The Judean Candidate

Many were the warnings about Candidate Barack Hussein Obama, everything from him being the Anti-Christ to Marx Incarnate. This writer laughed out loud at the ludicrous paranoia of our lunatic fringe unfortunately on public display right there on Main Street, U.S. of A. Now I'm beginning to wonder if something wasn't amiss after all. Those that ponder such things understand that we heard what we wanted/needed to hear coming from the lips of "the one." Still 'midst the Reagan Revolution—an unending orgy of Liberty at the expense of Equality, followed by Bush the Lesser's orgy of Executive Power sodomizing Truth, Justice and the American Way –just over half the country were desperate for deliverance from Republicanism run amok.

By the time the election was held, we had anointed a savior in Barack Obama. He would heal the sick and right all wrongs. He would make wine out of water and the "bread" we need would appear, in abundance, out of thin vaporous air. He would bring America back into God's good graces; ironic seeing as George W. was/is an evangelical believer yet acted the devil while in office. (Or, was that Cheney's hand up his puppet ass?) No mere man could ever hope to assuage such expectation without immense disappointment.

But, this writer is not talking about what others expect of him, rather, what the candidate stated he would do and what he would be about.

Now, in just six weeks' time, gestation completed, Obama the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis. He moves to shore up the financial institutions that greedily gambled their wads away. We, the taxpayers, now need to pony up for that. He moves to provide "universal health care." We, all taxpayers, now need to pony up for that even as ultimately access to all treatments will be not be allowed for all and most likely not even for most. Obama reversed Bush Administration decrees on abstinence teaching but refused to reverse abortion non-funding even as he acceded to continued faith-based group funding. He moves to shore up our troops in Afghanistan by committing another 17,000 (bringing the total to around 60,000; the unsuccessful Soviets had 160,000 troops committed to Afghanistan). We, the taxpayers, now need to pony up for this misadventure even as the excuse of stopping al Qaeda and the Taliban rings hollow knowing as we do that all unilaterally described (Western definition) "terrorists" agree that Israel's abuses in Palestine is the root cause for "terrorist acts" and only by getting to the root will the problem be solved.

On The Daily Show (originally aired 3 March 2009) Obama video clips appeared side-by-side with clips of George W. Bush each stating what the mission objectives are/will be in Iraq; Bush, as regarded the Surge influx of troops; Obama, as regards the mission once combat troops are withdrawn. The words are identical except for two; Bush used support Iraqi troops while Obama said assist Iraqi troops. We, the taxpayers, will have to continue to pony up boucoup bucks for years to come and, as was prophesied prior to the war, probably forever more as the United States desires that reserve of oil (continuing the legacy of the Truman Doctrine of U.S. national security trumping any/all foreign sovereignty's right to their own resources) even as it provides a strategic military base in a volatile region.

So much for what constraints were put in place to strait-jacket any Administration coming into office. Well, any Administration that wasn't Republican. After all, lest America forget (and that is already happening), Republicanism shorn of moral restraints brought us to the financial fleecing we're experiencing. Republicanism has been predicated on a rapacious Machiavellian philosophy of unrestrained "free markets" making the few rich richer, a few more that weren't rich getting to become rich and everyone else, the vast majority, can continue to pay the price of that heralded (and might this writer add, fabled) "individualism" Republicans so cherish. What's "individualist" about being a Ditto Head? Speaking of the heavyweight "leader" of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, is he not the epitome of non-restraint? of gross excess? of utter stupidity passing as profundity? Republicanism is a bad joke being played upon Americans; albeit the less intelligent Americans which, if truth be told, comprise half the nation (just think Larry the Cable Guy writ large). Such has been in charge of governance for most of the last 25 years. We're in a huge mess because of Republican (and Republicanized Democrat) rule. This mess leaves a pile of excrement behind that will keep Team Obama cleaning up through its first term at least. Soon enough it will be made clear that after wrestling with budgetary limits and deficit spending that cannot continue trending the way it has been for decades, Obama's Administration will be forced to scale down his promises to the American people to the point of being ineffective except for semantic hedging against truth; e.g. "I promised a tax break for 95 percent of working Americans and delivered." But, the fact that the break will be for an amount that won't float anyone's boat (about $50/month) the American middle class will sink ever deeper into the muck while the rare few— the Phoenix Class –rise anew from the ashes of their outrageous pillaging with fresh wings our money will pay for.

Pundits applaud Obama's team for having hit the ground running in a time of unprecedented crises, having already guided a Stimulus Package through passage in both houses, having gathered a forum for health care reform, education reform is upcoming and even with such pressing domestic needs, foreign affairs was put on high priority with Obama's naming of George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mitchell has already met with the principals. Well, at least the ones America decides are the principals having chosen to ignore, Hamas, the democratically elected representatives of Gazan Palestinians. Which is what Israel demands. The same ploy being employed again, as it has been for over forty years, Israel decrying the lack of participants for peace talks as they murder, imprison and torture any Palestinian who is brave enough to stand for peace and justice and a homeland uninhabited by settlers (whose presence is in defiance of International Law against settling occupied territory; especially land occupied via pre-emptive war as was the 1967 Six Day War).

Indeed, Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, has stated his predilection for the "Shock Doctrine" methodology detailed in "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein used to devastate "the people" while enriching "the few." The Israeli citizen is quoted as saying, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste...Things that we had postponed for too long, that were long-term, are now immediate and must be dealt with. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before." The article goes on to say, "Mr. Emanuel noted, correctly, that the U.S. largely squandered the opportunity the oil shocks of the 1970s presented [*] to make serious, long-term changes in its energy habits -- a failure that has returned to haunt the nation today." Further, Emanuel stated, "The lesson holds true in foreign policy as well. Only the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and its shock to the Middle East status quo, made it possible for President Jimmy Carter to move in and negotiate the historic Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel."

We all agree we're in crisis mode. Now, let's consider the following points in that context:

• First, recall candidate Obama's complete silence regarding Israel's rampage in Gaza during which Israel destroyed much of the infrastructure and the residences for tens-of-thousands even as it murdered 1,400 and injured some 5,500 wounded purportedly to avenge 24 Israeli deaths in the prior 7 years of Qassam rocket fire from those whom are determined to defend their homeland.
  
• Next, recall all the points above regarding the vast sums of money to be collected from the American people (a transfer of wealth or redistribution of same) to bail out Capitalism on a world-wide scale and the Chief of Staff's Shock Doctrine statement.
  
• Now, amidst this greatest crisis since the "Great Depression" realize that President Obama visited the Caterpillar company; the makers of those same bulldozers that have been systematically demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank to make room for more settlements; the same piece of heavy equipment used to murder an innocent American, Rachel Corrie, eye-witness to Israeli attempted genocide of Gazans; a company the American "Left" has put high on its shit-list (now add into this mix the above mentioned stances on abstinence teaching, abortion non-funding and faith-based group funding).
  
• Even as Envoy Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visit the area in hopes of restarting the peace process, Team Obama considers the Palestinian Authority— quickly losing any/all authority as representatives of Palestinians as it allows Israel's daily abuses against a viable homeland –the ONLY legitimate Palestinian representatives with whom they will speak; democratically elected Hamas excluded because Israel demanded they be considered "terrorists" and the United States accommodates that propaganda-torqued view.
  
• The double standard discussed in an earlier blog entry regarding the hypocrisy of Obama's stance on nuclear proliferation as such escalation applies to the budding Iranian civilian nuclear program though not to Israel's clandestine program with an estimated 200 nuclear warheads and missile launch capability already on line and ready to go.
  
• The agreement to send Israel the weapons necessary to maintain its illegal, brutal occupation of Palestine in exchange for $30 billion over the next 10 years.
  
• The Obama Administration's silence as to Israel's use of white phosphorus; its use in Gaza with such dense population, a war crime.
  
• The Obama Administration's silence as to the recent announcement by the Israeli government that 73,000 new illegal settler residences will be created in the West Bank as well as the silence over 1,500 homes recently bulldozed by Israeli troops claiming the homes were built without permits even as Palestinians cannot get permits to build homes on the very land they own; this confiscated land to be used for further Israeli settlement in Jerusalem's Arab quarter thereby making a two-state (or any Palestinian sovereignty) solution impossible.
  

More than a poke in the eye of the Left; it's a real gouging. A message, wouldn't you say? And this writer must wonder if it isn't Rahm Emanuel behind the effrontery to the very people that made an Obama presidency a reality.

Which leads to this question: Have you ever seen The Manchurian Candidate? It is a 1962 movie based upon the 1959 fiction novel by Richard Condon. It's a paranoid depiction of "brainwashing" by sinister Communists that hope to get control of the American government through assassination of the President by his trusted mind-rinsed VP after being subconsciously triggered into becoming a killing machine. In the present instance, it isn't his VP that Obama needs to worry about, it's Rahm Emanuel, the Judean Candidate. Brainwashed you say incredulously? Ask yourself, where else is such "mind-rinsing" used to churn out ranks of subsumed Brown Shirts for the Capitalistocracy of America but in prestigious universities like Harvard and Yale?

