April 15: NYC took a bridge, Chicago & Seattle took the streets, Portland took Town Hall, and Denver took the cake

Photo by Laura Avant
DENVER, COLORADO- Yes, Denver’s FIGHT FOR FIFTEEN march kept to the sidewalks. When ISO members (organizing the local “15 NOW” group) pushed the boundaries, SEIU marshals criticized them not just for agitating, but for pushing their socialist agenda. Occupy Denver activists held a prominent banner which referenced reigning minimum wage champion Socialist Alternative. Most of the attendees were union members whose representatives have obviously failed to credit the SA party or Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant for the nation’s first $15 minimum wage victory. We fielded questions all evening from marchers eager to know if an SA chapter was brewing in Colorado.

TO BE FAIR, Denver’s march did take an adventurous turn, by Denver standards, but the rally began as might be expected from an event dominated by the SEIU and other corporate unions and their immobile nonprofit cohorts. Denver’s 4-15 rally started in the middle of CU-Denver’s Auraria campus, invisible from any street and unseeable to even partipants arriving, until they turned the corner to find it, behind the Tivoli Center.

Then organizers had a lineup of speakers which stretched well past expectations, trimming the crowd by over a third as supporters opted to slip away due to the unexpected cold front. Next participants were admonished to stick to the sidewalk, even on campus grounds, and applaud the police who’d agreed to permit the march. We were heading to a neighboring McDonalds, at least we were taking the scenic route.

Throughout the rally and march, a brass band played, and members of the local band Flobots led chants and songs. This lent a fun energy but it did preclude ordinary marchers speaking out or centering the vocal messaging on anything more than the generic themes of financial discontent. Even as crowds lingered in front of McDonalds, the band played on, when poignant denunciations might have provided a suitable climax.

Fortunately, a “Silver Brigade” had been deployed to patronize the fast food monster beforehand, to prevent managers from being able to lock the doors when the marchers arrived. McDs managers did lock the doors and they discussed a number of interesting defensive tactics under the noses of our operatives, but the managers were ultimately unable to refuse senior citizens demanding they be allowed to exit. This exit was timed to allow the Fight-for-Fifteen procession to march straight up to the counter, demanding a living wage, etc. Their objections heard, the marchers left and eventually crossed the street and dissolved into shortcuts through the Auraria campus.

(Note: My account of our inside job may appear indiscrete, but I include it purposefully. One, because even with advance knowledge it’s a difficult tactic to prevent, and two, because organizers of successive protests of establishments such as McDs need to include this tactic if they don’t want to remain locked out.)

Photo by Laura Avant
The highlight for me was infusing the event theme with the S-word. Desperate as they were today to fight for a living wage, vowing “we’ll be back” or else to “shut it down”, these union adherants will shortly become the usual Democrats, waving the Hillary banners, as if there was no alternative.

Whose fault is it that America’s minimum wage has been allowed to lapse below the poverty level? Is the responsibility not in part that of the unions’? The SEIU is driving the official “Fight for Fifteen” campaign, but only after socialists have led the way, as they did whenever the labor movement made its gains.

Broomfield Police play rough game of Cowboys & Indians with Idle No More Native Americans, literally

Photo by Jolynne Locust WoodcockBROOMFIELD, COLO.- Fellow Occupy members and I joined in a “round dance” flash mob at a local mall on Wednesday night, as part of the growing IDLE NO MORE actions whose First Nations grievances include the despoiling of indigenous treaty lands by tar sands extraction and the XL pipeline, and sovereignty issues about which Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is now on a 22 day hunger strike. Two previous round dances in Colorado had proceeded uneventfully but no sooner had we begun in the Flatirons Crossing Shopping Center, located between Denver and Boulder, that mall security and police began routing the round dancers out the door. It was a rather comical scene, peaceful dancers, many of them children, being blocked and herded straight out into the cold, no warning or explanation being given. Of course the round dance stopped in its tracks, people instead dancing in place, gently waving their signs, as security told them they had to leave or face arrest. Apparently, because we didn’t hear it. Drummers were let to finish the first song, after which they packed up to leave. Once the drumming stopped however, we were surprised to hear security and police officers relaying their instructions, that “anyone who looked Native American” should be made to leave.

Of course we questioned what we were hearing, and were then threatened with immediate arrest and ushered out the door. At the same time, police officers were running in a continuous line into the mall to conduct sweeps as many flash mob participants were still arriving from all directions. Many got lost on the way, or miscalculated the traffic they’d encounter, so arrived late. In essence however, people without signs, not singing or dancing or drumming or holding their ground, were summarily being ordered to leave the mall immediately, based upon the clue that they looked Native American.

If my “Cowboys and Indians” analogy seems kinda flip. Imagine squads of Broomfield and Westminster police, roaming throughout the FlatIrons Mall checking people’s faces to see if they qualify to be expelled. The mall wasn’t cleared of all shoppers, just those who looked indigenous. A fairly scarey game, considering that many of the Idle No More participants were children.

I can tell you part of the thrill for me, of the round dance flash mobs, as a European immigrant, is feeling the surroundings begin to fill with indigenous faces. That is turned around in the hostile atmosphere created by the police, as western law enforcement resumes its traditional role of hunting down those it pretends don’t belong.

I had invited a friend to bring her young family, part Native American, to join the dance. Thankfully they couldn’t make it. What if they’d had, and come late, and were walking through the mall full of shoppers, and were encountered by squads of police who sought them out of the crowd and inexplicably ordered them to leave the premises? What’s any American child to think of that?

