Bareassed Hypocrisy

Oh.

Hell.

Pictures, self-taken from a cell phone, appear on a gay website. In a couple of them, a man is naked, on all fours, revealing his... base assets.

Point One: There is no doubt--no doubt at all--that the pictures are meant to be an invitation to sex. The pictures show a man, deliberately covering his face for that very important "sense of mystery," but revealing his body (one picture is of his naked torso), to the extent of "offering his wares" with his "doggy stance."

Point Two: What a person does in private is private and should remain that way, barring a greater good (solving a major crime, for example.) But what a person posts to the digital world is NOT private. It is NOT. Posting a picture to a website or tweeting a pic is NOT a private matter, simply because it spreads outside of anyone's control the moment you hit "Enter." Any position that doesn't acknowledge this basic truth is wrong.

The pictures were almost immediately linked to local senator and majority speaker Roberto "Me Espickin Inglich" Arango, notorious for his support of a statehood he can't define in the "official" language of the country he wants to become a part of.

His first reaction: That's not me. This is a political smear. Or words to that effect. Hell.

His second reaction, when shown the photos: He looks at them and then says That isn't Me.

Oh hell.

Here's the natural reaction of the totally innocent: It doesn't matter what photos you have, I don't have to see them because I'VE NEVER DONE THAT.

His third reaction: Yeah, that's me, but they were pictures taken of my weight loss efforts. But I don't remember those pictures.

Oh fucking hell.

Of course, the liar has already said he won't resign. Why should he? It's not like ethics or morality or integrity or dignity have ANYTHING to do with being a hyena-level thief in Our government. Hell, those are the "deal killers" that keep you from getting (s)elected.

The added twist is that Espickin Inglich has openly supported the proposed amendment to make marriage heterosexual only. So in a pattern that is very very familiar to observers of the Republican Party, the Moral Majority and other hypocrisy-required-for-membership groups, Espickin Inglich wants to legislate against those he wants to join. Carnally, to go Biblical on his ass.

Another day, another scandal, another dollop of barefaced--well actually: bareassed--hypocrisy.

Hell.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 28 August 2011: Espickin Inglich resigned his ass from the senate.]

[Update: 9 February 2012: Espickin Inglich photographed kissing a man on a Miami beach. Not a crime, but for an ex-public official who made it a point to mock homosexuals and try to persecute them, it simply confirms hypocrisy. And homosexuality, if you're counting.]

The GasoDildo Down Our Throats

The president of the government board of the local power authority is front-page news in one of Our puppy-trainer rags because despite the deep drop in oil prices since May, she stated that the fuel charge on Our bills will not be adjusted for at least a year, by which time the proposed 93-mile natural gas pipeline they call "Vía Verde" and I accurately define as the GasoDildo, is expected to be operational.

Okay, that was the Vaseline.

At the same time, she pointed out that Our electric bills could not be expected to drop as "(O)ur agreement with (bond)holders is that losses are passed on to (Our) customers, not to them."

<Theme from "Shaft" goes here.>

GasoDildo, anyone?

The (non)government is spending an estimated 2 million dollars on advertising the "Vía Verde," the """"""green"""""" natural gas pipeline that will """"""save"""""" Us money and make Us less dependent on oil. Every electric bill comes with a blatant, bare-faced lie: how much money We "could" have saved with the green dildo project. So in one simple press conference, the whole scheme is revealed:

A) Our electric bill is being politically jimmied to force Us to accept the green dildo. This is known as the "Vaseline Gambit", and...

B) We're going to get screwed up the ying-yang to where it says "Made in Japan" when the whole green dildo thing blows up...either financially (a given) or literally (a distinct possibility with ignoramus engineers in charge.)

And Our protest is...where? It's like the whole thing is a green dildo crammed down Our throats: We know it's uncomfortable, We know it's hateful, but We can't seem to do much more than gag a feeble "ackh". If that.

So now what? The GasoDildo is revealed for what it is--exactly--and We...ignore it? Wait until it's ripped from Our throats and in the split-second before it plugs Our fundament We utter a feeble cry of protest, drowned out by the sounds of illegal and immoral profiteers pig-cackling at Our expense?

If the GasoDildo were truly a cost-saving, infrastructure-enhancing project, the electrical authority would continue business as usual because they already offered the bonds needed to pay for the damn thing. They wouldn't have to keep gouging Us. And if the project were truly cost-effective and the (non)government truly believed it would make a strong positive difference, We wouldn't be on the hook for it. Why? Because then the (non)government would have either raised a hell of a lot more money or they would have received a much higher bond rating (and pay a lower interest to investors.)

None of those things are true. The GasoDildo is not meant to benefit Us: it's meant to rape Us while a few pimps make out like...pimps.


The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 25 August 2011: Brazilian wind power cheaper than natural gas. And Brazil doesn't have to import natural, like We do. Alternative technologies--solar, wind, tidal--are cheaper in the long run than a 93-mile shaft. The problem? Our Fools can't figure out how to make oodles of money using them to screw Us. If they could, they would...and benefit Us. By mistake, but I'd take it.]

Who's Saving Us From Us?

[Once again, Global Voices Online gives wings to My words, this time about My blogger ethics. It's like Janine Mendes-Franco is a wizard or something. Or is she a witch? Okay, I should stop right there...]

I had an uncle who once told Me: "If you get slapped, turn the other cheek. But if you get slapped again, beat the shit out of the bastard because Jesus didn't say anything about what to do after turning the cheek."

I did put his words into practice a few times, with mixed results. Often, I was unable to turn the other cheek. When I did, and got hit again, I'd always go off and though I tried to win every fight, I lost a few. My bottom line was: I'd fight even if the reason was wrong.

Now I look at My Island and I see a people that turn the other cheek 3-4 times, pretend their neck is a cheek, offer up butt cheeks, use their kids' cheeks, write "cheek" on their hands and offer those up for beatings, anything to avoid the "Fuck it, it's time to fight" moment.  As Jenius commenter (and outright Genius) Prometeo stated in his blog, We're "soft." (He used a different word; I'm letting you discover which one.) I called Us "cowards." Time to revisit that insult.

Within days of arriving in Puerto Rico, a person will be confronted by an island awash in problems. Here's a partial list: sub-standard (and sometimes sub-human) education; rampant political corruption; enormous unemployment; welfare recipients by the hundreds of thousands; overwhelming crime and underachieving law enforcement; consumerist mentality linked to a stagnant economy; religious leaders that act like criminals; media that acts like traitors and a self-image that seems to be based more on delusion and id than on pride and self-confidence. In short, We are fucked up.

But are We really doing anything about it? About anything on that list?

We are. We have to be. Somebody, somewhere, in some way, is doing something, however small, to plug the crumbling dam of Our society. It's impossible, even for Us, to have everyone being corrupt, for everyone to be a slacker, for all of Us to be parasites, for each of Our people to be a walking waste of human flesh, like Our politicians. Some of Us are saving Us...from Us.

But in the math of social disintegration, it isn't necessary for everyone to be a crook, thief, rapist, murderer, abuser, pederast or politician: it's enough that the good let the bad flourish. In short, the bad grows when the good allow it.

I don't have to be a bad person or engage in bad acts to aid and abet in the disintegration of My society: I simply have to be indifferent. To the bad. And even to the good, for if I don't acknowledge the good, and thus offer it support, I am "dis-encouraging" it as an acceptable path.

Now I can claim I'm too busy or too important or too caring about My family or too tired or whatever to try to excuse My indifference. Any way you choose to try to excuse it, all you're really doing is choosing to turn the other cheek.

Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

At what point does one look at this behavior, where in the face of active attempts against a person that person does nothing, and say "S/He is soft"? At what point, as this non-reaction continues, does someone say "S/He is a coward"? At what point does someone say "S/He deserves every bit of pain they get, for they have done nothing to reject it"?

I passed the point of calling Us "cowards" long ago. I'm pretty damn sure I'm very close to looking at My Brethren and saying We deserve everything We've had and have coming to Us.

Or maybe I passed that point already and I'm too soft to acknowledge it.

We'll see.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Jenius' Blogger Ethics

[Global Voices Online. The Jenius. Janine Mendes-Franco. Thank you!]


Some time ago, I wrote about My Intellectual Honesty and concluded I deserved a B. Tough self-critic, I am. Now comes this Blogger Code of Ethics, as suggested several years ago by Charlene Li in a Forrester Research Report titled "Blogging: Bubble or Big Deal?".

Now in the spirit of My earlier self-examination, Let's tackle this one, shall We?


 1) I will tell the truth.  A. Can't give Myself an A+ because I never have all the facts and quite frankly, nobody does.

2) I will write deliberately and with accuracy. A-. I don't write "deliberately" 100% of the times (I do believe you've noticed) and nobody has 100% accuracy in what they write, even though some of Us try very hard. If I were more deliberate, I'd give Myself an A or A+.

3) I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly. A+. Easy, since as I mentioned before, I don't make many mistakes.

4) I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing. A. Could have been an A-, but the changes I make after posting are almost always to correct spelling (see #8, below.) Not once in 1,037 posts have I changed something to "improve" My presentation or retract what I've written. That's why I place Updates.

5) I will never delete a post. A+. See #4 above. And I've been asked to about 45-50 times.

6) I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic. A+. For one, I have smart people making comments. For two, disagreeing with Me is not a problem. Most likely a mistake on the person's part, but not a problem.

7) I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly. B. It's the "promptly" part where I fail to achieve excellence. I have improved, but no comment should go unnoticed for more than 24 hours; a few have exceeded that this year.

8) I will strive for high quality with every post – including basic spellchecking. B. I turned off the automatic spellchecker to force Me to read/edit/correct My posts. Worked well for about a month and then a Jenial Reader pointed out that I was making some mistakes. That and The Picky Grammar Lady not being around led Me to sloppiness. Definitely room for improvement, but I still rank at least in the 98th percentile.

9) I will stay on topic. A. My topic is "Puerto Rico," with the occasional foray into other areas. Or actually, the topic is The Jenius and I NEVER stray from that.

10) I will disagree with other opinions respectfully. F. For "Fuck that." Actually, taken as a whole, I tend to disagree with only slight disrespect, though I have outrageously gone off on a slow-witted sociologist, a (miseducation) secretary with more fat than brains and a Korean-American ex-kongresskritter who should have stayed in his kim-chi patch. Balancing that out has been My exchanges with people I know and don't, so I'll settle for a...D. For "Don't expect Me to change too much."

11) I will link to online references and original source materials directly. B. I can do better. I usually do it, but "usually" is not "always" and "always" is the only standard that matters.

12) I will disclose conflicts of interest. A+. I seldom have conflicts of interest because I choose to attack stupidity and stupid and Me don't mix. So there.

13) I will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues would jeopardize my personal and work relationships.  A+. I have touched on some items that I have personal knowledge of and state so. I also discuss some personal issues, but none that I wouldn't discuss amongst colleagues or friends. Like most people, I could blog about some truly juicy stuff, but at the expense of My reputation and people by and large don't deserve to be treated that way. Others, though, are in My sights for when the timing is right--and I am a patient man--they will be discussed. At length.

Okay, adding and dividing gives Me a 3.54 average, an A- if you want to be precise about it. (And for the math teachers in Our local schools: please have someone explain to you how I arrived at that figure...)

The Jenius Report Card: A in Blogger Ethics and a B in Intellectual Honesty. Assessment: The Jenius means well, but he needs to delve a little deeper into the facts and present them more objectively. (Here comes the bummer:) He definitely has room for improvement.

Okay.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

My Beige Cup

Every morning for the past 15 years or so, I drink coffee from a beige cup. Some sort of plastic, thick-walled, but light. For those who know Me and My kitchen utensils, beige is like having a Honda scooter in a Harley warehouse. Most of My stuff is brightly-colored: shiny blue, sparkling orange, dazzling yellow. Beige is definitely not like that.

I have other cups, some in dazzling colors. Given how much coffee I drink, I could go with a bigger mug (I have one with a Steelers logo) or if I want to cut back a little, I can go with a half-sized bone white cup with a deep royal blue edge. No. I stick to the beige cup. It has a couple of chips in it, probably from being a dropped a time or two. (Never thrown. Stop spreading rumors.) The inside has some dark lines that might be warning signals as to the more negative aspects of coffee. It doesn't matter.

The cup is very familiar to Me, more so than almost anything else I have. So much so that when I visit My mom's house and open her cupboard to get a water glass, it stuns Me to see three other beige cups. Like Mine, only newer.

Now those of you who have read "The Little Prince" and loved it know where I'm going with this. Those three beige cups are like Mine, in form and materials. They are newer, brighter even, if beige can be said to be "bright." For My coffee, a cup is a cup. Even if I ignore every other type of cup in the world, a newer beige cup might even be better at keeping My coffee warm for Me, or it might even taste better since the interior would be...unstained.

But.

My cup is Mine. Scarred and stained, a bit lopsided now that I look at it more closely, it is Mine. Its sheer presence in My hand, as part of My days, has made it special to Me. Unique. Mine.

My point is not about possession. Seeing as how My cup is just some kind of plastic in a neutral shade, if possession were the motivation, I would want to have all four of the beige cups and many more. Start a collection! Reach double digits and soar! Use a different one for every time I drink coffee until I reach the end of the lot and then start again. Cuts down on the staining, Methinks.

No, that's not the point. The point is that this beige cup, the one I just set down, has Me invested in it. Unaware, My simple choices added up to what can only be called a bond. I can use anyone of 19 other cups at hand (and about 2 dozen more stored for fancy-shmancy events I don't intend to hold), but I don't. I choose a plain beige cup. Correction: My plain beige cup.

In obvious and subtle ways, Our choices define Us. We can't escape that, so it has the force of a natural law. But We often act like Our choices don't really matter, that they are really nothing more than random acts, even ascribing some or many of them to "outside forces." If it weren't so sad I'd say it was droll. Yes, some choices are out of Our hands, but most are not. And that's how it is, whether We acknowledge it or not.

I'm having more coffee. You already know what cup I'll be using.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Okay, When Do We Riot?

A man is shot by police in Tottenham, a suburb in North London. Rioting ensues. And continues, probably for another day or more.

Although Fools and eyes-in-their-asses """experts""" are saying that "criminal elements and thugs" are rioting, any glimpse at closed-circuit TV cameras (of which England has thousands) and pictures of the riots show that a generous cross-section of the population is rioting. They make up an uncontrolled and uncontrollable mob, a ferociously angry beast spurred to violence because a man was shot by the police. And because enough is enough.

The police represent the domestic muscle of government. It is the police that have pushed for CCTV cameras to be placed all over England. When the guardian says he wants to watch you more closely, the vast majority of people, who are innocent and law-abiding, have only two reactions: why? and fuck you. Toss in the police acting more brutally (333 killed, zero convictions), enforcing their muscle to suppress the natural reactions of people under economic and social stress (look up kettling...go ahead; I'll wait...) and you reach a point where people simply decide that enough is enough. Rioting ensues.

The reasons vary across nations: Tunisia, Spain, Egypt, Libya. But it boils down to two basic factors: a population that feels dissatisfied with its government and a government trying to suppress the populace. Oppression can only be taken so far.