Obama and Emanuel are Harvard grads. Obama is basically carrying out a pro-Israeli agenda even as his Chief of Staff kicks the Left in its ass, gouges its eyes and mugs for the camera like Il Duce as if this was a WWF Smackdown. Obama the transformative man transforms into Obama the Bird of Prey warrior when it comes to denying Palestinians their due, or staying the course in Iraq, or plunging into the quagmire of Afghanistan, or chastising corporate leaders for taking tens of billions of dollars worth of bonuses (a finger-wagging doggie treat for the People) while delivering trillions of taxpayer dollars to those same monied few without absolute terms of repayment, or when defending our way of life (a way of life made possible only by Capitalism's rape and pillaging of the Third World that continues to this very moment).

The Obama above isn't the Obama for whom we voted. Not by our standards, but his very own conveyed as they were in his many speeches, his own words. President Obama now slavishly serves Corporatist and Israeli agendas. How to explain such an inexplicable turnaround if not for the Queen of Hearts (subconscious trigger) having been played by Chief of Staff and Israeli citizen, Rahm Emanuel?

[*] The "oil shock of the 1970s" was the Arab world's unified [OPEC] response to Israel's 1973 pre-emptive Yom Kippur War.

What Mama Said

There's much to be said for optimism in times like these; end times? So some believe. Others, well, other folk think "things" will be better sometime tomorrow or further on a-piece. Make that many, if not, most folks. Optimistic types. The keep smilin' for not cryin' crowd. You know the type (Happy-Assed Americanus): Donut-larded, fed-fat-cheeked fiends of fetish consumerism or, judging by the size of 'em, are we talkin' cannibalism? eatin' poor bastards whole? Special dunkin' sauce with every slab of meat? 'Twould explain America's obesity problem. But, that's a subject best left to those whom contemplate such non-newsworthy drivel.

Which nudges me in the direction of topic for the day: Survival.

Who hasn't heard of those people assembled in their make-shift fortresses, having taken to hoarding, stock-piling water, canned goods and jerky, waiting out the End Days? Those people think the troubled times we live in warrant creating warehouses of foodstuffs to survive the coming [Fill in the blank_______________). Some think God is gonna smite the unholy lot of us. (Well, the nonbelievers for sure. Followed by the "other" believers. You know, the kinds with those weirdly named gods and goddesses. Yeah, that kind, them, those whom believe there are more than one God. Heathens from the one perspective. Saints from another. Demons from a third and on and on.) Others believe the Rapture is imminent; the Anti-Christ walks among us. Still others believe this economic downturn is the Be-All-And-End-All, one from which we do not recover. Others decry the nihilistic youth and their violent solutions to any/all perceived slights and what that forebodes for the future of our nation; nay, the world. No doubt there are racists among us that believe the End is nigh by virtue of having a black man in the White House. And, lest we forget the ubiquitous Jones' whom everyone in America hates for their one-upmanship even as Americans asymptotically vie to be one better than; a never-ending mission of futility (hence 70 percent of the American economy).

The obvious problem (aside from the delusional righteousness such adherents—in the first instance –possess) is that with such stockpiling, once the end comes, the first wave of ejectamenta (those humans laid off, slipped through the shredded safety net, the economic outcasts, the hungry dispossessed) will know where food's available. You may have loaded up on ammo and guns to safeguard your stockpile but once a hungry hoard seeks nourishment—a primary survival force –nothing will stop the scavenging. That's why the true survivor mode will entail keeping hidden, eyeing the herd, especially the fringes and when the infirm, the too-slow-of-foot, the down-and-outer goes down they'll be quickly devoured. Yes, cannibalism as survival tool. Get used to it and you'll thrive. Human meat? You are what you eat? Hmmm, something to ponder.

If conditions get so bad as that, deciding to survive via cannibalism is surely an example of unbounded optimism, wouldn't you say? I mean, who would want to live in such a world? To actually eat your neighbors to survive is to say, for the eater at least, tomorrow will dawn.

Of course, many people around the world believe "things" are getting worse even as they continue to express optimism. No mystery, really. If one can convince him/herself that "things" will in fact be better tomorrow, then happy days are a-foot. No need to worry as "things" are going to be better tomorrow. At least they'll get out of bed and prod themselves once again to run the rat race; to stay safe midst the herd. The fear in the air flares nostrils, pumps adrenaline, erases logic and empathy. The herd runs from everything (after all, terrorism is everywhere) so it runs in frenzied circles until it can run no more. And that, my friends, is a meat-eater's dream (not to mention an extremely optimistic mindset/scenario to find oneself in IF fattening up is your raison d'être).

Even President Clinton chimed in with the advice that Obama should be more upbeat in order to rally the people to get behind America's push for solvency.

"The sun will come out tomorrow…tomorrow…Bet your bottom dollar…" from Annie.

So, that's how we arrive dead-on topic for this entry. My mother being in her 80s, living in South Carolina, and being of a certain generation completely and utterly devoid of adaptability to modern electronic gadgetry yet recently getting hooked up for email, prompted me to send my brave mom copies of this blog. When we talked 10 or so days later she mentioned how she was so happy to receive the blogs and wanted me to know that she read them right away, proceeded into her bedroom, climbed under the covers and just now climbed back out again. "Jesus H., Steven…I understand you need to write the truth but, Christ Almighty, it's so depressing."

What mama said.

Not enough of us concentrate on the hard numbers of this economic crisis, the lost jobs, the stock market tumble, the financial meltdown. Instead we fear everything in general. Rah-rah optimism isn't what's needed at all. We need to calibrate the bubble's bursting impacts. We need to arm ourselves with data of the most convincing nature. We need to flood the marketplace of ideas with this fact—that America is being divvied up among a few elite –in the hope of creating a sea-change of evolutionary growth in people eager to make this world a better place for our children and their children's children. In other words, enough of the optimism. Unbridled optimism is what America has fueled itself on certainly since Reagan; and who can forget "W" telling us the best thing to do after 9/11 was to go out and shop. Blind optimism led to a financial frenzy whose downside is utterly evident and upon us. Now is not the time for more optimism. It is time for the hard work to begin, to address reality, analyze and devise solutions that will serve humanity as opposed to shareholders. How else could such a phenomenon be described but as pure optimism at work? Born of unending hope that lives in each and every human being on this planet. Why slime of ancestral tracks leading from one puddle of mere survival to another thriving pool finally leads to the beneficiaries of such evolution, us, as we are today.

Hope delivered us from the slime in the beginning. But can hope alone deliver us from the slime once again? Who said Walt Disney's dead? Every princess will find her prince? Every evil witch shall find her match in a Miss Goodness N. Light? We all should whistle while we work? Fairy Bells and Tinker Dust? Goofy the Tao to Pluto's Zen?

The treacle drips from such optimism—dare we call it American Can-doism –like sweet thick amber syrup, warmed by momma's breast milk, the teat that satisfies, suckle and "it all" melts away.

But, does it? Or does it keep requiring you to cull up those depleted reserves of optimism each and every time it is further depleted by breakdown in trust between government and the people, between employers and employees, between neighbors, between husband and wife, parent and children, a believer and his/her G(g)od(s). Every time Disneyland wavers, ripples, blinking from strain of maintaining illusions so we do not witness the Beagle Boys' with their Captains of Industry personas (unadulterated thuggery to extort untold wealth), we reach for our drug of choice: Optimism (right there on the shelf next to the Fuhgeddabouddit pills).

Worth noting is the fact that, while optimism is great for getting something started, reality is what measures success or failure. Sorry, Mama, but the reality currently applicable is clear: The big cats are out of sight, watching the herd, licking their chops with every new straggler losing pace. As more and more drift from the herd and are devoured whole, the herd will become thinned, leaner, meaner, more afraid.

The cats will get fatter. And it will be "morning in America" once again. Reagan will regain Patron Saint status and Milton Friedman will live in granite monuments to his genius. History will tell us how great a President George W. Bush had been.

Gone will be the stories of deprivation and humiliation; replaced as they will be, with fairy tales of optimism. The end days. Not with a whimper but with an all-consuming lie based upon blind optimism. For when the herd runs blind, the fatcats drool in anticipation of a steady diet.

And, for them, at least, there is nothing to fear.

Dissing Helen

President Obama's first press conference given on 9 February 2009, was a mixed bag. On the positive side, he did touch on the need for the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program to contain transparency vis-à-vis which banks get the money, how much they receive and what they do with it. He did say this half of the financial bailout would contain money, some $48 billion, for home mortgage relief; a way to stop the toxic assets (credit default swaps a.k.a. mortgage-backed securities) fusillade being triggered by mortgage defaults. And, while still holding out hope that his show of "civility and rational argument" will eventually bring recalcitrant Republicans along the path of reason, he did scold them by saying, "When it comes to how we approach the issue of fiscal responsibility, again, it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility."

