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Guest Post: Political Lessons from the Walang Kulit, Pt 1

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Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:06 | 445552 urbanelf
urbanelf's picture

"Walang" tidak berarti.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:04 | 445634 russki standart
russki standart's picture

Graham, an excellent article. Whilst I am deeply familiar with most of your arguments, your metaphor of the the shadow theatre is very creative and demonstrates profound understanding on your part of the subject material. I could cavil on rather minor points but the overall thrust of your inaugural issue is dead on. My only request: please post a link for the second part of your commentary that is valid. Thank You.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:28 | 445659 Gold...Bitches
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I agree - excellent article.  This gets at what I've been saying for a while now: the parties aren't really different.  Genovese/Gambino - take your pick.  Or in the image of a hydra with multiple heads but one body.  The heads can hiss at each other all they want - none of them will do anything that hurts the body that feeds them.  And if you do cut a head off, two grow back - not a good prospect considering how bad things already are.

Whats a shame is that all too often you still see people on here (ZH) carping about one of the parties or the other one and all we need to do is vote in the party that is currently in the minority.  Unfortunately neither one will fix the problem as its not in their interest to do so.  They both have masters they serve, they just represent different sets of entrenched special interests - and none of them are/include "the little people".  Gambino/Genovese/Hydra.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:53 | 445702 TaggartGalt
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Link to Part2:

http://www.phoenixworldviewsdigest.com/PWVD12.pdf

It is accessible on Graham's website, though not via a direct link.  So, if you like what he has to say, get the subscription!

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:13 | 445560 billhilly
billhilly's picture

MOST EXCELLENT!

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:59 | 445628 ISEEIT
ISEEIT's picture

The awakening continues. Spread ZH as far and wide as possible. I try in my own little way by providing links within comment threads on other sites,such as local paper's, and other sites that allow comments. I tried linking as a contributor on a fairly major site but they blew me off. If enough of us work to get this content more well introduced to the 'zombies', the world will adjust accordingly sooner rather than latter. And sooner will mean less hurt in the long run.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:22 | 445569 Mr Lennon Hendrix
Mr Lennon Hendrix's picture

ZH gives me all I need to read!  Thanks!

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:31 | 445584 HEHEHE
HEHEHE's picture

Excellent piece.  The only point not mentioned is that the "two party system" in this country is actually one party controlled by the very same business/union interests.  They control who runs and wins via their campaign contributions and prevent other parties from engaging in debate with their Republican and Democrat candidates since they have control of mainstream news outlets.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:33 | 445587 Invisible Hand
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Well, not very compelling prose, but he his underlying premise seems pretty sound to me.

Certainly, nothing that happens in Washington seems to have any correlation to what I think would benefit, not just me, but the country as a whole.

Also, the idea that the elites try to split us up by race, gender, etc. and that the news media helps with this rings very true.

I am white but I have found that I have more in common with black people I know than I do with some of my white "kin folk."  I have worked very hard and valued education, responsibility and being a good neighbor.  These are traits shared by many people from all ethnic/racial groups and they are the people you should cherish.  However, rather than encouraging people to focus on our common needs, goals and attitudes, we are constantly encouraged to identify with, or against,  some "group."

Maybe that is a way to distract us from what matters  like government waste and fraud, business, especially Wall Street, corruption, and the biggest threat to our freedom, the combination of big business, big labor and big government to take control of everything we do and have. 

I think to counteract this we must break up the big banks, big investment houses, and reduce the size of government.  People lose their sense of humanity in these huge organizations because they feel and are faceless and come to see their only role as enriching themselves.  Also, there is no accountability since it is always someone else's fault.  The buck never stops anywhere. 

I remember being told by my company commander in boot camp (almost 40 years ago) that you are never "kinda in charge," when I offered that as an excuse for some screw up.  What you see now in government is everybody is "kinda in charge" of everything so it comes out a jumbled mess.

Thanks for the article.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:43 | 445605 russki standart
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Identity politics is nothing more than a variant on the 'divide and conquer' strategy. The PTB want to keep us apart, so that we can be more easily controlled and manipulated.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:56 | 445624 Der Kommissar
Der Kommissar's picture

Proletariat of all countries -- unite!!!

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:37 | 445593 Bearster
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The financial system (industry?) is insolvent due to lack of regulations?  What's your view:

 - we should have a regime of irredeemable paper fiat money

 - it should be backed with debt

 - the FED should pump every time the economy hiccups

 - big banks should be TBTF

 - and TARPed when they make mistakes

 - the whole thing is necessary to pay for a welfare state that has outgrown the govt's ability to tax productive citizens

 - BUT IT WOULD ALL BE OK AS LONG AS IT'S REGULATED??!??!!

