Nur In Amerika

Wir Einen Neues Blog-Kategorie Eröffnen!

Sie wussten, dass wir in Amerika verrückt haben (you knew we were nuts over here), but we finally made a decision to highlight it in the same manner as major media outlets the world over. Warum nicht? Es gibt so viel davon.


CNN-Site (Klicken Für Grosser Graphik -- Leicht Und Spaß!)

For example, a focus of CNN's website is in highlighting an endless parade of videos and short articles on wacky mix-ups, and mall shootings, and that special brand of religiously-fueled intolerance which America specializes in. Their business model is based on a little titillation, a little news, and a little That's Amazing, America! videos of cute puppies and babies and kids beating the crap out of each other at school.


Little Rupert's 'News' - Note: As Herman Cain Disappears, Huckabee Quietly Reappears (Klicken Für Ein Grosser Graphik Zu Sehen -- Leicht Und Spaß!)

Little Rupert's Fox 'news' does the same thing, except they add a definite fascisimus right-wing twist. Where CNN presents the Crazy as part of the passing show, Little Rupert's Fox defends the xtian religious and Tea Partei babblers and Austerity economists because that's what their business model is based on -- that, and defending the bullies in videos where kids are beating the crap out of each other at school.

The Right-Wing scramble to find a candidate to run against Barack Obama in 2012 goes on -- often called "The Murdoch Primary", as the support of Little Rupert's NewsCorp (the media mouthpiece for the Right in Europe and America) tends to be one of the key factors in which candidate climbs to the top of the swine herd.

Today, Herman Cain's candidacy completed its self-destruction as Herm announced in Atlanta that his campaign was "suspended". Almost immediately, Little Rupert's Fox started mentioning the xtian fundamentalist ex-governor, Mike Huckabee (see the image above).

I would guess that means Newt Gingrich hasn't understood Little Rupert's Personal Fat Boy Fox 'news' editor Roger Ailes when he said Götz von Berlichingen [Our English-speaking readers can use a search engine to catch up]. Once Newt has puckered up, perhaps Little Rupert will give him a bit of favorable coverage.

In any event, we'll be turning this cyberforum into arenas of terror and shame for the superintelligent Parakeet and all three of our European viewers, via updates on the massive fun and merry mix-ups that come with life in Amerika. Viel Spaß Für Dich -- because you are there, and don't have to experience it here.

---

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

From Merry Olde Angul-land.

---

A Reprint: Closer, Mein Weimar, To Thee

[This originally appeared on March 5, 2010; it's no less true today than it was almost two years ago -- which should give you an idea how little progress had been made since then, how much more polarized we are; and how much more powerless in the face of The Powers That Be, bless their tiny white cotton socks.

But then, too, also, of course, we hadn't offed bin Laden yet -- so, I guess that makes up for everything. USA !! USA !!]

---

Class War And A Simple Country Hyperchicken

I've mentioned Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning Economist and regular columnist for the New York Times, before.

In today's column, Krugman says flatly that there is no 'bipartisan' Washington; Republicans are determined to force the Democrats to fail, even if by doing so they appear less like fiscal conservatives and more like people who kick dogs and ignore starving orphans.

What Krugman used as his initial focus was the recent, one-man Filibuster by Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky. Bunning was determined not to allow a bill to pass which would provide a one-month extension of unemployment and COBRA medical insurance benefits to approximately 100,000 workers -- and these were former Federal employees (Talk about biting the hand that used to serve you, huh?).


Former Phillies' All-Star Turned Nasty Greedy Crazy™
(Photo: SALON)

Bunning has been acting... a little weird, lately; angrily pushing away reporters and yelling at a Rotary Club questioner, and delivering heavily scripted remarks at campaign events in a halting monotone. Bunning travels with a special police escort, at taxpayer expense -- he says, because Al-Qaeda is out to get him.

Then, Bunning -- who is virtually unopposed in the upcoming midterm elections, spent nearly a full month in the U.S. Senate raging against a bill, almost single-handedly slowing the work of the Senate to a crawl and forcing all eyes on him.


Bunning Begins His Famous Filibuster

Democrats and Republicans live in different universes [Krugman noted], both intellectually and morally...

During the debate over unemployment benefits, Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat of Oregon, made a plea for action on behalf of those in need. In response, Mr. Bunning blurted out an expletive. That was undignified — but not that different, in substance, from the position of leading Republicans.

Merkley once ran Habitat For Humanity, the non-denominational organization which builds homes for the poor, in Oregon. Bunning, in addition to his Senate salary of $174,000, takes a hefty annual paycheck home as the head of the 'Jim Bunning Foundation' -- which, basically, does nothing but sell autographed baseballs, and is supposed to donate the funds to charity -- something that's now coming under more scrutiny.