Kudos, Mr. President. Great job. But, as the questioning continued, Obama showed some serious flaws in his unthinking positions on terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Having already invoked Bush's "Axis of Evil" name-calling (a.k.a. Iran and North Korea and Afghanistan) in his Inaugural Address, he now stood before Americans and the world and demonstrated that we are endangered by his hard-line stances on two of the most harrowing threats we face.

And it became obvious by virtue of veteran UPI reporter Helen Thomas' questioning of the President.

Thomas: Mr. President, do you think that Pakistan and — are maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists? And, also, do you know of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?

Obama: ...we've got to work in a regional fashion to root out those safe havens. It's not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children…

(OFF MIC)

Well, Mr. Holbrooke is there, and that's exactly why he's being sent there, because I think that we have to make sure that Pakistan is a stalwart ally with us in battling this terrorist threat. With respect to nuclear weapons, you know, I don't want to speculate. What I know is this: that if we see a nuclear arms race in a region as volatile as the Middle East, everybody will be in danger. And one of my goals is to prevent nuclear proliferation generally. I think that it's important for the United States, in concert with Russia, to lead the way on this. And, you know, I've mentioned this in conversations with the Russian president, Mr. Medvedev, to let him know that it is important for us to restart the — the conversations about how we can start reducing our nuclear arsenals in an effective way so that…

(CROSSTALK)

Obama: … so that we then have the standing to go to other countries and start stitching back together the nonproliferation treaties that, frankly, have been weakened over the last several years. OK.

Thomas: Why do you have to speculate on who has…

(CROSSTALK)

Obama: All right. Sam Stein, Huffington Post. Where's Sam? Here. Go ahead.

Oh, no he di'n't…Oh, snap! Yes, he did! In essence, President Obama avoided the two ton elephant in a VW Beetle: Israel. He refused to answer Helen Thomas' straight-forward question because to answer would be to acknowledge the four-thousand pound pachyderm. The (OFF MIC) and (CROSSTALK) references above were instances of the Grand Dame of the Washington Press Corps pressing the President for an answer. Obama flat refused to answer her.

Of course, no country in the world will now listen to America about nonproliferation of nuclear weapons when Israel has approximately 200 warheads with missile capability to launch and deliver said lethal payloads. Israel's nuclear program is wholly outside legal standards. Israel does not "officially" admit to what everyone knows is true and has never been a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is a rogue state of such dimension that if any other nation in the world had done what Israel has, regarding their nuclear build up, the theft of nuclear fissionable material, open-air testing of nukes and then lying about their weapons of mass destruction, they would have been demonized as a terrorist state and perhaps even been attacked; much like the Iraq scenario engaged in by the Bush regime (Shock and Awe as retribution for WMDs).

Which brings us to Obama's assertion that his administration will fight terrorism with everything it has. Should Likud hard-liner Binyamin Netanyahu win the Israeli election, teaming up with protégé (and former Kahane Kach party member) ultra-nationalist leader Avigdor Lieberman's party (Yisrael Beiteinu) to form a government, we can be assured that Israel will launch an air raid against Iran's nuclear facilities thereby yet again destabilizing the region and setting off a huge burst of righteous outrage from most of the rest of the world.

How does allowing Israel to engage in terroristic actions against another sovereign nation that is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and which has allowed routine inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and therefore has every right to develop a peaceful nuclear program designed for civilian needs, defuse terrorism? How does Obama's assertion that the United States will do whatever it has to in order to stop proliferation of nuclear weapons sound to the world as he blatantly avoids Israel's nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems?

The hypocrisy is stunning.

On the other front, primarily Afghanistan, how does this speechifying square up with reality:

Obama: The bottom line though — and I just want to remember the American people, because this is going to be difficult — is this is a situation in which a region served as the base to launch an attack that killed 3,000 Americans.

And this past week, I met with families of those who were lost in 9/11, a reminder of the costs of allowing those safe havens to exist. My bottom line is that we cannot allow Al Qaeda to operate. We cannot have those safe havens in that region. And we're going to have to work both smartly and effectively, but with consistency in order to make sure that those safe havens don't exist.

I do not have yet a timetable for how long that's going to take. What I know is I'm not going to make — I'm not going to allow Al Qaeda or bin Laden to operate with impunity, planning attacks on the U.S. homeland.

Remember, folks…Al Qaeda public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, himself stated unequivocally that Israel's occupation and usurpation of Palestine, Israel's lawless foray into Lebanon during 1982 murdering 20,000 civilians in the first days of unilateral bombardment (add now its Gazatrocity perpetrated on defenseless civilians) is the basis for Al Qaeda's vengeful actions. Unless and until the United States calls Israel to task, there will be a militant Islamic jihad against the West. Terroristic acts will continue unabated and a nuclear weapons race will accelerate. In effect, Obama's stances are continued "closed fist" approaches to the central issues of our time, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. In fact, it's almost as if the Israelis have Obama's ear as his stances are very likely to worsen the situation rather than help. Oh, that's right. Obama's closest aide, his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, Israeli citizen, pro-Zionist and Chicago School advocate for taking advantage of financial crises to further agendas (see: "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism") will lead Obama and, hence, the United States to do Israel's bidding at huge cost in American lives and American freedoms.

Mr. President, for the sake of America's future, stop listening to self-serving pro-Zionist viewpoints before it is too late for all of us. Bring change as promised to the discourse. Hold Israel to the same standards you demand of any other nation in the world. To do any less is to imperil this nation and the world.

Bridges To Nowhere

President Obama campaigned on the premise of change, building on the Clinton theme of building bridges to cross the gap between ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties, to bring America and Americans together. In his first attempt at bridge building— the President had homophobe Rick Warren give the Inaugural convocation, he appointed Republicans to his cabinet and team of advisors, he held conferences with Republican leaders in order to consider their views on the economic stimulus package, he compromised early and on significant issues, he arranged a cordial get-together after the vote in hopes of extending what he thought was the beginning of bipartisan governance —Obama has built a bridge to nowhere as House Republicans voted unanimously against the economic stimulus package that everyone says is needed. The complaint from the Repubs is that it contains too much "pork" and not enough stimulus; that the cost is just too great to contemplate; not enough tax breaks for the business/wealth sector.

Pork? The Republican controlled Congress under President George W. Bush grilled more pig meat than there was BBQ sauce to cover it. Cost? The Republican Congress under President Bush spent a trillion dollar surplus and left the country its largest debt ever. Tax breaks? The Republican Congress under Bush gave more tax breaks to the wealthy than any prior Administration.

Welcome to Washington, Mr. President. You're a Superman fan. You should understand exactly where you are now: Bizarro World, where everything is upside down and turned around; where the People's representatives actually stand up in front of cameras that record their every utterance for posterity and unabashedly use creative rhetoric/semantics (lies) that would put a blush on the face of a Liar King; where those whose responsibility was to protect the People's democratic franchise decided to abrogate that trust and failed to regulate the greed-based deviousness that caused a massive, worldwide economic meltdown; where the People's representatives again and again sought to give more of the People's hard-earned money to those very few in the highest rarified income brackets without a single contract as to what that give-away would secure for the People.

Now, these same Republicans stand up and whine that the fix is worse than the "criminality" they aided and abetted. Of course, due to the monied status of those top echelon criminals and the fact that government cannot look into the books of private corporations, no one will ever be charged. An entire world will suffer because of an extremely few trough feeders yet the pigs won't be brought to slaughter. [Author's Note: I apologize to that "other white meat" porcine demographic for besmirching their name.]

What mainline media won't ever admit is this: Republicans are a joke! They have zero grasp of what needs to be done. Their understanding of issues is pathetically shallow; just ask any Repub to explain their stance on ANY issue and you'll hear clichés without any substance whatsoever. Go ahead, try it. Ask a question beyond the clichéd responses and you'll get sputtering repetition of the same clichés. Press for facts and you'll probably be called a "Liberal" and dismissed. Too harsh? Sarah Palin…'nuff said, right! Without clichés, what did she bring to the table? What grasp of issues did she/does she have? Don't forget, she's being hailed as one of the Repub's "best and brightest" which I don't doubt is true. Let's face it, Republicans are all about rationalizing their greed and their underhanded methods of gaining same. They wear the Stars and Bars on their sleeves, flaunt their patriotism and religion even as they do the devil's work of thieving, maiming and cheating. Then they have the audacity to lie about their acts of brutality to such an extent as to sanctify them, to make their lack of compassion for their victims a mark of altruism and lest we forget that Republican mantra of "more for me" at every turn via myriad tax deductions, payment in lieu of tax schemes and equipment depreciation write-offs, etc. etc. etc.!

