funny_polymath
Fractal Fanatic
Short version: we are now part of a corporate oligarchy, not a representative democracy. Obama hired the same schmucks to save the economy (Summers, geitner, Bernacke et. al) that crashed the thing in the first place. (EVERYONE should see the documentary on the financial meltdown Inside Job). Obama is part of the machine too (anyone who thinks this corporatist/centris is a commie or socialist is woefully unobservant and ignorant - he bailed Wall St. for god's Sake!).
I was one of those who, at least emotionally wanted to let all those Wall St. corps to fail - they gambled in the 'free market' - well, let' em lose all their dough when they gamble recklessly. But I admit I am not a macro-economist, so I can't really judge if that was a tenable option. I do strenuously object to all this 'free market' crap - from the Teapot Dome scandal in the 20's (or was it the teens; I forget!) to now, and probably even earlier, when the big players have been in danger of losing their shirts, we, the Sheeple, have bailed their sorry asses out. The only addition to this is now, for 20-30 years, the right has bitched about 'welfare queens' and kept racist proles fixated on that (and abortion and gay marriage) while they (the kleptocracy) pick their bloody pockets clean and send their kids off to die in wars that create more profits for weaponeers and reconstruction companies (bechtel, Halliburton etc.). The fix is in. It is UNCONSCIONABLE that the Obama admin did not embark on STRENUOUS prosecutions of these lying, stealing fat cats. But he knows who butters his bread. At the very least, he wouldn't have been re-elected. He might even have gotten a bullet in the head for his trouble.
The fact is, as long as lobbyists have unfettered access, as long as corporation have the same rights (but not the same moral framework and legal liabilities) as humans, as long as Citizen's United stands, as long as the Military-Industrial-Penal-Pharma-Energy-Minerals complex runs the media (increasingly concentrated into about SIX corporations, we will have a country heading more towards banana republic status. A third-world neo-serfdom. We are all chattel, resources, bought, sold, traded by transnational corporations.
So, the grand experiment of America has failed. not sure if it ever was real, or a fiction. We are pawns, and, apparently, the people running the show have a type of greed that is insatiable to the point that their own survival is threatened (Global Warning, Peak Oil etc.).
And yet, politician-whores like James Inhofe still take MILLIONS of payoffs from the energy industry. Their only requirement: make fun of global warming. Call it the 'greatest hoax in the history of mankind'. Interesting, given that the last thirty-odd months have ALL been warmer than the average for the 20th century.
This is kinda rushed, so probably a little disjointed (I am at work). But anyone interested can read my blog, samuelclaiborne.blogspot.com for more. And they can read three AMAZING books:
1) Addicted to war - MUST reading for Every American School age child
2)A People's History of the United States - Ditto
3) Ill Fares the Land
No one reads anymore. We do not know our history. Most Americans are NOT aware that virtually every war and conflict and skirmish we've engaged our military in, all sold to us as being about 'freedom', 'democracy' and 'liberty' have actualyl been about cheap labor and raw materials to feed the voracious maw of American Consumerism.
I am a capitalist - I work hard, own a house, believe in personal property. But this form of capitalism, what I call 'late-stage capitalism' is like a snake eating its own tale - it's greed is insatiable, and like a virus or a cancer killing a host, it seems unaware that it is depleting the very substances and systems that keep it alive.
Hope that helps.