I have a young nephew who just that day I’d seen playing in his policeman’s costume, with a new policeman’s badge he got for Christmas. What would he have thought of that?

Plus, how’s that for irony? Natives considered trespassers. Even the mother of a girl being detained, was not allowed past to inquire what was happening, because she didn’t fit the profile of Americans who have rights, or a profile the police thought should be afforded a status of dignity or respect.

Meanwhile, three female participants, one of them 17-year-old Idle No More organizer Cheyenne McCallister, were being detained inside.

When Occupy Colorado Springs activist Patrick Jay tried to document the actions of the police from outside the mall window, he was pounced upon by Bloomfield Police for not having removed himself sufficiently from the area and thus was held to be trespassing. When I tried to take pictures of his arrest, I was arrested.

Held in separate police cruisers we could hear over the police radio that fifteen Westminster Police Officers were on their way armed with “shields and gas”. An officer on the scene told the dispatcher to turn them back because they were no longer need. As we’d seen, the mall and even the parking area filled with police vehicles had been completely cleared. But then a report came that a Native American group was reconstituting itself in “Parking lot E” and so the officers in riot gear were summoned. We learned later that they did arrive to menace the crowd, which decided to reconvene across the street at a McDonalds instead.

And now consider the further travesty, when a local news crew arrived to cover the story, they told only the mall’s side, because the IDLE NO MORE folks were prevented from reaching the news crew because it would mean trespassing! They could only watch, then watch on television as the story completely misrepresented the facts.

Patrick and I were eventually booked and held for several hours, like the others, then released to a warm welcome from Idle No More organizers who’d waited the whole evening. Our court date is February 20, the two women and one minor have court the next day, February 21.

Photo by Jolynne Locust Woodcock
(First and last photo credit: Jolynne Locust Woodcock)
See more at Facebook/OccupyColoradoSprings

Oops. McDonalds shill Ryan Lochte says he ate sponsor’s food in Beijing, won fewer medals.

Literally, Ryan Lochte scored his piece of silver at the 2012 London Games for endorsing McDonalds’ unolympian crap-food. But in London Lochte waited until after his competitive events to “go to McDonalds”. His fellow shill Michael Phelps added a vicarious, thus safer, third person endorsement, as one might exclaim “He’s going to Disneyland”. At the 2008 games in Beijing, Lochte purports to have eaten the official sponsor’s crap “for breakfast, lunch and dinner over 10 days” but came away with one less medal. Lochte didn’t see SUPERSIZE ME to know his fast food mythology has already been debunked.

Facebook advertisers can repost “likes” in your name so you don’t have to

Users of Facebook are accustomed to seeing friends listed in right-column ads, mentioned liking such-and-such a brand, or two or three. It’s understood that those friends at some point visited the brand’s page and clicked “like”, permitting that company, Amazon for example, to pay Facebook to advertise the “like” as frequently as it wishes. It’s also understood that when one “likes” a page, a post is simultaneously shared to herald the act and appears on the user’s wall unless that feature is turned off. What you may not know is that your initial timeline post can be reposted, in the center-thread, at the advertiser’s whim, perhaps limited to when you’re online, perhaps triggered when you log on, but not logged on your wall and thus unseen by you. Does it also boost the number of people pretended to be “talking about” that brand? Are 372,523 talking about Starbucks? That could include “you”, repeating yourself ad-maybe-nauseum.

Or maybe, for a premium, your original “like” is not shared simultaneously, but doled out as each of your friends comes online to guarantee one hundred percent reach. Who knows. As personalized as we know the ads can be, no doubt the algorithm is not calculated for clarity.

Do you remember which pages you’ve liked or not? Perhaps you clicked like to be able to comment on the page, or to monitor a monopolistic miscreant, or perhaps it was before Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or British Petroleum became persons and not-so-grata. Maybe now you’d rather not be said to like Chevron, Monsanto, or killer Coke. You can review your “likes” under INFO, then INTERESTS. Or you can check the list below. On each page, see if beside the LIKE button, you have the option to unlike, for example, Facebook.

Here’s a quick list of corporate brands which have fallen from fashion among those with fashion sense. You can click on each to check whether you are counted among their unpaid repeated endorsers.

Nike
Gap
Fox News
CNN
AT&T
Caterpillar
Disney
Walmart
Target
K-mart
Toys-r-us
Lowes
Ikea
Home Depot

And the fat merchants:
McDonalds
Burger King
Hardees
Carl’s Jr
Wendy’s
Taco Bell
KFC
Pizza Hut
Sonic
Chick-fil-A
Jimmy Johns
Subway
Outback
Dairy Queen
Dunkin Donuts
Krispy Kreme

Any surprise that China, McDonalds and ad world would be averse to sunshine?

Advertizing creatives Doug Nichol and John Benet made a wonderful behind-the-scenes “making-of” as they filmed two commercial spots for McDonalds China, and neither their client nor their employers are pleased. The title SUNSHINE works on several levels and hopefully this will be the social engineering industry bridge-burner to jailbreak their every[ad]man inner artist.

