Hello to Fool’s Mountain:Blogging for China. I have been watching the furor over the global economy for the past 8 months as a past time, being unemployed union carpenter since thanksgiving of ’08. Much has been made of the “cause of this global crisis’ mostly revolving around mindspeak from the economic community on Wallstreet. Television reports assure us daily that everything will soon be corrected and America will continue to lead the world down the primrose lane towards happy ever after, or something akin to this.
Watching CNBC the other day I happened to see Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital, an investment broker for Asian Markets. The CNBC announcer seemed to cut Mr. Schiff of abruptly when he began speaking about China as the emerging market that will be predominant in the coming years as the world tries to climb out of this financial hole the “experts” have gotten us into.
I’m not blaming anyone, since the world is a pretty big place, but, it would appear to me that honesty requires more than opinions to be true. If the Media Opinion is that Americans are too gullible or niaive to handle the reality of China’s ascendance as the future global power, I welcome them to hold that “opinion”, but I do not happen to be well enough informed to simply agree with them.
Based on 50 years living in the good ole USA, I think we are more than capable of facing reality if we ever get a chance to hear just what it really is, instead of sending us off on some wild goose chase trying to figure it out for ourselves. But BUT BUT , I know, still (lol) but,, I am fed up with halfbaked and manipulative reporting which only tells me what someone else wants me to hear for my own good or for whatever politically expedient or socially correct reason.
So i took a chance and began investigating Mr. Schiff’s URL at Europacific.com.
Turns out for once I was correct in my analysis, the CNBC gang consider him a prophet of doom. Well I couldn’t disagree more. Not that I know the first thing about economics or finance, don’t get me wrong, but I do know a little about FOX style News Service slanting everything they say to promote their own ideals and opinions, and this is what is passing as news today in America.
So my intuition doesn’t think Euro-Pacific Capital is the savior of humankind, nor the anti-christ just yet, but my intuition tells me that Mr Peter Schiff is for all intents and purpose a well intentioned financial investor that thinks for whatever expert reasoning he employs that for the long term right now, China is the place to put your money, and where the next few years economic engine is going to be generated from. I don’t have much in the way of proof to back up his contention, but am somewhat inclined to agree with him at least tentatively.
That is to say, Yes it is true I don’t know what I am talking about, and that is why I am looking around in places like Fool’s Mountain trying to find out.
I read a lot, and contrary to popular belief we are not all that different from China in the free access to world literature not necessarily because of censorship, but definitely because of language. I am not multi lingual so to speak, I speak english, and my Barnes and Noble doesn’t offer much in the way of NEW from China on that note. Not that it offers much in the way of anywhere else either unless it was published and editted by some American firm, heck, I can hardly get Canadian Authors around here anymore let alone writers from across the pond, east or west, and what I do get is typically slanted towards something I consider socially palatable material.
This begs the question in the land of milk and honey where “freedom” of speech and expression is os prized and heavily touted, what the heck is going on?
My suspicion is that fear has taken a big bite out of the prideful sails of liberty. This to me is a sad and disappointing conclusion that I have labored hard to deny and avoid. Still being anything but numero uno after being numero uno isn’t an easy prospect, but it is one that I think the world is going to have to get used to pretty quickly here concerning America, and our place in the world. I hate to say it, but for whatever divine reason or profane purpose, America has fallen like Humpty Dumpty off our Proverbial Perch, and not only have we not gotten up yet, but we don’t even know we fell yet. This is too me far more pressing than my small personal need to find a job. This strikes me as a paradigm shift in the power structure of the world. With China on the rise, and America on the decline.Naturally America is going to do whatever we can to regain our superior position, of strength in this game, and it would only go without saying that China will do the same as well as every other Tom Dick and Harry nation etal out there from Russia to … you get my drift, everyone wants to be Top Dog. the fleass aren’t as thick in the upper atmospheres. maybe?
Anyway. I came across a few reads, about emotions and the global economy as well as oil, and all the other distracting realities of fear inspiring rhettoric , and such. I read a lot so I am not completely ignorant to what is going on, only about 90% ignorant with 5% informed and 5% misinformed I think?:)
That makes me about equal to the greater population of earth maybe?Maybe not. Everyone has opinions. I would like to have an opinion too, but for some reason since it sounds like life or death and all that end of the world hoopla is involved here, I’d sorta like more information, and maybe try to make an Informed Opinion, something I don’t quite trust the American Media to supply me with without slanting it to some patriotic fervor. Everybody seems to be scared, Why? We could all die in a global disaster yes, but then again we could also discover gold and live happily ever after on the big rock candy mountain too!Speculation seems to take on a life of its own here in the USA driven by political, religous and other sordid reasonings of social correctness.
I’d just like to think in spite of all evidence to the contrary that we do really still have certain liberty here in the good ole USA like the freedom to speak our mind or think without fear of our thoughts condemning us. Lately I have been wondering about this?
So I guess what I am trying top say, is when China assumes her Place on the Throne of Global whatever, I hope she doesn’t take too seriously all the wonderful attributes that they hear about us, because quite honestly we are just as dysfunctional now as we were when the pilgrims stepped off the boat at Plymouth, maybe even more so. at least then we knew we didn’t know anything at all, mow we’re really not sure, maybe we do know soemthing, but I doubt it when it comes to the big picture, Thank God Buddha or whomever you want to credit , I don’t think any of us mortals have a clue what is going on, and this in my humble opion just may be our only hope for salvation as a species is to realize that collectively and together try to figure it out without annhilating ourselves.
