Escape Velocity

It's quite out here. Nothing happens much, just occasion meteors or a ship. All these rocks look static, lifeless, but they all have a story. The rock I'm sitting on is an old Bank of America account I closed.

This bank was engaged in illegal foreclosures, unjust fee hikes and moving trillions of dollars in derivatives to FDIC guaranteed accounts. So, I heeded the call of Operation Cashback and closed my account.

Cut up my ATM card and spread the pieces on the table. They looked like pieces or rocks in Saturn's rings, beautiful debris. So funny, I closed all my accounts, but BofA stills send me mail saying I am below the $25 limit. Their gravity is fighting me, doesn't want me to go, just float around until I go BACK and sit down with ANOTHER rep and show them the paperwork I completed to close my accounts and the receipt for the money I cashed out. Maybe then I'll reach escape velocity.

Bank of America is a big, bloated planet, that has destroyed so much life with it's tonic gases. The people on the planet's surface don't know it yet, but they're dying. I see them standing in front of the ATM, coughing because they don't have $5000 in the account so they get hit with monthly fee for accessing their own money. Awareness and a little tenacity is the only way off the surface. I opened an account with a local credit union. So there is life on other planets. People gotta wake up.

photo: my old ATM card taken with my iPhone 3Gs w/ on board camera app, and edited with PS Express app.

Inglorious Bastards

Worked on Christmas. I said WORKED on Christmas. My family and friends bemoaned it, but they are looking without context. Seven million Americans are unemployed. 4 million of them have been looking for work for a year or longer.

That being said it still sucks to work on the holidays. I even apologized to the coffeehouse folks as I walked in to pick up breakfast.

There was a time when working Christmas or New Year's meant double time and a half. Thanks to unions, workers were at least honored for the sacrifice. Honor..

I would say honor is missing in many places in America right now. Where's the honor in freezing workers' pay and rewarding management? Where's the honor in police officers being ask to crush descent? Where's the honor in bringing soldiers stateside and asking them to crush descent as well?

Where's the honor in voting for brands instead of candidates? Where's the honor in not attempting to keep them accountable? Where's the honor in complaining when you didn't write, call or occupy?

We can restore our country's honor one citizen at a time. We can make efforts to restore national integrity by managing our lives the way we'd want the govt to manage its affairs: responsibly and with a care as to how it would affect our neighbors.

If you can't occupy, call. If don't call, then email, tweet or post on blogs. Just make an effort to resist dishonorable persons hiding behind corporations destroying this country. Watch policy not parties. Watch out for your neighbor.

2012 is a Joke

Emergency! Market forces extracted wealth from the working classes then dropped it on a bad spin at the roulette wheel. Now they want Geico to recover their losses. The Tea Party (serfs that protect wealth of landlords) toast the idea.

The Democrats realize their President is a better conservative than the Blue Dogs ever were. I'm not making this up. Obama was vetted, like all candidates, on his willingness to protect status quo. He knew he could deliver the Dems, the Blacks and the Liberals to Wall Street in a nice neat package.

The Corporate powers do their part by painting the rational republicans, disgruntled democrats into a corner with tea party red; figuring they can keep serving poison economic policies as long as Obama is at the counter.

That stratagem will get most of us in 2012. But there's a few hardcore thinkers that will continue to bitch and blog and explore third party candidates. Who knows, since we were able to get a Black president in 2008, maybe we can get a Green one in 2012.

Photo: Walter Reed ambulance taken w/iPhone 3Gs and Hipstamatic app (Salvador 84, Ina's 1935).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

These United States...

Myself and my fellow Americans complain too much. Liberals complain because Obama acts like a compassionate conservative. GOP complains because he is Black. Democrats complain because Obama continues W Bush's wars. Tea party complains because he's Black.

I work the weekends and.. wait, I'm employed?! Yes, I'm employed and have been all my adult life. I have loved ones not so lucky. I say luck, not because I didn't educate myself, acquired new skills, learn how to get along with people, because I did. I say luck because I'm sure other folks have and they are still jobless.

I am fat (as of this writing) not because of thyroid problems, but because I eat too damn much. There are people who don't have the same access to foods that I do and they are in the same zip code. Lucky, blessed, take your pick.

My beloved anonymous brother and sister, please take this time to celebrate the fortunes you do have. Like this internet enabled device your reading this self righteous blog post on. The Gods, Fates, Probability has been good to us. That picture is of a sandwich I bought from Starbucks. Taste good, but makes you write blog posts like this, so be careful.

