Winter Count: A Story Through Photos Pt. 2

Part 2
We Reach for the Sky!

In Large Groups

And In Small...

Winter Count: A Story Through Photos Pt. 3

Part 3
The Individual and the Whole

Alone

In-Love

Family and Friends: Community

Winter Count: A Story Through Photos Pt. 4

Part 4
The Journeys

Where Are You Going?

Are We There Yet?

Made it!

Where Are We Going?

Are We There Yet?

Made It!

Cruelty

1.

I would do anything for you,
my king, queen, president, leader, god...

I would kill thousands for you,
MILLIONS!

I would displace thousands...
MILLIONS!

I would make millions suffer.

I would steal everything from them
for you,
my god[s] in human form.

I would torture for you.

I would do unspeakable acts for you.

I would do things unimaginable for you.

I would cause great suffering for you
my god[s].

All you have to do is ask...ORDER!

I will do anything you ask of me...just ask.

"...."

What?

"...."

Love one another?

Help the people?

Help each other?

ARE YOU KIDDING!

2.

I listend to Elie Weisel's book, "Night," on CD. A story of unimaginable cruelty suffered and witnessed by the author in the Nazi concentration camps during WWII. And I know there are many stories like this. Many horrors of "man's inhumanity to man." Stories from throughout history. Stories happening here and now of the sufferings our fellow human beings impose on our fellow human beings: Sudan, Sierra Leone, The United States, Iraq, Canada, Afghanistan, etc.

They say:
"Never again."

I ask:
"When are we gonna make it stop?"

Sombody Stop Me! I Can't Stop Taking Pictures!

A Painting the In-Laws Possess

Robot Corners

In Town

In Case You Can't Tell...It's a Squirrell

Fall Rose

Still Hanging On

French Colonial?

Shusli's Work

George Weller

I picked up a book on tape at the Library called "First Into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post Atomic Japan and It's Prisoners of War." The book is about the dispatches of George Weller, the first American who snuck into Nagasaki about a month after the U.S. had dropped the second atomic bomb there.

In these dispatches, he talks a lot about the illness that followed the bombing. As well as the radiation did not stay at lethal levels as long as was projected. Radiation effects the blood. The blood is thinned, as in it reduces blood quantities in red and white cells. It also in many cases kills platelets, which are the parts that give blood the ability to clot.

Geoge Weller, when asked about the bombing of Nagasaki, would also mention that it has to be taken in with bombings like that of Tokyo, where the U.S. killed over 100,000 people in a single evening.

War crime? Yes. The Japanese were willing to surrender a year prior with one condition, that the emperor remain emperor. The U.S. wanted unconditional surrender, yet, let the emperor remain emperor. What's up with that? Thousands, millions of lives could have been spared if the U.S. would have accepted the terms originally. Of course, they wouldn't have been able to drop their wonderful new little toys to terrorize the U.S.S.R., either.

As well, George Weller was the first to inform many prisoners of war that the war was over. Many did not know, and there were many slave labor camps ran by the Japanese military and their wealthy (like Prescott Bush benefitting directly from Auschwitz slave labor). These were mostly prisoners of war, but some were civilians.

We all know of the Bataan Death March, though could probably not name a single event that happened during that time or how it came about, let alone any that died or survived (I can't). Nor would most even be able to mention the fact that there were 99 American nurses in that battle of the Phillipines and it was the first time in modern military history that women nurses were in battlefield situations. ("We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese," by Elizabeth M. Norman). Censorship and American short term memory are wonderful tools for the wealthy to trick us into continuing the horrific behaviors of war for them to gain more wealth and glory for themselves. And I bet most of you never heard of "The Death Cruise" either. The one that George Weller got the story of from some of the prisoners is the only known well detailed story of one of the MANY Japanese Military death cruises. It reminds me of how the British military housed their Scots prisoners after Culloden, in prison cells for months where they were barely fed and forced to live in their own excrement and amongst their dead. Serious stomach turning stuff, if I had a weaker stomach, which I don't. But it is also history that doesn't even warrant a footnote in this nation, for some reason. As is pointed out by George Weller, this is the only well documented "Death Cruise." There are no documented cases of the "Death Cruises" for the comfort women, forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military.

