China's announcement yesterday that their currency was not undervalued was stated with the same feigned sincerity--and faux shock--with which the Republicans so passionately claim that they are "for America."
Both lies.
The "Renminbi"
Most economists believe that the Chinese currency, we will call it the "ren" for short--renminbi---is undervalued by 20% to 40%. In very simple economic terms this means that when they produce something, it comes onto free and open markets, like the US, at least 20% to 40% less expensive.
When we take into account that the average Chinese factory worker is little more than an indentured servant--he receives a small wage, is fed in the company cafeteria and lives in company dormitories--the costs for the imported, say, hair dryer, are yet another 20% to 40% less than the average US worker's cost.
Conservatives cry that the unions have priced US labor so high that we are not able to compete with countries like, China, India and Brazil. Conservatives are all for these amazingly open markets which guarantee the lowest possible price for the shit sold at Walmart, Target and other box-stores. Their claim is that these artificially low prices are actually better for the American consumer: the lower the price for that hair dryer, the better.
So, the cost of materials for the hair dryer is $4. The cost of labor is $.75; the devalued "ren" makes the overall price actually about $3.75, in real terms. So, when we add the transportation costs to the hair dryer, Walmart receives the hair dryer for about $4.05. They then add their cut, say, 30% to 50% and the final price is $5 to $6 before tax.
An American made hair dryer--if you could find one--would cost around $9 to $11. Or, the difference between the devalued "ren" and the "indentured servant labor wages" paid at the Chinese factories. In addition, when anything is exported to China from the US, the Chinese regularly manipulate Western laws by filing fictitious complaints to the WTO about American price-fixing; devalued Western currencies; or, they cry that they are a "developing" nation and should be permitted to develop the way they see fit.
The Chinese rulers bend reality, manipulate process and the good will of a more democratic nation--remember China is a communist nation in the true sense of the word--in ways very similar to how we see the GOP manipulating facts about health care reform ("government takeover of 1/4 the economy"), Global Warming ("see the snow, what warming?") and so many other issues they are not in agreement with the Democrats on; and, on issues that most intelligent and educated people agree are real and need fixing.
Lower Prices are Good
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about lower prices. But, our sole and most important role as Americans is not to consume shit from Walmart. Sundays are not supposed to be spent trolling about malls and shopping centers looking for more variations of cheaply made shit that we threw away 3 months ago only to buy again today for $.50 cents cheaper--just because there is nothing else to do.
We, as a nation, should not want to be in competition with Brazil, India or China. In all honesty, I wouldn't want to live in either one of those nations. They are poverty stricken, filthy in many respects and despite rich and amazing cultures--and booming economies--they are solidly Second World nations; if not Third World, even. China's ecological disaster kills hundreds of thousands each year. And, all of that is done to make sure that a) the Chinese have work and b) the West's stores are filled to bursting with cheap and unnecessary shit; guaranting point "a."
In addition, as the world tries to pull itself out of this recession, the surplus of manufactured shit that China has created simply denies any efforts small or mid-sized American businesses might try to hire and employ Americans.
For example, Joe's small shoe company plans to hire 20 artisans to make great shoes. Joe makes the shoes but in the time that he spent crafting amazing and high-quality boots, let's say, Chinese marketers saw that niche and filled it in 2 months with similar boots--the Chinese ones retail for $30 and last 3 months; the American ones cost $120 and last for 3 years.
But, we will never buy the American ones because Joe cannot find a market/retailer willing to stock them. Twenty Americans are not hired; and, those twenty Americans, who would have been paid a solid middle-class wage won't be able to spend in their communities. Yet, they will be able to get jobs in those retailers selling Chinese-made shit and buy that shit for a quarter of the price. Three months later, they again buy those boots and three months after that they buy another pair of boots because they keep wearing out.
When is enough, enough? When do we stop catering to the Big Business/GOP and say to China, basta? When do we stop looking at Americans as mere consumers, as bottom-lines for the whims of Big Business?
I know when.
On April 15th the US Treasury is required by law to report to Congress about what countries may be manipulating their currencies to the harm of our own economy.
On April 15th, if the US Treasury, guided by the Obama Administration, tells the US Congress, fortunately still in the hands of Americans for America (and not solely for Big Business) that Americans are unemployed and starving (but they can buy blow dryers for $5!) because of China's malfeasance, then there is hope for our economic recovery.
My proposal (and that of some Nobel Prize winning economists): temporary surcharges (25%) on all items imported from China. When they value their currency correctly, then we remove the surcharges.
April 15th is right around the corner. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Curtain has been Pulled Back...Again
It's official. America is finished as one nation.
Republican hysteria has once and for all replaced economic sense and the never-ending obsession with maintaining power has driven them to finally, slide back the curtain and permitted all to see just how sad and crazy the wizard of their anti-America movement is.
Seven senators who had previously supported a bipartisan bill to cut the debt, refused to support it simply because the General Secretary of their Party ordered them not to: "do so, and we might not regain power in November."
The Sharks are Circling
America is wounded and bleeding and all republican members of Congress are circling, nipping at the drowning swimmer, waiting until the legs have stopped paddling and then they will strike for the final and deadly blow--slowly then, America will be bled to death.
Neo-cons and their republican breathren blame President Obama for all of the problems that exist. The laughable and hysterical name-calling that has united them behind idiots like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney and all republican members of congress has replaced any semblance of governance. They do not seek to help the majority party govern the nation out of its death throes. They want to pull the plug.
The verdict is now in: the Bush tax cuts and other legislation, plus two wars, were the final straws that collapsed the camel's back. The "government is the problem" hysteria and the anti-regulation movement of all financial markets and our banking system also played its role: this recession would not have happened if we had just some government regulation.
Yet, the republicans are truly genious. Reagan cut taxes and spent the nation into its largest deficits since the end of WWII. When Clinton became president, burdened with the Reagan legacy of deficits, he was forced to concentrate on balancing the budget; this pretty much meant that any social programs he might have wanted to pass had already been thrown off the table long before Mr. Reagan forgot his own role in that mess--let alone his name.
Reagan forced Clinton to be fiscally, socially conservative.
With surpluses of $5.6 trillions projected when W took office, within a few short years after his and the incomptence of his aides--Condie Rice and Ashcroft in particular--led to the single greatest and most deadly act of terrorism on our shores, our nation's economy began its slide into idiocy. Today, we are only relevant because we are consumption addicts and because we owe the world an unbelievable amount of money. Half of our public debt is owned by foreigners with China owning half of that.
Doing Nothing
And what do the elected officials of the minority party do? They make-up ridiculus names like "socialist" and "goverment takeover" and stoke the flames of obstructionism. They do nothing but let completely ignorant and stupid people like W, in the past, and Palin now, speak for their party; in one case, speak for America; and, in the other, wanting to speak for America.
The republicans are destroying our nation and their refusal to compromise is the single greatest proof of this; the other being the leaders around whom they coalesce. When Reagan was President, the dems worked with him; they compromised because they knew that the greater interest was America's and not their party's. The same held true when Bush I and II were presidents. Challenges arose for the nation that forced the dems to pass legislation that was not in line with their party's sensibilities--under Bush II, they really had to eat crow but they did so because the nation needed it government.
What have repubs done since Obama became president? Let us look at their role in governance, in defending the national interest. Other than saying "no" and more "tax cuts," please, they have been absent.
If the shoe was on the other foot and it was a republican president and a republican-led Congress, the likes of Beck, Limbaugh and Palin would be creating more hysteria in the media by accusing the dems of treason. Congress would be setting up commissions to study the Democratic Party's unlawful refusal to govern; the republican-controlled Supreme Court would already be passing down decisions on cases not brought to them on "why dem obstructionism" was against the law and so therefore, a punishable offense (they would probably somehow pull this lose interpretation out of the First Amendment).
Everytime they rant and whine about some made up boogey-man, eventually, they manage to sway the nation's misguided--those who get most or all of their information from Fox or radio commentators--into believing the hysteria. Ruin the banking and financial system and yes, you get temporary government take-overs--thank God, President Obama did that!
The republican method for governance when they are in power is to destroy the government of which they are a part and while it dies, to ensure that they will all be covered commercially in the all-encompassing and destructive market which will replace what had once been the American nation.
