Saturday, April 24, 2010

Boiling Point

If you’re an average American who works for wages you should be madder than hell, and if you’re not, well, maybe you’re deaf, dumb and blind, comatose from habitual drug use or just too damn busy trying to earn a living to pay attention to the heist that has been perpetrated on you for the last thirty years or so.

We’ve been bottle-fed poison Kool-Aid.

I’m talking the Reagan Revolution, supply side economics, union busting, disdain for the environment, and a steady expansion of corporate power at the expense of wage earners, consumers and, in some cases, stock holders. Ronnie rode tall in the saddle and spouted platitudes about the American Dream, hard work, pulling oneself up by his or her bootstraps, the glory of capitalism, shining cities on far away hills reserved for the very rich and fair skinned.

Nothing’s been the same since that seismic shift in the political landscape. Democrats panicked and moved rightward, closer to Reagan’s long shadow, and in the process abandoned their historical constituencies. Today, once you sift through the hyperbole and the posturing and the disinformation talking points, it’s impossible to tell a Democrat from a Republican; both take money from Big Business and worship at the crooked temple of crony capitalism.

We’ve been lied to.

Working people should be furious, steaming, bursting with rage, and these feelings should – unlike those light-skinned Tea Party whack jobs who are mainly pissed off at becoming a demographic minority and rail against liberals and phantom socialists because at least doing so gives them a target -- be directed where they belong and where they might make change possible.

We’ve been lulled to sleep by fairy tales and folk tales, myth and fantasy.

Here’s the truth: Goldman Sachs recently reported its first quarter earnings, a tidy sum of $3.5 billion. Not bad for a firm that was on the ropes and might have expired save for Henry Paulson and an infusion of our dollars; not bad for a firm that may soon be under investigation from the SEC, though that possibility is unlikely to keep the politically-connected folks at Goldman awake at night. They’ll take a hand slap for their pals in the financial services industry, if they have to, but then it will be back to business as usual. Goldman knows this, and so does the government. But the charade is useful on the off chance the public wakes up and realizes how thoroughly it has been deceived.

Timothy Geithner, Wall Street alum and current Treasury Secretary, was on ABC’s Good Morning America the other day, spinning his tale of financial industry reform. According to TG, legislation now worming its way through Congress will make future bank bailouts unlikely, prevent banks from growing into behemoths (too late, TG! the handful of major banks left are already behemoth-size and get to stay that way), and bring derivatives and other esoteric financial instruments out of the darkness and into the light of day. Oh, and TG also advanced the laughable fiction that the American economy is growing stronger. Yes, TG of Wall Street said that. He could just as well have claimed that white is black, black is white, nicotine isn’t addictive and Oxycontin is good for the soul.

Stronger? Cities, counties and state governments are broke, cutting back essential services that primarily benefit the poor, laying off workers, bitching about pension obligations, demanding wage concessions, firing teachers and shortening the school year. Unemployment is still sky high and the pace of home foreclosures isn’t slowing. Where except on Wall Street and K Street in Washington D.C. are these signs of strength? Get with the program, sucker: Wall Street investors and speculators are feeling optimistic, and what else matters in America but how the investor class feels? Our entire economy is organized to make the investor class happy.

Fuck Main Street.

Yeah, raging mad, short of breath, heart banging in the chest like a piston gone berserk. Every industry is too fucking big to fail: banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy, food. Under the banner of “capitalism” and “free enterprise” the corporate honchos and their lobbying firms wrote the rules that became the laws that allowed them to create profitable monopolies. And guess what? They have no intention of giving up those monopolies. CEO’s talk a good game about competition and how it brings out the best in people and companies and weeds out the weak, timid and slow, but it’s all bullshit. Like Russian mobsters, CEO’s want a rigged game and a reliable revenue stream. Why compete when you can acquire your competition and grow, grow, grow, free from anti-trust hassles?

We’ve been molested, like deaf altar boys.

