Occupy this! Democracy under Attack

It must dawn upon us...Occupy this...

The global  'Occupy Everything' movement has generated a lot of attention over the last few  months.  
In North America the occupation of parks, streets, and other public areas by campers and  demonstrators of all descriptions was  intended to bring the insatiable  greed  of Corporate North America and the questionable economic policies of less than stellar financial institutions and  government to the attention of you, the reader.

The coloured tents, signs, unshaven occupants, endless speeches, chanting and impromptu arrests  became  both  fascinating and annoying to some, an unattractive blight on an otherwise 'pristine' urban landscape to some observers, --but a logical demonstration, a virile seed,  and a powerful inspiration to others. The movement grew exponentially. Why would it not?
  Brought to the attention of big government, not coincidentally under fire by the same protestors,  the lackadaisical occupiers, in-the-park campers,  "obstructing the public spaces of  holiday shufflers and shoppers  alike" also raised the ire of 'one or more'  'directly-affected' slightly miffed local governments and stuffy officials across Canada. 
Authorities disapproved of  colourful tent cities, odoriferous portable toilets, the occasional campfire, burning tents, and the  'unauthorized'  occupation of so-called 'public spaces' by 'demonstrating rabble'.  
The Occupy Toronto encampment was disassembled, and  as of this date, police are moving in to remove the Occupy Montreal site. The Occupy Edmonton site was also "encouraged to disappear" overnight by "authorities".  At 4:00am yet.  How convenient to keep their actions out of the scrutiny of the public.


At Incoming Bytes we can easily observe that local 'authority' figures, bureaucrats,   and officials "occupying the halls of power"  once more  purport to  know what is best for all of society. 

   It should be no surprise that  the people demonstrating, encamping, and speaking up may also NOT know what is best for our society;  Babies and Grade II students do not know what is best for our society, seniors do not necessarily know what is best for our society and neither do campers and demonstrators necessarily  --clearly so--but what they DO  know is what is unjust, what is hypocrisy,  and what has been damaging society.


  --And just what might the 'real best for society " actually be?  Guess.
The freedom to freely demonstrate. The freedom to free association with others that also believe in alternatives.   The freedom to speak up and identify bureaucratic abuse without fear. The freedom to speak out without fear when abuse of authority is recorded.  The freedom to speak out when governments waste tax dollars endlessly, without thought, while failing to feed children, seniors, and the homeless.  The freedom to speak out when war is declared  at the cost of trillions of dollars --not by the people, but by a few hawkish international policy-makers, self-aggrandizing   politicians and military leaders  cheered on by the petroleum and  armaments industry in the name of profit.   
That's not ALL.
The freedom to speak out against obscene corporate profits garnered without morals on the backs of the working poor. The freedom to speak out when corporations outsource jobs to China,  slash North American jobs, and simultaneously pay  CEO's bonuses of  tens of millions of dollars each year for such stellar performance . The power to speak out against the pervasive ROT that is endlessly observed in government.  Fake lakes. Billion-dollar political-pork-barreling.   Glorious half-million-dollar CF18 Fly-byes  to stroke the ego of  militarists and politicians  to make themselves feel good about spending billions on WAR. 
The power to speak out when financial institutions gut the financial sector, threaten bankruptcy  to political allies, who bail them out with hard-earned tax-payer dollars.  


All freedom-loving people should be giving notice.  
Occupy this concept: 
  Right is right. 
 
The practice of ethics, fairness, and justice  in governance, bureaucracy and industry is not only required, it is demanded by any democracy, it is demanded by the people of Canada. 
Canada  IS a democracy, or was.
Is democracy now under attack by our own governments?

Our government  purports to "wish democracy" upon places like LIBYA. We spent BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars interfering in the political process in that country, "supposedly" to depose a dictator.  Free the people and all that.
Was it hypocrisy, a bid for control over oil, or just more playing "puppet"  while filling huge and profitable contracts for the defense industry? 
 ALL people interested in justice, fairness, reason, and freedom globally should OCCUPY THIS concept: in a democracy, people have a RIGHT to demonstrate and speak up....or have our "authorities" conveniently forgotten that?


