The Criminal "Administration"

[Brassmask]

Some Thursday morning musings on our current state of affairs...

Bush's defense for any and all disastrous mistakes his "administration" has made or staged is that "history will be the judge".  Indeed, it will.  The thing that Bush and his cronies decline to address is that "history", that hallowed judge, actually begins its judgment the instant after the mistake.  The BushCo cronies seem to think that all will made crystal clear through the muddied hindsight prism of those who have the power to write history books when the reality (something they seem to think is made up in their smoky backrooms of yore) is that those who right now write on the web have captured events in each and every perspective and those who will someday write books will be seen as dinosaurs who want to infect the young with lies.

....

Yesterday, I talked to woman in Vermont while doing my job and while waiting for her mac to restart, I made conversation by querying her opinion in regards to one Governor Howard Dean.  The woman had been somewhat scattered in her following of my instructions in correcting her issue and she had seemed slightly youngish to me.  I've only read glowing reviews of Dr. Dean as Governor of the Green Mountain state and I braced myself for an onslaught of invective (her being a citizen of the state and all) or perhaps indifference to political dealings.  All my expectations and assumptions were pleasantly dashed.  The "young lady" turned out to be a woman of a similar age as mine (in her forties) who was a lifelong Vermonter.  Her speaking voice turned solemn and she poured forth a personal opinion of the good doctor that would have outshone anything that I would have written in the summer and fall of 2003.

She lamented the state of our nation and Dr. Dean's relegation to obscurity as the head of the DNC.  I concurred with her every sentence and answered to her obscurity statement with "Well, that's where the Clintons want him."  She responded, "Oh, well, they can do no wrong in my eyes so if that's what they want, then ok."  To which I asked, "So, is the mac restarted now?"  And we shared a laugh.

I later hoped she didn't think I was a conservative.

...

Our nation is in a tailspin.  We're locked into an undeniable American oligarchy.  The rich get richer.  The middle class that is every conservatives ideal is dwindling faster than the Arctic glaciers that we destroy daily with Hummers and SUV's that lower middle classers buy in order to appear to be upper lower class.  They buy the world destroyers with credit they don't have and so they wind up in old age with no money, saddled with debt and dependent on Social Security's pittance, thus becoming everything they claimed they were against in their ultra-conservative, Rush-loving 30's and 40's.  The current "administration's" "goals" of sacking the American government and using our military as a army of slave mercenaries for person vendettas (and said sacking) have been accomplished.

...

And what kind of world are we living in where BT puts up an editorial saying "This war is lost"?  It almost gives me hope for the future.

[BT]

And what kind of world are we living in where BT puts up an editorial saying "This war is lost"?  It almost gives me hope for the future.

Which editorial was that?

[sirs]

Funny....I saw the thread title, then when I looked at it, just 1 reference to the prior administration.  Go figure

[Plane]

" The middle class that is every conservatives ideal is dwindling faster than the Arctic glaciers that we destroy daily with Hummers and SUV's that lower middle classers buy in order to appear to be upper lower class. "

The middle class is going away?

What were they all in an accident?
Is there  plague going on that I haven't heard about?
Where are these people supposed to be going?

[Brassmask]

And what kind of world are we living in where BT puts up an editorial saying "This war is lost"?  It almost gives me hope for the future.

Which editorial was that?

Andrew Sullivan's Ron Paul support editorial.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The middle class is going away?

What were they all in an accident?
Is there  plague going on that I haven't heard about?
Where are these people supposed to be going?

===================================
Where have YOU been?
The middle class has become impoverished.
Never have we had higher gains in productivity.
Never have people worked more hours per week on average.
But there has been no net gain in income at all.
People owe more than ever before. Growth in consumer spending has mostly come from people borrowing on their homes.

The very rich are becoming even more wealthy, and almost everyone else is getting poorer.

[Richpo64]

>>Where have YOU been?
The middle class has become impoverished.
Never have we had higher gains in productivity.
Never have people worked more hours per week on average.
But there has been no net gain in income at all.
People owe more than ever before. Growth in consumer spending has mostly come from people borrowing on their homes.<<

Liberal claptrap.

[sirs]

The very rich are becoming even more wealthy, and almost everyone else is getting poorer.

When in reality, pretty much everyone is getting richer (at least in this country), simply that the wealthy make more.  Hard to explain otherwise, when the "poorer" seem to own 2-3 autos, 2-3 TV's with cable or satellite, 1-2 computers.  Many of those people are considered part of "the poor", by the "we know better what to do with your money than you do" leftists of this country

[Xavier_Onassis]

THis is bullshit. Either you know this is true, or you are so out of it there is no reason to discuss anything with you.

[BT]

And what kind of world are we living in where BT puts up an editorial saying "This war is lost"?  It almost gives me hope for the future.

Which editorial was that?

Andrew Sullivan's Ron Paul support editorial.

Ah !  I often post articles and editorials with which i don't necessarily agree.

When Post 41 was active after 9-11 i had a whole section featuring articles from the anti-war left.

And i certainly don't agree with Sullivan as far as Paul being the best nominee for the GOP.