“United For Global Change” is Madison Ave dilution of “Global Democracy” cry. Oct 15 not for Obameaningless change

15 Octubre, Global Democracy, now subverted to United For Global ChangeUNITED FOR GLOBAL CHANGE certainly smacks of the meaningless slogan that swept President Hope to power. My guess is that this is Advertizer Omnicom’s contract PR redesign to subvert the worldwide Global Democracy movement sparked by Spain’s Indignant rebels and the Arab Spring. Original promotional materials called for GLOBAL DEMOCRACY, which meant something obviously, but might confuse Americans who think their illusion of democracy is enough, spread via Pax Americana. Global “Change” is a straw man open to pundits critical of unspecific demands, “Democracy” less so.

Omnicom is just a guess, they’re the outfit who saved McDonalds’ skin with “I’m lovin it” and who was contracted by the USG to sell Obama’s Wars to the international public. I forgot who won all the Addy in 2008 for the ad campaign of the year, brand “Obama.”

United For Global ChangeInternational demonstrations scheduled for October 15th are more than protests in solidarity for Occupy Wall Street in NYC. OCT15 is a call for DEMOCRACIA REAL YA, which I’m sorry, doesn’t translate to REAL *CHANGE* NOW! What’s change anymore but an Obamaesque meaningless platitude? Dispiriting is the infusion they’ve intended.

“United for Global Change?” Yeah, I don’t think so. First it’s hard to swallow that “change” translates more universally than “democracy.” Second, President Obama’s neo-grassroots orgs are obviously trying to seed anticipation of 2012 with a meme of international support. We Are Change, Be the Change, Democrats For Change, Democratic Change, Change That Works, Change Happens –whatever. In your dreams Democratic party. The world isn’t taking to the street to settle for an Obama Nothing Revolution.

Wanna bet that this Global Change job was commissioned by something akin to Change International, funded by a USAID affiliate, dispersing funds meant to promote CIA-styled Democratic Astroturf pro-US counterrevolutionaries in regions not yet sufficiently subservient to US multinational extraction industries?

So what if an establishment vanguard has succeeded in rebranding OCT 15 for placebo consumption. By all means please join the marches Saturday, regardless your unlike-minded companions. The vocabulary will be mixed, the media is already preparing headlines using the approved slogan makeover, but fear not, the rest of the world is marching for real Democracy and everyone knows it.

Louvre knows art from food from rot

A little birdie traveler confirms the recently reported outrage about a McDonalds franchise in the Louvre. The good news: McDs was not permitted to adjoin the international food court where concessioners serve varieties of real meals. Instead the Happy Meals are consigned to the end of a long hallway, without advantage of a sign, except for the signature yellow arches to show the way. Familiar also will be the width of the fast food estuary, to accommodate the distinctly un-European girths of American patriots jonesing for their poison fix.

LOGORAMA takes McGrease primetime

Still from LogoramaI didn’t see this one coming. The Oscar for best animated short goes to the culture jam LOGORAMA whose clip featured a villainous Ronald McDonald tearing through a logoed metropolis on a grease-cycle. The French producer gave his thanks and assured all the unwitting sponsors that no corporate logos were harmed in the making of Logorama. Who is he kidding? He did what Adbusters still cannot, lambaste McDonalds on prime time television.

They don’t use the golden-arched design of UK fame, but instead seat the cop-killing Ronald on one of two motorcycles fashioned from the logos of the musical Grease, in particular the movie versions, (One) and Two. Ronald is chased by suitably Orwellian blimp-necks, policemen in the incarnation of Michelin Men.

Yanks overseas pretend to be Canadian but how do you do that in Vancouver?

Since the overt militarization of Pax Americana, US citizens traveling the world are advised to pretend they’re Canadians. It only took this week’s unexpected team USA victory over Canada in men’s Olympic hockey, to ignite anti-American feelings. Even before the games began, the USOC’s USA House was the only hospitality venue whose address was not made public, conveniently too because it was safely not open to the public. Now visitors leaving USA House are reminded not to wear or behave in any fashion that would distinguish them as Americans as they make their way to their accommodations.

Security warnings didn’t lessen even as Canada took revenge with a win against the US in Women’s Hockey. Canada’s speed skating victory wasn’t helped by Apolo Ohno’s complaint that his disqualification might have been owed to the supervising judge being Canadian.

Will a Canadian victory in the finals be enough to ameliorate feelings against Americans who dominate every other aspect of North American culture so obnoxiously? In either outcome I foresee American visitors and athletes taking their leave with as little fanfare as possible.

Just as McDonalds is uncontested as it pretends to speak for all Olympic athletes that their toxic McNugget is the “favorite of Olympians,” so is the American war machine able to coopt US athletes for their imperialist message. Critics of the Olympics are ridiculed for politicizing the games, yet militant nationalism pervades the ceremonies.

The television announcers remind us that the USA hockey players have been paired with beneficiaries of the Wounded Warrior program. Each stick-wielding, armored, helmeted ice warrior thus plays for the honor of an actual US soldier. A recognition I believe of America’s undying desire to have a second chance to kick ass.

I don’t know anyone rooting for Team USA, the finals rematch would seem to be an extraordinary opportunity for Obama-spirited diplomacy. These athletes are all NHL players of mottled nationalities, probably most Canadian as much as they are American. What better chance to let the victory to the host. Can you imagine the US asserting its dominance over its coalition partner? What could come of that?

Americans have precious few fans outside the homeland. Oh, they tell us, “we love Americans, just not America.” But in Vancouver this week, that was not true. Imagine Canadians added to the list of world people grown tired of the idiot American brute. Canada will take the sympathy of the rest of the Commonwealth with them.

