Doing vs. Voting

Please do not take this as an endorsement for Trump, because I would never vote for him even if he was running against Pol Pot.

But am I the only one puzzled, and a bit miffed, at the Democrats who are trying to make the Dakota pipeline issue "their" issue?  I mean, to see the memes the liberal democrats are putting out, we need to elect Hillary at once, so that the Natives can have 110% sovereignty and no pipeline ever!

Yet, who is in office right now?  Reagan?  Nixon?  Bush?  Righty McConservabully?

No, I believe that Barack Obama is the President, and that he is a Democrat.  Nor am I believing for a second that Hillary is going to do anything about this issue when she gets in.

To my knowledge, I do not think she has even promised, too.

The usual level of American political discourse.
And quite accurate.

People, I hate to beat a dead horse, but this ably demonstrates - for the 7,483rd time - that our Presidents are but figureheads for powerful interests that care nothing for us.

We are given no meaningful choices for who will be President, the "choices" we are gave could not be reasonably expected to manage a used car dealership with any degree of competence or integrity, we don't even really get to vote for them at all, and to the extent we can make our voice heard, the Supreme Court can overturn the popular vote.

Then, when past all that, someone you want gets in - like, say, for example, Obama - then he can violate every promise he ever made and make his administration indistinguishable from the Cheney administration.  Gitmo not closed, torture still a thing, occupying more nations than ever, etc., etc.

Justice for the Sioux - or any one else - is thus not a Democrat issue, nor, before any get too excited, a Republican one.  There is, in fact, no justice or goodness to be had at the polls at all.  When you imagine that there is, and then make a big fuss about who should win, and who should be voted for, and then worse, rush out to the polls to "vote", you're not solving anything.

You are, in fact, making the problem worse, as you are tending to encourage the young, the uneducated and the naive that voting somehow matters, and that solutions are to be found not by hard work, but by a ballot box.

Spoiler Alert:  Problems are only solved by hard work.

And to be honest, it's work that does not always succeed in your lifetime.  Thus the wise person does good for goodness's sake, or for Christ, or for any number of noble reasons that they find within their soul.

But they do it knowing that it is good in itself, and not something that they are doing for their party to win or for their views to triumph.

I, for instance, run a sober living home.  And if I were doing it because I was hoping to end alcoholism and addiction, I would be a fool.  And if I were doing it to ram through a New Prohibition, I would be a bullying fool.

I do it for any one individual that can be aided.  And because that's how I do it, I need not worry about who is voted in or out, which law passes or does not, who is or is not on the Supreme Court, or any of the other fluff, bell and whistle distractions that is any government that ever existed.

The Sioux do need your aid.  As do those recovering from alcoholism.  As do many for many reasons, locally and globally.  And the energy you may be currently wasting in campaigning for Tweedledum or Tweedledumber could be better spent on actually doing something.

Like donating for blankets for the Sioux.  Instead of asking the government to, they not having a good reputation in the "blanket passing out" department.  Or aiding those trying to recover from addiction.  Instead of asking the government to take away free agency from everyone.  Or any other private action that will always do more than any campaigning.

And that will always be more moral than anything done by government force.

Two Fools

I know that I have no doubt saddened - or even angered - some of my conservative friends by repeated jabs at Donald Trump.  Such friends have had a hard time this year, as the jabs have hardly just come from me, but nearly everyone has been making fun of Trump.

Particularly, of course, Hillary and the Democrats/Liberals.

This article then is to cut the Republicans and Conservatives some slack by pointing out an obvious and overlooked home truth to Hillary and her supporters.

That truth is this:

Q.  What do you have when you argue with a fool?

A.  Two fools arguing.

And as God is my witness, Hillary is that second fool.  And a greater one than Trump.  Oh, yes.  A greater one then he.  Why?

Because she knows better. 

And to the Democrats who are all gleefully going about sarcastically and condescendingly asking, "Can you believe how stupid the Right is for supporting this buffoon?", I'd ask them, "Can you fathom how stupid it is to be proud of any victory she could have over him?"