I think it's about time that liberals begin to call a hog a hog, to call a liar a liar, to call a bankrupt ideology a bankrupt ideology and let it disintegrate into the dustbin of history where it belongs. From Intelligent Design to Entrepreneurial Risk Taking to Businessmen Know Best to God Blessing America, we have a long, long series of baseless mythology serving as rationalization for self-absorbed behaviors that are engaged in to further feather one's own nests at the expense of billions of human beings. Of course, none of this would be possible with an intelligent citizenry. Unfortunately, Americans by and large are as ignorant as the Republicans, hence the nearly 50 – 50 split in the vote with half the electorate pledging its allegiance to the Republican party as opposed to America and Americans. How else can one explain the success of dimwits like Hannity and Limbaugh, Coulter and Ingraham?

We saw President Obama sitting with VP Biden and Treasury Secretary Geithner chastising Wall Street/High Finance demanding these sectors act with more responsibility and accountability and transparency. Nice photo op. However, with a Democratic controlled Congress and a Democratic President, why waste time talking, pleading, wringing the hands? Simply pass legislation that will regulate the greed and harness the unbridled selfishness of that monied class. How about telling the Few that it's now time for the many to rise on that sea-swell of wealth having risen higher and higher with every succeeding President since Reagan with his "voodoo economics" and "trickle down" absurdity? Why not say enough?!

Because America is a nation with schizophrenic substrate: A Representative Democracy merged with Capitalism.

Those Few holding most assets and making the most money call the shots. Of course, in a democracy the People are supposed to be doing that. But, whenever government attempts to do well by the People, the Few put the kibosh on it; call it PORK. When government attempts to put the People first, the Few put the kibosh on it; call it TOO COSTLY. When government attempts to control the "private sector" the Few put a kibosh on it; call it Socialism and demand more TAX BREAKS.

With the above paragraph in mind, recall all those many times when the Few wanted more feed in the trough. They promised jobs would be the result. Yet once finished with their gluttonous frenzy the jobs never materialized. Full employment is defined as anything less than 5 percent unemployed. Anyone who has taken the time to investigate the employment issue will have discovered that the actual number of unemployed and underemployed is double to triple that percentage; these poor unfortunates are the waste inherent in a capitalist system. Full employment would bite into profit margins. Employment with benefits cut into the profit margin. Giving people a decent living wage cuts into the profit margin. As Capitalism has developed from reasonable rate of return on one's investment to annular what-the-market-will-bear increase in profits, more and more people are expected to work for less and less; less wages; less benefits.

As more and more people become jobless, less and less taxes are exacted thereby weakening government. As this business/financial crisis progresses, government's need to help becomes more dire even as the funding for helping becomes less due to revenues being curtailed. So, who controls the United States? Government is unwilling to flex its muscles for fear of alienating the monied class, those pulling the strings. The conventional caution is that trying to do too much for the People and the monied elites will object by pulling back their money and letting the shit hit the fan. But, isn't that what's happening now? Even as government has, since Reagan, "grabbed its ankles" for the capitalists again and again, even as these capitalists have made obscene amounts of profit, even as more and more money and well-being has been thieved from the People, we've arrived at this crisis.

The unspoken fallacy of American democracy is that capitalists operate in their own interests not America's interest. Government exists to benefit the monied class, to provide an educated workforce, infrastructure to advance capitalist agendas (increasing capital), using police powers to protect the Few's assets from the horde and military power to secure whatever raw materials are needed to further the capitalist's prime directive: Mo' money! America is first and foremost about capitalism, not democracy.

The bridge we need built is one extending from the People to democratic governance where Congress and Senate and President work to better serve the ideals inherent in the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (the words' meaning); not to serve elite interests at every turn (Founding Fathers' original intent). If Republicanism continues to be synonymous with Capitalism, then we do not need bipartisanship. Let Democrats take the reins of their majority and drive this nation towards true democracy guided by the light of long-held American principles of equality and fairness, seeking to better the nation, its people and the world.

How Long Is An Eternity?

Three weeks of unmitigated assault. Three weeks of murdering and wounding thousands of innocents. Three weeks of crimes against humanity. Three weeks of infrastructural decimation. Three weeks of wholesale lying by America's media. Three weeks for the atrocity to end. Gaza is in ruins. An eternity of three weeks.

Through it all, President Barack Hussein Obama remained silent on Israel's latest terroristic brutality. Then, in his inaugural speech he clearly chastised militant Islamists for their fight against Zionist oppression. Alluding to same he condemns any nuclear ambitions even as he categorized oil producing nations as our adversaries. With the whole world watching, President Obama had a platform to begin a true peace process long, long overdue. All he had to do was to denounce Israeli violence, hold Israel to account for its illegally assembled nuclear arsenal and promise the Arab world a fair hearing of its grievances.

A new age would have dawned.

The world will have to wait for that distant sunrise.

For, President Obama instead chose to re-issue George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" warning replete with a total one-sidedness of point-of-view/official mythology; also termed Empire Denial. Supporters kept repeating the idea that Obama couldn't speak up due to his not being sworn in yet. Well, what's the excuse now?

If his inaugural speech wasn't offensive enough, we have his just-released official statement as regards the Israeli invasion of Gaza. Be honest. It's essentially the same as W's position. And, Clinton's before that. And George the Elder's before that; the very same stance dating all the way back to 1948. America and Israel will decide who are the bonafide Palestinian leaders. America and Israel will decide how much of nothing is enough for an eventual Palestinian state that will never be free of Israeli interference. America and Israel will decide who can break UN Resolutions and who cannot, who can commit violations of International Law and who cannot. America and Israel will decide what the ratio of dead must be before "crimes against humanity" will apply; in this case Palestinians suffered 1400 dead and 5500 wounded, with most being civilians compared to 13 Israeli deaths, 10 of them military personnel, four of those dead from friendly fire, the other three, civilians. This ratio apparently does not reach President Obama's threshold for calling an atrocity an atrocity. Instead, he is actually demanding that Hamas agrees to accept Israel's existence (or the illegal occupation of Palestine) and abide by past agreements even as Israel has ignored every UN Resolution issued as regards their illegal occupation and settlement of Palestine. Just another case of demanding preconditions of Palestinians while asking nothing of Israel.

Israel likes to claim it isn't in occupation of Gaza. Technically correct. However, having surrounded Gaza with border fencing and check points by the dozens, Israel has essentially imprisoned Gaza since Hamas won a fair democratic election. But, the wrong side won so Israel had no alternative but to make life a living hell. A total blockade action by Israel stopped food and medical supplies from freely flowing into the strip. Daily humiliations by Israeli troops treating Palestinians like animals had to be endured. This blockade stopped people from being able to work. People could not make money. Those that did find work could not get paid. Living conditions steadily eroded to beyond atrocious. Yet still did the people stay loyal to their elected representatives. The Arab world-- once again --sent a very strong, clear message [Beirut Declaration; March 2002] that it was willing to grant Israel everything it claims to have wanted: Full recognition of Israel's right to exist. Full diplomatic relationships. Full economic openness between countries. All that in exchange for a Palestinian state configured on pre-1967 borders with shared Jerusalem.

As of yet Israel remains silent on that proposal first offered six years ago.

Determined to break the Palestinian population, Israel went covert just weeks before the previous truce agreement was to expire, sending in special teams to assassinate Hamas leaders; murdering representatives democratically elected by their people. Hamas responded with crude Qassam missiles even as they demanded that Israel end the blockade and allow Gaza to function by opening the border crossings. Israel launched a vicious aerial invasion that quickly destroyed Gaza's main infrastructure, killed many civilians and then, not satisfied with the mayhem visited on a defenseless population, renewed its crimes against humanity by using white phosphorous bombs and artillery shells, firing on schools and hospitals and UN sanctuaries.

President Obama has delivered a rousing speech emphasizing the responsibility we Americans must shoulder. But, how can a nation fed lies ever hope to understand what their responsibility is? The "common Joe" sanctifies Israeli aggressions. Americans are inundated with pro-Israeli propaganda from every angle and every venue; like the political cartoon that showed a hapless young Israeli couple (the woman cradling a baby) cowering beneath a barrage of missiles raining down upon them; the missiles from the left carrying the message Hamas Missiles, the missiles from the right, reading World Condemnation.

Israel brutally murders 1400 people, most of them children, and Americans are drowned in images and words portraying Israelis as the victims. In 2009 America, George Orwell's famous quote is so apropos as to be eerie: "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

I see a video being harped on the internet showing Gaza supporters in America demonstrating against Israel's murderous rampage saying some pretty hateful things. That video is being used by a group calling itself ACT for America that describes its mission thusly: "ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America's national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam." Act for America offers articles like this, The Face Of Militant Islam. Laughable if it wasn't so pathetic, so typically American; upset that citizens exercise their First Amendment right to petition the government as regards the redress of their grievances— in this case the mass murder of civilians by Israelis gone wild –our "patriots" scold them for their heinous speechifying.

