Category Archives: Uncategorized

Senate Scandal: Rotters and Liars

©2013 by Raymond Alexander Kukkee   [caption id="attachment_2018" align="aligncenter" width="388"]A left arrow stating "not now". Oh, No!   Not now, Duffy ![/caption]

Senatorial School:  Mischief & Liars

 

Prologue 

Today, loyal readers, we're in Grade VI   "Wannabe-a-Senator" class with Mr. Stephen,  the Senatorial  coach, mentor, and teacher.  We are participating observers  in a class on Senatorial mischief, rotters and liars, an exercise  in criminal democracy, the  "I didn't do it if you can't prove it" participatory ethics kind.  To the embarrassment of all, wannabe student  Senators  Mikey,  Pammie,  and Patrick B  have just been  caught in the back room with their fingers in Mr. T. Axpayer's cookie-jar.  Mr. T. Axpayer is sputtering objections mad as hell and wants Mr. Stephen to resign.

Discovery: Rotters & Liars

"Oh, my, that is a no-no!"  Mr. Stephan smooths his hair down, admiring his coif in the gold-plated  magnifying makeup  mirror on his desk,  winks at himself, primps,   and turns to admonish the class. "This is so embarrassing." he says, double-checking the mirror. Mr. Stephen thunders and stutters."Class, It has been reported that someone has been caught  practicing self-entitlement, hooking goodies  from  the cookie-jar with  my permission. As you know, we have rules,  self-entitlement is good when  I approve it, but the first rule is  that we  must never, never, never,  ever get caught with our fingers in Mr. T. Axpayer's cookie-jar! The rest of the Senatorial school has a reputation to uphold so our hog trough  self-entitlements  school  isn't shut down! " The sleepy class gasps, eyes suddenly now wide open. "Who, us?" The children shout in unison. "Never! We're innocent Senators merely holding our cushy red velvet seats for fun and profit forever!"  Crocodile tears fall. "Whatever shall we do, Mr. Stephen, our pork-barrel Senatorial school will be shut down,  our lifetime hog-trough  of self-entitlements will dry up!" * A collective gasp is heard. . "Who would commit such a foul deed, Mr. Stephen ? "  Teaching  assistant Mr Nigel almost choked upon his tea and crumpets. "...er....a hair in my crumpet would be scandalous!" he stipulated. Mr. Stephen rolled his eyes and winked at Mr. Nigel. "That's what I want to know right now, Mr. Nigel,  which of these rich Senatorial  children is dispensable  guilty?"  All of the children slide and sink  lower in their seats and refuse to look Mr. Stephen in the eye. " Are there rotters and liars  in this class?"   Silence reigns.  "Shhshhhhh" someone whispers loudly, "we're all rotters and liars   but if we stick together and we don't admit it, nobody can prove it ". "We cannot have rotters and liars in Senatorial class,  Mr. Nigel,  someone has to be found guilty, cookies are missing,  Mr. T. Axpayer knows everyone is lying, some of you are habitual liars, class,-- maybe all of us are rotters & liars!"  Mr. Stephen thunders. He turns livid red and blinks thirteen times.    " Oops!...er....I mean  some of YOU---er.... have to be liars !   He clears his throat. "ahem".  He stares at Mikey, Pammie, and Patrick.   "Tell the truth now, you three liars, did you steal any cookies?  We'll have to boot you out of class if you're rotters and liars." "Impossible, Mr. Stephen",  Mr. Nigel clears his throat and winks, I offer you a riddle;  as you suggested, I have remedied the situation with checks, appropriate party slush funding and prepared lies.  Mikey's problem has already  been taken care of exactly as you suggested."  *wink *wink "Me?  Not me, fellow Senators, "  says Mikey,  a  frown and devious, worried look on his chubby little face.  "I  do all my homework, I  work hard ,  I like this job, especially the self-entitlements and  soft red velvet chairs and  the pension ten times that of Mr. T. Axpayer and his friends,  I'm honest, I didn't steal cookies, honest, I just--er--borrowed some like Mr. Stephen said I should tell you!  See?  I have this note here from Mr. Stephen, telling exactly what to say,  and it says  to say 'Not me' ,   wanna see it? "Oh no, Mikey, we certainly don't want proof",  Mr. Stephen says, turning red,  " What is to be accomplished now by wasting valuable class time by telling  the truth? uh,,,er...shut up now, Mikey,,,,,,and,,,, ..moving on, now, class, who else has been finger-filching the financial cookie-jar?" "Not me" says Pammie, her eyes shifting right to left as she primps her hairdo, watching to see if her classmate are watching,    "I do important stuff" , so  I only took a few handfuls, but I  already put the cookies back in the jar".  "Besides, Mr. Stephen, you appointed me to do important stuff,  and gave me permission to travel everywhere and filch cookies too, and never mind, when everyone was watching, did you see how I cleverly took the bus home yesterday instead of the limo to demonstrate how clever I am at covering up details?" "Very good, Pammie, but ....well, it's not necessary to bore the class with details of how clever we are at making the school look good, dear Pammie", Mr. Stephen says, winking,  shifting from one foot the other,  and once again,  smoothing his coif spray job. "Damned rooster tails keep popping up for everyone to see" he said as an aside to Mr. Nigel standing behind him and slightly to the left.  "How embarrassing!" The class twitters.   "No twittering" Mr. Stephen advises. He clears his throat, "And who else?" We cannot have rotters and liars in this school!" "Not me!  "  says Patrick, suddenly standing up with an arrogant, brassy  smirk, adjusting his sunglasses. "In this class I can do anything I want, you said so yourself, Mr. Stephen, and what are friends for?  " Mr. Stephan smooths his hair out again and sighs a big one.  He takes a potty break  in Europe.  He can't stay there forever.  Monday arrives and he has to go home. 'What to do?' Mr. Stephen ponders to himself in the back room once again,  while nibbling on yet another cookie,  ' This is embarrassing, it looks like I got caught lying and could get fired;  I don't know how to run a country OR Senate,  never mind a lemonade stand senatorial school......... I know, I'll keep lying,  I don't wish to look incompetent, so   I'll go out there and give them a speech, and a few scapegoats, a few red herrings,  that oughta' do it '. He wags his finger at Mikey, Pammie and Patrick.   "tch-tch-tch.....You naughty children got caught, don't you know  it's bad to get caught?  We cannot tolerate scandalous behaviour.   It makes ME look incompetent  the Senatorial class look bad, so we'll have to punish you, get it?  Someone has to be punished.  We have to look good.   Meantime, as you already know, Mr. Nigel, my teaching assistant here,  will give you checks, and  craft  excuses for you  extra cookies to put back in the jar, as many as you need,  so nobody in the principal's office will find out  they're missing." "But you knew about it", you said it was okay" Mikey blurts out, choking, "I'm feeling trapped,  I might have to go home sick  so nobody can point fingers at me". "Not now,  not now,  Mikey, no point in adding more lies discussing embarrassing unnecessary details, is there, I already decided you're it." "Good idea",   Mikey says, relief all over his chubby sweating face,  "Thank God,  I  ate a lot of cookies, I do have a tummy-ache -- but ---but---I got checks and I work hard and am honest so....". "Shut up, we caught you, Mikey, you just admitted  you're guilty!"  said Mr. Stephen.  "Class, see what happens?  Never admit you're guilty of filching anything, that's our  lesson for today." " Mr Stephen won't blame me, after all, it's  the impression of honesty that counts Pammie whispers, smiling secretly, then winking at Mr. Stephen's Cheshire Cat smile,  as she shifts her eyes about and primps  her hair.  "Later, baby" she whispers.    Mr. Stephen reacts instinctively  by blushing and primping his hair too.   "Let's all look good and honest and nobody will figure it out" he says out loud. "Oh, we'll look good,  --- I took the bus yesterday  instead of the limo to show how frugal I am",  did you see that, Mr. Stephen ?  I hope everybody in Canada  was watching"  Pammie whispers loudly. "I don't care if we look good, or honest, or anything "   smirks Patrick. "Who's gonna do anything about it anyway? Nobody can touch us, we're the senate  in Senatorial  class, my friend Mr. Stephen said so,  and Mr. T Axpayer will be here this afternoon with my limo  to fill up the cookie jar again anyway. What a fool,  what a School!  Isn't it great to be in Senatorial school, learning how to become systemic rotters and liars?   The class breaks into raucous laughter, clapping. Mr. Stephen smiles, winks at Mr. Nigel and coughs. "Psst..."no problem, Nigel, we have lots of checks" "Okay, children,  we shall lie enough to get away with it this time;  we're sure the class for systemic rotters & liars has been a success.  Now if you'll just open your  "How to Sell  Major Resources to China and Other Foreign Nations "  instruction book, I'll demonstrate  how to sell our natural resources to China and Asia at giveaway prices without  environmental restrictions --so we can get rich!  Won't that be fun children?   The best part?   Mr. T.Axpayer won't even know the difference!   "psst.....Meanwhile, anyone want a cookie? " All hands in the Senatorial class go up immediately....   Is that Incoming I hear?  
Posted in Ethics, Life, Major Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Syrian Crisis: Call for Common Sense or WW III ?

