Plan Ahead

Plan ahead: April Fool tomorrow!

Hey Richie !

<<   Policeman growls:   >>

Mr Rich Man
cut my income:
I'll kick yo' ass
fo' family!

Mr Rich Man
touch his doughnut:
- he'll whack you
cause it's fun!

Heads I Win -- Tails You Lose

People slowly get wiser -- we're being fleeced. The wealthy & powerful grab "hard earned" profits for lavish lifestyles, yet hen their speculation fails -- the public is forced to pay. We pay for their mistakes.

Big bankers & industrialists have now squeezed national bailouts and huge repeated subsidies from the public purse. But if they rob & cheat us, and cannot pay, they should be convicted, stripped of all assets, and brought to justice. On public trial we'd see how vulgar & shameless they are...

The nuclear energy lobby continues to claim competitive costing as they suck out profits. But if operations fail to go perfectly, they'll leave us to organize cleanup, pay for decommissioning, and shoulder damages. Fukushima's fallout is generating huge costs in many industries. The nation's reputation suffers; refugee numbers swell; property values have collapsed. Others devastated by the tsunami are neglected while in great need. Don't get fooled again!

The Libyans !

Americans were warned by Reagan to "Beware the Libyans" !!
(why their ill will? ...unmentioned...) Supposed bloodthirsty Libyan terror teams were exposed in a 1985 popular film.

Back to the Future Now -- Obama's military connives with friendly colonial powers, destroying Libya's government facilities & forces.


  Now is The Future!

Keeping Power

Ungrateful masses attack their government for assorted reasons. Recent popular unrest in various parts of the world also highlights assorted methods used by governments to maintain their hold ("iron grip") on power.

The following is a partial, growing & unranked list of government methods to keep power.

This list can be useful for oppressed people seeking to promote popular change. (Agents of scummy governments: we are deciphering your tricks... please read no further).

-- intelligence services (Mukhabarat) provide early warning about dissent & dissidents

-- cultivate individual self-censorship through fear of recrimination and reprisal (arrest, torture, murder, etc.)

-- significant & well-publicized brutality generates fear & self-censorship

-- reshuffle top ministers or key personnel

-- pledge to hold free elections within 18 months

-- promise not to seek reelection

-- pass power to "A New Generation" (child of the leader)

-- institute public order laws with draconian fines & imprisonment

-- monitor & control the press; limit access of foreign press corps

-- treat internet & telephone network access as a privilege, to be turned-off when threatening

-- do as little as possible to promise justice for past misdeeds; cultivate the aura that government operates with impunity and can do anything

-- discuss amending the constitution

-- stall for time by creating diversion

-- stall for time by creating committees to study assorted problems; maintain control of committee composition, schedule, agenda, and reporting

-- blame foreign or minority elements for troubles

-- condemn individual enemies for use of drugs, or sexual or economic crimes

-- coopt opponents via government employment

-- encourage opponents toward foreign exile

-- equate criticism with dissent & disloyalty

-- watch the watchers: police, intel, military, political colleagues

-- express shock when opponents are murdered, dismembered, etc.

-- lease land to imperial power for airfield, naval port or military base (though this increases possibilities of foreign intervention)

-- allow the development of tame 'opposition' groups, fracturing opposition energies

-- blame revolutionary groups, 'armed gangs' or paramilitary forces beyond government control for disruption or outrageous attacks on opposition

-- promise investigation of abuses, but require substantial proofs & evidence

-- ally with organized criminal groups

-- share crumbs of corruption, coopting key people

-- make defamation and treason major crimes

-- utilize harassment, interrogation & detention without charge for social control

-- tightly control the judiciary; delay trials indefinitely

--

Schmuck Revolution ?!

"People Power" changed government in the Philippines

Ukrainians had an "Orange Revolution"

"The Sidi Bouzid Revolt" led to Tunisia's government collapsing - President Ben Ali & family escaped hurriedly to Saudi Arabia...

Civil resistance by the Egyptian people also promised change. But the "25th January Revolution" (ثورة ٢٥ يناير) thus far has been a Schmuck Revolution.

President Mubarak was allowed to resign from office and withdraw with family to the luxuries of Sharm el-Sheikh. He's now reportedly too ill to answer for his government's ongoing violence, murder, torture & corruption.

Most who marched & risked their lives for change know:
- momentum is lost
- the worst scum escaped justice
- media is unreliable
- reform is now a controlled drip
- bureaucratic tyranny continues
- Spy Chief Omar Suleiman is unhealthy for Egypt

Some believe:
- Egypt has a whore government under foreign control

Some Egyptians of course are in denial.



----------------
The term "Schmuck Revolution" can be applied to the handover of political power from USA President George W. Bush to Barack Obama in the midst of national bailout for banks, manufacturers and financial brokerages. The system was on the verge of collapse, yet those big businesses and their executives were funneled public funds and allowed to continue operations. People indebted to the banks (the great majority of the American people) were forced to prop-up the capitalist system and the financier executives.

Hail the Groundhog

Groundhog Day is every 2nd Feb
but each summer, Punxsutawney Pennsylvania (USA) holds a Groundhog Festival. It ain't what it used to be, when they chomped them hogs...



news article above (link)

Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
http://www.groundhog.org

Punxsutawney Groundhog Festival
http://www.groundhogfestival.com

Bushed

George W. Bush & his colleagues piously waged war in Iraq and Afghanistan "to help" local people. Those people still need help - many are homeless, whole neighborhoods often lack power and water. Many in those nations are injured, ill, or cannot read.

Too few Bush buddies volunteer to help.

Those scum slyly "volunteered" the rest of us. They themselves enjoy luxury -- feasting on sacrifice & slaughter.

Kill 'Em ! ...ain't ok

Our most recent 'Coalition of the Willing' now crusades in Libya, raining fire from the sky in the form of Tomohawk missiles and other instruments of death.

We're deputized to protect civilians, but sadly kill some...

Our technology targets the Libyan military from far away -- killing them regardless if they're now making war.

These young people are perhaps conscripts. They are part of local communities; their deaths will be mourned & perhaps avenged. If we imagine all those foreign military people are fair targets, surely we should recognize our own military people become more threatened.

Our great political leadership destroys retreating units who've never seen action. Those rules of engagement consign our own soldiers to greater threat of death; brutality is forced on everyone. War is ugly, whoever it's aimed at.