Most Likely Kill You In The Morning

Few people stop to think just who conspiracy theories are really serving.  Those folks who do bother to think about conspiracy theories (CTs) at all generally come down on the side that whatever has been condemned as a CT is the thing the Powers That Cower (PTC) don't want you to believe.  In fact, most CTs are purposely planted forbidden fruit used to get most folks from looking at certain information, and those that do to be lost chasing their tails and doing the work of the PTC.

One great example is the "One World Currency" (OWC) theory.  This one has prophecy, religion, economics, and fear all rolled up in a tight little ball, and practically no one sees the obvious: we are being manipulated into hating the one thing that could save us.

Let's look at the elements first.  At the top of the list is 'currency'.  A currency is nothing more than some object, commodity or symbol-laden piece of paper to which everyone gives a value.  All a currency allows me to do is conduct business without barter.  In other words, I can make and sell shoes to the candlestick maker without having to take candles in exchange.  He can give me come currency that I can use to buy things I need, including some candles if necessary.  If the currency is accepted in foreign countries, then I have an international currency that expands my options to buy and sell things.

In this regard, the US dollar, gold and silver, and increasingly the renmimbi are global currencies.  Gold has been for thousands of years and is accepted by most people everywhere.  It's perfect as a currency: practically indestructible, doesn't corrode, weighs the same everywhere, and has a reasonably limited supply.  But it is heavy, and so paper currencies came into being, of which the US dollar is the all-time champion of magic paper.

Now you throw in some prophesy.  Let's see...how about the Revelation of St. John?  You tell everyone for a century or two that the "mark of the beast" means a one-world currency.  This immediately gets all the Bible thumpers on your side fighting the one-world currency.  None of them ever stop to think that gold has been a world currency for thousands of years. This gets so ingrained in the culture that even the not-so-religious start thinking one-world currency is bad.  It's not the only example, but it's a prime one.

Now, you're an international bankster.  You are completely useless to society.  You produce nothing and provide no real service that people really need.  All you do is find creative ways to insert yourself into the middle of every commercial transaction and take money for it.  Sweet gig if you can get it.

One of your biggest and oldest scams that has reaped millions in cash for doing nothing is foreign exchange, or 'forex'.  You've been at it for years.  You had all the Jews exchanging money for sacrifical animals at the Temple and taking a profit for no real product or service.  It was so bad that even Jesus lost his temper and started whipping the lot of you.

Now, does it serve your purposes to have a one-world currency, or as many different ones as possible?  If there's a single global currency (gold for instance), how would you collect your fees for exchanging money, when there is no need for exchange?  If this wasn't such a lucrative business, then why are there 75 exchange booths at the international gates of any airport?

To play the game, you first start spreading your 'custom' interpretation of the Bible prophesy to get everyone all on alert against one-world currencies.  Then you get central banks installed in as many countries as possible and start pulling gold out of circulation and replace it with magic paper.  You call gold "the yellow dog" and ridicule those who buy and/or horde it.  You beat down the price to make folks think it's pretty worthless as currency.

Finally, you start playing with the relative values of all the different currencies so that you are not only taking profits from exchanging currencies every time someone crosses a border, but you are using the differential exchange rates as a means of cashing in, as well.  Thus, you throw all your money into the euro and the relative price starts to climb.  When you hit your targe value, to turn it back into dollars (or whatever) and pocket the difference.

One-world currency is the last thing international bankers want, and they have played with our perceptions and beliefs for a century or more to ensure that you reject the one-world currency idea that would literally break their backs by ending one of their oldest and richest scams.

It's all a huge rip-off and the whole 'conspiracy theory' was manufactured to keep us sheep from looking at the truth.  After all, if the banksters could get us to actively fight against the one thing that coudl really harm them, then think of all the time and effort we would save them!

