Monday, August 23, 2010

Reason, Fairness and Compassion: Off the Table

Why don't most of the politicians and
Wall Streeters read and heed Paul Krugman
and Simon Johnson? There's really only
one ugly reason: The super-rich and
well-fixed political figures really
don't care about middle and lower class
Americans, the majority. As Paul Krugman,
Simon Johnson and James Kwak so ably point
out, the rich and political, hereinafter
referred to as "they","them" or "their",
keep changing their reasons to deny
further assisting the unemployed. I've
seen cries of "socialism", "deficit-driven
depression/bankruptcy", "bond investor
withdrawal risk", etc. ....Whew! Say,
call me when you make up your minds--
AND make some sense.

Some of them have forgotten, if they ever
apprehended it, 6,000 years of recorded
history, oh, and a pithy little saying:
"...You can't fool all of the people all
of the time". The scales of Justice
sometimes swing back to weigh in favor of
the oppressed. Yet I see that many of
"them" must act and live by the old saw,
"take the money and run". But by forgetting
the lessons of history and economics, in the
long run, EVERYONE pays for stupid,
narrow-interest policies, even the very
proponents of same.

TO THE POWERS THAT BE: FIX UNEMPLOYMENT

(1) Exhort those sitting on cash to hire!
Productivity numbers have lied for decades;
I'm here to attest to the sharp decline in
accuracy AND quality; you can't really do
"more with less", you just do LESS.

(2) If there is stimulus money unspent, allocate
it to employ people to fix our infrastructure.
Realize nothing lasts forever, not even the proton.
(Reading more science over a lifetime versus
partaking in many pointless social
opportunities would be a big help here.)
If the stimulus fund HAS truly been spent,
vote more money to do this vital work which
has been stupidly, niggardly, overlooked.

TO THE LARGER ELECTORATE:
Remember in November.
(Please, remember in November.)

Unless a miracle of sane policy or
voter awareness/alacrity occurs, reason,
fairness and compassion are off the table.

8 comments:

  1. What they HAVE figured out is you can fool enough of the people enough of the time to make a comfortable life.

    These 180 degreeders are simple enough to decipher. We got the best government money can buy.

    What they don't seem to be able to grasp is that to a troglodyte, the erudite man is food.
    While their blowholes scream for "national security" uber alles, they keep kicking a substantial majority (and growing)in the teeth. That majority may be slow and easily mislead, but their national insecurity is not to be trifled.

    For now Krugman, Kuchinich, Chomsky et al are outnumbered ~20:1 by the noise machines because the alternative for them is too horrible to even contemplate. Postponing the reconciliation of the books is their only hope and they will spend what is needed to stretch judgement day out indefinitely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Watcher", Thanks for your insights/observations! OF COURSE I "immediated" over to your blog
    (Hey, if dummies like Mrs. Palin can coin
    words we should all take up because she
    "ranks with Shakespeare", WELL, tonight I'm giving it a shot, although NOT comparing myself to world-class wordsmiths.)
    BLESS YOU, your blog made me laugh, in spite
    of not understanding all the references. Keep up the good work! (My sense of humor has dulled over my span of 6+ decades.)-- You help! That IS a vital skill, right up there with accurate info (like buried treasure, hard
    to unearth/discern. I'll check you out again soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear "Watcher": I left off two punctuation
    marks in my rush to comment back to you.
    (1) Left out first " required in addressing you.
    (2) Left off close parens at the end. My typing
    really @#$%^!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's always good practice to toss in a few extra punctuations. Then when you miss one you can just say it grew legs and went walkabout.

    Your letter to the editor led me to your blog. It's always great to find kindred residing in close proximity. I've been stalking your blog ever since waiting for an appropriate opening. You too seem to catch the irony and hypocrisy spewing out of opposite world.

    I eagerly await your announcement to run for local office.[g] I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by the stealth progressives living among us.

    I truly appreciate the kind words (and traffic). I'm told my references can be a challenge. It's quite possible that the dots only connect for me? I continue to work on that. (self-therapy?)

    They are my bread-crumb trail because sometimes when I dare go down their rabbit-hole, getting back out is difficult.

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  5. Very good observations. Rehctaw makes some excellent points as well. If you fool the right percentage of the pop. into thinking things are OK--and they often are with THEM--you can get away with murder, literally.

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  6. Wow! A panel discussion!

    Thanks Matt.

    The paradox is that most "voters" don't. This is typically attributed to apathy, yet there has been no real examination of motive.

    If there were, they'd likely find that many non-voters just don't like the choices.

    The interesting thing being that even when a good candidate enters a race with ideas that resonate and make sense, more often than not they cannot overcome the inertia of the status quo.

    If they clear that hurdle, they find themselves with limited access and drowned out by the partisan roars.

    Our succession of reactionary turns to the right assures running in circles. It's also the course of a corkscrew.

    ReplyDelete
  7. -Aaand the panel continues! I agree with you, Watcher, that your description captures the usual way of things(--Regrettably). Yet if only for logical and future hopes, I strongly believe we must keep pitching. If we DO leave
    the field to the Inglorious @@@@@#$%s, then our worst fears are guaranteed to become reality....

    This summer, for example, I feel my anti-nuke friends and I got some success. The American
    Power Act (Kerry/Lieberman)extolling "Clean and Green" nuclear energy never arrived on
    the Senate floor. Various other taxpayer gifts
    the Obama Administration wanted to bestow on
    the nuclear power energy lobby never went
    anywhere in Congress: they were afraid we'd
    remember in November. AFTER that and before the late year DC holiday, well, that's anybody's guess. But those of us active across America will keep right up on 'em, determined little (figuratively) tail gunners that we all are.

    Hey guys, why don't we continue our panel on your two sites? (Share the goodies of mutual traffic,etc.) See you guys over there soon!
    Best Wishes, A.

    ReplyDelete
  8. -A note to Watcher and Matt:

    I typed up a very long message to you
    both yesterday, Tues. the 24th. It's not
    showing here, so the substance of it follows:

    Watcher, Don't worry about the dots
    and DON'T CHANGE A THING. I've just
    never fully appreciated the immediacy and
    importance of using pop culture to further
    positive goals, as you're obviously able to do. My head's often in the clouds.
    Matt, I really like your blog too. Who's
    the famous man in the photo? He looks familiar, but I can't quite recall the
    name. Keep up the good work, both of you.
    Now I'm going over to your sites. A.

    ReplyDelete