Chewing on Social Cannibalism

We like to think of ourselves as being so civilized and sophisticated.  Yet progressive America continues to champion abortion on demand, in which proponents can not even own up to taking a human life as they claim to protect womens' reproductive freedom.

In the 2016 political cycle, Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) has excited young progressives who would sympathized with Occupy Wall Street's targeting of "the 1%" in pursuit of free college, free health care etc. without producing anything.  In essence, it is an "Eat the Rich" mentality. 

Some Soylent Green anyone?

A Future in Which We Should Believe?

Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) decisively won the Wisconsin Democrat Primary.  To claim victory in the land of Cheeseheads, the 74 year old Senator chose to have a bunch of young people in back of him on the dais.

During Sanders speech in Laramie, Wyoming, the candidate chose to rail against young people who are too busy with their video games.   At the same time, there was some vidiot around Sanders who was making faces on Snapchat or another video based social media.

In Sander's optimistic opinion, young people are idealistic thus progressives.  But Sander's chide about young people too busy with their video games may also reveal how there is a youthful expectation of little effort and high return.  There is also the cognitive dissonance of idealistic young 99%-ers advocating for socialism during Occupy Wall Street movement while camped out in the District of Calamity's Farragut Square or Manhattan's Zuccotti Park on their shiny new Apple i-Phones.

The question is what is the better future in which we should believe?

Michael Moore-on (sic) Dystopian Dreams

Michael Moore used to play the part of Agent Provacateur against America by creating puckish polemic documentary films.   Now the millionaire socialist just takes to Twitter to incite anger amongst the underclass, 

Trey Parker and Matt Stone seemed to have captured Michael Moore's modus operandi in the satirical action comedy Team America World Police (2004).

As Michael Moore's dystopian dreams will soon be chanted by Occupyistas that are egged on to take the streets allegedly to protest police brutality, but in reality they are the useful idiots for a Cloward-Pliven strategy to change the polity.

While I am unlikely to agree with Moore's socialist screeds, his contentions seem ludicrous in 140 character snippets.  It would be wonderful if Moore returned to making political farces like Canadian Bacon  (1995) to make his points rather than inflaming unrest via social media 

Seattle Socialist Councilwoman's Silly Scheme for Seahawks Seats

Defending Super Bowl Champions Seattle Seahawks have been successful on an off the field.  Civic pride for the Seahawks in Seattle is legendary, as their fans are considered the 12th man, giving the team a tremendous home field advantage.  Seahawk fans are so loud that their boisterous cheers caused two measurable earthquakes.

However, in the run up to the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers, Socialist Alternative Councilwoman Kshama Sawant railed against the restrictiveness nature of Seattle Seahawk season tickets preventing many unprivileged WeHawk fans from seeing the game in person.

Sawant organized some street theater to illustrate the divide between the Seahawk fans have and have nots with a "13th Man Initiative". The socialist rally on Capitol Hill gathered hundreds of blue and lime clad workers chanting "No justice, no beast".  During their march to Pioneer Square, protesters carried signs reading "We are the 13" and "12th Man, aka Bequeathed Mode".  

Sawant's solution to the Seahawk ticket situation is to share seats among the metro Seattle residents.  According to Sawant: 

“With 3 million people in the Seattle metro area, that’s about 44 people per seat. After this weekend, the Hawks will have played 10 home games, or 41 quarters (remember the overtime versus the Broncos). If you subtract infants and Sounders fans, that comes out almost perfectly to one quarter per person."

Right. And Sawant is supposedly an economics professor.  Perhaps it should be noted that Washington state has legalized the recreation use of marijuana.  College campuses may have been a bit ahead of the pot legalization initiative.

Some claim that this 13th man initiative is just satire.  Where you stand is where you sit.  Street theater might be a lark for an Occupy rally.  As an elected official, such satire is unseemly, especially without denoting that it was allegedly illustrating a point.  If so, what was the point?

The 13th Man ticket sharing idea is about as idiotic as the living wage initiative which Sawant championed to raise the Emerald City's minimum wage to $15 an hour.  Seattle's City Council unanimously passed the $15 minimum wage and chose to fully implement it in April 2015, even though liberally minded restaurant owners warn that the drastic wage increase will decrease labor and threaten small business survival in the city.

Sawant gained notoriety for her involvement in the Occupy  Wall Street movement.  It seems like the "13th Man Initiative" is ersatz opposition which injects  class strife and partisan politics into sports successes.  The NFL has been plagued with politically correct controversies which are peripheral to football, like political pressure and  Obama Administrations machinations to force the Washington Redskins to change their name and football players engaging in the "Hands up don't shoot" meme ala Ferguson.

It is a pity that rabble rousers and progressive political animals continue to use sports as a platform for forcing their politics into sports rather than allowing the teams to build unity among the community. Alas the 13th man initiative is the odd men as the are people who can not root  for their team without playing victim (for not having tickets), "raising consciences" and politically dividing the Seahawks fan base.