Picture a basketball contest.  In theory, two teams of roughly equal competence are going to go head to head, and the best team will win.  And when it's two professional basketball teams, that's what happens.

Both sides can thus be proud.  The winners for beating a good and competent team.  And the losers for putting up a good fight, and making it a challenging and exciting contest.

What happens if your basketball team is just a bunch of clowns, not so much professional as just acrobatic and entertaining?  Like, for instance, the Harlem Globetrotters?

Hillary pulls Donald's pants down.  Hilarity ensues.

You want them to play, but you know there is no hope of them winning against a real NBA team.  You know, for them not being one themselves. 

That's when you come up with a made up team.  A pretend team.  Like the Washington Generals, the hapless team that for decades was paid to do nothing but lose to the Harlem Globetrotters. 

Only that way can your team of jokers and posers win.  Only that way can a group of guys with no real experience in competitive, professional sports can win. 

Now, if everyone knows that's what is going on, there is nothing wrong with it, and no shame in it for anyone.  The Globetrotters are just having fun, and the Generals are just aiding them in this.

But picture if someone above the age of 12 was actually thinking that the Globetrotters were some how all that and a bag of chips.  And that each victory was some stunning upset, some definitive proof of how superlatively great the Globetrotters were in the big boy world of professional basketball.

That would be pretty darn sad, wouldn't it?  Yeah.  It sure would be.  To take any kind of pride in beating a team paid to lose would be as sad as it could possibly get. 

And to laugh at those who support the Generals would be even sadder.  Oh, true, any who are actively rooting for the Generals would have some troubling issues in cognition.  But to be a fan of either team is stupid, and to even give the least cheer for either team is stupid.  And those cheering on the team that can't win against a real team doesn't get to look down upon those who are there solely to let the fake team win.

The only person who gets to laugh at either side is the person who doesn't root or cheer for either side, but either sits it out, or waves a sign saying "Go Lakers!" even if it's impossible for the Lakers to win when the two fake teams aren't allowing them on the court!

Now some will say, "But Mr. Amicable Anarchist, Hillary isn't fake, just Donald!"

No, that's just you proving how silly you are.  Were Hillary a real politician with real experience, and a real base of support, she would be going up against a real opponent.  Instead, the Powers That Be, well familiar with how little experience she has and how disliked she is, have whipped up out of nothing the only person in the nation less experienced and more detestable than her.

Donald Trump. 

And even given how easy he should be to beat, even given how he seems to be actively participating in letting himself be beat, you will note that the media tries to keep you constantly scared as to him winning, as they know - more than you do - just how hated and incompetent Hillary is.

Note how Donald seems in on this, and consistently does everything the opposite of what a politician trying to win would do.  Note how he espouses positions so far right that even die-hard conservatives are saying, "Dude, it's too much."  Note how his chief criticism of Hillary - is to keep repeating the same lie over and over, about how she has 30 years of political experience.  A funny insult to keep hitting her with, when the opposite is actually the case. 

Hillary's biggest weakness is her utter lack of real experience beyond a safe seat handed to her and a horse trading appointment gave to her.  A real opponent would have hit her over the head with that, instead Donald goes out of his way to pretend that she has somehow been building up three decades of experience in leadership!

Note also how the press keeps trying to sell us on the idea that Donald is some kind of crazy rogue who'll bring down the system, when in reality if the system were ever that fragile it would deserve to fall.  No, Donald saying that he might contest the election is not "unprecedented" or a violation of our democratic traditions.  Al Gore did that very thing back in 2000. 

No, he having the nuclear button doesn't mean he gets to blow us all up in four minutes - though note how that woman with "thirty years of experience" let that one slip out for the sake of scoring a tiny debate point.  In truth, the President does NOT have absolute say over launching the nukes, and anyone who was sworn in and tried to would find himself facing a mental health hearing and being relieved of his duties at once.

No, he doesn't get to unilaterally round up everyone and gas them or bus them back to Mexico.  No, he doesn't get to wave his tiny hand and have a wall built.  He's just one man, in this case a boogeyman, a strawman, created only to get you to vote for a political insider who has convinced the Powers That Be that it's "her turn". 

