so these big box bastards undercut local small shops and, in the past, have even run at a loss for years because they know once they eliminate the small shops they can raise prices. And if that tried and true technique should fail, say because of a Republican Recession,

“The sales numbers missed estimates,” said Abby Buford, a spokeswoman for Lowe's. “Sales were well below projections and they did not improve over time.”

Then they simply leave and leave a gaping monstrosity of a building vacant in your town.

And they call it Capitalism, because they Capitalize.

Is the American Dream Dead? Yes, the Republicans murdered It.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. ~ Frederick Douglass

That's too glib. It's not that the Republicans murdered the American Dream, it's just that their version of the American Dream is one in which the US is a Corporate Controlled State, where a small cadre of Politicos, Industrialists, and Business Behemoths absorb the vast wealth of this nation with the US Government existing solely to defend and protect the Wealthy Plutocrats and Oppress or Kill off the Middle and Working Classes.

And they've succeeded. The Working and Middle Classes have been murdered. America is a Corporate State now, run by and for They, the Plutocrats. The Corporate State "murdered" the Middle Class. But, it's not much of a murder mystery, Business hired the Republican Party as Hitman and the Democratic Party, in an effort to appear business friendly, stood by and watched the hit.

The Rise of the Corporate State and the murder of America is tied to that ghastly time which killed so many others, World War One. As Smedley Butler noted, "At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War."

Following the War those Moneyed Persons were afraid of the previous Era of Progressives. Huge gains had been made for the worker, Unions had won major battles. This could not stand if the Corporate State was to Rise.

The first move was to shift the debate. Socialism must be made toxic. And thus the 100 years war of the Right on Humanity began. By demonizing Socialism the entire debate shifted rightwards so much that a Moderate Fiscal Conservative Milk-Water Liberal Barack Obama can be painted as the godchild of Mao and the most radical leftist ever elected.

Of course, this shift could not have succeeded if the Democrats and Liberals had not been wooed and enticed by that well worn aphrodisiac Money. By surrendering their principles of a Just Government for a quick buck, Liberals aided and abetted the Rise of the Corporate State and Capitalist Hegemony,

Disaster Capitalism is Triumphant now and as I pointed out in an earlier post, it has absorbed many attributes of a religion. Miracles are ascribed to it, Utopia will be achieved on Earth once we surrender ourselves to its' embrace. Capitalism has done little for most people on Earth other than Presage an early death.

But, it's not enough for the Plutocracy. Hedge fund manager Clifford S. Asness and Republican Paul Ryan may enjoy a romantic $700 wine date, but every last vestige of the New Deal and the Progressive gains of Unions and Socialists must be destroyed as well. Plutocrats, like Hedge Fund Manager Stanley Druckenmiller, are willing to lose thousands of dollars in far away dividends if it means they can destroy Social Security right now.

One of the world's most successful money managers, the lanky, sandy-haired Mr. Druckenmiller is so concerned about the government's ability to pay for its future obligations that he's willing to accept a temporary delay in the interest payments he's owed on his U.S. Treasury bonds—if the result is a Washington deal to restrain runaway entitlement costs.

Republicans have brought forth bills to defund the EPA, continuing the 30 year War of Deregulation, to roll back the Clean Water Act, to steal Social Security funds and to end Medicare and Medicaid as they seek to let Corporations steal as much as possible.

But, Republicans believe the entire brunt of Government spending needs to be borne by the Working Classes. And Government Spending is actually just a giant shell game by the Republicans.

Republican Mike Lee of Utah resoundingly won in 2010 on a platform of forcing children to work in Utah's Salt Mines. Lee is demanding that a constitutional amendment be passed making it only possible to raise taxes when approved by 2/3rds of both the House and Senate and if it's not approved "in his framework" he'll bring down the Government. Basically, Lee wants to ensure that Taxes are never again raised on his Moneyed Masters.

The only Government Spending Republicans support is Corporate Welfare. It's called Defense Contracts or Tax subsides. And these monumental amounts of money go to those who have the most. Taxbreaks for owning a Private Jet. Tax payer funding for Multi-National Oil Conglomerates. Billions in No Bid contracts to Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Halliburton, BP, Blackwater (Xe) and other companies who criminally overcharge the government for their shoddy work, turn round and give campaign donations to the very same people who turn round and give them bribes the Defense Contracts.

U.S. Military spending accounts for more than half of our discretionary spending. If you really want to know where our current budget woes come from look over yonder at Iraq and Afghanistan, for our Deficit was born and raised in the desert.