New York Justice League: "White people, check your privilege"

In a sympathetic article in the Village Voice, Katie Toth highlighted how caucasian interlopers were muscling their way into leadership of the Michael Brown protests in New York.

Demonstrators were traipsing between stores at the Atlantic Center Terminal Mall in Brooklyn, New York.

Cherrell Brown, Community Organizer 

The youthful protesters  eventually tried were trying to overwhelm a Target, but organizers from the New York Justice League tried to stop violent pushing.   Cherrell Brown, a national organizer for Equal Justice USA,  grabbed a megaphone to tell the mob: "White people, check your privilege. We don't need you to provoke stuff right now."  After a couple of tense moments, the mob chose to conduct a "die-in" by laying on the floor of the mall to make shoppers uncomfortable and move on.
New York Justice League (founded by Harry Belefonte) representative Michelina Ferrara thanked the group for coming and not giving the police and the media to vilify the activism.


Later, Michelina Ferrara, who identifies herself as a mixed race first generation immigrant with "light skin privilege", fretted that a couple of  white dudes were trying to seize the microphone at the demonstration, which may have been aimed at shutting down the Brooklyn Nets game at the Barclay Center.  Ferrara's race consciousness and concern about white privilege probably was well honed during her Womens' Studies education at De Pauw University.  But the mass of  anti-cop protesters do not  appear to publicly recognize that they are being played by progressives professionals.

Cherrell Brown and Michelina Ferrara are both products of the progressive university indoctrination system (which degrees in political science at North Carolina A&T and Womens' Studies at DePauw University respectively).  Now both have graduated to community activism.  As much as they object to the Eric Gardner Grand Jury decision, they bristle at being horned out of leadership by presumed white privilege.

Assuming that the rabble represented Gotham anti-police protesters, it seems less about race than being a collegiate cause celebre. The only elements missing were a drum corps and giant puppets.  The protests have expanded beyond focusing on Ferguson or Staten Island Grand Juries, and is a melting pot of lefty obsessions, including support for Palestinians and Puerto Rican grievances.  It may be that Cherrell and Michelina want better optics by having more melanin blessed spokespersons.  But could it possibly be community organizers elbowing for prominence to be first among equals among grievance groups.

Occupy Wall Street's Twitter account was organizing the New York Times Square protests on December 3rd.  There were pre-printed protest signs and chant sheets  from union activists from SEIU and the REVCOM.US (the Revolutionary Communist Party US).



And Nike claimed that the revolution won't be televised.  Alas, not all of these useful idiots want to take stage direction to make it seem less elitist.  Kind of why the Occupy Movement fizzled once the public figured out that it was less about the protesting the 1% and more like  trust funders camping for a cause with their i-pads and i-phones taking direction from radical leftists.

If community organizers agitation prove successful, it is worth considering Kosh's quote from Bablyon 5 "The avalanche has started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."  In a top down, bottom up inside out Saul Alinsky scenario, political correctness  may neither be respected nor may radical privilege be checked.


h/t: Village Voice 

Red Twilight -- May Day Protest at the White House

As May 1st drew to a close, a strange sight was seen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, as a small wave of red flags paraded toward the White House.

May Day Protest in front of White House   [Photo: BD Matt]

 

It turns out that a coalition of lefty groups gathered together to demonstrate for May Day in front of the Peoples’ House.

The group looked very caucasian, pretty privileged (lots of smart phones, I-Pads and expensive cameras to capture the moment).  Presumably, these would be the same useful idiots who would be part of an Occupy experience, except they have recently bathed. 

Meager May Day Protest in front of White House  [Photo: BD Matt]

 

While scenic shot may look like the Red Twilight Protest to look like a mass movement, there were less than two hundred participants, mostly youthful individuals who probably  should have been studying for finals.

Obama Giant Puppet at May Day Demonstration in front of White House  [Photo: BD Matt]

  
What leftist protest would be the same without giant puppets?  Since this was more of a mobile protest, the caricature of President Barack Obama looked pretty two dimensional.  

Code Pink Guantanamo Street Theater at White House May Day Protest  [Photo: BD Matt]

The Guantanamo Street Theater part of the show looked like it was sponsored by Code Pink.  They should be happy considering Mr. Obama’s renewed push to close Guantanamo.  But didn’t President Obama sign an order on his first day in office in 2009 to do so?  Imagine President Obama not keeping his word!

IWW demonstator waving Wobbly Flag at May Day Protest at White House  [Photo: BD Matt]

The “wobbly” Red Flag is from the Industrial Workers of the World, a “one big union” organization which was established in America in 1905.   As of 2005, the “Wobblies” have about 5,000 members in their anti-free market union, whereas the AFL-CIO has 13 million members.

Parade of red flags at May Day protest in front of the White House  [photo: BD Matt]

Media moment at the May Day protest at the White House   [Photo: BD Matt]

There was a media scrum for a vocal agi-prop individual.  During these encounter, liquid was being thrown toward the police as the demonstrators periodically chanted “Pigs go home.”  It sound be noted that anarchistic protesters often fill water bottles with urine as projectiles for police.  

