You Don’t Need Guns to Overthrow our Government

Lots of people have been conned by the gun industry (and their stooges at the NRA) into stockpiling weapons and ammunition so as to be “ready to resist a government takeover” or some such twaddle. Millions of dollars have been taken from the gullible and deposited in the bank accounts of weapon merchants, and of course all for naught.

Naught, that is, if it’s overthrowing a tyrannical government you’re wanting to accomplish. First of all, your knock-off versions of Mattel toy rifles will accomplish doodly-squat against a trained and well-equipped military force; and secondly, there are better ways to take over the the reins of power in America. Ways that have already succeeded, and that you probably didn’t notice.

Example: the “Republican” takeover of the United States of America, which occurred between 1976 and 2007. Never a shot fired, done legally, and very effective indeed. You missed it, you say?

Short version: after Nixon, the Reeps and their corporate paymasters got their collective wedding tackle kicked in so far they had craters in their crotches, they got together and planned their revenge: said plan contained in the Powell Memo. The gist? To take over the media, deregulate businesses, concentrate wealth, rig elections, rewrite laws and create think tanks that would re-invent reality a’la Orwell: all for the benefit of the “conservatives” involved.

Here are two sources that explain how the Elephants planned and executed their coup:
Number A: a thoughtful (if somewhat partisan) analysis along with source documents for the wonkier folks: Should be Required Reading
Letter 2: a shorter version that hits the high points and captures the essence (focus on the lyrics ): Ignoreland by REM.

Needless to say, the “revolution” was quite successful indeed: look at the results in terms of law, media, income inequality, gerrymandering, government philosophy, and a host of other elements of modern American life. The “conservative” “republicans” have managed to largely remake the nation on their terms and to their benefit, and to the detriment of the majority. Nary a single assault rifle was used in this overthrow. Hell, not even a single round from a BB gun was fired.

And now you, with your little gun safe full of crappy little imported weapons, are going to do better than that? This writer rather thinks not.

Mr. B & C

How to Turn the Inevitable into Evitable

As Mr. Blunt and Cranky has been ranting all week, we in America are in danger of a revolutionary civil war so horrifying, it would put Edgar Allen Poe off his lunch.  Said conflict seeming inevitable due to the determined lack of action amongst America’s new (and not entirely Constitutional) ruling class of Politicians, Plutocrats and Pundits (three buckets of Pee running the country. And we wonder why things stink).

There are things we, the citizens of the United States can do to make this an “evitable” conflict. Simple things that require us to open our hearts and minds, work together, and stick to our task. Things that, alas, we have not been doing of late:

Thing Number A: Recognize that we are being played. Taken for a ride. Conned. Used like a crack whore at a biker party. Yep, that’s America in 2012: the Three Pees have been doing all that and more to us for decades now, and until we admit it to ourselves, we cannot do anything about it. Our media is largely comprised of biased, fact-challenged profit-centered pundits, and far too many of us listen and believe without question. Our employers are piling up cash that they have removed from our paychecks, pensions and benefits. Our elected “representatives” are mostly bought-and-paid-for tools of whichever lobbyist has the biggest wads of cash.  All of these people are screwing us, laughing behind their faces the while.

Almost NONE of our major institutions currently have the best interests of the American People at heart. Until you accept this reality, you are trapped.

Thing Letter Two: Money has infiltrated and corrupted virtually every institution in America. That means only people with money get what they want. And since most of us don’t have lots of money, the majority of taxpaying Americans get bupkis for our contributions to the system. We need to yank the snouts of our Politicos out of the money troughs in which they currently grunt and snuffle. We need to demand that our media give us fact-based news coverage by taking away the profit motive that currently drives the “content” we are being fed. We need to insist that people earn a living wage: that alone could take a big bite out of the deficit, as well as helping to stabilize our society.

Thing The Third: Hold our “Representatives” to account. Currently, we keep re-electing these slimeballs regardless of how corrupt they are, how they screw us, and how little they accomplish. If the electorate would simply vote out the worst of the bunch, that would help “induce” the remainder to, you know, actually work for us for a change.

None of the above ideas is rocket science; in fact, they are not original. They are things we all say we should be doing. But we haven’t been doing them, and since we have been lazy, things are rapidly heading towards an increasingly bleak and potentially nation-wrecking crisis. But if we actually do the needful, we can turn that “inevitable” cataclysm into a renewed, strong, peaceful and prosperous nation.

Mr. B & C

Another Inevitable Conflict ? (If the American Ruling Class Doesn’t Get a Clue, We Will All Be F***ed)

As an avowed Radical Centrist and student of history, Mr. Blunt and Cranky is of the belief that no revolution is “inevitable”. Looking at example after example throughout time, we can see that if Leader So-and-So had paid attention and done the needful, Revolution XYZ need not have occurred.  As Isaac Asimov phrased it, conflicts can be “evitable”.

