SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN THE STATE

Now here’s an interesting video clip:

"News Anchor Completely Loses It"

Poor guy; he’s toast.  His corporate bosses at MSNBC will have him and sack him for “losing his temper”  or “ranting.”  Now, you and I would call that,” being passionate” or “expressing his frustration.”  Regardless, the sad thing is that he’ll be sacked or sanctioned for expressing some real home truths that the corporate establishment don’t want you to know.

What did he mean, by “bought Congress”?  Well, these short videos sum it up beautifully;

"Corruption is Legal in America" [5 mins 50]

"The American Dream" [3 mins 12]

What the newsman’s hinting at, is the fact that there is a real disconnect between what voters want and what Congress actually passes.  For example, most US voters want universal healthcare and gun restrictions.  Yet Congress seems to filibuster and block such legislation!  This is because the  respective health and gun lobbyists have told their bought-Congressmen to vote accordingly:

"20 years of data reveals that Congress doesn't care what you think"

Congressmen are wooed - or blatantly bribed - by persuasive lobbyists representing various interests from America's corporations.  This bribery is actually legal and is labelled, "campaign donations" or "sponsorship." So, because almost every Congressman is addicted to the honey poison or actual money poured in from corporate lobbyists, a Congressman will vote with how his sponsors tell him, not with what his electorate wants.  Therein lies the state of democracy in the so-called “Land of the Free.”

If you look at the accompanying Facebook comments under the video, you’ll see a plethora of support and encouraging comments for the passionate newsman.  So, I would love to believe that something will change.  But it won't.  How can it?  How can you take money away from the establishment that runs our countries; the Congressmen, the chief executives, the excessively wealthy?  You can’t.  And yet, we actually elect that very same establishment!  

In becoming a whore to the US, John Key has taken New Zealand’s democracy to a dangerously similar state as that of America.  Right-wing money owns our media, who tell us who to vote for; through adverts, editorials and subtle messages.  After 30 years of this propaganda, “radicalism” and “social democracy” are now swear-words.  30 years ago, before monetarism, these words meant something; they reflected a desire for community betterment, not the betterment of the few.  

Our banks, the police, the Reserve Bank, the civil service also contribute to actually running the country, and so have no interest in real change, or being accountable to a thinking electorate.  So, none of these sub-strata have any interest in changing the current system.  

The current system is this:

• Justification of tax cuts to the rich by giving broad tax cuts across the board ["Crumbs off the rich man’s table," Luke 16:21]
• Clawing back that tax from the middle-income earners by regressive taxes; increasing the price of electricity, increasing GST and cutting government services.
• Destroying communities by convincing middle-income New Zealand that, they’re fighting for their “individual rights.”
• Keeping the mortgage whores fighting among themselves, as they wrestle each other for the same job promotions, the same prized school spots, or the same overpriced houses.
• Keeping middle-income earners busy and distracted with dumbed-down television, paying off the mortgage, and changing the flag; so they don’t question en masse, political decisions.

Perhaps the police might question the system, or at least your average policeman might.  This is because the average policeman is concerned that the police force is systematically being starved of resources.   However, the Police Chiefs - politicians in uniforms - have their jobs dependent on their right-wing overlords.  As a result, I've never seen a police chief rock the boat.

I digress a little.  Let’s get back to the point of the video – it has relevance here in New Zealand, as I've highlighted.  As a result of years of corporate-orientated, business-funded, right-wing governments, we are more and more being consumerised.  We may be voters and taxpayers, but we are having less and less say in how our country is run and what our government does – supposedly in our name.  The conclusion of the secretive TPPA talks this month, as we are distracted by the bread and circuses of the Rugby World Cup, is a prime example;

"Groser Loses TPP High Court Secrecy Fight: Greenpeace Response"

Something is rotten in the state of our democracies.  Watch Norman Jewison's visionary, "Rollerball." Made 40 years ago, it's scary how close we are to that corporatised world.