It's all kinda like the Dread Pirate Roberts scam in The Princess Bride:

Well, Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. So he took me to his cabin and told me his secret: "I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts," he said. "My name is Ryan. I inherited this ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from was not the real Dread Pirate Roberts, either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a king in Patagonia." Then he explained the name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley. So we sailed ashore, took on an entirely new crew and he stayed aboard for awhile as first mate, all the time calling me Roberts. Once the crew believed, he left the ship and I have been Roberts ever since. Except, now that we're together, I shall retire and hand the name over to someone else. Is everything clear to you?

And that's how the game is played.

Zombie Tools Unite!

Well, here we are: one year post-Mayan-zombie Apocalypse.  If you look around critically, you could almost believe it really happened.  The past year has been one of vast, profound and subtle shifts in the direction of history.

Global power has been shifting, sometimes like a sloth and others like a leopard, toward the East.  Increasingly, Russia and China are dictating the ways and means of the world political and economic stage.  In recent weeks, China took the lead in our celestial backyard, as it landed a rover on the Moon.

Meanwhile, the US/UK/EU axis of evil continues to live up to its name, having been revealed (yet again over the past 45 years) to be spying on everyone on the planet, including itself.  For some reason, everyone was shocked, or feigning such for the cameras.  It was hardly a surprise, as anyone who has been awake and reading the reams of laws passed in the last few decades would know this system was at work.  Looks like we've all been Snowdened.

Anyone who thinks they have privacy after posting their life histories, scads of photos and hot chats all over the social media deserves it.  It's akin to taking out a billboard on Times Square and then being shocked that anyone recognizes you walking down the street.  Remember back in the old days when people used screen names?

The Brits added another mouth to its royal tax burden, and then began protesting the tax rates there.  Bit o' news, mates.  You're subjects owned lock, stock and barrel.  Fork it over or get rid of the ridiculous pretention of a royal family.  You're paying for the trappings of empire, without the empire.

Global warming continues to be the world's biggest non-issue.  Those who created extravagant business models based on social guilt keep trying to milk it, with movies, TeeVee and Olympic ceremonies pushing a dead issue, while temps haven't risen in 16 years, polar ice caps are growing and deadly winters are becoming the norm.  Liberal agendas always seem to blow up in their faces.  Ever notice that.

Speaking of which...Obamacare.  Nuff said.

Liberals are the biggest hypocrites to be found.  They blather on about "diversity" as long as they don't have to live with xenotypes.  They beat their breasts over "equality", as long as their chosen groups are more equal.  They jet around the globe and ride in limos and own massive mansions while droning endlessly on about the "environment".  Basically, a liberal is anyone who wants you to change your lifestyle so they don't have to.

Oh, and that whole Kuumbaya rubbish about humanity coming from Africa so we can all feel downtrodden because most African nations are so corrupt and full of thieves that they continuously destroy themselves?  Modern genetics has proven beyond a doubt that it is false.  Looks like most of us came from Australia.  G'day, mate! Kind of a weird poetic beauty to that idea.  The Aboriginals I know are way more cool than most of the Africans of my acquaintance.  Take Obama, for instance...

At least conservatives are blatantly open about the prejudices, greed and hatred of all that isn't incorporated.  I can respect honesty, even when both the message and messenger are equally despicable.

The whole damn civilization is fraying and frazzled, and covered stem to stern with bubblegum and bailing wire.  Can't say I'm sad to see it go.  It's kind of like gangrenous flesh - you've got to carve it out before the healing can begin.  It's just a horribly slow and painful process at the scale of a planet.

You'd think after 6,000 years of starting governments and then living to regret the idea very much, humanity would have learned.  It is apparent that we are a masochistic species hell-bent on operating in our own worst interests come what may.

At any rate, Aquarius continues to dawn.  The year of the yin wood green horse is coming up.  The numerical value of the coming year is 7, which a lot of folks call lucky.  Maybe we'll get lucky and squeeze the big boil on the rump of the world and start the recovery for real.

In the immortal words of Shakespeare, "Jail all the bankers!"  Or was that Sven Joergensohn?  I get the two confused.