Such was the case in the French Revolution: the monarchy was informed by their ministers and experts of the steps that had to be taken to avert catastrophe, but said royals did not take the required actions. Result: a very bloody and damaging revolution that killed and despoiled the innocent along with the guilty. Read up on the Terror to see how bad things got at that time.

Bad as that was, a breakdown in 21^st-century America would be far worse. Reasons:

Number A: At the beginning of the French Revolution, there was a clear pair of sides – the 1% of the day, versus everybody else. Not so in 2012 America; we are fractured across lines of ethnicity, religion, income, geography and culture. If things go to Hell, we will find ourselves in a confusing, cluster-f***ed multi-sided conflict that would make our previous Civil War look tame by comparison.

Letter 2: Not that many people in 18^th-century France had firearms, and those they did have were primitive. Modern Americans own millions of sophisticated weapons. Add in related hardware and other supplies, and it is clear that we can pretty much kill anyone and everyone in the nation if we think we “have to”.

Thirdly: We live in a society that is more interconnected than any other in the history of Earth. Our banking, food, shelter, safety, transportation, health care; these and many more essential elements of modern life are dependent on a stable society. Any breakdown in society would cause us to lose the most basic tools we need to secure the essentials of life. That means that millions upon millions of us would die.

And this need not happen. Our new ruling class of Politicians, Plutocrats and Pundits (a load of Pee, as it were) may be too stubborn, vain, stupid, narcissistic, greedy and deliberately myopic to see beyond the next media cycle, but We The People have the power to change things. Power vested in us by the Constitution.  No guns required.

Folks, it is just this simple: if we keep our heads buried in the sand, our asses will be kicked in. Only by pulling our heads out and working together can we avoid yet another “evitable” revolution.

Tomorrow: some peaceful, bipartisan actions we could take to save our national a**es.

Mr. B & C

Why America in 2012 is Like France in 1789 (And Why You Should Care)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was made to study entirely too much history in his youth, and after reading Twain and Dumas chose to study the French Revolution in more depth. Recent events in our own country have brought that bloody, mindless, and savage period back to mind: and the parallels are eerie. A few examples:

Number A:  Poverty and malnutrition were increasingly common due to economic instability, governmental ineffectiveness and a distribution network that failed to deliver food to those who needed it. Indeed, the nation’s overall  infrastructure was antiquated and crumbling, and no one was willing or able to take the needed steps to update and repair it.

Letter 2: Previous wars of choice had left the French government deeply in debt, and the dire economic situation led to a steep drop in revenues, effectively bankrupting the national treasury.  There was a huge wealth gap between the very small percentage of the nobility (and other rich folk) and the rest of the population. The legislature spent its time taking potshots at the head of state (and each other) instead of addressing the problems of the nation.

Thirdly: Those who had wealth and power were disconnected from the vast majority of the nation.  While Marie Antoinette did not exactly say “let them eat cake”, the aristocracy did express such sentiments: this further inflamed the anger of a population who were already frustrated by the actions of disinterested royals, priests and plutocrats.

The resulting revolution destroyed an entire culture, killed uncounted people, and left much of Europe destabilized for over a decade.  If the monarchy had listened to their ministers and adopted the needed reforms, it is likely that any needed societal changes would have been made in a far less traumatic fashion. As we know, the ruling class did no such thing, and they (and France as a whole) paid with their lives.

This writer trusts that the present-day situation is sufficiently similar to his readers as to not require a long-winded explanation: many Americans are suffering while a very few live high on the hog; we have members of the new aristocracy like Carly Fiorina, Mitt Romney, Lloyd Blankfein  et.al. saying very Antoinette-ish things; and the legislature is far too busy playing reindeer games  to solve the urgent problems that are slowly destroying the social fabric of our country.

If we do the same things that France did in 1789, we will have the same results. Want to avoid winding up like they did? Work to change the current paradigm in a firm but peaceful manner. Or just sit around hoping for divine intervention, and watch centuries of progress go up in flames.

Next time: why a revolution would be even worse this time around.

Mr. B & C

When Corporate “People” are More Equal Than we Others

Yes, Mr. Blunt and Cranky is mixquoting Orwell’s Animal Farm. And even though the analogy might not seem apt on the surface, it is a good fit when you dig a bit deeper.

Our corporations have, over recent decades, amassed wealth and rights that are far above those of the citizens of the United States. They can avoid taxation, regulation, and prosecution.

The average American can avoid none of these. We bear an ever- increasing burden while our benefits are reduced. Our lawmakers spend their time pleasing their corporate paymasters and turn a deaf ear to our protests and petitions.

The idea of corporate personhood has been  so distorted as to be unrecognizeable. As politics has become monetized, those with more money have become “more equal” than those of us with less.

One does not need a degree in history to see where our society is going to wind up. Whenever wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of the few,and the lives of the masses become desperate, revolutionary movements form and nations fall apart.

Tomorrow: what will happen if our institutions don’t get a clue.

