Plain Speaking

Very little "plain speaking" occurs in public discourse now. The Bush-Clinton decades are typified by weaselly verbiage, deceptive phrasing and disingenuous talk and writing. But what else would we expect from a ruling class and their media poodles dominated by knaves ?

What prompted this rant ?

I read this morning's newspapers online. Here are some examples of how Bunkerman would describe or react to some news and issues.

Iran test fires missiles - medium and long range missiles. This is obviously a threat and further indication of Iran's warlike intentions. Iran's theocratic rulers call America the Great Satan. Let's believe them ... that they want to attack the US and or US allies or interests. Why not say this ? Why keep talking in blather to the press and Europeans and everyone else. Make it crystal clear that we believe their threats and will react with "vigor" to any implementation of them.

Russia threatens Europe if the US installs a missile defense for Europe against Iranian missiles. Russia implies this defense hurts them. Why ? It obviously has no effect on Russia. Russia helps Iran build nuclear plants and probably with weapons. So why not reply to Russia this way: Russia, you are helping Iran threaten US allies and helping Iran build offensive weapons capacity, and even to defend their nuclear installations ... which Russia is helping build. So simply say, Russia, you are part of the problem, in helping Iran threaten others. You stop helping Iran and we won't need this missile defense. Otherwise, we do.

See how this works ... plain speaking. No bureaucratic nonsense ... risk of misunderstandings are eliminated. Real problems crystalize and solutions become obvious.

Why doesn't the ruling class do this ? If I was paranoid, I'd say they just want to confuse the public and obfuscate issues for their own agenda. Which might be letting problems fester so their friends in the military-industrial complex can sell more weapons. Nahhh ...

By the way, why is the US paying for a missile defense for Europe that the European public doesn't want ?

Why not just say, plainly, "Europe, here's the technololgy. As allies, US will help you buiild it, but you're paying for it. Not the Average Joe in the US."

PS: "Steve & Barry's" to file bankruptcy petition ... what the heck is a "Steve & Barry's" ? Never heard of them nor seen a store.

PPS: I keep hearing this "raise capital" crap. Look, PROFITS attract capital, not losses. So financial institutions need to raise credit spreads, which has already happened a lot, and cut pay for Wall Street. That brings profits that attract capital.

Words of the Day

"Villein" - noun [$10] historical; "Villeinage" - noun
Villein means a feudal tenant entirely subjest to a lord or attached to a manor.
Villeinage means the tenure or status of a villein.

"Etatism" - noun [$100] from French; "Etatist" - noun
Etatism is a synonym for state socialism: a theory, doctrine and monvement advocating a planned economy controlled by the state, with state ownership of all industries and natural resources.
Etatist means a person advocating etatism.

Paragraph for both: The 20th century provides three fine examples of how etatism leads to incredible evils in practice in human societies: National Socialist Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union and Mao's China. Etatism reduces human beings to villeins in an entire nation or empire ruled by a one or a few ruthless lords. Friedrich Hayak wrote about the evolution of etatism in his seminal book, "The Road to Serfdom" and his theory operated as predicted, as the most ruthless and criminal persons came to rule in all those etatist societies after an initial phase. Why do so many "intelligentry" still belive that etatism works for humanity ? Maybe they just want the power as lords over the common villeins.