And then, there is the "King of the Censors," (like Peter Brzika is "The King of the Cutthroats" from the Catholic ran death camp called Jasenovac in Croatia) the American military.

Seen here without his pipe, hat, and glasses, is good ole Dugout Doug, aka Douglas McCarthur. Doug earned the name "Dugout Doug" because he ABANDONED his men on Corregidor after the long hard battle of Bataan and the retreat to the Island of Corregidor. Doug managed to catch himself a boat to Australia to save his own ass, instead of attempting to get those men who fought to protect each other and his lousy worthless ass off the island as well. Dugout ABANDONED his men and his post.

Thus the Bataan Death March and the Death Cruises that followed. Cruises that took prisoners to Japan to be slave labor for the wealthy in horrifically unsafe conditions of the coal mines near Nagasaki. In the case of the Death Cruise recorded by George Weller of the survivors that made it to Japan and those that made it through the mines, torture, and slave labor, there were 1600+ prisoners who were carried out of the Phillipines, only about 450 made it to Japan, 267 came out alive. Most of those killed were killed by friendly fire. (The last surviving marine from Wake Island, was killed by a food drop of Spam, of all things). Even though Dugout had intelligence that their were many ships with POW's aboard them, they also carried military supplies and thus, many of the POW's were killed by "friendly fire." Little known fact of American History.

More importantly, however, the general that ABANDONED his men and his post to save his own glorious ass and create the lie of a mystique of himself being a great man, Dugout Doug, CENSORED the dispatches of George Weller. There could be many reasons for this. One is that Dugout didn't like anyone disobeying his post abandoning ass. Dugout was a pretty arrogant self-righteous bastard willing to sacrifice many Americans as well as enemy to make himself look good. George Weller did not OBEY his prince in order to get out information and truth that he believed needed to be carried to the people. George was a reporter, a real reporter, not these stupid asses you see that get the stories they are told to get in order to create careers for themselves without ever having to put those careers on the line to, say, get out some of the dirty truths that create this world.

Dugout also had a grasp of human thinking. People want to forget attrocities. When they do, Dugout and his likes can then raise themselves to glorious positions like "prince" on the expense of those that actually put themselves on the line. If all of America knew what happens to prisoners of war, they may not want to sign up for horrific military service because they don't want to torture nor be tortured. People may rethink war, and then folks like Dugout wouldn't be considered the great people they like to believe they are.

Did you know that Dugout Doug, Douglas McCarthur, also allied himself with the infamous Japanese military unit, Unit 731. This unit did medical experiments on POW's and other prisoners, mostly to see how much torture folks would take before they actually died. Dugout pardoned many of these folks so he could get the information of torture. Why? So we could have things like the H-blocks in Northern Ireland, Agu Ghraib in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, etc. I'm not saying Dugout Doug is the sole person responsible for this, I am saying he played a rather pivotal role in a societal norm that folks like to PRETEND doesn't happen. Civilization...wonderful stuff!

Knowing that Dugout and the U.S. military were censors, and pretty much ALL militaries are censors (not wanting to get truth to the people because the people just might do something about this crap), it is safe to say that the censors are heavily at work within the U.S. government, military, and in all war actions like those in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is safe to assume that tortures are going on far beyond the reports that we the people were not supposed to hear (thank you Seymour Hersch). That war crimes are happening far beyond what we hear about. That the wealthy, like the 200+ U.S. corporations that helped fund the Nazis during the war, are making billions off of the backs of the victims of the U.S. led genocides in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as our own folks. That you will remember those that like to call themselves heroes, like Tommy Franks, before you would remember names like Darrell Anderson who admitted his war crimes in Iraq to the public, even though he signed a document that makes him LEGALLY BOUND not to talk about these things to the public, FORCED upon him by the U.S. military. We the people are not getting the information that we need to make decisions about what our government is doing, and most of us are rather content with that.

The media doesn't even have to be cencorsed. They self-censor. They know what the government and the wealthy want out, they know how to propagandize in order to keep the people supporting the same deadly system.

And we the people? Most Americans, as pointed out by George Weller, see the U.S. as "There is the U.S., and everything outside our borders are seen as the others." Most Americans have a very limited sense of self and entitlement. Most U.S. citizens have a limited sense of history, and pretty much like it that way. We have many privileges here. Many things to distract us from what is really going on in the world. I mean...