We now will see an American "left" rejoicing our new President; the symbolic breaking of a recent past that enslaved people of color. That great sigh of relief and slap upon our collective back will last well beyond Obama's two terms. Republicans will gripe about the "tax and spend liberals" while Democrats saturate the media with their own spin vis-à-vis the Shock Doctrine applied in the guise of bail outs that will do nothing to fix the system.

Oh, to be sure, America and the rest of the world will leap over this current abyss. Whenever the Doom and Gloomers start up, you can always dismiss them because one thing we Americans know for sure: Those few that got want more and they need humans to do their dirty work. So, jobs will return. Houses will be bought. Fetish consumerism will continue after a brief hiatus.

And, as sure as greed is a Capitalist's creed, Israel will continue its immoral, illegal occupation of Palestine. Israel will continue to flaunt all conventions of decency. And what will the "left" do when Obama continues to chastise the victims even as his Israeli citizen Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, assures him that this skewed, hypocritical stance, one premised on lies and deceit and a cold-bloodedness that escapes human dimension, promulgated by the fiction of Israeli righteousness, is the correct path to take if terrorism is to be ended?

The "left" will take their seats squarely in the center-right. They should then start counting the days until the next 9/11…Only this time the "left" will be fully complicit.

Gazatrocity

24 Israeli deaths in 7 years are attributed to Hamas-fired missiles and/or mortar fire emanating from Gaza. Since December 27, 2008 (just 16 days) renewed Israeli military bullyism has caused a Palestinian death toll approaching 900 dead and 3500 injured. Israel claims "most" of the casualties/fatalities are Palestinian police and militants (even as the UN claims half are civilians) so America shrugs its collective shoulders, yawns and praises the murderers even as it ignores the murdered. The White House blames the victims. Even President-elect Barack "Change" Obama states the same ol' same ol' about Israel having to defend itself and the media is quick to repackage his purported comment about how he'd react if his own family was threatened. American media continually regurgitate Israeli propaganda about how half a million Israeli citizens are at risk, terrorized by Qassam rockets; those pathetic devices responsible for the two dozen deaths mentioned above. Poor little Israel. What else could the beleaguered democracy do?

Well, for starters, Israel could live up to the plethora of UN Resolutions it has ignored for decades. Israel could stop its illegal, brutal occupation of Palestine. Israel could actually come to the peace table without self-genocidal preconditions demanded of its victims. Israel could end settlement infringement into Palestinian territories the first requirement of the "Road Map to Peace." Israel could honor the Hamas leadership democratically elected by the Palestinian people living in Gaza. Israel could end the eighteen month long blockade of Gaza which is the primary reason Hamas resumed rocket launches after the expiration (19 December 2008) of the cease fire agreement.

The fact that Hamas is a legitimate political entity duly elected by the people seems to escape American media outlets. The fact that directly after the pre-mentioned election victory by Hamas, the West stopped all humanitarian and monetary aid at Israel's demand thereby creating an impossible situation that could only exacerbate the inhuman conditions caused by sixty years of Israeli occupation worse than South Africa's immanently immoral apartheid rule is somehow lost. The fact that an entire world sees through the blatant hypocrisy of American support for Israel even as it condemns everything of which Israel is guilty, does not yet register on the American psyche. Americans still think 9/11 was the result of freedom hating Islamofascists.

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Al-Mezan Center (Gaza) put out a statement that describes the terror being perpetrated on innocent Palestinians. "Targeting of civilians and/of medical facilities is a breach of international humanitarian law. The targets chosen by the Israeli military include also clearly civilian installations. As occupying power currently in effective control of the area, Israel, which is currently carrying out a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip, must bear responsibility for the wounded of the attack, enable their access to hospitals able to care for them, respect medical neutrality of related facilities and allow entry of all necessary medical supplies for hospitals to be able to handle the wounded people."

Israeli leaders to PHR, "What's that you say? Here's another round of aerial bombardment for you."

Which brings me to the video interview given by Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, those Israeli leaders responsible for the current atrocity. Watch as Olmert gives his best performance for a dramatic role as he basically repeats the same sentiments uttered by Zionist leaders since the inception of the unilateral decision for the Jewish return to Palestine (aliyah) back in 1882 which essentially began an illegal land grab of colossal dimension: "Why…oh, why must you force us to murder you and your children?"

Americans have no cognizance of the fact that the Palestinian historical narrative is one of supreme courage in the face of enormous danger; of a people fighting for their land, their people and, indeed, their very culture; fighting against a rabid, foaming-mouthed foe backed by a brutal empire with ruthless designs for world domination. How could they? Media is absolutely negligent in bringing an unbiased point of view to the American people. Imagine the Middle East's only "democracy" terrorizing another democracy. Not possible? Google "Hamas wins elections" and see what comes up. Not a single reference to the FACT that Hamas won a valid, monitored, fair democratic election. See how easily reality is expunged from reality?

But, with this renewed round of pain and suffering at the hands of Zionist aggressors, Palestinians around the world once again lift their heads in defiance. Again they renew their resolve to reclaim their land, their rights, their humanity so viciously thieved over a century by Zionist transgressions. Their souls are strengthened by a desire to avenge yet more thousands of innocents' murdered and maimed. And, clear on their grief-stuck faces is the determination to stop the carnage and reverse the power equation. What else to live for but to drive these Zionist demons into the sea and reclaim what is rightfully theirs?

Israel is committing suicide. Should we intervene to stop it? Rather, we should applaud it for doing so and pull the rope tighter so that the noose closes more quickly.

Or, if you're a lover of the renegade state (the only nation in the world refusing to stipulate what its borders are), then you should besiege your representatives urging that America immediately cuts off all aid to Israel and then demands Israel cease and desist its bloodlust, that Israel adhere to the pertinent UN Resolutions regarding giving back the territories it occupies illegally, that Israel dismantle ALL settlements as they are in violation of International Law, that Israel immediately agrees to a two-state solution, that Israel admits that Hamas is, as was the PLO, completely within the bounds of International Law to resist by any means necessary (including militarily) the occupation of their homeland, and demanding further that Israel gives up its nuclear bombs and missiles, signs the nuclear non-proliferation act and submit to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. This is just the very preliminary beginning. Either Israel complies or the United States will discontinue all military and monetary support. For until that happens, terrorist attacks against America and its citizens will occur as a justifiable response to Israel's usurpation and occupation of Palestine.

Shock and Awe? No, Schlock and Flaw. A trashy historiography premised upon the fiction of "A land with no people, for a people with no land." Israel lies and America hears "truth". Israel aggressively murders yet America sees Israelis as victims. Israel violates every agreement, does not honor UN Resolutions yet America sees Palestinians in violation. Israel wrings its blood-dripping hands and cries crocodile tears for the victims it murders. With every contradiction, the hypocrisy gauge swells to bursting forth righteous indignation that will keep the hate hot and lethal and justified.

But, sadly, nothing is likely to happen here to change the dynamics. Barack Obama will only hear stale Zionist fables from Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and he'll keep believing Israel is guiltless when in actuality, Israel is the second sickest terrorist nation in the world.

May your (g)God(s) have mercy on Palestinian souls. But, also, may your (g)God(s) get off Its/Their ass(es) and smite the evil transgressor, Zionist Israel. Only then will justice be served.

Ah, yes, justice. Another example of change that ain't a-comin' anytime soon.

Capitalists To Taxpayers: Fuck You Very Much!

As no doubt even homeless, piss-drunk vagabonds encamped around the burn barrel understand, Bush's Troubled Asset Relief Program—which extorted $700 Billion of US taxpayer money, equivalent to the Netherlands' entire economy, and redistributed it to financial institutions – is an unwarranted reward for staggering greed and outright thievery bestowed upon those least worthy. The Associated Press (AP) attempted to follow up on that "gift" by asking banks in receipt of a minimum of $1 Billion in bailout funds four simple questions: "How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings? What's the plan for the rest?"

Of the banks questioned, here were some of their responses: "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to," said Thomas Kelly from JPMorgan Chase. "We're not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking," said Barry Koling of SunTrust Banks, Inc. "We are going to decline to comment on your story," emailed Carissa Ramirez of Morgan Stanley. "We're not sharing any other details. We're just not at this time," said Wendy Walker of Comerica Inc. "We're choosing not to disclose that," stated Kevin Heine, spokesperson for Bank of New York Mellon before adding, "I just would prefer if you wouldn't say that we're not going to discuss those details."

Let's see, $25 Billion to JPMorgan Chase, $3.5 Billion to Sun Trust Banks, Inc., $2.25 Billion to Comerica Inc., the others mentioned at least a Billion per which accounts for nearly $33 Billion for just these few banks. And what thanks do we, the American taxpayers, receive from the beneficiaries of our expropriated $700 Billion gift in this festive season of joy, good tidings and giving? That's right, a single-fingered salute a-la-la-la.

