Mornings are better when we don’t turn the Tube on, but most mornings it’s tuned to KEYT Channel 3, our local news station, so we can get a sense of the weather for the day ahead.
I was walking through the living room the other day when I heard Beth Farnsworth, the morning anchor say, “America’s economy is booming this morning.”
This was the day after the Federal Reserve cut the interest rate it charges member banks, igniting a rally on Wall Street. My first thought was: this is how a lie becomes the truth of the land. I don’t know if Farnsworth writes her own copy or just repeats what she reads on the ABC News website, but to equate a rising stock market with an economic boom is sheer stupidity, the kind of twaddle you’d expect to hear from that fat toad, Karl Rove.
When a journalist says “America’s economy is booming this morning,” it only goes to show how lazy journalists have become.
Booming for whom? Not the wage slaves who are making less today than they were a year ago. Not the poor saps losing their homes to foreclosure or the engineer whose job was outsourced to India and is now earning a quarter of his former salary hawking cell phones at Circuit City. Not the retiree heading back into the job market because her pension won’t come close to covering the monthly nut.
In reality, the Fed rate cut is yet another hand-out for the Investor Class, the Masters of the Universe who own this country, its political process and its lawmakers. Stock market migrations tell us very little about the American economy. The floor of the New York Stock Exchange isn’t much different from the casino at Cesar’s Palace; money is wagered, money is won, money is lost. On the whole, stock market players may be more sophisticated than the average lout who throws money away at Cesar’s, but it’s still a game of chance, where nothing tangible is created.
Morning after morning, night after night, the American news media reports on the stock market, as if every American has a stake in the outcome. When was the last time you heard the news media give more than thirty seconds to the working class? The Titans of Industry get lots of airtime to extol the virtues of free trade and market efficiency, but workers are ignored as if they have no story to tell.
For seven years, George W. Bush, Liar in Chief, has been crowing about the strength of the American Economy. Thanks to generous tax and monetary policy that favors the few at the expense of the many, Bush’s wealthy friends have scored. Under Bush, the affluent became rich, and the rich became super-rich; they hold the high ground, the prime real estate, and their lawns are forever green.
The truth is less rosy. The American Economy is fundamentally flawed – and primed to collapse. It’s not so much a house of cards as it is a house of debt.
And the pesky truth about debts is that they eventually come due.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Surge of the Status Quo
Tonight Bush will give us another serving of his Iraq jive.
More “stay the course” garbage, more lies about Iraq being the central front in his failed “War on Terror,” more gibberish about America’s “vital interests.”
The people’s elected representatives will once again suck it up and choke it down, then wipe their chins and justify their cowardice on Fox News and CNN.
The people won’t buy it, but then, it’s clear that our opinion doesn’t make a bit of difference.
Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a platinum fork up his ass, and, in addition to believing that the Almighty speaks to him and him alone, he obviously believes the American people are dolts.
Bush’s ballyhooed troop reduction next summer merely brings us back to the same fork in the road where we stood in February 2007. The United States military will still maintain a gargantuan footprint in Iraq, and will still stand between numerous armed factions fighting for hegemony in a political vacuum.
Americans and Iraqis will still be killed, maimed, wounded, and displaced.
Our chances for success – whatever the hell that means – will be the same then as they are today: slim and none.
Face it, Americans never quit an Occupation voluntarily. Sixty-two years after the end of World War II, America still maintains major military installations in Germany and Japan. More than fifty years after Korea, we’re still hunkered down in the South. And if the government of South Vietnam had been less corrupt, we’d still be there, too. Vital interests, you know?
Bush’s troop reduction shell game buys time for his two primary neocon dreams to come true: the completion of permanent American military facilities in Iraq, and the passage by the Iraqi government of legislation that will give American oil companies access to Iraq’s reserves.
Once those objectives are accomplished, we’ll have to stay in Iraq forever in order to protect our “vital” interests, not to mention the investments of American oil companies.
More “stay the course” garbage, more lies about Iraq being the central front in his failed “War on Terror,” more gibberish about America’s “vital interests.”
The people’s elected representatives will once again suck it up and choke it down, then wipe their chins and justify their cowardice on Fox News and CNN.
The people won’t buy it, but then, it’s clear that our opinion doesn’t make a bit of difference.
Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a platinum fork up his ass, and, in addition to believing that the Almighty speaks to him and him alone, he obviously believes the American people are dolts.
Bush’s ballyhooed troop reduction next summer merely brings us back to the same fork in the road where we stood in February 2007. The United States military will still maintain a gargantuan footprint in Iraq, and will still stand between numerous armed factions fighting for hegemony in a political vacuum.
Americans and Iraqis will still be killed, maimed, wounded, and displaced.
