official business...

that's what the envelope the letter from my "friend" representative pete visclosky arrived in yesterday said ( it also meant you and i footed the bill for the mailing...but what the heck...perks of the office, fight? )...he said he was co-sponsoring a house bill to stand up to those doggone chinese and their continued "currency misalignment" which he would define as, "...a prohibited export subsidy"...he is doing this to, "support american manufacturers and steelworkers"...no doubt...and no doubt in order of their importance in pete's philosophy...all fine election year rhetoric....probably not to be taken all that seriously...i have no doubt the chinese are unfazed...probably unaware...it's not their election after all...utterly bored with the campaign gibberish i began to scan the screed for something of interest...anything that would redeem the time i had invested in this nonsense...when i saw the header on the left side that said old pete was on the appropriations committee and, better still, the "ranking member" on the defense and energy and water development subcommittees...with my interest piqued i decide to do a bit of research so i went to: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00003813 to have a look at who pete's donors were....the top five were all corporations ( "american manufactuers" )and tops on the list? lockheed-martin...huh...imagine..a defense contractor...boeing was there..and northrop-grumman..all in the top five...nisource was there too...that's the parent company of the local utility corporation ( "energy and water development" )...my union is in there too...down the list...a "gift" of $10,000...so i am party to this whether i like it or not...and , it should be clear, i do not...the "steelworkers" business was pretty much a campaign afterthought...real workers do not fit well into pete's worldview or donor list..the unions do..they are in the business of selling industrial peace in contract sized bites and they do fairly well at it despite having the politicians they support turn on them routinely...it is the price the unions paid for being taken "into the system" by the wagner act in 1935...fdr pulled their teeth and they hardly noticed...old bill maclay said he was serving in " a nest of vipers" during the first congress because of the venality he saw there...there has been little change.

the unwary and uninterested II

"the immediate election of the president is to be made by the states in their political characters. the votes allotted to them are in a compound ratio, which considers them partly as distinct and coequal societies, partly as unequal members of the same society. the eventual election, again, is to be made by that branch of the legislature which consists of the national representatives; but in this particular act they are to be thrown into the form of individual delegations from so many distinct and coequal bodies politic." the federalist papers XXXIX ( madison )_______________ this authentic "founding fathers' " gibberish is quoted verbatim...perhaps jim had been out on the town or was sleeping badly the night before he penned this screed...no one will ever really know...history is a tough nut to crack sometimes...palms were greased...lies were told...corruption and venality were rebranded as a form of provisional patriotism...1789 was a watershed in american politics...a new elite was enshrined and the mob effectively disenfranchised for good and all...not what they teach in high school civics, is it? so this sorrowful electoral season is continuing this hallowed precedent...i have heard nothing but gibberish in months and it continues...propagated by the media and, even more emphatically, by social media...i am frankly weary of the whole fucking thing...it is argument based on a tissue of lies told from the beginning by an elite in much fear of "the mob" that "we the people" actually represented for them and it has lost none of the impetus over the last 227 years...stop for a moment and think about it without the incessant drumbeat of partisan propagandists...who, exactly, are the "main contenders"? on one side a hellbent, bible thumping, very junior texas senator and product of the ivy league and an entitled scion of wealth who is accused by many of being a nazi but is probably too stupid to make the cut...they were insane but they stuck to their standards...some of that clown's retinue would never have gotten past julius streicher much less martin bormann...on the other there is a once failed presidential contender...former first lady and secretary of state...wall street is the only street she could possibly represent...they loved bubba there and face it, if it weren't for term limits they'd still be behind him...he was well liked there during his tenure..so why not the mrs.? her direct opponent has the leftist cachet of "socialist" attached to him..odd for someone who has been a member of congress for a quarter of a century...another insider...i hear a lot of talk about how this election is "rigged"...if you bother to look they've all been rigged...contested by certified members of the status quo..thoroughly vetted and not about to make substantive change a part of the presidential agenda...it's taken you this long to realize this? that explains quite a bit...this is my fourth and probably final screed directly tied to this miserable travesty...i can't find the words to express the real depth of the loathing...it needs a whole new vocabulary..i will vote in the primary and the general election...it will make no difference...it was rigged from the get go.