Reagan’s homilies and Clinton’s betrayal of working people with NAFTA sent American jobs out of this country like roaches running from ultraviolet light; first it was Mexico, and after that Taiwan and Thailand, Vietnam, and then the Promised Land of cheap, exploitable labor: China. China, the corporate CEO’s wet dream. Cheap labor, no unions or pesky EPA regulations to grapple with, no OSHA headaches or wage disputes. China and Wal-Mart gave us low prices for people who make peanut wages – and this was, is, touted as a miraculous thing, that though you toil 40 hours a week for minimum wage at a dead-end job, you can still buy the latest crap at Wal-Mart. Thank you, China and your exploited workers. Then Bush Jr’s complete and total fucking of working people, the environment, and the constitution.

The campaign money, the lobbyists, the buying and selling of politicians, judges, regulators, pollsters and journalists that is now part and parcel of our political system have produced a bumper crop of social injustice.

Aren’t you sick of it?

Might as well get used to it because it’s probably here to stay.

Our rectums are bleeding, swollen, torn from the abuse we’ve taken at the hands of crooked politicians and criminal corporations. Take a good look around with your eyes wide open: note the devastation made possible by our collective passivity.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Who Are These People?

Let me make this clear at the outset: the Tea Party does not speak for me. I prefer to think for myself, speak for myself, and not be swayed by the worst excesses of a mob mentality.

Who do these people want to take the nation back from? Do they really think Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are socialists or are they just flat stupid, like their heroine, Sarah Palin? If Obama, Pelosi and Reid are socialists, I’m a fascist. The problem with Obama is not that he leans too far left but that he’s too wedded to the center. Putting Obama on a poster with Chairman Mao is like putting Adolf Hitler on the same poster with Saint Francis of Assisi – it just makes no sense.

Here’s another thing: I don’t mind paying my fair share of income taxes, as long as the money is used to enhance the common good. I like smooth roads and highways, safe airline travel, national parks, clean air, drinking water and oceans, and sensible regulation that prevents too much power from concentrating in too few hands.

What I don’t like is watching public dollars siphoned off for private gain or wasted on wars of choice or for maintaining a gargantuan military/security/intelligence apparatus. Although I’d like to keep more of the money I earn, I’m not in favor of abolishing the federal income tax, as the Tea Party faithful advocate at every turn. That’s a ludicrous idea in a complex, interconnected society, but then again, most of the ideas parroted by the Tea Party are ludicrous.

But, OK, it’s a kick to mass in the streets with like minded folks, carrying a picket sign, chanting slogans (even totally goofy slogans), and making your opinion known.

Where was the Tea Party when Bush and Cheney were raping the Constitution, fabricating a rational to invade Iraq, torturing detainees, and giving the richest Americans generous tax breaks?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

We're Back, Baby!

The segment on Good Morning America began with the obligatory shot of the trading floor on the New York Stock Exchange, and a breathless voice over about the surging Dow Jones Industrial Average, now above 11,000 points for the first time in more than a year. “U.S. Economy on the Mend” read the caption.

If you reside in the real world of work, wages and debt, mainstream media coverage of the economy never ceases to amuse. The network one watches doesn’t make a difference because they all report the same way, with the stock market portrayed as the Be All, End All, harbinger of the U.S. economy. If the market is up it must mean that the economy is sound. The corporate frame around the story is fitted so tight that it makes the report virtually meaningless.

The surging Dow’s impact on consumers follows the rosy stock report. No mention of jobs or wages, just a straight leap to a prediction of consumer behavior, whether or not more homes and cars will be sold, now that the economy is vibrating again and our woes are behind us. Break out the champagne, in short, because happy days are here again.

Except happy days are not here again, at least not on Elm Street and Main Street and Patriot Avenue – no, on those streets, and hundreds more like them, a hundred or a thousand miles from Wall Street -- jobs are still scarce and homes are still being foreclosed, many sit empty, and broken dreams lay strewn in the street like autumn leaves; city and state governments are broke and cutting services to the poor, leaving streets in disrepair, furloughing employees and letting school teachers go -- though there’s no mention of these cold truths from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS or CNN. The networks have adopted the feel good narrative and facts aren’t allowed to interfere. Say it with us, America: happy days are here again. America is back!

So, how’re things on your street? When was your last pay increase? How’re you making out with the rent or mortgage, food and fuel costs, college tuition, your IRA, insurance premiums, doctor bills, car payments and other household expenses? You feeling optimistic, now that the Dow is above 11,000? Does that piece of news lift your spirits and fill you with hope?

I didn’t think so. We live in the real world.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Liar, Liar

I hate to be lied to, whether by one of my children or the President of the United States.

Our president was in Afghanistan recently, meeting with our corrupt surrogate, Hamid Karzai, and then, clad in his Air Force One jacket, giving a pep talk to the troops. I certainly wouldn’t expect the president to create a somber mood by telling the troops the truth about our situation in Afghanistan, but on the other hand I don’t expect him to outright lie.

But the fact is that all American presidents lie at some point. Perhaps Obama honestly believes that our Afghan adventure wasn’t a war of choice, and that invading the country in 2001 was the only option by which we could punish Al-Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks. Perhaps Obama also believes that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are one and the same, interchangeable parts, with identical aims and ideals. Perhaps Obama was expressing realistic hope when he said that our presence is paving the way for a golden age of peace and prosperity in a country that has experienced neither in decades. Perhaps Obama knows something that most Americans don’t, some secret that will allow us to “win” this war and one day soon bid Afghanistan fond farewell, with a ticker tape parade through the streets of Kabul.

And perhaps Obama believes in Santa Claus, leprechauns, and the Easter Bunny.

After 9/11 the United States had options besides launching an invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq, but the public needed vengeance to dampen its shock and fear, George W. Bush needed to look tough, so in we went. Recall that American forces routed the Taliban in 2001 and early 2002, though the rout didn’t stick. If we couldn’t defeat the Taliban then what makes our chances any better today? Why do we need more troops in 2010 than we did in 2002?

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are allies of convenience, not a united bloc moving in unison toward world domination though characterizing them as such works effectively for manipulating American voters.

What Obama didn’t say the other day is that this war of choice is unwinnable and will continue for many more years, through shifting strategies, changes in command on the ground, ultimatums to the Afghan government and half-hearted promises to NATO. The U.S. will prop Karzai up until he does something so stupid or outrageous that he leaves the U.S. no choice but to remove him. (You can be sure the CIA already has contingency plans drawn to topple Karzai and install a successor.) American forces and contractors will lumber around Afghanistan, chasing the Taliban, counting the dead and wounded, and causing collateral civilian deaths and casualties that will insure the Taliban always has a fresh supply of recruits. Kill one, recruit six is a sure-fire recipe for endless war.

Obama’s dream of an Afghanistan at peace and enjoying prosperity is preposterous. The President is intelligent and knows very well that Afghans have been at war almost continuously for thirty years; peace and prosperity are not on the horizon.

How will this war play out at home? Coupled with the forever occupation of Iraq, the Afghan war will drive federal budget deficits and create political pressure to slash Medicare costs and “reform” Social Security, in addition to blocking efforts to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work. Such pressure is building now, with major media outlets like the New York Times sounding dire warnings about Social Security. Cutting entitlement programs is promoted as the only way to control the deficit, because, you see, we cannot cut funding for war and occupation and homeland security while our brave troops are in harm’s way.

History is replete with tales of powerful nations that get in over their heads and then find it difficult, if not impossible, to get out. When a nation sinks blood and coin in a foreign adventure the last thing it can accept is departing empty-handed, in disgrace and with its flag in tatters. President Obama knows we’re headed for that fate in Afghanistan, certainly, and possibly in Iraq as well, but for now he plays his commander-in-chief role, distorting the truth in order to exhort the troops.

Several years hence, when Obama writes his memoirs, he’ll assert that he had no choice but to carry the torch handed him by his predecessor.

That will also be a lie.