And this doesn't even address the likes of petty Grifters and Scumbags like Republican Michele Bachmann and her family, who happily accept Medicare payouts and Federal Government Farm welfare while voting to end all Federal help to downtrodden Americans.

It's time to realize the Corporate State will not give back any of this power they have stolen with the direct help of the Republicans and the cowardly indifference or craven acquiescence of the Democrats.

What caused my return to Christ, an atheist's reawakening

"Can't serve God and Mammon both, Mammon being money." - Clint Eastwood, Pale Rider

As I was driving through soul crushing Chicago rush hour traffic, a small gray Toyota Corrola whizzed by me and on the back I saw Don't Let the Car Fool You My Real Treasure is in Heaven.

I realized at that moment that indeed God was real. But, the car had another message. Riches on earth did not belong to the fervent believer but to those who have another Religion.

Capitalism has replaced God.

This theory is hardly new, as the above quote relates, but what I did realize is that the Corporatists have sought to replace god as another means to control the working class.

The Serfs who toiled and labored under nasty and brutish conditions "enjoyed" more time off work, nearly a half year thanks to Feast and Mass days, than most workers in America do today.

Americans today are working longer hours, for a stagnant pay scale, and taking less time off than those Medieval Serfs. There are many reasons for these conditions, some stemming from the Reagan Revolution of supporting Corporate Welfare on the backs of the Middle Class. But, to the point of this post, Capitalism has absorbed many of the attributes of god.

Capitalist Demagouges abound in this Nation. They pontificate about the miracles associated with Capitalism. Capitalism has created the frozen TV Dinner! Alleluia! Capitalism has turned worthless black sludge into petrol! Free Market be praised!

Last year, when 32 Chilean miners were saved from being trapped under ground. Daniel Henninger, a blinkered Capitalist Priest, jumped forward and declared, Capitalism Saved the Miners: "It needs to be said. The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free-market capitalism."

Conservapedia had on their main front page: Bad News for Liberals Once Again. Pure Capitalism and the free market saved the miners.

The only thing Capitalism has ever done for Miners is kill them.

The most recent example being the Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion on April 5, 2010, which took the lives of 29 miners. The murderous tragedy happened because Massey Energy is an adherent of Unfettered Capitalism, who purposefully and systematically ignored safety, circumscribed government regulations and manipulated elections in order that they could run their mine on the principles of Capitalism.

Of course, in America there have been many mine disasters. In 1947 in Centralia, Illinois a mine explosion killed 111 miners. This murderous capitalist disaster is mainly known of today because Woody Guthrie (and later Bucky Halker) memorialized them in "The Dying Miner".

But, these and the myriad other incidents of Corporate malfeasance are ignored by the priesthood and thus unknown by the duped and brainwashed flock, who mouth the hosannas of Free Market and Capitalism, without knowing what they are doing is creating and then reinforcing a neural pathway of bondage to those who view the majority of the world as replaceable parts.

So, for the sake of more time off let's supplant the new god of Capitalism for the older christian god...

This is what Republicans believe: Joplin, MO

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan

As it was enumerated by their blessed Saint Reagan, when disasters strike Republicans tell American Citizens, 'Fuck off and die. You are on your own.' This is why Americans believe "Government" can't do anything correctly, because when Republicans are in charge they consciously sabotage government's abilities.

In Joplin, MO the death toll is 139 people. 139 unique persons killed by increasingly aberrant weather patterns. 100 more are still missing including 9 believed to be dead but not identified. Missouri Officials have the remains of 142 people, but that includes partial remains. But, horrifically, “Some of those remains may be the same person,” Missouri Department of Public Safety Deputy Director Andrea Spillars said. Thousands are in desperate need of immediate assistance, homes obliterated, lives shattered.

But, what is Eric Cantor and the Republican party's response? No federal aid until the Democrats agree to cut government spending.

Dana Loesch, Andrew Breitbart's disciple and the St. Louis Tea Party co-founder sums up what assistance TeaPublican Party Government would offer to the residents of Joplin, "Prayers". Shit in one hand, pray with the other, see which fills up first Dana...

The Republican Party does not care about you. They are not in power to help you. They are in power to crush the American Dream. They are in power to ensure everything in America is privatized. The Republicans serve the Mythos of Disaster Capitalism. To the Republicans Joplin just represents another chance to weaken the Federal Government and enrich themselves, their cronies and their Moneyed Masters off the labor and lives of Americans.