The Blog

Are you sure Mumbles didn't really win the Wal-Mart "outstanding achievement award" for 'Most Helpful City Official", given only to those who value swag over a living wage being paid to Wal-Mart's workers? Maybe they'll give him a really special award, when he helps them to turn any neighborhood not on his 'gentrification' list into Wal-Mart covered wastelands.

Does Wal-Mart sell rain barrels?

Are those rain barrels produced in China? With child labor? And the byproducts dumped into those pristine rivers throughout China? The Mayor should be so honored to living up to his Commerce Sec Brothers legacy of selling out the working class to a repressive, communist country. But let's not let Beijing be the only host of an extravagant sporting event with little benefits to citizens who built this great city. Let’s show off the ‘hog butcher capital of the world’ that no longer butchers hogs or produces much any more, and keep pushing out the working class and distracting them with low priced shit no one really needs, but is a useful distraction for morons like Moore! Da Mayor could care less what any of think of the value of Wal-Mart - he is busy in Rio watching who will be hosting the Olympics, and has succeeded in distracting everyone with this wasteful bid as he consolidates the abuse of TIFs and prepares to leave office as the CTA and our schools fall apart.

"Da Mayor......prepares to leave office....."? Say it ain't so, Joe!

WE THE WORKERS OF THE COOK COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND OUR LEADER THE GREAT MAYOR DALEY. HAVE A RIGHT TO BENEFIT FROM THE RICHES OF OUR GREAT CITY.WE ARE BEING UNJUSTLY CRITICIZED,AND THREATEN WITH JAIL, BY LOSERS.THE 11,19 AND THE AND OUR HDO WORKERS PROVIDE MANY BENEFITS TO THE CITY AND TAXPAYERS.MAYOR DALEY IS A SAINT,AND CAN DO NO WRONG.THE MAYOR IS RUNNING THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT OUT OF THE CITY. MOST OF THE PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS ARE DEMOLISHED. HE HAS LEASED THE SKYWAY,AND PUBLIC GARAGES SO TAXES WILL NOT GO UP.CTA HAS A SMART NEW BOSS.THE SCHOOLS ARE IN GREAT SHAPE ,DUNCAN IS DOING A GREAT JOB. STORIES OF CORRUPTION ARE BEING OVER PLAYED BY LOSERS AND HATERS.SORICH SHOULD BE CLEARED OF THE WRONGFUL CONVICTION. THE MAYOR AND I WILL HAVE MORE FUND RAISERS TO HELP HIS FAMILY IF HE IS INCARCERATED. MAYOR FOR THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS.

AND HE HAS A SPIFFY NEW TROUPHY TO ADD TO THAT UNIMPRESSIVE LIST FROM A CORRUPTING CORPORATE CULTURE TO SHOW HOW LITTLE HAS BEEN DONE FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT. DA MAYOR DESERVES A SENTENCE OF A THOUSAND YEARS.

There has been a greening under Mayor Daley It is the green lining of the pockets of Mayor Daley's friends like Tim Degnan Jerry Joyce Walsh construction McDonough Oscar Dangelo Fred Barbera Mike Tadin Michael Marchese Victor Reyes John Daley Michael Daley Bill Daley Daley's wife's friends It is the Greening of Chicago $$$$$$$$

I apologize for not posting recently, been busy trying to get a Westridge High Tech Center project seed funded. (No luck. I really wish I WAS a tool. Could get the money then. Its even self funding once the sunk costs are covered. Lower city IT costs, train students in the area, it has all sorts of side benefits. Unfortunately, we need Meth and crack treatment centers more. ) Westridge (40th and 50th wards) doesn't have a problem with employment or greenery. We got lots(literally). But we do have a problem with high property taxes due to a low commercial base. We could really use a Walmart here, say, along Lincoln avenue someplace, as an anchor store. Since most of our retail base is ethnic, Walmart would hardly compete with them. In addition, since the suburbs (where Walmart already is) is on our north and west sides, we have to compete with Walmart anyways; we might as well let them shore up our tax base and use that to make our small businesses more profitable by disproportionately lowering the SME's share of taxes. As far as China goes, however, I think everyone is not understanding America's strategy in dealing with China. It is basically the same as the UK's strategy in the Opium wars, with cash replacing Opium. (You think the Chinese would have learned by now. For some reason, the only Pacific Rim nations that ever got it was Malaysia and Singapore.) It may seem silly (or treasonous) to pump trillions of dollars into the Chinese economy, but think about it for a second. There are 1.3 billion poor Chinese who now have access to what is basically an unlimited flow of credit and consumer goods. Effectively, what that means is that a culture which has never had experience with credit cards has been handed a platinum card and no one is sending them the bill...yet. Now thats a recipe for disaster for China if there is ever one. And thats exactly whats happening. Everything is out of control over there. Pollution, corruption, you name it. To get your children into a good school, you have to purchase a bond from the school, thats how bad it is. And the bills about to come due (2009-2011) with predictable result s. Remember "the Japan that could say no", back in the 1980's? and what happened to them? All the fear over Japanese consumer Electronics? And now an American is CEO of Sony (http://www.connectedhomemag.com/HomeTheater/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=45651). an American company (Apple) reigns supreme in consumer electronics, and Japans economy has never really recovered. Same thing is about to happen to China, and American companies buying cheap Chinese goods were the key. And it has had it's side benefits as well. I work with the homeless, senior citizens, and recent immigrants, the poorest of the poor, trying to help them. Those cheap Chinese goods are what makes it possible for them to survive. Yes, I would like to see everyone get a higher wage. But if America's strategy was to work, American businesses had to buy enormous amounts of Chinese made goods, and then somehow get rid of them so they could buy more. That meant selling at as low a price as possible, including lowering workers wages. And in a few years, it is going to pay off in lots of jobs for Americans. Those 1.3 billion Chinese now have a taste for consumer goods, and never had enough arable land (only 12% of China is farmable). The only way they can recover from all the pollution is to cut way down on the industry, and, well, if you were a mainland Chinese, and had a choice between possibly contaminated native grown food and imported American food, well, what would YOU choose? And to add icing to the cake, Western businesses, due to direct foreign investment, now own most of the Chinese companies that are likely to survive, which means there soon will be exclusive access for western companies to a 1.3 billion customer market....and all the jobs that will generate. As the premiere city for international business in 2017, Chicago will be in a prime position to snag a disproportionate share of those jobs. So I don't blame companies for selling those cheap Chinese goods. I just worry what is going to happen in 2-4 years, when they are no longer available.

And to think, that all this time, we was all scared that the cheap china-made imports were ruining our economy, decimating our manufacturing industries and putting millions of our fellow citizens out of work, when all the time, it was just part of a master plan to economically colonize china. Wow.

