Breaking the silence

I've been so overwhelmed by Bush's recent machinations that I didn't know where to begin to post in reaction. His cabinet appointments--keeping Rummie, elevating Condi, appointing Gonzalez, to name a few--and his other appointments--Bolton, Negraponte, Wolfowitz--are enough to silence anyone. Now his assault on Alaska, his ramroding bills through Congress for war funding and diminishing social programs. It's too much!

But, guess what? It's precisely what he did in his first term. Recall when we couldn't believe his early actions, his appointments and agenda? We thought "he can't mean it," "it can't be happening." But it was, and it is again. Make no mistake, Bush/Cheney are out to transform the United States into a Christian fascist state--and the media is allowing it to happen. Even the Democrats are stifled, their occasional dissent but a whisper in the wind.

I told one of my fellow peace marchers that it's an exciting time, in a way. We are allowed to witness an historical earthquake, the end of a democracy, the finest democracy on Earth. Exciting, but painful indeed.

Whither the dollar?

Today's report, showing a sharp rise last month in the foreign purchase of US debt instruments (treasury bonds, corporate securities) appeared on its face to be good news for the dropping dollars. Indeed, it brought a quick reaction of the Forex market, in which the dollar gained a penny against the euro, which fell from $1.34 to $1.33.

But the underlying data are troubling, because, as has been rumored in recent weeks, it appears that the foreign governments (Japan, China, chiefly) in fact cut back their purchases, whereas foreign-based private hedge funds increased theirs mightily last month. As the Reuters analysis points out, monthly fluctuations in the amount of these private purchases are great, leaving the prospect of an upcoming period, not long from now, when there'll be neither private nor governmental foreign purchase of our equity and our debt, which presently accounts for one fourth of the market for such securitites. Such a vacuum would immediately cause a rise in interest rate of our debt to attract purchasers, and could trigger further inflationary fears. The likely result: The dollar would weaken even more as it cheapens, the dollar debt would become yet less attractive, and the interest rate needed to peddle that debt would rise further, starting a spiral of inflation, increase of interest rates for all kinds of borrowing in the US, and loss of buying power for US consumers, a credit-saddled bunch, who are, after all, the only engine our economy has.

It could get real ugly, real soon.

Scott Ritter for President

This second part of a three-part interview with former UN weapons inspector Ritter, long an opponent to the Iraq invasion, nails the neocons perfectly. They thrive on our fears and whenever we become complacent about their "war on terror" grab their well-placed microphones to frighten us anew. As I've long said, both Osama and Bush gain from our fear, and the US media profits from it. It takes insight to recognize this awful symbiosis and courage to voice it. The question is, what can be done about it?

Rain, rain go away

I don't want to wish ill on anybody, really I don't, but if there's going to be a huge wildfire season this summer, wouldn't it be wonderful if it took place in Montana?

I told you so

For months I (and other bloggers) have been predicting the economic catastrophe that the NYT is now, finally, suggesting.

The story about the capture of Saddam Hussein

in a "spider hole" was fabricated? Hmm. Could it be so? Absolutely, say I. After the Jessica Lynch bullshit and the Army's tale about recent shooting of the Italian agent who freed the woman reporter I don't believe a thing that the military tells us about the goings-on in Iraq. Actually, I haven't believed a military-minded person--ever. To me, men and women in the higher echelons of the military--any nation's military--is inherently untrustworthy on account of having a warped sense of humanity,demonstrated by their voluntary decision to join and direct martial force against fellow human beings. That decision, in my view, disqualifies a person from engaging in human discourse.

"What a revoltin' development this is!"

A signature line from an old radio show, "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix. (Shows you how old I am!) It's apropos the Bushies' likely reaction to the Iraqi leaders' response to the question whether the US will be allowed to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.

The "f" word

Finally, somebody (somewhat) responsible has uttered it, and backed it up with reasoned analysis. And for a frightening, compelling review of the traits of fascism, and how they translate into the actions of the Bush regime, check out this.