Adalah Malam Belum Krismis

Adalah malam belum Krismis, when all through the rumah
Not a creature was keributan, not even a tikus.
The kaos kaki were hung in the dapur with care,
In hopes that Santa soon would be there.

The anak were nestled all snug in their tampat tidur,
While visions of ketoprak danced in their kepala.
And mamma in her jilbab, and I in my topi,
Had just settled our otak for a long monsoon tidur-tidur ayam.

When out in the jungle there arose such a bising,
I melompat dari tampat tidur to see what was the matter.
Away to the jendela I flew bercahaya,
Tore open the daun jendela and threw up the sash.

The sinar bulan on the breast of the new-fallen rain
Gave kilauan of mid-day to barang dibawa.
When, what di mata keheranan should appear,
But a miniature perahu, and eight kijang kecil.

With a pengemudi pendek, so lively and quick,
Aku tau dengan segara it must be St Nick.
Lebih cepat dari eagles his coursers datang,
And he peluit dan sorak, and called them by name!

"Berlari! Penari! Berjingkrak dan Betina!
Bintang! Asmara! naik Guntur dan Kilat!
Pendakian beranda, pendakain dinding!
Pendakian, pendakian, pendakian semua!"

As daun kering that before the wild monsoon terbang,
Ketika ketemu rintangan, mount to the sky.
So up to menatapi the coursers menerbangkan,
With perahu penuh oleh main-main, and St Nicholas too.

Tiba-tiba, in a twinkling, I heard on the menatapi
The berjingkrak-jingkrak of each little hoof.
As I tarikan kapalaku, and was turning around,
Down the corong dia dating serta lambungan.

He was dressed all in batik, from his head to his foot,
And his baju adalah abu-abut dan sulang.
A berkas of main-main dia memikul di punggung,
And he looked like a penjaja, just opening his pack.

His mata-how they twinkled! his lesung how merry!
His pipi were like bunga, his hidung like a ceri!
His mulut menggelikan was drawn up like a bow,
And jengotnya dagu was as white as the snow.

Tunggul pipa dia mengepalkan dengan gigi,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a rangkaian bunga.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a mangkuk sele!

He was gemuk and plump, a right ria old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A kedip mata and a angguk kapala,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing ketakutan.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And mengisi kaos kaki, then turned dengan sentakan.
And laying his finger di pinggang hidung,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

Dia lompatan dalam perahu, pada timnya peluit,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,
"Selamat Hari Natal semua, dan pada semua malam baik!"

If Vice Be A Virtue

William Blake said quite rightly, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”

It is true that the most creative minds throughout history have often been quite "different".  Certainly, in our own age we have myriad examples of artists, musicians and performers who have lived lives of excess, yet left legacies of work that transcends time and place, even when the excess led to their untimely deaths.

Peter O'Toole did not only take the road of excess, he often took more than one lane.  He was well know on and off camera for his drinking and frolicking.  In fact, he was one of a class of British actors that included Richard Burton and Oliver Reed, who were as famous for their acting talents as their antics with bottle in one hand and script in the other.

Though no one can deny the gravitas of Burton, nor the aristocratic nature of Reed, there was a playfulness and Everyman appeal about O'Toole, perhaps his Irish soul.  His reputation, and his reported behavior, was not unlike the character he played in My Favorite Year, yet he could bring such depth and passion as Henry II, in The Lion in Winter.  Even in a production so horribly conceived and executed as Bob Guccioni's Caligula, O'Toole's Tiberius stands out as a singular rendition of the Roman emperor.

Only O'Toole could pull off both regal and mundane characters, and give emperors a human quality, while giving a thief a regal spirit in How to Steal a Million, nearly outshining Audrey Hepburn.  Whether he starred in massive epics like Lawrence of Arabia, or quiet tear-jerkers like Lucy, the camera gravitated to O'Toole.  His almost feminine features and blonde hair covered a soul that was pure child battling maturity.  Each of these facets he could isolate and bring to the fore to create three-dimensional characters that completely inhabited whatever space they were given.  He could fondle a meaningless set piece and it suddenly would be infused with some secret history that the audience could only guess at.