If you want to make a difference this year, you have only two sane choices. 

1.  Vote 3rd Party.  For any of them.  Yeah, it makes a difference, if 5% of the nation voted Green, don't you think for a second that whoever won wouldn't be immediately pandering to environmental issues at once to try to secure that five percent for the next election!

2.  Don't vote at all.  For any of them.  Yeah, it makes a difference, the larger percent that doesn't vote, the more the Powers That Be know we're not buying their game any more, and thus they will try to ramp up a bit of "care" for us to persuade us all to vote in the next election!

But whatever you do, do not vote for a buffoon or a poser.  Do not vote for no experience or less experience.  Do not vote for the Globetrotters or the Generals.

Do NOT vote for Donald or Hillary.

Stop Voting

Voting is a fraud designed to make you think you have some say in the system, when you do not.  This can be very easily seen when you stop and think about one crucial lack in the voting procedures.

And that is this:  A vote for who will represent you first - and falsely - assumes that you have decided to have someone represent you.  What if you had not?

The reason why both sides are so insistent on everyone voting is not for them genuinely caring about your opinion.  And it's certainly not for needing your insights.  It is for wishing - needing - to have as many of the ruled as possible expressing their belief that it is okay to be ruled.

When you vote for which master we'll have - and that is what "your" representative is, a master - you are first and foremost admitting that you find it needful to have a master.

And that's all they wanted from you.  They don't care whether you vote for Team A's Master or Team B's Master, since both are equally well bought and paid for by those who are really running things.  They don't even care if you want to vote for Team C or D's Master, as if those were to ever get really credible, they'd simply be co-opted, too.

It is said - by those who wish you to give your sanction to their system - that "If you don't vote, you can't complain."  Interesting.  And yet if you vote for the guy who wins, you can't complain, as you voted for him!  And if you vote for the guy who loses, you can't complain, as it would make you a poor loser!

The trick here is for them to set it up so that no matter what is done to you by your masters in DC that you feel it is somehow your fault, and thus you have no one to blame but yourself.

In reality, people get to complain any time they are put upon and abused, as they are now and have been for decades.  It was not on any of us to see through this fraud from childhood on and thus never have fallen into the "voting" trap.

If someone votes for "the lesser of two evils" they still get to complain, even if they would have been better off not doing that.  If someone votes for a third party candidate, thus aiding the Team A/Team B winner, they still get to complain, even though they should not have done that.

But the person who sees through the whole ruse, and refuses to agree to have a master in the first place, that person is the most justified in complaining of everyone.  They did not agree to have any representative/master speak or act for them, and yet one now is!

Some object to all of this, and say - like Winston Churchill did - that "Democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others!"

Well...no.  In some sense, it can seem that having "fresh faces" swapped in and out every few years can keep tyranny down in some ways.  But that falsely assumes that those "fresh faces" are actually the ones in power.

As it happens, they never are.  In all cases it is the bully boys, the bureaucracy and the backers remaining the same.  So the voting is only changing the middlemen in the transaction, and the voting then does more harm than good, as it paints a surface validity upon an otherwise corrupt system.

Because if the backers of the old administration are now the backers of the new administration, and the bully boys and bureaucrats are the same as under the last party, then what has changed except who speaks on TV?

Others object by claiming that by voting for different factions or flavors they can get marginally different policy results placed in.  This also is false, as all who voted for Barack Obama so that we could get out of the Middle East and stop torturing prisoners found out.

The backers of each party, the "powers that be" as it were, are going to go on with what they are doing no matter who you vote for.  The changes that you are thinking of, such as in welfare or warfare or pro this or anti this will only ever be upon inconsequential things at best, and on nothing at all more often.

If the ruling elite doesn't care whether you get an abortion or not, you'll probably find it legal to get one.  If they don't care what crap you spout on the internet, your free speech will remain intact.  They can afford to let stuff like that sway back and forth, letting the conservatives feel happy one cycle, the liberals the next, and back and forth, forever.

While they continue to rule and loot - forever.