© 2013  by Raymond Alexander Kukkee   [caption id="attachment_2010" align="aligncenter" width="620"]photo by phaewilk (morguefile)             Darkening Skies               photo by phaewilk (morguefile)[/caption]

      "Clearly something must be done.  Why not try common sense?

Darkening Skies

The world is waiting with abated breath for the next indicator, any indicator at all that might reveal whether  President Barack Obama and the United States of America  will up the ante in the Syrian crisis, ratchet up the tension more with additional warships, more rocket testing, or if he will  just arbitrarily  light a  fuse,  and bomb the crap out of Syria's President Bashar al Assad and his palace out of existence and  complete the destruction of Syria regardless of proposals or solutions offered.

President Assad, for the record, emphatically denies any use of chemical warfare upon his own people and blatantly  warns "any and all retaliation" if  the USA bombs Syrian targets.  How lovely.  "Let's all save face". Let's allow the mindless to create reality that results in real people dying. More people, that would be.  With an estimated 100,000 people having already died in the Syrian destruction.   "The US should expect every action". Right.

How encouraging. A red line and another red line, taunts and promises, sticks, stones, broken bones,  and how many red lines shall we cross?  Kind of reminds you of little 10-year-old brats at recess, doesn't it, daring other little brats to cross lines scuffled with sneakers in the sand of a playground.  This, however, is decidedly not play.  It is international posturing and war-mongering, not marbles....  Let's keep that in mind.

Will the ugly dogs of war  be once more unleashed, or will the world collectively  force encourage our 'so-called-leaders'  to  use some genuine intelligence in this crisis, and call for common sense?  That would be refreshing, and  a united, positive call for action based on international law and diplomacy in this specific crisis would undoubtedly  save  thousands --but even more worrisome, perhaps even millions of lives. Potentially, WW III  can happen.  "If it can happen it invariably does"  comes to mind.

Dealing with The Syrian Crisis is no longer merely  a "Game of Credibility"

There's a lot at stake. Let's all grow up now, children,  Barack, Bashar, and Vladimir,  and recognize WW III is a possibility if stubborn leaders allow their "egos" and "saving face"  and "credibility"  issues to be more important than humanity itself.  Make no mistake about it.  We don't much care whether individual politicians and leaders "lose credibility" or are embarrassed by their mistakes and ineptitude or not  if thousands, or  millions of people will be killed in the process,  do you?   

"Did Bashar do it? Of course..well, er, Not...er...maybe..er.. 

Whether or not Bad Boy Bashar  (B.B.B.) personally approved the use of chemical weapons  is debatable;  we, the ordinary people of the world have absolutely no way of confirming which pack of lies is "more true" than the next, isn't that  a conundrum?   Having trundled  the USA into  Iraq based upon a pack of lies isn't exactly the most encouraging precedent, is it, Mr. President?  The fact is, "credibility"  of the USA and it's war machine has been a problem for quite some time, so what else is new?  Worrying about 'credibility' ?   Such offerings of "unproven proof"  are  inexcusably poor reasons to bomb a desperately poor country and perhaps start WW III today--at any stretch of the imagination.

