Welcome to the world of tomorrow.

Warning, heavy politics/ economic theory ahead.

So, currently the U.S. along with most of the world is on the verge of massive change. Most of the world is in an economic depression. Which logically makes zero sense. In theory, if everyone is poor and miserable, simple change the rules so that everyone is less poor.

The problem is that it's not everyone, just the lower and middle class. The rich are now insanely rich. They are so rich in fact that they have to invent ridiculous new things for them to spend their money on.

So the anarchists scream "Rob from the rich and give to the poor!"
Well, that might have worked for Robin Hood, but he was operating on a small scale. Our Prince John's operate on a global scale. They employ an army of accountants and lawyers to protect their money from potential theft.

No, merely targeting the Rich won't solve the world's problems, not unless you manage to cripple their power structure so that their lawyers and accountants can't protect them.

But something is coming, everyone can feel it. Wall street is moving to protect their interests by investing in stable low-growth options like gold. And the Government is supposedly creating caches of hollow-point bullets all over the country to put down any potential riots or civil uprisings.

But they are assuming that's the way it's going to go.
Yes, the world is currently sitting on a powder keg. Any major fuckup could lead to riots or worse. But the people who are likely making plans aren't likely to want to do anything that horrible fucks over the average people.

No, the likely targets are the banks. Not even specifically the money in the banks, but rather the debts held by the banks.
Currently the US banks hold some 750 billion dollars in credit card debt. This of course isn't counting mortgages and such. But still a hefty amount hanging over everyone's heads. Significantly digging into everyone's pockets and costing them large amounts of money every month.

So if someone wanted to really empower the lower and middle class, they would wipe out the debts.
I'm not a hacker, so I don't know how difficult that would be, but I do know that computer experts have been predicting a massive computer security breach for years now.

Simply wiping the banks wouldn't really change anything except for fucking with the FDIC. All banks are protected up to $250,000 and only an idiot would put more money than that in one account.

A truly scary attack would be to wipe out the FDIC and all of the banks at once. Banks are required by the FDIC to keep between 6% and 10% of their money in capital. So if all banks and FDIC files got wiped then there would still be around 8% of everyone's money still available.
That would lead to a 90% deflation in the US and would theoretically make the American dollar very, very strong (one U.S Dollar would be worth 75 Euros.).
This would lead to a massive deflation of the other economies aswell since they wouldn't want the US to become nonsensically wealthy overnight.

These are some really scary possibilities, but that's the thing to remember, they are possibilities, not certainties.
We know something is going to happen, likely in December (As the frigging Mayans left too much of a cliff-hanger there for something to not happen.) Some crazy person will do something then.

Two events that might trigger early problems are the November election and Police violence.

The election should be pretty obvious. Regardless of who wins, half of the country is going to be pissed.
The police thing is a case of trigger-happy nutjobs being given positions of authority. Most police are good people, they keep the peace and they honestly feel that they are officers of the law with the duty of protecting their community.
But there are always some bad eggs.

Some of my readers may be too young to remember the Rodney King riots, but those were some scary times in LA. Some racist police officers brutally beat a young black man, and it was filmed.
The cops involved were charged then acquitted.
The day that the verdict was rendered, LA erupted into violence that lasted almost a week.
The extent of the violence is not really discussed, because the police very wisely decided to stay the fuck out of the riot zones. They knew then that if they appeared in the riot zones, they would be killed.
Police officers are usually protected by the polis because they protect the people. When the police have been shown to not to have the people's interests at heart, that protection is rescinded.
What worries me about the potential violence in the future is that these police don't seem to have the common sense that the LAPD had back in 92. These guys will try to march into the warzone and strong-arm everyone, which will turn a riot into a bloody mess. Regardless of which side wins, the police entering a riot zone is ALWAYS  a bad idea. It greatly increases the injury rate and the injuries of the innocent bystanders.

Especially if the rumors are true and the government is stockpiling hollow-points. Giving the police hollow points is effectively saying "We're not taking prisoners. If you are in this zone, we will kill you." and the rioters would respond the same way. It's like issuing a hunting license for PD.

If they were less retarded they would be stockpiling non-lethal rounds. That way the trigger-happy nutjobs could go crazy and not risk excessive escalation.

So potential scary times ahead, everyone remember to protect eachother.
That's honestly the best way for the people to handle it. Simply band together with your neighbors and declare it a "riot-free zone". Gives the police no reason to enter and start bashing heads and means that you and your neighbors get to stay safe.

Try to keep in mind that we're all in this mess together. Violence isn't the option you really want. It may sound glorious and such, but getting beaten up sucks. Try to avoid it.

Quick Review of Paranorman

Haven't seen very many movies lately, but I do want to go see Expendables 2 at some point soon.
But what I have seen is Paranorman.

First warning, this is a kids movie, so if you go to see it in theaters, expect a shitload of children.
That being said, the movie had plenty of adult jokes hidden in it to make it enjoyable for those of us who can vote and buy cigarettes.
I couldn't help but laugh when the adult jokes came in and the laughter in the audience changed from high-pitched to lower.

The movie is basically about the kid from "The Sixth Sense" but a few years older and much more cynical. He can see and talk to ghosts, his family and everyone in town doesn't believe him.
Shit happens.

But then craziness goes down and the town is confronted with the reality that ghosts exist. Good times.

I'm actually rather pleased with the overall moral of the story "Don't judge people who are different than you."

It comes out quite obviously in the adventures of the title character, but it also features very heavily in his overweight best friend, and a gay character who I won't name to avoid spoilers.

The gay character really slams home the moral. Like smacking the audience in the face and saying "With all of this crazy shit going on how could you possibly think that I'M the worst thing out there?"

Cause, really, who cares if someone is gay. It shouldn't matter to anyone but them and their partner. And with all of the war and economic trouble in the world, gay people should really be the least of our worries.

I love that this children's movie decided to make a point about that. It made the already enjoyable movie that much more enjoyable, and it introduces children to the concept that gay people aren't as weird as some people make them out to be. Cause really, throughout the whole movie there is very few signs that the character is gay. They are just another person, who happens to be gay, and that's really how everyone should look at it.

Thumbs up all the way on this movie.

Political/ Economic theory post in the works, I'll get it up here eventually.