When Merkley spoke on the senate floor about the direct effects upon people of Bunning's month-long Filibuster, the esteemed Senator From Kentucky (who was standing at another podium) said, "Tough Shit".


Obligatory Photo Of Cute Animal, Embedded In Political Rant
(Now With 52% More Handgun!)

The extension bill directly affected families trying to feed themselves and stay in their homes, and have COBRA health insurance. Even so, Little Jimmy was determined to use every possible avenue in the Senate's rules to delay or kill the bill's passage.

Krugman held up Brunning, his use of his position in the Senate, and power as a U.S. Senator, to show three things: (1) Washington is so polarized that it would be a comedy program, if it weren't so deadly serious in its consequences for the United States; (2) Brunning's actions, and those of Republicans in Congress generally, point out what part of America they really represent -- and the same for the Democrats; and (3) this is disastrous for our country, and isn't going to end anytime soon.



Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment... But that’s not how Republicans see it.... Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, [said] defending Mr. Bunning’s position...: unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact... continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”

Bottom Line: The Republicans, while very organized, seem to represent The Rich. The Democrats don't appear to be very well organized, but they represent the Rest Of Us. If it were left to the Rethugs, the spirit that controls our government, and our culture, would be that deep belief of the Protestants who came to settle in North America in the early 1600's... that the world is separated into the Elect of God (chosen by predestination for salvation and eternal life), and The Rest Of Us (not chosen, and so already damned to Hell For Ever).



The Chosen are, of course, the wealthy -- to those same early Prots, worldly success being proof of god's favor. The reverse, then -- Poverty -- is proof of god's disfavor -- and who cares what happens to people who will burn for all eternity, anyway? Screw 'em.

(Incidentally -- d'ya think this might be one reason that the period of intellectual flowering which began in the 1700's was called 'The Enlightenment'? Huh?)

Part of me believes that the Right wants a polarized, paralyzed central government. The more effective a strong centralized government is, the more economic and legal rights of the largest number of its citizens is protected. The less effective it is, life comes down to how much money and power you have -- and, as usual, the ordinary citizen has less of both.


1936 Poster Advertising The New Social Security Program
(Photo: Smithsonian Collection; Common Use)

The struggle between Left and Right in America is ultimately about something that we're not supposed to have -- a Class Structure. The Left says we shouldn't have one, and the kind of laws Democrats enact, by and large, are social programs which benefit the majority of the population -- who are the people (at least, supposedly) that the Democratic party represents.

And, the Left believes it's fair that taxes are used to pay for those social programs, since we all have a stake in what those programs do for the country, and our culture.

Cooperation and collaboration are hallmarks of this kind of political philosophy -- summed up by Robert Kennedy's quoting Shaw: Some people see things as they are and say, why? I dream of things that never were and say, why not?

The Left believes that 'Market Forces' or 'Private Interests' don't keep the welfare of individual citizens -- their health, safety or longevity -- in mind, unless forced to do so by law and regulation. And when they aren't, you get what's just happened: Powerful Banking and Investment interests out of control; an economy kicked to the curb; millions of people who may be without steady employment for years. The effect upon millions of lives of the acts of a relatively small group of men, allowed to do almost anything they wanted, hasn't even begun to be calculated or felt.


Italian Poster For The Venice General Association --
A Riskier Form Of Retirement; The 'Association' Is
Part Of The Free-Market (Ayn Rand Hearts Mussolini)

The Right doesn't care about protecting citizens from the excesses and predations of Wall Street, or a chemical company polluting the air or our water. Republican legislation promotes and defends those interests. They don't represent the largest section of our population, but that smaller, wealthier and more influential number of Americans -- the ten or so per cent who own 60%-plus of the nation... that's who the Republicans represent.

Republican legislation reflects a world view of 'free enterprise', and 'less government meddling with individual and property rights'. In fact, it reflects Social Darwinism, nature red in tooth and claw -- and aggressive competition, where the winners step on the faces of the losers as they march forward into that bright, new Tomorrow. It's an old-school-tie, who-you-know (or who you can pay off) kind of world, and if you can't pay, then (as Little Jimmy Bunning would say) Tough Shit.

A good quote for the Right (wherever it came from) is, The Future Is For The Strong. There's no room in that future for the poor, the sick, the weak. They're going to burn, anyway, so to hell with 'em.

So, Krugman goes on to say ... what are the implications of this total divergence in views [between Democrats and Republicans]?

The answer, of course, is that bipartisanship is now a foolish dream. How can the parties agree on policy when they have utterly different visions of how the economy works, when one party feels for the unemployed, while the other weeps over affluent victims of the “death tax”?