So where's Our rioting? Where's Our "Enough is enough!" moment? If you're stupid enough to say We had that last year,  let Me point out that the """""protest""""" ended up with many of the sheep making a detour to Plaza Las Americas Mall...to go window shopping. Now you may criticize Me for pushing the idea that maybe We should loot, pillage, burn and even harm innocent people and I'll state unequivocally that your criticism is valid.

But We should riot anyway. Short of property and personal harm, We have to riot.

How much are We going to tolerate before We either collapse into anarchy or literally take arms and wrench this fucking putrid system into a more positive direction?

-- We're on pace for over 1,050 murders this year, product of a drug war that floods Our streets with products largely meant to feed the bottomless addiction of Uncle Sam's nephews and nieces up north?

-- Our economy is subservient to Uncle Sam's, whose economy is being run into the ground by bankers and finance manipulators, fucking parasites that produce nothing but hardships for the rest of Us?

-- Our employment is dropping as jobs are not being created, they are being divided. The number of part-time workers has risen nearly 14% in the past 3 years, but overall employment has dropped. How? More 20-30 hour a week jobs paying little or no benefits. And yet, retail chains keep flocking to Our cities and towns because when it comes to buying, We are like Uncle Sam's drug-addicted nieces and nephews.

-- Our (non)government has increased Our debt, failed to reduce the size of the over-bloated tumor of an employee force, seeks to shove idiotic projects down Our throats and up Our asses, acts like it is a separate class from voters and We are still so MOTHERFUCKING stupid to keep electing these shitbags?

-- Our public education system is so bad, so pluperfect putrid, We'd be better served by eliminating the whole thing and spending 2-3 years engaging in "ad hoc schooling." How--how, damn it--can it be any worse than the turd-infested latrine collection We have now?

-- Lest We forget, Our police force is under congressional investigation for brutality, they have demanded--I repeat: demanded--the """""""right""""""" to record public gatherings for their own use and according to a 2010 poll are considered the least-trustworthy public servants We have.

Not enough? Not enough to stomp up to a public official and demand action. Not enough to scream into his/her weasel face: "You are through!"? Not enough yet? 

Okay, then when? Because your limit of tolerance is hurting Us all.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 12 August 2011: From The Guardian, the context of these riots that cannot be ignored. In a nutshell:  an unequal society with abusive tendencies. From CNN, "shock" at who the rioters are. Now I wonder who noticed that in their Jenius post 3 days earlier? Check the Comments of this post for another link that will crystallize what's happening in England. Here's a hint: 333-0. And if you can't be bothered to read for more than 30 seconds, try this statement from a Minister of Parliament that nails the crisis on its head. Notice how it applies to My Island, up to a certain point. You'll clearly see what that point is.]

[Update: 25 August 2011: Man tasered by British police dies, third police-related fatality in one week.]

Venting...Just Venting

Today would have been My Dad's 84th birthday. It would be nice to have him around.

-- Tropical Storm Emily, currently washing away topsoil in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, hit Puerto Rico the same way icebergs crash into Havana. And yet, The Larva We elected as (non)governor gave government employees the day off on Tuesday--before Emily was anywhere near Us--and kept the (non)government, uh, going, by extending the hogwash laziness into Wednesday. Emily, some 120 miles south of Us, dripped rain on about half the island. Not a deluge. Not a storm. Just rain. Like in "It's raining today, take the umbrella." No need to mention Noah or make canoe jokes. No. Nothing like that. And yet, power went out for over a million residents. So to make this perfectly clear: a normal rainfall caused 2 days of government stoppage and a power outage affecting 25% of Our population. I guess that means that if Emily had hit Us yesterday, We would be debating cannibalism by now.

-- The local school year starts Monday. A public report evaluating Our schools was buried in the Department of Education's pisshole of a website. The short version: Our schools suck worse than last year. Fully 88% of Our schools are in "Improvement Status," which means that they have failed to show adequate yearly progress. Now "No Child Left Behind" is to improving education what applying diluted dog shit does to eye infections, but here's the problem: it's the rules of the game. We accepted to play by those rules--for the money, of course--and We aren't playing well. Hell, We aren't playing "below average." We are stinking up the education joint, big-time. The U.S. of part of A. is pouring billions of dollars down a shithole system and doing everything it can to avoid making a bigger deal about it because it opens the door to all sorts of other political problems. If this were a stateside education department, it would have been taken over years ago. As it is, the whole gangrene-corrupt bloated tumor keeps rolling over Our kids and wrecking most of Our future. I can't wait to hear some local Fool make the obligatory "Education is important because children are Our future" remark so I can scheme a way to piss in his coffee. Twice.

-- Hey, Brethren: when was the last time you heard any of Our political leaders discuss taxes? It's been several months, a period of time during which Our lame-ass excuse for a (non)government dropped another $1.7 billion in debt on Our lame asses. Given that the sales tax is not pulling in what was expected, that income tax revenue was already seen to be dropping because of the recession-no!-depression and that the whole IVU-Loto "sales tax as a lottery game" isn't as big a money-maker as deluded, why the silence on taxes? Here's the list of reasons: (1) Politics: it would suuuuck to bring up taxes now, because it would kill the last 3 neurons left in the (non)government's campaign brain trust; (2) Lack of scapegoat: blaming the gringos would be seen as what it is--cowardly--though it would be accurate and the current (non)government cannot blame anyone simply because if the "executive" twig (too feeble to be a "branch") didn't launch some initiative, it was the "legislative" twig, and though they are at cross-purposes since before Election Day '08, they do belong to the same """"party""""; (3) Something else is going on, something that's "generating" money enough to keep the Fools from hinting at taxes. What is that? The so-called Pubic-Private Alliances. From the 93-mile GasoDildo to the shenanigans surrounding the International Airport to under-the-table allotments for rebuilding Our highways, the money is flowing, not like a river--legally--but like the sewer these hideous scum thrive in. Oh you'll hear about taxes...after the elections, when the new horde of whores makes its initial bread grab.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Weak Bark, Why Bite?

[Jenial Gracias to Ms. Mendes-Franco over at Global Voices Online for picking up My post about the lack of libraries on My Island. While We're here, I do have a book compiling My pre-hiatus GVO appearances, and it is free. Right sidebar, click to download, thank you.]

Bruce Levin posted this on his blog: 8 Ways Young Americans’ Resistance to Domination Has Been Subdued.

I've removed most of his commentary (well worth reading) to apply his observations to My Brethren, older and younger than Me:


1. Student-Loan Debt: For Us, it's all debt. As Levine says: "Large debt—and the fear it creates—is a pacifying force." Our people are owned by the bank and the finance companies, so they are owned by their jobs and own nothing. Our freedom of choice is used--as We shall see below--to give it all away. We are idiots.

2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance. I coach a youth basketball team of 12 kids coming from 11 families (two are brothers). In seven of those families, I have heard one parent or grandparent mention Ritalin or some similar medication to "help" the boy. And several of the fathers and stepfathers cannot imagine spending an outing--with or without the boys--unless there's a few cases of beer to pass the time. We see drugs as a way to control and deal with "reality," easy fixes for what We can't face up to.

3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy: Levine quotes New York Teacher of the Year, John Taylor Gatto, who said: “The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders." I've danced around this thought for too long, so here it is: Schools ruin Our children for anything but being victims. Schools are not Our allies, but that of the system that wants to control them. And as for strengthening a democracy, latrines have a higher moral value than Our current schools.

4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top”: And here's why: standardization and more standardization. Fit every peg into the same kind of hole. A latrine is morally neutral: these schools We have now are morally evil. 