 - And you don't think it's regulated now!!??

 

Then you really lost me when you hold up the fact that companies can (are forced to) keep multiple sets of books.  Either you don't know, or it doesn't fit your narrative, that two sets of books does NOT mean lying about income or expenses.  It means more aggressive revenue recognition (so the IRS can collect more taxes) and less aggressive revenue recognition (so the SEC regulators can show they aren't letting you overstate earnings to investors).

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 02:41 | 445893 Dr. Sandi
Dr. Sandi's picture

Did we read the same article, or are you just smoking the really good stuff?

 

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 21:57 | 445626 Rogerwilco
Rogerwilco's picture

Some of the audience at the puppet show are wearing tin foil hats. Correlation and coincidence do not equal causation.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:12 | 445642 russki standart
russki standart's picture

No, gee, of course not.  The are no conspiracies..It is all co-incidental, mere happenstance.  Our public servants are  always working on our behalf, the top 500 corporations are benevolent, the political system is unbiased by corporate donations, corporations have the same rights as individuals,  presidents never lie, weapons of mass destruction exist in Iraq, I never had sex with that woman, the check is in the mail, and baby, don´t worry, I won´t cum in your mouth.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:12 | 445645 russki standart
russki standart's picture

No, gee, of course not.  The are no conspiracies..It is all co-incidental, mere happenstance.  Our public servants are  always working on our behalf, the top 500 corporations are benevolent, the political system is unbiased by corporate donations, corporations have the same rights as individuals,  presidents never lie, weapons of mass destruction exist in Iraq, I never had sex with that woman, the check is in the mail, and baby, don´t worry, I won´t cum in your mouth.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:05 | 445636 Clycntct
Clycntct's picture

The sound of one hand clapping in the forest never gets her done.

Oh I forgot to add that the sound of one hand clapping in the forest is the same sound as all the laws in the world with no enforcement.

We get fucked by the frauds that create the law, then by the  pseudo enforcers that show up on Friday to get paid and do nothing, and lastly as the frauds extract directly from our pocket.

Pick your pain but mine comes from #1+2.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:06 | 445638 Implicit simplicit
Implicit simplicit's picture

Sometimes life seems to be like a one big unreality show, and its hard to make it real when you don't see much real to compare it with.

 These companies are so freakin big with so many outsourced functions and departments that there is no personalization; the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

 

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:35 | 445675 Muir
Muir's picture

Nice read.

Good luck.

Behind the curtain... a tale of two "people" and the media's divide and distract philosophy is very insightful.

 

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:44 | 445680 Mercury
Mercury's picture

First of all every civilization that has ever existed has been run by a plutocracy of one kind or another.  Even in the USSR the politburo member's wives got goodies and perks most citizens would never dream of.   There are worse elites to have running your country than a business/corporate elite.  If you think Exxon and Goldman have it so damn good buy their stock.  I certainly do not wish for instance that it were a whole lot easier for 51% of voters to piss in the cornflakes of the other 49% thank you.  Why do you think the president is so hot for amnesty?

In fact, corporate disenchantment with Obama's rainbow and unicorn bullshit may (just maybe) end this nightmare sooner rather than later.  That said the mega-corporation has the same inherent problems as mega-government and I'd like to see a more friendly environment for small businesses and free enterprise.

Anyway, Go Phoenix World go!  I like the idea. The MSM blows although there are still some good, smaller paper periodicals out there.  Concentrated storehouses of knowledge and learning like universities, the press and public dialogue keep getting crappier but distributed, focused content keeps getting better, more abundant and more accessible.  Isn't the Internet great?

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:46 | 445686 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

Missed the point,  I think. Obama=Bush=Clinton=Rubin=Goldman=etc.  Bush shit out just as many rainbows and unicorns as Obama, just different flavors.  

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:58 | 445707 Mercury
Mercury's picture

No, Obamacare, Cap-and-Trade, amnesty and any number of creepy fantasies he's floated in the past (Bill of Rights II and "public service" camp for kids come to mind) dwarfs Bush's silly compassionate government crap by a mile.

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 16:08 | 447406 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

You two have illustrated the entire article by falling for the political insanities.

It ain't where you are pointing.

That MSM kool-aid sure is smooth and goes down easy.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 22:44 | 445684 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

Great article; sadly, all too true.

Guillotines.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 23:40 | 445715 litoralkey
litoralkey's picture

Graham,

If this is a "newsletter" as opposed to a casual personal blog posting, which you had decided to pack full of lots and lots of statistics, and you wanted to be taken seriously in your debut in an effort to raise your newsletter's profile and your own crowdsource prestige level ala Professor Glenn Reynolds' Davids vs Goliath paradigm, YOU NEED TO INCLUDE CITATIONS AND REFERENCES.

