2011 July « Honjii's Harangues

Who’s in charge?

July 31, 2011 at 7:48 pm | Posted in corporate bullys, crooks & liars, government, government spending | 7 Comments
Tags: Democracy, Federal government of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mass media, Rupert Murdoch, United States, White House

It seems nothing really changes.

FDR: “Government by Organized Money is Just as Dangerous as Government by Organized Mob”

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The hacking of phones and invasion of privacy by the Rupert Murdoch tabloid press has been the subject of articles for years, but it took the unconscionable and illegal extracting and deleting of messages from the mobile phone of a dead British girl to bring the Murdoch empire to its knees.

Murdoch, it appears now, had bought off police, politicians, and who knows who else, as he swaggered across the Western world, creating a false, angry, populist worldview through a vast media empire. The sole purpose of this emotional, incendiary and deceptive narrative was to create governments that supported the plutocracy, not the “rabble” of democracy. The tool to accomplish this was the manipulation of the mass media to ignore facts and create a fictional “frame” that pushed populations toward acceptance of an authoritarian state, one that existed for the benefit of the wealthy.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew the danger of a Murdoch controlling, in an Orwellian fashion, the media, and the danger of the likes of the Koch Brothers financing propaganda – through lavish support of think tanks and front “activist” organizations – as well as a government run by corporate lobbyists. Whether it is ownership of the media, concentrated control of the assets of a nation by a few, or de facto corporate governance through campaign contribution leverage on Congress and the White House, Roosevelt warned:

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group.”

In his second inaugural speech FDR declared:

“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace – business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.

How little has changed since those remarks were made in 1936, except there is no FDR in the White House to champion the cause of democracy for those 99 percent of Americans who are not part of “organized money.

FDR Has A Word Or Two About Taxes – 1936. (crooksandliars.com)
What does it mean to ‘break up’ media power? | Des Freedman (guardian.co.uk)
What might FDR have done about the debt limit? (dailykos.com)
Why did franklin Delano Roosevelt get a memorial (wiki.answers.com)

Going postal

July 28, 2011 at 9:51 am | Posted in economy, government spending, government waste, I'm just saying, stupidity | 9 Comments
Tags: Delivery (commerce), financial hole., mail, post office, post office box, post office boxes, U.S. Postal Service, United States Postal Service, yearly salary

Image via Wikipedia

For years the U.S. Postal Service has had ongoing financial problems. In the past the solution has been to raise the price of postage, which clearly hasn’t worked. Now they are talking about closing post offices. Please, please, please… put me in charge, I can turn this operation around. The problem isn’t too many postal stations, or the price of postage; it’s their entire business model which, in my opinion, is ass backward.

Every time I go to the post office I am struck by the big sign hanging on the front of the building imploring people to rent a post office box. For many years I have thought the post office box and home delivery should be reversed. Post office boxes rent from around thirty bucks a year and up, depending upon size and location. Having your mail delivered for only one day very likely exceeds the yearly box rental fee.

Here is my problem. If you travel to the post office and pick up your mail, you pay. If the Postal Service sends an employee, who receives a yearly salary plus benefits, in a vehicle, which must be purchased, maintained, and supplied with fuel to bring the mail to your home, it’s free. Do you think the rental revenue from post office boxes and increased postage prices offsets this expense? How long do you think any other business using this backward business model would last? Only the government could come up with a system so inefficient as this. I wonder how long it took and how much they paid their inefficiency experts (yes I’m sure they have them) to come up with this dumb-ass business plan.

If the Postal Service really wants to get out of the financial hole it’s been digging for years they should simply follow my plan and reverse how mail is distributed. I don’t know what the costs for home delivery are, but I’d bet the farm it’s a hell of a lot higher than a PO box. It’s not like the olden days when personal transportation was not readily available. People are out driving their cars all the time, running here and there. They have to be, how else would they find time to talk on their cell phones? How hard would it be to include a stop at the post office a few times a week to collect their mail? Those who can’t be bothered to pick up their mail should pay for the convenience of having it delivered to their door.

In case you’re wondering I put my money where my mouth is; I live more than twenty miles from the nearest post office, so it would certainly be much more convenient to have my mail brought to me, yet I choose to go the PO box route.

I’m just saying…

Nearly 3,700 post offices slated to close (money.cnn.com)
Post office ponders closing 1 in 10 retail outlets (thenewstribune.com)

My battle with PMS

July 27, 2011 at 10:09 pm | Posted in political, political rants | Leave a comment
Tags: blogging, PMS, Politics

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything of any substance. I realize substance is a matter of opinion so it might be more accurate to say it’s been awhile since I posted anything with a lot of words. The reason I’ve allowed this blog to lie fallow for so long…don’t even get me started about the guilt..is because I have been suffering with a severe case of PMS (Political Meltdown Syndrome).

Much of what I have commented on has been of a political nature; from the stupid and absurd to corruption and everything in between. I’d read something or hear something on the radio that would make me roll my eyes so hard they hurt, and I’d be off and typing to let off steam.

The problem began when I realized that everywhere I turned there seemed to be no break from political discussions. On the radio, in the news, at the gym…it seemed to be all politics all the time. I thought my head would explode. It started with POS (Political Overload Syndrome) which then progressed to full blown PMS.

The cure came when I discovered a radio station that is all comedy, all the time. I adore comedy and that is all I’ve been listening too. The result is I am much happier, albeit blissfully uninformed about current events, and I don’t care. Like miracle pharmaceuticals, this cure is not without side effects, the main one being a diminished desire to harangue, even when I find something harangue-worthy.

I’m trying to hang in there, and recovery means blogging. So here goes…