5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously. Mark Twain said it best: "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." For those who want to learn outside the system, on their own, freely, responsibly, away from the heavy-handed hammer of complacency and obedience, the message is clear: that is bad. Why? Why is anyone's love of learning wrong unless it conforms to that of the State? I'll repeat Myself: education controlled by the government is the same as propaganda. Period. 

6. The Normalization of Surveillance: Here on My Island, the police want to record protests and protesters. Openly. Without legal reason except "We fucking want to." In the States, a person got 15 years--15 fucking years--for recording a police officer making a public arrest. What thrives when the "powers that be" are left to act like hyenas in the dark is not democracy...but do We care, since We weren't taught what it was, have been trained to obey and fear losing Our jobs that turn Us into 1-day rerouters of money? Some of Us do. And We're your only hope, idiots.

7. Television: It has turned too many on My Island into dazed, fearful, useless batches of drooling baboons thisclose to mating with the diseased rhesus monkeys ruining Our crops. And here's another Levine quote about the convergence of TV with other digital image platforms that applies to a few of My basketball boys, especially My nephews: "While playing a video games is not as zombifying as passively viewing TV, such games have become for many boys and young men their only experience of potency, and this 'virtual potency' is certainly no threat to the ruling elite." Yeah, be a killer in "Call of Duty" or "NBA 2k11": real talent lies wasted and the hyenas are definitely not afraid of wasted talent, for that is what they feed on.

8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism: From Levine: "Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see." The get-yourself-into-debt movement, the practical application of the "Keep up with the Joneses" mindset has led Us down a path where We are convinced We can't do anything. And when it comes time to do something--and that point was reached over a decade ago--Levine has the reason why We haven't done jackshit: "Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements." In other words, We want Ours, but We don't want to help you get Yours. Too many of Us are too stupid to see that "I am You," or understand it when We read it.

Remember, O Tweeting Brethren, how last year's protests against the government firings, Law 7 and the university strikes was breathlessly hyped as the "Armapocalypse Goddamit Here IT IS Change Is A-Coming!"? But who said in essence: "No, nothing will change. Nothing."?

Damn right I did. And pinpointed that We wouldn't because of fear. Even a Jenius could make that call.

We've eschewed making the changes needed with ballots. Several times. Are We going to wait until We're cornered like sickly rats to actually do something, or will We merely bare Our teeth as the darkness swallows Us in the long night of the hyenas?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Reading Is Judgmental

Jenius Friend--a Genius himself--Gabo Pagán sent Me a tweet that asked: Why are there are no decent libraries on the island?

Yes, I'm on Tweet Street, as--what else?--@GilTheJenius.

My tweet in reply was: 1) Racism 2) Climate 3) Peer pressure 4) Economics. But mainly racism: gringos didn't think We'd use them. So We didn't.

Allow Me to elaborate.

1) Racism: When the U.S. of part of A. invaded Puerto Rico and took it over, the overwhelming impression they had of Us was that We were "backward," "slow" and "lazy." Just look it up. We didn't speak English (how uncivilized!) and generally didn't work 7-8 hours a day because We were pretty much starving. It's amazing how a body needs to rest when it's consuming muscle tissue to survive.

In some quarters, We were called "dirty," "ignorant" and even "savages." One could say it was merely the tenor of the times, the "Victorian mentality" and whatnot, but the basic theme remains the same: they saw Us as inferior. Much inferior. And that judgment was racist.

Note that the U.S. of part of A. created the widespread library system. No other nation in the world had taken the concept to such a level. It was such a key and successful program that the U.S. of part of A. routinely touted it as a reason for its educational system's success, its economic growth spurt and resulting dominance on the world stage. But despite a few minor efforts, like the Carnegie Library just outside of Old San Juan, that library system didn't get launched here.

Why? Racism, in the sense that gringos thought We wouldn't take advantage of it, since We were, you know, so stupid and all. And a few other factors as well.


2) Climate: The tropical humidity of the Island wreaks havoc with books. Not to mention having to bring loads of books across the ocean, a recoverable investment when selling them (as European books were sold), but a big expense when it comes to just placing them in libraries. Now many rapacious-business-tycoons-cum-philanthropists couldn't have cared less about spending a couple of thousand dollars more to establish a library (Andrew Carnegie, anyone?), but to do so in "Porto Rico"? Well I should think not! And if you doubt Me, how many of those "guilt-reducing, nation-building" libraries do We have? Uh-huh.


3) Peer pressure: The limits of Twitter's 140 characters stunted this one, but there's two parts to this: the first is that there was a broad base of self-interested business and political leaders for whom libraries were seen as trouble and a general feeling in Our population that libraries--and by extension, reading--were (and still are) wastes of time.

The first is easy to grasp: Plantation owners and imperialist governments don't want educated folks because uneducated folks are easier to control...or confuse. To these power-holders, libraries were simply time bombs aimed at them. But in Our culture, forged under the reality of a daily struggle to survive, libraries were unknown and thus useless, or known and rejected as useless, for what could a book do to put food on the table today? Any of Us investing time in school, or worse a library, past a certain age was seen, by Us, as lazy. Or worse, uppity, as in "Wanting to be like the gringos." A similar peer pressure affects black students who strive to do well in school, where they are often accused of "going white."

Why We still have that general reaction to reading is probably the single most disgusting reality I feel about My Island.


4) Economics: Very similar to point three, what with power-holders wanting to keep the population under control and point two with the expense of book shipping, but centered on a specific point: the U.S. of part of A. saw Us as an economic project, not a social one. Yes, there was plenty of rhetoric about "Americanizing" Us and "bringing democracy to Porto Rico", but look at Our history and ask yourself: Were the major actions taken done so for Our benefit, or theirs? 

-- Between 1898 and 1917, they took over nearly every plantation on the Island and controlled every major revenue stream. Congress chided the Interior Department more than once for failing to make a strong effort to improve living conditions and education in Puerto Rico, which had worsened since the takeover.

-- In 1917, Congress granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans...for the World War I draft. No other "benefit" of citizenship was extended except for the right to die for another country.

-- Skip to 1947 when the U.S of part of A. finally decides to ramp up Puerto Rico's economy because it really had no other choice: World War II left foreign production in shambles, so increased U.S.-based production was a competitive advantage and Uncle Sam's top-of-the-pyramid presence on the world stage was slightly embarrassed by its "Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere" stepchild. Further proof: they used Puerto Rico solely as a "low-wage laboratory," instead of a "business development platform." And they agreed to a commonwealth status in 1952 that preserved their economic  interests in exchange for nothing on the political side that could affect those interests.

Conclusion: theirs. Delve deeper and the conclusion becomes a single truth.

And what does this have to do with libraries? We ain't got very many, that's what. Yes, schools "have" them, but they are to mainland libraries what rat is to Kobe beef. Our two largest community libraries are in Guaynabo and Dorado (fairly high on the local income per capita sclaes, I must point out), and both struggle to stay afloat. It's very likely that the only active library on the Island is at Fort Buchanan...because the U.S. of part of A. made libraries a part of every permanent base. Even in Puerto Rico.

Could there be other reasons why We lack libraries? Of course. U.S. of part of A. books were almost exclusively in English, but libraries were often used in mainland foreign-language communities as "nuclei" for English learning. Why not here? [I have to say this again: We are the only fucking nation on the fucking planet that has English for 12 years in schools and doesn't learn the fucking language. Stop anywhere on My Island, speak English and you'll see how many of Us are "bilingual." We're as bilingual as hair is edible.]

And there are reports of thousands of books arriving in Our ports, primarily for schools, that rotted on the docks or in warehouses. (That darn humidity!) Maybe that was Our fault, but it seems to Me that if libraries were built and stocked in Montana, New Mexico, Guam and the Aleutian Islands, then it was because someone from "up North" (or "down South," in the case of the Aleutian Islands) made sure the damn things got completed. Why not here?

