Has anyone heard the tale about the Scorpion and the Frog? Where a scorpion and a frog were living was about to be flooded. The scorpion asked the frog for a lift to drier ground. “Do you think I’m stupid Scorpy? You’ll just sting me to death”
“No”, intoned the poisonous one, “If I did, then I will drown”. With this logic winning out, the frog took Scorpy for the ride on his back. In the middle of the raging waters, Wham! Scorpy hits him with a full dose.
As he is dying and both start to sink, Froggy asks, “But why? You will die also”.
And the scorpion answers, “Why? Because I’m an American capitalist, it’s in my nature”.
And this, children, illustrates what is happening with the $700B bailout.
Something needed to be done. I had my doubts about this plan because there were no penalties, no responsibility, no consequences, no flagellation, no tar and feathering, no imprisonment, no head on the chopping block, nothing, if the banking sector used the funds inappropriately.
And they haven’t been using the money for the primary purpose of freeing up the credit market, if they have used any at all. It is becoming clear that the money is being used to buy stuff (other banks, mergers, acquisitions, to speculate in the stock market which right now means holding unto the money until a bargain appears), and to clear their own debts, feather their own nests.
“Why?” You the frog ask. Because self-enrichment is more in their nature than the economy at large. Making this country better is not in their game-plan.
By the way, did I tell you the consequence when these guys buy ‘stuff’?… branch closures, lay-offs, reduction in services, more lay-offs. The latter means families will have less ability to repay loans, leading to further foreclosures, more bankruptcies, more homelessness, greater burden on the government system to maintain shelters, more people will be going to jails (now there is a sure growth industry), and an increased burden on hospitals because the ‘po’ don’t have no health insurance.
Anything blessed by George W Bush, is a snow job, a con, a ruse, to make his cronies richer and the rest of the country suffer. You didn’t think he would be going without us getting banged, did you?
The democrats in the congress and senate, once again have fallen for a trap plotted in the white House, and all they are offering is to plead with the scorpions. Sorry, froggies, but a social conscience isn’t in their nature.
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A few weeks ago I forecast that gas was gonna go under $3 a gallon before the end of October. It happened two weeks earlier than predicted. Recently, I postulated that the economy and the tilt-a-whirl in the stock market would start to steady off when gas reached about $2.65. Well, I’m already seeing $2.63… so much for my crystal ball. That goes out the window with the economy.
I also said that there were more deep shocks to come and so far, one has. But there will be more. It is far more messy than I thought and the D-word isn’t one that I will exclude from my lexicon.
The ‘experts’ say that unemployment is at 6% and won’t go beyond 7%. Don’t believe a word. These guys never leave their towers above the clouds, and their statistics are influenced by the need to put a smiley face on everything. To me, the figures are already popping 15%. No, don’t panic. Just be real.
The other thing with these rose-tinted prognoses, is the failure to recognize that capitalism is dying. They have exalted capital into god status and refuse to accept it can die. Well, welcome to history.
Capitalism was great for a certain time, when factories needed to be built, railroads needed to span the country, airplanes needed to be invented and so on. But now, let’s give it a gold watch, a handshake and send it into retirement.
What we need to prepare for is its replacement. That can be a benevolent society, some version of what some disdainfully and ignorantly regard as a mixed economy, or it can go the way the corporations really want, corporate feudalism. And the latter my friends, you will just (place sarcasm here) love.
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Read 2 stories which highlights stupidity. One was in the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel about a white woman whose jewellery business is so floundering that she now has the time to go downtown Ft Lauderdale waving a poster supporting John McCain. Nothing wrong there. We should all support the candidate that means the most to us.
The thing is she describes herself as a life democrat. Uhho. She claims she turned against Obama because his health insurance plans will lead to the socialization of health care, and in regard to his taxes, she claims that Obama shouldn’t be increasing taxes on the rich because “… the top 10% already pay over 70% of the country’s taxes”.
Intelligent reasoning… except that she is not rich and her business is going down the toilet under the oppressive policies of this administration, and not likely to get any better under PaCain’s economic plans. The only way she would be tax-assessed by Obama, or benefit under PaCain, would be if she won the lottery.
And at this point she is likely to benefit better from Obama’s health insurance plans, since she might not be able to afford that luxury much longer.
This underscores my argument that one should not underestimate the capacity of Americans to be stupid and/or racist. This woman rationalizes her vote for PaCain, not because of what he offers, but what she doesn’t like in Obama’s plans. Worse still, she is clearly voting against her self-interest.
In a ‘letter to the editor’ of a national magazine, one guy spins Obama’s calm demeanour like this. ‘Obama is calm because he has nothing to say. McCain is angry because he has lots to say’. Good spin isn’t it, especially if you are in bizarro world.
It’s not easy to change people against things that are deeply imbedded in their nature.