 Is the  official action now being taken to disassemble and quell the "uprisings of peasants" in Canadian cities merely  an indication of how close government is bedded with big business, or is  the apparent disapproval of freedom of expression throughout North America  a harbinger of fascism and dictatorships being established?  

We have to wonder.
The recent highly-publicized  American image of a uniformed officer CASUALLY strolling down a row of seated, quiet demonstrators, heavily pepper-spraying them ---is  a clear message of a TOTAL lack of  respect for civilians, inexcusable arrogance and a brutal abuse of power. The authorities responsible for this response to civil demonstration should be ashamed of themselves.
Why should concerned citizens not be allowed to voice an opinion, and demonstrate? 
At Incoming Bytes, the question of the day must be:
"How long does the existing political-corporate system in North America think it will be occupying the halls of power with the increasing abuse of authority?" The reader is encouraged to think independently. 
We suspect:  "Not long".   Ho hum....




that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The "Silence Experiment"

      Having  unintentionally fabricated  my own version of a "Silence Experiment" following  my last post " The Greater the Event, the Less we Hear", and not making any noise about any world events for a couple of weeks,  our dear  readers may  have come to the conclusion that Uno Eventus Gigantus  was taking place,  ergo the Total Silence in this blog,  "the less we hear" and all that.
     That assumption would be wrong, since everybody has to take time off to plant their garden, cut the grass,  attend graduation ceremonies,   take care of business, and think up new stuff to analyze,  comment upon and even complain about.  That's what I did, and surprise, surprise, the world carried right on doing stupid stuff  -all by itself.
Isn't that helpful?

      There is never a dearth of foolishness out there;  there is never a lack of warfare, evil lawyer tricks being conducted, outrageous CEO bonuses,   and / or  repressive government policy, wasteful spending, and  excessive taxation to comment about.

      While I was off raking mulch, planting winter cabbage and repairing my lawnmower, the war raged on in Libya,  volcanoes erupted, earthquakes shook New Zealand again, and Manitoba and Quebec continue to suffer from " excessive" water,  while Alberta is suffering from  forest fires,  drought, with  nary a drop of water to be had.

      With a majority government in Canada, somewhat starchy and pretty  bossy at best,  and a failing economy in the US led by the close- to- silent GOP,  there is plenty to worry about.  A major recession is already upon the U.S.,  gold is over $1500.00/oz, which means the dollar has been seriously devalued,   but the "people" continue to shop and watch television.  They  BBQ big fat steaks out in the admittedly cold weather,  and have seemingly 'forgotten'  Japan's  Fukushima  nuclear disaster, radioactive food, earthquakes and tsunamis and Avian flu, and other incidental delights.  It's more important to live for the day--apparently the future doesn't count.
 
     Where does our excessive contemporary apathy come from?  Sedation?  What are we collectively "on" ?
  Is all food being drugged by Corporate North America, or is the average Joe just  brainwashed into total  apathy,   the   "not being able to do anything about it anyway, so why bother" syndrome?

     Do we shut our brains down in self-defense from information overload? One of my astute readers here at Incoming Bytes  suggested that possibility. 
Meantime, the greedy keep getting greedier, Corporate North America is running the show, and politicians continue to do as they will,  a.k.a.  do NOTHING about it because it's too much fun being in power.
     Outrage should be the norm, but it is not. In the old West, such rats, cads, and crooked do-nothings  would be strung out to dry in the desert sun. In old Europe, even one better,  they would be drawn, quartered, and hung, put up for display on a pike-pole to act as a deterrent and warning to other such persons of ill repute.
Our civilized society  "allows" such abuse of power in silence.  We  happily vote political offenders  back in office, to do the same kinds of things all over again,  again and again.
Why is that?  Do we ever learn?  Apparently not.  