"Effectively, what that means is that a culture which has never had experience with credit cards has been handed a platinum card and no one is sending them the bill...yet. " you've got it totally backwards. our country is the one on the massive spending spree, we're almost $9 trillion in the hole - that's $9,000,000,000,000 - and our trade imbalances to China/everybody mean we are the ones getting colonized, just take a look at who owns our foreign debt (China has been slowly divesting while sketchy characters like "Caribbean Banking Concerns" have been picking up the slack) and who has been snapping up our resources/real estate (hint: Saudia Arabia is a good place to start). Dive into the nitty-gritty if you dare: http://www.greatreality.com/DebtGlance.htm Current Monthly Interest $35,348,000,000 (average for the past 6 months) Your Personal Share* $242.20/month *Personal share figures are derived by dividing national totals by the number of employed Americans. The only jobs we're going to see are more service sector jobs, as outside countries continue to snatch market share of the dwindling number of high tech ones.

And slick randy figures we're ALL a bunch of chump suckers. I can believe randy's a Stone supporter, they both have traveled on the same road and have both arrived at the same destination, as in Senility Central.

The greening of Chicago to Richard Michael Daley is: 1. MONEY and 2. IRISH that is the real greening

Guess what, nobody cares.

Actually, no, that 9 trillion is very misleading. That is one of the most hilarious parts of this whole economic warfare plan The key is that the only safe place to invest serious money is America, China, for example, has over a trillion in bad debts in it's system, and all institutional investors know that. In addition, the Chinese markets are in a bubble larger than the US's in the 1990's, and there is going to be a lot of wealth destruction over the next few years. So all that money thats flowing out of the US is flowing right back in in the form of investments, just like it did with the Japanese in the 1980's. Remember what happened to all those Japanese investments? Same thing here, but they added a new twist. A law was passed a while back, stating that any money earned outside the US by US companies wasn't taxable until it came back inside the US. Every wonder why they would pass such a silly law? It was because the net effect was to let all those investment dollars flowing back into the US go back outside and be used to buy foreign companies, specifically Pacific Rim companies like China's. The net effect is that the US just bought the Pacific Rim (including China) with it's own money. Now THAT'S what I call capitalism... In the meantime, China has been wasting a large part of it's money, and spending the rest on development projects in the third world in order to ensure a flow of resources. Bad idea, REALLY, REALLY bad idea for the Chinese economy, but China has never really had any experience dealing with other countries on foreign territories, and so hasn't a clue whats about to happen. Resource development requires a lot of "sunk costs", i.e. initial investments in developing the infrastructure which is why poverty stricken southern hemisphere countries haven't done it by themselves, and instead are letting China do it. However, history has shown that once that infrastructure is developed, the countries involved nationalize the infrastructure and the investors are out their sunk costs. You are seeing this process starting up now in Africa with MEND and in South America with Chavez's New Bolivarists. There are lots of other booby traps about to be sprung. For example, the politicians left out a few details on Three Gorges Dam, China's premiere infrastructure project. The upshot is that in a few years, they will either have to shut it down or lose a significant portion of their population (Thixotropic clay runoff from the dam is lubricating the China Plate. Think of eastern china as a tiddlywink and the dam as a gigantic thumb pressing on on western edge... Anyone wanna call heads or tails?) China is not winning the economic war, it's already lost it on all fronts. And it's a good thing, too. The China that emerges from this mess (2020-2040) is going to be a modern nation, ready to take its place in the world. Most of the ancient cruft in their political and cultural systems won't survive the upheavals, and they will have a respect for the environment (geological,cultural and legal) that is lacking in their society today. You know, I can be reasonably certain that everyone on this board believes that politicians will hang on to every bit of power they can get at all costs. What I am having trouble with is understanding why you also believe that those same politicians would give away all of America's economic power without a fight. I mean, Treasury secretary Paulson is also head of Goldman Sachs, the largest investment bank in the world. You don't get to be that unless you really understand all of economics. More importantly, the head of a major investment bank is a LOT more powerful position than, say, even the President of the US, who has to beg the Investment banks for money to get elected. The only reason Paulson would bother with as minor a position as Treasury secretary is because there was some big economic plan in the works, and he wanted to make sure it went well.

So, the bankers run the world? Not the workers? Or the politicians? Or the ubiquitous people? Or the various 'chorches? Or ???? Just the money-changers?

"The key is that the only safe place to invest serious money is America," There is some truth to this, except it largely plays out in real estate - go to Florida and you'll find out there are hordes of middle/upper class people from South/Latin America buying up condos and waterfront property, this has also been happening in London and other such cosmopolitan cities for hundreds of years, my brother's old apartment building in London was owned by a guy in Istanbul (where of course, all the investment returns ended up going). but you can't just wave a magic wand and pretend the debt isn't real, or crippling - just paying the interest gobbles up something like 1/6 or 1/7 of our entire federal budget, that's money that could be going into developing new energy sources, shoring up ports, better books/computers, etc for our kids so they aren't at a disadvantage relative to their peers overseas, it just goes on and on. You also are confusing debts on paper with an actual accumulation of the wealth that keeps its value as nations come and go, such as gold, silver, and rare minerals such as tungsten, etc. I think you also greatly underestimate the Chinese. Their civilization is 4,000 years old, I put my money on them outlasting the USA (all of 230 years old) should push come to shove. Read Lords of the Rim by Sterling Seagrave for a much longer historical perspective: http://www.amazon.com/Lords-Rim-Sterling-Seagrave/dp/0399140115/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3617547-6341419?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184335125&sr=8-1 From Publishers Weekly On one level, this book is a lively version of Chinese history from 1100 B.C. to the present, through the screen of the dealings of its merchant class. On another level, it is an Arabian Nights tale of scandal, war, politics and, above all, money-making. "To be rich is good," runs an old Chinese proverb. On yet another level, it is a brilliant analysis of the enormous power wielded by a widely scattered group of 55 million Chinese merchants who live in self-imposed or government-ordered exile throughout Asia and, increasingly, in the U.S. and Canada. In the scramble of Western entrepreneurs for footholds in China's enormous markets, asserts Seagrave (The Soong Dynasty), this is the group to reckon with. They're already there. They have a hammerlock on commerce in nearly every country of the Pacific Rim. It is they who financed the current economic boom that has made China the third largest market in the world after the U.S. and Japan, and they who have the greatest stakes in which direction post-Deng China takes. To top off his engrossing account, Seagrave speculates on several possibilities including the breakaway of some southern regions, origin of most of the overseas Chinese, into independent countries. Seagrave has delivered an engrossing mercantile history and he looks forward, with a blend of apprehension and admiration, to the early 21st century, when China is expected to become the world's largest market and the Chinese to join the ranks of the world's most powerful producers. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Seagrave, the son of missionary parents, has written numerous books about the Far East, including Dragon Lady (LJ 3/15/92). He believes that today 55 million expatriate Chinese dominate the economy of the Pacific Rim. Here he explores how these overseas Chinese came to be so powerful. Seagrave begins in the 11th century B.C.E., when merchants were exiled to the South China coast by the oppressive Chou dynasty. They then moved offshore, establishing economic power bases. Seagrave describes how over the centuries the overseas Chinese became incredibly rich. He discusses many contemporary issues, including their financing of the economic boom in China, how they achieved an edge on Western companies, and how even the Japanese cannot do business without their assistance. His is an engaging and absorbing history appropriate for the general reader as well as the specialist. Highly recommended.?W. L. Wuerch, Micronesian Area Research Ctr., Univ. of Guam Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thank you for another thoughtful comment, to help balance randy's off the cuff perspectives. The links you have so far provided have been thought provoking, to say the least.