I don't know who will win that contest. But I do know who will lose, in the meantime -- and what we stand to lose if the wrong crowd is the winner.

---

Postscript, November 2011: (From Wikipedia:)

In January 2009, when asked whether Bunning was the best candidate to run or whether there were better GOP candidates for Bunning's Senate seat, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said: "I don't know. I think it's really up to Senator Bunning." Bunning replied: "Anybody can run for anything they choose. I am gearing up..."

...In a press conference ... Bunning called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a "control freak": "If Mitch McConnell doesn't endorse me, it could be the best thing that ever happened to me in Kentucky."

...Bunning announced he would not run for re-election in 2010, blaming fellow Republicans for doing "everything in their power to dry up my fundraising." On April 14, 2010, in a further show of disdain for GOP leadership and insiders, Bunning announced his support for outsider candidate Rand Paul over establishment favorite Trey Grayson.

And we've all see what sterling representation Rand Paul has provided both the State O' Kentucky, and his public sagacity as a Rethug candidate for the Presidency in 2012 -- as one mentally disturbed person replaced another in the Pay For Play Republican Tea Partei.

And, in July and August, during the so-called Debt Ceiling Crisis manufactured by that same Partei, President Obama tried to broker a 'Grand Bargain', bipartisan compromise. He offered cuts in Medicare and Social Security, if the Rethugs would accept new taxation to raise revenues (Sounds familiar, doesn't it -- the SuperCommittee Crisis, no?)

The Democrats did what they've done since 1994, wanting to be seen publicly as willing to compromise in the public interest, to be the adults in the room... only, the people Obama was dealing with weren't adults. In fact, they're closer to Mussolini than John Adams.

In the summer of 2011, they were willing to hold the government's ability to operate hostage to finally destroy the New Deal, and eliminate any barriers that would prevent the unimpeded stampede of Free Enterprise across America.

Reading Paul Krugman's take on bipartisanship in March of 2010, nineteen months ago -- I'd say he had it right. The Democrats didn't listen then, and may not be listening now. And, my feelings about the Right Wing in America haven't changed, either: I still feel my analysis is true today. Even more so, actually.

But, I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.

---

Two-And-A-Half Minutes To Midnight

Move More Deck Chairs To Starboard, And Ignore That Iceberg


Not Sure The Word "Ignition" Should Be Used Near The Global Economy --
And, We Didn't Make Up The Headline (Business Insider, 11/25/11)

There are plentiful signs that the 'Euro crisis', an exceptionally complex situation, cannot come to a good end no matter how brave a face Little Angela and Nicky put on it.

... according to Gareth Gore in the International Financing Review(:)

European banks are being forced to abandon their efforts to sell off trillions of euros worth of loans, mortgages and real estate after a series of talks with potential investors broke down, leaving many already struggling firms with piles of assets they can barely support.

Lenders have instead turned their attention to reducing the burden of carrying such assets over months and years, with many looking at popular pre-crisis “capital alchemy” arrangements to minimise capital requirements and boost their ability to use the assets to tap central banks for cash.

Deadlocked talks with potential buyers – a mix of private equity firms, hedge funds, foreign banks and insurers – show little sign of making breakthroughs, say bankers taking part in those negotiations, with the stalemate threatening to block the industry’s ability to save itself from collapse through a mass deleveraging.

“European banks have spent far too long saying everything is fine, when it really isn’t,” said one banker at a US bank who has been advising European clients on their options. “They are slowly realising that they just won’t be able to do what the market is expecting. We are edging slowly closer to the depths of the crisis.”

Some of Europe’s largest banks, including BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, have in recent weeks pledged to sell assets. Together, firms are expected to shrink their balance sheets by as much as €5trn over the next three years – equivalent to about 20% of the region’s total annual economic output – through a combination of sales, asset run-off and recapitalisations.

(The banks want to sell their assets near "par"--the value the banks are carrying the assets for on their books--because then the banks won't have to take losses that would further deplete their capital. The buyers, meanwhile, want deals, and they know that time is working in their favor.)

So now that banks are moving to Plan B... which is financial engineering.

Specifically, the banks are packaging up bunches of crap assets, putting pretty bows on the packages, and then using the packages as "collateral" with which to obtain emergency loans from the ECB...

Even if the European banks can engineer a way to get themselves the funding they need to survive, they're still planning to significantly reduce the amount of credit they're extending. And although this is wise for the banks, it's bad news for the economy.

No EU leader, or The American President and Timmeh! Giethner, and Helicopter Ben, the Secret Lizard from Acturus, will change their economic policies. The EU leaders can't, or (they believe) risk dissolving the Euro and unraveling the "idea" of a United Europe. They want Austerity and low growth, because it will keep Yurp's Bad Bad Rotten To The Core Banks from failing, and so imploding the international 'Markets'.

