Rant Du Jour

If it's any comfort to you folks in the West, Asia's economy has slammed on the brakes, too.

When I first came to Indonesia in 2008, the country had 8% growth, the energy industry was going gangbusters, and foreign investment money was pouring in like a waterspout in monsoon season.  Cina was on a building spree to end all Building sprees, buying up Indonesian coal like it was the last supply on Earth.  Everyone was making money hand over fist.

Then the bottom fell out.

The US and EU economies tanked and China's exports were chopped off at the knees.  Western sanctions against Russia put the halt on the next hottest economy around (which was the real intent).  Southeast Asia, which was basically the low-cost labor supplier to China, along with the coal, suddenly found jobs drying up.

A combination of oil price cuts and really, incredibly short-sighted bureaucratic blunders on the part of Indonesia's Energy Ministry caused the bottom to fall out of the industry here.  And when I say bottom fall out, I mean the backup to the backup of the bottom fell out, too.  The sudden black hole in the government's budget has caused it to go on a tax hunt like never before in this country.

They are scrutinizing tax returns.  They are going through every title and deed.  They are hog-tying mud-caked tribesmen with bones in their noses (oh, yes, still have them) and forcing them to get tax numbers and start reporting their non-existent incomes.  The government is terrified also that a bunch of out-of-work, bored folks will suddenly realize how cushy and out-of-control all those ministries have gotten.

See 1998 for an example of what happens when that occurs.  People have gotten quite accustomed to upward mobility around these parts.

The areas of Jakarta, like Kemang, where all the ex-pat execs used to live have dried up.  Houses that used to rent for a month what a "normal" house gets for a year have stood empty for months.  All the oil companies have pulled out most of their ex-pat staff and are running on skeleton crews until the ministry comes to its senses.  By that I mean that current rules require exploration risks to be 100% on the company, all equipment imported for drilling can never leave again, and the government gets a majority share of production for doing nothing.  This is not to mention wonderful cabotage laws that require only Indonesian-flagged vessels to operated in national waters.  Bye-bye ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total.

A combination of greed, corruption and the attitude that good times always continue are sinking the ship of state.  Can you say "panic?"

None of this is to say that it's not happening in the rest of the world, too.  The Globalists have pushed too hard and tried to jump too far on the final leg of their take-over plans.  The blow-back comes in the form of all the nationalist movements worldwide, such as Brexit, Trump and the astounding rise to sainthood of Vlad the Putinator.

Alternative economic systems, such as ASEAN and BRICSA, that still respect national boundaries and cultures, while replacing the over-ripe and rotting carcass of the Western banking system, are coming into their own.  China's battle for the 9-Dash Line in the South China Sea is a direct dart in the eye of Western hegemony.  The unbridled gold-buying spree in China, India and Russia show a long-term plan to reinforce monetary foundations and stabilize economic shocks that are coming as the post-WW2 alliances and agreements start to unravel.

Honestly, I have no problem with globalism, per se.  The problem has been that for the last 60 years, the push has been to free corporations from national boundaries and level the playing field for faceless, soulless entities, at the cost of individual freedom and the sanctity of culture.  I would be quite happy to get rid of the money-making scam that is commonly evident in visas and passports for human beings.

However, the Western concept of corporations has shown repeatedly that these monster "legal entities" cannot be trusted and should never be allowed to slip the regulatory leash.  In other words, free the people, not the mega-corps.

When free to choose, people will always gravitate to areas with their common language, culture, foods, and sensibilities.  On the other hand, corporations don't care about any of that.  They are predatory and will slither into every nook and cranny, and gut the place of anything valuable unless they are tightly controlled.

People will care for their land.  Corporations will suck every penny of profit out of it until there is nothing left but waste.

When I say "people first," I am not referring to the liberal catch-phrase that hides a multitude of "diverse" evil.  I am referring to taking the yoke off of all us individuals.    Yes, it's a libertarian pipe-dream, but one that has the benefit of never having been tried. There's been a lot of lip service to "liberty" and "freedom," but in fact that has only been shared with the privileged few and not the masses.

In many ways, Karl Marx was right, but the execution has failed miserably, because true communism only works on small scales with ethnically and culturally homogeneous populations.  Massive state infrastructure that forces "diversity" and jumbled populations to work together is doomed to fail, as it has repeatedly.