Our chances for success – whatever the hell that means – will be the same then as they are today: slim and none.
Face it, Americans never quit an Occupation voluntarily. Sixty-two years after the end of World War II, America still maintains major military installations in Germany and Japan. More than fifty years after Korea, we’re still hunkered down in the South. And if the government of South Vietnam had been less corrupt, we’d still be there, too. Vital interests, you know?
Bush’s troop reduction shell game buys time for his two primary neocon dreams to come true: the completion of permanent American military facilities in Iraq, and the passage by the Iraqi government of legislation that will give American oil companies access to Iraq’s reserves.
Once those objectives are accomplished, we’ll have to stay in Iraq forever in order to protect our “vital” interests, not to mention the investments of American oil companies.
Poem - Hey Steve
Hey Steve Earle, when does the Revolution start,
who’s leading it?
Not Hillary. She’s got to protect her Wall Street cred.
Not Obama. He looks good and sounds good, but he’ll never upset the status quo.
Edwards can’t get much traction.
Kucinich, maybe, but Kucinich was DOA before he began.
People are thirsty for a message that speaks to them,
about them; they ache for relief from the heartless policies
and misplaced priorities of Cheney/Bush.
How poor do the poor have to be
how sick the sick
before our humanity kicks in?
People are working hard, playing by the rules,
losing ground,
in America,
land of the divided,
the distracted
and the indebted.
The wealthy and well-connected don’t listen to us.
Why should they?
They own the game and the rule makers.
They ignore us with impunity.
They don’t live in places where Main Street is a Mean Street,
solid blocks of boarded windows
a thriving Salvation Army store,
pay-day loans and liquor stores,
smell of soup from a church basement,
seventy souls waiting their turn
for a meal and a cot.
Best of times, worst of times.
In America!
Hey Steve Earle, give me hope, one more time.
who’s leading it?
Not Hillary. She’s got to protect her Wall Street cred.
Not Obama. He looks good and sounds good, but he’ll never upset the status quo.
Edwards can’t get much traction.
Kucinich, maybe, but Kucinich was DOA before he began.
People are thirsty for a message that speaks to them,
about them; they ache for relief from the heartless policies
and misplaced priorities of Cheney/Bush.
How poor do the poor have to be
how sick the sick
before our humanity kicks in?
People are working hard, playing by the rules,
losing ground,
in America,
land of the divided,
the distracted
and the indebted.
The wealthy and well-connected don’t listen to us.
Why should they?
They own the game and the rule makers.
They ignore us with impunity.
They don’t live in places where Main Street is a Mean Street,
solid blocks of boarded windows
a thriving Salvation Army store,
pay-day loans and liquor stores,
smell of soup from a church basement,
seventy souls waiting their turn
for a meal and a cot.
Best of times, worst of times.
In America!
Hey Steve Earle, give me hope, one more time.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Desperation on the Hill
I feel a cluster-fuck coming on.
When General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker go up to Capitol Hill next week for their long awaited report on the situation in Iraq, you can bet they will downplay the major disappointments and accentuate the minor successes – and then claim that what’s needed is more of the same – more money and maybe even more troops.
They will lay the bullshit on thick for the politicos, and even make Democrats feel good about rolling over for President Bush’s wild-eyed and doomed-to-fail shell game.
How many Iraqis have been killed by American forces since the “surge” began?
Is Iraq closer to formulating a central government with enough support from the populace to bring the factions together and stabilize the country?
Are we sure that the people we’re training and arming won’t one day turn their weapons on US forces?
The problem with declining empires is that they make a lot of mistakes out of desperation.
Our political leaders are weak and deceitful, our mass media is lazy as well as stupid, and the majority of our people are too busy trying to hang on to middle class status to give a rat’s ass.
We are screwed.
We are losing.
Highlights at 11:00.
When General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker go up to Capitol Hill next week for their long awaited report on the situation in Iraq, you can bet they will downplay the major disappointments and accentuate the minor successes – and then claim that what’s needed is more of the same – more money and maybe even more troops.
They will lay the bullshit on thick for the politicos, and even make Democrats feel good about rolling over for President Bush’s wild-eyed and doomed-to-fail shell game.
How many Iraqis have been killed by American forces since the “surge” began?
Is Iraq closer to formulating a central government with enough support from the populace to bring the factions together and stabilize the country?
Are we sure that the people we’re training and arming won’t one day turn their weapons on US forces?
The problem with declining empires is that they make a lot of mistakes out of desperation.
Our political leaders are weak and deceitful, our mass media is lazy as well as stupid, and the majority of our people are too busy trying to hang on to middle class status to give a rat’s ass.
We are screwed.
We are losing.
Highlights at 11:00.
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