thanks. to respond to this: "What I am having trouble with is understanding why you also believe that those same politicians would give away all of America's economic power without a fight." This is pretty much the dictionary definition of selling out your constituency for personal gain. It gets down to what you think of as "America." The uber-wealthy are quite content to live in their walled, gated compounds with private security forces, they don't give a flying f*** about what is happening in the poor urban areas, as it doesn't touch them directly (and urban mayhem and riots and so forth actually provide investment possibilities galore in the long run, see "East Garfield Park"). If all these types were truly concerned about America, they wouldn't be moving their assets off shore to Caribbean & Swiss banks - just recently we heard Halliburton was relocating its headquarters to Dubai -ostensibly to be "near their investments" (which are really OUR investments), but more likely is due to a realization that with a Democratic Congress prying open the financing irregularities with the Iraq War, it's best to have an escape plan. None of this is new. Old money is quite adept at moving to where ever politicians can be influenced, the S & L crisis certainly comes to mind - the money looted was never recovered & taxpayers bailed them out in the end, Enron is similar - we get left holding the bag. ' ' This is often quite legal, recently we saw United declare bankruptcy, the board/CEO give themselves big bonuses while successfully dumping their pension obligations on the taxpayers. So the union pilots get screwed, the taxpayers get screwed, but the guys at the top get rewarded? that's not right. that's also not a sign of a healthy society, at some point something has gotta give.

Yep, 'quite legal' indeed. And who's making the laws? You only get one guess. Keep posting. :)

So someone at the reader must like the Tool as they have removed a post in response to July 12th 11:30 entry. How sad that the reader has chosen to censor those of us who are trying to point out the absurdity of Randy and his ilk’s BS statements. I guess I will have to find a different forum to participate in. And the Reader was on such a nice role of exposing our local hacks for what they are, yet another missed opportunity to provide a forum to truly express our disgust at a state/county/city government that are rotten to the core. The Reader must think it is appropriate to join the main stream and let folks like the Tool go unchallenged. I hope they change soon, or this will cease to an open forum, and reserved for the machine and their apologists.

Thank god people are finally exposing this green-scamming. It took a decade for the blue bag con game to be stopped, even though it had been exposed years ago. Another sad joke is the demolition of solid vintage Chicago-style buildings to put up "green buildings." What about the fossil fule energy required to demolish the old building and cart the rubble away. What about the permanent waste that the wreckage produces? And what about all the materials and fossil fuel energy needed to construct the "green building." In this scenario, the greenest building is the one that doesn't get built. That thinking makes too much sense though. It might stop the creation of a new "green builiding" that could gain another reward for Daley.

How about showin' a little backbone here, I've had numerous posts removed and I keep coming back. Do what I do, save the page each time you post, then you'll be able to repost what's been removed, and still express your displeasure. There MUST be SOME-ONE person who decides what's 'worthy' of keeping up and what's 'not', and I doubt it's either Ben or Mick. Could there be a machine 'mole' crawling around the offices of the Chicago Reader?

What Mayor Daley did to Jim McTighe and his family is a sin and crime. Mayor Daley should apologize to this poor man and his family.

"Da Chicago Way Let's step back a bit, and look at things from an historical perspective. Immense wealth can be gained from the manipulation of real estate values. Here's how it's been done in Chicago: 1) determine which areas have the potential of being attractive to those blessed with high incomes and ample financial resources. (Transportation facilities, classic architecture, established parks and recreation facilities, proximity to the Loop, etc. are all pluses.) 2) Neglect the chosen target areas for as long as possible, for the purpose of depreciating property values by, among other means, decreasing safety related activities, (or encourage the perception of same), neglecting the infrastructure, pandering to prejudices, harassing individual, cloutless homeowners thru punitive building code citations, etc.. 3) Buy up, thru dummy corporations and such, properties of those fleeing the neglected area, then neglect and milk said properties or demolish same. 4) Continue accumulating properties, with or without buildings on them and continue to neglect the areas' remaining residents' basic needs, as property prices drop even further. 5) Entice the ever optimistic and gutsy 'urban pioneers', with dirt cheap rentals and a few reasonably priced building sales, (tho still making you double-to-triple on what you paid for them) 6) Watch and Wait, while the 'urban pioneers' do all your work for you. 7) As the time to cash in approaches, stimulate the progress of the process by beginning the work of repairing and improving those past neglected infrastructures and increasing the activities effective in increasing the safety of residents, (or the perception of same). 8) Raise rents on all your previously neglected and milked properties, thus forcing out any remaining 'undesirables'. (and remember NOT to thank them for their past contributions relative to depressing property values) 9) Cash in, BIG TIME, when those previously mentioned individuals with high incomes and ample resources now flock to the new 'hot' neighborhood. 10) Oh, don't forget to juice the builders and contractors who'll also be gathering at your doorstep, begging for the chance to build on those vacant lots you've been sitting on or buy them for 20 to 50 times what you got them for. and DATS DA CHICAGO WAY" "Let's take a peek into the Political Hack's Playbook: 1) If telling the truth HELPS you, tell the truth. (however rarely this is true for an incumbent). 2) If telling the truth HURTS you, tell a lie, particularly a lie that is impossible to prove is a lie. 3) When lying, coat your lies with as much truth as possible, so the lie APPEARS to be true. 4) When confronted with your lies, vigorously assert that you're NOT lying and accuse those who say you are, OF LYING. 5) Avoid lying about things that can be PROVEN to be lies, tho, you can ALWAYS challenge the honesty of those who present the proof of your lies. 6) Do your very best to keep some sort of track of your lies, so you don't waste energy lying when you are confronted with conflicting lies. 7) Whenever possible, always have OTHERS lie for you, so you can denounce them, if and when they are caught lying. 8) When caught in a lie, change the subject and focus on telling those lies that have, so far, not been proven to be lies. 9) Tell the truth sparingly, as, if the truth were helpful to you, you wouldn't have to tell so many lies in the first place. There's a lot more stuff in the Political Hack's Playbook, but I think this is enough for now, don't you?"