Here in America, Herr Obama is playing a game of electoral Chicken, hoping that the mass of citizens will see the Evil Rethug Tea Partei as the Enemy Of All That Is Good. He wants to make the Presidential election about a choice between Darth Vader and the Empire, or the plucky Rebellion, even though he will deny it's a Good-vs-Evil drama if asked.

Meanwhile, the Right continues to hijack the country by derailing the Doomed-To-Fail SuperChicken Committee, where they refuse to raise taxes because poor should pay and the rich should be pampered, live softly, and have treats. And the dirty hippies in the street? Ahhh, Fuck 'em. We beat, arrested, shot them and derided them forty-four years ago; we can do it again.


Only The Spirit Of The Past Can Save Us, Say Republican Stalwarts

And no matter what Bucky, The 'Chunky BoBo' Beaver says, The Rethugs are playing their own game of Chicken: They want Europe to implode. They're hoping the economy will deteriorate even further, and if human beings suffer in the process... well, it's all in a good and sacred cause -- to retake control of the country for god and jesus, and Unimpeded Free Enterprise. Gotta break a few eggs, sometimes, ya know; gotta see the Bigger Picture! YAAAH-Hooo YAAAH-Hooo YAAAH-Hooo!!

It's a full court press. The Democrats keep wanting to compromise, when that's an impossibility. They're dealing with sociopathic predators who only know and respect power, and for whom winning is everything. Whenever Democrats respond in kind, the Rethugs whine and scream: Class Warfare! Muslim Islam Mormon Catholic UN Black Helicopter Socialist Dirty George Soros Hippie One World Gov'mint!!!


Crazy Lady Says Only Hoping For The Apocalypse Will Save America From Porn, And Muslims

The higher the unemployment rate, the more the Rethugs can lie to the country through the huge megaphone of Little Rupert's NewCorp ... that it's all the fault of that Bad Illegitimate Socialist Kenyan Nigra Up The White House what thinks he Prestident. They'll repeat it over, and over and over and over.

And just to show you what kind of Edge-Of-The-Volcano? Let's Dance! times we live in, there's a misbegotten freakshow rumor making the rounds inside the Beltway -- the only part of America that matters, you see -- that retired ex-Senator Mutant Zombie Republican DINO Evan Bayh might try to run as a third-party / primary challenger to Obama... because he's a 'centrist', and someone who can rise above the partisan fray, and lead America back to its Destiny, and that's So Just What We Need Now. So there.

Right. Meanwhile, no one in a responsible position of authority does... anything.

---

All Hail The Medium Lobster

Because This You Must Know


He Loves Most Of You; The Rest -- Hoo Boy! You Got Big Problems.

Medium Lobster! There is no Lobster but He - the Living, The Self-subsisting, the Eternal. No slumber can seize Him Nor Sleep. His are all things In the heavens and on earth and under the oceans. Who is there that can intercede In His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth What (appeareth to All as) Before or After or Behind them. Nor shall they compass Aught of His knowledge Except as He willeth. His throne doth extend Over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth No fatigue in guarding and preserving them, For He is the Most High, The Supreme (in glory). He is Medium Lobster, the One and Only.
-- by Anonymous, at April 02, 2008 10:03 AM

I dreamed he was iridescent red an green an he had frickin' laser beams comin' outta his head. And he smelled like a fish tank.
-- by Laptop Battery, at August 08, 2011 4:12 AM

MEHR:I want to know what Laptop Battery was on at 4:12 in the friggin' morning when he extolled his Big Vision Of The Lobster.

Why? 'Cause I can -- therefore, I am. Wanting to know what's in the mind of commenters about The Medium Lobster is the new standard for an awareness of existence. It is, you'll agree, less obnoxious than fucking over billions of other humans to amass huge amounts of wealth, just to prove to yourself you exist. So just get used to it.

---

Thanksgiving

All Righty Then

Thanksgiving: I'm not in a particularly cheery mood today; however, it's virtually indistinguishable from how I appear on most days during the year.

But, there are a large number of people who are trying hard -- harder than I am, in fact -- to find a spark of humankindness and family warmth today, and I won't offer a syllable of criticism about that. We need all the humankindness we can get.


Obigatory Cute Small Animal Photo Of Junge Und Ente In Middle Of Blog Thing

---

John Neville (1925-2011)

The Age Of Reason: Tuesday

Neville As Karl August Friedrich Hieronymous, Baron von Munchausen

The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson: It seems to me, sir, that you have rather a weak grasp of reality.

Baron von Munchausen: Your 'reality', sir, is lies and balderdash -- and I'm delighted to say I have no grasp of it, whatsoever!

