"Why does God need a Starship?" - Demystifying Xi

There is a moment in Star Trek V where Captain Kirk asks the "all powerful" being from beyond the Galactic Barrier, "Wait a second...why do you need US to do anything for you?"  To which the all powerful being kind of goes "uuuuuuuuuuuh......"

Look, I get that China is the rising power.  Anyone who pays attention to history and world affairs gets that.  But I kind of have to ask...what does that do to change certain well observed rules in history?

There is a well known stereotype called the Inscrutable East which is widely understood to be racist as all out fuck, and I approve those who recognize it as such, but when I see people who approve of a lot of the things that China does well apply it to China somehow being exempt from these rules, I'm like...Excuse me?

Let's look shall we?

1) Democracy is a western form of government.

Is it? There are plenty of other philosophers who abstractly discussed the ideas of self beyond the greeks even if they didn't put it into practice, but I find the idea that the people of Asia are not able to have democracy because they are somehow 'unworthy' of it to be racist, even if it is applying the racism to themselves.  Let's call a spade a spade.  Democracy works because it WORKS just like Science works because Science Works.  If you want to start saying that Asian governments can't be democratic because the people there can't handle a democracy, explain India.  Explain Japan.  Sure, they work DIFFERENTLY, but China has no excuse for not embracing democracy just because of ancient greece.

2) Democracy is the best form of government except for all the others....except for China.

Churchill has this quote because Democracy isn't the most efficient form of government, no matter what your flavor; Direct Democracy, Democratic Republic, Swiss Democracy, Parliamentary Democracy, etc etc.  Splitting up authority means that power is less powerful.  Period.  But the thing is, you lessen your likihood of a crazy person getting into control.  In the US, we've had a lot of inept middling people muddle their way through four years of the executive without causing an implosion of power or having the military take over.

The reason Democracy brings wealth isn't because of all the wonderful things it does, its because of the transition of power.  Lack of democracy means that the sovereignty of the nation lands on Rule of Force not Rule of Law, no matter how much you try and pretty up the words.  This is something the Chinese understood, it's why they made up their own little version of the Sith "Rule of Two." After the last Chinese Civil War they said, "Let's not do this again, be poor and get overcome by richer countries."  And it worked.

Twice.

And now it's broken.

3) China is Strong.

No it's not.  It's just not.  Sure, it has a lot of soldiers, a lot of money, and a lot of soft power.  For an authoritarian regime, it's damn smart. It studies everyone else in the world and says "How can I do that smarter?"  It studies it's own history with remarkable efficiecy and says "How can we avoid ever making that mistake again?" And it even has an ideology to it.  The Chinese Communist Party are the ultimate nationalists, they really DO want China to be strong as compared to the North Korean Party which just wants to be in power and survive by any means necessary.  Sure, there are ideologies there, but there is also insanity.

My point is, that despite having an ideology, China does insane fucking stuff when it fears a threat.

It banned talk of Time Travel to go back and change the past in fiction so the party wasn't there.

Just recently, it banned pictures of the letter N or WINNIE the POOH?!

That's why they were so obsessed with Fulan Gonh, because of their past when religions rose up against them.

But this isn't careful meticulous planning, this is FEAR.  Fear of their own people, fear of the fact that their Faustian bargain that they made with their own people after Tienanmen Square, Growth in exchange for their freedom simply isn't sustainable. 

In fact, it has been fraying for some time.  That's why China has begun to increase authoritarianism.  That's why Xi is seizing power instead of their pathetic attempt to circumvent democracy.  Democracy works because it works, not because it's fantastic.  If you are going to come up with a system that concentrates almost all power in one guy except for another guy, you need more of a check on the would be almost dictator beside 'the party.'  Our country has LOTS of problems, and one big baby disgusting problem in the white house...

But in two years historical context says that America is going to pick another leader and move on.

Sure, there is thunder on the horizon of civil war, and despite Russian attempts at agitation, it has been like that for decades, yes, this time is different but this post is about China.

Xi is behaving like a dictator.  And he has as thin a skin as Thailand. 

I want to share an anecdote about Saudi Arabia when my wife and I visited Portland.  I brought up at our bed and breakfast that sooner or later things would change in Saudi Arabia.  A senior gentleman there said, "I'm sorry Tom but you're wrong."  Then he told us some wonderful anecdotes about his experience in Saudi Arabia and how efficient wise and all knowing the kingdom was.  And though dubious, I admitted I might be wrong.  Nope, I was right.  Saudi Arabia is a kingdom, and like a kingdom, no matter how you try to slice things up, when you transition power, sooner or later someone will want to take power.  Now the Crown Prince is doing just that.  Sure he is instituting 'reforms' but that's because he is aware of the same things I was several years ago; Saudi Arabia has PROBLEMS and the people there are SICK of living under oppression.