If you know the history of the Soviet Union, you will know that this is exactly what was done by the one party in charge there. So, so sadly this is being done by the republicans and it is being masked in patriotism.
Yeah, and Lenin and Stalin really wanted to give "power to the people."
Republican hysteria has once and for all replaced economic sense and the never-ending obsession with maintaining power has driven them to finally, slide back the curtain and permitted all to see just how sad and crazy the wizard of their anti-America movement is.
Seven senators who had previously supported a bipartisan bill to cut the debt, refused to support it simply because the General Secretary of their Party ordered them not to: "do so, and we might not regain power in November."
The Sharks are Circling
America is wounded and bleeding and all republican members of Congress are circling, nipping at the drowning swimmer, waiting until the legs have stopped paddling and then they will strike for the final and deadly blow--slowly then, America will be bled to death.
Neo-cons and their republican breathren blame President Obama for all of the problems that exist. The laughable and hysterical name-calling that has united them behind idiots like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney and all republican members of congress has replaced any semblance of governance. They do not seek to help the majority party govern the nation out of its death throes. They want to pull the plug.
The verdict is now in: the Bush tax cuts and other legislation, plus two wars, were the final straws that collapsed the camel's back. The "government is the problem" hysteria and the anti-regulation movement of all financial markets and our banking system also played its role: this recession would not have happened if we had just some government regulation.
Yet, the republicans are truly genious. Reagan cut taxes and spent the nation into its largest deficits since the end of WWII. When Clinton became president, burdened with the Reagan legacy of deficits, he was forced to concentrate on balancing the budget; this pretty much meant that any social programs he might have wanted to pass had already been thrown off the table long before Mr. Reagan forgot his own role in that mess--let alone his name.
Reagan forced Clinton to be fiscally, socially conservative.
With surpluses of $5.6 trillions projected when W took office, within a few short years after his and the incomptence of his aides--Condie Rice and Ashcroft in particular--led to the single greatest and most deadly act of terrorism on our shores, our nation's economy began its slide into idiocy. Today, we are only relevant because we are consumption addicts and because we owe the world an unbelievable amount of money. Half of our public debt is owned by foreigners with China owning half of that.
Doing Nothing
And what do the elected officials of the minority party do? They make-up ridiculus names like "socialist" and "goverment takeover" and stoke the flames of obstructionism. They do nothing but let completely ignorant and stupid people like W, in the past, and Palin now, speak for their party; in one case, speak for America; and, in the other, wanting to speak for America.
The republicans are destroying our nation and their refusal to compromise is the single greatest proof of this; the other being the leaders around whom they coalesce. When Reagan was President, the dems worked with him; they compromised because they knew that the greater interest was America's and not their party's. The same held true when Bush I and II were presidents. Challenges arose for the nation that forced the dems to pass legislation that was not in line with their party's sensibilities--under Bush II, they really had to eat crow but they did so because the nation needed it government.
What have repubs done since Obama became president? Let us look at their role in governance, in defending the national interest. Other than saying "no" and more "tax cuts," please, they have been absent.
If the shoe was on the other foot and it was a republican president and a republican-led Congress, the likes of Beck, Limbaugh and Palin would be creating more hysteria in the media by accusing the dems of treason. Congress would be setting up commissions to study the Democratic Party's unlawful refusal to govern; the republican-controlled Supreme Court would already be passing down decisions on cases not brought to them on "why dem obstructionism" was against the law and so therefore, a punishable offense (they would probably somehow pull this lose interpretation out of the First Amendment).
Everytime they rant and whine about some made up boogey-man, eventually, they manage to sway the nation's misguided--those who get most or all of their information from Fox or radio commentators--into believing the hysteria. Ruin the banking and financial system and yes, you get temporary government take-overs--thank God, President Obama did that!
The republican method for governance when they are in power is to destroy the government of which they are a part and while it dies, to ensure that they will all be covered commercially in the all-encompassing and destructive market which will replace what had once been the American nation.
If you know the history of the Soviet Union, you will know that this is exactly what was done by the one party in charge there. So, so sadly this is being done by the republicans and it is being masked in patriotism.
Yeah, and Lenin and Stalin really wanted to give "power to the people."
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Who Lost China...rather America?
In 1949, when the Chinese communists took power, an echo could be heard across the land, "who lost China?" The foundations for the myth, that Democrats were soft on fighting communism, were laid; the republican machine went to work and Aldai Stevenson would be defeated by Eisenhower for the presidency in the 1951 elections partly because Americans feared a communist takeover.
Soft on fighting communism is, sadly, such a loaded term that it has led to countless deaths in Korea, Vietnam, Chili, Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, etc. Communism was always doomed and its ultimate demise came not so much because of our policies toward it; but it's own policies toward itself--a country cannot politicize economics and expect to survive; a country cannot make an economy subservient to the needs and interests of a small, very wealthy, very protected minority.
Similar to members of the Communist Party, who had the full apparatus of the Party at its disposal to make the people obey, so too now, republicans in Congress have the full power of their corporate constituents with their extremely deep pockets to create the needed "reality" in the media to ensure their continued destruction of our nation.
This brings us to China.
Greed, God and Morality
In 1981, when Reagan took the oath of office, China was a backwater: underdeveloped, rural, oppressive and simply off the radar of the world's economy. At this same time, the politics of greed, of morality, of putting God in government, anti-gay, anti-abortion, military build-ups and Hollywoodian swagger took our nation by storm. The good old days, a throwback to an era of the GE Home Theater and of Reagan's "Time for Choosing" speech--which introduced Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican Convention--were upon us and all seemed simple, nice and reminded many of an America that had been the uncontested leader of the world.
Over the course of the next 8 years, and then 4 under Bush I, America focused on short-term, get-rich economic policies. "Government was the problem" dogma's and "get government off my back" rhetoric. Along with the rising power of the NRA and other neo-fascist groups, this combined to create an aura of the "American pioneer spirit."
Lost in the understanding of that spirit was that people, the original pioneers, found strength and glory in America because they were free to do and be what they wanted--no government was allowed to decide who they sleep with; whether they have abortions; whether they pray a certain prayer in schools, public ones, mind you. Yet, while taxes were being cut for the extremely wealthy, while financial regulations, set in place during The Great Depression, were being eliminated so as to allow for financial fiascos like the Savings and Loan debacle and most recently today's collapse, the republicans were forcing their moral agenda onto all of our lives--government was invading all aspects of social life.
While we were eating ourselves from the inside, wallowing in the worries of an overfed, over-consumed nation--the worries of a people with too much for its own good--the Chinese were building and building and investing and learning and studying.
When we did get a president who "got it", who understood the dangers of a China on the horizon, the republican-led congress spent 8 years trying to impeach him not for anything he did bad to our country; but, ultimately because he lied about having an affair!
(Do we really think the internet would have received government financing if a republican was president?)
China was creating a new and powerful infrastructure to take away our manufacturing base and we were endlessly cutting taxes for the wealthy who were using that money to invest in China's future. Wall Street, the republicans and the wealthy were decimating the middle class for personal gain and helping to create the China we see today.
Why are the rich NOT investing in our infrastructure?
When was the last time a wealthy, Southern, God-fearing republican took a chunk of the money he was returned from the IRS thanks yet another major government hand-out, paid for a road, a bridge or the "internetification" of a small, rural town? Never. Why? Because why would he bother? That, after all, is the obligation of the government.
Yet, a government without a tax base cannot keep its nation infrastructurally sound. What used to be our greatest resource, our truly amazing infrastructure, is quickly becoming our greatest weakness. Europe unites itself and spends and spends to make itself one, inter-connected continent--creating a base for its future.
China spends billions each day remaking it's infrastructure. Whereas the American factory owner simply fixes the machines he has, ones dependent upon oil and fossil fuels, the Chinese owner is putting in place the latest and best technologies. Like post-War Japan which was recreated by the American tax payer setting the stage for decades of economic brilliance, so too China will be the world leader only on a scale much, much larger and much, much more deleterious for the interests of America.