How can that be? You might ask with as much righteous indignation as you can muster. And, the answer? "Congress attached nearly no strings to the $700 Billion bailout in October. And the Treasury Department, which doles out the money, never asked banks how it would be spent." Elizabeth Warren, "the congressional watchdog appointed by Democrats, said…'If the appropriate restrictions were put on the money to begin with, if the appropriate transparency was in place, then we wouldn't be in a position where you're trying to call every recipient and get the basic information that should already be in public documents'."

Congressman Scott Garrett, R-NJ, a House Financial Services Committee member remarked that questions like, "Where is the money going to go? How is it going to be spent? When are we going to get a record on it?" were "legitimate questions that should have been asked on Day One." NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!

So, ask yourself this, how can it be possible that 535 legislators—you know, our Senators and Congressional Reps, those that literally WRITE the laws of the land, many if not most of whom are attorneys – didn't think to include terms for basic accounting disclosure on monetary outlay of such monumental proportions as the TARP give-away? An oversight of stunning blindness. Or, was it willing blindness? The same sort of denial our representatives have shown since Reagan every time closer scrutiny and more regulatory intervention is warranted due to a financial crisis predicated on sheer hoggishness? Because, once again, we get the same outcome: Oops, we did it again! Silly us. Now, gimme yo' money!

The only difference for this TARP deal is that the criminals responsible for the crisis to begin with are telling the government to go fuck itself even as they grab the bag o' bailout loot. Wow. Some chutzpah, huh?

Now, for perfect contextual irony, remember that the proponents of deregulated, laissez faire markets, the very environment that has caused repeated financial crises including this one, the mother of all financial storms, these same cheerleaders for unrestrained Capitalism are called Chicago School economists, or von Mises Institute devotees, whose god is Milton Friedman, the very man who came up with the Federal Withholding Tax. You know what that is. That's the government's ability to know what you make and deduct from your paycheck taxes due; this, before you even have access to your own paycheck. Which means the government knows exactly how much you've earned and how much they need from you. Now, Friedmanites in unanimous voice tell the American people to shut the fuck up about knowing their business of where the finances are going even as those finances are some of what was taken out of your paycheck.

How could this be? Well, the only need for government as far as the Friedmanites are concerned, is to safeguard private property (34.3 percent accumulated at the top one percent of American families; 71 percent in the hands of just the top 10 percent). That includes military/police so that the hordes can be beaten back when the tide of extinction threatens to drown them and they violently object. Also, by use of the withholding tax, government can assure it gets enough tax money to build the infrastructure required for commerce and to educate the workforce so our companies can remain competitive in the global economy. Let's see, anything left out? No, that's pretty much the only use for government as far as the Friedmanites are concerned; making sure there's muscle to protect what they've amassed, provide for the necessary infrastructure components, fund the research and development required and educate a knowledgeable class of drones so that even more wealth can accrue to the few who already have and, finally, with full force of the law government redistributing worker wealth earned to the top via financial bailout trillions.

Now the Dems, who by the way do have a majority in both houses, want the rest of the bailout ransom before Obama gets in office. Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, the same guy that chastised the banks just weeks ago for using bailout money to acquire more assets for bank shareholders when that money was to be used for credit purposes, now wants to make sure money is channeled towards "stemming foreclosures and reducing mortgage rates." He claims that the new bill being fashioned would "impose tighter restrictions on the second $350 Billion of the bailout funds, such as requiring banks to report on their new lending every quarter and toughening limits on executive compensation." Again, for review, the government looks into your shit every week via paycheck withholding while it'll be looking at the criminals' business activity every three months with still as yet no mention of including language in the bill to assure absolute transactional transparency. Oh, as to the prior mention of shareholders' benefit? No, that does not include the American people even though government bought into these same banks via bailout money. You must learn that only the costs are to be shared among the people while profits accrue to only the top few.

So, midst this heady intoxicating era of change, we have a Democratic controlled government afraid to demand of finance/big business what is demanded of every working American, a full-accounting of their income and their fair share of the national burden. Barney Frank huffs and puffs about putting $24 Billion in bailout money towards modifying mortgage rates so 1.5 million foreclosures won't happen. Double that number to $48 Billion and the entire cluster of pending American foreclosures (approximately 2.25 million) would be averted. Remember now, the reason given again and again for the staggering financial mess we're in is defaulting mortgages. Correct? So, ask yourself this: If putting up $48 billion dollars would stop the trigger being pulled (via Credit Default Swaps), why are Americans being asked to pony up $8 Trillion? Again, to juxtapose two bits of reality, the Treasury Department just earmarked an additional $250 Billion to buy stock in Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., and JPMorgan Chase & Co., with an additional $40 Billion in capital to AIG Inc., yet our representatives are still at the pleading stage, begging on behalf of American families while the elites get carte blanche. Too afraid to regulate over the course of three and a half decades, our representatives kowtowed to Friedmanites' extortive schemes. That shit has surely hit the fan yet we still have a government too afraid to demand of Free Market Capitalism what is required: A full, transparent accounting. Clear regulations on what the bailout money can be used for. Payback provisions to make the American people once again whole. And, strict regulatory oversight forever more with heavy criminal penalties to be exacted should such greedy practices ever again rear their ugly heads. In other words, demanding via legislation that Capitalism works for the people and not against them.

Will this happen? Well, maybe if you're the type to believe in Santa Claus or Saint Obama.

Yes, folks, 'tis the season for financial folly, fa-la-la-la-la and fuck you very much!

Sole Brother

Finally, a "perfect storm" of insults was hurled at the "leader of the Free World" the President of the United States for his pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign nation, his indiscriminate killing of civilians, his decimation of a civilization's cultural identity. As has been his wont, he ducked, bobbed and weaved, but there is no avoiding the fact that this was/still is/will always remain Bush's blunder. Well, his and his cadre of "best and brightest;" Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Libby, Abrams, Bolton; collectively the PNAC. These were Bush's behind-the-scenes folk, remnants from the Reagan era, domino theorizing Cold Warriors that never defrosted upon the collapse of the Soviet Union thereby disproving that theory used to extract some $6 Trillion dollars over four decades from the American people fighting a hobgoblin called Communism. If you want to know why the United States really went to war with Iraq, read my article Operation Iraqi Freedom: The Why of War written two weeks prior to the invasion (with tense-change edits after the fact) meaning the charge of WMDs was known to be a false premise prior to unleashing our sick Shock and Awe devastation.

Approaching six years after our Mission Accomplished boast, George "W" Bush took an ill-advised in-your-face farewell "victory" lap and was slapped with the reality of his hubris. Iraq is not won over. As stipulated prior to the invasion of 2003, it is not possible to bring "acceptable" democracy to this nation where 60 percent of the population are Shiite with a long history of being brutally oppressed by a minority Sunni population unless the United States is ready to accept radical Islamic dominance as governing authority. Once the American presence is gone, Iraq will become a gigantic free-for-all with Shi'a Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army as rising star.

American forces are now to be redirected into Afghanistan in order to defeat terrorism. Pathetically absurd. So obviously wrong-headed that it shouldn't need to be explained. Yet, a majority of Americans are not only biting, but swallowing whole this ludicrous notion. If we are to stop terrorism, we must go to the source of such lethal animosity. That source is Israel. Public Enemy #1, Osama bin Laden himself, in a speech dated 29 October 2004 stated, "People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results. Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom… No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours. No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again. But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception, and hiding from you the real causes. And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred. So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider. I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind. The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982, when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began, and many were killed and injured, and others were terrorized and displaced. I couldn't forget those moving scenes: blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy. The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child, powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole world saw and heard, but it didn't respond. In those difficult moments, many hard-to-describe ideas bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors."

The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon of which bin Laden spoke: some 20,000 civilians lost their lives in the first couple of days of savage, unilateral bombardment; citizens of village sabra-shatilla were massacred then bulldozed en masse into mass graves; the paper of record The New York Times failed to report any of the preceding; NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote a big, thick award winning book From Beirut to Jerusalem and failed to mention the preceding facts; not to mention that despite a bloody century-long history of Zionist usurpation and occupation of Palestine, despite the daily humiliations inflicted on millions of Palestinians, despite the utter hypocrisy of America's stance on nuclear proliferation when Israel has more missile ready nukes at their disposal than all "terrorist" countries combined and yet remains beyond the bounds of accounting for this untoward transgression, despite the Arab world's impotence vis-à-vis American Empire backing of mad dog Israel's repeated asymmetrical aggressions against millions of Palestinians, despite Israel's illegal forays into sovereign airspace and bombing Iraq's nuclear facilities, despite a history of ignoring more United Nations resolutions than any other nation in the world, despite the century of terrorism perpetrated by Israel against the regions minions, only then did it occur to bin Laden that retribution was in order.

Wouldn't any reasonable person conclude that Osama bin Laden is quite a restrained individual rather than the wild and wooly blood-thirsty psychotic that he's portrayed to be? The man tells us what it's all about. And?

