Disqus - Latest Comments for sergiodeathstar

Re: Shocker! Obama still 'Kenyan-born' in 2007

sergiodeathstar — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:36:30 -0000

The only thing going downhill is the American economy, due to massive inequality. Rich people have all the money and they don't spend it. Simple.

Barack Obama was the best thing you did to change that in a generation.

But you want to argue about who has the best imaginary friend?

You're doomed.

Re: Shocker! Obama still 'Kenyan-born' in 2007

sergiodeathstar — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:33:48 -0000

The only train going downhill is the American economy, due to enormous inequality. Rich people don't spend money, they sit on it, and they have all the money.

Obama was the best thing you did to reverse that in a generation.Meanwhile your focussed on who has the best imaginary friend?

Re: German parliament passes expanded euro fund

sergiodeathstar — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:55:57 -0000

Someone said democracy fails when the public vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

So does corporatocracy fail when the public vote largess for the banks from the public treasury?

Let's wait and see.

Re: Deep thought - Sept 27

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:12:58 -0000

So what's the alternative to socialism? How can capitalism ever be reconciled with the environment?

Infinite growth can't possibly exist within environmental restraints.

Socialism isn't a dirty word, and can be used to describe a huge range of different view points from libertarian socialism, scandinavian social democrats, to centrally planned economies or, in the US, just providing a little healthcare.

Our current kind of capitalism is failing. People are staving when we have an abundance of food. We can't solve our environmental problems. The fish are disappearing and the animals going extinct. And now we're finding that there isn't enough jobs for everyone - and no real alternative way to live.

What kind of system dooms 10% of the population (and rising) to poverty and exclusion?

It's all the same problem. Too many people, too much power inequality, too much environmental exploitation.

Too much capitalism.

Re: An economy beyond jobs: the new normal

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:25:51 -0000

The pin on which this article hinges is this:

"can we find some way to earn the cash we need to cover the mortgage without getting it from an employer?"If we are going to progress to greater self-sufficiency. then one way of doing that is to eliminate costs such as mortgages.

How I hear you asking?

By only buying houses we can afford. Freehold. By saving as hard as we can for five years.

If we do this, and purchase freehold any house we can find (In the country, small towns, anywhere) we will begin to unravel the web that keeps us bound to wage slavery.

With no mortgage, we can afford to spend time gardening communally. Which reduces our food and gym costs. We have time to learn local skills and build relationship networks which reduce our need for entertainment and services.

I'm not just saying this, I'm doing it with my wife on a modest double income - we are at 4 years now and on track.

Re: Peak exploration: The Apollo program and the high water mark of Western civilization

sergiodeathstar — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:38:42 -0000

The historian Simon Sharma suggests continual expansion is endemic to the US mindset, perhaps as a hangover from the times of "Go west, young man". The american economic model, unsurprisingly, reflects this mindset.

In Europe we've been stuck in the same little place for aeons, with high population densities and no new land.

You know what? It can be damn nice once you've put your feudal lords to the guillotine.

The age of exploration was an exciting time, but also cruel and destructive (Read: Native Americans)

Perhaps the next phase is to get our collective house in order. And do a bit of guillotining.

Re: The new thirty years’ war: Winners and losers in the great global energy struggle to come

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:35:19 -0000

"Were I to wager a guess, I might place my bet on energy systems that were decentralized, easy to make and install, and required relatively modest levels of up-front investment."
I'll take that bet. The history of Europe and the west shows that power flows towards the strongest few. And they certainly won't want the people to literally have the power.

Unless we change politically, which is hard to imagine given how entrenched our elites are, power generation, military force, capital and anything else valuable will remain dominated by these few.

The rest of us who continue to live on the breast-milk of corporations will continue to have just enough to live on as workers, and for some enough to consume.

Peak oil will not be a gift to the common man under capitalism.

It's just an exit sign.

Re: The great land grab: India's war on farmers - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

sergiodeathstar — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:08:05 -0000

A truly capitalist society without government intervention leads directly to Feudalism. It happened. Look it up.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:32:00 -0000

Yes there has been a lot of animal testing in the past, no one can change that now.