--  Johnathan Pryce, John Neville, The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Dir: Terry Gillam

---

This Is Where It's At

Welcome To The New 1967


Police Officer, Davis, CA, Yesterday; Pepper-Spraying #Occupy Protestors In Face

Per Balloon Juice:

[Friday, November 18th] at Occupy Davis, a police officer approached a group of students sitting in a line peacefully on the ground, walked up and down the line and pepper-sprayed them directly in the face—as one would spray pesticide on weeds. What you’ll see in this video is such a callous display of police brutality, I don’t know how this police officer is going to go home and look at himself in the mirror.

As the students cry “Shame on you!” the police arrest a few students; but as the crowd circles them—non-threateningly, but insistent — the police begin to retreat. Then, amazingly, the students ... offer the retreating police a moment of peace:

“We are willing to give you a brief moment of peace so that you may take your weapons and your friends and go. Please do not return.”

And the police do.

It's this simple:

It appears the government of the United States effectively supports the interests of large financial institutions, and of a small percentage of the wealthy as opposed to the majority of the nation's population.

Their answer to the financial crisis is deficit reduction, at the expense of job creation -- which can only end in the curtailment or elimination of the New Deal's compact between America's citizens and government. It would also mean the enforced impoverishment of a majority of The People; while that tiny, wealthy percentage of the population is protected and supported.

The #Occupy movement (and it is one) is in the streets to raise the level of debate on these topics beyond the inbred apathy. They are being ridiculed, demonized, and referred to as dirty hippies, animals, even by the so-called "responsible" media.

And it's been reported that there appears to be an effort on the part of the DHS, and the FBI, to coordinate the activities of police agencies in New York, Oakland, and elsewhere in observing and removing the Occupy encampments -- and that in itself says the movement is being taken seriously. For Government, for either political party, having The People out in the streets is... very inconvenient.

However, they are out there. Nothing more than Business As Usual! seems to be on the minds of the Obama administration, the DNC, or any other part of the Mainstream Left in America, while the Right speaks for itself: Fuck The People.

So, #Occupy is the only political movement directly focused on real issues -- and that's the simple truth. Everything else seems to be pandering, or eyewash; sound bites and posturing. Only direct action on the part of The People seems to be the answer to Business As Usual, since no one else will present one.

And for the Right in America, which could care less about The People, direct action is the only language they understand. Unfortunately, their only response is to up the ante -- to counter nonviolent protest with violent reaction... such as the picture at the top of this post. Law enforcement has become increasingly militarized and even inside commentators agree.

There are a few bright lights in an otherwise dismal landscape: Look at Wisconsin, where voters have found their voice; radical Republicans in the state legislature have been recalled, and 58% of polled voters (including Republicans) want Governor Scott Walker recalled as well. Look at the beginnings of Elizabeth Warren's campaign; no punches pulled.

And, there's #Occupy. At a bare minimum, people watching on the sidelines have to admit that they're willing to endure physical hardship and public opprobrium, even pepper-spraying and arrest, to make a serious point. They're willing to get involved.

What are you doing? Or, don't you think the situation is serious enough?

---

MEHR: The Los Angeles Times:

The chancellor of U.C. Davis announced Saturday that she will form a task force to investigate the pepper-spraying of Occupy Davis protesters by campus police this week.

An officer’s spraying of the sitting students, who had locked arms, Friday afternoon in an attempt to clear the last of an Occupy encampment was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube and other social media sites.

...might have something to do with this:

The Faculty Association at the University of California, Davis, is calling for the resignation of chancellor Linda Katehi after a YouTube video surfaced showing police pepper spraying passive Occupy Wall Street protesters.

“The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership,” the Davis Faculty Association wrote in a blog post on Saturday.

---

We Got Nothin'

U.S. National Debt At $15,000,000,000,000


(Illustration © David Dees; See Note Below)

The National Debt Of The United States Of America officially passed the Fifteen Trillion Dollar mark today. Apportioned strictly on the basis of population, that's $48,000 for each man, woman and child in the nation.

Over 40% of it ($6.5 Trillion) was created during the reign of the Weak, Vainglorious, Peevish Dullard, Little Wee Georgie Bush ("The Decider!" "Bigger Than His Daddy"!). Thanks so much, Lil' Boots! Hope you're safe and warm, and have treats, and hired persons to serve you -- because you and others of your ilk are so superior; in every way.

As I'm so find of saying, as long as we have 400-channel on-demand porn and Lil' Rupert's Fox Entertainments; as long as there's Monday Night Football and cheap beer, and some people can barely keep making payments on their underwater homes... well, who gives a damn? Who will make an end and a Change; who will revolt, with enough Bread and Circuses?