The Chinese middle class is making astounding gains each year! Their quality of living rises and people tells stories of how poorly they lived just 5 years ago; the American middle class recalls how well they were living just 10 years ago and how today it is harder and harder to get "jobs that matter, that pay not just the bills from today but help for tomorrow." A Chinese gain is an American worker's loss. Economists can spin this however they want, but, the Chinese boom is now our dilemma.
Yet still, the republicans are against all that President Obama has tried to do to make us more competitive; stronger, faster and more able to compete. "Less government" they whine like a hysterical bunch of witch-hunters.
Green technologies were our chance to have a new economic revolution in our nation. We still are the smartest and brightest. But, we are burdened with a 1950's view of the world and it is the modern day republican party. They just don't get it: today we are dependent upon and addicted to fossil fuels; we had the chance to harness the sun, wind and create grids so this power could be sent to parts of the country that need it; for this to happen, we need creative governance; tax breaks for small businesses working in these technologies; government investment in Research an Development--not in the R&D for new weapons!; we need a smarter, better educated American student.
But instead, we get God-fearing, flag-waving, gun-toting hysteria. We get "tea parties" and "less government" cries and we have our time-tested institutions abused by the Grand Old Party (see the Supreme Court and Southern congressmen screaming at the president during speeches to the nation); we get lies and 8 years of "no responsibility" for the most heinous crimes ever commited by our government against this nation.
Now, we get the party of no and its obstructionist strategy to win the next cycle of elections so it can get back to stopping our nation from improving, from getting smarter, stronger, more economically secure.
And, while they rejoice in their solidarity and their "no's" the Chinese are now leading the world in green technologies.
Tomorrow, we will not only be a nation where everything is "made in China;" but, we will be a nation where everything that is lit, propelled forward, creates heat or cold, will also be "thanks to China." And lest we forget, we owe more money to China than to any other nation.
So, who lost our America?
Soft on fighting communism is, sadly, such a loaded term that it has led to countless deaths in Korea, Vietnam, Chili, Cuba, Grenada, Nicaragua, etc. Communism was always doomed and its ultimate demise came not so much because of our policies toward it; but it's own policies toward itself--a country cannot politicize economics and expect to survive; a country cannot make an economy subservient to the needs and interests of a small, very wealthy, very protected minority.
Similar to members of the Communist Party, who had the full apparatus of the Party at its disposal to make the people obey, so too now, republicans in Congress have the full power of their corporate constituents with their extremely deep pockets to create the needed "reality" in the media to ensure their continued destruction of our nation.
This brings us to China.
Greed, God and Morality
In 1981, when Reagan took the oath of office, China was a backwater: underdeveloped, rural, oppressive and simply off the radar of the world's economy. At this same time, the politics of greed, of morality, of putting God in government, anti-gay, anti-abortion, military build-ups and Hollywoodian swagger took our nation by storm. The good old days, a throwback to an era of the GE Home Theater and of Reagan's "Time for Choosing" speech--which introduced Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican Convention--were upon us and all seemed simple, nice and reminded many of an America that had been the uncontested leader of the world.
Over the course of the next 8 years, and then 4 under Bush I, America focused on short-term, get-rich economic policies. "Government was the problem" dogma's and "get government off my back" rhetoric. Along with the rising power of the NRA and other neo-fascist groups, this combined to create an aura of the "American pioneer spirit."
Lost in the understanding of that spirit was that people, the original pioneers, found strength and glory in America because they were free to do and be what they wanted--no government was allowed to decide who they sleep with; whether they have abortions; whether they pray a certain prayer in schools, public ones, mind you. Yet, while taxes were being cut for the extremely wealthy, while financial regulations, set in place during The Great Depression, were being eliminated so as to allow for financial fiascos like the Savings and Loan debacle and most recently today's collapse, the republicans were forcing their moral agenda onto all of our lives--government was invading all aspects of social life.
While we were eating ourselves from the inside, wallowing in the worries of an overfed, over-consumed nation--the worries of a people with too much for its own good--the Chinese were building and building and investing and learning and studying.
When we did get a president who "got it", who understood the dangers of a China on the horizon, the republican-led congress spent 8 years trying to impeach him not for anything he did bad to our country; but, ultimately because he lied about having an affair!
(Do we really think the internet would have received government financing if a republican was president?)
China was creating a new and powerful infrastructure to take away our manufacturing base and we were endlessly cutting taxes for the wealthy who were using that money to invest in China's future. Wall Street, the republicans and the wealthy were decimating the middle class for personal gain and helping to create the China we see today.
Why are the rich NOT investing in our infrastructure?
When was the last time a wealthy, Southern, God-fearing republican took a chunk of the money he was returned from the IRS thanks yet another major government hand-out, paid for a road, a bridge or the "internetification" of a small, rural town? Never. Why? Because why would he bother? That, after all, is the obligation of the government.
Yet, a government without a tax base cannot keep its nation infrastructurally sound. What used to be our greatest resource, our truly amazing infrastructure, is quickly becoming our greatest weakness. Europe unites itself and spends and spends to make itself one, inter-connected continent--creating a base for its future.
China spends billions each day remaking it's infrastructure. Whereas the American factory owner simply fixes the machines he has, ones dependent upon oil and fossil fuels, the Chinese owner is putting in place the latest and best technologies. Like post-War Japan which was recreated by the American tax payer setting the stage for decades of economic brilliance, so too China will be the world leader only on a scale much, much larger and much, much more deleterious for the interests of America.
The Chinese middle class is making astounding gains each year! Their quality of living rises and people tells stories of how poorly they lived just 5 years ago; the American middle class recalls how well they were living just 10 years ago and how today it is harder and harder to get "jobs that matter, that pay not just the bills from today but help for tomorrow." A Chinese gain is an American worker's loss. Economists can spin this however they want, but, the Chinese boom is now our dilemma.
Yet still, the republicans are against all that President Obama has tried to do to make us more competitive; stronger, faster and more able to compete. "Less government" they whine like a hysterical bunch of witch-hunters.
Green technologies were our chance to have a new economic revolution in our nation. We still are the smartest and brightest. But, we are burdened with a 1950's view of the world and it is the modern day republican party. They just don't get it: today we are dependent upon and addicted to fossil fuels; we had the chance to harness the sun, wind and create grids so this power could be sent to parts of the country that need it; for this to happen, we need creative governance; tax breaks for small businesses working in these technologies; government investment in Research an Development--not in the R&D for new weapons!; we need a smarter, better educated American student.
But instead, we get God-fearing, flag-waving, gun-toting hysteria. We get "tea parties" and "less government" cries and we have our time-tested institutions abused by the Grand Old Party (see the Supreme Court and Southern congressmen screaming at the president during speeches to the nation); we get lies and 8 years of "no responsibility" for the most heinous crimes ever commited by our government against this nation.
Now, we get the party of no and its obstructionist strategy to win the next cycle of elections so it can get back to stopping our nation from improving, from getting smarter, stronger, more economically secure.
And, while they rejoice in their solidarity and their "no's" the Chinese are now leading the world in green technologies.
Tomorrow, we will not only be a nation where everything is "made in China;" but, we will be a nation where everything that is lit, propelled forward, creates heat or cold, will also be "thanks to China." And lest we forget, we owe more money to China than to any other nation.
So, who lost our America?
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Now I Could Vomit!
Yesterday's loss in Massachusetts was not the great rebuke of President Obama as the so-called "pundits" are saying it is.
The loss yesterday was a victory for the Republican Establishment. They are truly good at what they do. Great, maybe. Despite the worst 8 years in our nation's history, despite the fact that the party which is supposedly better at protecting us failed (see 9/11), despite the fact that the party for less government created more than any president in our history (see The Department of Homeland Security), despite the fact that the party supposedly better at creating jobs via their endless tax-cuts (see "zero job creation since December 1999"), Americans have very, very quickly forgotten that it is these same tired and failed Republicans who have spent all of 2009 lying about the benefits to be gained from health care reform--and most recently, the proposed tax on the massive bank bonuses.
They are disgusting. Oh, and the dems are ball-less. Absolutely, utterly ball-less! If the shoe was on the other foot and it was the republicans seeking to pass health care reform (one that would certainly only really benefit insurance companies) do you really think the republicans would have decided not to force through passage of health care in the 15 days it will take to certify these election results? Never! These fascists would, as they did with the largest tax-cuts in world history, have already voted yesterday. Actually, they would have already passed the legislation via reconciliation, which needs only a simple majority.
