Obama is himself a commodity, the most telegenic political commodity
since Kennedy. One that suits American style capitalism best in this particular
historical political moment. He is a useful illusion, the same as
GeorgeBush was a useful illusion. What is the difference between George Bush
managing the country through media performances and Obama doing the same? Both
are telegenic, which is everything today, but in different ways. One was stupid
but radiated virility and manly appearance; the other is attractive for his
intelligence and so smart he's stupid. Both lives are absorbed in "appearing to
be" in the Great American Hologram of appearances. We are a nation following the
appearance of leadership.
It is cold comfort that we are not alone in this ultimate folly.
Globally, it is estimated that the economic crisis has seen at least $50
trillion in financial assets -- approximately equal to the value of the entire
global GDP -- wiped out. Given the bullshit "science" that is economics, and
that economists serve the purposes of the money masters of their particular age,
and that money is always in motion, it is very doubtful that anyone really knows
the global GDP.
But the illusion that someone does is necessary in preserving
and controlling perceptions of the present system. Otherwise the
concept of money itself would have to be reexamined and changed to fit the world
reality. Better to proclaim a "crisis" and scare the sh*t out of the peasantry,
than give them an opportunity to question the new feudalism of credit cards,
mortgages, car loans, educational loans and general debt servitude. The word
"crisis" scares people; flogs them into anxious submission, lest some f*cking
socialist come along and ask, Why don't you take charge of your own lives and
destiny? Do you really need these people?
The "crisis" was set in motion by institutions lending each other
non-existent money none of them can pay back. Consequently, the masses are once
again expected to produce enough material value in the world to make the funny
money real, and to shore up the system one more time. To "raise the money" to do
this will require generations of future productivity shoveled into the furnace
of corporate capitalist banking. There was nothing left to steal, so extorting
the future was the only option left.
Assuming the skimmers and the scammers manage to extract enough public monies to pump up corporations one more time, there will be another and bigger disaster not far down the road. We don't need the Oracle of Delphi to predict this.
Capitalism is unstable as hell -- like an unbalanced dreidel that keeps tilting ever more wildly off center until it eventually hits the wall. We can now see the wall from here: Massive ecological collapse and species extinction. "Economic downturn," even "crisis," does not quite describe that approaching wall.All of America hopes we will miss the wall at least one more time.
Assuming the skimmers and the scammers manage to extract enough public monies to pump up corporations one more time, there will be another and bigger disaster not far down the road. We don't need the Oracle of Delphi to predict this.
Capitalism is unstable as hell -- like an unbalanced dreidel that keeps tilting ever more wildly off center until it eventually hits the wall. We can now see the wall from here: Massive ecological collapse and species extinction. "Economic downturn," even "crisis," does not quite describe that approaching wall.All of America hopes we will miss the wall at least one more time.
Americans are hope fiends. We always see hope somewhere down every road,
chiefly because honestly looking at the present situation would destroy just
about everything we hold as reality. Personally, as I often state and catch
readership hell for, I do not like hope. When Obama ran it up the flagpole for
us to salute, and so many saluted, my blood chilled. It made me feel that we
were all in deeper sh*t than I had supposed (Nevertheless, I reluctantly voted
for Obama. At the time it seemed It was either Obama, or continuing war, debt,
and diminishing civil liberties. Ha!)
Hope is magic thinking, believing that somehow, some larger unknown force is in motion to set things right. Hope is political pabulum for an infantilized nation. The world is what it is, and its injustices are set right by grown up peoples in nations morally intact enough to challenge its malevolent forces.
A shot at economic justice (gets you shot at)
Hope is magic thinking, believing that somehow, some larger unknown force is in motion to set things right. Hope is political pabulum for an infantilized nation. The world is what it is, and its injustices are set right by grown up peoples in nations morally intact enough to challenge its malevolent forces.
On those rare occasions when I do see nations take concrete steps toward liberation, the heart is cheered at having at least some basis for reality based optimism. After more than a century of taking it up the shorts from autonomous capitalism, Latin America is moving toward alternatives to the free trade cowboyism that has so long raped them.
One step is ALBA (Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra Amà �rica). ALBA is aimed solely at meeting human need instead of profit. Bartering and mutual economic and material aid outside of so-called free trade agreements. Out of the reach of global banking. For example, Venezuela gives Cuba over 100,000 barrels of oil daily at production cost. In exchange Cuba has sent 20,000 state-employed doctors and medical staffers. And if Venezuelans' medical problems require higher medical specialism, they may travel to Cuba for specialized care free of charge. No profits allowed. Take it or leave it. The takers are lining up.
Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Dominica, Honduras, Antigua and Barbuda, Nicaragua and Bolivia. ALBA nations are in the process of introducing a new regional currency, the SUCRE. (Sistema Único de Compensacià �n Regional, or Single Regional Payment Compensation System) to replace the U.S. dollar. Now a common virtual currency, it is scheduled to become a hard currency.
Countries such as Argentina are experimenting with an economy based on worker self-management and balanced job complexes. Venezuela is developing community owned and directed banks. A common goal is to develop an economy not dependent, as is capitalism, on limitless growth, but on consuming fewer resources, operating without debt, and using less or none of the global banking system's money.
When the IMF and the world's banksters dubbed these nations "developing countries" (a fine example of Newspeak, that both renamed miserable poverty, and suggested that the international bankers' robbery was benefiting those countries), this is not the kind of development they had in mind.
This is pure wide-open socialism based on the universal socialist and democratic socialist vision. The stuff of capitalist nightmares. The traditional response to such challengers to autonomous capitalism has been simple. Kill 'em. And we do our best. The U.S. has always had its provocative agents and hit squads working in those counties.
Castro has survived or foiled some 638 assassination attempts, one every few weeks of his long presidency. Attempts on Chavez are so common the Venezuelan press no longer bothers to report them. After all, besides being old hat, they don't seem to be working anyway. Which means we will be forced to bomb the piss out of Venezuela and Cuba at some point. But they will have to get in line behind Iran.
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