UK Rejects Weasels

The UK election results are still not wholly reported, but one clear result: the Liberal Democrats were crushed.

This is the party whose weasel leadership joined in coalition with the Conservatives to rule the UK since 2010. The Liberal Democrats broke their promises to voters, to youth and the future, and have been justly routed & reamed.

People expect little from the Conservative Party. But the Lib Dems were a voice of reason before their sellout. Nick Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister for five years, and got to hobnob with fancy folk, but he sold-out his people. Clegg promised repeatedly to abolish university fees - but instead jacked-up fees horrifically (after he & his generation paid little or nothing). Lib Dems vows of "Fairness" were hypocrisy & deceit.

Clegg, his opportunist colleagues, and The Right Honourable Lord Ashdown now bear finery and flattery as rejected losers - wannabe lackeys outmaneuvered by the English ruling class.

Children's Day?

Japan & Korea celebrated Children's Day on 5th May.

Dedicating a national holiday to children is nice, but children's lives are often tough though surrounded by plenty.

Both Korea and Japan are highly competitive, and from infancy most kids are pushed to fight for advantage and grades. Children are forced to memorize large amounts of useless data, seeking to show one is slightly better than others. You compete with your peers instead of playing with them.

In Japan, the keyword is 偏差値, hensachi or deviation-value.

Koreans focus on 스펙, spec, or personal specifications.

It's a grim kind of hell from a kid's perspective.

Children's Day, central Seoul, demonstrating against excessive study & competition

USA Freedom Act

The hobbled American government is now debating The USA Freedom Act.

The new legislation supposedly will roll-back surveillance and limit use of dirty tricks against American citizens.

Why are we forced to legislate freedom?
Because some American elected officials & government employees subverted the Constitution and undermined our daily lives, creating a dangerously sloppy surveillance system infiltrated by assorted enemies, domestic & foreign.

Unacceptable.

Schoolteaching Sweden

Monday this week the OECD published a report (link) about systematic decline in Sweden's schools. Findings strongly suggest the teaching profession in Sweden needs uplifting.

The report was requested by Sweden's previous right-wing coalition government, who supervised eight years of profiteering while education declined. More schools became autonomously incorporated but teachers became more like production workers.
 
OECD Director for Education & Skills Andreas Schleicher highlights "Only five percent of teachers think what they do everyday is respected by society."  Surely that's a problem!
For more see Sweden's 2013 Teaching & Learning International Survey summary (here); or the full TALIS report (link).

Sweden's educational troubles are no surprise. Increasing numbers of teachers work outside the public sector, in publicly-funded corporate schools. Such "schools" may not be clearly labeled as private businesses though staff are corporate employees, typically subverted as quickly-replaceable units to fuel profit-driven corporate success.  

Sweden's school sector has suckled a class of politically well-connected corporate swine instead of cultivating efficiency and innovation. Fat venture capital parasites feast on underpaid labor, minimally invest in professional development, and cut support services & 'non-essential' dimensions such as the school library or student counseling. Students, parents and society are ill-equipped to fully analyze these firms, and there've been tragic cases of full corporate collapse (such as the 2013 JB Education bankruptcy - owned by Danish venture capital firm Axcel - that directly injured 10,000 students in 20+ schools).

Belief in Brutality?

Does anyone believe it's healthy to be Black in America?

U.S. polarization makes Justice trivial and senseless. People are afraid of each other, terrified by government, savaged by local law enforcement.

Big bosses live large; the rest of us fight for scraps. We're brutalized by frightened pigs hiding anxieties behind arrogance & bravado. The cops require respect for doing shit work, but they can never be paid enough.

Provoking each other:
(one nasty t-shirt earns a pepper spray facial & violent takedown):
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=83f_1430654444

Government's creative response? Beat on the People -- More.

Knowledge is Power

Yes -- Knowledge is Power.

That's why our political masters try to keep us in the dark.

In Western nations (before these ruler-jokers) the Church claimed to know better. Dey kept Power for themselves ... look for the gold of their palaces & retreats.

Thank MASA to help us know bettah:

Manning
Assange
Snowden
Anyone

Info for the Masses?

The European Parliament is debating if nutritional contents should be added to alcoholic drink labels.

All other mass-produced drinks and foods require such labeling... but not if alcoholic (1.2% or more by volume). Why the liquor exemption?  The big-business drinks lobby provides lots of political 'donations' to grease their perspective...

There seems no good reason to keep us in the dark about calories & additives, and many reasons we should know (such as rising obesity & dietary restrictions) what's inside the stuff we could consume.

Conditions are much worse in the USA, where even alcohol percentages are hidden.

Pretty packaging hides dangers. Knowledge is Power!

Anzac - The Rulers Know Best

This week is memorial to ANZAC, the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. Especially remembered are fighting & losses in 1915 at Gallipoli - Çanakkale Savaşı.

As with all wars, the losses and maiming are huge. Profiteers and scavengers (properly incorporated & politically connected) do very nicely. But most grunts simply suffer from WTF:
"What the Fuck Am I doing Here?"
Many go from pain to a box in the earth...

The following leads to a great song, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" as done by The Pogues. The described battle could as well be Vietnam or one of the hundreds of conflicts through history from Afghanistan to Zion. Before enlisting to struggle & sweat & sacrifice for Empire, herded to the killing grounds for Wall Street & The City, listen to war well-told from a peon perspective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY

Fast Track to TPeeP

Why's Government keeping trade concessions secret? Why can't the people know?

It's Piracy laddie! A corrupt insider scam.

From the scum who gave insider-bankers our national treasuries.

TPP and TTIP will swindle you from home & community.
(And ye cannot emigrate to jobs in China).
Shut it down!