some older posts for you to consider: "You raise many interesting points, and I thank you for taking the time to post them. I've pondered many of them and have come to the conclusion that we can't begin to find solutions until we face the unpleasant truth that we've been thoroughly snookered for many generations. Snookered into believing that our votes only have value when we use them to vote for the candidate of our choice. This would be just fine, if we had choices that were varied enough to BE choices. The established political parties have done a thorough job of usually keeping our choices limited to two candidates, the incumbent and one challenger. And it's painfully common for the incumbent to be of one major party and the challenger to be of the other. Because the election rules, written by the politicians of one or the other of these two parties, are so effective in obstructing any other political party's candidates, or candidates independent of any political party, from getting on the ballot, what we're faced with, on election day, is basically no choice at all. You ask the question of how we can influence the actions of our elected officials. I don't believe they are ever influenced by anything other than the thought that they might not be reelected. So, they concentrate on doing those things that garner them the things they believe will keep them in office. Many times those things are primarily money, from whatever sources, and support from those citizens who live within the areas that vote for them, so, taking care of your constituents seems like it would be the best way to get reelected. Unfortunately, the well-informed politician knows that he or she doesn't need to take care of EVERY one of their constituents, only those who they can count on to vote for them and get others to vote for them. And, since voter participation is, at best, less than 50% of those registered to vote, and, since those registered are, at best, 50% of those who are qualified to vote, politicians know that they need only to get no more than 13% of their total, eligible to vote, constituents to show up on election day and vote for them, to get reelected. That's about 1 in 11 constituents that the incumbent needs to show up and vote for them. The other 10 constituents don't matter, as they either aren't registered to vote, are registered, but don't show up on election day, or their votes are irrelevant, because they can't overcome the solid number of constituents that the incumbent can depend upon. And they, the established politicians, enjoy the benefits of this abysmally low voter participation. In case you noticed that some don't like to allow opinions that threaten the established political powers continued domination, I've re-posted some comments that were removed by the lone censor at the Reader: "re B K Ray of light June 7th - 6:03 a.m. I've been pondering the very, essential problem you speak of, namely, how have we come to be the people that we are, so very different from those elegant and humble people of the Civil Rights Movement, not so very long ago. There are many 'reasons' we, as a nation, have strayed so far from the ideals embodied in our national and state Constitutions, the most basic ones, I believe, are the following: 1) We allow those who don't believe, and never have, nor ever will believe, in these ideals, to acquire the power to not only make our laws, but to interpret them and adjudicate them. The ideal 'separation of powers' is thus invalidated and rendered impotent, primarily BECAUSE of the present '2 party system', which, if you've noticed, is effectively a 1 party system, that 'party' being the party of the 'professional politicians'. 2) Having allowed this 'one-minded' group of 'professionals' to gain, and keep, control of our governments, (on all levels), for so very long a period of time, we find ourselves in the difficult position of having to overcome the relentless conditioning, (through propagandas fed us, from the time we enter kindergarten, on through our high school and college years and into the working world), which has led so many to confuse true representative democracy with what presently passes for same. True representative democracy requires that those who we elect to represent us KNOW, without a doubt, that we are ALL paying close attention to how well or how badly they do so and are ALL prepared to 'un-elect' them, should they fail in their duty to satisfactorily represent us. Since we, the people, have failed in OUR duty, to pay attention, to question, monitor, and require accountability and truthful disclosures, it's not surprising that those we have 'elected' take it for granted that they can pretty much do whatever they want to, all in the name of our 'best interests'. 3) We also have failed, because of the aforementioned conditioning, to understand that, in a true democracy, our government employees, (elected, appointed, hired or contracted), are NOT, nor have they EVER BEEN, meant to be our leaders, nor were we meant to be their followers. Quite to the contrary, the very essence of a democratic social, legal and governmental system is for as close to all of the citizens to take an active part in their own governance. Some will claim that this is not so, quoting the 'representative' aspect of our original democracy. If one bothers to do the historical research, one will find that this aspect of our historical system of government was based on the vast, physical distances between our citizens, the lack of efficient means of communications over those distances and, thus, the necessity for 'representatives' to be delegated the authority to act in the people's interests, as regional groups and as a whole nation. We are no longer limited by these factors. 4) The essential weakness in the present concept we've been conditioned to accept, of how our democratic government is 'supposed' to function, is that those presently in 'power' have, for many decades, acted as if they're playing a game called 'divide-and-conquer', using the 2 party system to effectively keep most citizens from realizing just how thoroughly we are all being played, ... for suckers, that is. 5) Yes, I know, for things to change, WE, as a people, MUST change. We must choose to reject the illusionary comfort of thinking that our governments are meant to be 'gravy-trains' and the sources of 'mother's milk' and the 'hog trough', both those who manipulate to gain wealth and those who render themselves crippled and dependent on the 'bones' the 'support systems' dole meagerly out to them. Government is not meant to deliberately cripple and dis-able it's citizens, all for the purpose of keeping power and, thus control, over both the populace and their pocketbooks. Government IS meant to do ONLY as much as is truly needed for the citizens and to do no harm to same, no harm to our freedoms, no harm to our well-being, no harm to our rights and no harm to our lives and liberties. This, they have failed to do, on all levels, for a very long time. 5) Along with our freedoms and rights, we have to accept and embrace our responsibilities. We have to realize that, for so long as we choose to abandon our ideals, we shall suffer the consequences resulting from same. One simple rule will suffice, namely, 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you'. Let's do the misguided rascals a big favor, give them all, Retardicans and Dumbocrats alike, a wake-up call and put them ALL back into the 'private sector', where they'll have a chance to learn the value of the 'Golden Rule'." "re B K Ray June 7th - 6:40 a.m. "Sadly it is not so simple as voting the bastids out" Actually, while not the complete solution to the problem, it's a beginning and it IS as simple as voting out close to all incumbents. (I say 'close to all' because our problems are caused by those many, like-minded incumbents, though there may be a few, relatively honest, relatively 'independent' incumbents.) For there to be any chance of having honest people running for office, we, the voters, must prove to them that, not only do they have a chance of getting elected, but that we WANT honest people to run for office. What better way to show this than by also proving that we no longer want the failures who are our incumbents to remain in office? And what better way to do this than to commit ourselves to voting out said incumbents? Of whatever 'political' party? Just like on a sports team, when they have a losing season, they choose to keep the players who made the best and most honest efforts and they trade or let go of the rest and replace them with those who they believe will also do their honest best. Since both parties consist of 'professional' politicians, 'professional' manipulators and persuaders, (commonly known as bullshitters, con-men, hustlers, fast-talkers, bunko-artists, etc.), it's safe to conclude that most all of them would do a much better job of 'serving' the public if they were to be booted out of public office and end up getting work at the local fast food restaurant. They'd then learn the true meaning of 'serving the public'. Once the entrenched incumbents are ousted, then the real work for the voting public would begin. Then, and only then, will we all have to pay close attention to those seeking public service office. Then, and only then, would those in the field of journalism be truly challenged to provide us all with the facts on those running for office, not merely spin their wheels, trying vainly to dig up the hidden piles of dirt on those whose profession is creating dirt and hiding it from public view. If a man has a garden full of weeds, he is well advised to, before planting, thoroughly plow his field, so he can start the season fresh and clean. Then, as time goes by, he can pull individual weeds as they appear. If, however, a man chooses to plant without clearing out the weeds, he'll soon find that he'd better develop a taste for eating weeds, as all of his vegetables will be choked out by them. We've got a shitload of weeds in our political garden and they've been choking the life out of us. It's time to plow the field under and start fresh." "re B K Ray June 7th - 10:28 a.m. What I've been thinking about is, what might we discover, about our governments, (city, township, county, state and federal), the people who make up said governments, (and they all ARE people, sort of just like you and I, albeit sort of NOT like you and I), the principles and practices involved in the operations, management and formation of policies, procedures, rules and regulations and the general behaviors exhibited by the people who make up our governing bodies, those elected, appointed by those elected, hired by those elected and contracted by those elected, should we explore the workings and thinking processes of all of the above? What might we discover, should we examine, and ponder, the ideas and ideals which we have been taught are the principles by which these individual people-of-government use to guide themselves in all of the activities which they purport to be 'in our best interests'? What could we possibly begin to understand, about the true natures of the many who present themselves as 'servants-of-the-public's-greater-good, but whose actions actually result in most everything BUT good for that public? I propose that we begin the arduous process of questioning EVERYTHING that EVERY professional politician says, does and says he/she will do. Not questioning the ideas and ideals on which we all depend upon, for our innate sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what is helpful and what is hurtful, what is wanted and what is unwanted, what is accepted and what is rejected, what is desirable and what is undesirable, what will be beneficial and what would be detrimental, what has helped and what has harmed. We would, I hope, all believe that we have a God-given right to freedom, liberty, privacy, unnecessary burdens, fairness, justice, truth and honesty, mutual respect, honor, peace, friendship, fellowship and safety. That we must struggle to achieve these rights is not at issue, but that we must contend with those who we have elected to support us, to truly represent us in the struggles to achieve, maintain and share these rights, that these 'representatives' are quite often the source of the many obstacles we must overcome to achieve these ideals, is the issue, the tragedy and the outrage that we must consider and determine what there is to be done about it. Every journey has to have a beginning. My suggestion is that the beginning of this particular journey, the one that can lead to a greater opportunity to achieve and realize our ideals, is to determine to remove the many weeds which have infested our political garden. The work of deciding what (who) to plant (elect) will naturally follow the removal of the weeds. Whoever gets elected to replace those many incumbent 'weeds' will, at the very least, know that they were elected, not because the people wanted them in office, but because the people wanted the incumbents OUT of office. This knowledge will likely motivate many who win office to tread carefully during their first term, as they will be painfully conscious that it may be their ONLY term. What the voters can do once, they can do again. And again. And again. And again. As many times as it takes for those seeking to serve their fellow citizens to KNOW, without a doubt, that they will have to be true to the aforementioned ideals, if they have any desire to GAIN public office and REMAIN in public office. Quite a contrast, to the present attitudes held by our so-called public servants. Sure, they all talk a good game, but, as we all know, talk is cheap. Except when enough voters believe it, the it gets real expensive for us all. If it seems like I hold opinions that don't acknowledge the many good things that the people who make up our governments have done, do, and will continue to do, it's only because I know that many of us are prone to tolerance and forgiveness, traits which are of little use when weeds need to be pulled and pulled quick. The quality of mercy is not strained, but, when our better selves are exactly what is being used to exploit us, we must bear up and focus on doing what we must, all saintly impulses to the contrary. Those who would, and do, deceive and manipulate us have many tricks-of-the-trade at their disposal. What I propose is that we dismiss all of their scheming ways and get directly down to the business of throwing the liars, cheaters, exploiters of fear, hatred, animosities and worries out, and concern ourselves with who, specifically and long-term, will replace them, when the playing field is cleared of all weeds and is leveled and made fair, honest and sane." uh, jerry June 27th - 6:18 p.m. "The fact that Riche II keeps receiving the overwhelming majority of only those white, black, brown and Asian Chicagoans who bother to register to vote, and who then bothered to actually vote means nothing." Actually, jerry, it means EVERYTHING. It means that, unless we assume that those who don't vote are, in reality, expressing their substantial satisfaction with everything governments do, we can conclude that there are both other reasons why citizens don't vote, and that those ruining, I mean, running, our governments do not possess a true mandate to do so, only a mandate enabled by neglect, the neglect of many citizens to act responsibly concerning their precious right-to-vote. I'm interested in exploring the reasons citizens don't vote, in all their varieties, as well as the ways and means those in power influence, manufacture and manipulate those reasons."