Please bear in mind that nothing is going to actually change that.  Even a revolution would only replace one set of lying masters with another set.  As the American secession from Britain proved when we gave up George across the ocean for George "crushed the Whiskey Rebellion" Washington right here.

If one then feels the need to be able to truly complain, and to be able to say that they have NO part in a system that is irredeemably corrupt, then - like Henry David Thoreau - one must withdraw to the best of their ability from the farce of it all.

If that can be done by withdrawing tax support, that is best of all, obviously, but since most cannot, the simple act of "not voting" is a FAR more powerful weapon then you know.  Certainly you can tell that it is a weapon "they" fear.

They need you to vote so that the system can look like it is responsive to your needs.  The more that stop, the more concerned they get.  It let's them know that more are not falling for it.  Far from making them go further in their excesses, it typically is the only thing that ever slows them down.

They pause.  They take more polls.  They try to float out various "issues" to see if they can get a rise from us.  What did you imagine that whole tranny bathroom thing that came and went in one month was?

Their girl Hillary has let them know it's her turn to be President.  And they're up for it.  But they knew we would not be.  Thus they forced their Republican Party to accept the stupidest and meanest buffoon around.  One that would even be arrogant and dumb enough to think he has a real chance.

This is only to get us out of our Anarchic Armchairs and to the polls to validate the system.  By being able to tell ourselves that we're all united in doing a good thing in keeping Donald Trump from power.  (Or, and they'll take it either way, to get us to all vote for Trump in a vain and futile effort to "stick it to the Man".)

Truth is, it would make no difference to any of us whether Hillary, Donald, Gary Johnson, or a litter of kittens were in power.  We'd pay taxes and work for the elite all the same.  We'd send our kids to die in for-profit wars all the same.  We'd live, love, learn and laugh all the same.

Join then the truly free in thinking.  Join the group that has more right to complain than any other.  Join the group that while still as much a slave as you in body, at least has their mind free.

Join those who do not give their sanction to the system.  Join those who do not - in voting for Team A, Team B or Team C - grant that another has the right to speak for them or rule them.

Join the non-voters. 

Starting with "Nothing"

The problem with the 1% is that they are so far up, they cannot see down. For instance, there is hardly a one of them but does not think that they have "earned" their money, and so they think that instead of any of us complaining, we should do that too.

The problem with that is that while yes, many of them have worked, and yes, some have even worked "hard", that they are taking for granted some pretty important ingredients to success that have nothing to do with their "work".

They are correct in only one thing. A person who works hard is going to be better off than another person, who in the same situation, does not work hard.

They are wrong in forgetting that there are a great many situations out there, though.

If we were to take identical twins and place one in Somalia and one in the United States, none of us have much trouble realizing that one twin is going to do far better than the other, even with them both working just as hard.

And even within a given nation, if we took identical triplets, and one was raised in a poor trailer court, another in a middle class suburb and another in Donald Trump's childhood neighborhood, then those three - in spite of each working equally hard - are going to have very different results.

The 1% are thus people who born within 10 feet of the mountain top have climbed that 10 feet and are now looking at those of us half way down the mountain - or even in the valley - and yelling, "We climbed up on our own, so that proves that anyone can!"

And yet some of us have climbed a good deal more than ten feet, and are thus a bit peeved to hear that. I mean, gee, we're glad they climbed that ten feet, that's great, some of them don't climb or even drop back down, so that's all cool. But it's just ten feet.

And when many of us have had to climb 1,000 feet just to get to the level of where an evening with a bag of McDonald's and renting a movie are a "treat", we don't need to hear from the 1% about how it was their hard work that made them what they are!
 

Worse than that, though, is those who so far up in the clouds, have forgot there is even such a thing as a valley, and thus equate wherever they started as "the bottom". Such a blind one recently like the son of Donald Trump, Eric, who assured us that his father started out with virtually "nothing".

You know, because Donald "only" had four years of college and a million dollar loan from his father Fred.

