I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but I’ll say it again: The GOP must destroy America’s economy by any means necessary in order to regain political power. How quickly America has forgotten that when Democrats raised the idea of a stimulus plan eight months ago, the GOP laughed and said our economy was fine. They killed it in the House. Bush immediately threatened a veto saying there was no need for it because our economy was the strongest it had ever been.
But now, these same Republicans are the ones taken seriously by the Village, while the “clueless liberals” and “inexperienced President” fumble around while the “brave GOP insurgency” kicks into action blocking more stimulus. The Democrats have been rolled again, and this time it’s going to cost millions and millions of us our jobs, our health insurance, our livelihoods, our way of life, many of our freedoms and eventually our country.
It starts by assuring the stimulus package fails, it continues with the shifting of blame to Obama, it ends with the Village writing the narrative. The GOP control of the Village got us into two wars, it got us into this mess in the first place, and soon it will get us into a full-blown economic depression.
Then the fun really begins. Then the real long knives will come out for Obama and the Democrats. The Village and the hatemongers on the right will see to that. They will come for Obama with blood in their eye, folks. You thought they did a number on The Hick From Hope, Arkansas? You thought they did a number on The Jawja Peanut Farmah? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Well, some of you have. Back in November, 1963 in Dallas. Back in April, 1968 in Memphis. Back in June, 1968 in Los Angeles.
The storm is coming, folks. America is going to be a much different country in just a few short years. I’ve been talking about worst case scenarios now for over a year both at the Frog Pond and now at my own place, and I just do not see this game of chess playing out in a way where the good guys win.
In fact, I see chess pieces on both sides of the battle turning on the Black King. “Shat mat”, the Persians said when they won this game they invented thousands of years ago…”The King is dead.”
We get the term “checkmate” from that phrase.
Checkmate is all but upon us now. Mate in 6 moves? Mate in 8? Mate in 2?
In the end, you still lose.
Any possibility that the President from Hawaii, Indonesia, Kansas & Illinois is a different creature from the Jawja peanut farmer or the (brilliant) hick from Arkansas? Are the new guy’s supporters-his base- savvier, more resilient, more articulate and more numerous than Carter’s or Clinton’s? Is our slide down to the bottom-most pit of hell inevitable? Or is there still a chance that we may see…a more fortunate outcome?
Zandar1
The storm cometh…in just a few months. April – June 2009. Phase 4 of this systemic crisis.
All the stimulus won’t cure the depression we’ve entered. (It took a year before the (PTB) powersthatbe admitted to the severe recession).
GE’s Jeff Immelt: “The U.S. economy is in its worst shape since the deep recession of 1974 and 1975, and if it deteriorates further the most meaningful comparisons will be to the Great Depression,
Scroll down at link – Banks Sitting On An Inventory Time Bomb
Economists define a depression by the rule of a peak to trough decrease of 10% in GDP. In Q4, the Bush Administration’s data was massaged – boosted by a build up of inventories – to 3.8%. When inventories are excluded, in realty the GDP fell 5.1% after inflation. So in effect the GDP growth rate has fallen from its peak by over 8 percent.
The two stimulus packages (Bush and Obama) amounts to “take two Advils..” for the headache while ignoring the cancer (a quadrillion plus toxic derivatives)..
Senator Jim Tester of Montana said this week (no link) there’s talk of another $1 trillion or so for bank rescue..and likely the bank bailout tab will rise to $11 trillion. Tester is being conservative. $60 trillion won’t make the banks whole.
And the Insurers, big and small, need a helping hand
We are told the Feds have embarked on QE – quantitative easing – otherwise in plain lingo – print us up the Federal Reserve notes that in the end will sink the dollar with a gift of hyper-inflation.
Until the core problem – derivative debt/toxic asset – is addressed, we’ll continue to spiral down into “black holes” with no allies to give a helping hand because we exported to them the contagion.
Most likely you’re right, I fear. Judging from what I continue to hear about tomorrow’s “bad bank” outline from Tim Geithner, it will make the current TARP plan look almost intelligent by comparison.
There’s no way we can save the banks without total nationalization, and even then the cost will be, as you said, untold trillions.
Of course letting the banks fail will cost untold trillions as well…which means as you said the insurance companies…and of course the automakers, and everyone else.
The insolvency is spreading. Most companies hold worthless toxic crap as part of their assets now, and that includes state and local governments as well as a wide array of business sectors.
Those assets are worth next to nothing. We’re holding worthless IOUs that will never be paid back, but we have to imagine they’re as good as cash, or the entire system goes under.
Very soon we will no longer be able to pretend they are as good as cash.
We already have a bad bank. It’s called the Federal Reserve Bank…include its members you’ll have multiple bad banks. They may as well take it all…they’re nursing a bloated balance sheet, upside down.
Restaurants seek helping hand to avoid bankruptcies
As McCain and his hypocritters whine:
IMF Says Advanced Economies Already in Depression (Update1)
Is the U.S.A classified an advanced economy?
I don’t see it happening. We’re shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs every month at this point. Do you really think the growing ranks of the unemployed tens of millions are feeling warm and fuzzy about the obstructionism of the GOP thugs in Congress? Add to them the seasoned troops that will soon be returning from Iraq.
If it goes as far as an assassination of the President, do you really think the GOP leadership will outlive him by a week? If Rush Limbaugh doesn’t have an undisclosed location prepared for that eventuality, he’s an even bigger dumbass than I thought.
Here’s the difference between now and the Sixties: no one on the left has any illusions about the profound impotence of peaceful resistance. We had the largest demonstrations in the history of the world against the Iraq war, and it did absolutely no good. Change at the ballot box? We all saw what handing the Democrats control of both houses of Congress two years ago accomplished: nothing. Add a Depression to that, and we’re on the verge of civil war.
The loonies on the right are slavering for the opportunity, too. Their problem, aside from mistaking the modern left for hippies, is that they missed the memo from WWI that said that it takes more than a bunch of yahoos with guns to make an army anymore. We didn’t just take control of the White House three weeks ago. We got the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and the nuclear arsenal, too. And while the generals don’t care for us, the new Commander-in-Chief has the broad support of the troops.
While I hope things won’t go that far, a repeat of the right-wing terror campaigns of the 1960’s will not result in a right-wing victory. It will result in the dismantlement and outlawing of the American right wing.
This is my country, and my patience with the attempts of the Republicans to destroy it is nearing an end. If it comes down to it, I’m not going to wring my hands and blog about my despair. I’m prepared to fight for it. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.
The Republicans call checkmate? I think you misheard them. What they really said was, “Let them eat cake.” And we all know how well that worked out last time.
It depends on who will get the blame for the stimulus failure. It should be the GOP. It may still be them who get blamed for it.
But the Village media is already blaming Obama after less than 3 weeks. They are buying and regurgitating every GOP talking point on the stimulus. A whole 46% of this country thought John McCain and Sarah Palin were better equipped to run this country despite the last eight years, and they’re not willing to give Obama a single day without blaming him for it already.
The GOP is now married to the concept America’s economy has to fail. It’s how they get back in power in the fastest manner possible.
In the end, some of those millions will believe Barack Hussein Obama destroyed America. A few of them will want to take the law into their own hands. A couple of them may try. Only one has to get lucky.
And Joe Biden is no Obama.
That’s the problem when a democracy is governed by a ruling class that controls the 4th estate, too.
Governance is reduced to a chess match.
The American Revolution is about local organizing for local empowerment: participatory democracy, not this pundit-oligarchy shit.