Are libraries important? Yes, historically. Their importance is fading as the Internet pervades every piece of hardware We can carry or relate with. But their role as springboards for reading, for exploration, for discovery and learning, for confronting fear and ignorance and moving beyond, for context and perspective, needs to be recognized and preserved. Once We had to go "there" to be in a library; now We simply have to press a few keys. That it is easier to access a library doesn't mean We "have" it, for not using something is actually worse than not having it all.

To be clear, what I'm saying is: We don't have any excuses anymore. 



The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 17 August 2011: Again from Genius Gabo Pagán, this poster on the value of libraries and librarians. Excellent.]

Moron Fools

[Jenial Thaks once again to Janine Mendes-Franco for making The Jenius visible on Global Voices Online, what with My post on pay-per-performance for Fools, which leads Me to...]

More on Fools. Or My way: Moron Fools.

Yes, it's brilliant. I accept your wild applause.

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll, quoted in Misch's Global Economic Trend Analysis (My pre-dawn chai-sipping read of choice), only 6% of those polled feel Congress is doing a good job.

Six. Per. Cent. SIX. Need I point out that this is a record low?

Think about this for a moment. In what endeavor, process, procedure or system of Our daily lives do We tolerate a 6% "Yeah, We think that's okay" approval? 

There isn't any. Why? Because they are either eliminated as useless or replaced by something that works.

And yet, Congress--emphasis on "con"--keeps sliming along. Replace it? We should, but We don't. Too much money--most of corporate--creating too much inertia. And We can't eliminate it unless We throw outhe whole kit and caboodle, which come to think of it, sucks almost as badly.

So here's an idea, or rather, a series of ideas from Tim Siedell, over at The Huffington Post. Briefly listed, they are:

++ Every president is to be a clone of George Washington.
++ Make the Vice-President a symbolic office with teeth--literally: a T-rex.
++ Give smartphones and apps to every citizen so s/he can vote on every issue. (His corporate slams in this idea are worth the read.)
++ Give $1 million in yearly salary to each congresscritter...and have them wear a webcam 24/7/365.

(Why do I add "365"? To avoid the murderous moron's definition of 24/7 which to him meant working "24 hours a week, 7 months a year.")



Now wait a minute...Tim's on to something here. Cloning? Possible, but George was dull and dull don't cut it on da boob tube. A T-rex as V.P.? Sounds okay, but feeding the brute sounds like a real hassle. Smartphones as daily voting booths? Stupidity and cupidity would rule? Million a year salary? Eliminate the legal bribery called lobbying and I'm okay with it.

But 24/7/365 webcams on congresscritters? Do it. Now. Absolutely. Right to privacy? They aren't called "private servants," are they? National security? Ha! Congresscritters harm Us far more through their corrupt votes and non-votes than any dozen terrorist groups. Too much information? We get barely anything now, and if there's something history has proven, democracies die when information is "spun" all the time (Fox Noise, anyone?) and/or throttled for "security" (Patriot Farts, anyone?).

So let's give Tim a hand and one as well to The Sunlight Network that, back in 2006, challenged Fools at the state and national levels to be totally transparent with their daily agendas. I commented on their Punch Clock Campaign and suggested I'd even help publicize the agendas of local signees of the challenge. None ever did, of course.

But they should. And since they won't do it on their own, I'm suggesting We force them to. Short of the webcam, a daily agenda for transparency. And if they won't go for that, then I'd really push the T-rex idea and teach it to feed on carrion...what congresscritters and Fools are made of, anyway.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Jenius' Intellectual Honesty

From The Design Matrix comes this oft-printed list of 10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty. The lesson today, class, is to apply these standards to The Jenius. Of course, in your absence, I'm applying them to Myself, so without further ado, here they are and here's how The Jenius fares.

           

1. Do not overstate the power of your argument. If someone portrays their opponents as being either stupid or dishonest for disagreeing, intellectual dishonesty is probably in play. Intellectual honesty is most often associated with humility, not arrogance.  I can be accused of violating this principle and the criticism is valid. However, most of My "smackdowns" in this area are directed at government officials and other "experts" who are trying to use their positions to push stupid ideas, (there I go again...) so pushing My argument to the max is understandable. (Subtlety is lost on these moron...oops.) I'll give Myself a (B-) on this one rather than a C becasue I spelled "Jenius" with a "J". I'm humble that way.

2. Show a willingness to publicly acknowledge that reasonable alternative viewpoints exist.  Fail. I don't do this often enough simply because most of My arguments are aimed at debunking a position and/or highlighting a separate one, not arguing as if in a debate. My blog, My position. But strictly applied, a failing grade nonetheless: (F)

3. Be willing to publicly acknowledge and question one’s own assumptions and biases.  Not a problem, since I insist on defining My terms and where I stand. And because I'm convinced My readers hang on My every thought and thought process. (A)

4. Be willing to publicly acknowledge where your argument is weak. "Weak"? "Weak"?! Are you kidding Me?! Okay, I get the point. Yes, I do acknowledge weak points in My arguments, but not often enough. Not because My arguments are bullet-proof (they are, but bear with Me here), but because I look to define My position in under 800 words or so. Not an excuse: I do better than most. But there's room for improvement: (B)

5. Be willing to publicly acknowledge when you are wrong.  Not a problem. It doesn't happen often anyway. (A)

6. Demonstrate consistency. A clear sign of intellectual dishonesty is when someone extensively relies on double standards.  Nail this one. On an Island where blue supporters protect pederasts from their side and red supporters protect wife beaters and both protect their own criminal mafias, the fact that I have one standard applied equally makes Me a rarity. (A+)

7. Address the argument instead of attacking the person making the argument. Ad hominem arguments are a clear sign of intellectual dishonesty.  Yes, I use nicknames that often focus on that person's physical traits, (lack of) personality, (extremely limited) intellectual and moral characteristics and whatnot. But those are not My arguments. Calling Pedro Stupid Rosselló a cocksucker is easy: I just did. But proving he is one is (probably) impossible. And yet. I have proven he deserves Stupid. My arguments are against the idea, position, process or action: the nicknames are just My saltiness in the wound. (A)

8. When addressing an argument, do not misrepresent it. A common tactic of the intellectually dishonest is to portray their opponent’s argument in straw man terms. In politics, this is called spin. Typically, such tactics eschew quoting the person in context, but instead rely heavily on out-of-context quotes, paraphrasing and impression. When addressing an argument, one should shows signs of having made a serious effort to first understand the argument and then accurately represent it in its strongest form.  I quoted this one in full because it's central to intellectual honesty. I simplify arguments by removing the spin and placing them in clear contrast. For example, I've written that if Group A uses military might to remove Group B from their legally-owned homes and businesses, Group A is wrong. Now make Group A "Israel" and Group B "Palestinians." The argument is simplified, clarified and the answer DOES NOT change just because now We're discussing "Israel". Our (non)government claims a 93-mile pipeline for natural gas will fix Our energy problems, reduce Our dependence on oil and improve Our infrastructure. All that is spin. The pipeline cuts needlessly through private property, threatens the environment, replaces oil with more volatile (pun intended) gas which does not guarantee savings or better infrastructure. Spin is another word for lie: The Jenius doesn't spin. And if My argument leaves something out, I'm known for going back and taking another look. (A)

9. Show a commitment to critical thinking.   Not in doubt. Maybe heading towards "overboard," but never in doubt. (A+)

10. Be willing to publicly acknowledge when a point or criticism is good.  I've done this several times, even granting the point to people who I believe would do Us a favor by removing themselves from Our lives permanently. (A)

Final grade? Seven As, two Bs and an F, which gives Me a 3.4 GPA, a B in intellectual honesty. (No grading on a curve, people.) That definitely needs improvement.  Let Me at it.