Maybe this shift isn’t just economical after all, maybe we can start seeing each other as mortal fragile human beings with a life expectancy that doesn’t allow for the inconveniences of war and violence to interupt our discovering life while we still are alive. Life is too short to bother with all these moral ambiguities that tend to distract from the real purpose of being, to enjoy it while it lasts.Maybe you do get some superficial unearthly halo and a box of virgins when you die, I don’t really care, what good are a 100 virgins when you don’t have physical human arms and legs to feel them and touch them? Living in someone elses imagination is my idea of heaven after I die, very vicarious at best, I already have a crummy vicarious life as it is, why would I want to have it permanently I hope I can finally get some sleep when my time on earth is through, and I don’t want to come back to life , not unles it is a lot more enjoyable than a tinkers damn.
Okay, maybe I wouldn’t mind, after all, I have had some fun too in this mixed up existence. Back to China and the Ship of Fools . Where were we?
Oh yes, I was just saying hello, and wondering if anyone thinks we have a prayer in hell to survive the coming eternal torment , or is that just another way to say situation normal all fouled up too? LOL!:)
Please don’t call me an agnostic though, I believe in God, and love the whole reality of God, this creation is a pretty neat place to hang, beats the heck outta the moon. I admit being a earthling gives me somewhat of a bais so suit me.
In case your wondering what this is all leading to, absolutely nothing, just my dysfunctional way of saying hello and maybe revealing a little bit of humanity to myself while exposing the web me to posible scrutiny, God I love anonymity:P
I could ltell you meglamaniacly speaking that I have it all figured out, and am just kidding, but all I have is a lot of questions after 53 year of reading and stoning and whatever we mortals do to pass the time. Is it this way for Chinese too?
One thing I will say for growing older, the fear tends to subside with experience, and then its just a constant annoyance instead of a termianl angst. Isn’t that ironic?
So what we’re all gonna die,(hopefully not for a long time yet) meanwhile we got this great big planet and all these cool toys to play with. I could be playing xbox360 right now blowing up all sorts of alien creatures that endanger our reality and derange our imaginings, but I already finished my latest games so I’m here taking a break from saving the world form reason control and all the other evils of modern regulation.
One thing I do know, whether your in China or the USA, you gotta eat, you need water to live and sleep. Other than that being human shelter is always a nice thing, and then there is the pursuit of happiness or the casino as I like to say. I am teribel at craps, but I keep throwing the dice thinking one of these days I’m gonna climb that mountain and win!
Not today though, it’s too hot.Basically these are what I like to call lonely words from a finite planet. Love is nice, Truth is great, but there’s nothing like hitting a jackpot on the slot machine to restore your faith in humanity, even if it is only for a moment, until the news comes back on.
So take a deep breath, and think about this, 1000 years from now, after all the arguing and fighting is finished and done with there will still be teenagers arguing with their mom and dads, there will still be college students that know more than their professors, and they will all grow up to realize they were wrong.. isn’t that a laugh?
China , Global Dominion looks good on ya! My hats off and God Bless you. Either way this dog and pony show turns out, the world is becoming a lot more aware that we are all fundamentally the same no matter what God or flag we wave around. Being the boss aint easy, but in a civilized world someone has to do it, only not me. I’d rather go hide up in the mountains with the rest of the fools and watch from afar, and hope and pray we don’t annhilate ourselves being right. It’s a dirty job, and that is why it should pay a union scale.LOL
In a perfect world, every time I swing my hammer, I am making a dent in the differences between dirty dishes and unfinished business.This is how I pray, with my arm smacking a number 16d vinyl coated made in china nail right on the head, and hoping I don’t hit my thumb… again. oops!Ouch!
Global Warming , Economic Meltdown, Pandemic Swine Flu, War on Terror, not too mention the price of gas and food, then there is the darned taxes they impose on cigarettes, jeez! 6-+ bucks for a box of weeds! Nuclear Annhilation, old age , poverty, homelessness, hunger,dementia, yipes, the list goes on and on!
Life is tough on baby rats, I should know, squeak!
Enough amusement already ,make your point. Being afraid is a choice, and so is not being afraid. I choose not to be afraid, and in order to do this in a scary world I find humor is the best medicine. Yes the world could end, but so what, if it does nothing I am thinking or doing or saying is gonna change thta, meanwhile I am still alive, and so are you, so while we still breath let’s just try to mind our own business and get along as best we can. Never mind the grand meeting of the minds, it aint gonna happen if we are ever gonna save ourselves it won’t be by saving the planet, it will be by saving oursleves, and hopefully making it easier for the next generation to do the same after all we gotta live with the consequences of survival, all that eternal torment and stuff, aint that just another way of saying life?
Like God stood up in front of his only living son the first born and all, Lucifer, and says, mow look , life is short and if your gonna make anything of yourslef your gonna have to learn to listen and think. And the devil says, yeah but, too which Dad responds yeah yeah I know, I been there too!
This is our fate, to live and die on the greatest planet in all of creation what can be better? Maybe enjoying life while we are still alive?That would be nice for starters?