People will smoke.  People will do drugs.  People will eat fatty foods.  Let them the hell alone.  Just don't steal my stuff, leave my family alone and don't murder anyone who isn't trying to do one of the previous two things.  What more do you need for a decent life?

If left the hell alone, people will do what is right for themselves and the ones they care about.  And they will collect in groups of like-minded folks who all have similar goals and cultures.  Let them.

But when Uncle Globalist wants to come in and rape and plunder your wealth using the deadly power of the government, well he should be roped, chained, tarred and feathered.  Maybe even a good turn in the pillory for some humiliation and ridicule might do him some good, as well.  But for gods' sake, don't enable him with TPP and TTIP and all those other alphabet fuels on the fire.

Kind of got off topic there, didn't I?

Well, that's why you come here and lurk in the corners, isn't it?

Everything Old Is New Again

Reader Note:  Beware!  There's a new email hack going around.  I got hit for the first time in my life, so that should say something about it.  Usually, these weasel shits come with no subject, 100 names in the CC box and only a link in the body text.  This little gem mails each person in your contact list individually, takes the first name from your account and the target account, then sends a couple of lines about "hey XXXX, check this out", along with a link.  Looked all official and legit until I clicked it.  If I even meet one of the low-life scum who start these things, I will castrate them and serve Rocky Mountain oysters for dinner.

So, with business out of the way, what shall we talk about?  How about fascism?

Lincoln with fasces

I just have to laugh at all the numbnuts out there who are jumping up and down hollering about how America is slipping further and further into fascism.  Excuse me, but...

WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE PAST 200-ODD YEARS?!

I know this is going to be news for a lot of folks, but America has been a fascist state since the moment of it's inception.  I mean, let's just set aside the fact that Americans committed wholesale slaughter, fraud and theft against the North American aboriginal peoples.  Let's forget that it was American-flagged ships that brought,  slaves to North America.  Let's even forget that the word "People" is capitalized in the Constitution, indicating that it is a specially defined term and not the common word we use in our daily speech.

There's plenty of other evidence.

But first, let's define our terms.  Fascism is fundamentally tied to Corporatism, of which Wikipedia
 tells us is, "Corporatism, also known as corporativism has more than one meaning. It may refer to political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests."

In other words, fascism is the unholy marriage of corporate interests with the power of the State, which creates oppressive authoritarian regimes.  Corporations are heartless, soulless creations of law that can only act in their own best interests (profit), which is in contrast to the ideal government as a spontaneous organic servant of a group of people acting in their own collective interests (justice).

Sprinkle liberally with blind nationalism, jingoism and extreme intolerance, and you have all of American history in a nutshell.

Circumstantial, you say?  Hang on...it gets better.

Flag of the East India Co. ca. A.D.1600

You know those red and white stripes on the American flag?  Those are the unmistakable symbol of the British East India Company (BEIC).  The BEIC was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, and the company became fabulously wealthy trading spices and other commodities from India and Southeast Asia.  The company's flag looked remarkably like the American flag with the Union Jack in place of the blue field of stars.

Thus, the American flag, in essence, represents a division or subsidiary corporation of the larger holding company.  Old Glory quite literally is a company flag, and since it is the symbol of a nation being supposedly an organic creation of people acting in concert, then by definition America is a fascist State.

To see further symbolic proof of this unholy marriage of corporate and government power, we need look no further than the US House of Representatives.  There, on the wall behind the podium, and framing all the proceedings of the People's House, are two giant fasces.

For those unfamiliar with the facses (origin of the word fascism), the symbol is a bundle of sticks bound together with a cord and having an axe-head protruding from the top.  It is a classic Roman symbol denoting the projection of power from tightly bound and disparate groups of people.  There is an inherent implication of force/bondage and bellicosity in the symbol.

So, America uses a flag demonstrating that it is a corporate subdivision of the BEIC, and it has the classic symbol of fascism adorning its legislative house, and the nation has historically behaved in a manner identifiable as fascist but you are still not conviced.

According to a number of researchers, including Frank O'Collins and Santo Bonacci, "these united States" were incorporated in the Vatican in the late 1800s as THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  The federal government of America is, by every legal definition, a corporation.  It is an artificial 'person' constituted under Canon Law and behaving as if it were an organic institution.

