How did ignorance and stupidity become virtuous traits? It began with the selection of Sarah Palin as VP candidate for the Republican Party. Carl Bernstein calls this half-baked Alaskan “an ignorant demagogue.” Now the Republicans are grooming this airhead for a Presidential run in 2012. Since she was an American Idol beauty contestant, it would appear that she is as qualified to be President as Bush was. She mouths imbecilic drivel and since she has a Right Wing following, aided and abetted by the mainstream media, she has become a threat to a democratic society. Sarah is for saving the economy by putting back what we had before with no change. Don’t change anything and when things collapse again just come to Alaska and drill, baby, drill. Produce our own gas and oil and when that runs out, which it will do, go some place else in the world and destroy another frontier. According to her brand of nonsense, there are plenty of frontiers, just grab one. But Sarah is not the only problem.
Our society is divided between the right wing blockheads who talk gibberish and those voters who support the present administration. For example, we now have a deployment of insects called the “Birthers” that have crawled out from an overturned rock. They claim that Obama is not a citizen and that his birth certificate is a forgery. And he has managed through some gigantic conspiracy to get himself elected to the highest office in the land. These pinheads continue their ravings despite the assurances of the state of Hawaii that Obama’s birth certificate is authentic.
Now let’s consider the truck driver, James David Adkisson, who entered a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee with a rifle and proceeded to shoot up the place killing two people and injuring six. Fortunately, he was grabbed by several members of the church and prevented from doing any more harm. This man lost his job and is running out of food stamps. He believes that the liberals are responsible for his problems and since he couldn’t get to the liberals in power he went to a church that had a liberal reputation to kill the voters who put the liberals in power. Get it? He believes that all liberals should be killed because they are ruining the country. He believes that his perception is reality. In his blind ignorance he doesn’t know that the liberals are supporting legislation that would assist people like himself. Instead he turns it around and kills them.
So what is the source of this inane perception? In his house the police found books by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage. All have viciously attacked liberals and outspokenly mandated their disappearance. Glenn Beck who is another nut case must be included since he was actually shown on his TV show trying to decide whether he should kill Michael Moore.
The Dept. of Homeland Security has issued a report in which it is stated that the right wing extremists groups are using the poor economy and the first black President as recruiting tools. Right wing talk radio and Fox News has an audience of more than 35 million listening or viewing hate talk. I would think that the malicious talk spewed by these hypocrites presumably plays a role in the killings that have occurred. Do you?
References:
Bill Moyer’s Journal
Jon Stewart. The Daily Show
Naomi Klein. Progressive Magazine.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
The Economy is Sound
When Wall St. is in trouble, we are always reassured with the statement that the “fundamentals are sound”. We hear it repeatedly on the financial channels of our TV. We need to recognize the spin for what it is. Obviously there is nothing fundamentally sound about our current economic crisis.
So we need to point out repeatedly that billions of dollars for the Pentagon and the armaments industry are really not intended for “national security” but rather to keep the economy from collapsing. The present economic crisis is an indication of possible over-all collapse because some of the huge Wall St. investment banks that had over-leveraged for outrageous profit needed injections of cash to prevent their collapse. So the Secty of Treasury, Hank Paulsen, appointed by Bush, came up with a scam known as the TARP. He himself was former head of Citi bank and it was in deep yogurt. He needed a cash injection for that bank. But since it would not be appropriate to just save that bank, he proposed to Congress that he needed 700 billion dollars to save all the banks. And Congress bought it. Well, it happens that all the banks did not need saving, only a greedy few on Wall St.
Now some banks are giving back the money because it isn’t needed and as long as they keep it, since it is our money, they are required to accept regulations that they do not want. We are still out 200-300 billion dollars that were gifts to banks. On top of that 2-3 trillion dollars is being spent on the military and it is all borrowed money. A number of pundits believe that this cannot continue and it is an economic crisis that will lead eventually to bankruptcy. It could be the end of the capitalist system as we know it.
The neocons may revel in the power of an “American Empire” But the empire is no longer supportable. We are hugely in debt; we cannot raise sufficient taxes and we cannot pay for the troops required to maintain the empire. Japan and China are keeping our economy functioning by lending huge amounts to our Treasury. In addition we spend outrageous sums on war and the military in order to maintain the growth of the economy.
There is no question that the Defense budget is a jobs program and military research that develops new weapons systems and new military technologies produce billions of dollars for corporations and their lobbyists. In this way does the military-industrial complex encourage militarism and the need for continuing wars. It is true that there have been some technological advances derived from military research that have become civilian industries. However, weapons spending far out weighs any other expenditures in the Pentagon budget. Furthermore, it is politically very difficult to trim munitions spending once the program is entrenched. There are far too many politicians and their constituents benefiting from the program.
References:
Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis. 2006
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash 1929. 1997.
Wikipedia
So we need to point out repeatedly that billions of dollars for the Pentagon and the armaments industry are really not intended for “national security” but rather to keep the economy from collapsing. The present economic crisis is an indication of possible over-all collapse because some of the huge Wall St. investment banks that had over-leveraged for outrageous profit needed injections of cash to prevent their collapse. So the Secty of Treasury, Hank Paulsen, appointed by Bush, came up with a scam known as the TARP. He himself was former head of Citi bank and it was in deep yogurt. He needed a cash injection for that bank. But since it would not be appropriate to just save that bank, he proposed to Congress that he needed 700 billion dollars to save all the banks. And Congress bought it. Well, it happens that all the banks did not need saving, only a greedy few on Wall St.
Now some banks are giving back the money because it isn’t needed and as long as they keep it, since it is our money, they are required to accept regulations that they do not want. We are still out 200-300 billion dollars that were gifts to banks. On top of that 2-3 trillion dollars is being spent on the military and it is all borrowed money. A number of pundits believe that this cannot continue and it is an economic crisis that will lead eventually to bankruptcy. It could be the end of the capitalist system as we know it.
The neocons may revel in the power of an “American Empire” But the empire is no longer supportable. We are hugely in debt; we cannot raise sufficient taxes and we cannot pay for the troops required to maintain the empire. Japan and China are keeping our economy functioning by lending huge amounts to our Treasury. In addition we spend outrageous sums on war and the military in order to maintain the growth of the economy.
There is no question that the Defense budget is a jobs program and military research that develops new weapons systems and new military technologies produce billions of dollars for corporations and their lobbyists. In this way does the military-industrial complex encourage militarism and the need for continuing wars. It is true that there have been some technological advances derived from military research that have become civilian industries. However, weapons spending far out weighs any other expenditures in the Pentagon budget. Furthermore, it is politically very difficult to trim munitions spending once the program is entrenched. There are far too many politicians and their constituents benefiting from the program.
References:
Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis. 2006
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash 1929. 1997.
Wikipedia
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