The Jenius Has Spoken.

Pay For Performance: Lawmakers Version

A government think-tank today proposed a controversial new law, “No Politician Left Behind,” which would pay congressmen solely on the basis of performance. 

The law, which was proposed by the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Government, “would make a serious dent in the Federal deficit because few if any congressmen would ever have to be paid,” said the Institute’s director, Davis Logsdon. 

“Right now, congressmen get paid even when they storm out of budget negotiations in a hissy fit,” Mr. Logsdon said. “Under this new law, the rule would be, no budget, no paycheck.” 

The idea of being paid per accomplishment drew howls of protest from lawmakers, many claiming that if the law were enacted it would result in their financial ruin. “If passed, this law would be tantamount to the establishment of ‘Work Panels,’ which would determine whether individual congressmen are accomplishing anything,” said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA). “I, for one, would be in deep, deep trouble.” 

“I’m fairly sure that this law is unconstitutional,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “Now, I have never actually read the Constitution, but if this law were passed I would probably be forced to read it or live in a cardboard box.” 

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that creating performance standards for lawmakers was “an insult to the institution of Congress.” “We have spent millions of dollars, some of it out of our own pockets, to get to Washington,” he said. “We did not come here to be treated like teachers.”

Tongue-in-cheek, from The Borowitz Report.

However, look at the idea closely... Why not? Why not do this? The hell with what legislators think, We own their asses and if We choose to pay them for performance, then We damn sure can make it so that they get paid only for performance. We have that power.

But We don't want to use it. We're lazy that way. And because, not so deep down, We don't want to measure what's going on, with lawmakers or Ourselves. Too much stress. Tons of pressure. Having to live up to standards and all. Better to be willfully blind, conscientiously ignorant. Easier. No need to think, you know?

We're idiots too often to suit My fancy.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Forked Estate

A sandwich shop that every 11 minutes smelled of farts. A copy of the day's El Nuevo Día (13 July 2011) adding to the moldy air. Here's a rundown of what the first 52 pages of the rag had as their version of news:

** Canceled contracts in the public health insurance program threaten to leave some 850,000 insured with reduced or no medical services. The current government debt with the insurance providers is deemed to be $60 million.
** Local police brutality, fingered by domestic and international human rights groups, is being discussed in Congress.
** A plan is floated about to clear out the residents of Puerto Rico's oldest ghetto, La Perla, but opposed by 41 community groups. (I used the word "ghetto." It's the right word.)
** An open letter to The Larva, (non)governor Luis Fortuño, concerning beef purchases totaling more than $38 million made in 2010 and 2011 by the School Cafeteria Program, purchases that were made under open violation of state and federal procedures.
** Speculation that senate president Thomas "Mad Dog" Rivera will have to testify concerning his reading in the senate (none don't deserve a capital letter) of a confidential FBI document about the Jorge "Il Castrao" De Castro case. (Me here: Mad Dog's target was not the FBI: it's secretary of state(of chaos) Kenneth "What? Me Guilty?" McClintock.)
** The forced transfer of 100 acres of prime land owned by the University of Puerto Rico in Gurabo is now conditioned to an exchange of about 100 acres of equal-value land. Gurabo mayor what's-his-name wants to build--hahahaha--a school, a hospital, a public housing project, a nursing school and low-cost housing on the UPR land, currently used for agricultural research. HAHAHAHAHAhahahahabullshit.
** An open letter by medical service providers (through their association) that medical services would be provided by their membership while the health insurance lamefest was sorted out. (They didn't say "lamefest.")
** A bill to limit malpractice damages loses one of its authors, senator Lornna "Innsannity Is Hereditary" Soto, as Insurance Commissioner representative Alex Addams (Family) was more idiot than idealogue at the hearing. The cap, suggested by the (non)administration, would be $250,000.
** Housing incentives will be extended to help raise the number of house sales from the current rate of about 340 to 500 a month. But note: there are over 10,700 new houses on the market right now.
** Scotiabank wants to participate in the Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) fund sale, scheduled to reach $1.436 billion. Which is debt. Let Me be blunt: the current hyenas take the cash and We pay the debt. Woo hoo.

Pretty massive mess, I'd say. But Let's look closer at the mess, shall We?

1) Of the 52 pages in the daily, 23 are full-page ads. And the open letters were also full pages, most likely sold as ad space.

2) Of the remaining 27 pages roughly 7.5 were truncated by ads. The total amount of news coverage was 19.5 pages at most, about 38%.

Now I know that a newspaper needs to make money to survive.  But El Nuevo Día also owns Primera Hora, the second-largest daily on My Island. They also print El Vocero, the third-largest daily. So apparently money is either flowing like a river (or a sewer) or stuck in a hole. (I'm sure that given the management talent, it's the latter.) Either way, money is not the sole consideration.

No, the consideration We have to look at is "perspective." Does Puerto Rico have a true Fourth Estate? Or is what We have a "forked estate," as in "Stick a fork in it, it's done," or "One that speaks with a forked tongue"?

I know, for editors at END and PH have told Me, that management of the papers have repeatedly spiked stories that could "discomfit" either the paper owners or their cronies. The papers have a clear business slant, covering certain industries like a jealous lover (of their own wealth) while consistently ignoring economic sectors such as start-ups, agriculture and "new-tech economy." (That END is a powerful member of the so-called """Center for the New Economy""" is like having Glenn Beck be a spokesperson for the Gay Parade.)

Bluntly, Our dailies are the mouthpieces of an old guard dying a slow death. Over the past three decades, they have inexorably choked what little power the Fourth Estate may have had and turned what should be a crusading guardian of the public trust into a sycophantic, spiteful gossipmonger. The papers have long surpassed their utility as a trusted source and force for democracy, with their only usefulness now as ad litter and puppy trainers. 

Look at the list of news again. The average story length was under 450 words. In several articles, most of the "information" presented was disorganized, with clear gaps in the presentation. Most of the stories lacked a sense of context, placement in the overall "map" of meaning. On that basis, the best contextual pieces were the open letters. By far. Makes sense, since they hired people who could actually think and write to do them.

Our media is more than Our newspapers. That should be Our consolation, only Our radio and TV news coverage is barely a little better. The dominant attitude on radio is confrontational and on TV it's sycophancy, both coming from the same basic emotion: fear. A fearful guardian is an oxymoron, like honest politician or Larva leadership. Our news sources are nothing more than comedy acts: the newspapers are ventriloquist dummies with cracked voices that move their lips and Our other news coverage is a herd of Chicken Littles disguised as Daffy Ducks...but dumber.


A forked estate serves only its pathetic handlers: a Fourth Estate can build a nation. Our only option is to make Our own Fourth Estate, to forge links with the disparate resources on Our Island that can brick by brick build a true news platform. It won't happen overnight, but for Our sake, it has to happen. 


The Jenius Has Spoken.


P.S. -- Global Voices Online now has a podcast. The first one has an interview with Firuzeh Shokooh Valle, Puerto Rican with Iranian ancestry, who grew up in Old San Juan, worked in local news coverage and now edits the GVO webpages for the Caribbean, with strong emphasis on Puerto Rico. Check the podcast out and learn more about a true news professional that is one of Our own.

P.P.S. -- The Guardian takes on its own industry to reveal the depths of unethical behavior that ended with the closing of the 168-year old News of the World.

Crime, Punishment

I've called him "the murderous moron" for years. The now ex-president that allowed a known terrorist and his group to kill citizens on Our soil (and by "allowed" I mean "was too incompetent to grasp the threat of"), that then lied Us into a war that had NOTHING to do with the terrorist and his group, that used the terrorist attack on his watch to undermine the very values he swore to uphold and in doing all of these things and more, engaged in criminal behavior that merits severe punishment.