Photo: Sausage, egg & cheese from Starbucks taken with iPhone3Gs, Hipstamatic app (Helga Viking, Alfred Infrared)

Easy Lover

Here we are negotiating, we're at that part of a relationship where the woman is feeling you out just before giving up the Aqua Door. "emotional abuse, that is a deal breaker.." She said listing things like lost of trust, that would end a boyfriend's career. Shouldn't this kind of negotiation be going on before we give up our votes and treasure?

What kind of deal breakers could we have? Any votes on government spending that prioritizes foreign aid or defense over domestic programs. Charity begins at home, Baby! Any legislation that reduces personal liberty in the name of security. Uncle Ben said "..They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Another deal breaker is the "company" a politician keeps. Opensecrets.org lists big financial donors of many candidates, which could be a predictor of the kinds of policies they'll support. For example, is the corporate donor paying their employees good wages, providing affordable healthcare? That could mean political support for a living wage and meaningful healthcare reform. Does this company has a good record on the environment? That could mean a stronger EPA. The idea here is to look for congruency. You can't tell me you support green energy and take money from BP; that is a deal breaker.

So, she didn't give me the ass until I promised not to be an ass-hole. We shouldn't give any party our support until we establish some political deal breakers. Also, checking out the company they keep will help us discern talking points from future policy.

Let's not give it up so easy this November. Remember Libya, remember Healthcare "Reform", remember Wisconsin, remember Citizens United v., remember Cash for Clunkers, remember extending Bush tax cuts, remember no bailouts for home owners.. then vote.

Photo: sketch of a girlfriend's torso from my 2003 journal taken with iPhone3Gs, Photoshop Express app (adjust contrast, exposure)

Spring in Bangazi

We perceive it in our minds - an idea, the fragrance of choices. Our generation is blooming, covering the sky. Our feet rooted, soaked in sweat and blood, our songs - the bark on our tree.

Winds from Gaddafi's fighter jets move our branches, but we remain resolute in this free Libyan soil. We desire Spring for our children, warm democratic rays.

Mercenaries see us as kindling, the West eye our sap, neighbors pray this regional storm won't make their forests dance. But the seasons are changing. It is our time.

Photo: Dogwood or Cherry tree taken w/ iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Chunky, Blanko Noir)

Cream, Two sugars

Is this what they want? Caffeine and emails? A rat race or democracy? In the West, we tend to think it's the same thing. For how can you have the right to vote without the right to purchase?

In America, the tectonic shifting of rich and the government, keep middle class houses under threat. Is this what they want? In Egypt, Tunisia, etc, do they just want the right to choose which elite will rule over them? Is the experiment they seek possible? How do they build a republic without republicans becoming corrupt?

The challenge we face in the West is corporations perverting our democracy. First it was rich land owners that made the laws, now corporations want to run the society like sweat shop: minimum regulations, low wages and no unions. Hope the family in the Middle East can improve on what we call democracy.

Photo: Too expensive coffee and mobile taken w/ iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Lucefer VI, Blanko Noir, RedEye Gel)

Egyptian Hell

You can really appreciate water in this place. Diamonds are traded for ice cubes here, silk for refreshment.

When a government demands resources like taxes, blood and loyalty, but can't provide food and water, shelter from cold and ignorance. That government should replaced.

When a government commits violence against it's own people, the most grievous violence of poverty, that government should be overthrown.

When clean water is sacrificed for profit, the culture has turned into cancer, eating it's own people to sustain itself.

When education leads to a degree of unemployment worst than the unskilled experience - it's a type of Hell. It's a part of the pit where your books torment you. Your knowledge harasses you.

It's hot in this place, not because of flames but because of embers. Frustration smolders in the mind stealing sleep. Feet pace. There is no comfort.

Here you can not see the sky. Well you can, but it doesn't recognize you. Believing you to an enemy, you get hot rain. Acid that doesn't nourish the soil. Cracks of dry earth appear across your brow. A forehead like a desert floor.

I'm sipping this holy water for my brothers and sisters in Hell. Where demons in police uniforms test your resolve. I sip this cool water and pray for change.

Photo: ice water, taken w/ iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Kaimal Mark II, Ina's 1935, Cadet Blue Gel)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Hunger Pains

They think we're tired. Distracted by the internet again. Commerce is returning, stepping around our Revolution. But we're hungry and we can't ate your reforms. You take day old bread, no, thirty year old bread and wrap it a new napkin.

We can't ate oppression. It chokes. Civil liberties stumble with bloated bellies and skinny arms, sitting in this square. Why can't you hear us, our stomach roar. Perhaps our bones, our taxes and foreign aide make you chew so loudly, we seem silent. Just 1000s of mimes in Tahrir.