The people of China are getting richer.  They are tired of a cowardly inept government and when they do take power, they are going to be pissed at all the western companies that helped them do it.

Xi is a tyrant, a dictator in charge of a country that happens to have more resources than others but all their ideologies are lies and all the dancing around the fact that "China is Different" is just either racism or naivety.

The Lords of Hypocrisy - Part 2 Constitution for Thee But Not For Me

Normally I just spit on conservative websites but I want to use their pathetic wording to make my point.  Here is the National Right to Be Assholes site, let's look at Satanic Verse 4.

Because they enjoy the special privilege of exclusive representation, unions have a legal duty to represent fairly all employees in their bargaining units. Unions are legally required to represent nonmember employees the same as members, but unfortunately this duty is often breached.

So right now the satanic court is trying to, and will, destroy public sector unions because it's their first amendment right.  When it serves conservatives, states right's matter.  When it doesn't, they do as they please.  When it serves conservatives to protect the first amendment, they do.  When it doesn't, they do as they please.


These satanic conservatives are arguing that the first amendment gives corporations the right to unlimited money in politics, that the satanic first amendment gives free loaders the right to get union wages and have to pay nothing? WHAT THE FUCK ABOUT THE FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION OF THE MAJORITY? WHY THE FUCK SHOULD THEY BE BOUND BY SATANIC LIBERTARIANS??!?!?!?!?!

FUCK THIS.

When it serves conservatives to hold up a liberal appointee to the Supreme Court, senate procedure and rules matter.  When it doesn't they do as they please.

Ever hear the phrase "A Stitch in Time Saves Nine?"  People (mainly satanic conservatives) often consider FDR's attempt to increase the number of justices on the court a failure and a dangerous attack on the independence on the court.

First off all, FUCK THAT.  Conservative ideals and ideas have no basis in legitimacy.

Second of all, if the court has 9 vs 200 justices, then the court can still say "fuck you" to the president any time it wants.

If Trump was doing it (the inevitable argument from milquetoasts and centrists) I would say ...OK and? But but but but...they stammer.

We do it RIGHT BACK to them when we retake power.  No congress is ever bound by another.  The size is whatever congress sets it as.

Period.

The rules are meaningless under the current constitution.  Decorum means NOTHING to conservatives.  I am going to be writing about the Judiciary and resuming my rewrite of the Satanic Constitution.

The Lords of Hypocrisy - Republic for Thee but Not For Me

If a Conservative is Speaking, a Conservative is Lying.

This maxim often earns me judgemental eyerolls from centrists and stochastic pacifists, but it is by long and methodical observation of Conservatives in every culture in the world and throughout history that observes it.  All political methodologies lie because humans lie but conservatives are uniquely qualified in their lies.  I explain why here but the TDLR version is that it is simply inherent in the nature of the philosophy because fear and envy bring out the worst in human nature.

So, this disgusting piece goes on and on about how the May government is "giving away" the "Democratic mandate" of the Brexit.  So, when poll after poll shows that a conservative position is in the minority, these guys say "We live in a Republic, not a Democracy" but one vote by a minority and suddenly they're all about Democracy.  When you can even get one of them to admit that they got 3 million less votes than when they voted for Trump, they use illogical bullshit like "well they represent more land mass."  Excuse me, but are we voting by wealth or property ownership in our Democratic Republic? Is the land voting? Because if so then what the FUCK has that got to do with anything?

Time and time again, on pretty much ANY issue you care to name; any value they claim to have, they shift like snakes and it isn't just American conservatives that do it either; its pretty much ALL conservatives.  Aside from the fact that, by and large lower IQ's tend to gravitate more towards them due to fear (empathy is a higher function in the brain), you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to use Whataboutism or a Gish Gallop to defend their position.  In the rare instance that you can find an honest conservative who doesn't use Fake Facts, they will shift the conversation into such meaningless hyperbole that any fair moderator would vomit in disgust.

It is time to stop engaging these people as equals.  Better, don't engage them at all.  Those among us who insist on doing so should not be taken seriously either.  It is OK to disagree with me, but if you sling nothing but bullshit, you are to be ignored and if you bring someone to dinner at my home who stands up on the table and metaphorically shits on the main course, perhaps I won't invite you back next time.

