As a preface, I want declare at the outset that I am NOT a “gloom and doom” merchant. Instead of ignoring those highly pregnant facts currently swirling about in American society, I am normally inspired to make an attempt to understand their meaning. With that important declaration out of the way, I will attempt to paint a picture of American society now that the midterm Congressional elections have concluded. What is it that the credible news sources are reporting as of Novenmber 4, 2010? I consider certain of these reports to be the “dots” currently representing the more significant influential events in American society. I will list them and attempt to provide a reasonably “connective” meaning which can be drawn from their significance.
(1)President Obama has called for a meeting with the leaders of both parties of the lame duck congress.
(2) CNN reports that a large U.S. state (sorry I didn’t get its name) has setup police details at its unemployment offices.
(3) WTF!! Harley Davidson announced that it will be building motorcycles in India.
In regards to the first news item, Obama and the Republicans are deeply concerned about the seating of the Tea Party people in the next congress. Regardless of all of the Republican leadership’s bombastic statements of NO COMPROMISE, they know that politics is the “art” of compromise. It is critical to resolve some funding issues before Armey’s army take their seats. The two hot issues are extension of unemployment benefits and raising the national debt ceiling. Raising the national debt is necessary so that the U.S. doesn’t default on its outstanding international financial obligations. The consequences of not being able to raise the U.S. debt ceiling will create a sovereign debt crises for the U.S. putting America into an international category similar to Greece, Spain and Ireland. On the other hand, the extension of unemployment benefits is a potential powder keg issue with unemployment hovering around 10 percent. The fight over extending Unemployment benefits dovetails nicely with the second news item.
In my opinion many other states will be adding police details to their unemployment offices for riot prevention purposes. The states are being realistic and bracing for the probability that the Republicans will not in this Congress and certainly not in the next Congress fund any extension of unemployment benefits. With 10% of the population existing on the portal of starvation, further deprivation of meager government funds could lead to riots across the nation.
Elderly people may passively accept the prospect of slowly starving to death, but I doubt if many young fathers and mother will be willing to wait passively while their children slowly starve to death. In this day and age, the “Scrooge” ideology of the Republicans will only lead to widespread chaos and riots. The tension in this case is between the Republicans and the approximate 25 to 30 million unemployed Americans (Pop. of America is 310+ million). In this case I think that the Libertarian/Republicans are playing with highly explosive fire. Further more, the “get the government off our backs” ideology of the Libertarian/Republicans will not produce the jobs that this country needs. Let’s face it, the jobs that America needs are GONE, GONE, GONE FOR GOOD! This observation brings me to the next news item.
Bloomberg TV reported today that (HOG) Harley Davidson will be building bikes (Motorcycles) in India. Holy Cow shit! Oh well motorcycle repair mechanics will still be needed here in the good ole US of A to fix Harleys and other imports. I guess when the very symbol of the heart and soul of the USA, Harleys with flat heads, fat bobs and california high rise bars goes global, we might as well toss in the towel on the American jobs picture.