The baker, once a military man, serves us dishes his children wouldn't eat. They dine on exotic fare like freedom of travel, economic security, marriage and happiness. Billions of calories are consumed by his family, while we wait.

You hate those peeping in the window. Al Jazeera, reporting on the terrible food you serve us. We can't chew fear. We refuse to ate ourselves into oblivion with your poison recipes.

We have just enough strength to starve. Not ourselves, but your machine which grinds us into flour for your companies. We will starve the regime, week by week, until the baker closes his shop of horrors. Just alittle while longer. God willing.

Photo: "Beer and Wine" taken w/ iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Salvador 84, Pistil)

Little Wing (for Egypt #Jan25 mvmt)

This guitar is made of blood. Activists write chords to marching feet. Boney, nimble fingers of the Youth, so idealistic because they're fresh from paradise.

January presses skin against steel against wood to make music of this struggle. Bloggers write songs. Political prisoners write songs. Mothers waiting for protesters to come home write suites to a peoples' passion.

If Mubarak breaks our fingers, we play with our tongue, Hendrix style.

Photo: Sylvia, taken w/ iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Lucifer VI lens, Pistil film)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tunisia and Egypt p1

What's my motivation? Voluntary slavery with the hope of owning pieces? I take men and resources, advancing across the board. Hands - invisible corporate hands take comrades in and out of play. I watch people reduced to rooks and pawns giving me the illusion of progress. Tunisia, Egypt peeped the game and started moving on their own. Rejecting the players, the regimes.

So many in America and Europe are restless. The fast food and cable television aren't enough to dim the light of the mind anymore. Pieces are quietly moving on their own in the States. Calls for calm from the State Department may soon be read by Homeland Security. The pawns are getting restless. The rooks are meeting in coffeehouses, knights are moving money overseas.

The only winners are the pieces who don't play. The empty, invisible hands of the Market form a fist at first, then wring themselves before a fearless population. There are calls for calm on the chess board, but nobody is listening.

Photo: my crystal chess board taken w/ my iPhone 3GS, Hipstamatic app (Lucifer VI, Pistil, Cadet Blue Gel)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Black Tea

Shadows and radio voices dissipate. Doors slam on black Explorers. Caravan moves with the White House in the rearview, Mr. Obama has had his day.

Taxes are raised by the new guy - silence. Middle and working classes carry an unfair portion of the national debt - crickets. Wars on borrowed money from China and Japan, but the media is hard pressed to find protests against fiscal irresponsibility.

There are a few chapters here and there, but mostly Black and Hispanic members now. They didn't realize that tea time was over once Obama left office. So the 'diversity' in the party was left holding the last tea bag.

It was never really about the money...

photo taken with iPhone 3Gs, Hipstamatic app (Lucifer VI, Ina's 1969)

Zeitgeist Opinion

Total Drag
I was listening to a weekly address* by Peter Joseph, producer of the Zeitgeist films and he depressed the fuck out of me. Why? Because he regurgitated the same problem analysis from his films, but when it came to elucidating the solutions, that shit was thin and dispassionate.

The conspiracy theorists exhibit this same behavior. I was a fan of Alex Jones, then fell off because his shit got repetative. I watched all the films about the Boheimian Grove, the Bilderberg Group, FEMA camps and of course the classic interview with Aaron Russo (RIP).

Again, alot of critique of the system by Jones and then ads for canned meat that lasts fifty years, shower head water purifiers... Sooo, the solution is the new world order is your sponsers?!

Thats when it donned on me, preachers, conspiracy theorists may start out with a love for the game, wanting to educate the people, but as soon as some bills or profits becomes part of the equation, the message and thinking submits to that gravity.

Now, I'm not saying the Zeitgeist Movement is like that, Hell, I haven't been to my first meeting. It's just that without as much time being spent on the solution in Peter's lectures and easy answer is a home water purifier.

Then Again...
Perhaps the answers lie with the local chapters. Maybe the answers shouldn't come from Joseph at all... if they did, it would be too easy for this movement to become a cult of personality. Maybe the bridge between Peter Joseph and Jacques Fresco is the people in the Zeitgeist movement.

A resource-based economy, which is the ultimate goal far as I can tell, of the the Zeitgeist movement seems alien. I mean like really, like little green men type alien. I'd be willing to bet my Loose Change DVD that visitors from other planets needed to get to that kind of social organization just to allow the creativity and innovation to evolve enough to develop interplanetary travel.