Umm, actually, yes, the financial people Do run the world. You might want to read Angus Maddisons (the leading authority on the subject (http://www.ggdc.net/Maddison/) or, if you want a more popular style, THe coming China Wars (http://www.peternavarro.com/comingchinawars.html) or "Confessions of an Economic hitman" http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-Man-Currents/dp/1576753018 Most of my conclusions, are based on my own original research into national competitive strategy over the past several decades. There are a number of what I perceive as differences between our views on China, and I would like to take this time to examine them. THe power structures in CHina depend on an institution known as guanxi, which roughtly corresponds to the "old boy" networks readers of this blog like to rail against. In short, in China, it is who you know, rather than the law, that rules. The government is basically whoever is king of the hill among these groups at the moment, and the legal system have little if any power. see http://www.icgg.org/downloads/contribution10_schramm.pdf for example Hu Jin Tao (whom I admire greatly) is trying to change that, because without a legal system, China is unable to exist on the international stage. He will fail, and in two to four years, there will be peasant uprising (and, interestingly enough, a middle class uprising this time)just like there has been every other time in history a Chinese leader has challenged the guanxi networks. (there is a lot more to this, but I can't cover it all in a single post) And he will succeed, later, thanks to the US economic warfare strategy. The guanxi networks form what is known as a "water economy", they canoot be broken without outside intervention. Breaking the power of the guanxi networks will require a massive transformation crisis, and thats exactly what the US is providing. With regard to China and competition with cheap labor, a few minutes investigation should show you the falsity of that premise. Modern factories are automated, and labor costs are not significant in terms of operating costs. Cinese goods are cheap because their resources are subsidized (by US proxies). This has had two effects. Chinese manufacturing is forced to compete on cost. This generates inducements to cut costs whenever possible, which leads to pollution, corruption and shoddy manufacturing, with the subsequent harm to the reputation of Chinese products and living conditions, and accenting the differences in the classes, further inducing instability in the social structure. The other effect is to disrupt the power of the traditional guanxi networks, as new power structures form and dissolve based on wealth accumulation. Once the subsidies are withdrawn, the new networks will also collapse, leaving the Chinese government with a relatively strong position towards forming a true central authority. For somewhat difference reasons, thats what both the US and Chinese governments want. THere are a number of reasons for that, but, for now, lets take the one relevant to the subject of this blog entry, global climate change. Many years ago, a XCinese leader (Mao Tse Tung) got into an argument wtih Stalin over steelmaking, and decided to get all Chinese to start producing steel. He also order all CHinese to have lots of children, so he would have a large workforce. THis was the start of China's immense population problem, and may have doomed China to poverty forever. It also may have been the start of global climate change. The Tibetan Plateau is the highest point on earth, and therefore most exposed to the energy of the sun. The heat from the sun is transformed into melted snow and ice, which provides fresh water for half the human race clustered underneath it in the Pacific Rim. Basically, it is a hot water radiator the size of a continent. It is the cause of the monsoons in India and the droughts in Africa (As a matter of fact, it is widely believed that the human race evolved intelligence as a direct result of the forming of the Tibetan plateau and subsequent drying out of Africa) The massive increase in the Chinese population, well beyond what the limits of the environment would support, has had two effects on the plateau. First of all, the amount of land in use has increased to 60% as population pressure drove civilization of the less desirable regions of the plateau. This has altered the albedo (reflectivity) of the plateau so more heat has been absorbed. Which is just as well, because the population being fed by the runoff has tripled to several billion. Several billion people at 98.6 degrees each (plus whatever heat their activities generate) not only generate considerable heat, they remove the water at the base, thus allowing more water to run off. A number of recent studies has shown that this has doubled the effect of the Tibetan Plateau's warming capabilities in just a couple of decades. You can read more about this if you google "Tibetan plateau land use coefficient global climate change" The Chinese government has been very concerned about this for decades (see for example, the 1990 report http://uneprisoe.org/CopenhagenConf/yeruqiu.htm) but had been unable to wrest enough control over the population from the networks to do anything about it. The government after the crisis four years from now will have enough control and a population traumatized by pollution damage will be fully supportive of their efforts.(Contrary to popular mythology, the Chinese people rarely listen to what their government says. With a population that large, it is easy to get lost in the crowd.) Coupled with all the other ecological disasters looming on the horizon, the sooner the Chinese government asserts real control over the activities of the Chinese population, the more likely all of us will survive China's entry into the world stage. Of course, with idiot demagogues like Al Gore promoting what amounts to pagan sacrifice to the weather gods, most climatologists are afraid to speak up, or they will lose their careers and funding.

