First off, here is the promised Barney Frank rant (Barney comes in at about the 10:30 mark, although the part before that is interesting, too):
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
As was true yesterday, there are stories that President Obama and Speaker Boehner are close to a deal, and there are all kinds of rumors about what’s in the deal, and lots of people are already mad about it and condemning the deal, which as far as I can tell is only a rumor because the White House is still denying there is a deal. And I’m not going to spend the day chasing down every rumor and ranting about how President Obama is selling us out again. You can go to Firedoglake for that.
Here is some other stuff to read —
Nate Silver writes that Republican governors have moved to the Right of their constituents even in right-wing states. “It suggests that the party has become uninterested in appealing to swing voters — and that the voters are starting to notice.”
“Credit Agencies Warn GOP of ‘Death Spiral.” Not that they’ll listen.
“It’s Hotter Than It Used to Be.” Seriously. Here in Mahaville it’s supposed to top 100 degrees F. today, which is unusual for New York.
Krugman’s column. Despair.
“You can go to Firedoglake for that”
Right, I was listen to Bill Press on the way to work today, he’s another one, all worked up Obama sold us out, blah, blah, blah. I find it amazing how many on the left are so quick to condemn Obama based on thinly sourced rumors. If he’s agreed to what is rumored that will be bad, like you I’ll wait to hear from the Whitehouse.
All along, I’ve been seeing some of the same things that Krugman is. And some of you might be able to vouch for me, if you’ve been reading my dopey comments here long enough.
It’s not just the US – there is some sort of retrograde conservative economic movement going on around the whole world.
It’s as if there was a total abandonment of Keynesian economics, and a re-embrace of Friedmanism.
It’s as if the whole world read “The Shock Doctrine” and decided – ‘Yeah, you know, THAT’S the way to go!’
And I’m sure that corporations do not have a single problem with that. As a matter of fact, I suspect they may be behind it all, poking and prodding politicians into making these decisions. Every dollar that doesn’t go into social safety net programs potentially can go into their pockets. And I don’t think the powers that be have thought this through. But…
What money will people have to spend when they don’t have any, we may all ask? But, I don’t think that’s really occured to our Fascist Galtian Overlords.
Yeah, I know – I sound like a conspiracy nut. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one out there.
I remember, years ago, probably 20, I saw a book in the discount rack, and it was cheap enough, so I figured, “Oh, what the heck…” It was called “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowd.” Here’s a link, if you’re curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds
It was an ‘extraordinary’ read. It talks about the Dutch Tulip Bulb bubble, where people were spending their entire fortunes banking on the fact that the next shipment of bulbs would be even higher than the last. As you can imagine, that didn’t end well.
But I’m seeing the same sort of steps being taken by economies all around the world.
Japan went down this same route, and has, and is still having, a ‘lost decade.’ And it’s as if the economists around the world looked at Japan’s stagnant economy and saw a role model, instead of a lesson in what not to do.
This Friedmaning of the global economy is a ticket to disaster. To recurring recessions at best, long-term depressions at worst.
Is that part of a plan? It could be.
I don’t mean to go all Godwin on anyone. But this is starting to look like the late ’20’s and early ’30’s. All of the signs point to that, not just here, but globally. The seem to point to a rise in political and business environments that will at least invite, if not embrace, Fascism.
I wrote about this back 6-7 years ago, but it’s worth looking at again. Here are the 14 defining characterisitics of Fascism. See how many you can find that apply here. Actually, find one that doesn’t:
http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm
For more general information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism
So, in using the the ‘Shock Doctrine” as a guide, and the increased economic woe, and the growing religiousity of the masses, we may, sooner than you think, end up as “The Dominionist Christian Fascist States of America.” Where corporations use government and religion to control the masses. And with the changes in voting rules already under way, and more, and even more restrictive ones to follow, there may be not a mechanism, short of outright revolution, to change things. And today’s technology will make that very difficult, if not impossible – and very costly in lives, none the less.
But, I’m sure the powers that be will make sure something good is always on TV. Hell, FOX has already expanded the ‘2 minutes of hate’ from “1984” into a 24x7x365 propaganda network.
I pray I’m wrong.
But I think the time is ripe for Fascism to come here. There are plenty of people out there wrapped in a flag and carrying the Bible. The question may well end up being, ‘Who will it be,’ rather than, is, ‘Can we prevent this from happening?’
I am afraid. Very afraid.
See How Nancy Pelosi May Save America. It’s about the debt ceiling, but on a deeper level is really about term limits and what a disaster that has been.