The Boy who Called Wolf  is Choking

The "boy who called wolf" comes to mind;  now, mind you, that foolish little boy didn't have pictures of victims of chemical warfare choking on foaming saliva in their death throes  sent out in social media either, --- ugly, very ugly images indeed have been offered as "truth".  If it is truth,  it is ugly and unacceptable.  The boy didn't have unprecedented collection of data on everyone on earth either, did he....so  fine.  We agree. It is not the end of the story, but no, even IN this modern age, with the abundance of political liars, the big war industry and their  questionable agenda,  we have no way to validate those ugly and distressing pictures, so ....you guessed it, no, it is not fine--or is it?  You decide We don't pretend to know.

One thing is for certain; now world opinion is clearly divided and at an impasse as the US congress, politicians, public and all  point point unsure, nervous  fingers and deny President Obama a clear message. ....but what else could the President really expect?  The wolf really IS at the door.   Perhaps the boy who called wolf really  is choking. This time.

Clearly concrete action must be taken.  Why not try common sense?

Russia Demands action but not logic

Russia's Vladimir Putin is now calling for Syria to surrender their chemical weapons to international supervision . Isn't that lovely?  Why does Syria need chemical weapons at all?  Afraid of who, Iran?  Iraq?  Tiny Jordan?  It's giant ally Russia?  Why is Vladimir Putin not demanding from his "Syrian allies" -- the surrender of  Bashar al Assad, instead,  complete with any and all of his generals, henchmen, and perpetrators or opposition involved in this heinous crime against humanity?

Sorry, Vladimir, with all due respect,  but since your unbelievable veto stopped the UN approval of cooperative military intervention,  we must ask why  your great "power" is not being used --as an ally of Syria-- to simply arrest the criminals in Syria?  Why have you, as a major Syrian ally, not made any attempt to  haul them  off to an international court, and have them  tried for their inconceivably ugly actions against their own people--regardless who they are?

If Bashar al Assad and his people are  innocent of these allegations as he shouts loudly,   why has he not arrested and turned over the REAL perpetrators to international justice?   We ask our readers to think for themselves. Contradictions become apparent immediately.

Does Bashar naively "not know" who is responsible?   As the well-informed and powerful President of Syria, if he does not know who is responsible for use of Syria's weapons of mass destruction--which he is personally responsible for,  he's incompetent.  Is Bashar merely a puppet head of state?

The fact is, If  B.B.B  (Bad Boy Bashar)  does know who is responsible, he is either a) responsible himself,  an arrogant,  mindless, brutal  leader without ethics,   and/or  b)  --he is conspiring  with the guilty to protect the perpetrators  "guilty with his approval or not".   you cannot have it both ways, so which is it? Regardless, Bashar is responsible.

So, which will it be, Common Sense or WW III?

We suggest to all world "leaders" combined,  if there's ever been a time to use "common sense" and use it collectively and sincerely,   it would be now. Does anyone really believe that more chemical warfare, death and mutually-assured destruction is the final solution?

We suspect everyone wishes to be part of the greatest revolution in civilization ever;   forget  collective egos, 'credibility', and power mongering. We all wish to do what is RIGHT for a change; we want to  contribute to some common sense to solve the Syrian Crisis. --and how about now, not "later' at everyone's convenience?

Here at Incoming Bytes we hypothesize it would be inherently brilliant --and in fact, it would be genuine progress in civilization itself -- to gainfully use the power of  big political machines world-wide --and the wealth of the globe united, to precipitate a unique, diplomatic international demand for the arrest of all persons responsible for the use of chemical weapons----whoever they may be--and bring them to international justice at a representative world court.

Sadly, we do not hold our breath, for if mistakes of the past are any lesson, they appear to remain unlearned. We can, however, hope for a universal  call for common sense even if it does not materialize  for another century and  the dust settles from WW III.

Surprisingly, Russia  suddenly  proposed the  placing of  Syria's chemical weapons cache  under international supervision for eventual destruction.     Why so suddenly? To buy time?  To deceive?  Collusion?   To avoid getting found out, accounting for chemical weapons already used? Any and all of the above?   What do you think?

We laud any solution and  movement in the right direction.

Better late than never.

Is that Incoming I hear?

     
Posted in Humanity, Life, Major Issues, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments