Now that all the incredibly overpaid future-forecasters who insisted you weren’t even in a recession are suddenly telling you it’s a global crisis, who you gonna call? Maybe you should have been listening to your astrologer (you do have one, don’t you?) as even neophyte members of that often-derided profession have been anticipating a total restructuring of the business/government paradigm this year and next. Who knew? They did…http://www.astrococktail.com/newsletter2.html, http://www.wheresthemoon.com/openingpage.htm, http://astrococktail.com/newsletter5.html…
But since you missed that boat and the one you’re on has hit a major iceberg, it’s time to bail, or go down with the ship, singing “Nearer My God To Thee.” And, if the government is going to purchase nearly a trillion dollars of the private sector, what good can come of it, if any? In the past, when other governments have, essentially, nationalized all or part of major critical industries, you have wound up with either facism (where business is in collusion with a tightly-run government and the people have no say) or communism (where business, such as it is, actually becomes a total bureaucratic government and the people have no say). Neither choice is indefinitely sustainable by itself and almost always resorts to war to stave off its own destruction.
That’s only what happens, however, when business is put entirely under government control. When it just takes over selected parts of the social structure with the goal of spreading, sharing, or underwriting the general wealth, it’s called socialism. The U.S. has already done it with Social Security, unemployment benefits, welfare, Medicare and Medicaid, federal housing, and in hundreds of tax incentives and subsidies to critical-need industries like food and energy. Other countries like the UK, France, Germany, and much of the rest of Europe have simply done more of it. So it may be a bugaboo to total free-marketers who use it to scare the rest of us, but hey, folks, the dreaded S-word is already here and has been since it arrived in 1933 and saved the nation. We’re living it, despite disastrous attempts to roll it back (which brought us this crisis), but we’re just doing an incomplete and poorer job than less-hesitant and more socially-committed societies which are, in fact, our cultural parents. As usual, Dad and Mom know best, but Junior is just a rebellious little cuss (think John McCain) who has to be shot down in flames and still doesn’t learn his lesson. Maybe it’s just the nature of the child…http://astrococktail.com/adolescent.html
So, if our government suddenly finds itself in possession of a trillion dollars of bad mortgages, how to turn these lemons into lemonade? By taking a crippling multi-generational loss and simply handing it back later to the very same people who stole the money in the first place? How about putting it to good use for needed programs that would cost much more if you started them from scratch? Once you’ve paid your trillion, on the one hand, you’ve suddenly got the mortgages of (and potential title to) the homes of millions of people facing eviction because of foreclosure, and on the other hand you’ve got bad mortgages of another set of millions of empty houses and condos bought for speculation. From the rental income of converting the latter into immediately-available low-cost federal housing (without time or cost to build it, only expedited foreclosure), you can give the former time to work out a re-fi on their homes. And, you’ll have homes for the homeless in return for a combination of low rent and work-fare to help rebuild badly-needed infrastructure. The folks we have given all this bale-out money to, in the meantime, can invest their new-found liquidity in cashing in on the bonanza that is about to be the alternative energy industry. In theory, almost everybody wins – it’s not totally as simple as that, and the devil is in the details of a balanced execution, but you get the idea….
Oh, but that’s invading the sacred space of the private sector! some may howl. Damn straight it is. In areas critical to the welfare of the nation, that’s what a government is for. That’s why we went from spontaneous local militia to a standing army, formed a federal treasury and banking system instead of leaving it up to the local moneylender, and have ever since continued to pick up the ball when the private sector drops it and endangers the health and survival of the American people. When the ship of state is in danger of foundering thanks to those who won’t pitch in and row, we take their paddles away and send them below where they can do no further harm.
Of course, that will likely only happen with a big Democratic majority in Congress and an Obama presidency. If the Republicans get in, we’ll just be shoveling it all back into the same maw of insatiable greed that got us into this crisis to begin with, and the crisis will simply repeat itself, bigger each time, with the U.S. ever-fading into a weaker, debtor nation at the mercy of the growing muscle of China, India, Russia, and the European Union. You think the dollar is weak now, in a few years you won’t be able to buy a plate of fish and chips, much less a trip to Europe where they sell it.
So despite the fears that history will repeat itself in the form of the hammer and sycle or the swastika, there is a middle road if we are willing to seize upon it, one which other nations who take care of their own have already trodden for us. It is only for us to follow and take responsibility for each other in the process, as the whole structure of government and business reshapes itself. Who are we waiting for but ourselves?
In a party-dividing remark in the primary Bill Clinton suggested that electing Obama would be a “roll of the dice,” because he didn’t have a long enough track record to judge what he might do, rather similar to Clinton’s own situation when he got elected in ’92. Despite the outcries from Obama fans, Bill was probably right in his own way, because trying anything new has an aspect of uncertainty – and a certain thrill that goes with it. Clinton’s own penchant for risky thrills certainly damaged an otherwise brilliant presidency and got us into the mess we’re in today. It’s kind of like he was playing Russian roulette with the usual one round in the cylinder but kept pulling the trigger until he got the live one, despite his otherwise amazing talent and luck as a politician. Obama seems refreshingly responsible by comparison.