If you insist on taking liars, conmen and huxters seriously, I won't take you seriously.  My very intelligent friends who tolerate the bullshit slung by their conservative life long friends are still my friends but I assure you the weight of their opinion is much less unless they challenge these fraudsters each and every time.   It's the only way.

The Constitution Was Made By Slavers. Full Stop.

I am writing this post in response to a rather childish challenge that the above sentance was "Intellectually Bankrupt?"  Oh REALLY?

Well, let's break it down for simple minds, shall we?

Let us start with the simple question of STANDING.

What is Standing? 30 Second Summary, the US Courts use a basic litmus test to see if someone even has the ability to bring a case.  IE "Do you even have the right to make this complaint to us at all?"

That's a legitimate question to ask.

The answer is NO, and not just NO but HELL NO.

1) The Constitution has not been ratified since its original ratification over 10 generations ago.

2) The Constitution has totally failed its primary mission in every conceivable way and no longer represents the interests of the United States of America (I will make this case in greater detail below)

3) The Constitution is not only a 'basic law' for our country but an architectural corner stone which is laid in flawed morality of those who thought owning other human beings was a good idea.  Yes, history is replete with flawed men and flawed arguments but we are not trying to hold them up about something which we should argue about as it applies to our CURRENT GOVERNMENT and current lives.

For Crimne's sake the WORDS "3/5th of a person" are still there with a little scratchy line TO THIS DAY.

We are, even now, having the SAME FUCKING STUPID ARGUEMENT about the meaning of the god damned second amendment while we collectively still stand in the entrails and blood of our children.   We have been having this bloody fucking argument for 20 FUCKING YEARS.

The US Constitution  is DONE.  It HAS NO STANDING.  No Moral Standing.  No legal standing.  No functional standing.  IT IS A NONSTARTER.

If you are arguing about the 2nd amendment, you are LOSING.

Now, for those who truly give a fuck (ie likely no one) let's break this down more.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

We - Nope.  Those guys.  In the past.  Ratified 1776+.   Not "We" at all any more

People - This country represents the .001%.  This is an oligarchy.

United States - Not United.  Red States are punishing Blue States in a terroristic fashion.

Perfect Union - Uuuuuum.....No.

Establish Justice - HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.  I don't fucking think so.


Ensure Domestic Tranquility - Nope.

Provide for the Common Defense - Nope.

Promote the General Welfare - Nope.

Secure the Blessings of Liberty for Our Posterity - Nope.

Oh how else hast thou failed? Let me count the ways.

Better,  let someone else do it.

How about that 9th amendment? Ignored.

How about the 10th Amendment? The one that gives all rights to the people not mentioned? Like these rights?

FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.

The United States Constitution is a piece of trash.  A non starter.

Some things are still useful on Daily Filth but why check it?

This diary is a brilliant memetic compilation.

Why, given that I called this website a festering pile of shit, would I still monitor it?

Because I keep hoping someone somewhere will do something that is going to work.  Daily Kos is great at organizing; it always has been.  It helped Occupy and helped get out word about it.  But Daily Kos is not occupy.  Daily Kos conveniently forgot when Obama crushed Occupy; Daily Kos works for HRC and the DNC.

Make no mistake, they do not try to hide this....

"More and 'better' democrats"

Those Democrats are HRC.

This Russian hack thing is important...its a viable method of attack, but they are also unwilling to admit their arrogance.  This is ALL ABOUT their arrogance.  Its why they lost.  Shouting down their opponents, but the nazi sympathizers in the American West, South East, South West and Mid West; and the actual people who simply didn't want HRC to be president.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and is there anything more vacuous than Trump?

Daily Kos is likely to fail; and likely to be crushed, because while they can organize, they are lost in their own self deprivation and lies.  The core of the resistance has to have the moral strength to retain its own identity and message and still be capable of embracing anyone and everyone that might work with it.

Daily Kos is exactly the opposite.  It insists that only the HRC version of freedom is the only one we get to have...and anyone else who doesn't accept that is a racist, classist, sexist pig.  But even if you don't believe that, look at how they treat new comers.  Any organization that does that, that insists on COMPLIANCE on joining, that crushes anyone who doesn't agree with them (yes, there are dissenting voices but only those who were COMPLIANT for a number of years and proved they were not 'sock puppets') cannot succeed, it cannot lead.

Bernie opened up to anyone who wanted to work with him.

HRC said that only those who wanted to go her way could be part of her 'big tent.'

You know where else they use big tents?

Exterminators in a house.

Big alliances are fine, but if you get so big you stand for nothing you're better off with a bunch of smaller tents; that's an army, not a fumigation.