No wonder Concord, Massachusetts recently banned bottled water --“The Acquafina is coming.”  This is a sad indictment of the cradle of liberty, when patriots defended their freedom from a tyrannical British government who were going to disarm them. 

Police keeping order at the White House May Day protest  [Photo: BD Matt]

 
Law Enforcement Officers looked ready to stop the charade by taking out plastic handcuffs for the persistent protestors without a permit.

While the White House May Day Protest looked like it was a made for media moment, the violence in Seattle for May Day may be more telling.  

Political Peeps

Now that people in the District of Calamity have recovered from their Easter basket sugar comas as well as the elation over Bryce Harper hitting two homers to secure the opening day win for the Washington Nationals, it is a good time to consider Easter epicurean art in the form of political peeps.

Peeps are a marshmallow confection produced by Just Born candies from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania since 1953.  The Peeps are formed in the shape of chicks and bunnies and are often associated with Easter.

Had the creators of Occupy Peeps have watched Occupied Unmasked, their take on the protest might not have been so sweet. 

Since 2007, the Washington Post has sponsored a contest challenging budding artists to make dioramas with Peeps.  This year a few of the outstanding entries had playful yet poignant political themes.  

Nicholas Burger and  Radga Iyenger honored the heroics of Seal Team Six in administering justice to Osama bin Laden in Diorama of Zero Dark Thirty (with Peeps).

It is unclear what exactly was inside the wrapper. Assuredly, it was not kosher. 

Others took a more whimsical approach to governance in the District of Calamity.  A group from the Siemens Technology Team in Beltsville, Maryland satirized Sequestration by splicing it with imagery inspired by Despicable Me in their creation: DesPEEPable Congress.

Despite the demagoguery of the Obama Administration, Sequestration was not the bomb that the White House expected.  The 2.3% reduction in the rate of growth for the federal government did not not blow up between the beltways.  The White House did hold the annual Easter Egg Roll but decided to cancel school tours of the White House, blaming it on Secret Service funding.  Maybe if the First Family cut down on their jet setting (first daughters surf and ski spring break at Paradise Island, the Bahamas and Sun Valley, Idaho,  the President taking Sunday Golf jaunts to Florida to have a round with Tiger Woods), they could avoid the damage. 

h/t: The Washington Post

Gaming the System

Since the principles in the District of Calamity who are responsible for averting the Fiscal Cliff insist on playing games with the economy and America's indebtedness, it is time to respond in kind.

Over the past couple of years, the Lamestream Media magnified memes of class warfare and lionized the Occupy Wall Street activists  while demonizing the top 2% income earners in America.  Hence, it is is appropriate to reflect this rethinking of reality with America's iconic board game-Monopoly.

A piece of Occupyista propaganda pushed their own vision of the Monopoly game board.

Slate made its point about the 47% with a clever parody video.




Either of those options look more promising than the upcoming Monopoly movie.



Perhaps I will have the playing of playing the original paean to capitalism over Christmastide. However, knowledge of the rules does not equal victory when low information players gang up on someone who cares about the game outcome.  Then again, that sounds like the current political games in the District of Calamity.

h/t: Slate V

This Is What Democracy (Really) Looks Like

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.”      (attributed to) Ben Franklin

While attributions to Franklin may not quite be on the money since the term lunch did not enter into common parlance until the 1820s, the meat of this food for thought is still quite fulfilling.   It aptly captures the tyranny of the majority and class warfare epitomized by the ineptocracy currently in power.  To borrow a phrase from the unmasked Occupy Movement "This is what democracy looks like".

The coda of this faux Franklin phrase alludes to the Second Amendment, which protects Americans from tyranny.  It is important to recognize why the Second and the Fourth Amendments were included in the Bill of Rights.  The British tried to enforce burdensome laws on their British American colonies without any input by the citizenry.  When Americans balked at things like the Stamp Act and the Tea Act (1773), the powers that be doubled down on their policies by sending in massive force and forcing the colonists to quarter the Red Coats. Taxation without Representation is more than a slogan that DC Statehood activists have ironically re-appropriated.   The right to keep and bear arms was not about helping hunting but as natural rights which  are backstops against anarchy and organized tyranny to protect property rights.

Ineptocracy Epitomized

In this topsy turvy world where rich progressive politicians desperate to retain  their own power have align themselves with the Occupy Movement.  In reaction some wise wag has coined a neologistic definition for our strange strain of governing:

Ineptocracy-  a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing and where members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscate wealth of the diminishing number of producers.

It's bad enough that those most capable of creating jobs are constantly fleeced by redistrubutionist rhetoric, fair minded public policy are having their reason taxed by these  fair share fallacies.  We do not need an ineptocracy lead us to a cacotopia from 1984 instead of the promised land.