I'm not a scientist, but I do know where you can find a forum run by the ones in question. run that climate change theory by the scientists at www.realclimate.org and let us know what they think.

randy's already set up his built-in response to any perspectives contrary to his, ie., "Of course, with idiot demagogues like Al Gore promoting what amounts to pagan sacrifice to the weather gods, most climatologists are afraid to speak up, or they will lose their careers and funding.", so, honest advice to randy falls on deaf ears. But, we can always give randy the opportunity to engage in honest discussion, however rarely he chooses to participate honestly.

How many 'financial people' do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? How many 'working people' do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? How many human beings, total, do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? Why, do you suppose, so few are in control of so many?

http://www.commondr eams.org/ news2007/ 0716-01.htm "Cook County is committed to leading by example in the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses," said Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger. "As the County that houses the City of Chicago and its dynamic suburbs, we know that our efforts have the opportunity to immediately impact literally millions of people in the region--and our partnership in Cool Counties and our commitment to its goals is a linchpin in our efforts."

ids July 16th - 9:13 p.m. http://www.commondreams.org/ news2007/ 0716-01.htm "Cook County is committed to leading by example in the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses," said Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger. "As the County that houses the City of Chicago and its dynamic suburbs, we know that our efforts have the opportunity to immediately impact literally millions of people in the region--and our partnership in Cool Counties and our commitment to its goals is a linchpin in our efforts."

maybe July 16th - 9:53 p.m. ids July 16th - 9:13 p.m. http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/ 0716-01.htm "Cook County is committed to leading by example in the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses," said Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger. "As the County that houses the City of Chicago and its dynamic suburbs, we know that our efforts have the opportunity to immediately impact literally millions of people in the region--and our partnership in Cool Counties and our commitment to its goals is a linchpin in our efforts."

maybe 2 July 16th - 9:53 p.m. maybe July 16th - 9:53 p.m. ids July 16th - 9:13 p.m. http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0716-01.htm "Cook County is committed to leading by example in the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses," said Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger. "As the County that houses the City of Chicago and its dynamic suburbs, we know that our efforts have the opportunity to immediately impact literally millions of people in the region--and our partnership in Cool Counties and our commitment to its goals is a linchpin in our efforts."

Worry about any sort of challenge. The piece of shit Tool has someone at the reader who edits our responses to him. Free and open discussion - yeah right.

"c'mon, buddy July 13th - 6:47 p.m. How about showin' a little backbone here, I've had numerous posts removed and I keep coming back. Do what I do, save the page each time you post, then you'll be able to repost what's been removed, and still express your displeasure. There MUST be SOME-ONE person who decides what's 'worthy' of keeping up and what's 'not', and I doubt it's either Ben or Mick. Could there be a machine 'mole' crawling around the offices of the Chicago Reader?" Also, try taking gordon's bullshit posts apart, 'thought' by 'thought', his posts fall apart real fast when they're considered that way. And, it's more fun, too.

"CHRIS KOZICKI July 12th - 8:30 a.m. WE THE WORKERS OF THE COOK COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND OUR LEADER, THE GREAT MAYOR DALEY, HAVE A RIGHT TO BENEFIT FROM THE RICHES OF OUR GREAT CITY. WE ARE BEING UNJUSTLY CRITICIZED, AND THREATEN WITH JAIL, BY LOSERS. THE 11,19 AND THE AND OUR HDO WORKERS PROVIDE MANY BENEFITS TO THE CITY AND TAXPAYERS. MAYOR DALEY IS A SAINT, AND CAN DO NO WRONG. THE MAYOR IS RUNNING THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT OUT OF THE CITY. MOST OF THE PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS ARE DEMOLISHED. HE HAS LEASED THE SKYWAY, AND PUBLIC GARAGES SO TAXES WILL NOT GO UP. CTA HAS A SMART NEW BOSS. THE SCHOOLS ARE IN GREAT SHAPE, DUNCAN IS DOING A GREAT JOB. STORIES OF CORRUPTION ARE BEING OVER PLAYED BY LOSERS AND HATERS. SORICH SHOULD BE CLEARED OF THE WRONGFUL CONVICTION. THE MAYOR AND I WILL HAVE MORE FUND RAISERS TO HELP HIS FAMILY IF HE IS INCARCERATED. MAYOR FOR THE NEXT THOUSAND YEARS." Hoo-fuckin'-rah.