Though I regrettably never met O'Toole, I did get to see him in Pygmalion on Broadway in the 80s.  His Henry Higgins was positively whacked, which turned out to be influenced by heavy use of cocaine, but he turned even that into a character that was both haunting and disturbing...an entirely new read of the famous Shaw play that seems even more poignant as we enter the Age of Transhumanism.

Like most artists who create transcendent work, I don't think O'Toole ever set out to do it.  He was happy to make enough money to support his lavish lifestyle of self-indulgence.  In the process, though, he did what all great actors do: he hid most intimate self by placing parts of it on glorious display in his work.  We, the audience, though he had only created "characters", when in fact he was confessing to us.  In the process, we recognized that what was on the screen and stage was something truly unique, even if we didn't recognize the depth of it.

Since O'Toole's death, hardly untimely in the last week, some have argued that without his propensity for excess, the world might have received so much more.  I argue that without the vice, might we have received anything at all?  Can we separate Jimi Hendrix or Gerry Garcia from heroin, or Sir Arthur Conan Doye from 7% solution?    How about William Burroughs, Marilyn Monroe, or indeed, Richard Burton?  How much of their talent was released by, or stifled by excess?

If vice be a virtue for some, then who are we to say no?

For some, creativity comes from scarcity, but for others it comes through lavish excess.  I don't concern myself with what we might have gotten.  It is enough that we have a body of performances, such as O'Toole's, at all.  I'll take The Night of the Generals over Steven Spielburg's finest effort any day.  I don't care if the entire cast was sotted and mainlining, watching the chemistry between O'Toole, Sharif and Courtenay is magic.

Bartender!  Another round...

 

Got Yer Chang-e Hangin'

"Beijing, Iridium base here, the Jade Rabbit has landed!"

The Chinese are to be congratulated.  They have made the first soft landing on the Moon in nearly 40 years, and have now joined a very exclusive club of three nations to have done so (that we know of, at any rate).

At about 6:30 this morning Jakarta time, the Chang-e craft settled down in the Bay of Rainbows just northwest of the Sea of Rain.  If you're looking for it from down here, it's the right eye of the "man in the moon".  Interestingly, this is roughly the same area where in 1970, the Russians landed Luna 17 with Lunokhod (Moonwalker) 1, the first rover to successfully operate on another heavenly body.  The Chinese rover being named "Jade Rabbit" is also appropriate, since they have always seen a "rabbit in the moon", rather than the western "man".

This singular event may start a new age of exploration, led not by the US and USSR superpowers, but rather by new powers that have only emerged in the decades since the Great Space Race.  We can only hope that this new age will be one motivated by peaceful intentions and not military, though comments by certain leading Chinese in their space program belie an intent to seek the high ground of military advantage.

Like the exploration of the New World, led by the Italians and Portuguese, but colonized by the Spanish, French and English, the new age of space exploration may go into history books as being led by the US and USSR, but colonized by the Chinese, Indians and Iranians.  Much remains to be written on that account, though.

What the Chang-e may do in the near term is force the US hand in revealing much of their hidden space program, long speculated by researchers like Hoagland, Dolan and Farrell.  It will become increasingly difficult to hide things when disinterested third parties are poking around with HD cameras and rovers.  The Japanese could be controlled, but the Chinese, Indians, Iranians, and the new Russia less so.

For far too long, NASA has dominated the amount and content of information being disseminated from space exploration.  When unchallenged, this control gets out of hand, just like state secrets and surveillance.  Competition from up-and-coming space powers means that the monopoly is about to come to a crashing halt.

Will it mean that we the people will start getting more truth?  A bit, maybe.  More likely, secrets will be used in smoke-filled back rooms to bluff and cajole in trade and finance negotiations.  It does, however, create a lot more holes in the dike to plug, and leaks are more likely to occur when spread over a larger area of political landscape.

The sheer volume of information fed back to NASA by its probes ensures that there are many things we the people don't know.  NASA's unwillingness to share unadulterated information with the general public was unchallengeable when there were precious few alternative outlets.

Chang-e 3 and little Jade Rabbit have changed that, and more are likely to follow.  What happens when cultures whose creationism is seasoned by Hinduism and Buddhism, discover evidence of ancient high civilizations?  Will they be more likely to release that intel, because their religious and philosophical histories are not threatened by this knowledge, but are actually vindicated?

The US and USSR are, despite all outward appearances and marketing, fundamentally christian nations with certain beliefs and narratives flavoring their collective weltanschauungs.  China is fundamentally Taoist/Buddhist, which evolved out of the Indian Hindu traditions that plainly describe ancient high-tech civilizations.  Here we have a cultural underpinning of reincarnation and ancient advanced societies.  Does that forebode a greater likelihood of certain information coming out?  Time will tell, but their foundational beliefs would be less threatened then the Judeo-Christian narrative.

In any case, the Chang-e 3 and Jade Rabbit are game-changers.  Whatever is "up there" will now belong to a larger club, whose members are moving away from a strict Western, Judeo-Christian underpinning.  This subtle difference may not seem important in the greater scheme of things, but it predisposes the players to a much different view of the Universe and Man's place in it.  That bit of difference in philosophical predisposition makes for some interesting speculations on likely outcomes.

Meanwhile, in Rainbow Bay, just off the northwest corner of the Rain Sea, fresh tracks are being laid in a renewed Age of Space.  Where those tracks will lead is anyone's guess, but the foundation is laid for a very interesting future.

Tricks Of Light And Shadow

You've probably received an email at some time in your life showing a guy doing chalk drawings on the street that, from a certain perspective, look amazingly 3D.  His name is Kurt Wenner and he is currently exhibiting several of his works, along with some Indonesian artists, here at the Ciputra Artpreneur Center.

Preserved on canvas, these pieces lie flat on the floor or form a 90-degree angle with the wall.  When viewed through a wide-angle lens, ghostly three-dimensional images pop out of the canvas, appearing to rise out of the background or apear in front of it.  It's really quite amazing and something photos just don't quite capture.  Makes you wonder how Kurt views the world.

What the art works highlight is the weird world of perception.  How we view the world and what reality is comes down to a matter of perspective.

In the midst of all the excitement, an email pops in from my Canadian bud and long-time ex-pat.  It contained a quote that he found "out there":

“Given the fact that it has been proven that our moon is a very suspiciously perfectly placed artificial satellite that is composed of non-naturally occurring material without which we could not have life on this planet combined with the fact that our Earth is very suspiciously the only place within our solar system and very likely our galaxy that can support life there is absolutely no question in my mind that, at the very least, the entire surface of our planet and all of its life forms are in fact nothing more than elements of a very large and complex software system that is being used to run what I am completely convinced are military experiments by some non-humanoid entity.”

I shot back:

"This is just a take on the ancient concept that we create the Universe through our collective consciousness.  The Hindus and Buddhists place this idea at the center of their beliefs.  The idea of a holographic reality or software simulation is just modern terminology wrapping the same concepts."

Seems this week's theme is 'perception', since everywhere I turn there are hints about reality not being all that real and our minds creating Creation.  It's strange how Life keeps throwing theme weeks at us.  It's like Bogart week on the Million Dollar Movie or something.  Just more proof that we create our reality, or it's created for us on a regular basis.

Related to that, do people really have premonitions, or does the intensity with which they think something create the situation?  My father used to think of people he hadn't talked to in years and out of the blue they would call or contact him within 24 hours.  This was before the internet and you could track most people down fairly easy.  But you have to ask, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

As Wenner's work shows, perception is all a matter of perspective.  One step in any direction and the world we see changes quite radically.  For those who see beyond the 'trick' of light and shadow, the paintings represent a profound look at reality.  Suppose we all exist on a canvas that appears three-dimensional and solid, until you shift to the side just a bit.

Perhaps if we all mentally stepped to the side and looked at the world from a slightly different perspective, we might see something completely unexpected and remarkable.  Of course, it begs the question what would we do if we found out the Universe was just a construct of imagination?

Happy Friday!

Culture's Not For Yogurt Anymore

Another looong day in the world of "high art".

It is not easy building a world-class art and performance center, especially on the 11th, 12th and 13th floors of a city as densely packed as Jakarta, but I'm determined to do it because, damn it, creating and promoting beauty and harmony is the only way to beat the bastards.

I've gone on at length in this column about art and how it is like garlic to vampires when it comes to the PowersThatNeedTheirToastButtered (PTNTTB).  Educating and elevating humanity is/will be the key to winning the Culture Wars.

Pick a random film from the 50s and another from this past year.  Doesn't matter the genre or plot, and listen to the words.  Runing them again and watch the pictures.  Notice anything?  The portrayal of humanity is ever coursening.  People talk course, act course, think course.  Dress has gone downhill.  Manners have all but vanished.  And this is how the PTNTTB expects us to act because animals are much easier to train when they are broken.

They don't want us to have high culture and art.  They don't want us to elevate our minds and spirits.  They just want unthinking animals that can push buttons and pull levers.

How do Warhol, Lichtenstein and Pollock compare to Rembrandt, Titian or Monet?  How do Pearl Jam, Tin Idiots and Sex Pistols compare with Chopin, Handel or Mendelssohn?  They are really trying to kill us spiritually by continually rubbing our souls in filth and denying us the ability to rise above baseness.  They want to save god-like status for themselves while the rest of us happily serve their every whim (see Star Trek TOS: Plato's Stepchildren).

Speaking of art and Star Trek, have you noticed that it's kind of like the Bible?  You can find an episode to illustrate just about any point you care to make.

Where was I?  Oh, right...

It stands to reason that if the PTNTTB are so desperate to reduce humanity to little more than lap dogs, then the best/only way to fight back is to create beauty and educate ourselves.  Right here in Indonesia, the PTNTTB are so paranoid and afraid of folks getting smart and out of hand that last year they cancelled all art and history classes in the public schools so they could stuff more religion down everyone's throats.  And next year, since the public schools are determined to turn out idiots, then by golly all the private schools need to get rid of their language and computer classes so everyone is equally squalid and subservient.

Sad but true.

It's a real good sign of fascism when society (such as it is) is geared specifically to create one-trick ponies who are just smart enough to punch buttons, but could never challenge the folks in the board rooms.

Only problem is that whatever the rest of the world is becoming, so are the breeding products of the slimy PTNTTB.  The...children for lack of a better term...of those useless blood-sucking would-be masters are just as slimy, dreary and vacuous as their "parents".  More so.  Look at Paris Hilton.

We're on our own.  We have to read, to listen to fine music, to ponder philosophy, to appreciate good art, and to control to the greatest extent possible the quality of information that enters our souls.

Not only are the PTNTTB in terminal decline and soon unable to rescue even themselves, we are certainly not on their list of priorities.

If you are one of the few with the self-awareness to not only determine whether you have a mind and soul, but able to define and develop them, then run...don't walk...to the nearest gutenberg.org terminal and start packing your head with real, uplifting information.

You owe it to the future of the human race.

Thowing Sabot At Windmills

Lately, folks around these parts (west Java) have been aggitating to raise the regional minimum wage (Indonesia doesn't have a national minimum - yet) to $500 per month.  Folks are complaining that they can't afford to live on the current wages, much like hte McWorkers in Detroit and elsewhere in the States.  Of course, without a little deep thought, and perhaps a degree in economics, those same folks don't realize that they are the ones creating the problem in the first place.

You see, when you increase the minimum wage, then employers have to increase the cost of their products, which ultimately gets passed on to the consumer, and the consumer is who?  Why the folks bemaning the higher wages.  It's an endless circle jerk in which the protesters ultimately are screwing themselves and thinking that things will get better with a little more money in the pocket.  A 20% wage increase=20% higher prices=back where you started.

