USA Government Hypocrisy

Do I even need to comment? Make up your own minds.

Thanks to Karl Denninger

Protestors March in Tokyo? Ho Hum...

Where have all the flowers gone? Or, "What ever happened to the good old days of real protests?"


I'm not condoning violent protests... Me being against violence and all... But this "peaceful protest" nonsense in New York and other places just doesn't work. People need to protest like the Europeans do. See Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global. Turn Violent in Rome.


Of all the people who "just don't get it" today's Japanese takes the cake. When I first came to Japan, I worked at a company in Iidabashi. There, one day, communists and workers party people went on "strike." I was so surprised. Here was a country with a 1% unemployment rate and these people were going on strike.


Their chosen method of protesting authority? They put on headbands and sat at their desks for one hour that day, "on strike!" I would have thought it to be a useful strike had they did so during work hours, but they went on strike during their lunch hour.


No kidding. Five guys stood up from their desks. The leader barked some orders, the put on the headbands and sat back down at their desks during lunch. When the hour ended, they took off the headbands and went back to work.


That was the first workers protest I'd ever seen in Japan. It wasn't the last one... But, in my most certainly confused opinion, it continues in a long line of totally useless protests... 


Let's face it folks... The big bankers and the authorities and their lackies don't pay attention to you if you don't rattle their cages... Think about it; do bees and wasps care if you quietly walk by or do they get real excited if you hit their nests with sticks?


On the other hand, some Japanese used to know how to protest. They used to know how to get people's attention. Watch this protest against the construction of that disaster known as Narita International airport (you might have to log in as this video has age restrictions):

Woah! That's some heavy duty stuff. (the really heavy stuff starts at 2:20) I guess they don't make Japanese demonstrators and protestors like they used to... Of course, like I said, I'm not condoning violence.


The, ahem, big news today is that, in Tokyo, there was a protest supporting the Wall St. movement. It was a big farce too.


The Mainichi News reports:

Protesters march in Tokyo as Wall St. movement goes global

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- People took to the streets Saturday in Tokyo as the "Occupy Wall Street" movement to protest widening income disparities spread across the world, with similar rallies being held in Australia and Taiwan the same day.

......

About 100 people including children and senior citizens gathered in Tokyo's Hibiya Park and started marching around 12:30 p.m. toward the nearby government office quarter in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district, waving placards bearing a variety of slogans.

Are you kidding me? 100 people? This is newsworthy? What a joke.

The demonstration was organized by a group called "Occupy Tokyo" founded a week ago.

"I was touched by the Wall Street movement," said Masaki Shoji, a 19-year-old freshman at Hosei University who participated in the demonstration.

Translation: "It seems trendy so I want to be a part of it. But it isn't a real protest. That would be too much work. We figure we could get together and carry placards and enjoy a nice walk on a Sunday!"

"Japanese are often seen as being unassertive, but I wanted to show that we can stand up as well."

Translation: The Japanese are unassertive, and I wanted to show that to be true." 

The demonstrators passed in front of the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled and radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with some of them shouting, "Stop nuclear plants now."

Translation: Like I said, whatever is trendy at the moment works for us.

Chiyoharu Yamasaki, 64, said he came from Yokohama to protest nuclear power generation. "I am surprised that there aren't very many young people taking part," he said.

Right! We are talking about young people who like their conveniences, you know. 

"Japanese have never really taken action even when they felt angry about something...so I thought I'd come this time. Japanese youth should speak up more," he said.

"...So I thought I'd come this time. Japanese youth should speak up more.." Well, you thought wrong.

The article continued: 

In Roppongi, about 30 people gathered and exchanged messages via the Internet with activists in the United States.

Thirty people? Wow! Now there's a real demonstration that will scare the authorities!

The modern demonstrations in Japan are, like I said, a farce. There is no direction and it means nothing. Just another demonstration by a bunch of ill-educated idiots who have no direction and no policy. The Japanese will not rise up until they have a focused target and enemy that they can direct their attention at. This "Support Wall Street" and "No nuclear power" is just a hodge podge that, ultimately means zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing.

And I am no hypocrite. I do not condone violence. But I also do not condone this pissy wimp assed protests. OK, folks. We don't need violence, but how about some protests that make the authorities stand up and take notice?

And don't think I don't offer solutions. Here's one:

Protest against the bankers and the bad economic conditions? Try this:

Instead of 100 people getting together for a walk to to hang around Roppongi using their Twitter accounts, how about getting a few hundred people to dress up all in the exact same color? Say black clothes. Add the Japanese touch by wearing headbands.

Get these few hundred people to march in smart step from some big train station to some predesignated meeting place for about 30 minutes. There, when everyone is gathered around, light a large fire and have every single person in the progression burn their credit cards.

While they hold up their burning credit cards and placards then they chant something like "Down with the bankers" or whatever the designated target is. 

Do you think having a few hundred Japanese all dressed in black burning their credits cards won't make the big news all over the world? 

