Friday, November 18, 2011

Sweden comes in second.


Our Traffic Last Week

I have no idea how the blogmeisters manage to detect all this.  In addition, they keep track of operating systems and browsers.  I really do not care, either.  However, some have asked that I post this periodically, and so here it is.

Sweden comes in second this week.

The highest traffic was on the 15th at 1:00, P.M. with 19 of you.




United States
107
Sweden
45
Finland
39
Russia
38
Germany
17
United Kingdom
6
Canada
4
Philippines
4
Switzerland
3
Denmark
3


Pageviews by Browsers
Internet Explorer
106 (34%)
Firefox
100 (32%)
Chrome
50 (16%)
Safari
23 (7%)
Opera
12 (3%)
GranParadiso
10 (3%)
Mobile Safari
10 (3%)



As best I can determine, the darker the area, the greater the traffic to the site.

We seem to be particularly uninteresting to the areas south of the equator, although sometimes Australia chimes in.


Please note that this is done with all pages or blogs at this site, blogspot.com and is not unique to AbsurdTimes.

I would note that the “Occupy Wall Street” post has now surpassed the previous most popular post, “TSA Calendar” as the most visited posting.  

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Occupy – Day 61







Occupy – Day 61



          Stuff has been happening all over.

          Israel – Palestinians have decided to board busses that are “Jews Only”.  I was surprised to hear about this as I remember all the crap Jimmie Carter got for saying that the Occupied Palestinian lands were aparteid.  Turns out, Israel proper is.  “I have a dream signs” are held up, reminding one of Martin Luther King.

          Mayor Bloomberg of New York ordered the cops to tear down and trash the occupation site.  Since we may not say the power structure is Jewish-dominated (don’t be anti-Semitic) Bloomberg, the white Anglo-Saxon protestant ordered the middle of the night Gestapo tactics. 

          Cheers to the Lawyers Guild which is doing great work, there was an injunction against it.  Bloomberg ignored it until he found another judge to reverse it the next morning.

          One of the organizers or activists was asked if they had a plan “B”?  He said they had a plan A through Z.

          I keep mentioning that enough lawyers need to get behind this.  There was a great deal of crap about tort reform because lawsuits were raising the costs of medicine.  The total cost of such action amounts to 1.5% of the cost of medical care.  In other words, it is just another bit of bull from the huge insurance companies. 

          Then everybody who is arrested needs first to get charges filed against them and then demand a jury trial.  Our legal system is set up to protect property and money, not people, so clogging it up would be an effective tactic.  I confess that I am not about to participate, however.  I would not be much use to anyone in such a condition and am not physically ready for it anyway.

          Over 100 cities have some form of the Occupy movement.  Imagine that going around?

          Quan, called a “progressive,” by herself, mayor of San Francisco ordered to cops to do the same as the white guy (Bloomberg).  I think she caved in to the money forces.  See, they are not bothered by the fact that there are homeless people around (in fact, they cause it and take the homes), but they don’t want them in sight.  Same thing with everyone else.  Quan, by her cowardly actions, has set feminism back 40 years.  Anti-Oriental sentiments will also arise – why not?  They can no longer be trusted.  They say “Yes, Master,” so easily, eh? 

          Her legal advisor immediately quit, followed by the Deputy Mayor.  They deserve accolades.

          It is worth seeing what else is going on overseas – how does Obama come across?  Arandhati Roy is welcome here in a quote from Democracy Now:

ARUNDHATI ROY: You know, what they are doing becomes so important because it is in the heart of empire, or what used to be empire, and to criticize and to protest against the model that the rest of the world is aspiring to is a very important and a very serious business. So I think that it makes me—it makes me very, very hopeful that after a long time you’re seeing some nascent political, real political anger here.
It does—I mean, it does need a lot of thinking through, but I would say that, to me, fundamentally, you know, people have to begin to formulate some kind of a vision, you know, and that vision has to be the dismantling of this particular model, in which a few people can be allowed to have an unlimited amount of wealth, of power, both political as well as corporate. You know, that has to be dismantled. And that has to be the aim of this movement. And that has to then move down into countries like mine, where people look at the U.S. as some great, aspirational model. And I can tell you that there is such a lot of beauty still in India. There’s such a lot of ferocity there that actually can provide a lot of political understanding, even to the protest on Wall Street. To me, the forests of central India and the protesters in Wall Street are connected by a big pipeline, and I am one of those people in that pipeline.
AMY GOODMAN: I asked you about the Occupy Wall Street movement. What is your assessment of President Obama?
ARUNDHATI ROY: Well, I think, you know, when—I was never one of those people who was, you know, throwing my hat in the air when he won, even though—even though the memory of, you know, old black people, you know, feeling so happy to have a black man in the White House was something you just couldn’t ignore. But to see how he has—I mean, it’s almost reprehensible. You see—what has he done? He’s expanded the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan. Those drone attacks are killing people every day. You know, it’s—I don’t think he has any idea what he’s doing in that subcontinent. You know, no idea whatsoever. It is just devolving into a completely unmanageable, horrendous situation.
In America now, I just feel—I just feel a bit upset every time I hear that smooth, silver-tongued, you know, kind of delivery, which actually means nothing most of the time. And so, if—I keep thinking that if George Bush had done what Obama does, everybody would be saying he’s a fascist, you know, but we really step back and make so much space for what’s going on here, that—you know, it’s an old dilemma, of course, that somebody can do by day what the other person does at night. And, you know, people are so caught up in this view that the only choice you have is between the Democrats and the Republicans or between the Congress and the BJP. Our imaginations have been locked into this kind of electoral politics, so we feel like we have to say nice things about him. But I don’t feel like saying nice things about him.  (Italics mine).
Well, welcome to the club.  Neither do I.
Is it just me, or did I see Nitwityahoo both at the European Summit and at Apec?  Who invited him?
I do not think Bush would be able to get away with some of the crap Obama has pulled.  That is one problem with competence – it can actually work.  Maybe we should all get behind Herman Cain?  Or Newt the slimey?  Muddy Mitt?  Perry, yeah – he seems pretty stupid – perfect candidate and next president.  (See illustration above.)
Have you noticed that each President seems worse than the one before?  And that each one has to have his own war?  Hm.  This has been going on since JFK was assassinated. 
Well, that’s it for awhile.  RIP.

Monday, November 14, 2011

#Occupy – The Legal System?


#Occupy – The Legal System?








Illustration:  From www.whatnowtoons.com -- Keith manages to capture the moment brilliantly.



            We have received a number of questions as to why we haven’t been posting much lately.  Well, frankly, if you want up to date information, the site has a link to live coverage 24/7.  Second, we felt we had already said all there is to say.  Third, the Nation Magazine at Nation.com has covered it better that we could anyway. 

            However, lately we have noticed something about how this is reflecting American values.  Many occupiers are being arrested and the cops are being used to oust them around the country.  This is because they did manage to achieve one thing, which is to create the mass movement away from large banks to credit unions as a result of fees for ATM cards.  Now that actually cost them some money they thought they could extort, so the corporations are trying to stop these occupations.

            Compare the arrests, however, with what happened at Penn State when Joe Paterno was fired as a result of one of his coaches, Sandusky, being busted for homosexual pedophilia.  Yes, the guy was raping 10-year-old boys in the shower as people observed him.  It was all covered up.  Well, there was a huge riot in protest, even police vans were overturned, and not one person was arrested.  This is Amerika, after all. And we have our priorities.

            With all of the arrests for occupation, one would think there are prosecutions, no?  No.  So far as we have been able to determine, not one single case has been filed for prosecution.  The reason would be clear – it would cost too much.  In some states, the courts are only open 3 or 4 days a week as a result of budgets.  Imagine if all these people were prosecuted.  The courts would be clogged up.  In addition, what they have been arrested for could be described as freedom of expression, hence covered by the First Amendment, and hence eventually a federal case.  

            Of course, foreign policy is a part of capitalism as jobs are shipped overseas and we spend money on wars.  Does anyone remember a time when we were not at some sort of war?

            Mossad just bombed a missile factory in Iran, Time magazine says.  With only 2 to 3 hundred nuclear bombs, Israel is frightened of Iran’s nuclear program, even though our own intelligence agencies indicate they are not pursuing one.

            Obama is assured re-election because of the Republican field.  There are about ten candidates, only one of whom combines some intelligence and principles, and he is a psychopath.

Some other thoughts:

One feature of Capitalism that is not generally understood, even by the most militant Capitalists, is that Capitalism needs to grow, expand, and increase in order to even barely survive.  Perhaps the best book on this subject, and the most comprehensive and comprehensible, was written by Wallerstein a few decades back and called The Capitalist World System.   He goes back to its start in the 17th century and shows its development.  It is not written from a Marxist or a Corporatist point of view but simply looks at the facts and puts them together into a meaningful format.  Of course, using facts is sometimes unfair to the libertarian elements and the current political biases, but they remain stubbornly true.

            A problem that Capitalism is starting to face is that its expansion is limited by the simply fact that the planet is finite in size.  It needs both new markets and new materials for exploitation (and this includes labor, or course), but these areas are shrinking.  Since the more successful capitalists must keep increasing their “wealth,” the rest of humanity must be further impoverished and exploited. 