Oh...Look at the time. I have to catch the Chess Boxing Match on ESPN...

Life is Gonna Get Interesting

Let's see:

Somali pirates have captured another tanker, making their collection 17 ships they are holding hostage.

Mumbai, as I'm sure you all know, has definitely made a severe dent in the global financial system.

The global financial system is failing, and please do not believe that it won't get worse and definitely do not believe it will be over in just a couple of years.

There has been a cyber attack on pentagon computers.

Life is going to get real interesting.

Another Genocide Cover-Up Day Under Our Belts

Another "Genocide Cover-Up Day" is under out belts.

Genocide is still occurring. One of our main topics was that the crime of genocide is seen under a narrow scope and many don't even know exactly what it is.

We also talked with Gilbert Towner and Judy Fry, a couple of Tututun elders. Along with Shusli, they brought a more local flavor to the crime of genocide and how it effects indigenous peoples today.

My favorite quote, and hopefully Shusli and others will comment here with theirs: "Ouch! That hurts! Now cut that out!" We can open the door to a discussion of genocide here, if you all would like.

Shusli, Jim Craven, Me, and Eli were at the mics. The engineer was Richard Ullom. The coffee maker was Devon. Kathleen Stephenson graciously opened the door for this program to take place. The callers were mighty awesome, along with one of the folks, Reverend Jim Dancing Trout, who was one of the original founders of this program.

Let's all do what we can to end the crime of genocide.

James Craven, Blackfoot Solicitor General, Economics Teacher, Head of the Business Department at Clark College.

Shusli Johnson. Tututun activist. She works tirelessly in struggles to regain her peoples landbase along the Rogue River, as well as Loves her amazing children.

Shusli's son. Talented young musician, former forest fire fighter, and all round amazing human being.

Louis Sowa. Current host of "Indian World."

Three members of the gang of four during the program and discussion.

Me.

Happy Birthday Ishmael Beah

Today is Ishmael Beah's birthday, author of "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier." This is a very sobering work about war. War at its coldest and meanest. It is a book that one and all should read, especially arm chair warriors that like to support war without ever having to participate in one. "Never support a war you are not willing to take up arms in and fight in yourself because you are asking others to do your killing for you." If you think war is a worthwhile action and you can bend your index finger, go sign up and do your own killing.

Ishmael now lives in the U.S. When interviewed him over a year ago, he was working on helping other former boy soldiers and trying to stop the use of children in the military.

Genocide Cover-Up Day

On Thursday (also known as Thanksgiving Day), Shusli, Jim Craven, and I will be hosting "Genocide Cover-Up Day" on KBOO, 90.7fm here in Portland. At www.kboo.fm on the internet.

This is an annual program started by Theresa Mitchell about 15 years ago to discuss the genocide of Indians as well as genocides that have and still do occurr all over the world. We will open the phone lines and discuss these issues with you. What does genocide look like? How do we stop this crime from happening anymore?

Why do we do it on Thanksgiving Day? Well, Thanksgiving did not start as an annual holiday in 1621 for the union of colonizers and colonized, it started in 1676 as a celebration of slaughtering Indians. Thus, Theresa started "Genocide Cover-Up Day," and Shusli, Jim, and I carry on that tradition annually in remembrance, in creating awareness, and in the desire to end this horrific crime once and for all.

Here is a good web page for debunking such myths as thanksgiving, as well as others. Also read this interesting essay on the history of Thanksgiving by Julia White.

Then, feast with your families, be thankful for all you have, be thankful for the fight in your heart (whcih comes in many forms), and struggle to change the world.

Automobile

I was listening to Randi Roades with my wife, Shusli, as we were driving down the road the other day. She was talking about how the big three automakers had done all they could to destroy ideas of cars getting great gas mileage. The government was in collusion giving tax breaks to folks who bought huge SUV's. The oil biz was in it because more oil gets used and thus more billionaires make more money. Now, with world views changing rapidly, folks no longer see it as sensible to buy a huge gas guzzling big three machine when they can't afford the gas to put in it, despite the tax breaks. Gas guzzlers were making oil billionaires and auto manufacturers billions in short term gains.