     Where is our leadership? We don't have to ask where Prime Minister Harper was, he was flying off to a NHL  Stanley Cup  hockey game via very expensive tax-payer funded jet...$11,000.00  an hour or something equally outrageous as that--- to see a NHL hockey game. --when people in this country are homeless and unemployed and seniors live in poverty.   How lovely.  How TOTALLY  predictable. 

If life is going to treat the Elite so wonderfully,   would it actually be better to be out in the garden, totally uninformed, totally  ignore  the news, and just walk around in serendipity  with a warm fog surrounding the garden, home,  pups and peace?
Shall we all participate in total  silence and refuse to pay Corporate North America and the political machine that drains us dry, but does nothing for us?   By being silent, can we create ever larger events?  I have to wonder. 

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

As the World Turns: Who Shall We Believe? The Greedy? The Media?

Let us see the Light

It never ceases to amaze  how stories and events  evolve  in unexpected ways, even 'nonchalantly'  with all  the conflicting, inaccurate, and missing  information that eventually comes to light.    At times,  it seems that lies,  partial truths, overcautious withholding of information, failure to  release important information entirely, or zealous control of information -- skews  and spins valuable information out of context and control,  both when given to the media,  and then again when passed on to the public by  media  that at times,  itself is even intentionally misled by venerable leaders, officials  and perhaps others with questionable motive.

After any huge disaster when desperate rescue efforts must be conducted to rescue the general population there is  understandably worry, confusion, fear, and hurried misunderstanding --caused by intent or not.  

By the very nature of such events,  the disruption or destruction of infrastructure and communications,  reports from different authorities and agencies  may not always coincide.  Decades ago, that used to be the case only  because it was problematic or impossible to communicate when transportation,   services and "land lines" were destroyed,  but modern society now has cell phones and portable satellite communications systems for news services. 
Why is more accurate information not available?
Is that glaring contradiction one of the main causes of  the  public  distrust of "officialdom" and the media? 

Within the media there  always remains  a responsibility to report responsibly and  avoid the creation  more fear and  panic, but it seems logical that with  a major nuclear story seemingly headed in the direction  of and even exceeding Three Mile Island  (even Chernobyl ? ) ,  a current  major event such as  Japan's ongoing  nuclear dilemma  should require information be directed  accurately to the public at all times.  
With ever more serious consequences developing,  the horrific catastrophe unfolding in Japan  quickly captured the attention of the whole world, and understandably so. The Japanese catastrophe has unfolded to be clearly an exceptional and dangerous historical event with very long-term implications. 
   Unbelievable damage caused by the quake and ensuing tsunami now has implications that remain virtually incalculable .
  Six operating nuclear power generating plants, one of them containing plutonium-enriched fuel,  suffered major damage,  including damage to critical  power systems that provided necessary cooling not only for the active reactors themselves, but for a huge water-pond storage system that stores thousands of  "spent" fuel rods  (or  did ?)--at least until recently.  For the uninformed, spent (used) fuel rods remain highly radioactive for years and must be stored carefully to avoid overheating and exposure to air, which can cause radioactive materials to be released into the air.
  At the nuclear plants, there have already been 3 major hydrogen explosions,  storage pond fires,  and failure to cool the melting reactor cores  in spite of last-ditch emergency flooding with sea water, water bombing using helicopters, fire trucks and water cannons.  Dangerously overheated reactor cores have been exposed,  dry,  partially melted.  A partial meltdown  or meltdown(s) have already occurred.
We already know there has been major releases of radioactive materials, but reports of the official "danger" and levels of radiation being  measured differ substantially.  With world Atomic Energy associations, why should there be any question?
Although already having evacuated more than 500,000 people and are advising staying more than 20km from the  nuclear hot-spot,  Japanese officials  have finally admitted it is far more serious than previously thought. 
 U.S. and  other nuclear experts were advising a range of more than 80 km and countries are advising their nationals to leave Japan. 
Why the big discrepancy? Why is it so difficult for officials everywhere to come clean, correlate data with one another, and admit the true nature of the problem immediately?  
Do owners and officials  of operating nuclear power plants not want to accept responsibility for bad design and failure?  Now that the disaster is unfolding, and they are    in charge of a dragon that escaping  their control, will  they now deny culpability, and  admit lack of capability to control the potential disaster in it's entirety?   
Who shall we believe?  The greedy, the frightened, or the media?  Perhaps we should take careful note that it is the greedy and powerful that build and operate these  potential disasters.
To be clear, we at Incoming Bytes shall  not point fingers at the Japanese as a nation.  Japan is far from alone in this phenomenon;  around the world,  nuclear plants have had leaks, accidents, and failures and will continue to do so because that is what they do.   They are mechanical systems;  it is not IF they will fail, but WHEN.  
The world must now face that reality and change course. 
When clean solar energy and wind energy is freely available, what has  compelled  humanity to ignore common sense and use  problematic, dangerous and dirty nuclear plants that produce dangerous, dirty waste products that must be stored forever?  The answer is simple. Greed.
 I offered a comment following the previous post: 