The #Occupy Oakland encampment at City Hall Plaza was removed two days ago; my Place Of Witless Labor™ is two blocks away, and directly across from Snow Park, where the remaining Occupy (how do you refer to people protesting in your place?) FellowHumans™. This morning, there were a number of Oakland PD cars -- marked and unmarked -- parked around the park.

In downtown San Francisco (where #Occupy has taken the area I'm assuming might be called South Justin Hermann Plaza, in front of the Federal Reserve Building on Market St. and the Bank Of Aremica on the north corner of Market and Spear Sts.), I saw unmarked SFPD vehicles in the general vicinity at 6:00AM this morning when making it down to BART. At 5:00PM, traffic had been blocked at California and Drumm Streets by the City; there were more unmarked cars parked, and the California Street Cable Car line -- how I normally commute home -- had been shut down.

The Giant Lard Boy:

From Nashville. Headline. Staffer says she was urinated on from occupy protesters. No matter where you go here, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, they're urinating on people. What is it, is there a syndrome I missed?... Every day we're getting stories that these Occupy people are urinating on people.

All signs are that the City and County of San Francisco, and the City of Oakland for a second time, will follow what happened in New York and in Oakland two days ago. And as digby points out, it's important for the government and established power structure to reduce the New Bonus Marchers to the level of animals. In fact, it's essential.

The protesters are being accused of being criminals, rapists, drug users and more. It's calumny, but perhaps that's par for the course in our overheated culture. But apparently people also want to believe something totally bizarre and shocking about the Occupy protesters: that they are literally behaving like animals by having sex in public and living in bodily waste. It's so astonishing that I've come to believe that it truly represents a dark psychological need to dehumanize these people. And the purpose of such dehumanization is almost always to prepare people psychologically for the next step:

Psychologically, it is necessary to categorize one's enemy as sub-human in order to legitimize increased violence or justify the violation of basic human rights. Moral exclusion reduces restraints against harming or exploiting certain groups of people. In severe cases, dehumanization makes the violation of generally accepted norms of behavior regarding one's fellow man seem reasonable, or even necessary.**

There's no reason this has to devolve into violence. But it seems to me that some people are getting themselves prepared to mentally excuse it just in case.

** Susan Opotow, "Drawing the Line: Social Categorization, Moral Exclusion, and the Scope of Justice." In Cooperation, Conflict, and Justice(New York: Sage Publications, 1995).

Local news in San Francisco is reporting that traces of a potentially fatal canine virus have been found in the #Occupy SF encampment: Ooo, Ick; Dirty Hippies, spreading disease.

Who gives a damn? These people seem to -- more than most of us, because they're Out There. They are in the streets because they understand there is a worm at the heart of the rose, a structure of lies and manipulation which made this current crisis inevitable.

They're saying (among other things) that to claim American culture is the manifestation of Democracy, Liberty and Justice, when it's more apparent than ever that we live in a Rigged Game, It's Chinatown, Jake, is worse than hypocrisy. It approaches willful evil. They're willing to put up with discomfort and arrest and worse, in recognition of the cognitive dissonance that marks the culture we live in.

And perhaps we all had better be in the streets ourselves -- because the current financial situation here, and around the world, is poised to become worse. Sooner or later we may all be in the streets, whether we like it or not. And while that isn't a certainty, even if everyone may not know that, they can feel it. Neroism is in the air.

In art and politics, culture and commonplace belief, Europe in the last years of peace before August, 1914, was speeding towards... something. No one knew what it was, but people felt it, like a wind that picks up ahead of a thunderstorm: You can see a peculiar light, the darkened and clotted sky, and smell the dust and the ozone. Even the deaf and the blind can tell something is coming.

(NOTE: The illustration above is by David Dees, who does good work -- though his images are more for the David Ickes / antizionist crowd; and while I don't agree with the notion of Acturian Space Lizards and HAARP-induced earthquakes, and absolutely don't agree with the state of Israel being represented by a rattlesnake -- for this image, I'm an equal-art opportunity Dog.)

And, one other thing. I don't look at the character in Dees' illustration above with distaste, or make fun of someone who watches televised football.

One reason it's there is that I found myself looking at the image, and feeling suddenly protective. I didn't want anything bad to happen to this character -- because, Goddamn it, I want things to work out for all of us. I want no one harmed, no one to suffer, no one to be mocked or abused or taken advantage of. I want us all to be safe and happy. Everywhere. I want everyone to have a shot at redemption and everyone to matter.

I know how absurd that sounds; and it continues to be my abiding wish.

But I'm only a Dog, and no one listens to me.

---

MEHR: #OWS Twitterfeed Map is here.

The New York Times reports about, and the Guardian UK livestreams #Occupy Wall Street; clashes with police have been reported. I tend to follow events in the [non-Little Rupert] UK media -- it's in English, its coverage is more honest than domestic outlets, and it does report on multiple #Occupy sites across the United States and in Europe...