Actually, I realized too late that I ought to explain that idiot demagogues/pagan phrase. Like I said, sometimes I don't realize that much of my background differs from that of other readers. So let me explain how religions evolve over time. Religions start out as pagan. Now "pagan" is not used as a pejorative term, it refers to the type of relationship between it's members and external events. Pagans are attempting to influence external events (like natural disasters and personal setbacks) they have no control over by using bribes and flattery. Usually there is some sort of demagogues (shamans) that take advantage of this by claiming to know the proper methods of bribing and flattery. At some point in their history, religions undergo a transformation crisis. For Jews, this was the destruction of Israel and the second temple followed by rabbinical Judaism, for Christians it was the plague and the hundred years war followed by the reformation. At the end of the crisis. three strains of the religion emerge. The first is the original pagan version. The second version is cultural and social. The religion is no longer concerned with influencing events outside it's members control, instead it is concerned with mitigating those events. Thats where we get faith based organizations from. It is also concerned with social structures as a side effect, which is where we get fellowships, social networking, etc. from. The third branch is actively attempting to take responsibility for controlling events, and denies that such events are outside it's control. That part of the religion is known as science. Because of the complexity of the issue, most popular culture theories of global climate change tend to be of the "pagan" variety. That is to say, they involve a sacrifice of something valuable, usuall accompanied by an explanation of how man's hubris is the cause of the event. That happens a lot in global climate change debate. I have no objections to that attitude, Westridge tolerance is pretty clear on allowing other people to believe what they want. The only thing we won't tolerate is intolerance, and that happens also a lot in global climate change debate. There are lot of theories in global climate change, and scientists agree, thats a good thing. Part of the religion of science is to examine all things with an open mind, and the tendency of the pagans to distort scientific results is not an issue, scientists assume anyone who is evaluating the argument is capable of spotting distortions and deciding the issue for themselves. The problem I have is when the pagans start suppressing scientists practicing thier religion. The theory that I mentioned is one that is common among climatologists. As a matter of fact, there was a paper from Georgia, I believe, published last May by the American Meteorological Society I could only quote the google search, however, because such papers are only published in journals that are not available online. Thats mainly because climatologists are afraid of losing their careers and funding since the idea goes against the pagan dogma, and there have been incidents of suppression already. Its an old issue, and, in America, it was settled with the Scopes trial until recently. As for the "idiot" adjective , well ,that was an unfortunate slip of control on my part. Mea Culpa, but I admit I am only human, and occasionally err under stress. I don't have any personal opinion of Mr Gore, he is not one of the areas I pay attention to. I do know that, back during the Clinton Presidency, most analysts, from the most rabid Clinton detractors to those that were the Clintons most fervent supporters were literally terrified Mr Gore would gain any measure of power due to their views of his personality. I have no idea why they felt that way. I allowed my knowledge of that hearsay to affect my views of Mr Gore, and in that, I was wrong to do so. P.S. By the way the "financial people" as you call them, directly represent far more people than any political body. Almost every American has investments, many in hedge funds. For those personalities of our resident Utopian (Pat, Hugh, etc) who comprise the Ballot Action posts on this board, thats an active vote in their leadership. You talk about a nine trillion deficit. In a single day, that amount flows through the financial markets, it's flow guided by the "financial people". And they aren't just concerned with earnings. Many funds offer some sort of social goal as well. Sometimes that environmental sometimes its social. Several Wall Streets essentially financed the civil rights movement, for example. Granted, they were hoping to get a piece of the emerging Black middle class communities wealth, but it was a heartfelt social goal, as well. For example, Merrill Lynch has a black CEO, Stan O'Neal and is heavily involved in fighting for the rights of minorities worldwide. Money means power to change things, and it is just human nature, when presented with the opportunity, to truy and change things for what they perceive as the better. Unlike Utopians, however, most people are unsure of what actually constitutes "better" and thus tend to limit themselves to small changes. No one knows that better than "financial people", who hold the fortunes of many small investors in their hands.

"I have no objections to that attitude, Westridge tolerance is pretty clear on allowing other people to believe what they want." It would be refreshing, to say the least, if you would, just once, refrain from using the Westridge community as a crutch, an excuse, a support and a foundation, for your not-so-subtle implication that your perspectives carry much more weight than a mere, single individual's opinion. You could stand on your own two feet, IF you wanted to, you could express your own, personal opinions, without the obvious need to bolster your perspectives, by implying that the entire community of Westridge, (at least the Jewish members), were the source of your thoughts and comments, you could restrain yourself from using your Jewish ethnicity, (and those of your neighbors), to inject an element of 'if anyone disagrees with randy, why, they must, somehow, in some way, be anti-semitic', you could post comments just like the rest of us, as individuals, not as a member of some 'group', couldn't you? Or, is that too much to hope for? Maybe, just maybe, your fellow citizens, who happen to be Jewish, might not appreciate your using them as your 'back-up' for your own, personal opinions, or hasn't that possibility even entered your mind? As for "So let me explain how religions evolve over time.", well, you kinda summed it up for me when you also wrote "Unlike Utopians, however, most people are unsure of what actually constitutes 'better' ....". So, why is it that YOU believe that YOU know what's 'better'?

Actually, I wanted to add one more thing about "Financial People" that might more sense to the readers of this blog. In several days, Rupert Murdock, owner of fox news, is going to buy the Wall Street Journal, Barrons, and Dow Jones, among other properties. He is already Hillary Clintons major fundraiser. Except for the Credit Rating Agencies (NRSRO's) these are the most influential organizations on the planet, literally controlling access to funds for every major business, since they have so much influence with Capital Markets. And its all in the hands of the folks who bring you Fox news... Now, supposedly, this is all about the launch of the Fox Financial Channel. And that may very well be true. But something smells really rotten about the whole deal. The price was WAAAY to much for what the properties were worth (about 70% more). Someone thinks they are going to get one HECK of a lot of power out of this deal. Thats the only reason they would make a bid that extravagant. Interestingly enough, a Communist Chinese couple is already accused of insider knowledge of the deal. Which leads to a very interesting question. Is this deal going to put the financial markets of the United States under the control of a foreign power? America isn't the only country that can play at economic warfare.