I'll bet it would.

But would it matter? Probably not. Even though it would make a good image, if the people don't get organized and arrange these types of protests all over Japan, then it won't matter...

It certainly won't matter if, after they burn their credit cards, that they take off their headbands and get right back to business as usual.

Karl Denniger in a very timely article writes: OWS (And Everyone Else): Pay Attention to Greece:

Here are some realities for everyone to think about and (hopefully) understand:

Government cannot expand faster than domestic economic output does.  That is, if you want government to get bigger, the economy must get bigger to support it.

Growth in the economy must come from economic surplus, not borrowing.  Economic surplus is what you have left after you (1) labor, and (2) pay for all of the things you must buy with that labor.  Whether your payment is direct (e.g. you pick strawberries and get to keep X% of your output) or indirect (you are paid a wage in "dollars" and then spend that money) the fact remains that economic growth can, in the long run, only come from economic surplus

The process by which economic surplus is turned into economic expansion is called capital formation.  Capital formation is not borrowing; borrowed funds are fungible (that is, interchangeable) with formed capital but they are not the same thing.  Only capital formation produces lasting prosperity.  Replacing formed capital with borrowed funds produces bubbles; these are inherently pyramid schemes in both concept and execution and thus must eventually burst.

Due to inefficiency in all things, including the markets, when a bubble bursts you're worse off than if it had never occurred in the first place.  This is the principle known simply as "there's no such thing as a free lunch."  It's true in thermodynamics and it's also true in economics.

Idiot People and Cultural Superiority Complex

This will come as no surprise to anyone, but there are some really stupid people running around. The surprise to me is how these stupid people have gainful employment or even live the upper-class life.


Today is a typical example of one. He represents just one more person (a microcosm that represents the whole) of why the USA is collapsing as the ruling class fails to understand the working class or poor people (the rapidly expanding portion of the US population).

The guy is a writer named Ben Stein. This guy is so full of himself and living in such a sheltered world that it defies explanation. Wikipedia says:

Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Later he entered the entertainment field and became an actor, comedian, and Emmy Award-winning game show host.

Stein has frequently written commentaries on economic, political, and social issues, along with financial advice to individual investors.


Hmmm? He was born in 1944 and was a speechwriter for president Nixon? Then a game show host? What a tool! This guy is a real life joke.


Now he writes for the American Spectator? Well, we all know how wealthy magazine writers are by how their numbers of subscribers are rapidly expanding! Ha! Ha! Ha!


By the way, Nixon was president from 1969 to 1974... So, I think this "speechwriter" for Nixon is an exaggeration. They are saying that a 26 ~ 30 year old guy was a "speechwriter" for a US president? I find that hard to believe. I might believe that he wrote a speech, or a few speeches, but "speechwriter" suggests that he wrote many speeches and was on staff, no?...


Doesn't that stretch the imagination a bit?


Anyway... Besides exaggeration and the ability to bloviate his past record (why anyone would brag about writing stuff for that other slick talking president Ford), Stein has written a piece criticizing the Occupy Wall Street Movement. I am not pro or anti Wall Street Occupation. My personal opinion is that this occupation won't last (especially when it starts to get cold, or will just wind up as a bunch more homeless people in New York. There's lots of those so what's a few thousand more in a city of millions?) But, I am happy that people are waking up in the USA finally.


Anyhow, Stein criticizes these people. I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with his holiness and his cultural superiority complex.


He writes in the American Spectator:

Wednesday 



So... today rain came down in sheets here in Los Angeles. As I walked down Camden Drive in Beverly Hills after a righteous lunch at Mister Chow, the wind was forcing the rain at me horizontally. I got soaked. Earlier, my wife had slipped and fallen on the wet, slippery floor of a parking garage. No one in the garage made a move to help her. I, of course, picked her up and said to the parking attendant, "You're pretty stupid. That woman who fell is the only woman in Beverly Hills who wouldn't sue you for that slip. You might at least thank her and help her."

He shrugged and said something in Spanish.


Laughable. "Righteous lunch at Mister Chow"? Are you kidding me? Did you get a free lunch for this shameless plug?....

On top of that, he actually wrote this crap:


No one in the garage made a move to help her. I, of course, picked her up and said to the parking attendant, You’re pretty stupid. That woman who fell is the only woman in Beverly Hills who wouldn’t sue you for that slip. You might at least thank her and help her.

What's he want the guy to say? "Thank you, ma'am for falling. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Can I help you fall again?" What an idiot Ben Stein is. I can't believe that he writes such drivel. The attendant is "....pretty stupid. That woman who fell is the only woman in Beverly Hills who wouldn’t sue you for that slip." 


Gee, if he wants car parking service, he should use the valet parking.


Riiiiiight! This rich woman from Beverly Hills and her husband is going to sue some Hispanic parking lot attendant because the wife slipped on the parking lot floor? Heavens! 