I remembered reading years ago how automakers always worked to crush fuel effecient cars and transportation systems for their own personal gain. There used to be a trolley system here in Portland. It was fuel effecient and helped a lot of folks. A corporation bought it up, ran it into the ground, etc., so tire manufacturers, bus and car manufacturers, and oil companies could make gazillions in short term gains. Sure the folks suffer lightly to greatly because of the decisions of these greed heads, but who cares! The millionaires and billionaires are just fine and dandy and have lots of wealth, health care, food to eat, many roofs over their heads, etc., and we all know that is what really counts. Your health care doesn't count. Whether or not you can provide food for your family is YOUR PROBLEM AND FAULT, not the problem and fault of the wealthy who have stolen everything from you and blame your sorry ass.

I don't know about you folks, but I've been playing the moves over and over in my head, and I don't see any gains to be made by the wealthy anymore. I don't see that if the big three pull their heads out and make fuel effecient cars that their would be anyone to buy them. I don't see what giving billions to billionaires to do with as they will is gonna keep the folks from starving to death in the streets and stay warm and clothed in the winter. Does anybody have any idea how they might be able to pull this off, because I just am not seeing it? Folks keep saying that things are gonna turn back around in a year or so but no one tells me how this is gonna happen. I don't see how it can. Does anyone?

Speaking of the Blood of Our Children...

The GM parts plant Jamestown Industries in Moraine, Ohio IS closing down on December 23.

Even IF the U.S. hands billions to the big 3 like they handed billions to billionaire bankers, Tony Murphy, pictured here, is still gonna lose his job 2 days before Christmas. Merry F***ing Christmas fromt he U.S. government.

The actions NOT taken by the U.S. government WILL CAUSE the suffering that will be felt by Tony, his CHILDREN, his GRANDCHILDREN, etc. Folks will die because of these actions. The U.S. government is willing to sacrifice men, women, and children in order to fill the coffers of the bank accounts of the wealthy. Soon, the only good paying jobs there will be will be protecting the wealthy from folks such as Tony and those the wealthy have made suffer, like the Somali's, Indians, Phillipinos, East Indians, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Afghanis, and even U.S. citizens. Why, I wonder, would the U.S. give billions to billionaire bankers and not the Auto Industry? Well, here is a possible reason in my perspective.

The biggest problem in the way of billionaires robbing the poor to fill their bank accounts, is that the working class in the U.S. have RIGHTS! When employees have rights, that means millionaires and billionaires have to share their ill gotten gain with the folks that helped them make it. One of the strongest unions in the U.S. is the United Auto Workers, which will be CRUSHED by the collapse of the auto industry. What this will create is a class of worker willing to work for a pittance so the wealthy can have even more wealth than the billions just given to them of our tax dollars. The biggest expense to any corporation is the cost or production put out to the workers in payroll. Crush the workers and you can exploit them greatly. They will work for little to nothing as long as what they get can keep their families alive.

The best jobs, of course, will be protecting the wealthy from the folks at the bottom who REALIZE that such is the reason for their distress. Folks will organize and fight back. Thus, folks will be disarmed or outgunned by the folks who will be paid to protect the wealthy from those who want their piece of the pie.

I could be wrong, but this is a common pattern amongs the wealthy, as seen in the previous post about the Somali Pirates.

In my opinion, one useful thing to do would be to organize our communities. We need to fulfill our basic needs and then some, and we need to fight back and take back the ill gotten gain the billionaires have received at our expense. Time will tell, but the situation in the world is making it ripe for...

REVOLUTION AND CHANGE!

GO PIRATES!

No, not the Pittsburgh Pirates. I don't follow sports. I don't even know if it is baseball season, to be honest. I'm talking about...

THE SOMALI PIRATES!

As some of you, I'm sure, are aware, Somali's have taken hold of one of the largest ever hijacked vehicles ever, an oil tanker called the Sirius Star which is Saudi owned. They have recently, over the last two days, hijacked 3 more ships, and I'm hearing the number of ships they have hijacked and ransomed is somewhere over 60.

Check these pirates out in action in the photo here.

I haven't heard of these actions until recently, when Shusli mentioned the hijacking of the oil tanker a few days ago. So I started reading. In all the articles I have read, there has been no mention of why, other than ransoming. I just knew there had to be more. There just had to be because they weren't quoting any pirates or representatives thereof. Sounded somewhat like a cover up. Well...IT WAS.