Secondly, you need to ask yourself more questions about your intended audience, and at whta level of expertise and knowledge you can engage your audience in meaningful two way dialogue, and then go about refining your writings before you post this stuff.  That takes time, some of the best known bloggers and specifically economics/finance bloggers took a few years to find their voice.

Keep it in mind that USA Today writes their business section articles at a 8th grade reading level, the Financial Times of London at a post-grad level, and the WSJ at some point in between.

Also, I was taught in school the the USA is a democratic Republic, and I'm only in my 30's and went to public school.  But attacking the NEA/teaching university oligarchies/textbook publishers/US primary education bureaucracy is a full time job...

 

Write much much more, and cut it down.

Read Glenn Reynolds' Army of Davids too, before you go much further.  The Instapundit has been on this story for a decade now... find yourself a niche in the antithetical position and strive in your advocacy.

Regards,

Lito

P.S. Also check out Lawrence Lessig's writings at his blog/university page, even though he is a F'ing traitor and lapdog poodle of the oligarchs.  He talks a good game, he walks on his knees.

P.P.S. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies by John W. Kingdon , another interesting statistically conceptualization of what you are talking about.  UNderstand that univesities like Rutger's, Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, Harvard's Kennedy School, Columbia U School of Social Work, American University etc have post grad and PhD programs specifically to train your opposition.

PPPS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward–Piven_strategy

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 23:18 | 445732 lsbumblebee
lsbumblebee's picture

This is basic. It's like Alex Jones trying to break the bad news to grandma through a power point presentation, with a little naivete thrown in to make it more palatable.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 23:42 | 445755 MarketTruth
MarketTruth's picture

Agreed, yet many people are just now waking up and so perhaps a delicate touch is needed. As i see it, anything that moves people to opening their eyes to the truth is a good thing. Think of it like this, you can't do trigonometry unless you fist know basic math.

Perhaps sending the PDF to newbies/friends who are not quite woken up would be a nice opener for a future discussion with them. If you have a website.twitter/Facebook page, post it on there. People are waking up one at a time.

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 23:31 | 445749 bull-market_3.0
bull-market_3.0's picture

Very basic. Who doesn't know the people at the top control everything? 

I would have been much more interested in solutions.

Seems like you are just trying to join the oligarchs with your "sign up for $50 for more newsletters". Good luck sir, we all are trying to join the oligarchs, but you won't be getting my money. 

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 23:59 | 445779 glenlloyd
glenlloyd's picture

Very good and not really news to most of the people who frequent this site, but there is still a huge population who are more transfixed by Al Gore's sexual exploits which is nothing more than a side show.

I do think this was an extremely creative way of presenting the topic though, hats off to you.

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 00:47 | 445846 Grand Supercycle
Grand Supercycle's picture

 

On May 4th I called the end of the March 2009 bear market rally.

The proprietary indicators I use in my technical analysis can identify trend changes before they occur.

http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com/about

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 16:10 | 447415 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Right again!  Well I'll be.  Fancy that.

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 22:50 | 448276 Gold...Bitches
Gold...Bitches's picture

Considering how many times I've seen his posts crowing how right he is all the time he should be a quadrillionaire by now.

Sat, 07/03/2010 - 01:08 | 450487 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Ah, those rear view mirrors!

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 06:33 | 445958 zhandax
zhandax's picture

While this is nothing new to many of us here, a new voice increases the chances of getting these essential truths out to some new ears.  When TSHTF, there is more than one possible resolution.  The more people exposed to these concepts, the better the chances of a longer-term positive outcome.

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 07:00 | 445976 mynhair
mynhair's picture

The Citizen's United decision does NOT allow direct contributions to candidates.

Address-ing challenges to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, the Buckley Court upheld limits on direct contributions to candidates, 18
U.
S. C. §608(b), recognizing a governmental interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption. 424 U. S., at 25–26. However, the Court in-validated §608(e)’s expenditure ban, which applied to individuals,corporations, and unions, because it “fail[ed] to serve any substantialgovernmental interest in stemming the reality or appearance of cor-ruption in the electoral process,” id., at 47–48.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf

Therefore, this entire work is suspect.

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 10:15 | 446224 Grand Supercycle
Grand Supercycle's picture

 

EURUSD buying support detected for some time now, has returned again and the daily chart is now neutral to bullish.

http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com/about

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 16:12 | 447420 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Uh, I think we knew that.  How 'bout tomorrow or next week?

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herry's picture

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