BABY BOOMERS HAVEN’T EARNED OUR RESPECT

Now here’s an interesting article:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/8138868/Why-I-hate-the-baby-boomers

My wife and I had an interesting discussion with a Baby Boomer the other night - my father-in-law. He took my wife and I to task over the fact that we don’t answer the phone every time it rings. Oh, he was quite upset. When HE rings, and he knows we’re in, he expects us to pick up the phone every time. You see, whenever anyone rings HIM, he ALWAYS answers the phone. ** sigh**

So not only have the Baby Boomers shagged up the economies of the Western World with their greed, they now have the gall to tell their offspring how to live their lives.

My wife explained patiently to her father, that we have caller ID, so we can see that a call is “Private” or from India, or Malaysia. This usually means it’s from an oversea call centre and it’s a junk call. Curiously enough, we ignore these. I added that we are vindicated when callers from these sources don’t leave messages. If they really wanted to speak to us, they’d leave a message and politely ask us to call. Given the regularity of these junk calls – as the children of Baby Boomers all know – it’s no wonder we screen our calls.

Then my wife ramped up to full throttle: “And Dad, I am NOT going to drop everything to answer your call when I am putting my children to bed. I am NOT going to drop everything to answer your call when we are sitting down at the family dinner table to eat. And I am NOT going to drop everything to answer your call when I am watching my favourite TV programme that might not be repeated.”  My experience is this is typical demanding-of-respect behaviour of the Baby Boomer generation, at the same time missing how we have to live our lives. Now I'm not saying that every Baby Boomer is like this, or that there are no progressive Baby Boomers. But, it's curious how many stories around my peers have similar stories to ours. So, for those with enlightened parents of the Baby Boomer generation, you're going to have to forgive what you see as, my generalisations.

You know, when the Baby Boomers were growing up, they had free health care, free education, free eye care, regular pay rises and job security. Housing was much more affordable, as a much lower proportion of the home income. Mysteriously, that all vanished from the eighties onward.

Actually, it’s not mysterious at all - the Baby Boomers got greedy. They bought into the spin of the right wing hacks of Regan, Thatcher, Muldoon and Roger Douglas – and sold our future down the river. On the promise of tax cuts, they voted in monetarist governments who sold our assets, and mortgaged our futures. Oh yes, the Middle Class Baby Boomers got their little tax cuts – but so did the rich. As a consequence, all those free services had to go out the window to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy. We are still paying for that massive shift to the right, even today, and we’re STILL falling for the same old right-wing spin. I think this New Zealand election poster parody, above, sums it up just right.

Baby Boomers were bought cheap with “crumbs from the rich man’s table” [Luke 16:19-31]. They were sold tax cuts by right-wing parties, so those parties could justify tax cuts for their already-wealthy business financiers. But those tax cuts had to be funded somehow. And thus the Baby Boomers ushered in a new age of consumerist selfishness combined with job hardship. Some Baby Boomers say, “Don’t blame us, blame the governments.” Well who the hell voted in those governments? The Voting Fairies??!!!! So, yes, I do blame you!

As a result of that shift to the right, the children of the Baby Boomers have to work longer than their parents, harder and more efficiently under the watchful, critical eye of dictatorial corporations. Conversely, the directors of these corporations are free to award themselves unfettered pay rises each year, freed from the tempering influence of strong trade unions:

"NZ rich-poor gap widens faster than rest of world"
"Wealth gap widens to 30-year high"

As I wrap up my thoughts to you, I realise I actually share something with the Baby Boomers (apart from their damn genes). Our parents have this old fashioned view that respect should be earned – and I subscribe to that! Yet, when I was growing up, it was clear that while they SAID respect was earned, for them respect was in fact DEMANDED of us. Look at the demanding from my wife’s father, in the example above. As for me, did anybody else cop “Respect your elders and betters!!”? I lost count of the times the Old Man roared that one at me.

So, here’s the thing that really irks me about the Baby Boomers: we have to work harder, longer, under greater pressure, with less job security, and for less pay in real terms. We have to pay for things our parents got for free, our homes cost more of our take-home pay, and we have to fund our own pensions. Yet, the Baby Boomers still have the GALL to demand our respect.

Frankly, with the way we’ve been left in the lurch, the Baby Boomers don’t deserve the respect of their children. They haven’t fucking earned it.