I gotta hand it to Bush and his advisors

They benefit no matter what happens in Iraq. If a pro-US government is formed, the US can keep its bases in Iraq and can suck up its oil, etc. If the present squabbling continues, the US can stay too, since no founded Iraqi administration will be formed to speak with a sufficiently authoritative voice to oust our military. Only if a passionately anti-US government prevails, and it can speak with one anti-US voice, will the US be compelled to leave--and that's not going to happen so long as the anti-US violence continues, which, in turn, is assured by the continued US presence. Like I say: Brilliant.

Greenspan's an idiot, a fascist, or worse.

A national sales tax? Oh, boy. Just what our out-of-whack economy needs, with the poor, who are growing poorer, and who'd be hit disproportionately with such a tax, bearing the burden of equalizing our federal income and outgo.
The man's got no clue about the need for government to be fair-minded and just in its efforts and impacts. He's a money-monger; he's the first one Christ cast from the temple. He does nothing but crunch numbers and mumble conservative platitudes, while Wall Street and Congress bow and scrape. His solution for fixing imbalances is never to tax the wealthy, but rather to do what comes naturally: tread on those who holler faintest.

Don't despair

I've not been posting, I know it. I'm distracted by a book I'm reading at the suggestion of Kyle. Toward the End of Time, by Updike. Magnificent writing, too good to put down. Posts will reappear later today, maybe.

Somebody do something, somebody say something

Now we're gonna lay antipersonnel mines in Iraq, to be triggered by laptop computer. Isn't there something we can do to stop this madness?

Pat Buchanan on Bush's interventionist foreign policy

How can someone who's completely full of shit on most issues be so right on about Bush's international policy of intervention to spread democracy?

What have we become?

Up to 30 billion dollars of US tax money is going to pay for private paramilitary companies in Iraq. Our "all volunteer Army" isn't that at all. It's a half-mercenary army, with the private half paid up to $500 a day for the less dangerous work, while our soldiers receive $1200 a month to fight and die.

Isn't this how the British lost the colonies, by hiring out to the Hessians? Isn't this why Rome fell?

I suppose I should be pleased that we're using mercenaries, but I gotta tell ya, it feels really gross. Slimy. UnAmerican.

"Both sides are sharpening their knives."

The insurgents--Sunnis and others--attack the Shiites and Kurds, and others (the US). The latter attack the insurgents. Now, we learn that since the most recent election, which favored the Shiites, the latter are systematically murdering former Baathists, mostly Sunnis, in revenge for years of oppression.

If that's not a civil war, what is it? Chopped liver?

Without the Internet, where would we be?

A few nights ago, quite late, I read this article on the web, wherein Scott Ritter, former US marine and UN weapons inspector--who's been anti-Iraq-war and right-on in his predictions about its outcome for three straight years--told us he'd learned that the US plans to attack Iranian nuclear plants "in June."

Guess what? This morning, I learn from the MMM (that's mainstream media to the cyberincognenti) that the Bushies are issuing an ultimatum-sounding fiat to Europe: Bring Iran to heel by June, or we act.

Brothers and sisters: Take to the streets. Now!

I hate to say I told you so, but...

the world economy, much too much dependent on the flaccid US economy, is gonna collapse pretty soon, says the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. America is drunk with buying foreign goods, not producing anything much and is spending wildly on wars and unproductive defense items.

In four more years this drunk in the White House is going to leave America--no, the entire planet--with a hangover even he can't lie and cheat and slime his way out of.

Ya know, I hope so. I want an end to these evildoers that have seized power in the US, and the only way we'll get rid of them, seems to me, is for them to so screw things up that even their monied supporters bail out.

So--spend on, Bush. March on, Bush. Lie and cheat and steal. Do your worst. I've decided to root for you, all the way into oblivion.

Smoking gun

One doesn't often see a murder on videotape, so when a newsman films a US soldier shooting an already-injured Iraqi at point-blank range--and then joking about it--one would think there might be grounds for a court martial. But no, not in this man's army. There's apparently "insufficient evidence."

Raimondo scores again

with this excellent piece about the NeoCons' march to war against Syria, in particular the baseless drumbeat that Syria was behind the recent bombing of a former Lebanese prime minister.

The most telling part of the essay is his quote from an article by Ron Suskind, recounting his conversation with a Bush admininstration aide on the nature of truth in the American Empire:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'

Mourning

No posts today. I'm in mourning. Sandra Dee and Hunter Thompson died. Nobody left to look up to.