But a look at McCain is doubly daunting. Here is a man who not only is impulsive and presses his luck, he doesn’t have much to begin with. As a fighter pilot, he pushed the limit and wrecked three planes all on his own, subsequently had the bad luck to be in the first plane on the receiving end of the deadly Forrestal accident and then was downed by enemy fire. Militarily speaking, one wonders about following (or even being anywhere near) this man where weapons are concerned. When he changed his game to politics, while other politicians had succeeded in raking in graft for a lifetime, he managed to get burned in the Keating Five scandal right out of the gate, and he wasn’t even the main player. After recovering from that one, he managed to get himself trounced by Bush simply by walking right into Karl Rove’s snares the moment he ran for higher office. McCain has managed to turn the usual Republican circular firing squad into a one-man operation. Lead on.
In Vietnam, it wasn’t until the enemy broke him (a horribly grueling ordeal, which he often describes) that he gained his life back again. In politics, it would appear, it wasn’t until the Republicans broke him and he signed onto their party confession that he finally got the nod, after which he promptly returned to his fighter pilot days and took a wild and crazy shot, without even a pretense of aim, by picking Lipstick as his wing-woman, who immediately managed to eclipse him in the process. Well, she should, because she’s got a lot of his younger, and more dangerous, qualities hot off the griddle – the don’t think, don’t blink, world-of-harm line she relentlessly spouts is worthy of a Luftwaffe ace, though about equally as politically informed.
So what you’ve got, with the Republican’s new American Idol act of Lipstick and The Pig (with apologies to Hootie and The Blowfish), is Russian roulette fully-loaded, and about to go off before the pistol even leaves the holster. Either one is more than a little frightening alone, but together it’s certain death. When faced with this, it’s a bit disheartening to see Obama supporters wringing their hands and despairing of their candidate. Here is the steady hand of the foresighted leader up against Quick-Draw McGraw and Annie Oakley, vying for the fully-loaded nuclear red button.
If you must play political Russian roulette, try it out for entertainment only, in Bugs Bunny’s 1951 release Ballot Box Bunny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZFwKg5RZM). It’s hysterical. Then go out and work for Obama like your life depended on it. It does.
If you must play political Russian roulette, try it out for entertainment only, in Bugs Bunny’s 1951 release Ballot Box Bunny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGZFwKg5RZM). I’t’s hysterical. Then go out and work for Obama like your life depended on it. It does.
Here’s our basic statement per our profile, but with the paragraphs a bit more clear:
We support Barack Obama because he is a truly multi-dimensional candidate. What do we mean by that? In short: Because Barack Obama has height, breadth, and depth like no other leader in the political spectrum.
* Height, because he sees the larger picture, from above the fray, and thus thinks strategically, not just tactically. He sees what is down the road, so he is not constantly struggling with the next curve, because he is ahead of the curve. He heads ‘em off at the pass, so he can afford to be a peacemaker in a dangerous world.
* Breadth, because he so reflects the multi-cultural mix that America truly is today, itself a reflection of the world at large, from which we have come here. He can unite us not only within our borders but also with those who share our dreams of shared peace and prosperity among all nations.
* Depth, because his message touches the wellsprings of both need and hope, connecting all of we have to give to where we must use it for its greatest purposes. When the depths of the soul feed both the feelings of the heart and the imagination of the mind, America will regain its path of destiny and this recent stumble in the darkness will yet transform into our finest day.
So it’s now up to the rest of us to spend some of that fourth dimension, time, to make this all come true.
Dear Mr. Dean,
After watching and listening to increasingly toxic campaign tactics and statements coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign, I urge you to take action to try to temper her behavior as it every day more damages the overall chances of the Democratic Party in the fall elections. In her attempt to shove aside Mr. Obama, she and her strategists have been identifying themselves and the party as deliberately underhanded, divisive, and even racist. It would appear that if she herself cannot gain the presidency, she would rather have the Republicans win, and she is using methods that ever more make her resemble them in the process. We do not need, and cannot afford, such a kamikaze loose cannon in our midst.
As one who has in fact supported her in the past, I am dreadfully appalled at the insidious and self-serving personality that has revealed itself and I not only cannot support her anymore but strongly urge the party to do whatever possible to prevent her from destroying it in her wake. I have been a lifelong, indeed family Democrat (my mother was Lorena Hickock’s secretary on the 1944 Democratic campaign), but I cannot imagine supporting a party usurped by the kind of tactics and motivations that Mrs. Clinton has begun to deploy. Despite having been a party delegate and election officer both in Virginia and New York, I should have to resign rather than support such an organization.
So I do ask you to take whatever steps necessary to rein in this selfish extremism that threatens to infect and destroy the Democratic Party I have always known and supported, before too much irreparable damage has been done.
John and Susan Townley