Ball-less-ness
Instead, the dems again, in an act of political good-will and making yet more efforts to be bi-partisan have stupidly, ball-lessly already promised that no legislation will be put to vote until Mr. Brown is sworn in. Disgusting!
President Obama came to office and immediately, with the power of a mandate in hand, started to reach out to this republican colleagues; while at the same time, he politely reminded them that it was he who had the mandate for change, not they. But, par for course, when the interests of our nation conflict with the interests of party, the republicans always choose their party; and, really, they are only looking after the interests of a small, neo-fascist, ant-life, anti-choice, weirdly-born-again-Christian and financially reckless arm of their constituency.
Goose-stepping together throughout the entire year, regardless of what Obama put to them for passage, regardless of how in need the nation was, all they did was say "no" and obstruct. The stimulus bill, which was way too small and we all knew this back then, was the first attempt Obama made to work with the republicans. He listened to their concerns and even made compromises--1/3 of the stimulus is in the form of tax-cuts.
The stimulus has worked and without it we would be more screwed economically today than when W was president, but, it needed to be more aggressive and larger. "They" were against it, however. Not because they had a better plan--except for ever more massive tax cuts--they simply were and are against all Obama has done because if he succeeds, then it is Democrat success also and this would prove bad for their party.
Republican Establishment: lies and thievery
The past year was a year during which Republican Establishment so successfully planted the words like "socialist" in the minds of the lumpen proletariat. Sadly, 99% of the people using this word don't know what it means. These people tune into Fox "News" and failing to realize that their elected officials are "missing in obstruction", they blame Obama for trying to lead our nation--something that hasn't been done for 8 years--firstly back into the modern world and secondly, back to its prominent place of world leadership.
He brought to our nation a health reform package whose costs would be off-set--our future, national wealth would not suffer but actually increase thanks to the bill--and what did the republicans do? Nothing. Passage would doom their chances for regaining seats so, once again, against America, they fanned the embers of lies into the American psyche via Fox and the oxy-addict Limbaugh and a blaze took shape. No one in the media dared pursue them for their flip-flop: they said they wanted a bill that would not cost us money, they got it but all promised to vote no, anyway.
The GOP is a party of inaction, lies and theft. The medicare reform bill that was passed under W is pure and true theft of our national wealth. Payment for this bill comes straight out of the till. Nowhere is it offset by decreased costs, taxes or anything. Instead, the doctors and insurance companies actually make a killing on this bill and the American taxpayer is screwed--by whom? Yes, by the republicans; who is paying for that one war and the occupation of Iraq? Yes, those same taxpayers.
And what is not being paid for? The upkeep of our nation's infrastructure for one. Schools are losing their funding. We are already falling educationally behind all major nations and with nothing left in local governments to pay police and firemen, communities all across the land are cutting education. California's system, one of the best in the world and an oasis in the desert of neo-conservative mind-rot which has taken over our nation since January 20, 1981, is being cut to shreds for the state is bankrupt.
We are screwed...
Nothing good for America will come from yesterday's loss. A lot of good will come to the republican party, though. And, the beleaguered worker, taxpayer with no health care, will only have himself to thank when the bottom falls out. And, amazingly, thanks to the incessant propaganda of Fox, Limbaugh and the nation's media, the republicans will not be blamed for collapse. Instead, they will find another enemy in a desert and send another 200,000 troops to wave flags and shoot guns and remind us all of the dying empire we once were.
They will pass more pro--guns laws, more Americans will be senselessly slaughtered like happened yesterday in Virginia (a 39-year old white guy. I will bet a dollar that he is a republican and voted for W twice!); they will pass more anti-abortion laws, seek to cut more taxes and shift more of our nation's wealth into private hands--something the communists did in the Soviet Union until finally the whole things collapsed. Sadly, a plight not so inconceivable in our nation (see Vermont independence movement, see Alaska independence movement, etc.).
History will look back on this era and mark it as the end of the American empire, our fall. We are living during the fall and we have the president to stop it and instead, we would rather ride around blissfully ignorant in big, gas-guzzling cars, in ever-hotter and colder (global warming is actually global weirding) weather, blaming taxes, dems and ever worshiping Ronald Reagan.
Who would've imagined that in the first decade after the start of the 2nd millennium , after a century with the most amazing technological developments in world history, we would actually have a government that was ritualistically denying the facts of science; purging the national record of statistical and scientific fact about global warming just so it could preserve the massive wealth of its tiny coterie of backers? This too, is what the communists did in the Soviet Union.
History will show Reagan as being the president who launched our collapse; and, thanks to the Americanization of the world's consumption habits, it will be looked at as the period when the world turned to corner to its final and tragic end.
And, when it is almost over and we are dead or dying, some republican will surface and demand ever more tax cuts to get the nation back on track.
Dry-heaves
I will vomit but only once because I am sincerely considering no longer giving a damn about the future of the greatest nation on earth. I am sincerely considering doing what the republicans have mastered: giving a damn only about my own personal gain and screw anyone or anything--like national interest--that should interfere in my getting as wealthiest as possible.
Oh, what a sick and sad existence that will be.
Yes, for me yesterday's loss is one that goes beyond health reform. It is the one that finally makes me realize that my country is no longer the country I imagined it to be. We have become really, really stupid. Historically, conservative politics are usually based on emotion, little thought, manipulation of fear and
The loss yesterday was a victory for the Republican Establishment. They are truly good at what they do. Great, maybe. Despite the worst 8 years in our nation's history, despite the fact that the party which is supposedly better at protecting us failed (see 9/11), despite the fact that the party for less government created more than any president in our history (see The Department of Homeland Security), despite the fact that the party supposedly better at creating jobs via their endless tax-cuts (see "zero job creation since December 1999"), Americans have very, very quickly forgotten that it is these same tired and failed Republicans who have spent all of 2009 lying about the benefits to be gained from health care reform--and most recently, the proposed tax on the massive bank bonuses.
They are disgusting. Oh, and the dems are ball-less. Absolutely, utterly ball-less! If the shoe was on the other foot and it was the republicans seeking to pass health care reform (one that would certainly only really benefit insurance companies) do you really think the republicans would have decided not to force through passage of health care in the 15 days it will take to certify these election results? Never! These fascists would, as they did with the largest tax-cuts in world history, have already voted yesterday. Actually, they would have already passed the legislation via reconciliation, which needs only a simple majority.
Ball-less-ness
Instead, the dems again, in an act of political good-will and making yet more efforts to be bi-partisan have stupidly, ball-lessly already promised that no legislation will be put to vote until Mr. Brown is sworn in. Disgusting!
President Obama came to office and immediately, with the power of a mandate in hand, started to reach out to this republican colleagues; while at the same time, he politely reminded them that it was he who had the mandate for change, not they. But, par for course, when the interests of our nation conflict with the interests of party, the republicans always choose their party; and, really, they are only looking after the interests of a small, neo-fascist, ant-life, anti-choice, weirdly-born-again-Christian and financially reckless arm of their constituency.
Goose-stepping together throughout the entire year, regardless of what Obama put to them for passage, regardless of how in need the nation was, all they did was say "no" and obstruct. The stimulus bill, which was way too small and we all knew this back then, was the first attempt Obama made to work with the republicans. He listened to their concerns and even made compromises--1/3 of the stimulus is in the form of tax-cuts.
The stimulus has worked and without it we would be more screwed economically today than when W was president, but, it needed to be more aggressive and larger. "They" were against it, however. Not because they had a better plan--except for ever more massive tax cuts--they simply were and are against all Obama has done because if he succeeds, then it is Democrat success also and this would prove bad for their party.
Republican Establishment: lies and thievery
The past year was a year during which Republican Establishment so successfully planted the words like "socialist" in the minds of the lumpen proletariat. Sadly, 99% of the people using this word don't know what it means. These people tune into Fox "News" and failing to realize that their elected officials are "missing in obstruction", they blame Obama for trying to lead our nation--something that hasn't been done for 8 years--firstly back into the modern world and secondly, back to its prominent place of world leadership.
