h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>..interplay is extremely inspiring.. the product of this group. <<

Yup.
And there-in lies some hope.
For with affirmation, each voice gets stronger, clearer.

So, whenever everyone feels ready for it, we should consolidate the best thoughts, the best postings of this thread into another Forum. The rest of the h2g2 community should be made aware of what is being said here. Right now it's just us chickens here and we're preaching to the choir. But everyone is in fine voice and ready to go public!

Shall we toss a coin to see who will start a thread in 'Ask the h2g2 Community' A148907 with a question like, "Is history repeating itself?" Then each of us can post a synopsis of the thoughts we've expressed here. The result should be a concise review of less than a page of (20) postings.

Waddya think, huh!

I believe there would be lots of interest from other researchers. The cruel imperialist arrogant superiority of America comes clearly into focus when the real history of the nation's politics and atrocities is revealed.


~jwf~

I'm in, but I think you ought to start it because you have a good way with introducing and summarizing things that will get things going, then me and rest can fill in the details. What do you think?

What a flatterer you are. You've said you know me. I think, dear Ana, your finding me under your skin is the least of things you'll sort. Your seal of approval on the pertinence (that follows my impudent or is imprudent impertinence), what can it mean? As for redemption, though I can't honestly admit I seek it - not being aware of an original stat of sin - don't we all seek it, even if it only be virtual? I'll see you in your dreams and in time.

Mr. Ref, the difference in meaning between compliment and complement is significant. It is enough to change the meaning of the post, in fact.

However, elegent and elegant, are, in parts of the world, and I'll mention Asia - in particular East Asia, often used interchangeably. No doubt, the Oxford English dictionary recognizes only the latter as legitimate.

That said, I admit to being guilty of lapses in spelling.

I think I am officially out of my league, I don't even know what ~jwf~ is talking about as for as boiling it down and expanding the conversation. However, I am onboard with Analiese in that it has been fun hearing what everyone has to say, although I am not nearly as noble as I wish. I'm just a white boy that fell through the cracks long enough to see the truth on my way to a suburban coma. I keep waiting for the Dept of Homeland Security to cart me off though, which will actually really irritate my wife.
By the way thank you for the links to all those governments, I think I'll get busy giving them positive feedback.

Thanks for the warning, Kyaa.

is it time to laugh or is it time to cry?

I don't know. Better check your Palm Pilot.

hunh?

I don't usually have my laughing or crying on a schedule but maybe you do.

sometimes, then, you do?

so ... what do you know about those toys (palm pilots, etc.)?

Newsflash:

Nelson Mandella has just been saying what we've all been thinking. That Bush is wrong, short sighted and greedy and that America is a cruel and arrogant world bully with a sorry record of murder and genocide that makes all their noble pretense so transparently hypocritical.

The world takes note when Mandella speaks. Now perhaps, with his leadership, a coalition of sanity can reasonably talk the evil empire out of its current murderous ambitions.

George the Second's own words, declaring that everyone is either 'with us, or against us', have mandated that all who disagree with US policy must be 'one of THEM'. Soon GBW will see just how many of 'them' there really are. 'Them' is the rest of the world minus only the moneyed interests in Isreal and the UK and a handful of smaller European and Asian countries whose leaders are dependent on US support (ie:'on the payroll').

At the risk of having the CIA target my cellphone with one their new flying assassin robots, I have to say I'm against any violence proposed to 'save the world for freedom'.

The Democrats had better get ready to start impeachment proceedings and have a strong replacement standing by. And he/she had better start listening to the rest of the planet's peoples and begin to give us a kinder gentler world. I see no other way to preserve democracy in the US and wrestle power from the priviledged 1% who seem to be calling the tune ever since George was crowned.

~jwf~

I am so proud of my namesake. He's always calling out some idiot world leader or another.
~jwf~ I wouldn't count on the Dems to help us here. They too a large extent helped hand the power to Bush to make this all happen. This time the war/peace question will be decided on the streets of America, so be sure and get out there when it happens.
And don't worry about the CIA, they can't even tell who's crossing the Canadian border, never mind figure out where you are. And they're a little too busy in Washington trying to avoid letting Tom Ridge siphon off any of their budget for his new department.

I heard the Air Force is demanding not one but three new state of the art and obscenely expensive and complicated fighter bombers to help them beat all those formidable Third World air forces they're up against.

They really don't seem to get it do they?

Or maybe its the people who don't get it. These guys are playing a brutally destructive video game with real life consequences costing more than the rest of the Federal budget, excluding Social Security, combined. And it's hardly necessary for gunning down terrorists.

I think it's the real Bush economic stimulus package we're seeing here and guess who's going to get stimulated, getting the mine shaft so to speak? The wealthy contractors are going to get the mine and the rest of the people are going to get the shaft.

No, Kyaa, I don't schedule my emotional outbursts. I know that's hard to believe but there it is.

Most people I know use their Palms to keep track of cell numbers and class schedules. If they lose the things, you have to explain the concept of a phonebook to them for 45 minutes.

Did you ever wonder where all those obsolete computer chips go? Well wonder no more. They're in Palms and other "appliances" getting new careers. Silicon never dies. It just gets reprogrammed.

"I think it's the real Bush economic stimulus package we're seeing here and guess who's going to get stimulated, getting the mine shaft so to speak? The wealthy contractors are going to get the mine and the rest of the people are going to get the shaft."