After two weeks of patient cheerleading against US Olympic supremacy, suddenly I’m jumping up and down for a US win!

It’s just a game. The white man’s war on the world is not.

McDonalds: Eat Like Fat Olympians

The authentic moment in the McDonalds commercial “Eat Like Olympians” is where an athlete walks amazed past tables of A-list Olympians stuffing their faces with Chicken McNuggets. He’s not starstruck, but dumbstruck at the sight of athletes poisoning themselves/selling out. Would they, could they? Not and hope to win. Center stage is US speed skater JR Celski and it’s a damn shame. I always hope medalists will seize their moment in the spotlight to hold their fists high like Mexico 1968. No, they’re so self-obsessed they shill for McDonalds and dope the minds of their admirers with Olympic strength toxin.

Canadian audiences have to suffer a wide campaign of misinformation from a handful of their Olympic hopefuls: Cassie Campbell, Brad Martin, Crispin Lipscomb, Cindy Klassen, Shawn Johnson, and Patrick Chan. Each pretending to eat the garbage.

How is being received? Have a look at this preteen rebuttal on Youtube entitled Olympics + McDonalds = Fat Olympians whose main character is a loving tribute to Shaun White.

Boycott Israel Apartheid this Christmas

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions of Israel to end Palestinian OccupationIn solidarity with the ONE MILE MARCH to free Gaza, on the one year anniversary of Israel’s genocidal incursion into Gaza, let’s kick start a Colorado Springs effort to support the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel, to end apartheid and free Palestine. There are many US/Israeli companies who promote or profit from the illegal occupation of Palestine. On December 28, let’s target those in the Chapel Hills Mall!
L’Oreal, Revlon, Estee Lauder, Ahava, Hanes, Timberland, Teva, Victoria’s Secret, and Bath & Body Works.

American citizens can feel a vague sense of disconnectedness with respect to US business ties with Israel, or we can trace the responsibility for the injustices suffered in Palestine directly to retailers in our neighborhoods. Let’s let these local outlets know we will not tolerate their companies’ agenda in Palestine.

These are just among the consumer products and retailers which actively support Israel’s illegal actions in Palestine. Others you can boycott in town include Home Depot, Starbucks, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Sara Lee, Danon, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clarke, AOL Time Warner, [Fox] News Corp, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Motorola and Caterpillar.

The BDS movement against Israel is attempting to recreate the same pressures which ultimately brought down apartheid in South Africa. Academic, cultural and business boycotts are targeted against US and Israeli companies which participate in the settlement industry, the economic exploitation of Palestine and Palestinians, and control of the population.

One good thing about Colorado Springs

I’m going to tell you something great about Colorado Springs, because sometimes it’s pretty hard not to hate it. On odd summer afternoons, today it’s Saturday, downtown at the Southwest corner of Acacia Park, across the street actually, there assemble seven or so male gospel singers, who sit against a cement planter and sway, harmonizing to an incredible lead vocalist, through song after energetic, soothing song.
Gospel Septet

Sometimes a crowd assembles, sometimes there is clapping. Often passersby make a point to greet the line of singers, shaking hands with them before walking on. Of all Colorado Springs cultural offerings, this is my favorite.

Because isn’t it pretty hard sometimes not to hate Colorado Springs for the ignorant, artless, soul-killers who populate it? The climate may be top of the line, but the cultural atmosphere brings on endless waves of despair, thoughts of suicide, or a determination to emigrate. And it’s hard to argue against the logic of splitting. Jason Zacharias decided to seek his fortune elsewhere. To have tried to change his mind would have meant a lot of selfish reasons on our part, and telling lies about this place.

Many who chose emigration eventually return. Why? I’ll posit it’s because the region is where we have our roots. I was always sure the solution was to build the environment we prefer to inhabit. I’m no longer so sure it can be done with our too few hands.

Damn the greedy, incurious, time-theving idiots who’ve moved into our midst. Or who’ve grown like uneducated weeds between the crack of what we thought were good school systems. How do we urge them to emigrate? We might have to build a Mall-of-America-sized Walmart a half-day’s drive away, and offer that they can live in it. Imagine, McDonalds in bed, someone to greet your friends at the door. Make the parking lot big enough to accommodate all their gasoline powered vehicles.

Those Mexican Swine

Paula Dean spokeswomanThey’re blaming the Mexicans, or pigs, but the wrong pigs. Pork industry spokespeople are trying to take the focus off the large factory hog farms operated by Smithfield Foods in the vicinity of La Gloria, MX, where the outbreak started. Smithfield is the largest supplier of US pork.

BTW You can track H1N1 Swine Flu developments via Veratect on Twitter. Keep in mind Veratect is a government intelligence corporation.

“According to state agents of the Mexican social security institute, the vector of this outbreak are the clouds of flies that come out of the hog barns, and the waste lagoons into which the Mexican-US company spews tons of excrement” -La Jornada, Mexico City.

Swine Flu is no communicable via the consumption of pork. In fact, according to Smithfield, no hogs have been diagnosed with the disease. Although we have only their word on that. The hogs may be asymptomatic. But the pork industry, and I’m guessing the major players, primarily Smithfield, are too big to fail, and are doing what they can to have broadcasters and public officials come up with another name for Swine Flu.

But I’m not sure we shouldn’t be scrutinizing the swine from the vicinity of a Swine Flu outbreak. It’s not the Poor Hapless Mexican Flu for example. Does Smithfield think its swine do not stink?

You can’t get Swine Flu by eating pork, but you can chose not to consume the products which keep the industrial “confined animal feeding operations” (CAFOs) in business. In this particular case, Smithfield Foods subsidiary Granjas Carroll in Veracuz, Mexico. Smithfield is “the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and packaged meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs,” and has issued a formal denial of any Swine Flu link to its facilities.

If you are inclined to pass, for now, on Smithfield pork products, the domestic brands are John Morrell & Co., Armour-Eckrich Meats (Armour, Eckrich, LunchMakers, Healthy Ones, Margherita, Mayrose, Schickhaus, Corando), Curly’s Foods, Patrick Cudahy (Riojano/El Nino), Farmland Foods, Cook’s Ham, North Side Foods Corp., Stefano Foods, and Smithfield RMH Foods.

Less easy to see are Smithfield’s supply lines to restaurants. Smithfield provides the ham products to McDonalds and Subway.

The Big-Agra corporations involved are The Smithfield Packing Company, Cumberland Gap Provision Co., and Smithfield Specialty Foods Group, represented by porcine spokeswoman Paula Dean.

Maybe Ms. Dean wants to take her Porky Pig empathy embodiment act a step further, to lead a sun-less existence of a factory farm inmate.

Killing people with the $1 menu

double cheeseburgerThe US ‘recession diet’ highlights the dollar menu of McDonalds, but the whole problem of how the capitalist economy kills the poor with a crappy food supply is international in scope and encompasses much more than one food outlet and one consumer habit. Much of our over-consumption and poor dietary habits is actually related to bargain hunting and as a result, huge quantities of food are actually thrown away spoiled from American refrigerators.

What to do with the 10 lbs of potatoes bought for $1.99 because the price per lb, was actually 69 cents at the local Wall Soupers? You ate 5 lbs of them instead of three, threw out 5 lbs that went bad, and came out with a savings in what you paid out! But did world society as a whole? It is quite doubtful, but this is the game we all have to play on the capitalist market daily. It’s a mess!

The same thing happens when health regulations are tied to the needs of greater sales by companies rather than to the actual public health. Millions of tons of food are discarded because institutions are mandated by regulations geared to helping the even bigger guys out. Public schools alone discard humongous amounts of just milk from these sort of government enforced con games they play with the public to assist the profiteering by the US dairy industry.

And back to McDonalds, most cities are totally hampered by ‘health laws’ that keep McDonalds from having street stand competition to their $1 menu. The public health suffers as an actual result, and is not being protected by these laws despite the constant propaganda that that is what these ‘health regulations’ are all about. In the US, it is a giant conspiracy by the big companies to kill people off with the $1 menu. Monopolies in the food industry destroy all public health.

A Modern Marvel.

So the show that was just on, Modern Marvels, this evenings episode was Fast Food…

basically an hour long commercial for McDonalds praising them for all the wondrous Gifts of the Kroc Magi.

Yeah, whatever, but then there were a couple of really offensive commercials, of the official kind, breaking up the Love Fest for Sloth, Gluttony and Avarice…

One of them a nervous investor talking to his investment counselor, being told to not worry about the Rapid Death Spiral of The Global Economy, don’t panic, just keep investing, we’re the professional and we’ll get you through it Just Like Our Wall Street Professionalism Got America through into The Mess in the first damn place…

And the other was a Video Game much like the one you can find on the Army’s recruiting website or is it the Navy’s doesn’t matter, the one where your fantasy onscreen character is an Elite Forces Person going around blowing people away…. to suck young dumbasses into joining the “service”….

This one is most offensive, though, the game is a role-playing version of The Civil War.

That would be the AMERICAN Civil War, which lasted about a lot less than half the time the English Civil War did yet still managed to slaughter almost as many people.

So, you can drive to Mickey Dees, cause you’re too damn lazy to walk, you can buy enough grease to give a Blue Whale a massive coronary, drag it home, plop down on the couch and enjoy a few hours of slurping down the Fake Food and Graphically Fantasizing Killing Americans.

How’s THAT for Patriotism?

Thank you Mr. President for all you do

Beijing beach volleyball bikinisIsn’t it vaguely jarring when someone is asked publicly what would be their fondest wish, and they don’t say “world peace?” I feel that way about athletes and celebrities in these times of great conflict. They could say Impeach Bush, Stop Torture, the Media Is Lying, or at the very least, the Emperor Has No Clothes! Instead they feed the media narrative fretting about their quest for a medal, about which we know already.

Not to say the reporters aren’t eager to run with whatever revelation they get. When Usain Bolt revealed that he fuels his running by eating “nuggets,” the press was quick to announce the Fastest Man on Earth eats McDonalds. It’s an easy conclusion. Where else are nuggets on a menu but the Mc variety? A convenient conclusion too, as McDonalds is a chief sponsor of the Olympics. They’re running adds featuring ex-athletes, in athletic settings, pitching McPhood. Although no Olympic athlete could jeopard his/her health to a McDonalds meal depth-charge. Sports reporters know that too. Shame on them for perpetrating the McNuggets disinfo until Bolt’s father could be reached for an explanation. Usain’s “nuggets” are a concoction of yams, and no doubt something Jamaican that will soon be ruled out as doping.

Reporters did interview an Olympic competitor who’s eating plenty at the Beijing McD’s. He’s an archer, who has no need to move around. Probably his weight stabilizes his aim. Probably too he’s got no aspirations for the Pentathlon. The convenient unofficial unsolicited McEndorser weighs 215 pounds.

I’ve heard Olympic athletes are oblivious to real world concerns. Perhaps I can forgive them for not making political statements, even though they have the forum. They’re forbidden, but as attention hounds, you’d think they’d notice that the athletes now most honored for the 1968 Mexico City Games were the ones who raised their fists.

Instead the 2008 Beijing Olympics has this: heralded to be the best Beach Volleyball duo of all time (The TV announcer kept asking “Can I say it? Can I say this is the best beach volleyball team of all time?!” -even though this sport/spectacle pandering to the NASCAR fans has been part of the Olympics only THREE TIMES BEFORE), the winners had this statement to make, after clearing it with their interviewer.

Said Kerri Walsh: “Can I say something? Thank you Mr. President, for your support. And thank you for all that you do!”

Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Time to reboot America

Understatement of the year: CNN Poll shows 69% of Americans say the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the nation has turned out.

God of Hate. The AntiChristians are boycotting McDonalds, for not hating gays enough, in Jesus name.

Rabid racist and vitrolic gay-basher Jesse Helms burns in Hell.

Gotta have a “beard” if you want to be considered for VP! FL governor Crist is engaged. To a female.

Barack Obama: just another Republican in Democrat’s clothing.

Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s notes, July 4, thomasmc.com.

Heading up to Garden of the Gods

Up by the Balanced Rocks. Gonna play the flute and make a little medicine.

Sell some jewelry too if I’m lucky.

I’ll be up there around 4 or so.

Probably the Drum Tribe will be somewhere around.

Earth day co-opted by corporations, yeah.

Jesus, even McDonalds is doing “green”.

Ah, well…

Maybe we’ll be able to play them like a finely tuned fiddle.

Kind of like when the empire co-opted Jesus way back when, well… when you try to just use the name of somebody who preaches peace, sooner or later, there’ll be followers who, you know, actually BELIEVE in peace and will take it back from you.

Maybe we can take back Green the same way, only without the 2000 years or so of truly unnecessary bloodshed.

Free wireless spots in Colorado Springs

WiFiWhere to plop your laptop if you can’t make it home to post a bid. Independents predominantly, by area, and hours. Please contact us if you’ve been omitted. Cheers!

DOWNTOWN
Antlers Hilton – lobby, restaurant
4 S. Cascade Avenue – 955.5600
Boulder Street Coffee Roasters
332 N. Tejon St – 577.4291
Coffee Warehouse
526 S. Tejon Street – 227.8639
Dog Tooth Coffee M-F 6:30am-6pm, S-Su 8am-6pm
505 E. Columbia St – 632.0125
El Tesoro Restaurant
10 N. Sierra Madre St – 471.0106
Joanie’s Cafe
2224 N. Wahsatch Ave – 578.9200
McCabe’s Tavern
520 S. Tejon St – 633.3300
Phantom Canyon
2 E. Pikes Peak Ave – 635.2800
Pike’s Perk
14 S. Tejon
Poor Richard’s Wine Bar / Rico’s
322 N. Tejon St – 630.7723

WESTSIDE
Agia Sophia Coffee Shop M-S 8am-10pm, Su 1-7pm
2902 W. Colorado Ave. – 632.3322
Black Cat Books -Manitou Th-Tu 10am-9pm
720 Manitou Avenue – 685.1589
Colorado City Creamery
2602 W. Colorado Ave
6628A Delmonico Dr – 265.6556
CUCURU m 8-4, w-th 8-4, f-s 8-10, su 9-3
2332 W. Colorado Ave – 520.9900
Java Buddha Coffeehouse
2631 W. Colorado Ave – 633-JAVA
McDonalds
3021 W. Colorado Ave
Meadow Muffins
2432 W. Colorado Ave

SOUTH
Blue Star Bar & Grill
1465 S. Tejon St – 632.1086
Canyon Coffee & Cafe
1791 S. 8th St.
Cookie Crumbs
1753 S. 8th St
Pikes Perk
1616 S. 8th St

EAST
Colorado Springs Airport – main concourse
7770 Drennan Road
Jazzed on Java M-F 7am-4pm
2201 Saint Paul Dr – 578.1731
Raven’s Nest Coffee
330 N. Institute St.

NORTH
Black Forest Coffee Haus
11425 Black Forest Rd – 495.4804
Good Company Restaurant
7625 N. Union Blvd – 528.8877
Jazzed on Java
5550 N. Union – 264.0232
Pike’s Perk
5965 N. Academy Blvd, #203
5547 Powers Center Point

Beside the corporate joints Panera, Einstein Bros, Bear Rock, Peaberry, It’s a Grind, Dazbog, Borders or Starbucks.

Benazir’s murder, a matter of when

Bhutto muralIt’s tragic that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today. There is rampant speculation about who did it and why. But largely missing from the analyses I’ve read is the possibility that the nation of Pakistan, the Islamic nation of Pakistan, a nation that recently gave Osama bin Laden a 46% approval rating, simply didn’t want a high-born, Western-educated, secularist woman in a position of power in their country. A woman who has twice been removed from office on corruption charges and whose father was branded an enemy of Islam and executed in 1979.

McDonalds PakistanWe can pretend that it’s an oppressive regime we oppose and that the Pakistani people are longing for freedom and equality as we’ve defined it. In actuality, our quarrel is with the Pakistanis themselves, at least half of whom would institutionalize Islamic fundamentalism and call it freedom. Pakistanis who would love to be free of Western influence, be it cultural or political. Pakistanis who want to practice their religion and define their values without interference from outsiders.

The world does not want our electronics, nor our cars, nor much of anything we have to offer. Why do we insist that the world want our democracy? Clearly it doesn’t.

Comfort food for the sugar-fat addict

Comfort food truth in labelingComfort food is what? The food addict’s fix? The salve of eating disorders that is also the poison? Is McDonalds concerned that out of sight in the bag, a fat-eater might forget what designs he had on his impulse/compulsive purchase?
 
McDonalds would seem to have quite a grasp of its customers. McFatties may have heard about “comfort food” but may not remember whether it denoted something bad or good. The McDonalds marketing department is employing a linguistic maneuver: own up to the accusation, then pervert what it means.
 
This bag promotes McDonalds’ World Children’s Day, urging us to give comfort. A search of their linked website about helping children yields not a single mention of “comfort.”

When Microsoft was confronted with Java, the Sun Microsystems product that offered to reduce our dependence on client-side software, what did Microsoft do? They jumped on the Java bandwagon, used their dominant market position to spread their own version of Java, but injected some broken code. Thus for the majority of users, Java was a disappointment. And Microsoft and Sun Microsystems settled out of court.

Lawyergate, who’d have thunk it…

it would seem that this issue has gotten the most screams out of the Cons. They are spinning like a Maytag on amphetamines.

The White House is hedging already, people are getting “hazy memories” like they wouldn’t seriously remember something like firing a whole bunch of their pig buddies.

Sure they don’t remember, after all, “they have the attention span of a goldfish and wouldn’t remember what their leader’s said 6 months afterward”

OOPs that’s the Left Wing that supposedly can’t remember anything, and the Cons are sharp as tacks….

Details, details…

You know, there’s a Mafia saying that comes to mind, rather forcefully, “never shit in your own front yard” meaning if you are going to do major crimes, don’t do it in your own neighborhood.

If you were a guest at a Mafia house, you wouldn’t even have to lock your car. They wouldn’t sell dope in their neighborhood, they wouldn’t allow anybody else to either.

These buffoons in the Administration just got more and more arrogant. An Email from a WHITE HOUSE computer to start outing Plame?

How stupid can they get? Why not go behind a McDonalds and use their WiFi, fer cryin’ out loud?

I bet some of the best scams ever on the web were done in the alley behind a Mickey D’s.

They just don’t know how to hire real talent, I guess.

‘American Owned’?- racism on Route 66

You know the routine. You’ve driven 400-500 miles and are so tired you can barely move. Time to find a room so you pull into the first motel you see. And there’s that big nasty sign…. AMERICAN OWNED … in the window.

OK, I admit it. At times, I eat at McDonalds and shop at WalMart, but one thing I try never to do is to stay at a hotel with that overt racist flag out front. In fact, I always ask the Indian hotel owners and managers elsewhere if they will fix me some Indian food if I smell it in the air.

I don’t want to help out any of those ‘American Owned’ assholes with their stupid nativist racism. ‘American’ born they may be, but so are all members of the KKK, too. I prefer hard working immigrants to American born that try to appeal to the basest instincts in the worst amongst us.

Long live all the hard working immigrants of all nationalities amongst us. They are what make America so much better than it would be if we were nothing more than a homogenous bloc of stupid, ingrown twits.

Viva variedad!

Fat Cats and the minimum wage

The fat cats are all upset again! They just can’t tolerate the thought of even having a minmum wage, let alone raising it. Our local daily rag, The Colorado Springs Fat Cats, fatcopycatted from George Will’s recent Washington Post column and urged that no raise be given to the poor. Let the ‘free market’ do it, or let them starve if not. In fact, as far as the local CS Blue Bloods are concerned, if the ‘free market was to provide no employment to people at all, well the devil be damned for all they would care.

It is a true indicator of our paltry national political culture, that the national debate on minimum wage rates hinges on whether for the billionaires to throw a few pennies the way of the peasantry, or to just let them starve. Those who favor tossing the few pennies get to pose as the DP humanitarians vs those against, the RP scrooges.

Oh, I’m sorry. That’s not fair. Our local daily rag says that they are actually advocating tough love for the poor, and therefore have to oppose the raise in order to help the near destitute keep working at the current minimum wage. They say if there was an increase that the whole American economy would collapse, and that the poor would all lose their jobs at Walmart, Manpower, and McDonalds. Such compassion for the poor! That’s what it is, of course.

That’s the real reason the fat cats oppose the minimum wage, this they say. Yes, and Iraq had WOMD, too. These folk are so sincere in all their concerns they have for the rest of us!

Can you imagine the fat cats actually giving a damn about anything other than their stock portfolios? Oh Yes. Maybe they care some about their Lexuses and country club memberships. too. Let’s be fair.

Corporate America’s micro-management addiction

Decades ago, while working as a Seattle garment cutter where Jimmy Hendrix’s brother once worked, I observed with awe and amazement a White man, overly dressed in coat and tie, stand directly behind the seated rows of bent over Oriental women with stopwatch in hand.

He was measuring each and every fraction of a second their motions as they sewed together cut parts of skiwear. He was part of the management team’s effforts to micro-manage the workers at this factory. He would write down his observations and then they would be mathematically calculated to squeeze these women out of every ounce of their energy, for the least pennies to be paid. My thoughts back then were, Good God Almighty! This micro-management of people is sick, sick, sick!

