A better day…
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the rainy island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this blustery day here in little old Osterville, a Friday, the ninth day of September, 2011. Last night, of course, the President gave a speech to a joint session of congress, as he addressed the nation about the severe jobs crisis that has driven many of our citizens into the ground– financially, physically, mentally, and dare I say, spiritually. In the “American Jobs Act”, the President outlined several key points–a) a payroll tax break (compromising half of the estimated 447 billion dollars, ‘paid for dollars’, are you listening super committee?), b) tax incentives for businesses who hire workers who have been looking for work for over six months, c) infrastructure spending, d) extending unemployment benefits. “This isn’t about a culture war (did you happen to mention that to the republicans?), this is simple math.” A direct quote from the President’s speech last night, as he stated, with some fire in the eyes, that although we are rugged individualists, saying, ‘you’re on your own’ is not who we are. On ‘Countdown, with Keith Olbermann‘ last night, were two well versed guests, who broke down the speech to the base ingredients. Jeff Madrick, author of ‘The Age of Greed’, and Elliot Spitzer, former New York Governor and New York Times contributor, spoke to the truths about the toxic environment Washington D.C. has become, with a plutocratic vision held so dear by the republican puppet show that to say ‘do nothing congress’ would represent a gross misunderstatement–for it is a corporate mandate coming down from on high that cares NOTHING about the common man, as they poison his water while shoving the fracking Madison Avenue ‘natural gas’ advertisements down his collective throat. The economy, as Keith pointed out, has three main components as it’s fuel, it’s engine if you will. Number one is consumer demand, number two is investment by businesses, and number three is government spending. However, as we all know, global corporations have become giants and therefore care not about this country, per say, rather, care about the bottom line, soothing investors along the way, as the cavern between the haves and the have nots can be micro-cosmically measured by every CEO’s salary, when taken in comparison with the average worker bee. The ‘jobs’ that our buddy Rick, “are ya feelin’ lucky? Well, are ya, punk?”, Perry ‘created’ in Texas as governor are of the minimum wage variety (the beginning of a new slave worker pool), as our economy looks more and more like a service economy everyday, as opposed to a country that still builds things and leads the way in science, engineering and the evolution of energy. Current(v)ly, the United States is being sold a bag of goods by a greedy few who have rigged the system for their own benefit. With all the money drained from the housing crisis, a manufactured crisis that began with a couple of financial wizards on Wall Street, as they bundled and re-bundled mortgage backed securities by the truckload, derivatives, or ‘credit default swaps’, garbage that was rated by our ‘friends’ at Standard and Poor’s as AAA, the economy was ready to fall. When the dam burst early in 2008, and the rats left the ship, sorry for the mixed metaphor, the American People were left holding the bag, many of whom are now under water, figuratively and literally– check the weather report in portions of Binghamton, New York this morning–holding the bag for the debacle that WAS the Bush presidency. Therefore, one might conclude that without looking hard at the housing crisis that we are still really in, while taking a good look at the tax code, reviewing what Paul O’Neill, former Bush Treasury Secretary, would have objected to, if he would have been invited to the table, namely the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, this country of ours is still and will be for the foreseeable future in a Japan like no growth economy, where the rich will continue to enjoy the spoils of this current system, the middle class will fall down to the status of working poor, and the people that are on the margins will fall by the way side as we set up ‘freeclinicsUS’ more and more, with millions of people in hunger, in despair and in disillusionment. President Obama deserves high marks for his bravery and spirit, evoking the past so as to LIGHT the way for the future, however, as Mr. Madrick points out, he MUST begin to EDUCATE the people as to what is true, yes, factual about our economy, while simultaneously explaining what is erroneous, false and misleading, a sick function FOX NEWS does all too well. One simple way to do this would be to explain to the “American People” (credit Mitch, ” Our number one goal is to make Obama one term President”, McConnell, R-KY) as to that basic economic model aforementioned, namely this–when people don’t have a job any longer at the plant they had worked, say, for the past thirty years, because those jobs were shipped off to China or the like, then they do not have the money to buy goods and services, thus, creating a lack of demand from businesses and corporations that provide such services, therein creating a vicious cycle that cannot be broken until basic fundamental changes are made, such as tackling the insane tax code we have and looking at how we can re-EDUCATE our people, the mass majority of OUR PEOPLE, who, last time I checked, do most of the living a dying in this nation. Again, this cycle continues until the government, as it has done in the past with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, a move that pulled America out of the Great Depression while also giving us the gift of Social Security, a program that is as far from a “ponzi scheme and violent attack on American morality”–a quote out of Rick, “I’m a REAL Christian”, Perry’s rather dim witted mouth–as the concept of a corporation being a human being–yes, this cycle will continue until some one wakes these idiots up to the FACT that if we don’t borrow vast sums of money from the FED, at historically low interests rates NOW, this very young country of ours will split in two, for it IS a culture war, corporate greed versus the common man, and only one side is playing the game, everyone else is just an observer of what is REALLY going on. Borrowing that money to stimulate the economy will turn the tide in the other direction, for every economist worth his or her salt will tell you that we can deal with the long term deficit problem later, all brought to you by, The BUSH administration, give ‘em a big hand folks, thanks for the memories, down the road, per the low interest rates, and deal with this economy HEAD ON, as opposed to skirting the issue. If WE really care about OUR PEOPLE Mr. President, go out and EDUCATE them as to the TRUTH, for the truth does not need defending, only warped egos do. If you put it this way, to the people who put you in office, I can assure you Mr. Mitt, “Corporations are People too”, Romney will begin to look a little different in the LIGHT of that one and only TRUTH. ‘What you do to the least of me you do unto me…” words to live by don’t YA think Rick? Or is ‘your’ Christianity of the A La Carte variety? The world would love to know. Have a wonderful day and week end folks and please keep the folks in Somalia in your thoughts and prayers, to help Google Oxfam or visit savethechildren.org. Your help is greatly appreciated. See you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel. PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
