Sunday, July 25, 2010

The only way to get attention is to step on toes.

Folks, the country is broke. We see millions of unemployed people losing their support lifeline over the past and continuing weeks because our government can't seem to find $34 billion. This small amount of congressional spending indigestion comes at a time when Congress is poised to approve another $60 billion, $33 billion of which is earmarked to expand the war in Afghanistan; a war which accomplishes absolutely nothing as far as the taxpayers in this country are concerned.

Congress deliberates on whether to extend the tax cuts for the rich. Fathom this:
Forbes list of 400 of America's wealthiest people pay a smaller percentage on their taxable income than our firefighters and policemen do. Make sense? Our national budget is 3.4 trillion and a huge percentage of that goes to pay interest on our skyrocketing budget deficits. Another huge portion of our budget goes to wage unpopular wars. Are these wise and necessary expenses?

We are being looted by our legislature easily because of our perpetual state of confusion, the public's ignorance of the truth thanks a biased media, and our own apathy. As our society becomes more polarized our ability to function as a society in any meaningful way continues to be diluted. Meanwhile, the pigs continue to gorge at the public trough while attempted reforms are gutted and proposed new laws are filibustered into the trash bin.

If the tea party accomplishes nothing other than getting incumbents thrown out of Washington it will have accomplished a great deal. It's time we the people get the representation we are paying for.

But nothing will happen if toes aren't stepped on.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Capitalism, or the lack of it, is the reason the US is a failing enterprise.

Capitalism, by definition, is an economic system characterized by freedom of the marketplace. Private and corporate entities own the means of production and distribution and making a profit is the goal for every business.

With that freedom of choice, capitalists have chosen to relocate their means of production around the globe to achieve the lowest labor costs. Because of the disparity in wages between the East and the West the rate of migration of labor-intensive manufacturing to the East will continue and increase in the future.

Because people value their lives more than anything, duh, they are subject to extortion in the most perverse fashion by the healthcare industry. By artificially restricting the number of healthcare professionals and resources available (a subject for future discussions, I hope) healthcare costs have gone beyond ridiculous. This is causing the migration of millions of patients to institutions out of this country.

For example, the fact that our hospitals need $100,000 to perform an operation a hospital in India can do for $10,000 will simply increase the rate of exportation of our professional jobs to emerging nations.

Business cannot remain competitive when government expects an ever larger slice of gross revenues, which is another problem that capitalism is struggling with in this country.

Capitalism and greed are not the same, but greedy capitalists are destroying the distinction. Business has been able to replace capitalism (remember, freedom is the key word in capitalism) with rule by a financial elite. It is the members of this elite who determine market movements. By manipulating and bending our Congress and executive branches to the will of special interests they have effectively circumvented the markets from operating freely. Since nothing is really “free” about our economy in a capitalist sense, we can’t really consider ourselves living in a capitalist nation any longer.

It has been really amazing to have witnessed, over the past 30 years, the shift of capitalism from the US and Europe to, of all places, Communist China.

Capitalism, as a business model in this country, is in the wind.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

They're never going to kill it!

July 13, 2010 -- progress halted.

The fountain of black crude oil is pure gold to BP
and will be harvested because otherwise... if they
quit now everyone will have lost huge and benefited
nothing.

Regardless of who is at fault we all share an
obligation to salvage the best of a bad situation.
The damage is done, triage is in place, so let
the spilling continue.

Here is the rest of the story.

The unheralded pencil pushers will prevail and defer
containment until contractual obligations and BP
indemnities are secured. Meantime, the disaster will
not be salvaged; not until the last t to protect BP is
crossed and the last i is dotted and shifted down the
line.

BP stock is on the rise at the news. Potential
partners abound. The tax consequences will shift
any real penalty to you, the taxpayers, and will offset
obscene profits for years to come. The government
will get fat from huge fines levied against BP,
lawyers will generate billions of dollars in fees and the
burden on the taxpayer will continue to increase.

And that's the way it is.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Defense budget, my butt!

Who are we kidding? No country on earth is stupid enough to attempt an
attack on the United States. The idea is as ludicrous as a flea climbing up
an elephant’s leg with rape on his mind. So why do we call it a defense budget?

Let's call a spade a spade and an offensive budget, well, offensive. The idea we need to spend a half $1 trillion annually to protect this nation by fighting on the other side of the globe is preposterous. Why are we taking the fight to countries when it is actually individuals we are after?

The answer is as obvious as it is immoral. We are in Afghanistan, for example, to secure an administration favorable to US business interests. It's the same as our reason for being in Iran or Iraq. We now have one soldier for every businessman in Iran. We’re not protecting America from threats over there; we’re protecting American businessmen over there. At a cost of up to a $1/2 million per year per mercenary somebody needs to be making a whole lot of money to justify the expense.

I guarantee you that that somebody is not the American taxpayer. We are in the grip of such monumental stupidity that it doesn't faze us that our military budget is at least twice what it ought to be. What we are doing is at least as dumb as what we attempted to do in Vietnam; colonize a country to steal their raw materials.

Once again, we don't stand a chance.

We are bankrupting our country, while disgracing our legacy. We used to stand for something besides stealing from the natives. Er, that was after we were done stealing from our own natives. Now that we have no opposition from Russia, our only military opposition to speak of is in the Middle East and Pakistan. These are poor countries rich in mineral wealth, and we will have those riches for ourselves! (Geeze we are disgusting)


The final result of our wars over in the Middle East will be the warmongers will be up a trillion dollars, US taxpayers will be out two trillion or more and the Afghans will be getting their country rebuilt on our dime, as we are now doing everywhere else we have been busy terror-forming the natives… just so we can plant a McDonald's in the middle of their society.

Oh, and let's not forget the lives lost or dislocated or disfigured on two continents which get left in the ruins resulting from our imperial policies.
They number in the millions.

Trying to steal from the Afghans is the stupidest thing imaginable. WHY? Trying to put the most fiercely independent people on earth under our thumb is why. Trying to organize a bunch of warring tribes into a single government is why. Trying to wage modern warfare against a nation whose primary mode of transportation is the camel is why. And because Afghanistan’s treasure belongs to the Afghans. Our military offensive is just plain wrong. These are just a few of the reasons why.

Bob Parmelee blogging at ILGP.com AKA parmsplace