The Festering Pile of Shit that is Daily Kos

So there's this wonderful shit fest on Daily Kos.

So in some ways these filthy animals are right in that I'm not 'new', but I'm not some daily #gamergate troll who logs on a new account every five minutes.  No, I'm not because I QUIT this festering shit fest three years ago because Kos refused to control it.

It is absolutely routine to have a mob of people crowd the diary of someone they don't like and dog pile them into leaving.  Was I harsh on entry? Sure. But these assholes act like they don't do the same thing.  I should know, I read their pathetic site every day, because its the CLOSEST THING TO HOPE WE HAVE.

This pathetic HRC leaning pile of shit is it.  No one has managed to organize ANYTHING even close to a progressive website or a reality based community in as many years as I have been desperately waiting for something else to come along.

So this maggot infested skull fuck of a website is going to bring America together? I've seen them do this dog pile to people that were infinitely more polite than I was, so how in the HELL are they going to unite anyone? Daily Kos needs to go down in fire and flames, but there is NOTHING to replace it.

If anyone else out there has an idea, I'd love to hear it.

[Phil] Reality, Left Reality, Right Reality

Once upon a time there was a Left Reality. People in the Right Reality believe that there is a Left Reality still, but except for a few environmentalist whackos, the Left Reality largely died with the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, those of us living in plain old Reality Reality are scared of the Right Reality.

What's all that gibberish about?

What is Reality? Descartes goes to great lengths trying to posit it out. Science has revealed horrifically complicated things about what makes the world work, most of which are simply beyond anything but the most basic comprehension by the common man. Our brains are a series of electrical impulses that convey light to a consciousness that operates in different modes depending on the biochemical balance of our bodies, largely modulated by what we eat, think and do? We are trapped in fleshy prisons with limited senses that are often fooled and deceived by the world around us.

On top of that we not only dream but daydream of realities other than that which we observe, fantasies and flights of fancy of worlds which we only sense (most of us) with faded senses but see clearly or hazily through the mind's eye. A few of us are blessed (or cursed) with the ability to see these dreamverses as vividly as the rest of us see the Reality Reality.

Furthermore, social perception and peer pressure can force us to make something real, even when we might never perceive something as such on our own. If someone was raised in a box...would they really consider small green pieces of paper as valuable? And yet because of our shared lore and history, we have artificial constructs in civilization that are practical real to the point of truly objective reality because of the consistency of their effect.

Still, with all the flaws we have in our ability to perceive the world around us, we do generally acknowledge the reality we wake up in in the morning as the one that is there. It is the one that says you need to brush your teeth in the morning or you're going to get cavities. You need to pay your cable bill or it will get shut down. Still, because of modern technology and science, the observable simple reality has become complex....we rely and trust on specialists to determine how much we really know.

I don't know that Quantum physics is real, but I do know that guys who say it is real talk to other guys who know how to Make Stuff, and those guys have made some amazing advances in electronics that do things that I can see work really well. So I'm pretty inclined to believe the guys who say Quantum Physics is real.

However, I also am able to observe guys who make a lot of money by owning a lot of Stuff, and who have a vested interest in acquiring Stuff, and who hire a lot of people who I know are good at manipulating and adjusting human or mob attitudes into discrediting some scientists because they want more Stuff.

I might not KNOW everything all the scientists know, but I do know that the scientists produce stuff that I can see and experience with a pretty regular basis.

I also know that scientists have reported and continue to report things that People Who Make Their Living Selling Religion find objectionable because it makes it harder for them to sell their religion. And for a hundred years (if I can believe the history books, which I do because I've now lived a good chunk of it, and Historians also respect Scientists for the most part and they both have Peer Review which they say works pretty good) the People Who make Their Living Selling Religion have been attacking Scientists any way they can until they started questioning the very institutions of science itself.

I also know that there is a political alliance between People Who Make Their Living Selling Religion and People Who Want To Acquire Ungodly Amounts of Stuff. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out then, that both of these people have a vested reason to attack Science and therefore I should take anything that they say with a grain of salt. People Who Make Their Living Selling Religion can provide a product that makes me feel good, but it only works some of the time at solving other problems like if I'm in pain. Science doesn't work all the time but it works more than People Who Make Their Living Selling Religion.

Also note that there is a difference between Religious, Spiritual and People Who Make Their Living Selling Religion. That's a topic for another discussion.

So once, in the Soviet Union, Stalin in all his wisdom said that Trofim Lysenko was right. Lysenko didn't believe in the Scientific Method. In fact he had those pesky Scientists Burned a