He brought to our nation a health reform package whose costs would be off-set--our future, national wealth would not suffer but actually increase thanks to the bill--and what did the republicans do? Nothing. Passage would doom their chances for regaining seats so, once again, against America, they fanned the embers of lies into the American psyche via Fox and the oxy-addict Limbaugh and a blaze took shape. No one in the media dared pursue them for their flip-flop: they said they wanted a bill that would not cost us money, they got it but all promised to vote no, anyway.
The GOP is a party of inaction, lies and theft. The medicare reform bill that was passed under W is pure and true theft of our national wealth. Payment for this bill comes straight out of the till. Nowhere is it offset by decreased costs, taxes or anything. Instead, the doctors and insurance companies actually make a killing on this bill and the American taxpayer is screwed--by whom? Yes, by the republicans; who is paying for that one war and the occupation of Iraq? Yes, those same taxpayers.
And what is not being paid for? The upkeep of our nation's infrastructure for one. Schools are losing their funding. We are already falling educationally behind all major nations and with nothing left in local governments to pay police and firemen, communities all across the land are cutting education. California's system, one of the best in the world and an oasis in the desert of neo-conservative mind-rot which has taken over our nation since January 20, 1981, is being cut to shreds for the state is bankrupt.
We are screwed...
Nothing good for America will come from yesterday's loss. A lot of good will come to the republican party, though. And, the beleaguered worker, taxpayer with no health care, will only have himself to thank when the bottom falls out. And, amazingly, thanks to the incessant propaganda of Fox, Limbaugh and the nation's media, the republicans will not be blamed for collapse. Instead, they will find another enemy in a desert and send another 200,000 troops to wave flags and shoot guns and remind us all of the dying empire we once were.
They will pass more pro--guns laws, more Americans will be senselessly slaughtered like happened yesterday in Virginia (a 39-year old white guy. I will bet a dollar that he is a republican and voted for W twice!); they will pass more anti-abortion laws, seek to cut more taxes and shift more of our nation's wealth into private hands--something the communists did in the Soviet Union until finally the whole things collapsed. Sadly, a plight not so inconceivable in our nation (see Vermont independence movement, see Alaska independence movement, etc.).
History will look back on this era and mark it as the end of the American empire, our fall. We are living during the fall and we have the president to stop it and instead, we would rather ride around blissfully ignorant in big, gas-guzzling cars, in ever-hotter and colder (global warming is actually global weirding) weather, blaming taxes, dems and ever worshiping Ronald Reagan.
Who would've imagined that in the first decade after the start of the 2nd millennium , after a century with the most amazing technological developments in world history, we would actually have a government that was ritualistically denying the facts of science; purging the national record of statistical and scientific fact about global warming just so it could preserve the massive wealth of its tiny coterie of backers? This too, is what the communists did in the Soviet Union.
History will show Reagan as being the president who launched our collapse; and, thanks to the Americanization of the world's consumption habits, it will be looked at as the period when the world turned to corner to its final and tragic end.
And, when it is almost over and we are dead or dying, some republican will surface and demand ever more tax cuts to get the nation back on track.
Dry-heaves
I will vomit but only once because I am sincerely considering no longer giving a damn about the future of the greatest nation on earth. I am sincerely considering doing what the republicans have mastered: giving a damn only about my own personal gain and screw anyone or anything--like national interest--that should interfere in my getting as wealthiest as possible.
Oh, what a sick and sad existence that will be.
Yes, for me yesterday's loss is one that goes beyond health reform. It is the one that finally makes me realize that my country is no longer the country I imagined it to be. We have become really, really stupid. Historically, conservative politics are usually based on emotion, little thought, manipulation of fear and
Monday, January 18, 2010
I Could Spit
One year into it and the Republicans are again succeeding at doing what they do best: nothing.
President Obama took the reins, the very same ones which were tangled up in a ball in the muck and grime beneath the lurching and shuddering wagon which had become our nation, and immediately he went to work; he guided us through some of the most troublesome economic times we have seen in our history.
Banks are needed and the actions of President Obama saved the biggest banks; banks, really, that were too big. Should one or two fail, they can yank the whole economy, the world's that is, down to its knees. This is not right. President Obama, avoiding the rhetoric and demagoguery that is so abused by republicans, saved the banks and now proposes to ensure that this does not happen again. Who is against this banking reform? Yes, the republicans.
And, while he was at it, he saved the US auto industry; he then went after the irresponsible and shark-like tactics of the credit card companies (smell financial need and they swarm you with high-interest but already-approved credit cards); and, while taking a break from his accomplishments, he has rightly led us to the brink of what will be the greatest social contract in our nation's history: health care reform. Who was against all of the above? Yes, those same missing-in-obstruction republicans.
Stealing our Wealth
The Conservatives (really, I am so confused by who is what in that party, so let's go back to calling them the GOPCONers) love to lie about how President Obama is bankrupting our nation. Well, here is a little ditty for ya: we are already bankrupt. Let's take a look at GOPCON accomplishments since W stole the White House in 2001 and see how we got there:
1) 9/11. They were in charge, it happened on their watch so guess what who gets blamed? Also, Condoleeza Rice, the least competent NSC chief we have ever had blatantly ignored all the warnings about the imminent attacks; and, monkey boy (W), never one to be bothered with reading his Presidential Daily Briefing, failed to take notice of one in late August 2001 entitled "Bin Laden determined to use hi-jacked aircraft as weapons against US targets." Wow! Lost wealth.
2) Late on the night of 9/11, W told Richard Clarke, the expert on Al Qaeda who had not met with President Bush (needed emphasis) until after the attacks had occurred, to find a link to Saddam. Clarke insisted that none existed but Bush testily told to "find one." (Clarke used to meet with Clinton once a week to discuss Al Qaeda not once in 8 9 months had he met with the new Prez.)
With Bin Laden trapped in the mountains and intercepted messages from him to relatives in which he was saying his good-byes showing just how "caught" he was, we got up and left him there. We instead invaded Iraq. We all know what this has gotten for our nation.
Um, nothing, zero. Name one tangible thing that was gained from that so-called war--although, it is not a war officially. 5000 dead Americans (lost economic value); 40,000 amputees (not just lost economic value but continued drains on our nation's wealth); and, trillions of dollars of money spent not on our nation's infrastructure; not on making our economy more competitive; not on preparing us for what are already the obvious effects of global warming; no, money we didn't have wasted on a war no one needed. Lost wealth.
3) Those tax cuts: the largest tax cuts in the history of the world were enacted by W in his first 6 months in office; and then, after 9/11, with our troops in 2 countries, he cut some more taxes. Since 1999, we have had zero overall job growth in the private sector. Yet, as usually happens under republicans, the federal pay-roll expanded in leaps and bounds. W failed to listen to the CIA and their warnings about Bin Laden and we get strapped with the Department of Homeland Security, the largest expansion of the federal government in our history. Lost wealth.
Oh, and whatever happened to that tried-and-true economic "theory" of cut taxes and then watch the wealthy invest in jobs? Didn't happen because, you see, the taxes were being cut on virtual wealth, derivatives and housing bubbles and such. Also, taxes were being cut for people who don't own factories, small businesses and start-ups but rather on the types who take that money and stuff it away in off-shore accounts to avoid the IRS so as to create ever larger empires for their rotten offspring. These rich people don't reinvest in the economy! When are the GOPCONers going to get this?
Propaganda
Oh and how they lie and obstruct, those GOPCONers. When they are dismantling our wealth by invading nations and ensuring that the nation's tax base--where a nation gets it's money from--is being decimated, they also like to reach into the private lives of people and micromanage there. They force God into lives; they contradict themselves about life and death--anti-abortion but pro gun. Guns kill people. Make your fingers look like a gun and try shooting someone. Doesn't work, right. Put a gun in that hand and watch out.
A nation needs to be governed. Governments provide infrastructures which make nations safe, economically more competitive and which provide quality of life for all citizenry. A good government tries to ensure that all of its citizenry are getting the best possible chance to succeed in life; success requires clean air, clear water, safe roads and bridges, safe parks, health care, professional police and ever watchful TSA agents.