"Where big money is concerned, it seems there is little genuine concern for the results of their money-making schemes, no matter how much pollution or how many potential problems they may cause." 
 An immediate response from a very astute reader  summed it up perfectly:  

  "Selfish motives impact whole civilizations. And its time we wake up to defending our lives that are at the mercy of a handful". 

   As the world turns,  it is becoming more apparent that civilization in it's entirety may now be forced to  forever pay the  gargantuan and endless  economic and human costs of these disasters,  --and  only now at the very last moment in civilization,   try to discourage and disengage  a  foolish  energy policy that was followed only to satiate the endless greed of "a handful".   

So be it. We CAN do it.  We HAVE to do it.

Got Gas, Mr. Grinch?

BIG OIL                                              photo by r.a. kukkee  2010

With winter close to  full swing and the Christmas season fast approaching,    I thought, (or more likely imagined, suffering from a lack of natural sunshine ),  that  Corporate good-will might flare up for a change ('Tis the season to be jolly  and all that !)

It seems I guessed wrong.  Instead,  it appears  that corporate profits  remain their primary concern, and the Grinch himself is flailing about with much gusto in one  sector  in spite of  the spirit of the season, or the stifled North American economy.

Only a few days ago the price of gasoline once again  skyrocketed like magic,  inexplicably and forcefully,  just in time for Santa  to stuff  great bags of cash  into the bulging coffers, caves and penthouse apartments  of the richest and most powerful corporate elite  in the world.  Who else could that be, but the Petroleum Industry?

The price of gasoline at the pump  jumped more than ten cents per liter,  from $1.09 per liter to over $1.20 per liter  within a day.   Instantly.  Why did the price jump sky-high?   I wonder how that happens?
I am also curious to know 'who' actually makes the calls  to set the new  universal price we see almost immediately at the pumps, regardless of brand.

Let us imagine for a moment THAT  mysterious  “Mr. Who” is on the telephone.
 “ Hello? Is this Joe’s Gas station?  You got gas?  Surprise!   Your gas is a  new, improved price starting right now!”  
“....... But Sir, what about the gas in the  tanks here, should I sell it at  the old price?”
“Are you kidding, Joe?  You a bit stupid or something? Do as you’re told, don’t ask questions, jack up the price on it too,  why not?”  Mr. Who orders with disdain, “After all, what are the peasants going to do about it?”  Mr. Who, ( is he related to the  Grinch, by any chance? ) ,  smirks happily and hangs up.

What just happened at Joe’s Gas station seems to have happened everywhere. How can that be?  How can gasoline prices possibly be so closely orchestrated?

