Quote of the Day -- Poignant Version

Seems especially timely and poignant just now.

Stay safe out there, folks. Stay well. Stay home.

Quote of the Day -- On Today's Republican Party

From George Orwell, born June 25, 1903

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. 

The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. 

We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. 

The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. 

We are not like that. 

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. 

Power is not a means; it is an end. 

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. 

Now you begin to understand me.” 

― George Orwell, "1984"

Quote of the Day -- Prescient Version

This Orwellian Presidency

Did you see this? The latest out of Rudy Giuliani's mouth? And in public? On tape, no less?

Giuliani says 'truth isn't truth' 

I'm telling you, beyond all the rest of the bizarre acts and behaviors and statements from this President and people in his administration, it's clear this is the most Orwellian President and Presidency ever.

Never forget:

Which reminds me of another quote that so predicted and reminds me of this man, this supposed leader, this President, tragically.

God help us.

And if he or she can't help us then forgive.

#vote

Quote of the Day -- On This President

And note it's from a former GOP strategist. And a high-placed, long working one, too. (click on for easier reading).

Quote of the day -- on perpetual war

It's up to us to change it.

Endless War

And the "war on terror" fits perfectly into this since such a war can never really be won.

Like

The United States of Money, uh, America

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not money, I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not money, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not money, it profiteth me nothing. Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. . . . And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money. 

I Corinthians xiii (adapted) ” 

― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Randy Newman - It's Money That Matters (1988) from MTVClassic1 on Vimeo.

the day begins

I've thought for a long time that I wanted to put something "out there" There's so much to say, so much to notice, so much to be aware of। It seems like not enough people are paying attention (can you say "subprime meltdown"?) But at the same time, it should be a place for some fun। If you can't laugh while the house is burning, what fun it that?

So here goes.

It seems that there's a hell of a lot out there in the world that's really insane, doesn't it? Really crazy? Zany? The guy in the White House, for starters. How does someone with so obviously little imagination get into a place like that? (Oh, yeah, wealthy multinational corporations and lunatic-fringe right wing fundamentalist Christians put him there).

Talk about "1984". Orwell couldn't believe this guy. A "Consumer Products Protection Agency" that doesn't protect the consumers. An "Environmental Protection Agency" that doesn't protect the environment. A President who can barely talk. Sheesh. It goes on and on.

But at the same time, while all this stuff is being done in our name, not only is the media not investigating or writing about much of it, hell, not that many people are having the kind of fun with it you might expect. Other than Bill Maher--who isn't as funny as he is poignant--and Lewis Black--now that's funny--with all this material, you'd think someone would be makin' a bloody mint, writing hilarious stuff, based on our real lives. SNL is lame when it should be rippin' somebody.

I think the corporations are holding stuff back, at least on the tube. Thank God (if there were one) for the 'net. The really good stuff can come from there.

Did anyone notice the other day that this Administration is going to let a British company, of all things, explore outside Grand Canyon National Park for bloody uranium? You gotta' be kiddin' me. For real? The British? Why them? Why there? Why now? Is there ANYTHING we won't sell? It's unbelievable. Holy cow. What is NOT for sale in this country? God knows our kids are.

Do you know there are school districts that have MULTIPLE "Picture Days" at their schools, just so they can raise more money? It's like the now old saying goes, we should spend as much on education as we do on defense and have the military have bake sales. (Not literally, but you get the meaning).

It would be nice if we gave a hoot about education in this country. We really don't. Get real. We cut Physical Education. We cut the arts. We cut Music. We're cutting History and Civics. If you don't know this, check it out. Maybe not all school districts but too many. And then we wonder why people end up in jails and prisons. Hell, people, it's because we don't educate them and WE DON'T WANT TO. Everyone is supposed to totally, completely pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

And that includes their health.

Everyone is just supposed to stay healthy. That's all there is to it. And if you don't? Then go to the doctor and/or the hospital. Can't afford it? To quote the song from "Avenue Q", "It Sucks To Be You." That's the way it goes. You're done. Pull yourself up, man. No support from yer fellow man. Yer done.

And taxes? We don't pay no stinking taxes! We want things done for us like roads and schools and bridges and infrastructure but we don't wanna pay no stinking taxes! People who pay taxes are suckers. Check it out. If you pay taxes, you get no respect. Leona Helmsley was speaking for most of this nation when she said==paraphrased--"Only the little people pay taxes."

We don't respect the nations around the world who have national health care. They're suckers. They pay high taxes. They're stupid. Yeah? Well, they also have much lower mortality rates than the United States, too. They have much lower costs for health care. And do you know why? Because they've taken the profit motive out of health care, the way it ought to be. Once you take the profit motive out of health care--like you do for utilities, etc.--the doctors, lawyers, insurance agencies, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and all the other agencies involved with draining the system, it is, then, what it ought to be, and that is, a system set up to help us stay healthy. It's not what it is now, today, in the United States. The health care system in the United States today is a place people go to get and stay wealthy. It's for rich doctors. It's for rich attorneys. It's for corporations to get rich.

Face it, the corporations are in charge. Ralph Nader has always been right. And the American people are letting the corporations clean their collective clocks.

Suckers.

More later..........................................Scroll to pictures below.