But many people are beginning to realize that there is plenty of cruel, unnecessary testing done for products such as Lipton Tea, which they don't want to support. Thats why this article is being digged. It's consumer power telling companies they think they're irresponsible.

You're over-reaction, and instructions to "kill myself" just show that you're afraid. It's easy to do nothing, but it's becoming less excusable.

I'm certainly not forcing you to do anything.

Except maybe question yourself.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:45:06 -0000

"I approve of animal testing, and would as soon see all of them dead than 1 human"

You'd rather see all the animals dead? The ones you eat? The ones that produce your milk and eggs, and the ones that pollinate your crops? Your pet dogs, the fish in the sea?

I'd say the kind of people your country doesn't need is people with idea's like that.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:13:43 -0000

By that definition prisoners have a better life than tribes people, because their meals and shelter are guaranteed. I know which one I'd rather be.

The point is, that even if a comittee says it's ok, if it makes me wince to think about it, I'm not going to buy the product in the supermarket. Especially when the one next to it is just as good.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:09:40 -0000

Fine for you, no one is forcing you to do anything.

There are still people who approve of slavery.

But it's the big, slow moving trends that change the world. And you're not big enough to stop it.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:39:20 -0000

The days when companies can do whatever they like are ending.

Like it or not, social responsibility is now part of your brand. Act like a coporate monster, and that's what your brand is saying to people in the supermarket.

Expect sales to react accordingly.

Re: Lipton, Really? Testing on Animals?

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 05:36:20 -0000

Actually we are all capable of making decisions about ethics, in this case with our wallets.

Just because you make up a committee and call it a governing body doesn't make it morally correct. I'm sure Auschwitz had a governing body too.

Re: Dutch Study Says Wi-Fi Makes Trees Sick

sergiodeathstar — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:41:16 -0000

How about you leave the tree research to tree researchers instead of asking people to post their totally unqualified opinions?

Just like climate change, everyone has an opinion, no one reads the reports.

Re: France Gets a Foretaste of a World After Peak Oil

sergiodeathstar — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:56:53 -0000

Entitled unions stopped you working 16 hour days.

And people are entitle to a decent life, much more than companies are entitled to exploit.

Re: Johann Hari: And now for some good news

sergiodeathstar — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:44:10 -0000

I'll try to address some of your points.

You think that in places like England where in London they surveillance you is free?

No I don't. London is one of the most capatalist cities in the world. I still don't think you know what socialism is.

The major central banks who control our monetary systems through central banking and lend us paper fiat money for interest rates which they use to transfer wealth to their pockets

I agree with you. This is not good. In America your central bank is even worse as it's an unaccountable cartel of private banks, not a public institution.

And free trade served America exceedingly well for the "small people" because it allowed innovators like Henry Ford to create the car, or Thomas Edison to create the light bulb.

Right. Cars have INCREASED average journy times, created the worlds worst pollution problem, and numerous continuing oil wars.

Those small people worked in factories where their quality of life was about zip, lived in substandard housing, and basically had a crap life. Horray.

Central banking is the reason for the world's problems,

I agree with you to a point. The IMF the world bank etc. are instruments to further the current capatalist agenda in the third world. The countries who resist are in the Latin American scoialst block, ie venezuela and bolivia. THese instituions have nothing to do with socialism. Vast, centralized state power isn't nessasarily socialist.

In America, where this is the key, people have individual rights which they do not have in China (and this protects us from exploitation) and America is the only nation in human history to have produced as much wealth and contributed to science than any other in history

Socialism promotes the rights of workers over the rights of corporations and the elite. China hasn't been remotely socialist in generations, they just have alot of state power. Your American rights certainly haven't prevented you from being exploited.

Your country is falling apart, the middle class is dissapearing fast, your real unemployment is near 20%, state govenments are falling apart etc etc. Because the "Free trade" you idolize has allowed the formation of massive corporations who make thier money of exploiting the Chinese to stuff your American houses full of cheap crap.

You have 2 weeks holiday a year if you do have a job, which to the rest of the developed world sounds a lot like slavery. In the UK 5 is the norm.