A similar problem is automation.  Folks just love all those machines doing the hard work, not thinking that they are celebrating their own demise.  A labor-saving device is a human replacement, so while you have dreams of sitting on the beach while your personal robot does the job, the reality is that you are unemployed and can't afford to go to the beach, while your machine is doing fine work at little cost to the 'employer' - no sick leave, no hangovers, no bad hair days, no raises, no health care, etc.

A number of nations are in the midst of immigration 'reform', being sold as the humane thing to do for all those poor folks streaming across the borders.  What no one seems to realize is that those folks are taking all the jobs at half the price and they could care less about rights and benefits, as long as the money comes in. It all started in World War 2. With all the men off to war, the factories filled up with women. Aided by captialists whose only care was the bottom line, feminist organizations latched onto women in the workplace. Thus, the workforce doubled in one fell swoop. With the returning soldiers competing with career women, salaries dropped over time. Then lax immigration laws and enforcement tripled the workforce and salaries/bargaining power got cut again. Rising minimum wages meant that prices kept going up roughly equal to the rise in base pay, so even though everyone had more zeros in the bank, the buying power was the same. Then came robots and humans could be replaced altogether, so that there was no bargaining power left. Oh sure, it all sounded so reasonable. Everyone thought they were at the top of the feed pile. They were all for automation and immigration, because as managers they could show the bosses increased productivity, lower costs and higher profits. In the meantime, the water kept rising. First, the hourly workers, then the line managers, then middle managers. Now it's hitting upper managers, so that the only ones left standing will be the executives who are part of the Good Old Boy club. But that won't last either. Sooner than later, all the wealth will be in 10 hands while the rest of the world wonders what the hell happened. We'll all be standing around watching the wonderous machines scurry back and forth without complain or holiday or flex time. But, there's the rub. You see, without jobs, we won't have money. Without money, there'll be no one to buy all the products made by machines. Eventually, every warehouse in the world will be full, stores will be shut and the planet will grind to a halt because the unbridled greed of a handful of people brought the economic world to its knees. The next revolution won't be against governments, but corporations - the entities that really run the world. Like the Dutch workers of the Industrial Revolution, folks will start throwing the modern equivalent of sabot (wooden shoes) into the machinery and a new word for sabotage will be born. It's inevitable. The Big Question is where will the capitalists run to this time. Before, they ran from Venice to Amsterdam, then London, and finally to New York. Now, there is only one place for them to run, and that's into orbit, which may explain all the companies vying to become space jockeys. In any event, we are replaying history once again. We let the financial genie out of the bottle once again, after having stuffed them back into the bottle so many times throughout the past several thousand years. One day, we the people will have to learn that greed and the interests of human beings are incompatible. With the advent of 3D printing, the last of the real, productive jobs are about to get deep-sixed. Soon we'll all be McWorkers in Detroit. Even the gee-whizz stories about 3D printing don't mention that without income, you can't buy the printers or the materials needed to operate them, and if you had that kind of money, who would you sell the products to - seeing as how all the rest of us are broke too? Solution? All the women quit work and go back to being housewives. It's not a disgrace, its a huge shot into the heart of the vulture capitalists. Citizen patrols of borders is another step. When government fails to do the job that it was constituted to do, then it falls to the people to take back the reins and git 'er done. Third, apply all labor laws as they stand today to all labor-replacing machines: forced shut-downs for two weeks a year, benefit equivalents, tax equivalents, etc. If the machines cost the same as real live people, then there's no benefit to replacing people. Finally, simply refuse to buy anything produced by major multi-national corporations. Buy local produce and dairy. Buy products from cottage industries. Support mom-and-pop outfits. None of this will ever happen. People are too lazy and greedy themselves, and too spoiled by instant gratification, to actually take their self-interests to the next level. When you're playing the game, though, you should at least know where the boundaries are. Changing the world ain't easy, but the alternative is even more painful and with far greater hazards. If you have to suffer, it's much better to control as many of the variables as you can. It makes the pain you suffer much more bearable. Am I anti-woman? No, but I think women run households much better than men. The point is to voluntarily cut the workforce in half, thus increasing our bargaining power overnight. Am I anti-immigration? Not at all. I'm an expat. But giving away the store by falling for the heart-string tugging stories about poor folks serves no one's interests. You lose your job and the other guy is exploited. Am I anti-business? Hell no! Just anti-destructive captialism. Those organizations that are destructive of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must be brought to heel, just as any individual would be. The key to utopia is education, and guess which part of life the vultures control the most?