Sue the parking lot attendant for what? The $80 a week he makes? 

Ben Stein is the only "stupid" person in this picture, wouldn't you agree? (Maybe that's what the attendant replied in Spanish).


Ben Stein! Planet earth is calling you. Time to get back to the real world. If you don't like it, why don't you go crying to daddy? Or, perhaps, learn some Spanish, honky, like the more than 55% of the people in Southern California speak!


Stein is pretty much indicative of why the USA is so messed up and how white people (OK, he's Jewish, so what?) fail to - or don't even attempt to - understand the way the lower middle class and poor people live. That's why things in the USA keep getting worse.


Sue a parking lot attendant in court, indeed!


Stein! Conseguir una vida! (Get a life!)


*Mr. Stein, if you don't like this article by a nobody blogger... I'm sure you can seek a lawyer... I mean, after you win your court case of Stein vs. Parking Lot Attendant. 

Anti-Banking / Anti-Government Demonstrations Occurring All Over the USA

Could it finally be happening?


Are you aware that huge demonstrations are occurring all over the United States, yet these demonstrations are ignored by the mainstream media? The demonstrations grow in size by the day, yet, as I said, they are ignored.... Even as the New York demonstrations reach nearly one million protestors. This just goes to show how the mass media is all a part of the scam to steal and rob the American public blind. Now, people are fed up with being cheated and getting ripped off by the government and the big banks.... (I did, though, find one major media report just out today: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wall-Street-protesters-Were-apf-2881190123.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=)


Besides these reports on the Alternative media, basically these demonstrations do not exist as far as the MSM is concerned. But, ignore them or not, people are fed up and rising up.

Karl Deninger hits a homerun at Market Ticker:

The danger, as I have repeatedly pointed out, in the government's willful, intentional and repeated refusal to put an end to these abuses is that there is a point at which the people have had enough and will simply not sit for it any more, nor will they believe they can vote for a change and actually receive that change. 


....How many people voted for "change" in 2008 yet did not receive it?

Once that point is reached civil order can be lost, perhaps irretrievably so.

Government, for its part, always seems to believe that this day will never come, no matter the severity of the abuses they tolerate by the rich and powerful, the favors they grant or the screwing they either mete out themselves or allow others to perform in exchange for some renumeration in campaign contributions.  The King of England didn't think the people would snap.  Neville Chamberlain was quite sure that we could have "peace in our time" through appeasement of bad acts by others, in his case Adolph Hitler.  In the more-recent past there was Hosni Mubarak, among others.

Likewise, both President Bush and President Obama have taken this same approach, and have even said in public that we must "move on" and not look to what happened, but to what we can do in the future.

Will this willful refusal to hold people to account for their ponzi schemes in the interest of "Wall Street" and continued pretension that we'll "muddle through" be proved correct in the fullness of time?

Or will, as this video states, the simple fact that once there is nobody left to screw an ugly reality will face those who have been doing the screwing: The man who you have screwed out of everything -- the man with nothing left -- has nothing left to lose.

I do not look forward to the day being proclaimed and looked toward in this presentation.  There is no reason for our political and justice system to have allowed the financial******of our nation and her people, not to mention that of the rest of the developed and developing world.

Anonymous - The Bankers Are The Problem

If you're of the religious sort it would seem that prayer would be appropriate at this time.

Could it be that the end of the American empire is in sight? Could American people finally be waking up? Finally? I wrote about it in 2005 in "America is Bankrupt" and people scoffed. No one is scoffing anymore. 


If things continue as they are going now, things are going to get very ugly folks. 


Make no mistake about it... These events actually started a long time ago... When the US government nakedly committed aggression and invaded a nation that posed no threat to us. That was merely the start of the most recent fire... It began long before that.


This most recent farce and naked aggression has lead led to massive US government borrowing and defense spending and wars against many Muslim nations... Wars that will suck the USA of her riches and treasures dry t the bone... These wars and the military-industrial complex that leads them has led us to the economic malaise we now face and the corruption of the government in bailing out Wall Street and the banks and the Status Quo.


The people finally see what is going on. People are mad, unemployed and, as Gerald Celente would say, "When people have nothing more to lose, they lose it!" 


It will take some time, but could this finally be the end of the US political and economic system? Could it be upon us now? I believe that we are witnessing history.

I wrote about an economic collapse of Japan this autumn (various reasons and due to Europe, USA and other western nations here). Could it be here so soon? 


I don't mean to sound alarmist, but this is a country with many earthquakes and natural disasters anyhow. I suggest that you stock up on food and water and get some gold and silver while you can. It's not like you will lose any money being prepared, right? If you have kids and do not have at least a week of water and food, then you are foolish.


LIVE STREAMING FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET DEMONSTRATIONS: http://thecritical-post.com/blog/2011/10/the-occupy-wall-street-movement-the-biggest-news-story-in-the-world-all-the-latest-news-for-occupy-wall-street-tcpchicago/