When one party spends all of its time and energy attacking a president at a time when the nation needs unity to survive a crisis that the minority party brought on, you have to ask yourself, are they not traitorous? After 9/11, the Dems puts politics aside and supported W. The republicans have not done any pro-America governing since the Carter-era. From Clinton's ascendancy to date, they have ruled by emotion and lies.
They are a dangerous and harmful force in our national saga and sadly, most of America cannot see this because it is precisely those Republican-style lies and emotions which make for great news ratings: the media are in full cahoots because they too are making lots of money from all of this.
Let's look at the run-off for the seat in Massachusetts which will take place tomorrow; the media are focusing on this as an "anti-Obama" vote; a anti-incumbent vote; they are fanning the flames to make it seem like Obama's leadership has been a failure to date. What they are not focusing on, and what should be the biggest headline of all is, that this republican, likely to win tomorrow, has already said he will not support President Obama's attempts to tax the big banks to make them pay back the money they us our government. Does that make any sense? They don't want to get the money back?
Again, the republicans are falling on the side of big business by supporting the same destructive, anti-working-class, anti-America policies that have gotten us here in the first place; and, all that the media can show is Dick calling Obama weak and Tea Party nuts calling him a socialist or a Muslim.
When will the GOP be taken to task for destroying our nation? When do the media decide that enough is enough and start to let all of America know just how the republicans have frittered away our wealth, our security all for the sake of their wealthy buddies at the country club?
PS: When that bozo tried to blow up a plane with his exploding shoe, why weren't full-body scanners introduced into all airports back then? Why? Because that would have cost the government a lot of money. And, that was precisely when the tax cuts were taking hold and our nation's revenues were starting to drastically drop; in other words, because it wasn't important to W to find money to enhance the safety of all for he was too concerned with increasing the wealth of the so, so few.
This is the America the republicans want for us all. I could spit.
President Obama took the reins, the very same ones which were tangled up in a ball in the muck and grime beneath the lurching and shuddering wagon which had become our nation, and immediately he went to work; he guided us through some of the most troublesome economic times we have seen in our history.
Banks are needed and the actions of President Obama saved the biggest banks; banks, really, that were too big. Should one or two fail, they can yank the whole economy, the world's that is, down to its knees. This is not right. President Obama, avoiding the rhetoric and demagoguery that is so abused by republicans, saved the banks and now proposes to ensure that this does not happen again. Who is against this banking reform? Yes, the republicans.
And, while he was at it, he saved the US auto industry; he then went after the irresponsible and shark-like tactics of the credit card companies (smell financial need and they swarm you with high-interest but already-approved credit cards); and, while taking a break from his accomplishments, he has rightly led us to the brink of what will be the greatest social contract in our nation's history: health care reform. Who was against all of the above? Yes, those same missing-in-obstruction republicans.
Stealing our Wealth
The Conservatives (really, I am so confused by who is what in that party, so let's go back to calling them the GOPCONers) love to lie about how President Obama is bankrupting our nation. Well, here is a little ditty for ya: we are already bankrupt. Let's take a look at GOPCON accomplishments since W stole the White House in 2001 and see how we got there:
1) 9/11. They were in charge, it happened on their watch so guess what who gets blamed? Also, Condoleeza Rice, the least competent NSC chief we have ever had blatantly ignored all the warnings about the imminent attacks; and, monkey boy (W), never one to be bothered with reading his Presidential Daily Briefing, failed to take notice of one in late August 2001 entitled "Bin Laden determined to use hi-jacked aircraft as weapons against US targets." Wow! Lost wealth.
2) Late on the night of 9/11, W told Richard Clarke, the expert on Al Qaeda who had not met with President Bush (needed emphasis) until after the attacks had occurred, to find a link to Saddam. Clarke insisted that none existed but Bush testily told to "find one." (Clarke used to meet with Clinton once a week to discuss Al Qaeda not once in 8 9 months had he met with the new Prez.)
With Bin Laden trapped in the mountains and intercepted messages from him to relatives in which he was saying his good-byes showing just how "caught" he was, we got up and left him there. We instead invaded Iraq. We all know what this has gotten for our nation.
Um, nothing, zero. Name one tangible thing that was gained from that so-called war--although, it is not a war officially. 5000 dead Americans (lost economic value); 40,000 amputees (not just lost economic value but continued drains on our nation's wealth); and, trillions of dollars of money spent not on our nation's infrastructure; not on making our economy more competitive; not on preparing us for what are already the obvious effects of global warming; no, money we didn't have wasted on a war no one needed. Lost wealth.
3) Those tax cuts: the largest tax cuts in the history of the world were enacted by W in his first 6 months in office; and then, after 9/11, with our troops in 2 countries, he cut some more taxes. Since 1999, we have had zero overall job growth in the private sector. Yet, as usually happens under republicans, the federal pay-roll expanded in leaps and bounds. W failed to listen to the CIA and their warnings about Bin Laden and we get strapped with the Department of Homeland Security, the largest expansion of the federal government in our history. Lost wealth.
Oh, and whatever happened to that tried-and-true economic "theory" of cut taxes and then watch the wealthy invest in jobs? Didn't happen because, you see, the taxes were being cut on virtual wealth, derivatives and housing bubbles and such. Also, taxes were being cut for people who don't own factories, small businesses and start-ups but rather on the types who take that money and stuff it away in off-shore accounts to avoid the IRS so as to create ever larger empires for their rotten offspring. These rich people don't reinvest in the economy! When are the GOPCONers going to get this?
Propaganda
Oh and how they lie and obstruct, those GOPCONers. When they are dismantling our wealth by invading nations and ensuring that the nation's tax base--where a nation gets it's money from--is being decimated, they also like to reach into the private lives of people and micromanage there. They force God into lives; they contradict themselves about life and death--anti-abortion but pro gun. Guns kill people. Make your fingers look like a gun and try shooting someone. Doesn't work, right. Put a gun in that hand and watch out.
A nation needs to be governed. Governments provide infrastructures which make nations safe, economically more competitive and which provide quality of life for all citizenry. A good government tries to ensure that all of its citizenry are getting the best possible chance to succeed in life; success requires clean air, clear water, safe roads and bridges, safe parks, health care, professional police and ever watchful TSA agents.
When one party spends all of its time and energy attacking a president at a time when the nation needs unity to survive a crisis that the minority party brought on, you have to ask yourself, are they not traitorous? After 9/11, the Dems puts politics aside and supported W. The republicans have not done any pro-America governing since the Carter-era. From Clinton's ascendancy to date, they have ruled by emotion and lies.
They are a dangerous and harmful force in our national saga and sadly, most of America cannot see this because it is precisely those Republican-style lies and emotions which make for great news ratings: the media are in full cahoots because they too are making lots of money from all of this.
Let's look at the run-off for the seat in Massachusetts which will take place tomorrow; the media are focusing on this as an "anti-Obama" vote; a anti-incumbent vote; they are fanning the flames to make it seem like Obama's leadership has been a failure to date. What they are not focusing on, and what should be the biggest headline of all is, that this republican, likely to win tomorrow, has already said he will not support President Obama's attempts to tax the big banks to make them pay back the money they us our government. Does that make any sense? They don't want to get the money back?
Again, the republicans are falling on the side of big business by supporting the same destructive, anti-working-class, anti-America policies that have gotten us here in the first place; and, all that the media can show is Dick calling Obama weak and Tea Party nuts calling him a socialist or a Muslim.
When will the GOP be taken to task for destroying our nation? When do the media decide that enough is enough and start to let all of America know just how the republicans have frittered away our wealth, our security all for the sake of their wealthy buddies at the country club?
PS: When that bozo tried to blow up a plane with his exploding shoe, why weren't full-body scanners introduced into all airports back then? Why? Because that would have cost the government a lot of money. And, that was precisely when the tax cuts were taking hold and our nation's revenues were starting to drastically drop; in other words, because it wasn't important to W to find money to enhance the safety of all for he was too concerned with increasing the wealth of the so, so few.
This is the America the republicans want for us all. I could spit.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Wild (and Wet if you are New Orleans) World of Dick Cheney
As in Disney World, a land of magical fun where fantasy and dreams meet reality, so too the world of Dick (and I mean that literally) Cheney--aka Mr. Potter--is one where fact and fiction wed and the result is often times a bitter concoction of anti-American diatribes cloaked in fear-mongering and patriotism.
