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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Daze of Yore

On this date two years ago Dredd Blog posted Investigative Word-Factory Daze. Reading it today I somehow get the impression that our culture can't shake some of our addictions:
A while back we had a thread about the US losing guns, roses, bombs, money, computers, and who knows what else.

Now daze we seem to be blossoming into investigations.

Investigations about losing money, sense of justice, sense of who we are, and on and on. There are gonna be a lot of books and reports. Lotsa southern comfort.

That is what investigations are designed to do. Deceive the public into thinking the government will handle it.

The government hasn't yet received the memo that since Katrina in the post Bush II world the investigative word game factory is less popular than the chastity belt.

The public knows we have lost our virginity already. Knows we have been screwed badly for years.

The public would like to see some real results, like crooks and liars in jail. Enough of this "where does it hurt" BS.

These investigative word factories are just polluting the air waves with toxic pablum we don't need or want.

A year ago we celebrated a first for the United States, which was a race through the Garbage Gyre to claim the trophy:
Not since 1995 has the venerable America's Cup been won by the United States.

That changed Sunday when a software mogul who runs Oracle did the deed and won the cup for the U.S.A.

We are also winning, so far, the most medals in the winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Awesome!

A side story, unfortunately, is that our America's Cup competitors had to sail through one of The Five Garbage Gyres, those floating continents of garbage now contaminating the oceans of the earth.

We had reported on the first and second gyres, but now we find that there are five of these garbage continents floating out there.

Add to that the Italian Mafia's dumping of large quantities of nuclear poison into the oceans, and it seems like we sail over the oceans as we bring them down.

Are we dangerously fooling around while our Home World dies?

Somehow this two-year review reminds me of back to the future.

The currently off course political discourse and practice is contrary to the nation's historical character, indicating a rut, an addiction, a daze which continually spirals downward in ever narrowing circles.

It is the picture of a category five tornado of decline if you will:
Aiming to cut the annual deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, President Barack Obama chose to slash across the board. But the most glaring cuts were not to a bloated defense budget, or to entitlement programs that both parties say are in need of reform. Rather, they were to programs and policies that are at the heart of Obama's personal story.

A former community organizer in Chicago, Obama proposed a 50-percent cut to a $700-million community-service block grant program. A former lawyer who touted his work to improve living conditions for the poor, Obama proposed a sharp cut in energy assistance for low-income families. A graduate-school alumnus who only recently, and quite publicly, was able to pay off his debts, Obama proposed refiguring loan programs so that students would accrue interest even while they're enrolled.
(Against No Odds, emphasis added). The hubris is breathtaking, if not mystical, giving us the glaring image of a flip flop on steroids, induced no doubt by the growing influence of the toxins of power.

It was not too far back when we diagnosed this pathology.

4 comments:

  1. Clearly this is the age of the Holy War Budgets which are here to bring down the empire.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NoBama's a piece of work ain't he? Maybe in bizarro world if we vote Republican we'll get an honest to goodness Democrat? Do you think? Nahh! I think the two parties come down to Fascism (drink in that that full fascist flavor!) and Fascism Light (less filling, but still that same awful taste!).

    Now which party's which I can't say anymore. The Democrats have finally figured out how to beat the Republicans. By stealing their identity!

    Somewhere there's a former Clinton political strategist gloating and probably writing a book as we speak about the Democratic Party's latest political master stroke. Too bad no one will read it though.

    The rich won't bother with such tripe, the libraries will all be shuttered, and the poor won't have the time, money, or likely the reading comprehension skills to understand how the dem party sold their collective asses down the river in order to remain viable to their fascist corporate owners.

    Look out bottom, here we come!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Robert Reich nails it:

    The Obama Budget: And Why the Coming Debate Over Spending Cuts Has Nothing to Do With Reviving the Economy


    President Obama has chosen to fight fire with gasoline.

    Republicans want America to believe the economy is still lousy because government is too big, and the way to revive the economy is to cut federal spending. Today (Sunday) Republican Speaker John Boehner even refused to rule out a government shut-down if Republicans don't get the spending cuts they want.

    Today (Monday) Obama pours gas on the Republican flame by proposing a 2012 federal budget that cuts the federal deficit by $1.1 trillion over 10 years. About $400 billion of this will come from a five-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending -- including all sorts of programs for poor and working-class Americans, such as heating assistance to low-income people and community-service block grants. Most of the rest from additional spending cuts, such as grants to states for water treatment plants and other environmental projects and higher interest charges on federal loans to graduate students.

    That means the Great Debate starting this week will be set by Republicans: Does Obama cut enough spending? How much more will he have cut in order to appease Republicans? If they don't get the spending cuts they want, will Tea Party Republicans demand a shut-down?


    NoBama - the Republicans Democrat! House negro indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  4. disaffected,

    Reich is the man!

    Reminds me of Dredd's post "Obama: The Republican Candidate in 2012?" ... looks like you think we may have the answer now!

    The parties don't seem to have anyone who can beat him. so he gets to choose his party.

    ReplyDelete