The sad fact is that America has the best government money can buy. And buying it is getting easier and easier all the time. As the limits on corporate campaign spending are shunted aside, the 'We-are-people' corporate Frankenstein monsters are dumping barrels of cash into the political system.
More and more often, I'm seeing things like this – Big Corporations whining for tax breaks on billions of dollars made elsewhere. Click here for the latest. This is money they want to pay to the top-tier executives – billions in bonus money – but can't because they would have to declare this money as earnings and pay taxes.
(Insert violin music here.)
The manufacturing boom of the 20th Century was a one-time-deal.
Sorry to say it, but it's the truth. The Age of Steel is over. As the national economy continues to unravel, and it will, people are going to have to go back more than 100 years to rebuild our crumbling nation.
Detroit, Ashtabula and Braddock are three population centers who illustrate this best. Braddock has been abandoned and is falling down. Ashtabula is getting there, fast.
Detroit has hundreds of square miles of abandoned buildings. Neighborhoods were torn down, a 'Green Belt' of sorts is struggling to emerge from the ruins. Most importantly, a core group of people are going into business for themselves.
Let that be a lesson for all of us.
At one time (1800's) the American Dream was to come to America and open a shop of some kind. Breweries, clothing stores, tailor shops, butcher shops, grocery stores, hot dog stands, mercantiles, cabinet shops, boat builders and that's just off the top of my head.
People didn't come to America to work for someone else.
They came to work for themselves.
How times have changed, eh?
Now people in America haven't a clue how to operate a business.
They just want a JOB.
ANY job will do.
My beef with the current mentality is that ONLY a big corporation counts as 'a person' and gets pampered and petted. People don't really count any more. We just get higher taxes and higher medical costs (when the toxic waste of Corporate America had a hand in making us sick.)
The GOP touts their helping 'Job Creators' but what they mean are people rich enough to afford a nanny, a housekeeper, a gardener and maybe a poolboy to help keep their McMansion looking good.
That's not going to change. Congress and the Senate have been bought and are smart enough to STAY bought. They will not betray their corporate Masters. State level government is the same, just a smaller scale.
So, we are looking at a nation in decay. Infrastructure, like roads, bridges, power lines, sewers, rail road tracks, schools and hospitals are only used by humans. The non-breathing corporations (click here for explanation) who run the country don't need anything except a post office box in the Bahamas.
Now, before you jump either off a bridge, or into a bottle – Listen Up!
For the last 50 years, there's been something else going on, under everyone's radar. Lately, it's sprung up in the shape of windmills and solar power, visible for the first time on TV. Google Farmer's Markets to see one of the areas of the economy that has gone GREAT guns because of the Tobacco Death Tax.
AND if you are a writer or part of the writer's support industry, an Indie publisher, vendor, editor, cover artist, marketing guru or even someone who bought and read an Indie book, guess what?
YOU ARE PART OF THE REVOLUTION, TOO.
As much as the Brain-Washed Scions of the Trade Publishing (paper) Industry are screaming about the un-washed rabble at the door, Indie books are selling. There was a pent-up demand for fresh stories, and back-list books. Indies are scouring the Internet for help with editing, cover art, marketing and production.
Things have changed and will change some more.
Fasten your seat-belt.
3 comments:
This is a direct result of the inability to think and to reason. Our political life is WWF. Professional wrestling. We no longer demand academic excellence. I quote the great American Sage Jerry Springer. " The strongest force in American Politics is resentment." Jerry Bleepin' Springer! What we have here is the further pussification of America and politicians who will not tell the American People what they don't want to hear: THE OTHER GUY IS NOT GOING TO PAY FOR THE THINGS YOU WANT!
The mortgage brokers should have been prosecuted for fraud when they knowingly sold paper they knew was substandard.
The investment banks that were and are too big to fail should be broken up. If they are too big to fail they are too big. We need to understand simple arithmetic. The fix is in. Gold will go to $2400 and ounce minimum. That's because there is no accountability in Washington.
We are in the shit as a direct result of congress refusing to perform their constitutuonally mandated tasks. The power to declare war,. regulate commerce, appropriate spending and collect taxes. They have refused to be accountable and have looked remarkably like rodeo clowns. They are unavailable and self absorbed.
Presidential elections are largely a joke. Obama had no more idea what he was getting into than a marmot. Not a bad guy but he does not understand monetary policy. He taught constitutional law. He cannot add. Bernake cannot add. They want to have changes take effect in 2013. "Not on my watch" "Not my fault" "My predecessor". Nothing to do with the present.
No ideas. No plan, just " My opponent is an evil bastard!" I would like to see just one of them in a situation where he is not allowed to talk about the opposition. His mike gets shut off the second he talks about his opponent. The interview wouldn't last five minutes.
More later.
Butch
I hear you, Butch.
It's a sad day in America when Jerry Springer is spouting words of wisdom - and the Fixed Nose people are spouting bullshit.
This is not about left and right. The media is there to make money. They are not in existence to promote the national interest. The Republicans want us to be afraid of all kinds of terrorism and the Democrats want me to fear hunger and want. Both of them want to take some kind of freedom from me. When did we become unable to feed our children? Why do you want me to give up my privacy? It is all fear and it sells.
The president seems to know nothing about business or accounting. Congress understands campaign dollars. It is about power and staying in office and nothing else. There is no difference. They speak in sound bites. The media is in on it. They want to sell advertising. Thinking is hard.
We refuse to believe that 2+2=4. Just this once we want it to be 5 1/2.Just this time, mind you.
Folks talk about accountability but do not want any part of it. HE should be accountable. I have an excuse. If I shut my eyes real tight maybe it will all go away. "They" will fix everything.
George is not president and neither is Bill. They are gone. This is today. Any discussion about who is responsible is pointless. If anyone can show me how this changes anything in the past I will gladly listen. It no longer matters who did what. We have to fix it. NOW! Not in 2013. Someday never comes.
Instead of fixing problems the current political class kicks the problem down the road. They do not believe the guvmint can go belly up. There are currently companies who do not want dollars. They would rather be paid in Euros. What does that tell anyone? Then we become angry at credit rating agencies when they say cheap dollars are not a good idea.
It is a waste of time to wait for someone to save us. They can't. It is not the job of any politician to make my life better. That is up to me. Watching Fox or MSNBC is a sign of an empty existence. What are you expected to do after the program? It is contrived to make my endocrine system go into overdrive and no way to act in a coherent fashion. It stops me from making a dispassionate decision when entering the voting booth. It is like watching porn: it gets one all excited and no way to do anything about the information just presented. It is a waste of adrenaline.
I will close with the words of that Lilly Livered Liberal, Rush Limbaugh. "Politics is showbiz for ugly people." Kind of hard to argue with that.
Post a Comment