Still not convinced?

Prior to World War 2, the US was a primary supporter of the Nazis and brown shirts.  The US financier class gave money and materiel to the Nazi cause and openly supported the anti-Communist Nazis.  The Ford, Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations, along with notable individuals such as Prescott Bush, made no secret of their pro-fascist leanings.

Concepts such as genetic and racial purity, and euthanasia, commonly associated with the Nazis, originated in America.  In the 1920s and 30s, there were strong movements to sterilize groups and individuals under color of law that didn't fit the American self-image.  These groups included the mentally and physically unfit, or those with criminal tendencies.  Eugenics is tied deeply to American exceptionalism and fascism.

And to just put a fine point on it, US agencies like the CIA and NASA were thinly disguised Nazi fronts.  General Reinhard Gehlen and Major Werner von Braun (among dozens of other Nazis) were given safe haven in America and have had a profound effect on that country into the 21st century.

From its inception until today, the US has been and continues to be a fascist state by every definition of the term.  The country employs openly fascist symbols, is bellicose and jingoistic, is authoritarian in every respect, and has a history of fascist leanings and causes.

Some might point to Obama and 'multi-culturalism' as signs that the fascist influence is waning, but I propose that there are little more than window dressing to placate various socialist elements in the country while a full and open fascist agenda is pursued.  Even with the election of Obama, the US continues to prosecute wars on countries without significant white populations.  In fact, since WW2, the US has not attacked a single nation with a predominantly white population belying an ongoing policy of racial purity at the highest levels of government.

Based on these facts, and many more only touched on here, I submit that the government of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is now and always has been a fascist state by every definition of the term.  For those hysterically waving their arms crying, "America is becoming a fascist state," I say they are a couple of centuries too late.  What America is becoming is an openly authoritarian police state, but even that designation is a natural outcropping of the nation's long history of fascism.

Roman eagle, laurels and fasces

Furthermore, if you want to find nations today that are founded in and guided by fascist ideology, you have only to look for red and white stripes (BEIC) and eagle symbols in their national identities.  What you will find is that fascism is not a 20th century phenomenon, but rather a centuries-old concept of corporate power masquerading as legitimate government based on a medieval concept developed by the Roman Church that states collections of humans can constitute a corporate entity that acts in every way like an individual, or 'person'.

A thereby hangs a long and frightening history, one which few people will openly investigate and even fewer will acknowledge.  In fact, fascism is a legal and philosophical concept that dates back to the Roman Empire, and the US is only the most recent and successful manifestation of a very old idea.

In order to change it, we must first acknowledge what it is and where it comes from.  Otherwise, we are doomed to treating the symptom while leaving the disease to fester.

And here you thought Washington D.C.'s Romanesque architecture was just because it looked cool.

Revolution No. 10

When I was a boy, my grandfather, known to us as Poppy Boy, would tell me that a revolution was coming to America any day now.  My father echoed that and added piles of historical evidence and reasoning to it.

I've heard dozens of thinkers, radicals and reactionaries pontificate at length on the coming revolution.  Some envisioned a 'workers' paradise' to follow, while others a 'libertarian dreamland'.  Still others predicted the breakup on the US into regional blocks.  I've listened for hours to the 'freepers' whose idea was to move all like-minded folks to one state where they could vote each other into power and take over.  Last I heard, Vermont was the target and it has yet to materialize in any significant way.

The problem with all these predictions is that they offer little in the way of novel ideas to follow up the general destruction and upheaval implied by a revolution.  Unlike the Enlightenment, which spawned the American and French revolutions, there is no tidal wave of new ideas to supplant the old regimes.  No one has come up with something better than democratic republics, which replaced the inbred monarchies.

I've heard a number of folks speculate that the overwhelming military forces of the various powers that be frighten off would-be revolutionaries and prevent new ideas from manifesting.  I beg to disagree.  At the time of the American revolution, the British military was arguably the most formidable on Earth, yet it was soundly defeated in a couple of years.

More examples?  A bunch of Vietnamese rice farmers defeated the US army in that conflict.  A bunch of goat-herders defeated the Soviet army and is close to doing the same to the US army.

Ideas can't be stopped by military force.  In fact, creating martyrs has the opposite effect.  The problem here is that there are no new ideas to catch fire in the minds of the masses.  There is no modern Enlightenment to postulate new forms of governance and novel directions for human endeavors.

We;ve tried hereditary monarchies and found them lacking.  We've tried pure democracy, and that was a mess, as well.  We've tried the constitutional nation-state for the past 400 years, and they always devolve into chaos and dictatorships.  About the only thing that hasn't been tried is the sovereign individual, but that seems to be undermined by human greed and ambition, with competing mafias and warlords being the ultimate result.

What we've ended up with by default is a kind of corporate state, where Big Business dictates the rules and uses economic warfare to enforce them.  This appears to be a hybrid of hereditary monarchies and nation-states, with profit being the ultimate goal of all efforts and a precious few being the Overlords.

The problem with this approach is that to achieve a theoretical perfect profit requires complete efficiency, and that requires the elimination of human beings in order to factor out any random element and completely control all the variables.

Frankly, it's undoable.  Humans can not conceive of a system in which humans do not have a part in designing it.  Thus, we can not create the 'perfect' clockwork society.  Human nature infuses and infiltrates everything we attempt and nothing can eliminate that variable, except the complete and utter destruction of humanity, which by its nature eliminates profit.  It's a circular problem with no solution.

If we examine history, the most successful societies would appear to be those who accepted the cyclical nature of Time and the random nature of humans, and worked within those boundaries.  These societies had the fewest number of laws and pretty much left everyone alone to hack and slay their way through this mortal existence.  Simple legal structures that kept to the time-tested principles of don't murder, don't lie, and leave your neighbor's stuff the hell alone allowed enough freedom for individuals to achieve personal satisfaction, while codifying the minimum boundaries for civil co-habitation.

The final stages of most civilizations seems to be when the power elite start trying to regulate the minutiae of daily life and establish social boundaries that are so narrow as to choke the life out of the citizens under that system.  And this appears to be the exact point where most of the Western hemisphere finds itself now.

It would seem that the necessary effort on the part of every human being right now is to come up with 'what's next'.  We are quickly running up against the limits of our social systems and they are failing at an alarming rate.  At the same time, there are no clear voices offering a way out.  We are trapped in a crumbling building with no exits.

At some point, we will be forced to find an alternative.  Shouldn't we be thinking about that certainty, rather than trying to plaster over the cracks in the current paradigm?

As I have frequently stated in past rants, the fundamental problem with our current culture is the concept of 'corporate persons'.  Thanks to Catholocism, we have developed the idea that collectives can function as actual 'persons'.  The problem with this idea is that to emulate the human conscience, it requires a legal code that is so complex that it is contradictory and untenable.  Otherwise, these 'persons' operate with impunity and become that most feared kind of 'person', the tyrant.

We see evidence of this all around us.  It suffuses every headline and controls our daily lives.  Every aspect of our existence has been stamped and branded to the point where we are walking advertisements for a dozen different products.  The only step remaining is to make each individual human a product, as well.

And that ain't far off...

We need to return to the idea that not every aspect of human existence is controlled by commerce.  There has to be some core of our lives and cultures that is not for sale, that is pursued without profit, and is treasured for simply being.  We must stop trying to monetize every single thing we can conceive of.

There is no profit in watching a sunset or looking at a newborn or beautifying your little corner of the world.  We do it because there is inherent beauty that is beyond value in these activities.  At some point, being human requires laying down commerical pursuits to enjoy a moment that is irreplaceable

Stop to smell the roses.

Not every activity is profitable, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.  Furthermore, there is a glory in just being human, in being unpredictable, in making leaps of faith and concept that don't have logical steps to achieve.  It is the individual who forms the collective, not the other way around.

Poppy Boy and Dad were right, there is a revolution coming...nay, already here.  But it is not a revolution of bullets and bugles, it is a revolution of ideas.  It is time to re-think what we have created, like Victor Frankenstein once he beheld the creature he had made.  It's a revolution that realizes that the underlying concepts behind our civilization are flawed and must be abandoned.

The revolution will happen whether we want it to or not.  You can not live outside the bounds of Nature forever.  The key is to recognize it for what it is and begin to formulate the future.  Otherwise, we will be left standing in the ruins of our creation wondering what the hell happened and what to do next.

Tommorow is today.  Carpe diem!