The Winter of Our Discontent

As of January 27, 2011, Danbury CT has gotten 56+ inches of snow, by far the most snow our part of the state has ever received during the month of January. Needless to say, this is the most intense winter yours truly has ever seen, which goes to show just how insignificant man is regarding the reality in which we all live, residing on a tiny planet in a relatively mid size galaxy of a trillion stars existing in the part of the mulitverse containing a trillion galaxies. Makes one think a bit about Carl's Sagan's elegiac A Pale Blue Dot if you ask me.

Must leave now to continue shoveling out the driveway, courtesy of the Winter of Our Discontent. :)

The above picture is that of our shed laden with at least 30+ inches. :)

Griftopia

As I read Griftiopia, it's nice to know BRT's not alone in stating we have been systematically robbed (and continue to be so), by Wall Street Banksters, thanks, in part, to the antics of Woodrow Wilson creating the Fed, Ronnie Reagan's voodoo economics,  the destruction of the Glass-Stegall act under Bill Clinton and W's disastrous financial policies, policies continuing unabated thanks to the current president all too willing to acquiesce to the powers at be in order to get reelected and continue to do nothing regarding the drastic changes needing to be made if the US is to survive as a viable nation. 

"Aside from the hot weather, it wasn't such a bad gig. But on one of his trips home, we met in a restaurant and he mentioned that the work had gotten a little, well, weird.

"I was in a meeting where a bunch of American investment bankers were trying to sell us the Pennsylvania Turnpike," he said. "They even had a slide show. They were showing these Arabs what a nice highway we had for sale, what the toll booths looked like . . ."

I dropped my fork. "The Pennsylvania Turnpike is for sale?"

He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "We didn't do the deal, though. But, you know, there are some other deals that have gotten done. Or didn't you know about this?"

As it turns out, the Pennsylvania Turnpike deal almost went through, only to be killed by the state legislature, but there were others just like it that did go through, most notably the sale of all the parking meters in Chicago to a consortium that included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, from the United Arab Emirates."

After reading works like Griftopia, one comes away with the notion TR was the last president with real power as the government, during his administration, could print and manage it's money, an impossibility today thanks to the creation of the Federal Reserve, a cartel protected by government, in 1913. 

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws." 

-  Mayer Amschel Rothschild 

Ike the Socialist

Here is a most interesting chart showing the tax rates keyed to the top 1+%. During Eisenhower years, it was 91%, after that, it's all downhill. As per TR, those who have the most should pay more for the good of the nation. Sounds fair to me.

"No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered, not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective, a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate."
President Teddy Roosevelt

Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike)

What TR Would Do

Teddy Roosevelt is a hero of mine. Brilliant, environmentally advanced and intellectually curious, TR took crap from no one, a situation totally opposite to what we have now in the White House, a president all too willing to kowtow to the unenlightened self interests of the corporate and financial elite of this nation.

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done.


We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs."

When viewed in the context of the rise of China and the loss of US jobs, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens when unbridled greed works against the national interest, something the so called political leaders of our country have forgotten about while taking monies from the powers at be in order to get elected.

"It took a courageous -- and at the time crazy -- leader by the name of Teddy Roosevelt to step up and change that. He took on the biggest financial giant there was, JP Morgan, and he won. Roosevelt's underlying premise -- if you're too powerful and you're profiting at the expense of the American people -- then you are an enemy of freedom and the government must break you up. It was that simple.


Here we find ourselves today in a similar situation, where six industries have a stranglehold over Washington. And the draining of our current and future wealth will only continue as both the media and the political class not only tolerates but spreads the phrase "free market" when the reality doesn't match the rhetoric.


Our politicians continue to take money from massive corporations to subsidize them in a rigged marketplace that only cares about protecting the incumbent structure. At the same time, the American people are drowning in a red sea of debt caused by perpetuating banking, health care, energy and defense systems that are expensive, ineffective and protected from competition.


So I have a challenge for those so-called free market Republicans who rode a wave of voter discontent into Washington. I challenge you to end massive corporate subsidies. To end tax loopholes. And to end rigged trade with China and release the true power of free markets."

To all incoming politicos, read Regulation Blues to learn why regulation does not work if there no transparency, a concept Obama blissfully ignores while China continues to screw us in ways TR never would have tolerated.

Flowlines

I included this home grown video in this post to show, in concise fashion, how the explosion of inexpensive hi def video gear now available to dabblers such as myself, enables one to produce and distribute content in ways unimagined just a couple of years ago. In the VERY near future, this tech, along with sophisticated editing software (imovie et al) will become ubiquitous and nearly free (smart phones/pads etc., etc.) thus enabling ever more millions to produce and distribute videos such as these at virtually no cost save the time needed to put them together.

“Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is 'elephant'.” - Charlie Chaplin

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Outrageous color blows me away, especially the kind seen when oil floats on top of water, releasing iridescent hues of nearly every color imaginable, evanescent and wondrous in appearance, a look, it seems, to be ingrained in insect wings, something never thought to exist as insect wings appear almost totally transparent to the naked eye as long as the background behind them remains light but... when the background fades to black, iridescent wonders issue forth, delighting the viewer in the same way butterflies do on a bright summer day.

Connectome

This mind blowing image depicts, in very small part, the shape of neural pathways in the brain, a visualization made possible using state-of-the are neural imaging techniques that did not exist prior to 2008, something to consider as we move further into the 21st century.

"Navigate the brain in a way that was never before possible; fly through major brain pathways, compare essential circuits, zoom into a region to explore the cells that comprise it, and the functions that depend on it.


The Human Connectome Project aims to provide an unparalleled compilation of neural data, an interface to graphically navigate this data and the opportunity to achieve never before realized conclusions about the living human brain."

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."  - Aldus Huxley