So now you don't have any jobs, because the companies you created have no loyalty to you or your country.

I agree that the people of America have contributed a lot to the world, but I beleive it's because of your people, not your institutions. You also brought the world the Nuclear Bomb.

Can you explain what you think socialism is?

Here's my best take. It's when the workers own the means of production, and thus share equal benefit from the production they create.

In a country suffering from the largest inequality in the developed world, crushing unempolyment, and derelict welfare budgets, is that such a bad idea?

Re: Johann Hari: And now for some good news

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:24:58 -0000

Why do you feel qualified to dismiss a concept you clearly don't understand?

To communism, the final stage of socialism, people, working people are everything.

Just because there are plenty of examples of socialism becoming corrupted to serve a minority doesn't mean the concept is bad. It was socialist union who won most of the freedoms and concessions that differnetiates us from China today.

Free markets are only free to those with power. Not you. It's just feudalism part two. Why do people defend this ridiculous mantra, as if corporations with no motivation to do anything good will miraculously make your lives wonderfull. They won't and never have unless they are forced to.

Wake up. This 'free market' rubbish isn't making anyone any free-er.

Re: Axe falls on NHS services

sergiodeathstar — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:11:13 -0000

"why do so many non-Americans come to the USA whenever they have a serious medical issue to deal with?"

Like who? Rich Mexicans. Most in the UK wouldn't go near the US health system.

In your ideology, the free market is the champion of the common man. Well for a good example of how the free market treats the common man, have a good look at Linfen, China.

Low regulation favours the most economically powerful, who got that way by stepping on the common man.

This "Free market" rubbish is a code word for multinational corporate interests. Ask yourself, who is it free for?

I agree that we live in a failed democracy, but I'd rather have even a failed democracy than the unashamedly totalitarian greed machines that run the "free market".

Bashing the government is a distraction when you spend 8 hours a day in a dictatorship.

Re: We need a new definition of 'middle class'

sergiodeathstar — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:16:29 -0000

We're can't all be lone maverick cowboys, out for ourselves. There are too many of us and we just make a mess.

This is society, and giving a stuff about others isn't a crime, it's the start of something better.

Re: Axe falls on NHS services

sergiodeathstar — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:49:21 -0000

I've seen hospitals in most developed countries in the world, and the NHS is the best I've ever seen.

The US is renowned for having an appauling standards of national health, as well as some of the worst value for money as compared to other developed nations.

When you're sick in the UK, you walk in and get medical attention when you need it. You don't get sent a mortgage inducing bill afterwards. That's a standard I challenge any other country in the world to live up to.

Re: Chinese security forces unfurl their secret weapon – the humble umbrella

sergiodeathstar — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:29:41 -0000

What right does a foriegn security guard have to push over an elected member of parliament voicing his opinion on NZ parliament grounds? It's outrageous.

The Chinese do not yet own New Zealand. Untill they do, they should learn to respect democratic processes when on our soil!

Re: Reluctant Russia, China have agreed on Iran sanctions, Clinton says

sergiodeathstar — Wed, 19 May 2010 06:27:15 -0000

The US isn't afraid Iran will use WMD for attacking it's neighbours.

The US is afraid it will use them for DEFENSE when it inevitably tries to invade them for the last ounce of cheap oil in the world it can get.

Re: The Ginger Wars: What's with all the redhead hate?

sergiodeathstar — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:07:00 -0000

This video makes a good point about ethnic cleansing vis a vis we wouldn't like it if it happened to white people.

The problem with even ironic critisism of redheads in general though, is that is you're not one, you only hear it once every few months and it's funny.

When you have red hair (Especially as a guy) you hear it all the time. I'm a pretty confident person, but repeated negative messaging is bad for your self esteem.

I thought the rules were, only make fun of stuff people can change, like being a goth.

Re: Indoor ‘River Ecosystem’ Aquarium and Hydroponic Garden

sergiodeathstar — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:38:32 -0000

and how much room do you need? Office workers are usually sluggish and spend most of their time in a 4x4 meter cubicle, so that should be sfficient for you for the rest of your life. I'll pop dinner under the door.

Lets see how you like it.