Oye Vey! What are ya new?
So the devil says your not gonna die, Dad, your gonna live forver.
And Dad says, “No Way” You’ll have to take my place, I’m tired.
And then he passes into oblivion, happy ever after and the Big Rock Candy Mountain, leaving behind poor Buddha too explain all this nonsense to the next bunch of ne’er do wells that comes down the pije, and finally Buddha figures out nirvana is just another way to say godbye, and all these years he couldn’t bring himself to say Uncle!
If his Uncle was anything like mine I can understand why!LOL! Mean surly gay old so and so, but he was a dear sweet man when the dust settled, it’s just that I expected miracles from my elders, and learning to settle for hockey on the BBC takes a little time and patience to adjust too.
I like to think when my Daughter asks me all the Man in the Moon questions I’ll have all the answers, and she’ll rest peacefully knowing she is safe in my foolish minds eye.While I’m thinkin the pimps are scheming, and life is conspiring to make all my answers wrong anyways. Does China ever think of these things too, I think she does, just as I sometimes imagine in my wildest dreams America sometimes wonders about our omnifescents and what it all really boils down to after the party is over.Not much.
I’m Lucky though, I have some Indain Blood from the aboriginees in me, and I can always pretend that my dreams for happy ever after will come true someday in spite of myself. I hope everyone else is able to do the same.
In my perfect dream . the world sleeps, and while it is sleeping, Granny Goodwitch kneads the earth like a loaf of bread, and places it in the oven, where she bakes it for about an hour and a half at 375 degrees. When she takes it out of the oven, all the countries have been cooked into one loaf of bread, and they can’t tell where China begins and America leaves off.
Geez, maybe we are in heaven already and we just don’t know it? Ya think?
I just never expected heaven would include paying taxes, and batchelorhood.
oh well, it coulda been worse, instead of being a carpenter I might have been a writer, then I’d really have to think and work for a living like the poor schmucks on wallstreet. All I gotta do is play my hammer like its a steel guitar, and try to keep my head down when the boss struts by, holding his Mutual Fund smugly to his chest while handing out pink slips.
Hello China, Love ya, Peace out!
TonyP4 says
Hi John, your post is refreshing and quite personal that we do not read from the newspaper and magazine. It is cheaper get it off from your chest than seeing a psycho, haha.
I’ve more hope in US than most folks including you. Just compare natural resources (farm land, oil…) per capita to the one in China, you will find we’re well off.
Most problems in US are fixable, but not all problems in China can be fixed that easy. By my rough estimate, US produces double GNP than China with more than 4 times US’s population. US still have the best colleges on earth, best technologies, best democratic system, best entertainment industry, highly educated citizens, best infrastructure system, farms that feeding the world…
China is gaining in last 30 years from almost nothing, but it is still a long way to catch up with the rest of the world. Even the Chinese apologists with the dumbest nationalism cannot deny these as figures do not lie and only people lie.
US is one of the few countries that can close all trades and go back to 50s and 60s when all union workers made big bucks. Free trade should bring more wealth to the country as you’re buying stuffs you cannot produce cheaper. The disadvantage of losing the manufacture can be off set by many advantages if US can take advantage of the situation.
US and China are just two extremes. If both country can take the middle road, we would both win. We’re too generous on entitlement that encourages the poor to be lazy. Our permissible system does not allow folks to fail. Why we’ve so many teenagers pushing babies, fat kids, drunk drivers, drug addicts…?
Why we need to be the world policeman and fight the two wars we cannot afford? Why we need a carrier (first of the line) that are driven by TWO nuclear generators?
Do not blame the media totally. They write what their customers want to hear.
30 years ago, millions of Chinese died of starvation, did not have a roof over their heads, kept themselves warm… US never has this problem. God has blessed America.
For permissible society, I wrote.
http://tonyp4joke.blogspot.com/2009/06/permissibility.html
For God, I wrote (you may laugh your head off or will be totally offended.
http://tonyp4joke.blogspot.com/2009/07/god-of-gods.html
For closing this long post, I told my grandchild you have just won the lottery by being born in US vs being born in Africa. We really have to appreciate the abundant resources we live in.
jonkoot says
Hi Tony, I read your two citations, sound very good to me. I agree with your ideas.
My notion about China becoming the next world super power, is that the economic finacial world which controls our politics has not grown up since the dawn of adam and eve. I think the basic dog eat dog of money is still true today, and my feeling is that hopefully China will learn to domesticate this wild beast. Either that or America learns to control the animal we now have barking and howling from Wall Street.
I do believe the american dollar is in decline according to finacial news, and it appears a lot is being done to perpetuate the system now in place. The samer system of governances and controls that got us into this mess. I don’t think reviving a wild animal which has bit off its own foot out of uncontolabale hunger is the way to accomodate a sustainable world global economy. The way we do business is going to have to change.
To me, China is an opportunity for this change whetehr China initiates it or someone else like the United States isn’t as important as that the financial world changes.
My thoughts about the economy would put a leash on this ravening wolf of global finance, and teach it to behave like a well trained dog instead of allowing it to go dig in the neighbors yard and run wild on the streets.