In some ways, I can place myself in Eric's $500 shoes and "get it". Eric probably knows plenty who were gave a cushy job where they could draw a large salary for no real work, or just gave control in an up and running company, or were gave some seventy plus million dollar loan to play with! And there's then his poor dad who "only" got that college education and a million bucks!

Yet, in truth, I could only "get" where Eric was coming from if that was the case - and I'd still think he was a bit naive for not realizing that most don't count college (at Wharton!) and a million bucks as "nothing".

But funny thing, Donald Trump actually did have a cushy job at his dad's company while going to college, and it paid him enough to have $200,000 by the time he graduated in 1968. He then was gave control of his dad's up and running company.

And ten years later, when he claims he started to do it on his own? Oh, he got a million dollar loan from his dad all right, but what Eric forgot to mention was that his dad then arranged for him to get an additional SEVENTY million dollar loan from a bank that Fred had a relationship with.

So not only did Trump not start from "nothing" as we among the Top Ramen class would reckon it, he did not even start from "nothing" as the over-privileged would reckon it.

This isn't just a Republican thing, don't get me wrong. There's not a Presidential candidate out there that doesn't love to pretend that he was born in a log cabin that he (or she) built with their own hands!

The Clintons have long loved to pretend about their down home roots, as if all the poor folk in Arkansas are Rhodes Scholars. And Chelsea - well, we all are aware of just how valuable Chelsea is to a network wishing to curry favor with a Secretary of State.

Here's the thing that Donald and Eric and Hillary and Chelsea and all the other children and grandchildren of privilege need to stop doing. Stop claiming in any sense that they started with "nothing".

The kid who joins the military because there are no better options - he starts with nothing. The kid who goes to community college on loans and then can only get a McJob upon graduation - he starts with nothing. The kid who starts at the factory his dad works at, and it closes and moves to Mexico five years later - he starts with nothing.

(And heck, even those people aren't truly starting with "nothing" as some over in Somalia could tell us!)

So whether a guy is a billionaire, a millionaire, or "just" some upper-middle class doctor, dentist or lawyer, the whole "started from nothing" thing probably needs to be put away. Because it doesn't fly. And just annoys those who really are far closer to "nothing" then they were.

Standing or Sitting Alone is NOT a crime

Colin Kaepernick refused to stand and place his hand over his heart and show his allegiance to the playing of the National Anthem. For this he is feeling considerable heat, as those who do enjoy such displays are very angry at him.

Others have felt such heat in the past - including literal heat as a punishment for not giving a public display of fealty to a patriotic image.

In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 3, verses 1-7 we read:

1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

3 Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

4 Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,

5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:

6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

7 Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

In every age and nation, there are rituals of obedience to the ruler or ruling class. Be it Pope or People, Dictator or Democracy, President or Premier, King or Congress.

And there are some who - like Daniel and Colin Kaepernick - do not wish to give such fealty, obedience, worship, respect, or anything else you care to call it. Many knelt in the plains when they heard the music, but as the accompanying picture shows, three stood instead.

Some times it is a golden image of the current King. Sometimes a standard with SPQR (in the name of the Senate and People of Rome), often nowadays a flag. And while most in America stand when they hear the music of the Anthem, one - Colin - sat instead.

But in each case, it is not enough for us to see the image or flag, we are commanded by law or by custom, to show that outward sign of allegiance to the symbol, or suffer punishment from ostracism to prison to - in Bible times - that fiery furnace.

If others sit, we must sit. If they kneel we must kneel. And for Colin it is said, that when others stand - he MUST stand.

The outward signs are not relevant. Except that they must be shown. It could be standing up with your right arm stretched out in a Romish or Nazi salute. Or it could be ritualistically singing the praises of your King or your Country. It could be placing a hand over your heart, signifying that you do love Big Brother, or the Queen, or the Party or the Nation.

In all cases, those most in favor of it are those most insistent on it being mandatory. The fear is if some do not, then later still more may not. Soon, perhaps, none will. And where will that leave the few then laying in the dirt or trying to sing a two century old song?

Yet mandatory allegiance, mandatory worship, mandatory respect, are all oxymorons. There can be no allegiance, worship or respect where force or pressure is exerted to compel it.