            This is why we no longer have a divided world.  The system has expanded about all it can horizontally, so the only changes left are vertical, top down, in other words.  We hear a lot of talk about Greece causing trouble for Wall Street, but the total economy of Greece is roughly equal to that of the Dallas-Fort Worth area (and this excludes Denton, btw.).  Hence, foreign policy becomes, or should be considered a part of, the Occupy Wall-Street movement.

Just in!

            Occupy Aloah sang for two and a half hours, 45 minutes of protest songs, in front of Obama and the APEC dinner and nobody noticed.  The complete song is available:



Makana, renowned Hawaiian musician and guitarist.
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AMY GOODMAN: This weekend, President Obama greeted world leaders at APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in his birthplace, Hawaii. Opening the plenary session in Honolulu, Obama said the Asia-Pacific region is essential for prosperity in the United States.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And I want to emphasize that the Asia-Pacific region is absolutely critical to America’s economic growth. We consider it a top priority. And we consider it a top priority because we’re not going to be able to put our folks back to work and grow our economy and expand opportunity unless the Asia-Pacific region is also successful.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, activists with the group Occupy Honolulu coordinated a march on the summit to protest neoliberal trade deals under APEC, as well as what they call draconian security measures around this weekend’s gathering in Hawaii. More than a hundred protesters gathered at a local park and marched on Saturday toward central Honolulu, where the APEC summit was being held. This is activist Jason Farris.
JASON FARRIS: The whole ideology of global capitalism is that there’s a trickle-down effect. That’s the myth they’ve been trying to sell us for 40 years, and we’re still waiting for the trickle down. The middle class is disappearing, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. And, you know, that’s due to these policies, organizations like APEC.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, within the heavily guarded compound where the APEC meeting was taking place, renowned Hawaiian musician, guitarist, Makana, carried out his own act of protest. He had been invited to play instrumental music at the APEC gala dinner on Saturday night. He had previously performed at the White House in 2009. At the dinner, Makana opened his jacket to reveal a T-shirt which read, quote, "Occupy with Aloha." Then, instead of playing the background instrumental he was scheduled to play, he started to sing a protest song he had released earlier that day. As world leaders including President Obama and the Chinese premier Hu Jintao sat in the audience, Makana sang "We are the Many." Here, Makana explains why he chose to act the way he did.
MAKANA: So, I just came from playing the world leaders’ dinner at APEC here in Honolulu for the Obamas and, I guess, 19 or 20 other world leaders. So I showed up and did my gig. And I started to look around, and I thought about this song song I just wrote called "We are the Many." And it was an incredible experience to sing the words, those words, to that room of people. And I didn’t belt it out. I started out very subtly and subliminally. And I was like, "Ye come here, gather ’round the stage. The time has come for us to voice our rage."
"Did he just say what I think he said?"
And then I realized that, "Wow! I didn’t get in trouble!" So I played it again. And I made like a different version of it, ended up playing it for about 45 minutes. To be able to sing that there was an epic feeling. It felt right. My uncle always told me, "Play what’s in your heart, and play to the audience, you know. Play what you feel is right for them." That’s what I did. And I found it odd that I was afraid to do it at first. I found that disturbing. That’s kind of why I did it. I didn’t like the idea of being afraid to sing a song that I created. I’ve never in my life been afraid to sing anything. If that’s what we’ve come to in the world, where we’re afraid to say certain things in the company of certain people, I think that’s a dangerous place to be. And so, for me to move out of that space, I had to sing the song. And that’s what I did.
AMY GOODMAN: Hawaiian musician Makana, speaking about his act of protest at the APEC gala dinner with heads of state this weekend in Honolulu. We turn now to a fuller version of Makana’s song, "We are the Many."
MAKANA: [singing] Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage

Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage

To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law

The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw

At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw

And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts

We’ll occupy the offices of you

’Til you do

The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight

But laws of this republic they rewrite

And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability

They own, but they are not like you and me

Their influence dictates legality

And until they are stopped we are not free

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts

We’ll occupy the offices of you

’Til you do

The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons

But certain things belong to everyone

Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress

We have little to lose, we must confess

Your empty words do leave us unimpressed

A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets

We occupy the courts

We occupy the offices of you

’Til you do

The bidding of the many, not the few
You can’t divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide

Denial serves to amplify

And our allegiance you can’t buy

Our government is not for sale

The banks do not deserve a bail

We will not reward those who fail

We will not move till we prevail

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts

We’ll occupy the offices of you

’Til you do

The bidding of the many, not the few.
AMY GOODMAN: Makana, singing "We are the Many."

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