This is what transformation is about, or civilization, evolving from a primitive hunter gatherers to agraraian community and then industrial society is part of the way on our path to enlightenment, but now we are faced with a new obstacle of change, a finite planet incapable of sustaining the continued rate of consumption we now enjoy. We can either follow the path of the ancient status quo and fight over the remains in our current dog eat dog world, or learn to create a new paradigm in which our economy is our servant as it was meant to be rather than our boss.
I think historically the world is tired of the might is right fight mentality of nationalism and religion, and we are ready to try something new. Going to war and killing people over the fact the eartrh is finite and earths resources are finite too, is no longer an acceptable means of promoting the goals of Americas original intent or Chinas . Working to create a more perfect Union will always be the real issue of human experience here on earth whether it is locally or globally. My hunch is that the first thing we need to do as a planet if we are going to affect a sustainable planet where we can live in relative harmony is control the economic forces that now control us.
This is not a matter of revolution or political turmoil as we are led to believee, It is more a realization of pragmatic approaches being taken to create a sustainable life support theatre here on earth for ourselves and our descendants.
If I were going to put my money on anything in the future bets for global dominance it would be a new sort of Law Enforcement Science which supercedes politics science and religion, and leads the way in managing our resources globally by consensus rather than controlling by supply and demand.
A good manager allows his team to do their work, not by telling them what to do, but by facilitating their ability to do what they already are wanting to do, which is improve their product and share in the fruits of their labours.
Human nature sociologically speaking shows us that if you have a certain number of human beings living in a proximity, there is going to exist conflict, it is a simple fact of life. Moderating that conflict in the future will require a highly skilled new kind of Police Force which operate more as community managers than law enforcers. This is where I see the transition in our global society going for my two cents?
thanks fo rresponding to my post.
You have some good things to say, and I love the fact that you preface your blog with humor, that is to me the premier attribute of a human being is the sense of humor.
TonyP4 says
Hi John,
Well said and thanks for the kind words. I agree with you totally. I’m more an optimist, so I expect the better to come.
US, supposedly the richest country in the world, needs to borrow money from the poorest country in the world, as my good friend Steve said. It tells a lot. Lessons will be learned and US will recover as it has done this many times before.
However, this time is tougher, but not impossible. Tightening a belt for a fat man is easier than a skinny man for sure.
It takes longer time to recover as our leaders are choosing easy fixes, so they can be elected 4 years later. We do not let folks fail, we extend the unemployment benefits, we fix their mistakes by giving them more money (on mortgages they should not have to start, on buying big cars that they should not…). The result is our next and next generation has to pay for and/or big inflation down the road (a million in 5 years could worth half that amount in buying power).
I hope China is not in the same path of US in seeking to be #1. It is more important to provide basic needs for its citizens. For the last 300 years, China has been humbled except the last 30 years. China’s Tier I and II cities are as developed as the west, but the rural is a long, long way to go. Comparing China 30 years ago, China has gone a long, long way.
Christianity also conflicts with (1) evolution. (2) do you think we had written language to record Eve and Adam incident? Leave it to others to debate.
I’m the last one to write a blog. English is not my native language (you can tell easily from my writing) and all my ‘professional’ jobs did not require me to write anything substantial. My blog was created when my friends were feeling down from the economy and the stock market. Just cheer them up with the recycled jokes/satires circulated to me. So far, we do not have any complaint, otherwise I would refund their money, haha.
Matt says
The website for Mr. Peter Schiff’s company is http://www.europac.net NOT http://www.europacific.com
wukong says
John,
Thanks very much for you letter.
Most of times when I read a westerner’s piece on China, I am left with a bad taste in my mouth and nauseated feeling in my stomach.
But your letter is none of that. You are here not to tell Chinese how to live their lives, how to run their country and how to think and behave the “right way”. My impression is you are curious and you seek understanding and knowledge on China. You have opinions, but you are not judging. So, thank you!
Mutual understanding and genuine dialogue can only happen between people who consider and treat each other as equal. If I want to listen to preaching or lecture, I can go to a church or school. I hope you enjoy your stay and more people like you will come here.
Otto Kerner says
Well, I found this to be almost completely impenetrable. I guess this means John has understood the “inscrutable Chinese mind” much more deeply than I have … 😉
raventhorn4000 says
Didn’t seem to have been much trouble for John, I wonder what’s so “impenetrable” to Otto?
🙂
hongkonger says
Wukong says it well: “Mutual understanding and genuine dialogue can only happen between people who consider and treat each other as equal. If I want to listen to preaching or lecture, I can go to a church or school. I hope you enjoy your stay and more people like you will come here.”
jonkoot says
Today is august 14,2009.Yesterday I uncovered a comic page from august 14 1927.This was a sunday seattle times paper used to insulate the floor on an old motherinlaw apartment. The big news for today is 40 years since Woodstock Concert in New York. I went to bed tired and dreamt of China, while wondering what about that comic strip, from 92 years ago? The Captain and the Kid!(8/14/1927)
What my dream was, America was a young Joseph being kidnapped by his brothers, and sold into slavery to China. This reminded me of the bible story about Joseph and the coat of many colours. Yes Joseph was sold into slavery , and went onto become Governor of all China! He developed a system of storage for wheat and rice, in order to prepare for drought or downtimes in food production. Then for 7 years Joseph ruled over all China, and this was a time of feast, which was followed by 7 years of global famine, as the drought Joseph predicted caused poor food profuctions, but thanks to Josephs visionary development in commodity storage China didn’t go hungry ,but managed to eat well out of the stores which had been reserved for hard times. After Joseph steered the ship safely past the terrible reefs, and storms of the downtimes, The Emporor asked Joseph what he would like, and Joseph said he would like to go home to America where his brothers had sold him into slavery, and avenge himself!