President-elect Obama has stated his intention to root out terrorism by putting more troops into Afghanistan. This will, once again (a la Bush), create a magnate for radicalized mujahedeen to learn their trade and make connections for strengthening their war against the oppressors. That's us as in U.S.

All of the above and now the devastation of Iraq along with abuses of Abu Ghraib serve as daily context for an entire people. The Arab sees reality through the lens of reality. And so it was, this huge burden of abuse and outrage brutally shouldered without mercy for a century, weighing on the mind of Muntadar al-Zaidi as he witnessed the indifferent Bush chanting his mantra of victory even as the objective of American invasion is lost forever. No doubt overcome by such effrontery, al-Zaidi sought to express his outrage with the worst insults available to his culture. He removed his shoe and yelled "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is a farewell kiss, you dog!" before hurling the shoe at the sneering Bush. "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," he yelled before hurling his other shoe.

Yet, what did our President take away from this occurrence? "That's what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves;" this, as al-Zaidi was heard screaming "like a woman" as one of Prime Minister Maliki's stooges reported upon the beating by security guards. While across the face of a planet, countless legions make room in their hearts for another true peoples' hero, Muntadar al-Zaidi.

Okay, you've read this. Go read my article mentioned above. Then, tell me, how proud you are to be an American?

To Thine Own Self Be True

No matter where one turns you hear/read rationalizations and excuses being offered for President-elect Obama's picks for Chief-of-Staff, cabinet posts and his economic team of advisors. The babble goes something like this: In order to rule effectively you must govern from the center. Ideologues are trouble, be they from the right or the left of the political spectrum. Obama's picks show his genius for surrounding himself with those that differ greatly from his points-of-view which will allow vigorous debate; very Lincolnesque. His picks are the "best and brightest" available to solve America's problems.

What is completely absent from the above post-election spin is the substrate reality that the political center—since Ronald Reagan's first term –had been pulled so far right that Bill Clinton actually seemed progressive. You remember him? The guy who accomplished what Reagan could only dream, brutally ending welfare, not even allowing monies to pay for day care for the children of single mothers forced off the dole and into the workplace thereby saving taxpayers billions of dollars while destroying a generation of poor as those mothers were forced to work for paltry salaries that were stretched even thinner by having to pay for their own child care during the hours they worked for minimum wages. Americans cheered; especially the fat pigs at the top who decried such giveaways to Welfare Queens driving Cadillacs (as Reagan portrayed these unfortunate women). The extant reality-- that up to ten times the amount of welfare money spent on single women w/children went (and continues to accrue) to corporate entities that need no monetary assistance --is never brought in to muddy up the preferred context.

Bill Clinton was the guy who championed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) that promised a globalized economy would make America prosperous again by allowing it to sell its manufactures and services without binding hindrances all around the world. Of course, rarely if ever discussed in the media was the fact that such hopes were incredibly naïve at best or, more likely, they were so much rhetoric without merit. For the reality of global trade is this: Ask yourself, how much money do you need to make to live? And, I'm not talking about living the high-life nor even a middle-class lumpen bourgeoisie existence, but rather, the merest survival mode. I'm sure most of you would say you'd need more than a $10 an hour job to survive. Yet, even that meager wage comes to $20,800 if you consider a forty hour week for fifty-two weeks. A quick examination of per capita income around the globe shows us that just 12 economies account for more than two-thirds of the world's output and but 14 percent of the world's people. Once moving down the list of 146 nations, only 26 show per capita incomes higher than $20,800. Move 34 countries down the list and the figure drops below $10,000. Ask yourself, How can people from nations with such low per capita incomes buy anything at all made in America when U.S. working wages are where they must be in order for people to just barely survive? They cannot. So, who benefits from such free trade agreements? At the time of NAFTA passage we heard that Americans would be able to expand their export products (with the attendant promise of producing more jobs) and cheaper goods would be available from other countries. The problem there is only folks that can afford to buy American (usually for status and not quality) are those living in the top 12 economies or basically European nations with Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore in the mix. Price European goods (if you can find them in our stores) and you'll see quite some expense. The $10 an hour worker isn't buying German goods at their regional WalMart/Sam's Club. So, what country's goods do you find in the bulk of American stores? China, of course. Where do the Chinese come down on the income list? At $2010, just below Swaziland and Tonga. How many Chinese can afford to buy American? Not many. How many Americans can afford to buy Chinese goods? Pretty much 300 million of 'em. While being promised exportation of goods, our trade deficit has sky-rocketed (from 3.7 percent of GDP or 369.7 Billion dollars in 2000 to $1.4 Trillion dollars in 2008 or roughly 5 percent of GDP); joblessness is sharply up, manufacturing is in a state of lingering demise all of which prompts demands that unions must accede to less: Less in wages for more hours worked. Less in benefits. Less safety in the work place.

William Jefferson Clinton was the President that signed into law the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 that essentially made it illegal to regulate the very shenanigans responsible for the current financial crisis. Yeah, that Bill Clinton.

The point being, Bill Clinton didn't tug the "center" back to true middle ground he merely nudged it in that direction. Therefore, calls to now rule from the current skewed "center" is to run things from the right: A continuation of bailing out those responsible for gaming the system to nourish their own nest eggs even as they take that new taxpayer money and buy up smaller assets once again nourishing only their own nest eggs. Thereby fucking up again by being too incredibly blatant in their thievery that the shit should hit the fan. Not to worry. Costs paid for by the public. Start it all over. New profits accrue to a few. Yet, claim change is upon us even as more taxpayer money is promised to the very next bunch of greedy bastards with hats in hand asking for a bailout due to their own insatiable craving for more and more wealth. Anyone suspect a circle-jerk goin' on?!

So, please, don't be duped into thinking there will be governance from the "center." The mantra of "run government like business" should once and for all be banished from the common lexicon, but won't be. And, the "center" will remain firmly rightward to the distinct benefit of elite interests.

As for Obama's picks? Let's review: A rabid Zionist, the Father of the devastating International Debt Spiral, several more Chicago School Friedmanites fresh from a decade of whoring the system without a single call between them to regulate the spreading contagion, W's very own Secretary of War, a "We'll Nuke In Israel's Defense of their Defenseless Offenses " Secretary of State. Well, you get the picture. Or should. Rather than having constructed a surround-sound system of differing opinion, Obama has assured he'll be getting old-school advice that will drown out competing ideas especially any that emanate left of the current right-"center."

As for the best and brightest argument, there was a time back in the day exactly the same phrase was used for the cadre of President's men that were hand-picked for their intellectual prowess. It was during Camelot, the reign of John F. Kennedy. Those "best and brightest" got us deeper into Viet Nam ultimately to the tune of murdering some two million Vietnamese, literally laying to waste an entire country, saving it by destroying it. Those "eggheads" brought us the Bay of Pigs and repeated assassination attempts against a true peoples' hero. Kennedy himself championed an economic program for Latin America called the Alliance for Progress that did just the opposite of what was promised, viz., democratizing the entire hemisphere. In fact, the program yielded 17 more dictatorships throughout the region which declared open season on left of center individuals ushering in an era of state terror sanctioned and assisted by the United States against freedom loving people by the millions.

President-elect Obama, just yesterday on Meet the Press, is quoted as saying the first priority would be "shovel-ready" projects, those that could create jobs rights away. "The days of just pork coming out of Congress as a strategy those days are over," he added. As stated in prior blog, "pork" or "earmarks" are but a fraction of one percent of the Federal budget. Better he should have said, "The days of fucking the American people over and over are over!" Rather, he stays the line drawn in quicksand by the same financial wizards that got us into this mess, "We've got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilized. And that means that we can't worry short term about the deficit. We've got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving."

Now, I want you to remember that the McCain/Palin ticket actually expropriated Obama's message, claiming to be the agents of "change." Ask yourself this, had McCain won, wouldn't he have appointed the same people that created the financial mess with their philosophy of deregulation and laissez faire stating they would fix the problem? Wouldn't he have appointed people that are staunch pro-Zionist stating support for Israel right or wrong? And, had McCain won and was making the exact same statements as Obama has, would you be applauding as you now are? Or would you be hissing your disapproval at the scam of claiming more of the same is change?

To thine ownself be true. Now is not the time for silent relief. Now is the time for activists to put Obama's feet to the fire and demand he break from the policies of the past as fast as he can. He must broaden his base of advisors to include people like Paul Krugman or better yet Naomi Klein for financial advice. He must demand Israel finally adhere to the multitude of broken UN resolutions they so brazenly have flaunted since 1967 and give up their nuclear program and push for a Palestinian state; let him discuss same with Noam Chomsky for instance. He must demand governmental regulation of the market and never again allow such thievery to take place even as he demands the U.S. taxpayers be made whole when this fiasco turns the corner. He must pull, with all his might, the current "center" back to true center.