The U.S. makes itself depression proof, and practically recession proof, by constantly sinking billions into the market through military upgrades. It's a permanent state of Keynesian pump priming. Of course, it's ridiculous to think that there is any need for any of this super hi-tech crap (most of it doesn't even come close to performing at the promised level), but the American ruling/owner class demands a stable market for investments.

Boloney. We have not yet finished paying for the Vietnam War.

Mandela, way to go.

Silicon, the superabundent one, I love it most at the beach.

Ana, you can burst anywhere, anyhow, anywho, okay?

"Boloney. We have not yet finished paying for the Vietnam War."

What's this in reference to? Was it to my statement about Keynesian pump priming or something Analiese typed?

If pointed at me, then I think you may have misunderstood me. The whole point of Keynesian deficit spending isn't to pay anything off, but to incur debt to stimulate growth. This keeps the holders of equity chirping brightly about the economy, and keeps the creditor class delighted with the prospect of transferring all that swell, federally guaranteed, treasury issue (paid in full by the American taxpayer) into their bulging pockets. These guys don't care about paying anything off. As long as the taxpayer gets stuck with the bill, they're thrilled to see the Pentagon go on a constant spending spree. That's why The Bastion Of Democracy "needs" enough nukes to destroy the globe some 300 times over, why they "need" all the armed services to each have their own planes, helicopters, etc., and why we currently "need" to have super-dee-duper hi-tech airplane/missiles/lasers in the atmosphere ad nauseam.

The big boys can't stand to see massive market fluctuations from an unstable economy, and they just happen to be the folks who design these oh-so-prudent policies. They don't care who pays for it as long as it's not them.

The bit about keeping the creditor class happy might lead some folks to ponder why so many "fiscally conservative" Republican administrations run huge budget deficits (aw, go ahead, think about it!).

Yes sir, S A M I was directing the comment on repayment to you. The country is still at the verge of bankruptcy thanks to the oligarchs insistence, during the Vietnam War and every other adventure, that we could have guns and butter at the same time; they allowed the deficit to mount so that the widows and orphans will never be paid, but, as you've noted who cares for them anyway.

Thank you for the précis on Keynesian economics. It is not my aim to offend you; but, you do realize that Keynes has long been a dirty word to our own oligarchs, I hope? It is our own adored Milt Friedman that the handlers of GHWB II have long preferred. To them it is all about monetary (the supply of money, checking inflation, controlling the rate of interest, etc.) policy and not fiscal (spending public money) policy.

My comment on payments is founded on the absolute need for a large, ready and steady stream, an assured and substantial flow, of payments.

The plutocrats have long abandoned faith in a consumer society - though the barrage of advertising would have you believe otherwise - they opt instead for an investor society.

However, what the oligarchs hold will not even be worth the paper it's written on if there is no flow of repayment. At some point the investors are going to call their chits due (they can and do collapse governments and nation-states (_and the _entire populace within it); it was done in South America a very few years ago. Alternatively, they will withhold investment, as they are doing now; I'm sure you've noticed the terrific change in the value of the Euro. Perhaps you'll recall the almost overnight change in the value of the Yen from 350:1 to 110:1, again, just a few short years ago).

There are, always, reckonings and these affect every single person; you might recall reading about this - it only happened a few decades ago - how suicidal the oligarchs were obliged to be.

"Thank you for the précis on Keynesian economics. It is not my aim to offend you; but, you do realize that Keynes has long been a dirty word to our own oligarchs, I hope? It is our own adored Milt Friedman that the handlers of GHWB II have long preferred. To them it is all about monetary (the supply of money, checking inflation, controlling the rate of interest, etc.) policy and not fiscal (spending public money) policy."

I'm not offended, and think we may both be looking at the situation in the same manner. Yes, Keynes is a very dirty word to these very dirty folks, but that's why none of them would ever refer to Pentagon spending as such. Just because they don't like to admit it, it doesn't mean it isn't so, and so acknowledged behind closed doors. Like a lot of dirty words, "Keynes" is only dirty when said in public. It is also only dirty when the beneficiary is the public at large.

Look, you obviously have a handle on this, so you know that the class of folks who garner the goods from Pentagon spending are the same folks who garner the goods from the rest of the economy. The "Keynesian" aspect of that is to insure that the general economy has huge investments in R & D and huge investments in capital, with the unmentioned side benefit of huge transfers of money from the taxpayer into select private hands. If it wasn't for the massive Pentagon spending, I don't see that the economy could possibly operate at the level it does year after year. As you've said, the plutocrats have given up faith in the consumer class, which is why they use the Pentagon budget as a proxy. If you can't get individuals to spend (borrow) at the "appropriate" level, you force them to do so through the use of tax codes and (deficit) spending at the fed's behest. (Not one word of this is a defense of these policies, I hope you understand. I'm nearly retching as I write this)

Regarding Friedman, the Chicago School, and Neo-liberal policies, again, that's only for other folks (like human beings who are not the wealthiest 1% of the population). In other words, it's a nice cover for denying fair and equitable treatment to members of the general public because of "the need for sound economic policy", but it has nothing to do with how they want their personal economies managed. Like any other detail of "This American Life", there is the stated intent, and there is the real intent.