Gulag, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is a classic. I don’t know if you’ve ever studied cycles in history – I’ve mentioned The Fourth Turning many times on this blog – but there is just a cyclical nature to things, that you have to accept. When I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, I’d get despondent in late August, because summer was ending, and the (yuck) school year was about to start. There was no avoiding it. It happened every year.
One of the harder things for me to accept growing up was that all the great progressive things that came out of the 1960s were not only coming to an end by the late 1970s, but would actually begin to be reversed by the 1980s and beyond.
I remember seeing my very first conservative guy in one of my college classes in 1978 – a real, angry, crewcut freak compared to the rest of us. At the time, I just thought he was just a statistical aberration, someone living on one extreme of the bell curve, someone to not worry about. Little did I know that he was like the first fallen leaf of autumn, gently wafting to the ground from the still-green forest, and that he would soon be followed by many more, and that their ideas would completely turn the world upside down in a few years.
And there are cycles within super-cycles. I would argue that we’re nearing the simultaneous completion of many such cycles, of a greater magnitude than the one hundred year, four generations/four seasons cycle – which encompasses the shift from progressivism to conservativism – postulated in The Fourth Turning. The Mayans certainly thought so, with their calendar that ends in 2012.
It’s with this understanding that this too, shall pass, that I don’t get too upset about events of the day. Of course, they’re not easy to live through, and everything we know and cherish about this country may get ground into dust, but that’s just the nature of things. Like the glorious summers of my youth, Empires come and go, and you have to get used to that.
“You do not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”
How true.
I can only imagine what would become of me if I decided to attack and kill a family on the other side of town because I fear one day they might buy a big gun.
Crazy people want to run the show, so that’s who persue leadership roles.
Especially ones who hold conversations with God.
Love that “war on reality” line. Republicans deny evolution. homosexuality and global warming, so whats new. Believing that cutting spending will produce economic growth is another delusion and another front in the war.
cund – your suspicion is well-founded and, I suspect, true.
I imagine if we hadn’t been a geographically isolated continent in 1787 when the delegates met in Philadelphia to ‘write’ the Constitution, the delegates would still be ‘writing’ it. It took them from May to Sept to put it together. Delegates subordinated their interests in order to reach a series of COMPROMISES – in fact, the Constitution is often referred to as “a bundle of compromises.”
I, like you, fear that Friedmanism has swept the financial markets of the world making the governments of the world no more than facilitators in place to carry out their agenda. It is very scary.
Careful Gulag the Barb-bot might take a fly swatter to ya. You’ll get the real deal at Firedog
C u n d gulag doesn’t get a fly swatter, but I believe you do. Bye.
karmanot …Bye bye..I think it is written the the book of Maha..”My mercies don’t endure forever” Adios butthead!
I think we can remember him/her/it as “karma-GOT!”
And lest anyone think that there’ll be a shortage of brown/black shirts when their Fascitst leader comes wrapped in a flag carrying a Bible, take a look at this:
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/new-mccarthyism-oregon-tea-partiers-
They have been priming the knuckledragging morons for years, and will have willing and able thugs ready to ‘follow ze orderz.’
Scary times coming….
gulag …I think it’s a her..because like they say, karma is a bitch. karma got the boot.. 🙂
Swami,
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Regarding the weather, I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest; and, the weather is beautiful. Since I retired and left Maryland, I enjoy beautiful weather all the time. Not too hot, not too cold. Right now, it is 70 degrees with a cool breeze. And, you can see Mount Rainier, which is such a beautiful sight.
Cui bono? Who benefits? In this case, who gains from default? It’s hard to say; this country has never defaulted before. Consequences are unpredictable in detail; though of course the predictable general consequence is national bankruptcy.
Perhaps other nations, rival powers, would welcome the ruin of the USA. But then again they’d lose too in a default. Or perhaps some faction of America’s richest 1% has ambitions beyond the present disguised oligarchy, and they are willing to bankrupt the rest of the 1%.
As for the rank-and-file Tea Partiers, they are of course dupes of the above-mentioned rival powers and economic royalists; but I think they are also, in part, consciously subversive. What better way to destroy a plutocracy than by debasing the money? The Tea-Partiers themselves will take a hit in the wallet, but they have a lot less to lose than the 1%. It’s hard to argue with such logic, in revolutionary terms if not common-sense terms.
And by the way, will the MSM ever stop calling the radical right ‘conservative’? They are not; they’re destroyers and nihilists. Obama the centrist is the conservative now; he can tell Wall Street that though they own him, he also owns them, for consider the alternative.