Meanwhile his brothers, were starving and near death. When Joseph arrived home, they were horrified to see the Brother they had betrayed adorned as the Governor of the New Empire!Joseph smiled at his treachorous brothers, and told them to come before his throne on the good ship Hang-Seng. The wllstreet brokers approached Joseph hoping for mercy, but expecting retribution. They imagined a loving brother forgiving them and all living happily ever after, but this wasn’t Egypt, and Joseph wasn’t in the mood for entertaining those whom had left him for dead.
Instead of happy ever after, Joseph told the brokers, who sold him into slavery and condemend him to a fate worst than death, that he was greatful to them, for their treason had created the circumstances which allowed him to achieve such great strides in his own life. To reward them, he was going to repay them in kind, in the hopes that they to might achieve the same results that befell Joseph.
And so they were tied up and thrown into a pit where they were left for dead. What happens next is up to them, and what faith they follow. As for Joseph, he returned home, and revealed to his dad and mom what had transpired in his absence.Dad and Mom were so happy for the youngest sons return, they killed the fatted calf, and had a party, they called all the latest rock bands to Bethel New York, and had a weekend of sex drugs and rock n roll! Ken Kesey gave Joseph a free ride on his magic bus!
40 years later Old Moses, was standing outside of Joseph door, and Joe asked Mose to come in and have a beer. They smoked some pot and told some fish stories, and Mose asked Joe what was next?
I am old, Joe said, but still thinking about returning to China for a vacation at Sanya. The off season isn’t until April 2010.
Meanwhile, Joe asked, what do you think about Starbird Construction ?
Mose said, it is a American version of China Construction IPO , put up by Bank of America, Just a paper tiger, why pay the middle man, put your money in China Construction, and skip the bums in the pit.
So Joe took a put on the RMB against the USD and used the derivative shares to purchase China Construction IPO.
China cornered the market on construction materials, cement steel and copper at the top of the list, so while the rest of the world watched their market shares evaporate, China’s GDP increased by a phenomenal 3% annually over the next millenium.Warren Buffet got wind of the trade, and tried to get in on the action! Mose informed Joe that his brother whom had left him for dead was doing pretty well also, on his dime, and asked Joe what he wanted to do about it?
What is it to you if the snowman continues until my return?
Mose was a bit put off with this answer? What did you just say!
Joe responded, I said, “Cie la vie.” One of lifes little pet peeves, you don’t get to pick your relatives, still family is family, for better or worse, thats just the way it us. I would hate to get to heaven, and have mom and dad yell at me for hindering little brother, so I follow the old family ways, my house is your house, mi casas tu casas. when it comes to family, Now if he doesn’t respect my home, I’ll toss him out on his ears, but for now, it pleases me to see little brother prospering.
Thus Jesus returned in such a way as not to be noticeable, Mishelle Yeoh an her cohorts had relit the dieing sun, and saved the day!
Meanwhile the tricky rabbits at wallstreet were positioning themseleves to make a power play for Joes shares, and force him out of the market.
This caused old mose to laugh, like a little dog running away with a spoon.
Aaron, Mose brother got caught up in a Ponzi sheme worth 65 billion dollars, and was tossed into the hooskow.
Along comes Cane, my name is grasshopper I will help you!
pug_ster says
Yes agreed with WuKong’s sentiment. Unfortunately, most of Western ‘experts’ nuanced views of China are back-warded and uncivilized. The notion of the US as a global hegemony and how the US can influence China is just not true any more. The sooner these Western ‘experts’ realize that, maybe the relations between China and the US can stregthen.
jonkoot says
Amen pug_ster!
The problem for us yankees, is western experts are what we get to hear from. Even our Asian “informers” are no more than Bloomberg lackeys. The result is absolutely zero trust in any news sources. That is why I basically make up my own news, it is fantasy horse manure, and imho every bit as relevant to the lamen as the tripe we hear from our multi-national medias. LOL:)
I am an old hippie, and as such took part in the protest against the viet nam war. Our idea was rock n roll was lot more fun than bullet wounds. The media can manipulate the results and reason all they want, but the fact remians we hippies stopped a Government from waging war. Critical analysis of post vietnam era apologist etal, tells a story of questionable veracity, but as one of the self destructive teenagers involved in resisting the urge to keep the world safe from the red menace, imho this is what all the global collapse is about, not mortgaged backed collateral debt obligations, but retalliatory redneck conservative money mongers. They are angry that we sucessfully said no to governors telling us what was good for us was getting shot at. The very first and perhaps last time the governed said no and were heard.
This is what it took to accomplish our resistants to Western Experts.
First we had to put on a rock n roll show at woodstock, with sex drugs and rock n roll, then we had to commit to being stoned through the duration of the conflct in order to render ourselves unprepared for combat.
Yes we paid a dear price in family animosity, but the fare was worth the ride, even if we did create some vast chasms with the bridges burned trying to change the world with music instead of bombs.
Regrets we have a few but then again too few to mention. We might not have changed the world, but we set the stage for future generations to emulate in their continued efforts to get governors out fo the way of the governed. We can rest in peace in the face of this new fangled end of the world mentality fundamentalism religous zealots of every strain now popularily promote under the auspecies of morality.
If upholding the homocidal nature of human beings is morality sign me up for degenerate now!Point in fact, Jane Fonda, one of my favorite Patriotic Americans has endured years of popular media slander in her efforts to just say no to fear and hysteria ruling the world while corporate profits continue to predominate the Moral high ground of Governors concerns.
I am not a governor, but as a governed , I am about fed up with being regulated by tax your tobacco moral yeasts of leaven.
Political correctness annoys me. Give me lunacy comedy and a good beer any day.
The most recent financial fiasco in todays news, Americas Honk Kong subsidiary to AIG was bought by China, while AIG scrambled to accomodate the US Governments demand for Corporate controls of pay. Smells like AIG simply shipped their top earners to Hong KOng which is after all American International Group of insurers.
Yes that is what I am saying, These Chinese culprits are amazingly white upper class Americans hiding behind oriental front companies and pointing their yankee fingers at China while saying it aint me!
Well, personally given the extent to which these corporate gurus will go to lie cheat and steal, I can only say, yeah right, and I have some ocean front property in Nebraska for you too.
This isn’t meant to inform as in correct information, it is simply meant to state a fact, our leaders and rulers are not reliable to tell us the truth, They have lost our faith, and at this point, short of actually telling the truth, there is nothing they can now do to make us believe them and the key word is make!
I don’t know the first thing about China, but after 50 years living in America, it is a pretty safe bet that as long as the rich are rich and getting richer it will be business as usual , and that means no more economic stimulus we got ours and protected ourslevs and now you poor folks can fend for yourself, or as the GOP likes to call this ,trickle down economics, only with the faucet turned off.
So what? My answer to just about everything these days. Historically speaking don’t get too comfortable, just because the adversary is off balance, we all know what that means, time to pull out the distraction and misdirection.
Like Islam blaming Satan America for their woes. Let’s be real, the real reason for the middle east crisis is not oil or religion, but control of moral character. This conflcit could just as easily be between China and America as Islam. The point is both sides America nd the Middle East are served by having an opposite adversary to throw rocks at instead of plucking the mote out of our own eyes as the saying goes.
The more helps us delude oursleves into believeing tne consumption we now remember fondly is possible to recreate and sustain forver. This in the face of reality is a ludicrous assumption based on a veiled past which has hed the veil torn down.
Now we have the Wizard of Oz operating behind his curtain oblivious to the fact that every one is watching him pull his levers, and manipulte his voice, and the result is Mr Wizard instead of appearing frightening as was the case is now seen for the pipsqwueak he is, and it is funny hilarious to the point of painful.
Maybe that is all the noise really means , someone please tell Mr Wizard his zipper is down before poor Felix the cat laughs so hard his sides will ache and his heart will go pitter pat just before he explodes in a display of irrational exuberance.LOL!
My apologies if you cannot see the comedy in this.Irreverence is a sign of frieendship, and if we are as a world to ever get past the past, comedy not global finance will be the only way I put my hope in. I trust global economists as far as I can spit. But humor is one universal that even manages to dispell the animosity between such diverse groups as black and white here in the good old USA.
If we poor yankees can laugh at each other, maybe China can take a lesson in backward thinking uncivilized Westerners, not the ones preaching the morning line from the squakbox, but the damned hippies and other discarded noise makers still managing a laugh or two in the face of certain doom. 😛
This is the real spirit of 76, the one America exports , not the one everyone hears about, but the one no one dares deny, the truth speaks for itself, and so we dumb yankees see no reason to try to speak for it. Maybe China has a similiar spirit, that sees all this Loud Noise as just another Nail sticking Up from the floorboards in need of a Hammer to pound down the nail that sticks up. As for me I am keeping my head down, and laughing to myself in case my mirth becomes discovered, and I am marched out in front of the firing squad, guilty of failing to be scared to death in the face of overwhelming evidence that this is the patriotic responsibility of every brainwashed controlled indoctrinated flag waving bible thumping sycophantic Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Here is the funny thing. This belligerent contempt for concieted impositions foisting themselevs down our yankee throats as gospel is the real spirit of 76, and every red white and blue minuteman worth their own salt knows this to be true, never mind the drum beating my daddy fought malarkey we are represented by. My daddy never had the need to get on a soap box and preach his superiority based on the fact he was convinced as a young lad that fighting foreign enemies was better done on foreign ground. No, he didn’t fight for the right to pound his chest and be saluted and celebrated by the media, but in order to shut up the noisemakers of his day, so he could get back to snuggling with mom, and yelling at the kids to quit leaving the lid off the toothpaste. Not too mention, trying to teach his kids that he had had it up to his eyeballs with their disobedient shenanigans! Dad is sadly gone now as is mom, but his lessons although post demise have found their place in our hearts and minds as reasonable sound judgement, And this is what being a yankee is, in spite of the contrary insistence by loud mouthed opinionated cowards trying to convince us that fear and loathing are the epitome of our national virtues!
imho, the war on terror is just another excuse to keep the ignorant busy arguing over right and wrong while the “informed rob the henhouse of all the eggs. Truth is they can have all the eggs , hell take the chicken and feathers too, just shut up with your version of me, it is false! I am in the words of my detractors an idiot wind lunatic fringe embecile of no merit or worth other than as fertilizer. This suits me just fine, as I long ago called myself the last turd out of a horses ass. Dip me in sheep shit and call me happy!