Mr. B & C

When Government Preaches Revolution Against the Govermment

Granted, a lot of people don’t like the President. Mr. Blunt and Cranky would venture to say that this has likely been true of every President. And during the reign of Bush the Dumber, many people on the Left and in the Center waxed quite wroth at his every action. Indeed, individuals of many political persuasions said some pretty inflammatory things, sometimes inviting visits from those polite, clean-cut Secret Service boyos (you, know, the ones with the Matrix-style earpieces). It got scary at times, indeed it did, the things that were said and the way in which they were said.

But things are different today: instead of individuals advocating resistance and/or revolution (armed and otherwise) against the lawful authorities, we have government officials urging such actions. One example of loud-mouthed politicos speaking thus:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-judge-warns-possible-civil-war-president-obama-230545603.html

Short version for the link-averse:

A local judge is convinced that Obama will marshal the troops of the United Nations and lead them to his little pisspot of a Texas town to take it over.

First of all, why in Hell would anyone want to do so? And secondly, how could anyone who has watched the United Nations believe that it could agree upon such a course of action? The U.N. can’t agree on what to have for lunch or who should pick up the check, ferchrissakes: they are going to agree on taking over the United States and who would fund such an operation? Puh-leeze.

There is a larger issue in play here: instead of concerned citizens  talking smack against the government, it is governmental officials talking smack against the government. Government against government. The last time we heard this type of bluster, one government organization promising to shoot the s*** out of another government organization?

Oh, it was a little tiff in the middle 1800’s. The Civil War. You might have heard of it.

To all the blowhard paranoid conspiracy theorists who are currently threatening armed revolt while also sucking on the taxpayers’ collective teat: shut the f***ing f*** up, mother***ers. You are paid to be part of government, not to destroy it. There are words for people like you: treasonous, seditious, traitorous…little pleasantries like that.

Mr. B & C

Where Are the Real Conservatives to be found?

There are many people advocating for a “Return to traditional America”, or something of such. Lots of people have their own Wayback Machine-induced vision of what that America used to be: for that matter, Mr. Blunt and Cranky has fond memories of his youth, and the superiority of what seemed a simpler time to that of the present day. And all things considered, he wouldn’t mind a few changes that would help restore some of the virtues of the past, without repeating some of the mistakes of the past.  (Oh, and FYI – one cannot ‘Restore Our Future’, since the future hasn’t happened yet. Duh.)

This writer would never want the segregation of his childhood to be reintroduced, for instance. Nor does he wish to see a repeat performance of the violence and carnage of the 60’s.  Revolutions can accomplish change, but lots of people get hurt or killed in the rush to achieve sudden, drastic change.  Far better to take our time, strive for consensus, and work together to change when it is really needed. That is a good working definition of conservatism: the desire to keep what is good, and carefully prune away only what is not working.

Of course, you might never know it, given the largely successful hijacking of the label, especially since the late 70’s. The “Conservative Revolutionaries” have, by dint of media ownership and strict message discipline managed to get a large number of Americans to believe that forcibly removing  most legal and societal actions ( in spite of the fact that the majority of the country approved of these things) of the past 150 years somehow equals being  “Conservative”.  Wholesale destruction of good and bad alike, the deaths of thousands and dispossession of millions in the service of the radical dreams of a crazed minority: that’s supposed to be “conservative” these days. A masterpiece of NewSpeak: Orwell would have to applaud it.

Not that the extreme Left is any more conservative than the Right, but at least the Lefties rarely claim conservatism as one of their characteristics. However, the extreme Left wants some severe additions and subtractions from the status quo that would hurt a lot of people in the creation.

No, if you want true Conservatism, you head to the Center.  The Center isn’t much on revolutionary anything, really: we are more of an evolutionary lot. The Right are a load of bomb-throwing, hairy-eyed revolutionaries. The Left want a pacifistic, kind and fluffy sort of revolution. But revolution is what both wings want, and devil take the wishes of the majority.

Much talk is made by wingnuts of how one needs to “break eggs in order to build an omelet”. The American people should all remember that we could well be the eggs that get broken. And then we’d be consumed  en masse, that being the fate of eggs and omelets.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

(Link to pile of badly-written crap)

As one might expect, there are some extremists who worry about losing this or that electoral contest this fall. Among those wackjobs we find the Greene County VA Republican Party, whose newsletteradvocates armed revolution should Obama win re-election in 2012. You’ll find the ignorant screed (penned by the editor himself) on Page 7, in the lower right-hand corner.

This newsletter’s editorial staff are clearly crybabies, possessed also of seditious, violent, un-American tendencies (and the apparent absence of Spellcheck).  Come on, grow up. And if you lose, fight harder and smarter next time. But don’t act like terrorists and start a war if your stupid, useless political party loses a single race to the other stupid, useless political party.

Newsflash to all extremists: you are not entitled to a 100% winning record. No one is. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. If you aren’t sufficiently mature to understand this basic fact of life, this writer suggests you ask Mommy to buy you a new binky.  You can then go cry in a corner, muffling the inane talk of violence with your pacifier.

Mr. B & C.