Terrorists, schmerrorists...
Selected by the Supreme Court and elected by a minority of Americans, monkey-boy W Bush came to down riding a carpet woven together by anything but a mandate for drastic action. As we would find out, W and his VP were not so concerned with the reality at hand and what they did was force through the largest tax cut in the history of the world!
Yes, not just our history but world history! Imaginez, s'il vous plait, le petit prince disregarded dire warnings of an imminent terrorist attack because as Condie Rice said to Richard Clarke--the single greatest authority on Al Qaeda in the government at the time: "The President is too busy right now to meet with you about possible terrorist attacks because he is busy getting his tax cut passed."
Those words were uttered by the queen of incompetence in the Spring of 2001. And, right up until those buildings collapsed and 2,750 Americans were crushed to death, the president responsible for our well-being simply had no time to meet with anyone concerning the imminent attacks.
The month prior to those attacks he was AWOL at his ranch, clearning brush! Isn't that why we allow illegal immigrant Mexicans to hang on street corners? Why didn't monkey-boy ride a pick-up down to the corner and slow to a crawl to let a few of the Pepe's and Pedro's jump in for an honest day's labor?
No, our macho prez had to do it himself and America was rudderless in the final month prior to the attacks despite daily CIA warnings that an attack was absolutely in the works and going to happen "any day now." The rest is sadly history.
Cheney's World
On Christmas day of 2009, a want-to-be terrorist failed to blow up a plane. Bored and having nothing else to report on, the media decided to somehow make a national obsession of almost nothing. Yes, again the incomptence of government bureaucrats permitted a loser like that kid from Nigeria to board a plane. Yes, the heroics of passengers saved many lives on that day.
And then, rather than sit down and really study what went wrong, in a manner that should have been done after 9/11 but thanks to the criminal obstructionism of the Bush/Cheney White House we still do not have complete picture of government wrongs leading up to and 9/11, CNN and Fox started to quote Cheney. "This president does not know their is a war going on against terrorists."
Now, why didn't a smart America and an astute media pose one question that could have and should have shut that clown up: "Dick, on whose watch did 9/11 happen in the first place? Where were you and your 'know-it-alls' when those warnings were being given to both you and the president on a daily basis for 3 months prior to 9/11?"
Some follow-up questions could have been: "Um, Mr. Potter, wasn't it you and W who decided to stop pursuing Bin Laden in Afghanistan when he was cornered in the mountains? Wasn't it you who ordered an illegal invasion of Iraq and who STOPPED that war against Al Qaeda rebels in Afghanistan in December 2002? Wasn't it you who started a war we are still in against people who are NOT the terrorists? And isn't it President Obama who has redirected our efforts at engaging the terrorists in Afghanistan by sending an additional 30,000 troops? If that is not an understanding of war, then what is?"
First of all, Cheney is one of the most anti-American people in America today. He honestly is probably sad that that plane didn't get blown up all so as to show that Obama is incompetent.
Secondly, Cheney wants Obama to stoke the coals of fear. He wants the American people to become obsessed again with the monster in the dark closet; the one hiding under the bed. He wants civil liberties to be encroached upon; he wants Obama's domestic agenda to fail so he is trying desperately, and succeeding thanks to a disgusting and irresponsible media, by sowing the seeds of doubt in this man's leadership.
A Great Leader
Terrorists, schmerrorists...
Selected by the Supreme Court and elected by a minority of Americans, monkey-boy W Bush came to down riding a carpet woven together by anything but a mandate for drastic action. As we would find out, W and his VP were not so concerned with the reality at hand and what they did was force through the largest tax cut in the history of the world!
Yes, not just our history but world history! Imaginez, s'il vous plait, le petit prince disregarded dire warnings of an imminent terrorist attack because as Condie Rice said to Richard Clarke--the single greatest authority on Al Qaeda in the government at the time: "The President is too busy right now to meet with you about possible terrorist attacks because he is busy getting his tax cut passed."
Those words were uttered by the queen of incompetence in the Spring of 2001. And, right up until those buildings collapsed and 2,750 Americans were crushed to death, the president responsible for our well-being simply had no time to meet with anyone concerning the imminent attacks.
The month prior to those attacks he was AWOL at his ranch, clearning brush! Isn't that why we allow illegal immigrant Mexicans to hang on street corners? Why didn't monkey-boy ride a pick-up down to the corner and slow to a crawl to let a few of the Pepe's and Pedro's jump in for an honest day's labor?
No, our macho prez had to do it himself and America was rudderless in the final month prior to the attacks despite daily CIA warnings that an attack was absolutely in the works and going to happen "any day now." The rest is sadly history.
Cheney's World
On Christmas day of 2009, a want-to-be terrorist failed to blow up a plane. Bored and having nothing else to report on, the media decided to somehow make a national obsession of almost nothing. Yes, again the incomptence of government bureaucrats permitted a loser like that kid from Nigeria to board a plane. Yes, the heroics of passengers saved many lives on that day.
And then, rather than sit down and really study what went wrong, in a manner that should have been done after 9/11 but thanks to the criminal obstructionism of the Bush/Cheney White House we still do not have complete picture of government wrongs leading up to and 9/11, CNN and Fox started to quote Cheney. "This president does not know their is a war going on against terrorists."
Now, why didn't a smart America and an astute media pose one question that could have and should have shut that clown up: "Dick, on whose watch did 9/11 happen in the first place? Where were you and your 'know-it-alls' when those warnings were being given to both you and the president on a daily basis for 3 months prior to 9/11?"
Some follow-up questions could have been: "Um, Mr. Potter, wasn't it you and W who decided to stop pursuing Bin Laden in Afghanistan when he was cornered in the mountains? Wasn't it you who ordered an illegal invasion of Iraq and who STOPPED that war against Al Qaeda rebels in Afghanistan in December 2002? Wasn't it you who started a war we are still in against people who are NOT the terrorists? And isn't it President Obama who has redirected our efforts at engaging the terrorists in Afghanistan by sending an additional 30,000 troops? If that is not an understanding of war, then what is?"
First of all, Cheney is one of the most anti-American people in America today. He honestly is probably sad that that plane didn't get blown up all so as to show that Obama is incompetent.
Secondly, Cheney wants Obama to stoke the coals of fear. He wants the American people to become obsessed again with the monster in the dark closet; the one hiding under the bed. He wants civil liberties to be encroached upon; he wants Obama's domestic agenda to fail so he is trying desperately, and succeeding thanks to a disgusting and irresponsible media, by sowing the seeds of doubt in this man's leadership.
A Great Leader
And, a leader he is. Obama did exactly what he was supposed to have done: nothing. "Nothing" is good and why? Because terrorists want to know that they are disrupting everyday life, weaving fear and anxiety into everything we do, day in and day out. Obama's reactions behinds closed doors should have been to head butt some people for this failure to detect this kid with the exploding underwear. But, in public he should have merely praised people for their heroics, announced the beginning of an investigation of what went wrong and then gone back on vacation.
The terrorists were emboldened, however, by Cheney and the anti-America GOPCON idiots who have since that day made careers denouncing Obama for his "weakness on terrorism" and by saturating the airwaves and printed media with dire warnings of armageddon thanks to the next generation of "jockey underwear bombers" in training in the outback of Africa.
Attention and fear is what they were aiming for and when I flew to Miami on January 2nd, it was simply chaos! The lines were endless and the "checks" of our personal belongings the same, nothing had changed but for some reason we waited 2 hours to pass through security only to have had to run to the gate in our socks. The terrorists had failed but Cheney and the GOP had once again succeeded in drawing our attention from real problems at hand and for making all of America ill at ease.
It's not the terrorists but anti-America Republicans, it's the economy, it's their failed leadership since 1994 and it is their demonizing of government that has made our nation a much less safer and even a poorer nation than we had been in 1996.