Turns out that a few years prior to the civil war, many Euro and other corporations starting signing illegal pacts to dump their toxic waste off the coast of Somalia. These were amped up during the civil war, another FLAGRANT violation of international law by the Swiss and other Euro nations.

After the Tsunami in 2004, thousands of barrels of toxic waste dumped mostly by European companies ILLEGALLY off the coast of Somalia washed ashore and thousands of Somalis because sick from the toxic waste.

Euro's have ADMITTED to their illegal actions, yet still claim that the actions the Somali's are taking are not the way to go about things. Why is that? Would talking stop them? Would asking nicely, "HEY, EURO CORPORATE ASSHOLES, WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP KILLING OUR PEOPLE?" Would that have stopped them? No! In fact, not even the piracy thus far has seemed to stop these criminal actions by Euro's and other nations.

Now, there is a pattern to this. You see, the same shit happens in Indian Country here in the states. When Shusli and I were at the Indigenous Environmental Network Conference in Minnesota in 2006, we heard many a story from mostly people in the Southwest region of toxic wastes dumped on their nation by corporations signing pacts with corrupt tribal governments. So, what is the pattern here?

Wealthy folks not only create wealth by robbing the poor, they create it by cutting costs. When dumping waste, it is CHEAPER to do so on land that is unregulated and thus they corporations can get away with criminal behaviors that kill and harm people while filling their already vast bank accounts. The wealthy get wealthier, and the poor get sicker and die. A few people in the middle make a few bucks via corruption and can avoid the toxic areas because they can afford to move away from the toxic lands.

Same with Somalia. Wealthy corporations and the wealthy people that run them can pay as little as $2.50 a ton for their ILLEGAL dumping, where as if they did so legally in their own nations it would cost up to $1000.00 a ton. Thus, the wealthy make $9997.50 by dumping it illegally off of the coast of Somalia. Of course, there is all the illness, death, and enviornmental destruction that they cause...BUT WHO CARES! Somalia is a nation most folks know little about and here in the U.S., most folks consider a terrorist nation because of that crappy movie, "Blackhawk Down."

So, let me cheer on the Somali pirates...

GO PIRATES GO!

And may more pirates be created all over the world in order to protect the people from the wealthy that would gladly force us all to suffer so they can fill their bank accounts with our blood and the blood of our children.

Bash Back

"Bash Back" has proudly proclaimed their vandalism of a mormon church in Olympia, Washington and their declaration has appeared on Indy Media.

Because I am not allowed to post on Indy Media (for calling racist anti-Makah whaling vegans on their racism, if I remember the occurence correctly), I will articulate the comments I made on the Indy Media forum that were not posted because of my current status of not being allowed to post there.

The mormon church dumped a bunch of money into anti-gay marriage campaigns. They claim it is immoral. Let's take a look at the definition I found on an online dictionary before we move ahead:

of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.

That out of the way:

The mormon church and many other such organizations have put up a lot of money and a lot of voice into burning fear into the souls of their followers and others that somehow Gays and Lesbians getting married will somehow destroy their ways of life. They claim this is a moral issue.

The mormon church, one of many christian types of organizations, have repeatedly covered up large amounts of sexual abuse of children through their clergy and parisioners. Much of this abuse is male adults raping male children. Their are many cover-ups and court cases that are settled out of court. So, via complicity, it can be stated that mormons believe that gays and lesbians getting married is WRONG, but raping children (adult male on child male, adult female on child female, and all the rest of the combinations) is indeed, moral. Gays and Lesbians: WRONG! Raping children: RIGHT! If it was considered WRONG by the mormon church to rape children, they would actually do something to systematically stop this attrocity from happening within their organization. Covering it up is not stopping the crime!