I write this not as an offense, but as an invitation to the Chinese folks whom feel the same way about all these talking heads supposedly trying to help us understand that a lie can be good for you if you beleive it hard enough!
I know one thing, whether it is true or not, if it makes me laugh it is welcome in my house, where humor is King. If you would rather laugh than kill each other in order to maintain someone elses bottom line neither one of us will ever see or know, then welcome to the new world , and here’s mud in your eyes!
pug_ster says
JonKoot
Despite what you said how bad the US are, US is a much better place to live than in China. Heck if I were to go to China and live there, I couldn’t make any scratch of a living and I would be complaining about China too.
TonyP4 says
I’ve to agree with pug_ster. Most problems of my adopted country US are quite easy to fix while China’s problems are harder like corruption, pollution… The news from the west could be 90% true but the one from China could be 80% true (esp. from the government puppets).
I re-post the satire as below. I tried to write one for China, my own country. I found it too tough to write like on health care: You do not pay, you die. However, with US or Canadian dollar, you can live like a king in China (not counting BJ. SH…). You never have to cook, clean your house, wash clothes…with the low wages of labors.
—–
Here is the updated satire.
A Nation of No Losers
We do not let you be a loser!
Your mistakes will be rewarded handsomely.
When you bought a clunker that you should not have, we give you $4,500.
When you bought a mansion that you cannot afford, we’re going to bail you out.
When you lost your job, we extend your benefit.
When you do not have saving, we give you free health care.
When you have saving or a job, we take away your health care.
Teenagers, the more babies you have, the more benefits you have.
Drunk drivers, no one will prosecute you as the entire jury are drunk.
Old ladies, your driver’s license is also a license to kill.
Fatsos, do not worry as our up-coming drugs will melt all your fat while you sleep.
All athletes are rewarded with millions for taking drugs.
We voice loudly and disapprovingly on foreign athletes doing same.
It is an America invention!
When you cheated billions, you can retire in a resort-like ‘prison’.
Also, the billions your wife hid is hers.
No other country lets their citizens own guns.
NRA and his puppet politicians will give you millions of funny ‘reasons’.
When your company fails, we bail it out.
The executives are rewarded with bailout money for bringing down a company.
The small catch.
We need you to vote and re-elect us in 4 years.
The children cannot vote today, so let’s pass our debts to them.
China does not have a voice here, let’s pass all the blames to them.
jonkoot says
pug_ster:
Jing Ulrich is a glowing example of refreshing voice from China. It wasn’t long ago when China and America in the same breath was a perplexing quandry?
China has a long way to go to compete with America on the civil liberties of citizens according to the news I watch hear and see.
Not withstanding the Chinese have 1.5 billion people as opposed to our meagre 300 million. Allowing for 5 times the population base, I think China is doing extremely well with questions of civil liberty, and other accusations our medias instill in our fertile mindscapes as fact.
This is one of the great shortsights of world news, is that news in and of itself is a constantly biased form of information. One that more and more has become a manipulating tool of politics economists religionists and scientific associations. Without free discourse and dissent there can be no consensus, for their can be no dispersing of informations. This is the America I hope to see exported to the world, not the sacharine version imagined by news groups and think tanks! Arguing fighting disagreeing is all part of liberty, and the censorship which now prevails as modern civility is the reverse of these civil liberties that America is.
Speaking from personal experience, I have been censored more times than I caan recall. So What. The damage is done, and I content myself with this knowledge. What Damage? The damage that light causes to darkness and understanding creates amongst ignorance.
There is a mountain of Ignorance in the world concerning humanity, and America was graced with the mission of reducing this mountain to a mole hill.
The only way to do this is to instill light into the dark arena of fear that maintains this monolith of division. This light might appear insane or assinine to the lamen . That is the nature of truth, one of the elements of light. Truth when first reported is ridiculed, then it is resisted , and then it is humiliated until it finally becomes self evident, this is the way truth works. It speaks for itself by allowing the process of nature to reveal it.
Another component of this mountain of ignorance aside from fear is deciet, and fear is the mother of all ignorance, these parts fear ignorance and deciet all are held together with the notion of hatred or polarization. Hate Fear Ignorance and Deciet , the mountain which seperates free from the slave to ignorance. The weapons to combat this mountain of error is not nuclear weapons and pounding chests. The weapons to combat fear ignorance hatred and deciet are Truth Understanding Courage and love. This is the faith of the human family, that our communal struggle to create a more perfect union will be universally embraced, Logic tells us this is an absurd notion, but faith insist it is real, and possible,and it is this war that the losers and drunks foools and such wage daily in our efforts to outlast the mental lapse in collective sense our counterparts employ and beleive.
This isn’t a criticism, it is a game plan for victory in the war on the Mountain.
The only way the mountain can be reduced to a molehill is by recruiting the enemies of our soul whom in their own ignorance beleive we are seperate, when in fact we are integrally united in spite of appearances. In order for the warriors of the rainbow and the Volunteers of America to sucede our nemissi must be included and sucede also, this is the American Way, and what I profess to be the real nature of the great spirit, the secret that keeps us from annhilating each other.