Sullivan also touted Obama. I would prefer Richardson at this point.

[sirs]

THis is bullshit. Either you know this is true, or you are so out of it there is no reason to discuss anything with you.

"This" of course being the reality I referenced above.  Yes, I know that is true.  Unlike you leftists that seem to think wealth is 1 big pie chart, where if 1 segement gets more of it, the rest have to get less, in reality, EVERYONE can have more, in this case, wealth.  Many of the poor migrate to the middle class, and much of the middle class migrate to the upper class.  That is the goal of most folks, and along that way, some do fall, but the desire and goals of bettering oneself are as fluid as water, and not limited to some BS chart where the rich get richer thus the poor must get poorer.  It doesn't work that way, I'm sorry to say.  Now, if you want to talk about the finite resources of healthcare providers, and the detriment of UHC is to that service, made egregiously worse with the mindset of open borders, then we can realistically talk about a pie chart

[Plane]

The middle class is going away?

What were they all in an accident?
Is there  plague going on that I haven't heard about?
Where are these people supposed to be going?

===================================
Where have YOU been?
The middle class has become impoverished.
Never have we had higher gains in productivity.
Never have people worked more hours per week on average.
But there has been no net gain in income at all.
People owe more than ever before. Growth in consumer spending has mostly come from people borrowing on their homes.

The very rich are becoming even more wealthy, and almost everyone else is getting poorer.

I think every one of the points you make here is an error of fact.

If any class is shrinking at present it is the poor.

We are so short of poor that we need to truck them in from neighboring countrys just so have some.

[Brassmask]

The very rich are becoming even more wealthy, and almost everyone else is getting poorer.

When in reality, pretty much everyone is getting richer (at least in this country), simply that the wealthy make more.  Hard to explain otherwise, when the "poorer" seem to own 2-3 autos, 2-3 TV's with cable or satellite, 1-2 computers.  Many of those people are considered part of "the poor", by the "we know better what to do with your money than you do" leftists of this country

All the things you are listing there are simply carrots for the mules.  Even if a family has all the things you list, that does not mean they have any freedom.  The American Capitalist society is built on a solid foundation of fear.

Fear of the Jones' looking better than us.  Fear that our children may not have everything they may ever want.  Fear that we are failing to reach our potential which to most Americans means having two cars, two tv's, two computers and so forth.

Furthermore, for those in this country who are truly wealthy, allowing those among the other 90% of Americans to scurry about trying to obtain these items is a small price to pay to be the vulgar level of wealthy they in the top 10% are.

Technically, what you are saying is true.  People do have more things today.  Cars, tvs, washers, a house, dvd players and so forth but they are working twice as hard to get these items that in reality most MUST have in order to maintain a "normal" lifestyle.  Mothers and Fathers must now both work fulltime jobs in order to enjoy a simple ideal quality of life that most Americans believe they must enjoy to have a "good life".

In the fifties, a stereotypical Ward Cleaver-type could have a job and provide the equivalent ideal quality of life for his family of four.  Today, that ideal is enjoyed less and less among those who like to believe they are middle class. 

While, yes, families enjoy cable, washing machines and driers, microwaves and maybe even two cars (which is for most normal families a MUST), there are no family vacations every year.  There are no gaurantees of a college education for every child.  Most parents, and even worse the kids themselves, must risk it all to get some kind of loan to get the kids into college which they must then spend their lifetimes paying off while hoping against hope they A) don't lose their jobs, B) don't have some kind of health calamity which would be a doubly devestating problem because they would then lose their jobs and they may not even have health insurance so that would result in even more debt or worse bankruptcy and perhaps take their kids out of college, or C) have to choose which child goes to college and which has to get out and work to make the money to maybe go to school.

And here's why all this is happening.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-20-cover-generation-wealth_N.htm

This doesn't even touch the whole reality of 10% of Americans owning a predominance of the truly vulgar wealth in America.  That group basically lends the rest of us money so that we can stay in debt to them and make them richer by paying them interest.

[sirs]

Ahhh, the ever famous "even if..." response tact, where even if what I've said is true (as manifested by Brass's concession of "Technically, what you are saying is true.  People do have more things today".  I hope Xo was paying attention to that alledged BS, just espoused by Brass), it's not because....well because it just doesn't fit into the leftest template of how selfish "the rich" are, and how in need "the poor" are, and how evil Capitalism is supposed to be.  Thus we need socialist liberals to redistribute wealth, because they know better how to spend it than those that actually make it, thus perpetuating the same proplems.  But at least they feel better

Scary, isn't it

[Xavier_Onassis]

People do NOT have these things. They are leasing the cars, perhaps the TV's and furniture as well. The fact is that they are simply being allowed to pay for these things. And of course, when you buy stuff new from the store on credit, you really can't negotiate the price much, either. Most so-called "middle-class" Americans are in hock up to their gazingas. They can now bo0rrow against the equity on their homes. One medical emergency, one lost job and it's bye-bye to everything.

Germans and Frenchmen get a month vacations. Americans are lucky to get two weeks.