Fish or Cut Bait

On the floor of the U.S. Senate yesterday, "Senator" Jon Kyl said the following:

So I wrote him these choice words and sent them to him on his Senate website:

Senator Kyl,

Yesterday on the floor of the Senate, you claimed that unemployment and COBRA benefits are a disincentive to work.

You, sir, insulted me personally with those words. I demand an apology.

I moved to Michigan in 2007 for a good paying job. I have never been unemployed in my life. In 2009 I was laid off. I have been searching for work for more than a year. As you may be aware, assuming you can read and you care, the unemployment rate in Michigan in more than 15%. I live in the Detroit area, where the unemployment rate is closer to 50%. For every job there are more than five applicants.

I get $330 a week on unemployment. This is the most that a person on unemployment in Michigan can receive. Fortunately I live with someone who is willing to support me. How in the world could anyone live on $330 a week?? What kind of fool are you to assert otherwise? What have any of you people done to keep and build good jobs in this country?? You sit back while all the good jobs leave the US, then blame those left behind that they can't find work. How pathetic.

You Republicans are treading a thin line. Go right ahead with your plans and foolish talk. If you think the tea party people are upset, go ahead and mess with those on the very bottom. We can go no lower. How about if all of us unemployed losers show up at your office for a little conversation? Maybe then we can impress upon you just how foolish you are.

Or better yet, maybe us unemployed folks will visit your home state and work to see you unemployed.

You are a Senator in name only. As you may be aware, Senator means "old man" or elder, the assumption being that an older man is wise. You are a stupid old man. You will reap the whirlwind if you keep this up.

If this is where the Republicans want to go, there will be consequences. Enough is enough.

Kabuki Dance

Leave it to The Daily Show to once again produce the most cogent argument for regulation in the face of the Wall St. CEO onslaught. In this video Elizabeth Warren, chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee, argues forcefully that we are on the verge of losing the middle class in this country. As I have stated elsewhere on this blog, I contend that this effort has been purposeful - that the elites in this country have always benefited from the diminution of the middle class. This worldview has been extended throughout the rest of the world via the "global economy" meme that serves the same purpose elsewhere.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren
www.thedailyshow.com
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Shadow Elite

I found these two pieces that expand on Professor Wedel's ideas from her book, Shadow Elite:

Turning Down the Gas On The Stove

 Note: Professor Janine Wedel recently published a book Shadow Elite, wherein she discusses concerns regarding the overweening control of American power in the hands of an elite few. Those of you who have read this blog are aware of my parallel concerns. She published these three articles on Huffington Post:

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Shadow Elite': Do You Know Whose Agenda You're Being Sold?

For The Shadow Elite Failure Often Guarantees Future Rewards

Is the Government In Charge, Or Is It The Shadow Elite?

 

I wrote the following letter to her in response to the first article, which is her latest one.

Dear Professor Wedel,

While I have not read your book yet, I am quite familiar with many of the notions you have advanced recently on Huffington Post. I share your legitimate concerns about the quite obvious accumulation of power by a very small group of people in this country and elsewhere. My initial thoughts began to jell some years ago while working within the corporate world. The recent work of Kevin Phillips, particularly his excellent book, Wealth and Democracy, advances the premise that wealth in the United States has been closely held by the very rich since before the inception of the nation, and continues to this day. Phillips argues convincingly that this concentration of wealth in the hands of a few stands in tension to democracy here and elsewhere.

In a similar vein, I've written about the formal structures that I contend are the driving forces behind this - the publicly held, for profit corporation. You can read my series of articles on this subject here:

The Structures That Divide Us
The Mess of 2009
The Mess of 2009 Part 2
The Mess of 2009 Part 3

That said, I have a couple of comments I'd like you to consider:

1) "Flexians" - My gut reaction to this term is negative. First of all, it sounds akin to "Martian" or some other alien life form. I think the term is far to pejorative, and works toward an unnecessary demonization of these people. I understand the convenience of shorthand nicknames like this; however, I think it allows your otherwise great critique to be hijacked by more simple minds whose thinking becomes entirely too coalesced around the reductionism in the nickname.
2) Shadow Elite - I'm not sure if you've read all the comments on your post today (1/21) on Huffington Post, but here are a few that illustrate my second concern here:

Post 1
"From the look of this article the author seems afraid to label the root problem, The Rockefeller's and the Bilderberg group. I hope she doesn't think she has discovered something new, because this is old news."

Post 2
Nice to see someone finally waking up the public to the matrix around us.

I encourage people to look up and research:
Agenda 21
Bilderburg group
Trilateral Commission -- Thier goal is to destroy the US, political, economically and socially.
Council of Foriegn Relations
RAND corporation
Rothchilds
Rockerfellers
Bank of England
North American Union
NorthCOM
The Club of Rome
Committe of 300
Georgia Guidestones

Post 3
you've pretty much covered them all, bravo

Some sources for knowledge:

Bill Still: The money masters
Alex Jones
David Icke
Webster Tarpley
...and a host of others

a few good sites:
infowars.com
prisonplanet.com
consciousmedia network.com
davidicke.com
youtube.com (here you can search so many sources)
..the list goes on and on

The info is out there, intelligent, well documented and honest .
Most people will be shocked into cognitive dissonance

...but those who still have a few brain cells left not polluted by current media , entertainment and cultural obfuscation....will be enlightened

Post 4
Yup ... good data in these few threads.

Nothing happens by coincidence. There are those who will tell you not to look behind the curtain ... but time is getting late. Those voices who say there are no conspiracies have a stake is all.

... and yes, those who are new to this data will be shocked BUT they will also see WHY things have gone as they have these last many decades. Go ahead ... Look behind the curtain.

No one challenges these ideas on Huffington Post. Suddenly those of us who are attempting a rational examination of things have fallen through the rabbit hole into conspiracy hell. I spent some time this morning reading about the Georgia Stones, and their obvious connection with the New World Order....yikes!

Professor, I urge you to consider some alternate means of expressing what I consider very legitimate concerns. In my mind there are plenty of obvious, unambiguous, and overt examples of elites carrying out really evil schemes. I find no need to delve into other more nefarious and occult conspiracy notions. I think you should be aware of what you're tapping into, and try to do a better job differentiating yourself from those on the fringe who are rushing in to supposedly "complete" the "partial" picture you've painted, at least as far as they're concerned.

I believe there is a real danger in fanning these fires, a danger I wrestle with personally. If you conjure up this picture of this shadowy, very powerful group of people, who seem to have massive control over huge pieces of US and world culture, you run a huge risk. There are only a handful of responses to such a nebulous yet powerful threat.

One is a violent response on a scale large enough to bring such a behemoth to its knees. We have more than enough guns in this country in the hands of people who would love to use them. These folks are now showing up in numbers at the various "tea party" events, locked and loaded, and threatening to use their guns unless they get their way, say in the next election. The notion of a shadow elite feeds their irrational fears about a New World Order driven by some Evil Masonic/Illuminati cabal. As the comments above illustrate, for these folks, you haven't gone far enough.

A second response is powerlessness. The whole thing is way to big to deal with. Impotence can easily swing around into an extreme reaction in a time stress.

A third response, which I believe is your intent, is to begin some nonviolent, rational response to this inordinate accumulation of power by a few. I favor such an effort. Such a dialogue, however, must be held in a context that manages to resist both responses above.

I urge you to reconsider some of your rhetoric. I fear you're unwittingly pouring gasoline onto the wrong fires. I would like to propose the development of some forum where we can begin to actively discuss just how we can wrest this real power from these folks.