from the 'mouth' of randy: "Religions start out as pagan. Now 'pagan' is not used as a pejorative term, it refers to the type of relationship between it's members and external events." and "....three strains of the religion emerge." "The first is the original pagan version." "Pagans are attempting to influence external events (like natural disasters and personal setbacks) they have no control over by using bribes and flattery. Usually there is some sort of demagogues (shamans) that take advantage of this by claiming to know the proper methods of bribing and flattery." and "The second version is cultural and social. The religion is no longer concerned with influencing events outside it's members control, instead it is concerned with mitigating those events. Thats where we get faith based organizations from. It is also concerned with social structures as a side effect, which is where we get fellowships, social networking, etc. from." and "The third branch is actively attempting to take responsibility for controlling events, and denies that such events are outside it's control. That part of the religion is known as science." [Before beginning this analysis of randy's personal opinions, I'll take this opportunity to pose a question, which randy may, or may not, respond to, to wit: Do you, randy, believe to be true, accurate and factual, what you have posted in the comments quoted?] To continue: 1) the 'first version of religion', as presented by randy: "Pagans are attempting to influence external events...... they have no control over by using bribes and flattery." Hmmmmm, so randy believes that, 'in the beginning', people defaulted to 'bribery' and 'flattery' in seeking to 'control' those external events they found to be uncontrollable. Brilliant. For bullshit. (Does anyone see a parallel here, ie., our present, corrupt system of 'governments'?) 2) the 'second version of religion', as presented by randy: "..... religion is no longer concerned with influencing events outside it's members control, instead it is concerned with mitigating those events." Hmmmmm, so randy DOES NOT think, based on his NOT including it, that this 'second version' of 'religion' EVER attempts to influence it's MEMBERS actions, it's MEMBERS behaviors, it's MEMBERS thoughts, feelings and decisions, to CONTROL same, to DEFINE what is RIGHT and/or WRONG, what is ALLOWED and/or OBJECTED TO, what is PERMITTED and/or PROHIBITED, what is APPROVED and/or CONDEMNED, etc..... Revealing. To say the least. (more parallels to the techniques used by our friendly, benevolent, professional politicians) 3) the 'third version of religion', as presented by randy: "...... is actively attempting to take responsibility for controlling events, and denies that such events are outside it's control." Hmmmmm, so randy figures that 'science' is a 'religion', albeit, one that is bereft of the elements of human thought that the previous two 'versions' are based on, namely, belief that there are experiences, elements and forces of life that are 'uncontrollable', that there is/are 'forces' or 'being(s)' that are 'in control' of these 'uncontrollable elements', and, that those 'in control' of these 'uncontrollable elements' can be communicated with, appealed to and satisfied, in such a way, as to provide beneficial-to-people control of the 'uncontrollable'. Wow. More parallels to the machine hack experience. Then, surprise, surprise, randy goes on to state: "P.S. By the way the "financial people" as you call them, directly represent far more people than any political body." and "You talk about a nine trillion deficit. In a single day, that amount flows through the financial markets, it's flow guided by the 'financial people'." and "And they aren't just concerned with earnings. Many funds offer some sort of social goal as well." and "Several Wall Streets essentially financed the civil rights movement, for example." and ".... it was a heartfelt social goal....." and "Merrill Lynch has a black CEO, Stan O'Neal and is heavily involved in fighting for the rights of minorities worldwide." and "Money means power to change things...." and "No one knows that better than "financial people", who hold the fortunes of many small investors in their hands." And, yet, randy just loves Bernie, an active player in the efforts to keep the voters 'under control'. What a sweetheart randy is.

"For those personalities of our resident Utopian (Pat, Hugh, etc) who comprise the Ballot Action posts on this board...." Uh, randy, I almost forgot to thank you, for enlightening me to the existence of 'my' many clones, I wasn't aware that Professor Zarkov's experiments were successful.

Actually, the "pagan/orthodox/science concept is a mainstream scientific idea, not mine. It is evident in the study of the fundamentals of mathematics, where it originated, and in marketing, where it is used to explain shopping rituals. The nature and manipulation of power over events is central to human civilization. There is only three possible basic approaches (embrace it, live with it, or change it) and the fact that we tag those approaches with names like pagan or scientific doesn't change the fact that there are not any more possibilities to exploit. *** Wow, somebody besides me remembers Professor Zarkov and the saturday morning serials? I thought I was going to have to wait until September, when the new Flash Gordon series premieres, to use that reference. Anyhow, I do read Ballot Action Network occasionally, it, like you, are a valid part of our society. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have people have more involved in politics, or in trying to "change the system". But, everyone has a right to their own opinions, and the way they want to live their life, including those that are happy just to tend their own garden, and want nothing more than to be left alone; because they are satisfied with the world as it is. All attempts to force a vision of Utopia, whether by right wing neoconservatives or left wing radicals, have failed. They always fail. Nobody wants someone else's visions of Utopia, they have one of their own to promote. So we end up with this nice little compromise where everybody gets some of what they want. To me, thats best I can expect. In my studies, I have run across cultures that actually are the dystopia that is claimed for Chicago, mainland China being one of the best examples. Chicago is nowhere near as bad as that. As a matter of fact, I would rank it the best large city on the planet in terms of government.

"As a matter of fact, I would rank it (Chicago) the best large city on the planet in terms of government." "... those that are happy just to tend their own garden, and want nothing more than to be left alone; because they are satisfied with the world as it is." "So we end up with this nice little compromise where everybody gets some of what they want." This about sums up randy's position. Randy must have done well for himself, to be so committed to promoting the status quo and discouraging those who aren't as self-satisfied as himself. "All attempts to force a vision of Utopia, whether by right wing neoconservatives or left wing radicals, have failed. They always fail." So, when did the concept of 'force' enter the discussion? Why, when randy injected it. I'm glad that randy is a happy camper, tucked away in his Westridge garden, tending to his crops. The thing I wonder about is, why does he think his opinions have any relevance or value to those many who he doesn't give a shit about?

"so, randy July 16th - 5:58 p.m. How many 'financial people' do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? How many 'working people' do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? How many human beings, total, do you figure are alive at any given moment in time? Why, do you suppose, so few are in control of so many?" So, randy, how about some of your patented, bullshit 'wisdom' on these simple questions? Or are you too busy hustling for Bernie and your 'community'?

"Randy Gordon July 22nd - 6:32 a.m. A couple of corrections of your statements. I am not defending anything, I feel no need for that. I am perfectly willing to tolerate opposing opinions. I am doing what I always do, which is trying to help. Mick indicated that posters were needed for the board, so I am posting." A couple of corrections of your statements. "I am perfectly willing to tolerate opposing opinions." How very 'white' of you. "I am doing what I always do, which is trying to help." Yeah, but help WHO? "Mick indicated that posters were needed for the board, so I am posting." So, you got a special invite to post? Well, then post. (see above multiple comments you've declined responding to, in any substantial manner)

And while you're at it, try reviewing your many posts, with that 'scientific eye' you seem to think you've got, and see if you can figure out what you've really been saying.

(GLOBAL FORWARNING):-YHWH- John F. Kennedy Sr. was healed and hidden and will step from hiding to become the beast, aka antichrist. JFK Sr ss# is 600-60-0006. The next pope will be the false prophet. -WATCH- PLEASE REPENT AND READ THE BIBLE AND DO AS ASKED. This message is going out worldwide. ESSENES/MELCHISEDEC/CHEROKEE TROD Englewood,TnUSA-BRUCE DAVID FRAZIER-BE READY TO EMPTY ALL CITIES AND UNITE AND WORK FOR GOD.