Same with the catholics who also state that being Gay and Lesbian is wrong and therefore those folks shouldn't be allowed to marry. However, through the massive amounts of evidence and court cases (a big one here in Portland recently), many catholic priests are known to be pedophiles, including adult male raping child male. Since this IS KNOWN from bottom to top of the organization, including the Baby Brown Shirt Pope, Ratzinger, it MUST be assumed that the rape of children by clergy and parissioners within the catholic organization is RIGHT, while being Gay and Lesbian is WRONG! Wanna see a great documentary about this? "Deliver Us from Evil," is a great documentary which follows a catholic priest child molester. They talk with his victims and the heartless assholes that covered up his crime as well as the priest himself. Catholics must believe that raping children is RIGHT because they don't do anything to stop this systematic crime within their organization. Yet, they deem it a moral failure to be Gay and Lesbian and thus such folks should not be allowed to marry. Hmmm!

For those of you who don't know this, the vatican signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy in the early '30's and another treaty with the Nazi's of Germany a year later, brining the fascists to power in those nations. Those nations committed genocide against Jews, Sinti, Romani, Gays, Lesbians, and others. Therefore, it must be RIGHT, and thus MORAL, to commit genocide according to the ACTIONS of the catholic church and their genocidal head currently known as Ratzinger. Genocide: MORAL! Gay and Lesbian marriage: IMMORAL!

As you can see, there is a fundamental irony within these organizations as they pour money into anti-Gay and Lesbian measures while allowing child rape and genocide within their organizations.

The mother of a friend of mine was kidnapped from her people and forced into the mormon organization where she was thusly raped on a regular basis. Must have been moral to the mormons because they did nothing about this.

I've heard that many Latino's and Blacks voted against Gay and Lesbian marriage as well. A friend of mine authored the Blackfoot Constitution which stated within it that folks had a RIGHT to their sexuality, including Gays and Lesbians. This was initially argued against by the elders. He told them that to oppress other oppressed groups is to diminish ones own oppression.

Oppressed groups oppressing other oppressed groups does the work for "the man" so "the man" doesn't have to. While we are busy fighting amongst ourselves, "the man" just stole $950,000,000,000 from us. Oppressed people, you are pointing our aggrivation in the wrong direction in my opinion.

"Bash Back," I admire your work. However, I must admit that stupid people enjoy remaining stupid, so I don't know if the vandalism you performed did any actual changing of hearts, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, you got a few people to think. That would be good, especially amongst a population of folks who allow others to do their thinking for them.

Vegan Indy Media types: You all know my opinion of you already!

The Big Three

So America's big three automakers are on a huge downslide, and it looks like the U.S. government, who just GAVE AWAY $950,000,000,000 to bankers are not about to do a giveaway or even loans (as of yet) to the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler), which means up to 1.5 million jobs could be lost in the next year.

In gleaning this yahoo article about the crisis, I read this itty bitty quote I found rather interesting:

Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., told the leaders of GM, Chrysler and Ford that the industry was "seeking treatment for wounds that were largely self-inflicted."

Yet the exact same is true for the banking industry that got their $950,000,000,000 in our tax money (less money for infrastructure and social programs). They knew what they were doing could cause such a problem as the U.S. and thus, the world, is now facing. But they didn't and don't care about you at the bottom. Why should they? They're multi-millionaires and billionaires. You are just a bunch of poor tax paying scum they just robbed to fill their coffers. They'll be fine, and that is all they care about. They could care less if you lose your job and don't have enough, let alone anything, to eat. They'll be eating, and that is all that matters.

So, thus far, they don't really care if U.S. auto manufacturers go under. So that 1.5 million job loss will drain tax coffers which are not really there because all that money was given to multi-millionaires and billionaires. Will there be unemployment money? Will jobs be created (if there is unemployment money) before that money runs out for the individuals?

With all the massive amounts of layoffs happening, there won't be money flowing into the economy. Without us at the bottom having capital to spend, small businesses as well as medium and big businesses will go under. This, of course, means more unemployed folks, which, of course will only add to the financial crisis the world is in.

Having given so many billions to billionaires who are the ones who created this problem, will not solve the problem. THE BANKERS CREATED THIS PROBLEM, and are getting a bailout. It is unclear to me if the automakers created their own problems, no doubt in part, but if they are gonna give billions to bankers who have created this problem, saying that NOT giving billions to automakers because they created their own problems is a bunch of BS.

Chicago Heading for Massive Layoffs

Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago, has stated recently that many corporations that employ folks in his town are planning massive layoffs over the next few months. The city will also be making cuts. The corporations plan on laying off many more people over the next year.