I'm so frustrated with the beligerent problem ananlysis that it drives me to find the answers on my own. I hope I make it to a Zeitgeist meeting soon, but if most of the time is spent fundraising and not finding solutions... well, God Bless, meet you at the circular city or the Rally to Restore Sanity, which ever comes first.

*http://www.blogtalkradio.com/peter-joseph/2010/10/13/101310--peter-joseph-8-lectures-3-a-profile-of-col

Photo: ZipCar I rent sometimes. Taken with onboard photo app in my iPhone 3Gs, edited with PS Express app.

Red States, Blue States, Jaded States

In management you learn that alot of decisions are made before any jobs are posted, any meetings held, before any memos go out. I'm a manager and at times changing the system is antithetical to career advancement, so pick my battles. Enter the Politicians.

Before s/he is elected, most of the policy decisions have already been made. You can predict how much "change" the candidate will bring by looking at their major donors. Change is antithetical to funding next campaign, so they pick their battles; usually small ones that make good press, but don't challenge the system.

Winds of change many times comes from CEO's asses: more surveillance, more austerity, class warfare. When it rains it pours and every four years we vote for a new Weather Man. Dig?!

Thats why I like the Zeitgeist Movement; individuals free of religion, embracing technology and see class labels for what they are, a means to divide and conquer. With a mentality like that, voting is not looking sexy right about now.

All the angst and anger I had toward the Right; all the disappointment I have with the Left; leaves me with the notion of walking away from them both. That energy is better spent focusing on my business interests, family & friends. What makes me happy is election-proof.

There are some political activities that do appeal to me, one is total boycott and divestment in Israel. The Jewish State is this generation's Apartheid South Africa.

Going Green is something I'll work towards, not because of human induced global warming (don't agree with Gore), but going green because we can. There were electric cars in Henry Ford's time, guess oil had a stronger lobby.

"Net Neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time" to quote Senator Al Franken, I agree. If the ISPs get their way, independent media and other non-establishment content providers will become the UHF of the Internet.

I enjoyed being apart of history by helping to elect the first African American President. Just didn't know the Powers That Be were integrated long before the Whitehouse. They will fund a Martian if he pledges to keep the status quo. Mr. Barak Hussein Obama may be the last President I vote for, but if my political action is multiplied by others, this won't be the last time I make history.

photo caption - taken w/ iPhone 3GS and Hipstamatic app

Who Is Elena Kagan?

Lindsey Graham Questioning Elena Kagan - 2/10/2009

I'm not jumping on the Elena Kagan bandwagon, because Liberal media says so. What are her views, Man?! Here's a quick video from Kagan's Solicitor General hearings. Peep the point about reclassifying folks as enemy combatants, so they can be imprisoned forever. Video from 2/10/2009.

It's Only a Ride

Why are politics and religion so divisive? Because they make us so insecure. Anytime a mental construct contradicts Nature, we become insecure. In Nature, diversity is a rule, multiple solutions are a principal and there is very little inter-species killing. Religion and politics forces us to violate all these. You can be talking to a person about family, the weather or love and have a beautiful vibe with them; bring up religion or politics and get stamped with a label "Oh, you're one of those types who think the government should take care of everybody, huh?"

What would religion be without Hell or the dogmatism that sends you there? What of politics? What if engineers resolved issues like speed limits and technicians worked on how resources get distributed? Why would we need Dems and GOPs? Seems like a pipe-dream, but so was the light bulb.

Don't Drink the Kool-Aid (tea)
The tumor taking over the GOP: this TeaParty, isn’t a new phenomenon. The Base* has always been there, they resisted the Emancipation, 40 acres and a mule, Civil Rights, Social Safety net programs and immigration from non-European countries. They’re against big Gov't, but pro big military and pro expansion of police powers. The same forces arrayed against you by a big gov't when it turns on you – smart huh?

These are basically some white people (and 6 Black people) who can be convinced to vote against their economic interests due to their faux-identification with the ruling elite. They can be tricked into voting for a W. Bush cause he's a rich "white boy", but his father, former CIA head and US President reps for the Saudi Arabian royal family... Arabs. It's not about money or culture, it's about ego and power aggregation.

That being said, who gives a damn, as long if your kids are healthy, your job or business is doing well and you gettin regular lovin. If you aren't, well… that's when the aberrant behavior creeps in - so someone goes "Postal" or "Jihadi", same thing. From my comfortable Western environ (for which I am very grateful), I vent about Palestine, Greece and Afghanistan. But there no war in my children’s eyes, no bombs in their ears and I can't help but be stilled and humble by this. My worst days on this planet are often washed away by laughter and I remember that this life - it's only a ride.

*Al Qaeda translates into "the Base" in english.