The murderous moron repeatedly authorized the violation of Constitutional rights, the document he once snarked he "wiped his ass with." Through his machinations and that of his rank hyenas, he caused the deaths of thousands of people, deaths he schemed for knowing he was lying.

And yet he has not been brought up on charges. The evidence is astonishingly broad and deep. This is no "mere burglary" in a quasi-swanky hotel. This is murder, plain and simple. Mass murder, no less. And the world outside of the fat jackasses that make up most of the "American public" know this.

The international organization Human Rights Watch just came out with a damning indictment of the murderous moron, his wretched cronies Dick "Richard" Cheney and Donald "Slimer" Rumsfeld...and President Barack Obama. The current President gets rightly tossed into the morass for his failure to act upon the evidence. See for yourself how substantial, how compelling and overwhelming the evidence is. (The same report, in Spanish.)

Letting the murderous moron and his nation-raping crew get away with mass murder is indefensible. The right thing to do is to apply punishment to the crimes. Those who committed the crimes--and We know who they are--are more guilty than those who have the power to apply redress to the situation and don't. But not by a wide margin.

Unless the crimes are brought to justice, there might be an additional target alongside the murderous moron: the indifferent moron.

I hope there won't be a need for a scorecard.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 26 October 2011: The murderous moron and his British butt-buddy Blair are to be the targets of a war crimes trial, in Kuala Lampur. Let the avalanche gain momentum.]

(Some) Progress To Report

[Hey! Jenial Thanks to Ms. Mendes-Franco for picking up not one, but two Jenius posts, showcased on Global Voices Online.]

Progress Note One: Those of you who know My predilections know I am a diehard--possibly THE only diehard--Pittsburgh Pirate fan left outside of the Three Rivers area. The fanaticism (where do you think "fan" comes from?) stems from My childhood idolatry of Roberto Clemente. That does nothing, really, to explain sticking with the same team over a record-setting 18 consecutive years of losing records; My only defense is that I'm loyal to a freaking fault. But this year! The Pirates are currently 45-42, competing with the Brewers and Cardinals for the Central Division lead. How significant is this? It is the best performance by any Pirate team this "late" in the season...since 1992, the last year the Pirates had a winning (and playoff) year. Go Bucs!

Progress Note Two: The picture reflects the current state of construction of My street's "drainage project," scheduled to have been completed in March of this year and actually started in April. How's that f0r government efficiency? In any case, contractors on the project tell Me it's about 15-20% completed and won't really be a functional canal until late August or early September. The irony? It could be delayed several weeks...if it rains. During the hurricane season. Which lasts until October.


Progress Note Three...maybe: According to something called the Urban Institute, each death in Our (the U.S. of part of A.'s) "costs" about $3.4 million. To put it another way, each of Us "provides" $3.4 million in value to society. So doing a quick calculation, Our 2010 murder toll of 1,046 dead "cost" Us roughly $3.56 BILLION.  By reducing that murder rate to what it was in "the good old days," when it hovered around 746, would give Us a "gain" of a little over $1 billion. When you consider that Puerto Rico's only abundant natural resource is people, what possible argument can there ever be against saving the lives endangered by Our own societal failures?

The Jenius Has Spoken.

101 Dead...Millions Held Hostage

June 2011: 101 murders; 101 murders in one month in what is the bloodiest year to date in Our recent history.

Want to compare, so you can wrap your mind around that number? The U.S. of part of A. is roughly 80 times Our size in population, so the murder toll in that country--if proportionate to Ours--would be about 8,080. In one month. Between 2006 and 2009, the average number of murders in the U.S. of part of A.--per year--was 16,456.

Our proportionate monthly rate equals almost half the annual U.S. of part of A. rate. At Our rate, the U.S. of part of A. would have averaged 96,960 murders a year.

Fuck.

One hundred and one murders in one month on My Island. Makes it sound like it's My fault...and to some extent, it is. I am a resident here, so it is My problem, too. But Let's be clear: almost all the blame for this lies in a purposely-created system, as most of the murders are related to the drug trade, its sanctimonious "drug war" and widespread political indifference to death so long as prisons are full and more get built.

1) Roughly 68% of the murders in Puerto Rico happen in and around drugs as an ecosystem, either as part of warfare for control of the trade or people trying to get more drugs. When you look at the demographic data of the victims and murderers, you see people that politicians don't give a crap about and most of Us refuse to identify with, even though they are often Our relatives, friends and neighbors.

See, drugs are a daily reality in Our sick society, but We refuse to acknowledge just how real they are. Drugs are "their" problem, where "their" means "the poor," "the black," "the welfare freeloaders," "the caserío trash" and "the police," as in both law enforcers and users/guardians of the drug trade.

But We fail--on purpose--to include the other druggies: professionals, government workers, students, legislators and other elected officials, people "more like Us" who fuel the trade. And the majority of Us who ignore the whole mess make it worse simply by abdicating responsibility.

2) The "drug war" is not aimed at drugs, the physical product: it is aimed at a socioeconomic class for purposes of control. If Poor Man A and Rich Man B are arrested, each with a pound of marihuana in their car, which one will go to jail and which one will walk free? Now answer where Poor Man A is black with no job and Rich Man B is white and works at a stockbroker firm.

Uh-huh. You don't even have to think about it, right? The facts are clear: the number of blacks and Hispanics in jail are disproportionate to the demographics and the crime rates, in other words, there's a higher percentage of both blacks and Hispanics in jail (when compared to whites) and their sentences are harsher and longer as well.

Want to compare, so you can wrap your mind around that number? The U.S. of part of A. is roughly 80 times Our size in population, so the murder toll in that country--if proportionate to Ours--would be about 8,080. In one month. Between 2006 and 2009, the average number of murders in the U.S. of part of A.--per year--was 16,456.

Our proportionate monthly rate equals almost half the annual U.S. of part of A. rate. At Our rate, the U.S. of part of A. would have averaged 96,960 murders a year.

Fuck.

One hundred and one murders in one month on My Island. Makes it sound like it's My fault...and to some extent, it is. I am a resident here, so it is My problem, too. But Let's be clear: almost all the blame for this lies in a purposely-created system, as most of the murders are related to the drug trade, it's sanctimonious "drug war" and widespread political indifference to death so long as prisons are full and more get built.

1) Roughly 68% of the murders in Puerto Rico happen in and around drugs as an ecosystem, either as part of warfare for control of the trade or people trying to get more drugs. When you look at the demographic data of the victims and murderers, you see people that politicians don't give a crap about and most of Us refuse to identify with, even though they are often Our relatives, friends and neighbors.

See, drugs are a daily reality in Our sick society, but We refuse to acknowledge just how real they are. Drugs are "their" problem, where "their" means "the poor," "the black," "the welfare freeloaders," "the caserío trash" and "the police," as in both law enforcers and users/guardians of the drug trade.

But We fail--on purpose--to include the other druggies: professionals, government workers, students, legislators and other elected officials, people "more like Us" who fuel the trade. And the majoroty of Us who ignore the whole mess make it worse simply by abdicating responsibility.

2) The "drug war" is not aimed at drugs, the physical product: it is aimed at a socioeconomic class for purposes of control. If Poor Man A and Rich Man B are arrested, each with a pound of marihuana in their car, which one will go to jail and which one will walk free? Now answer where Poor Man A is black with no job and Rich Man B is white and works at a stockbroker firm.

