Being Yoda

" In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
gathered on this beach of the tumid river"-Eliot

"Don't spoil the party, but here's the truth:We have squandered our planet's resources, including air and water, as though there were no tomorrow, so now there isn't going to be one."-Vonnegut, from "man without a country"


What passes for the Majority Party in our country has Caved, once again. Democrats, as the saying goes, have once again "Snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory". "Tax Cuts", for the Super Rich, will not be repealed...because they're "scared of the GOP adslaught ".

Let me hear no more about the Liberal Agenda...how the Socialists are Taking Over... how the Right is a Persecuted Minority.
The Sith have Won.

"Into Exile I will go"...Yoda.

The Jedi have been slain.

I expect the Right to gain both houses of Congress, in around 39 days.
They will then launch a Crusade...investigating Obama's Whitehouse for all manner of stupid, nonexistant inannities..."Shutting Down" the Gooberment, so nothing gets done...Social Security, Medicare, Va Checks all cease flowing...let alone "Welfare"...Unemployment....all of that will stop...and the effects will be to destroy what's left of the Economy.Crashing the Economy will further the Sith's ends...
They will blame "Liberals"....and the Herd will swallow it.
I will be interested to see which Right Wing Crazy person gains the Whitehouse, in 2 years...likely, I'm afraid. Buzz Windrip, anyone?
Then, it's Over.

Not that it really matters...it's over, anyway...what was still questionable was How we were able to Face the Demise of Western Civilisation....with Courage and Compassion, or with Fear and Hatred.
It will be the Latter....the Democratic Party has failed.
I reckon there's something to the Conspiracy Theory that they (Dems) were on the side of the Sith, all along.
At least the Movers and Shakers.
The Real Liberals are Silent and Ignored...folks like Grayson, who should be out in front, are relegated to the rear.
Harry Ried is a Wimp...and that's likely why he's in his position.
We have been sold down the river...a simulacrum of "Opposition" to the Predations of the Right.

I sincerely Hope that I am wrong.
Even Crazy.
It would be preferable to what's ahead if I'm right.
I am in no position to Expatriate...Internal Exile will have to suffice...

The only Good I forsee is that ,at least...and finally...the Right will come out of their Closet, show themselves for what they really are...there is a possibility that regular folks will wake up....I will not hold my breath.
In talking with people, listening, I sense that the Race is Run...the Surreality has wholly replaced Reality.
The Rumors that Gardening will soon be illegal are rampant, as are many other Rumors about a Corporate Takeover of even our ability to Hunker Down.
I have dismissed such stuff, in the past, because of who was promoting it....and who was being blamed...(one worlders, Socialists,etc)...
While Gardeners are worried about this unenforcable "threat", Monsatan is busy consolidating it's Monopoly on Seed...Invisibly, even though it's being done in Broad Frakking Daylight.
that will be the Way the World Ends...Bechtel, a "small business", will gain rights to Rain Water...Monsatan will controll the Gene Sequence of Food.
Et Cetera. Among the Laws that will matter are the new 14th Amendment, which will strip regular folks of any remaining Power, and Cement Corporations into their Rightful Place as the only "Citizens" that matter.
Intellectual Property will become a big concern...Corporations with patents on Pigs will demand Tribute from Farmers.
At some point, if it all hangs together long enough, even Air will be Commodified...call me Hysterical...go on...
Expect some "Problem" with the Internet...something that will provide an excuse...a Need..to control it...

What passes for "Liberal Media" will quietly go away...GE will fear for it's ad money...and maybe even it's License.
Papers Please will spread to every corner...Internal Passports, just like East Germany and the USSR. The irony will go unnoticed.
I expect Camps for Leeches...the unemployed, the poor, the sick, the homeless...
And New Wars...some excuse will have to be found...perhaps a Scud in a bucket...only this time, there will be no smoking gun, no inconsitencies...it'll all be plausible, to a fault.
Then we'll have Loyalty Oaths...are you sufficiently American?

The seeds of this Dystopian Hell World are to be found, right now, in the rhetoric of the Right.
What the more unhinged among them accuse the liberals of doing is what, in their own Dark hearts, they want to do.


We have two years. Maybe less...

Lovecraftian Crawling Chaos...Mindless Entity.
The Machine that I'm always on about.
It's calling the shots, now.

The Right consists, wholly, of Minions.
Even those at the Top are Slaves to the Ideology....they do what they do because it Makes Sense, to them, from Inside the Machine.
Rove Believes....as does Darth Cheney...in the Logic and Veracity of their Actions....as well as the Surreality that supports them.
There may be a few, at the Very Top, in those Mythical Walnut Panelled Rooms, who know and understand what the Goal is...what sick individuals they must be...
Boner of Orange,and all the rest of the "Leadership", as near as I can tell, truly believe that their "policies" are the right things to do.
The farther down the Heirarchy one goes, the more sincere the Belief...
This is why Objective Reality, as presented by those on the "Left", doesn't penetrate...it does not compute.
This is the reason nothing, no evidence, no historical performance of said Ideology, can shake the True Believers.

I have been Smiting Trolls for a long while now...for my own amusement, mostly.
Since 911, I have endeavored to understand the Right...from Neocons to Tea People, "Libertarians" to Dominionist Xians...
The arguments against their Prescriptions for our Civilisational Ills are, on the face of it, quite simple...one needs only to look at History, and if that's not Operable, apply Logic.
An example is the Real World Effects of Reaganomics...Objectively Disastrous.
(except for the alreadt rich)
When confronted with such arguments, the Right will apply a number of Tactics.
We'll use a hypothetical "argument" regarding Economics, for Illustration....capitalism/socialism,etc.

Troll asserts that Obama and the Socialists are trying to Destroy the Economy...and that we must "return" to "sane" policies...like those of Bush,and Reagan.
I counter that those "policies" are most to blame for the current economic malaise...the wealth inequality, the stagnation of wages, the very real plight of average Americans.
Troll looks condescendingly down his nose at the poor,deluded Liberal...if only I could understand.
Reagan won the cold War, Saved the Economy, Shrunk the evil Fegov...Bush saved us from Terrists,etc etc.
I counter that none of that is the actual Truth...and look! here's all manner of Evidence...USSR collapsed under it's own weight, with no small "help" from Carter's Afghan Strategy...Fedgov, and it's "deficit", grew enormously...and the economy, for real folks, sank into a pit of Outsourcing, Wage Stagnation, Limited Mobility.
this will, usually, go on, back and forth, for a while....if it's a Good Troll.
If it's not, if the Troll in question is less experienced, for instance, Ad Hominem will be trotted out.
"All you Soft Headded Liberals want is to have everyone hanging from the teat of the Nanny State...you are all Big Government Socialists, who would have us all be Slaves...your Liberal Hippy-Dippy Utopia is Foolish and dangerous...only us Adults should make descisions"etc etc.
Usually this is the end of it...especially if I deign to pick apart, point by point, Troll Speak.
I have learned that one must define every word...counter every minor sentance...
There are Unexamined Assumptions in every statement....Liberal=Socialist, all Liberals want Big Government, all libs are Weak/stupid/evil...etc
Reagan was the Best.
Any facts, or even mere assertions to the contrary are met with derision...but without facts to back them up.
Belief is what matters, not Objective Reality.
I have found it near impossible to win any converts to Reality, so deep is the Indoctrination.
Surreality is Preferred...if a door in the Mind can be opened, by some happy chance...say, that USA has Not always been Good and Just and Rightious (see CIA,History)...their World Collapses.
Such new information is immediately Ignored...it must be a Liberal Plot(Projection, again)...it,"obviously", didn't happen.
It is much the same as trying to argue the finer points of Theology with a Born Again Xian.
No criticism can be tolerated, no opposing world view, no disagreement.
It shall be their way, or the highway.
No Compromise.
Erich Fromm had a lot to say about this..."Escape from Freedom" is one of my favorite books, and should be required reading for all who would oppose the Corpo-Feudalist Hell World that is fast approaching.
How discouraging that Objective Reality is such a Hard Sell...
Behind, or over, it all is that "Violent Parasitical Elite"....If there's any group of folks that really knows the score, it's Them.
In the Pond of our Civilisation, they are the Algal Mat, floating at the surface, sucking up all the Oxygen, hogging the Sunlight...
The scary part is that they have convinced all us fish...and copepods,diatoms,crawdads,etc...that they are not only a part of our Pond's Environment, but Essential to it's continued "Health".

There is, of late, some small Hope that Dems will keep the Senate...maybe even the house...but that last is stretching it...
Beck is on the Hot Seat, due to falling ad revenue...but his ratings are sky-high....
Dem Candidates seem to be mounting an actual Campaigne...calling out the Extremist\m of their Opponents.
Even Obama seems to have abandoned any idea of "Bipartisanship"...and is, at long last, using more forceful language to counter the Right's Crazy.
If the dems do keep the House, Senate and the White house...it will only be a Temporary Reprieve.
The End of our global Civilisation is still at hand...Resource Depletion cannot be Undone....which leads to a No-Growth Environment, Economically...in a System wholly reliant on Perpetual Growth...we have squandered the 30+ years we had to reengineer our Works...and even if the Right suffers a , much deserved, Political Defeat, the Corporate control of "Our" Gooberment is not likely to be meaningfully addressed.
There will still be Collapse...no matter who is in office....and whomever is in office, Money will still be the Real Power.
Money is concentrated at the Top....with the "Violent Parasitical Elite"....who hide behind their Hedge Funds, Think Tanks and Multinationals.

Barring some new Outrage from the Right, I'm through with this topic.
I feel like I've said my piece....and it's too damned depressing.
I've already begun limiting my "News" intake...I watch Rachel, Kieth if there's nothing on, and read Alternet.Liberal and Local.
I intend to Vote...for the first time Straight Ticket, Dem...for what it's worth.
Beyond that, I consider myself in Exile....
I need no more convincing.
If I write, at all, I'll attempt to provide solutions...as in What I'm Trying To Do.
(like the Cast Iron Hand Pump that arrived the other day.)
If anyone needs Clarification, Elucidation or Souces...e-mail me, or leave a comment.
(wishful, as it feels, mostly, like I'm shouting down a well...)