According to www.Oilprice.com,   the price of crude oil was  $89.02 as of Dec. 6th at 10.00 a.m. EST. (1).,    having risen from approximately $85.00 a few days previously.  That equates to a  price increase of  $4.00 US   for a whole barrel of crude oil.
One must immediately wonder how a $4.00 increase in the price of a barrel of crude oil equates to a pump price increases of a half-buck per gallon for  gasoline?  The fact is, it does NOT.  Did all petroleum industry executives fail to get a passing grade in  arithmetic in school?  Perhaps that’s the problem. Perhaps we should calculate it for them.

Let’s see....We know that about  20 US gallons ( 75.70 liters) of gasoline is  produced from each barrel of crude oil.  Crude oil is not all made into gasoline.    Other products such as diesel fuel, home heating oil, and various other oils and lubricants are ALSO  made from the same barrel of crude oil
Any doubt about that?   See for yourself.  Check them out at: http://www.txoga.org/articles/308/1/WHAT-A-BARREL-OF-CRUDE-OIL-MAKES

Regardless, and totally  ignoring price   increases on  other products listed,  the recent  price increase at  your local gas pumps infers  there was  an increase of about  $8.00 per barrel of crude oil.
  ---But wait, Virginia, the real price increase for raw crude oil in that same time period, as we now know, was only about $4.00 per barrel.
Clearly a problem exists. Does price gouging by error, or by design?  Executive ineptitude, or just willful, blatant greed?   Organized criminal activity? Government control? Eyebrow- raising cooperation and a wink  between  oil-producing nations?   Perhaps the reader has other suggestions.
  Who is assigned the responsibility of calculating the price of gasoline, and how does it magically become the new, virtually universal price?

Is this all part of the cute board game called Monopoly?
Should  any thinking individual be expected to actually believe  there are not  cooperative and behind-the scenes forces controlling prices at the gasoline pump?       Huge and instantaneous price increases just do not magically happen, and there is one certainty. The imagination is sorely over-worked to believe it is “competition”.  
 
Vehement denial of unfair practice  is the standard response in any investigation of price-fixing, monopolistic practices or price-setting agreements by Big Oil.
The classic defense offered includes  arbitrary excuses historically used to justify windfall profits.
It is such good fortune we suffer to know why we are being robbed. 
 The search for answers  becomes  a quick  spin on a  “Wheel of Fortune” for which  the consumer must both play and pay.
  The wheel is spinning.... automobile owners everywhere are waiting at the pump with abated breath.....Which of these wonderful excuses shall be offered this time?  

Official List of Excuses and Justifications for Windfall Profits

• The price of crude oil at the pump (Set by Mr. Who?)
•  Global prices (Controlled by Mr. Who?) 
•  Low supplies (Controlled by Mr.  Who?)
•  OPEC policy and agreement changes ( Controlled by Mr. Who?)
•  Corporate losses. (  Details to be offered by Mr. Who?   )
•  The bad economy
•  Competition (we may have to laugh about that one)
•  Bad weather
•  Drilling and exploration costs 
•  Refinery fires and equipment failures
•  The unstable Mid-East and it’s perpetual political unrest, the war against terror (ad infinitum)
•  Shipping accidents   ( the Exxon Valdez, was that oil collected in 5-gallon buckets for resale?....) 
•  Oil spills  and rig fires ( BP Gulf --2010 --all that spilled crude oil in the gulf just “happily” disappeared after a few weeks?)
• Government taxes on gasoline ( the most famous excuse offered in Canada ) 

Understandably, other exciting game features conveniently left off of the sparkling corporate wheel  are:

• Corporate  greed
•  Excessive Profits
•  Multi-million dollar year-end  bonuses for chief executive officers.
• Creative pricing agreements

We have but one question for the petroleum industry:   Which excuse are you going to use this time?  Not that it matters.  At this time of the year even Santa himself would have to call your actions unethical,  opportunistic,  and monopolistic price gouging.

 Naughty, naughty, naughty.   Santa’s list is getting longer by the day.

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