This is the mission the creator annoints the silent warriors of the rainbow with, to liberate the human mind and heart from the prisons of the mountains of our own making. Like John Lennon sang, “IMagine”
I know it sounds awfully like horse manure, but in order to plant seeds one needs fertilizer. Once you sew your crops it is necessary to cultivate the crops in order to insure a harvest. This is the gardening we fools do as second nature when we speak or act in accordance with our faiths.
If you consider yourself wise, become a fool for the wisdom of this world is folly to the earth. Look at global warming, for example, in spite of all the wisdom of the world our notions of progress seems to be the ingredients for destruction? what kind of logic is this? It is foolishness.
It is for this reason creation has blessed us with a sense of humor which is triggered by many varying factors, not the least of which is the contrary nature of life amongst the mortal humans we are.
I hope this helps alleviate your concerns about my foolishness concerniong posts. Peace Out!
Take this shovel and scoop some dirt ,then mix in manure, and drop in a few seeds. Now ater and pray for good weather ammenable to a harvest. Good Luck, Fishing gardening and carpentry are just a few of our means of facilitating our mutual goal of global sanctuary for human beings.
In a perfect world every one gets along, in the real world it is a little less romantic than this synopsis. We live in a real world where our main purpose has been diverted from communal harmony to self servicing goal oriented pursuit of money. somewhere their must be a compromise where reality and imagination can co-exists with each other without the nuisance of wisdom based on worldly concerns.
I am being preached at subliminally by very manipulative characters with the same good intentions which paved the hiway to hell, and I intend to expose these enigmatic nuances of dialogue geared towards self promotion of personal political agendas at the expense of liberty and freedom.
It used to be in America, that you could disgree ,and folks would say I may disagree with you but I will defend to the death your right to be wrong or something to that effect. You don’t hear this any more, instead you hear my way or the hiway. In other words the yeats of leaven has arrived in full bloom on the American Landscape and is dressed like a wolf in Sheeps clothing ravening for our souls,
This are liars with sins of ommission conspiring to measure their fraud by grace as the ends justify the means. Even if the means is genocide. Not an acceptable answer to humanities urge for trust. Trust requires more than words , it requires proof in actions and results that are amenable to the consensus of society. Division has arisen amongst the tabernacle of Americas Sanctuary, and is working violently to usurp the human struggle for liberty. These self professed voices of “REASON” work tirelessly to convince us that they are correct and we are wrong if we disagree with the, instead of trusting in freedom and liberty, they lean on their own reasoning and devote their entire efforts to imposing or otherwise enforcing their opinioon as Divinely inspired. They even resort to Biblical Recitations to prove and empower their bias.
This is an irony, that the spirit reveals to the elect, like Dante’s Inferno. America was founded on ahuman revolution of liberty, and this is what Americans want to export to the nations of the world. not some diluted politically correct socially palatable dogma nd rhettoriuc based on leavened opinionated interpretations of scriptures.
Here in America you can believe what you want as long as you don’t violate the law which doesn’t include your thoughts, and act criminally. It is not against the law to think contrary to public opinion or consent, and until recently you were even entitled to express disparate opinions . Not anymore.
Now you ahve to test the water to see if your approval rating matches public acceptance. That is censorship, and the new ugly American imposition, hiding behind the sentimental tripe of pity, conciet and other socially acceptable vehicles of disdain. Lunatics are no longer welcome in a global enterprise lest they pollute the bottom line.
Money is nice, but I’d rather save my soul and lose my welfare, than keep my job and lose my soul and my life to a lie. This si the Patrick Henry of the whole affair, and it is what Americans want to say to China and the rest of the world, not that we are better than you or worse, but that in spite of our differecne we share thisin common, the desire to breath freely and without fear amongst the living. Give me liberty or give me death is coined as Patrick Henry, but it is the voice of every mortal human being that ever lived. That is the voice of our Jesus, our Spirit of 76, our faith and hope in abetter tomorrow doesn’t hinger on our own personal aggrandizement or triumph, but on the victory of thge whole human race, but we make these steps towards reality one step at a time one life at a time without the delusion that it is solely about us alone, for it is only when it is about all of us that it will be a reality rather than a fairy tale to be manipulated and denigrated.
TonyP4 I apologize for the sermonizing, but sometimes I just want to say something that is easier to say with the bully pulpit of holy cow Batman!
Yes i realize the platitudes of wonderful counsleor do not belong to me. but are the property of the church and stae, and I am guilty of stealing here like a thief in the night, fo ris is very dark out, and I didn’t think I would be caught masquerading as a saint even though I am only a miserbale coyote, Still the Old Man tells me he is a smiling buddha, and laughs at the nonsense I enjoy polluting the internet with!
peace out !
jpnkoot
Allen says
@John,
Thoroughly enjoyed your little soliloquy. As they say, from a distance, we do all look the same. As it turns out, if you look very closely, beyond our superficial clothes and ideologies … we also do look much the same.
If you ever find Granny Goodwitch’s Bakery – let me know! It must be the bestest, tastiest bread known to mankind.
In the mean time, we Fools here will be trying various ingredients baked at different temperatures to see if we can cook up something similar! 😉