"The wealthy, not only by private fraud but also by common laws, do every day pluck and snatch away from the people some part of their daily living. Therefore, when I consider and weigh in my mind these commonwealths which nowadays do flourish, I perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich men in procuring their own commodities under the name and authority of the commonwealth.

They invent and devise all means and crafts, first how to keep safely without fear of losing that which they have unjustly gathered together, and next how to hire and abuse the work and labor of the people for as little money and effort as possible."

Thomas More, Utopia

Thursday, December 24, 2009

A Soldier's Story

When cannon fodder become self aware, the Empire has not long to thrive. Let's encourage this trend.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Power of Money

The truth is there really is no better argument for publicly funded elections than the Barockstar's triumph. Think about it. Tens of millions raised during the past election cycle by the FIRE sector and viola! The greatest heist of the public purse in recorded human history with the bailouts and the continuation of pay as you go "healthcare" only now with the state acting as a handy coercion mechanism will soon be the new normal. This latter legislation has been accurately described by Arthur Silber as the Fuck You To Death Act by the way for there is no better description.

That always fascinating interplay between the money of the owning classes and the elected officials alleged to be working in our interest is by far the surest method of maintaining--and in the case with the Wall Street giveaway--"improving" the status quo. Since so much has already been written about the successful heist of the US Treasury by the Wall Street hustlers I thought I'd draw some attention to an essay by Louis Proyect where he details how the process works on a smaller, perhaps more digestible scale. In this example we follow the exploits of local southern California titans Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of Paramount Farms which is the largest grower of almonds and pistachio nuts in the world and also, among other things, the Franklin Mint which should be familiar to insomniacs across the American landscape.

Bonus:
This story may be the most humorous of 2009 as we witness a hapless entrepreneur suffer the unintended consequences of greed and exploitation when Kung Fu monkeys attack. (hat tip to Elaine Supkis at Culture of Life News)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Negotiation Not Imposition

So say the workers of British Airways. Management at BA hoped to use the recession/depression as an opportunity to rape-stomp the workforce but have now run into a bit of a snag. Richard Seymour of Lenin's Tomb fills in the details of this superb worker action.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Pardon the detour...

... but she's back:

Goodness gracious how that boosts my spirits! Back to regularly scheduled bitching a bit later.

War Is Peace

My apologies for the long absence but I really needed the rest for I found myself in something of a rut creatively. Perhaps it was a case of Obama fatigue what with the Prince of Peace predictably delivering the goods for his primary constituents on Wall Street, the war profiteers feeding at the Pentagon trough, and the "healthcare" industry vampires. In any event, the Barockstar has officially taken ownership of the "good" war in Af/Pak with his major escalation speech at West Point so I may as well deal with it in this little space of mine. That's the plan at least. I've had the outlines of a few essays on this theme rolling around in my head for quite awhile now and I think it's about time they saw the light of day. In the meantime I'd like to leave you with a few words from Chris Floyd for whom it can never be said, "the guy just doesn't get it".