I believe Barack Obama is a man of deep convictions. I hope he decides to live those convictions rather than simply talk about them. To thine own self be true, indeed!

The Financial Crisis: An Explanation

Amazing that all reports to date have been uniformly erroneous as pertains to what exactly occurred, how it occurred and who were the responsible parties. We keep hearing that this mess in the financial markets is due to mortgage defaults. That's like saying a forest fire was caused by a match; true, perhaps but woefully inadequate for an explanation. An explanation must describe how the match was brought to the location, how it was struck, who carelessly threw a burning match down to the ground thereby starting the conflagration and whether the act was accidental or intended. While article after article states that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are the originators of this disaster, we will see, upon a more thorough analysis, that is not true. Such charges against the FMs are diversionary; meant to divert attention away from substrate reality. Much like when reporters ask financial experts what their explanations are, we get the same answers: The government is responsible because of oversight failure and deregulation legislation. The Fed (Federal Reserve) is responsible for policies that created "cheap credit". Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are responsible for their evolving philosophy of extending home ownership to as many Americans as possible.

Again, while those answers have some small measure of truth to them, do they accurately portray the real explanation? In a word, no! I've heard Chicago School advocates go so far as to claim the Fed has been responsible for every economic crisis, including the Great Depression, thereby laying blame upon the United States government; usually with much side-talk of Liberal spending practices and exorbitant taxation. Any unbiased look at the Congressional record will prove that any/all attempts at regulation of financial markets has given rise to such hue and cry the only legislation that passes concerns deregulation of those markets. In fact, the main cause of the current financial debacle stems from Credit Default Swaps, (CDS) "…invented in 1997 by a team working for JPMorgan Chase. Credit Default Swaps became legal, and illegal to regulate, with the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. They were introduced and rushed through congress as a companion bill, the last day before the Christmas holiday. It was never debated in the House or the Senate. The bill was 11,000 pages long. Less than a week after it was passed by congress, President Clinton signed it into Public Law (106-554) on December 21, 2000." Obviously, this major legislation was never even read by those passing it into law. As stated previously, up to $62 Trillion dollars has been invested in CDS which is said to be more than three times the combined worth of all economies (as measured by GDP; Gross Domestic Product which is the sum total of all goods and services) on Earth. These complex financial instruments were then bundled and sold; they are a significant part of nearly all portfolios worldwide. The value of these portfolios is now ambiguous as the value supposedly held in CDS is essentially worthless. This ambiguity in holdings is what has prompted the severe credit crunch as investors hold onto the money they do have; not knowing how much they are worth, people are not willing to risk any further investment.

While CDS are often compared to insurance like instruments for home and automobile, there is a huge difference: Such insurance policies involve loss of material assets that one owns. CDS were issued on suppositions of what might occur; like a business folding or mortgage defaulting. According to Time.com CDS "promise to cover losses on certain securities in the event of a default. They typically apply to municipal bonds, corporate debt and mortgage securities and are sold by banks, hedge funds and others. The buyer of the credit default insurance pays premiums over a period of time in return for peace of mind, knowing that losses will be covered if a default happens. It's supposed to work similarly to someone taking out home insurance to protect against losses from fire and theft…Except that it doesn't. Banks and insurance companies are regulated; the credit swaps market is not. As a result, contracts can be traded—or swapped –from investor to investor without anyone overseeing the trades to ensure the buyer has the resources to cover the losses if the security defaults. The instruments can be bought and sold from both ends – the insured and the insurer." These instruments padded portfolios even as they padded banks' ledgers with value that was hypothetical. But such value added gave the impression that more and more gains were accruing thereby enticing more and more investors to invest their money.

Do you see what I see? Ever hear of pyramid/Ponzi schemes? It's when money promised one investor can only come from ever-expanding the investor base to pay off those already invested. As you no doubt can figure out, the actual investments don't bring in enough money; it's the new investor money that purchases more leveraged instruments that add to the "growth" of an investment firm which serves to bring in even more new investor money. Such a scheme works as long as new investors offer a constant stream of revenue. However, as soon as new investors don't pump capital into the scheme, it collapses. This constitutes felonious activity prosecutable in a court of law. Yet, not word one as to anyone being so charged. Funny how "white collar" criminals never seem to get jacked up like regular folk caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Stealing crumbs? Go to jail. Fuck up a worldwide financial system? No golden parachute for you. Of course, some of those people responsible for the mess are now being tapped to solve the problem. When you consider that they probably should go to prison, being asked to work for only paltry government pay is supposed to be punishment enough? Need more? Already there are abuses using the bailout money which has prompted Congressman Barney Frank to state, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending--for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc.--is a violation of the act."

Which brings me to the near uniform "promise" coming from Obama and other Congressional leaders that CEOs will not be getting any bonus money from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. As if such bonuses/golden parachutes are at all the issue. It's meant to soothe the anger vis-à-vis public sentiment and calls for a revengeful response. Much like the "earmarks" issue brought up again and again during the campaign with most Americans against such "wasteful" spending when, in actuality, such perks amount to just $20 billion dollars in a $3 Trillion budget; or accounting for less than a fraction of one percent. But, we hear daily pledges against letting CEOs have a bonus package. This is not an endorsement for allowing those perks, but rather, a word of warning since the news media's uniform excuse for never giving adequate context to news stories is that space/time constraints don't allow for such detail, one must then ask themselves if wasting such precious space/time on pointless points of discussion isn't subterfuge?

Sure the collapse may have begun with defaulting mortgages whereby those holders of CDS wanted to collect their insurance money and the insurers had nowhere near enough cash to settle up; a scenario that multiplied across the face of the planet. But, it is the suspect nature of the CDS platform that lacks stability, not the mortgage market. Nationally less than six percent of prime mortgages are in default; approximately ten percent in Alt-A mortgages and about 16 percent in the infamous subprime mortgages. To consider the preceding percentages in a more positive (and informative) light, 94 percent of prime mortgages are still being paid; 90 percent of Alt-A mortgages are still being paid; 84 percent of subprime mortgages are still being paid. One should now see that mortgage defaults aren't the main problem. Creative thievery by a greedy financial sector is and has been the problem. To blame the FMs is ludicrous as combined the FMs hold about 20 percent of defaulted mortgages; many of these having been originated elsewhere, bundled with CDS and sold to the FMs. A common gripe from the Chicago School cadre is that they shouldn't be held accountable because the FMs offered such affordable rates and access to mortgages that the rest of the mortgage market players (commercial banks and mortgage lenders) were at a disadvantage, so of course, they were forced to compete by offering even better rates and shoddy due diligence as regards background checks which are undertaken to assure the people taking out these mortgages were making enough money to pay them off. These other mortgage market players then bundled the suspect mortgages with CDS and sold them to FMs. Now these same mortgage market players decry the Federal government for having attempted to expand the "ownership society" to include regular people with modest incomes. How is that wrong-headed? No one can dispute such ownership feeds the economy via multiplier effect (every house needs constant maintenance as well as house wares, etc.). And, every house has its nooks and crannies to cram with trinket-talismen (or what is called "fetish consumerism" that comprises as much as two-thirds of the U.S. economy). And, woe unto he that stands in the way of this particular expression of Savage Capitalism.

The actuality of this financial debacle is that the American Congress/Senate acquiesced to kneeling at the altar of deregulation thereby allowing Free Marketeers to game a system that was already totally in their favor. You see, the centuries-old mainstay of Capitalism or, a reasonable rate of return on one's investment, has since the era of Reagan been replaced with a what the market will bear philosophy. In such a climate, no perverse scheme of extortion is too much. Profits continued accruing to the very few at the very top. And, as has been now witnessed, once such extortive schemes collapse, the costs are to be shouldered by the people; regular folk by the millions now indebted through several generations to come.

Which brings us to President-elect Obama's campaign promises regarding rebuilding America's infrastructure, retooling its manufacturing base, funneling more money into the education system, not to mention the tax cut promised to 95 percent of American workers earning less than $250,000 a year. Not going to happen. Impossible in light of the massive outlays for the financial bailout which fattens an already too fat budget deficit (the National Debt interest alone at $451 Billion a year). It won't be long before we read about China's refusal to invest any more money in America (which has been a large part of deficit funding) because of fear that such loans will never be paid back. That will require huge sacrifices from the people starting with massive loss of jobs. Those lucky enough to keep their jobs will be forced to endure wage diminishment, benefit give-backs, continued inadequate health coverage, etc. etc. Retirement funds will evaporate. Social Security will wither and die. The safety net will unravel.

This scenario is a repeat of worldwide catastrophes detailed in "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. The American empire has peaked and is now in decline. The American people will soon learn how much of the world survives day-to-day without hope of any improvement in their lives. As has the Third World, Americans will now pay for the profligate ways of a tiny few. And, should we rise up in anger? Like the unfortunate masses have already experienced, we'll be put down by brute force of arms.

Buckle up, people. It's going to be one long bumpy ride to the other side.