Steve Jobs Gives You iPad, I Give You OPEC

One of my continuing observations is that interest groups of ANY kind (they are all special, just ask them) that form or have a natural self regulatory body, minimizing third party regulators who might have a less than light touch, are all doomed to failure eventually. Any ostensibly still working example has just not met it’s combination of factors and conflicts to manifest its Waterloo. We as citizens labor under the impression that we are special.

FINRA for example might have done some good for the public in some place under some circumstances but over time, as markets and opportunities change and human operators and politics change or dig in, everything and anything, best intentions included, can and will morph and eventually self regulation of any kind, will not work for the benefit of the citizen; it will become a protective layer for the special interest group.

Voters are our country’s ultimate natural self regulators and they are impotent and manipulated and oppressed. And anyone who has not read this piece yet, but thinks they already know just who is oppressing them, is a narrow minded partisan.

If Apple’s iPad becomes a household word, in the fashion of the iPhone rather than the Edsel, I expect the US OPEC to be revolutionarily and similarly recognized for it’s role in oppressing the average citizen with increased costs and by incrementally siphoning off the power of the people into this US OPEC.

This questionable monument to our progress has become and is likely to remain the largest special interest group and revenue generator, a ” business”  that does not produce anything any of us can wear, throw, drive or use in our daily lives to help us in our “pursuit of happiness.”

The US OPEC is a drag on all of our efforts to achieve happiness, No one is immune, Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, independents, un-declareds of any kind, even most US OPEC members themselves, as well as everyone else regardless of any choices or rejections of any religions, sexual orientations, colors of skins, height, weight, physically or emotionally handicapped or not, or ethnicity or IQ.

Most of us just can not see that this seemingly friendly uncle named US OPEC, is actually an abuser.

Our Fourth Estate, the media in all its modern aspects, figures as a special ingredient in the soup, as they seek to profit from their creative reporting on guilty targets. The groups to follow are indeed among the most profitable media products whose media value only increases to the extent legitimate opposing positions can be slickly leveraged with oppo-emotional-political spins by media celebrities, greased by other celebrity inputs to leverage fan appeal from movies, music, sports, academia, authors etc).

Well known guilty targets are corporate manufacturers and mining companies, oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, public and private banks and lenders of any kind, insurance companies of any kind, brokers of any kind - loans, real estate, stocks bonds, insurance and the political brokers usually called lobbyists,  and so on, and of course any political party with deserved or undeserved reputations for too much encouragement of government control and regulation to too little. All profitable fodder for the media and it’s informal umbrella brotherhood organization, the US OPEC.

Missing in the usual discussions of what oppresses the Citizen, is this huge and hitherto unnamed starwars like force that unarguably is in  need of and deserving of  a new and clever moniker. Just say yes, otherwise I have to change unarguably to arguably and lose the concensus required.

Above and below, with my best Steve Jobs imitation via a vastly limited presentation apparatus, and with what some might argue talent, you have already noticed that I have  “given you the US OPEC”. I expect it to soon rival the world stage with Eisenhower’s 1950s warnings about the vast Military Industrial Complex.

This shadowy force which is in our faces in such a ubiquitous fashion that we can not see it nor it’s informal organizational structure, yet it must be seen and respected for it’s dominance in our society.

This previously unnamed Omnibus Postgraduate Elite Complex, consists of all attorneys, legislators, judges, regulators, plus a double super majority of teachers, PhDs, university employees, media employees and celebrities, personal counselors and perhaps a majority of credential professionals such as Drs, Dentists and CPAs. Many workers and business who produce tangible products also subscribe, but below a majority. A wing of the US OPEC not as likely to have post graduate jobs but who subscribe en-masse are Union members, certain ethnic groups including the pc named undocumented workers, and nationalized citizens, and most welfare reciipients, subscribe en-masse. Need I say, most Democrats, liberals or progressives? The most obvious likely minority subscribers are owners of businesses and non-union workers, non-college bound youth and adults who work in offices, warehouses, plants, buildings etc. But many of them are easily seduced.

The only solution in sight to this ship with too many fishing on the same side, requires taking a page from the Chinese. When I hyp-channel Wen from Beijing, he advises the installation of the Chief Hypocrite as unrivaled head of a tight knit group of dictators who will streamline government control, continue to harness basic capitalism to produce enough goods and benefits to stay in power via a national control network that limits state and local rights. Sorry states, your pivotal role in the formation of this country that I love, has become part of the anachronistic mechanisms that need to be streamlined so voters can begin to have the power they deserve, based on the often over hyped but relevant high ideals, never completely or continuously achieved, of our Constitution. I plan to uphold my favorite, but not all, of the many noteworthy principals of the US Constitution.

This may be the only way for the US to find a way to remain near the top of the heap worldwide which unfortunately is our ultimate best defense against aggression that remains unabated in the history of man under any type of government including tribes, you name it, aggression is omnipresent and not just from the US; we have just had the biggest guns recently. So, since necessity being the mother of invention, creative and motivated types are perfecting methods for a very small nasty minority of zealots mostly of one large and sort of diverse religion, to frustrate the biggest military in history, tragically trapped in an attempt to be the peacemaker of the world.

Unfortunately, only one new savior can handle this job and it is not Scott Brown, my old facebook buddy before anyone knew him, much as I like him and his independent appeal. He would make a great number two for the needed sex appeal, well  spoken positions, name recognition, supportive and engaged family and I hope and believe, his fidelity to his wife; we do not need another John Edwards almost leading this country. No one can gently use great power without creating more enemies excepting only the total elimination of those enemies, which will  never happen in the case our enemies and for good reasons. There are too many of them after our near century long projection of power around the globe, starting with manifect destiny that encircled the American Indians and took the southwest away from a dictator who made the mistake of inviting in too many protestants to allof our declared and undeclared wars, our CIA and FBI operations and lastly our continuing to have military in the middle east perpetually in order to assure a free flow of oil for the BENEFIT of the ENTIRE WORLD. Millions would starve or freeze were a serious cut in oil supplies to happen. Green energy is a long way off, but trust me, I wish it were here now.

Our national, state, city and county penchants for continuing to over promise, programs and job benefits for votes is an obvious addiction worse than our addiction to oil. The last Bush and his Republicans did it during his reign, massively violating his professed conservatism. W and his boys were amateurishly playing a game of which their political opponents for decades held the undisputable title to, clearly being the masters of the universe at continuing holding tight to their not well traveled traveling trophy, representing unrivaled claims to compassion and support of the poor and every ethnic underclass imaginable. Bush’s opponents are adept at always politically and media wise and legislation wise effectively out positioning the meanies, who do not joyously support their unlimited largess.

His failed policies in a tough world gave power to his opponents to proudly and triumphantly, to begin building anew, a more and more state dependent state. And yes, they are doing what comes naturally, despite the realities of the tough world situation they inherited.

No one is minding the store, everyone is jockying for position and re-election, re-appointment, or lifelong tenure.

Me too. Just joking.

Joking aside now, appoint me.