Uh-huh. You don't even have to think about it, right? The facts are clear: the number of blacks and Hispanics in jail are disproportionate to the demographics and the crime rates, in other words, there's a higher percentage of both blacks and Hispanics in jail (when compared to whites) and their sentences are harsher and longer as well. The "drug war" policy is aimed at the wrong target...but keeps taking prisoners.

Rates of prison sentences, by race & gender

Which leads to point Three:

3) The "drug war" is an economic boon, for drugs and prisons. Drugs are around because (a) large amounts of people want to use them and (b) the demand is high enough to make supplying them very profitable and worth the risk of breaking the law. You can eliminate the whole false need for a "drug war" by (a) reducing the amount of people who want them (and Prohibition isn't the answer to that) and/or (b) reducing the profit margin.

It seems that (a) is being "solved" by locking up some dealers and some users, but that does nothing to reduce the desire for drug use. Education would help, but policies have undermined education to the point of inanity and insanity. The easiest way to reduce drug use is to let users die and scare off the curious. Too radical? Nicotine addiction, through cigarette smoking, dominated a large chunk of the 20th century in the U.S. of part of A. It's legal, taxed to absurd heights and still in use, but with much fewer smokers. Why? The evidence piled up against it...and the profit margin was slashed.

Portugal attacked both (a) and (b) by legalizing certain amounts of drugs (for personal use) and decriminalizing. Some people died from using too much, others from crappy drugs cut with poisons. Over the years, the number of drug users and the crime rate have dropped significantly: the people are no longer curious about drugs, the profit margin is almost gone and those who want to throw their lives away are doing so, like they can with alcohol and tobacco. (You can't fix stupid. Look at Congress.) Side benefit: drug-related AIDS cases dropped 75%. But note: the crime rate in Portugal has gone down. Their murder rate per 100,000 residents was close to 7; it is now 3. 


Ours is 27...and rising. 

Our murder rate is the direct result of a failed "drug war" policy, one aimed at attacking a socioeconomic class rather than a product or its related addiction. As the narcolords point out to U.S. of part of A. officials and media: "You are the source of the problem, since you buy most of the drugs." So, yes, We are the problem. 

We want the drugs. We use them. Instead of smashing the malformed "drug war" system, those of Us who don't benefit from it allow it to continue, indifferent to what it does and how it cuts Our throats, by wasting Our taxes, fostering corruption at every level from cop on the beat to chief executive (through bribes, hush money or "donations"), wrecking non-user lives through crime and hatred and allowing some to prosper at the expense of the rest of Us.

If you think drug dealers and highly-placed law officers are the big winners, check out the private prison companies: they're literally making a killing. The average expenditure per prisoner in the U.S. of part of A. tops $30,000 a year.

The average expenditure per student is around $7,000. No wonder a school superintendent recently asked the governor of his state to turn his school into a prison: the money's better in jails.

And guess which industry advocates with millions and millions of dollars for stronger sentencing laws, harsher terms and more stringent stipulations to throw your ass in jail for minor offenses?

Yup. With over 2 million prisoners in the country, that's a tidy $60 billion plus a year...with every new "client" representing a "sale" of about $30,000 more.

And who takes advantage of these prisoners? Anyone who hires them, in a modern form of slavery.

So the "drug war" kills hundreds every month. Many of those deaths are used to promote more laws that benefit the political power structure, the "drug war" thievery, private prison profits and corporate greed avid for shit-cheap labor that can't go on strike. 

The government sees this as simply another opportunity to extend its powers beyond all reason. The "drug war" system uses this as another opportunity to "request more funding" from lawmakers and lawbreakers alike. Private prisons ramp up the legalized bribery, with dollars as "words" in the most idiotic form of "free speech" ever conceived by disease-addled hyenas and brainless slugs. And your job might be outsourced from the "freedom" of the U.S. of part of A. to the "increasingly jailed" U.S. of part of A.

We're certainly doing Our part to prop up that rape of Our society. One hundred and one dead in June as the cornerstone for continuing to hold millions hostage. Almost four million people here alone, and countless millions in dollars and drugs flowing like cancer cells to every part of Our society.

Happy Independence Day, people. Celebrate while you still think you have it.


The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 6 July 2011: Holland is closing 8 prisons because--what else?--they don't need them. The crime rate has dropped since marihuana and hashish were legalized for personal use (trafficking is still a crime) and the only major step taken since then is to forbid sales to non-residents...because supposedly they were creating problems related to petty crime and traffic jams. Yes, traffic jams.  The move will probably be revoked soon as tourism revenue for the hundreds of legal "coffee shops" drops and the crime rate increases, simply because nothing raises profits for once-legal activities as making them illegal.]

[Update: 7 July 2011: From AlterNet, a headline that smacks you in the rational with an article that gives you rationale:  3 Months in Juvie For a MySpace Joke? How the For-Profit Prison Industry Locks Up More People Each Year.]

[Update: 13 July 2011: Want other profit-makers from the "drug war"? Banks and the rising tide of private militia contractors, basically mercenaries that very often operate against citizens, not criminals. From AmpedStatus.]

[Update: 11 August 2011: "While Americans only represent about 5 percent of the world's population, one-quarter of the entire world's inmates are incarcerated in the United States."  From J.A. Talvi Silja's 2007 book Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System. Cited here.]

[Update: 12 August 2011: A walking shitbag of a judge named Mark Ciavarella Jr was sentenced to 28 years in prison for accepting bribes to railroad kids into 2 detention centers. Basically, he ran over the rights of some 4,000 kids, some as young as 10, to stick them in jail. Not content with that, he also blackmailed the owners of the detention centers. But he says he's innocent. I'm going to sugarcoat My final remark: I hope that within a month of his being in jail, Mark "Kids for Cash" Ciavarella Jr. bleeds to death from anal rape.]

[Update: 14 August 2011: 8 Years In Prison for a Harmless Prank? Handcuffed for Doodling? The Increasing Criminalization of Students. Yes, it is an established trend.]

[Update: 28 September 2011: Watch the reactions of these British comedians to the facts about prisons and prisoners in the U.S> of part of A. And note what host Stephen Fry says near the end of the clip: With 5% of the population, the U.S. of part of A, has 25% of the prison population. And yes, the comedians quickly seize on it being a business.]

[Update: 29 October 2011: 85.7% of all prisoners in the U.S of part of A. are there because of "victimless" crimes; 50.7% for possession of drugs and 35% for "public-order" offenses. In other words, 14.3% of all prisoners are there for "major and/or violent crimes." Other stats: the U.S. of part of A. has the highest prison population rate in the world, at 756 of every 100,000; the world average is 145 per 100,000. That gives Us a rate 527% higher than the rest of the nations on the planet. Land of the free...or in California, $47,102 a year per inmate, back in 2009.]

[Update: 9 February 2012: "The accelerating rate of incarceration over the past few decades is just as startling as the number of people jailed: in 1980, there were about two hundred and twenty people incarcerated for every hundred thousand Americans; by 2010, the number had more than tripled, to seven hundred and thirty-one. No other country even approaches that. In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education." (Emphasis Mine.) From "The Caging of America, in The New Yorker.]

[Update: 8 March 2012: Michelle Alexander, with her book The New Jim Crow, is opening eyes across the land about the serious implications of the mass incarceration of blacks. To say that her argument is a devastating indictment of the current judicial system and the "drug war" is to say "water is somewhat damp."] 

[Update: 23 April 2012: Venerable Forbes Magazine weighs in: "Let's Be Blunt: It's Time to End the Drug War." Indeed.] 

[Update: 20 June 2012: In the gooood ol' U.S. of part of A., prison rapes exceeded rapes of women, making the gooood ol' U.S. of part of A. most likely the first country in history where rape is a crime primarily perpetrated on men. Let's hear it for the prison system, where crime stats go to die!]