The Rover of Destiny

History went through a major shift this last week.  No, none of the  various saviors showed up with angels in tow.  No, the ground didn't shake, unless you live in Texas next to fracking operations.  No, the skies didn't part and in fact comet ISON fizzled out.

There were, however, two major events that have changed global dynamics, though if you only watch main-line media (as in jacking heavy drugs), then the news was drowned out by B-movie stars dying and Obamacare hand-wringing.

The first Big Deal was China launching Chang-e 3.  In case you live under a rock, the Chang-e 3 is an orbiter/lander craft sent on its way to the Moon a couple of days ago.  By the time you read this, it should be entering a low orbit to begin a photo session with Diana (see Greek legend if that reference escapes you).  Later, around February, a rover will drop down to the surface and (likely) soft-land to do a little propecting for minerals and exotic isotopes that could fetch a pretty penny back here on terra firma.

Keep in mind that only the US and USSR has soft-landed on the Moon, and neither of them since the mid-70s.  In fact, you'd think the Moon had a "no trespassing' sign on it the way those two (former) nations have been avoiding it.  A landing will put China in a very exclusive club and the first new member in 40 years.

The other Big Deal is that the yuan passed up the euro on its way to becoming the new global currency.  I'm pretty happy about that, seeing as how I bought a truck-load of them years ago in anticipation of this moment.  What's really important though is that this is first natural (the euro is artificial) currency to challenge the US dollar.  It used to be the mark and franc were fairly desirable in their own right, but the euro tried to go head-to-head and died.  The yuan has risen up from the ranks to take the number 2 spot.

By the way, since you'll likely be doing business in yuan soon enough, the word 'yuan' simply means 'money'.  "Renmimbi" means 'the people's currency' and is the official name of the yuan.  Just so's ya know before you make a fool of yourself in front of your new Chinese bosses.

Back in the 70s, when Japan took a serious run at the title, folks in the US were singing "Take This Job And Shove It" while sporting "Made In America" bumper stickers.  Seems no one cares or has even noticed for that matter, now that China is buying up the world.  Guess those 'Merkans are too busy trying to log on to the Obamacare and food stamp websites.

Talk about a country getting its ass whipped.

That giant sloshimg sound (not Ross Perot's giant sucking sound) is global power and prestige cascading over the international date line on its way east.  Does America seriously think it can challenge China on behalf of Japan over some oil blocks in the South China Sea, when the 'enemy' owns about a third of the US national debt, property and equity?  That new sound you hear is me laughing hysterically thinking about the Chinese flipping the switch on all the electronic gear they built for the US military and shutting the whole thing down without a shot fired.

What will be really interesting is to see what China finds on the Moon.  That nothing has soft-landed there in four decades is a bit strange, considering it is the closest celestial pit stop and is supposedly packed with valuable rare-earth minerals and hydrogen-3 (used for fusion generators).  The Chinese certainly know it, since the Big Daddy of their space program has said as much in the last week.

More to the point, what will they find/not find with regards to the US Apollo program landing sites?  Will they discover the alien technology that the US has hidden for decades?  Will they find Kubrick's signature and Disney's brand?  Will they tell the rest of us, or just use it to keep the US in line?  And does this account for all the recent efforts to establish world parks, no-fly zones and other "keep away" signs around Apollo landing sites?

Stay tuned...this story is just beginning.  In the meantime, do you feel those historic shifts now?