Today, I am a proud parent of a District 11 school kid. Everyday she comes home at 2:45, angry, hostile, and upset. Why is this? The kids at this ‘excellent’ facility are being micro-managed, that’s why . No time for recess, no time for play, no time for socialization. Every second is to count.

If you might ask, I am voting for recall. My only wish is that the whole bunch of them were being recalled on that School Board. Their micro-management of kids is sick! There is no kid left behind from it, either. At the school my kid goes to, the teachers don’t even much get the chance to teach. They have a computer called ‘Success Maker’ supposedly doing that. Computers can micromanage little kids better than humans can, I guess?

All the teachers and principals are part of this micro-management, too. Even their cheerleading for the school seems totally forced. Like a Toyota production circle almost! And the kids conduct in this repressive setting becomes quite coarse. Another manifestation of the US corporate zeal for micro-management of others. Little kids even! Every second must count. We must ‘rationalize’ education! Speedup the teachers!

Last week in the New York City metro area, ecoli@TacoBell.com shut down 6 stores. But what is the New York City municipal health inspectors concerns per another article online last week? That there were sales of armadillo meat and other exotics at ethnic markets going on that were not kosher enough for them. The ethnic markets are not being micro-managed by the Health Dept. like they should supposedly be. In city across city in the US, it is next to impossible to vend food like is done in every other country around the world. The food cannot be micro-managed like at McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Burger King by the ‘health’ bureaucracy. No way to stand stop watch in hand and measure productivity, etc. Uh, I meant sanitary conditions.

Pretty pathetic is it not? All those fast food joints have kids working without sick leave, and no health inspector ever is there to micro-manage the snot coming from them onto the food while at work sick. Got to spend more time micromanaging armadillo meat instead, and I guess cuy (guinea pig), too, which is available to South American immigrants in a park of one of their barrios in that city. In other cities, just try to vend even hot dogs around town! Food not Bombs gets harassed if they give away cooked food on the streets. Unhealthy. You guys are not going to get away from being totally micro-managed by corporate America! It’s for health reasons, the authorities will all announce. Shut up and eat your triple fat burger, Buddy.

Everything is micro-managed these days. The Iraq Study Group was micro-analyzing how they could micro-manage those savage Arabs and Kurds? How can ‘our’ oil be micro-managed in that faraway land? Bipartisan unity now. Democrats and Republicans all 100% behind the idea of corporate America micro-managing other peoples. Can they not micro-manage other people? No, they are addicts, are they not? They need Micro-Managers Anonymous.

At Safeway, the clerks are told what to say. At the hospitals, nurses are told what to say. At Wendy’s, management is taking away what to say and micro-managing that from the Exit 42 Corporation located in New Hampshire. At America On Line, what to say is not micro-managed on line by Americans on line, but by micro-managed Indians on line micro-managed in Quien Sabe, India! This corporate micro-management addiction is sick!

The in thing for business, is to violate labor law and micro-mange your break time, take it away, destroy it! It’s WalMarts specialty, and ask any nurse how management micro-manages them at the hospitals? Haven’t seen your nurse come by? They’re being micro-managed over at the desk by management. To see you in person they would need to have skates on. That would go with their bundle of equipment (cellphones, buzzers,sensors, etc.) that they have to carry around, like US soldiers on patrol. All a result of micro-management of their time by the corporation. Management must always be in contact!

Computers are used to program nurses these days, as they are other workers. Aw sure, those poor machines get programmed, too. But believe it, the machines program far more people than the other way around. Cash registers force the pace. Cameras are everywhere. Micro-management is in, big time. Satelites taking down your conversations on the ol’ cell phone even. All part of micro-management addiction by the business community. Real patriots, them! And it is sick, sick, sic, is it not? These efficiency and organization nuts need some major political metamucil!

Notice the headline this week? America is NUMBER ONE in the world in number of citizens in jail. Highest in per capita percentage, too. 5% of the world’s population, with 25% of those micro-managed in jail. Oh, and it really is micro-management in US jails! See Jose Padilla? See those guys at Guantanamo? It’s no aberration, either. Go to jail, and they will micro-manage your ass. And I mean that literally, too. Go to the airport and pray, they’ll micro-manage you there, too. They got you coded, Dude. And in jail, well they got ot watch your ass. You might have some palmed Tylenol tabs up your rear a foot or two. Wouldn’t want you to get high from smoking the stuff! Now that’s true micro-management, is it not?

So what is the first thing that corporate America will say to you if you want to stop their addiction to micro-managing you? They will scream and whine and shout!

“That is socialism! Keep your liberty. Socialists want to micro-manage you, and you won’t have the freedom we allow you here! We’re against micro-management!”

Comical, is it not? Despite corporate America’s micro-management addiction, all this micro-management is to be done on you. Try to ask for it to be directed their way, and they scream and squeal like the pigs they are. They are pigs, too. They not only will micro-manage your ass, if they get a chance, but if perhaps you fall by the road side in illness or old age, they will micro-manage your processing down the conveyor belt and into the hole in the ground the funeral micro-management industry has prepared for you. They will micro-manage the prayer said in your last behalf, want it or not! Yes, the last prayer before God will process you, and then you will get micro-managed for eternity. Corporate America is just obeying God on this matter.

Corporate America is addicted to micro-management of your life, from birth to graveyard. The Christian’s God gets you then.