Always remember, 9/11 happened because of a mixture of arrogance, ignorance and sheer laziness and it happened while Bush and Cheney were in charge. So, who is he to talk and why is it that the American media listen? (Oh, yeah, because when a lot of people are watching TV, the ratings go up and they can charge more to advertise on their channels...)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Eat Less Meat, Save the Earth
Whilst the pawns of ministers race to and fro from small country working group to big country working group in Copenhagen discussing ways to reduce carbon emissions, which are being caused by excessive use of fossil fuels, once a day the lunch bell rings and these same pawns, a smattering of bishops and an assortment of rooks retreat to the cafeteria.
Tucking into soups and salads and breads with butter many do. Topped with jams are hams. Burgers of beef, salads of chicken and kebabs of lamb adorn plates of paper amidst conversations of conservation and ways to avoid the flu. What the world's climatological elite seem to forget, however, is that world eating habits are as destructive if not more so than world manufacturing.
Most of this meat is eaten in the form of the sadly-ubiquitous and highly-processed hamburger and other such similar "culinary advancements." The hamburger and fast-food industry is like none other with its universal disregard for worker's safety, abuse of the cows, relaxed attitude toward consumer's safety, destruction of the environment, etc.
Now, let us consider this little fact: 33 calories of fossil fuel (as they say "from semen to cellophane") are burned to produce one food calorie of beef. For every 1 calorie of fossil fuel burned, grains and vegetables give us 1.5 to 2 food calories. For every single bite of a piece of meat, we are wasting the earth's limited resources. The larger the steak, chicken or turkey, the warmer we cause the earth to get. It is a simple as that--well, not really, but, for argument's sake and so as not to bore with Gore-like facts and figures, this is the case.
Mass Produced Meat (including "free range and organic") is Destroying the Earth
All across America and the world, ever more and more arable land is being set aside to grow grain and soybeans for the raising of livestock. All throughout Africa, the ruling elite, realizing the wealth that can be attained via the exporting of beef to Europe, China and the US, enforces the planting of crops for the raising of feed for meat production.
We all have heard about the dangers of deforestation. The Brazil rain forest loses .3% each year. The local people hack away hundreds of acres a day, then burn the chopped wood and then plant crops for the production of grain and soybeans. Brazil's loss, however, is nothing in comparison to places like Argentina and Columbia.
In America, Africa and other parts of the world, it is not called deforestation but rather "desertification." In the world today, there are around 1.5 billion cows (20 billion chickens, a billion pigs, a half a billion turkeys and 800 million goats). When millions of cows graze and graze over and over on the same tens of thousands of square acres, the land is destroyed: rivers are destroyed as a result of the destruction of vegetative cover, compaction occurs from the extreme scuffling and infiltration declines resulting in runoff and soil erosion (boring, yes).
(By the way, a single pig farm in Texas produces 2000 tons of urine each day, all which goes into water tables; and daily in the US, 24,000,000 chickens are slaughtered.)
In addition, to ever increase the amount of grain obtained from one acre of land (monocropping), excessive applications of nitrgen-laced fertilizer are used. Nitrogen is 100 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide and will tip the scale toward destructive global warming much sooner than C02 will. Nitrogen leads to the formation of vast wastelands of toxic algae which choke life out of the oceans leading to a depletion of oxygen and an increase of CO2; nitrogen also depletes the ozone layer, to say the very least.
As the world meets in Copenhagen bent on protecting its "development"--a misnomer if there ever was one-- and ever devoted to the post-WWII Pax Americana principles of hyper-consumption, the real issues are not being discussed. Each country will do its best to ensure that its "economic interests" are not being tread upon; however, the ultimate destruction of the earth is not one they consider potentially debilitating--if we in America were to look at the tax payer dollars going to recover areas devastated by hurricanes, forest fires, floods, etc., we would all agree that it would be cheaper to prevent global warming then to deal with its growing effects.
So, as the world misses yet another chance to do something good for all of us, each one of us can start today by merely cutting our meat consumption in half; and, in a year, cut that in half and 6 months after that, cut that in half. With such progressive and positive eating habits, we will have done more to prevent the dangers of global warming then the so-called elected officials whose job it is to protect our interests at day's end.
Eat more veggies, less meat. However, with that said, I will enjoy my monthly stewed rabbit with rosemary and peeled, cherry tomatoes and carrots. Nothing wrong with enjoying some meat, just do it in great moderation.
Tucking into soups and salads and breads with butter many do. Topped with jams are hams. Burgers of beef, salads of chicken and kebabs of lamb adorn plates of paper amidst conversations of conservation and ways to avoid the flu. What the world's climatological elite seem to forget, however, is that world eating habits are as destructive if not more so than world manufacturing.
Meat for Everyone
In 1958, per capita consumption of meat (beef, chicken, turkey and lamb) in the United States was 196 pounds, today it is 273. In Europe it was 123 and today it is 196. Ireland went from 121 to 213; New Zealand from 248 to 312 and China rose from 8 pounds of meat to 119: 1.3 billion Chinese are eating 119 pounds of meat each year.Most of this meat is eaten in the form of the sadly-ubiquitous and highly-processed hamburger and other such similar "culinary advancements." The hamburger and fast-food industry is like none other with its universal disregard for worker's safety, abuse of the cows, relaxed attitude toward consumer's safety, destruction of the environment, etc.
Now, let us consider this little fact: 33 calories of fossil fuel (as they say "from semen to cellophane") are burned to produce one food calorie of beef. For every 1 calorie of fossil fuel burned, grains and vegetables give us 1.5 to 2 food calories. For every single bite of a piece of meat, we are wasting the earth's limited resources. The larger the steak, chicken or turkey, the warmer we cause the earth to get. It is a simple as that--well, not really, but, for argument's sake and so as not to bore with Gore-like facts and figures, this is the case.
Mass Produced Meat (including "free range and organic") is Destroying the Earth
All across America and the world, ever more and more arable land is being set aside to grow grain and soybeans for the raising of livestock. All throughout Africa, the ruling elite, realizing the wealth that can be attained via the exporting of beef to Europe, China and the US, enforces the planting of crops for the raising of feed for meat production.
We all have heard about the dangers of deforestation. The Brazil rain forest loses .3% each year. The local people hack away hundreds of acres a day, then burn the chopped wood and then plant crops for the production of grain and soybeans. Brazil's loss, however, is nothing in comparison to places like Argentina and Columbia.
In America, Africa and other parts of the world, it is not called deforestation but rather "desertification." In the world today, there are around 1.5 billion cows (20 billion chickens, a billion pigs, a half a billion turkeys and 800 million goats). When millions of cows graze and graze over and over on the same tens of thousands of square acres, the land is destroyed: rivers are destroyed as a result of the destruction of vegetative cover, compaction occurs from the extreme scuffling and infiltration declines resulting in runoff and soil erosion (boring, yes).
(By the way, a single pig farm in Texas produces 2000 tons of urine each day, all which goes into water tables; and daily in the US, 24,000,000 chickens are slaughtered.)
In addition, to ever increase the amount of grain obtained from one acre of land (monocropping), excessive applications of nitrgen-laced fertilizer are used. Nitrogen is 100 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide and will tip the scale toward destructive global warming much sooner than C02 will. Nitrogen leads to the formation of vast wastelands of toxic algae which choke life out of the oceans leading to a depletion of oxygen and an increase of CO2; nitrogen also depletes the ozone layer, to say the very least.
As the world meets in Copenhagen bent on protecting its "development"--a misnomer if there ever was one-- and ever devoted to the post-WWII Pax Americana principles of hyper-consumption, the real issues are not being discussed. Each country will do its best to ensure that its "economic interests" are not being tread upon; however, the ultimate destruction of the earth is not one they consider potentially debilitating--if we in America were to look at the tax payer dollars going to recover areas devastated by hurricanes, forest fires, floods, etc., we would all agree that it would be cheaper to prevent global warming then to deal with its growing effects.
So, as the world misses yet another chance to do something good for all of us, each one of us can start today by merely cutting our meat consumption in half; and, in a year, cut that in half and 6 months after that, cut that in half. With such progressive and positive eating habits, we will have done more to prevent the dangers of global warming then the so-called elected officials whose job it is to protect our interests at day's end.
Eat more veggies, less meat. However, with that said, I will enjoy my monthly stewed rabbit with rosemary and peeled, cherry tomatoes and carrots. Nothing wrong with enjoying some meat, just do it in great moderation.
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