"Each one tells me what they're laying off, and they're going to double that next year. We're talking huge numbers of permanent layoffs for people in the economy. It's going to have a huge effect on all businesses."

Combine that with articles of how cities are begging the government for some of that billions of dollars giveaway to billionaires to be used to help maintain city infrastructure, and I'd say that the U.S. is on a rather steep downward economic slide. Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Atlanta are some of the cities mentioned.

Add to this that smaller cities like Vallejo, California, are being forced to make cutbacks in police and firefighters because they no longer have the capital in their budget to pay them nor their pensions and we are looking at some serious financial breakdown here in the U.S.

Combine this with the big 3 U.S. automakers on the verge of collapse... Can you say: OUCH!

When you look at these things, even if you are relatively uneffected by the economic downturn (using the term "relatively" loosely), we are all witnessing the effects of the economic downturn and experiencing them as well.

In our walk around this little town, Shusli and I have talked with a few of the small businesses and they are all experiencing a downturn in business.

The economy depends on ordinary folks ability to spend money. If folks can no longer afford restaurants, restaurants go out of business, and then there is less capital in the system and more unemployment. Because of gas prices and less work, folks aren't buying cars, and the big 3 are going under which means more layoffs and more people unable to purchase things and more small businesses going under and more layoffs, etc.

Because the U.S. economy is based on credit, there is very little real assets backing the U.S. financial system. Money that was borrowed was backed with other forms of credit. This has created an economy that is based on what I've heard called "a mouse click." With the current $950,000,000,000 giveaway to bankers ("giveaway," because it is virtually unregulated) relatively little amounts of that money is making it into the hands of those that need it. Thus, the economy worsens while billionaires run off with our tax dollars. Tax dollars that could have been used for police, firfighters, infrastructure, creating real jobs, etc. The good news is the millionaires and billionaires who have created this mess we are in, will have plenty of money...our money...our tax dollars. They won't be worried about eating. But they also know that an economy like the one we are in and that IS going to get worse, will create a bunch of bitter pissed off hungry people. These people usually fight amongst themselves while the wealthy continue to eat and be happy on our tax dollars that our government GAVE them. But more people, even your average anti-intellectual person, is beginning to see what this government is actually doing. Thus, people will have reason to rise up.

Since the Posse Comitatus Act has been basically thrown out by King Dick and co-King George, they will use the military to protect the wealthy from those whom they just stole all of the money from...the U.S. poor non-elites, who, of course, far outnumber them. Most of the jobs that will be created in this economy will be jobs protecting these horrific criminals from their millions, if not BILLIONS of victims. Finding people who are loyal to such monsters will be harder and harder as more people will witness their families falling apart, their communities, their neighborhoods, their friends, etc. They'll be making money, but witnessing the effects the corporate elite have IMPOSED upon the populace. That should make for a relatively shaky foundation of protection for the folks that have created this mess that we are finding ourselves in.

The story of the "Lost Boys of the Sudan" has always intrigued me. All these young boys orphaned by war wandered the desert to find any help. They helped each other out (unlike "The Lord of the Flies"). Those who were good at finding food sought out food. Those who were good at finding shelter sought out shelter. Etc. We are going to need each other more than anything during this whole process. We are going to need to take care of each other. There will be a major culture shock as those who spent their lives believing and consuming will find there is no basis in such a system. We will have to restructure. We...here at what is "perceived" as the bottom. We will have to take care of each other and make a new world for ourselves.

Feh...We'll see what happens. I could be completely full of shit, for all I know.


P.S. One more thing. I just read that Iraq and the U.S. have signed an agreement to keep 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq for the next three years. So, this war that has taken at least $3,000,000,000,000 out of the U.S. economy will continue in order to maintain the wealth of oil billionaires while Iraq yet suffers greatly and our friends and families will continue to suffer as well. But don't forget the good news: Millionaires and billionaires will still be doing mighty fine while you and your families learn the meaning of suffering because of them. How dare you not be born with a Silver Spoon in your mouth.

P.P.S. Let's not forget the war in Afghanistan, as well as the impending wars with Iran, Russia, and North Korea. Where is all that money gonna come from when many in the U.S. will be out of jobs and not paying taxes and all of our tax money has been handed over to billionaire bankers? More borrowing on more credit? Another mouse click?