I recommend following the Guardian livestream / Twitter feed posted by the Guardian's on-scene reporter, Adam Gabbart. Additional video of OWS can be seen here.

---

And Sow The Ground With Salt

Jerry Sandusky Is A Fucking Monster


Sign Outside Penn State Stadium Before Last Week's Game (BAG News Notes)

We live in America, where reasonably free speech is permitted, and the comment above is my personal opinion. (Note: I had a much more bitter and nasty screed posted here, but have truncated it -- not for any other reason than Sandusky, Paterno, Cullen and others will either get what's coming to them, or not. My description of what I'd like to see happen -- something involving baseball bats -- I'll leave out. There's a cached version out there in the Intertubes if anyone really feels the need.)

We live in a nation of laws (I mean, laws for some; justice for some, and the protection of the System for others). And Little Jerry Sandusky's attorney says he is not guilty.

Between January 2008 and July 2009, Sandusky called Victim One 118 times, the report said...

"Jerry Sandusky admitted to my face, he admitted it," [The Mother Of Victim One] told the Patriot-News. "He admitted that he lathered up my son, they were naked and he bear-hugged him. If they would have done something about it in 1998 ... they dropped the ball."

The New York Times added,

Sandusky [replied to the mother]: “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.” The local district attorney is given material to consider prosecution. No prosecution is undertaken. The child welfare agency takes no action. And, according to prosecutors, the commander of the university’s campus police force tells his detective, Schreffler, to close the case. The case is closed after District Attorney Ray Gricar decides there will be no criminal charges...

McQueary reports what he saw to Paterno at Paterno’s home. In a recent statement, Paterno insisted McQueary did not tell him of the extent of the sexual assault that McQueary said he witnessed, only that McQueary had seen something inappropriate involving Sandusky and a child. “As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at the time, I referred the matter to university administrators,” Paterno said in the statement.

And, to a former Law Enforcement Dog, this part is really interesting:

April, 2005 -- Ray Gricar, the former district attorney who chose not to prosecute Sandusky in 1998, disappears. The circumstances are murky: his car is found abandoned, his laptop is recovered months later in a river without a hard drive and his body is never found.

An Assistant D.A. handles a lot of cases; who knows what he might have been working on? But to make someone do a Jimmy Hoffa, to have disappeared for almost eight years... that takes some professional wet work. Someone should pull the Gricar case out of the freezer and take another look.

It took a number of people enabling and protecting a monster for a decade and a half, to allow him to cripple at least eight lives. That we know about.

And the defense the enablers will use will be to say it was done to protect the Great University Of Penn State, and The Great Coach Paterno. They will all figuratively beat their chests and weep for the cameras and say -- as The Monster Himself did above -- they are so sorry sorry very sorry, and say they know nothing can make it better and no one will forgive them but they want the world to know they are so so sorry sorry sorry sorry. On advice of counsel. Please don't sue us and let us keep our jobs; we have kids of our own -- Essentially, the Little Rupert defense.

And there are apparently many, many people who will rise to the defense of the Great University and its Legendary Coach. Many were out in force last week, overturning cars and breaking windows, to show their displeasure in The Great Coach Paterno's firing. They're back in school, making jokes about kids "getting Sanduskied". I'm sure those bright stars feel The Great Coach has no involvement in enabling child rape for over fifteen years, and no reason he should personally apologize and take responsibility, for anything. Because he is, of course, The Legendary Coach.

I'd like to remind Jerry, and The Great Coach Paterno, and others, that police agencies tend to take the rape and sexual abuse of children in a serious and special way.

And this time, given the extreme scrutiny of a case that played out over fifteen years -- and that one of the questions that will demand an answer is, How was this whoreson, this sociopathic predator, able to what he did for so long, given that there was evidence -- and that people knew? The people who protected him won't be able to buy so many people off, or play on their local sympathies towards the Great University. And, they can't make every detective who's working the case disappear.

But, they'll find that out. And we'll get to watch.

---

MEHR: Sports columnist Kelly Scarletta in The Bleacher Report weighed in after the rampage of Penn State students over Paterno's firing:

The Joe Paterno story to me is deeply personal. I never told anyone in my life until about an hour ago, when I told my wife before I wrote this article. The reason it's so, so personal to me is that I was molested when I was 11...

I simply held that within me for 33 years until tonight. It's a hard thing to talk about. Nothing I have ever done has left me feeling more precarious. It is a frightening thing.

The people who were victimized are a thousand times more delicate than you can possibly imagine. Every action you take in defense of Paterno is an action against them. How dare you? How DARE you show more sympathy for the man who, through his minimal action, covered it up than the victims?