Such things may only exist in an environment where it is possible to say "no" without suffering harmful consequences. Because where harmful consequences exist, how are we to know if the people are on their knees - or on their feet - out of true respect and homage, or fear of the mob or government?

So when we insult those who refuse to pledge allegiance to that which we feel they should, we're only confessing then that we do not think it is worth pledging to voluntarily. If we punish those who do not contort their bodies as we choose to or mouth the words that we enjoy, we prove our own lack of confidence in our ideals being voluntarily accepted.

Jehovah's Witnesses, a minor off-shoot faith of the 19th century American Restorationist movement won the right for everyone, quite some time ago, to NOT Pledge Allegiance to the Flag. The Supreme Court of the United States so ruled. The precedence stands.

It is in no way required to give allegiance, or to show a public display of submission or respect, to anyone or any thing except that which you choose.

Jehovah's Witnesses choose to reserve such for God. So do various others, usually of even less popular faiths. So do some few, not for religious reasons, but for not agreeing with various social, economic or political situations that they feel the nation they are in is not addressing appropriately.

At one point, many refused to stand or revere the anthem or flag while 58,000 teens were being sacrificed in a pointless undeclared war in Vietnam. They were vilified for that, yet history has shown them to have been correct.

Do not care then, at a football game of all things, if you see someone refuse to chant "Big Brother" or sing "God Save the Queen" or "Seig Heil" or place their hand over their heart. Give such allegiance and in such a matter as you care to, and be glad that none are stopping you.

Take that as enough, and don't force others to do as you do, for you'd sure not like them to force you to sit, or mock or jeer you for it.

Privatize the Public Schools

Privatize the public schools. At an average of $8,000 spent per pupil per year, those taxes could as easily pay each poor parent to hire a tutor for their kids!

The Goose and the Gander

Do you support the policy of the United States in drone bombing various "targets" around the world, even though we are not at war with those nations, nor have any trials been gave to those targeted?  Do you find movies like "Eye in Sky" a great portrayal of how so long as we wrestle with it a bit, it's okay to do what we got mad at the Japanese for doing in 1941?  

Here then for your review is a special treat.  I, your humble and amicable anarchist, have gone into the future, so I can bring back a news blurb from that time, and you can see if you find it to your taste. 

Here you go:

The Bruces.  Bringing the total drone bombed this year to 822.

5 AUG 2072 (Springfield, MwAD) - The latest in the ramped up series of drone bombings by the People's Republic of China killed four and injured five early this morning in Rochester, a poorer suburb of Springfield, the capitol of the Midwest Administrative District.  Beijing has released a statement saying that Tibetan Nationalist Choden Ho was discovered to be hiding in the suburban home only after months of intensive tracking of him.  "We take reports of collateral damage seriously, and regret the unfortunate loss of life.  Yet the assessment was made, at the highest levels, that this would be the only opportunity for bringing justice to the man most responsible for the Hong Kong Blinder Bomb last year."

The virus bomb was believed to be responsible for the deaths of 2,284 people in Hong Kong last May, and an additional 35,000 plus permanently disabled, in what is believed to be the largest single terrorist attack (using a virus) to date.  Significant parts of Hong Kong are yet quarantined, and 98% of the survivors of the deadly plague are blind and/or mentally impaired. 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson from the Arlington Capitol Zone released a statement saying, "We continue to deplore these unwarranted and unprovoked attacks upon our soil.  Since the Tehran Accords of '58, the United States as refrained from drone bombing any nation that we are not formally at war with.  It is high time that that the PRC signed that Accord."

Officials in Beijing have consistently maintained that they will never sign any accord or treaty that is in any way binding upon them when it comes to their national security.  That they "reserve the right to use any and all means to guard their interests at home and abroad".  

James Bruce, a robocar programmer, his wife Trisha Bruce, and their infant daughter Madison (six months old) were among those killed.  Several neighbors were also treated for minor injuries sustained from the blast damages done to their own unreinforced old-style homes.  Choden Ho was believed to have secured a position as a cook/gardener with the family.