Don't tell me that your "heart goes out to the victims." If it did you wouldn't be rioting in the streets of State College... Your heart goes out to the victims? Where is their vigil? Where is their demonstration?

These two positions are diametrically opposed. You either support "JoePa," the man who tacitly enabled these rapes to continue to occur, even if just by his lack of more than minimally required action, or you support the victims, the boys who were raped. There is simply no reasonable way to take both positions at the same time.

Any sympathy, any good will I had for Paterno went out the window when he released that deplorable statement, "I am grateful beyond words to all the coaches...who have been a part of this program."

Really Joe? All of them? Even Sandusky?

Sandusky is accused of raping children. Do you get that? At the very least, Paterno had an obligation to at least have some curiosity based on what he knew. Whether it was a legal obligation is semantics. He had a moral obligation as a grown man, a man in leadership and as a human being.

Did he deserve more than getting fired over the phone? I honestly couldn't care less. Did he meet the minimum legal requirement? Yes. Does that mean he didn't do anything wrong? No. It most certainly does not.

---

Noch Eimal, Der Schwein: Apparently, Sandusky -- with his attorney sitting next to him -- allowed himself to be interviewed by NBC sports commentator Bob Costas; the interview will air on Tuesday evening, November 15th, reported the Los Angeles Times:

[When] Costas pressed Sandusky in an interviewing airing tonight on NBC News' "Rock Center," Sandusky conceded: "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

The interview suggests that Sandusky plans to fight the charges contained in the 40-count indictment filed against him, alleging that he sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year-period. The charges have rocked the sports world, resulting in the sidelining or outright firing of several top officials at Penn State for allegedly covering up the crimes or not doing enough to protect children. Among them: the school president, and legendary football coach Joe Paterno...

Costas managed to nab a telephone interview with Sandusky. During the interview, Sandusky said he is not guilty.

"I say that I am innocent of those charges," Sandusky told Costas. When asked by Costas, "Are you a pedophile?" Sandusky responded, "No."

At one point, Costas asks him how such charges could have come about. "I could say that I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids, I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact," Sandusky said.

---

Und Noch Immer Mehr:There's also this post at Balloon Juice:

I’m sure these people are well intentioned, but this talk of moving forward and healing is premature, insensitive and unjust to the victims. There is no forward movement or closure to be had now or anytime in the near future. The story of child rape at Penn State has yet to be told in any degree of fullness, and justice for the victims will be long and painful process.

Today, as Jerry Sandusky is characterizing witnessed anal rape as “I have horsed around with kids”, we learn that the director of Second Mile, a licensed psychologist, had no curiosity when he was told that Sandusky’s actions with a boy in the showers at PSU made that witness “uncomfortable”. That man has resigned, but much more remains to be told about his former employer.

Almost 10 more victims have come forward in the last few days. As more victims look for justice, we will have months of discovery and years of lawsuits. We’re going to learn how two institutions took an eyewitness account of child rape, which is incredibly rare in child abuse cases, and used weasel words and willful ignorance to bury it. We’ll learn what sort of deal Joe Paterno made with Sandusky in 1998, what else the PSU football program covered up between then and now, and who else was abused while Second Mile looked the other way.

When it is over, the reputation of Penn State, its football program, and its finances, will have taken a tremendous hit. It may well be that the institution will be deeply damaged and may never achieve anything like its past glory. That’s OK, because any institution that systematically covers up child rape for more than a decade doesn’t deserve to “move on”.

The victims — not good hearted but ignorant students or alumni of PSU — will decide when and if the healing can begin. And all the prayer in the world will not give those victims justice. The courts will.

In the Sunday edition of The Daily Collegian, Penn State's college paper, there was a notice in boldface: “Saturday’s football game against Nebraska provided a return to normalcy for Penn State”.

There were also articles about a 'Vigil for the victims', ("The Penn State student body is still strong and doesn’t reflect the actions of what one man did and what two men didn’t do,” says one student), alongside articles on bomb threats and sexual abuse of a woman, and photos of students posing beside the life-size bronze statue of The Great Legendary Hero Coach ("Fans gather outside the Paterno house to show their support after the first football game without Joe Paterno since 1949").

Here He Goes Again, Breaking That Law Of The Intertubes, but I feel like I'm reading the Sachsenhausen local newspaper from mid-May, 1945: "Extremely Unpleasant Things Come To Light At Local Konzentrationslager", with articles on how all the good christians of the town held a prayer service for victims ("How were we to know?" asks local resident), and the Bürgermeister proclaims that the healing has begun for their little town. For the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of murdered and survivors -- well, not so much.

What in God's name was wrong with Penn State and its entire local community? What is still wrong with it now?

---