Japan just had a landslide election and kicked out the party in power since 1955.  Forget the actual names of the parties because it can be misleading for an American.  Consider what the new party’s promises:

The party has also promised to overhaul Japanese politics, redirecting resources away from corporations and toward families in the form of child care support and free education.

Notice what the new ruling party in Japan wants to do —

• More resources toward families
• Less resources toward corporations

That sounds like a formula that could work in America.  That sounds like what American liberals and progressives believe in.  That is exactly the opposite of what conservatives and Republicans believe in. Let’s hope America can learn from Japan.

Although Obama is far more centrist than many people thought in the 2008, America voted for a change.  Unfortunately, Obama might not be the change that America wants but he still has time to come through.  In any case, he is clearly better than the Bush-Cheney cabal.   He just might not be good enough to rescue America.

Some pundits are predicting big wins for the Republicans in 2010.  I don’t see that.  By 2010, things are going to be worse.  There will be more unemployed.  There is going to be more homeless.  The country will likely go through a horrible 2009 flu season.  No matter what health care reform is passed, there will be continued push to make it better from the moment it is signed.  Health care reform will not be off the table this year.  It affects everybody and a good flu  season will make it more apparent why everybody needs to be covered.

Liberals and progressives will continue the fight and older people who vote overwhelming for Republicans will continue to die.  They will be replaced with younger people who have crushing student loans and cannot find living wage jobs.  The demographics will continue to change for a long time.

Meanwhile, the party of haters will continue what Republicans have always done — privilege the few over the many — as they attempt to protect their money — the only god they believe in.

America is doomed.

It is breathtaking to watch a clip of Glen Beck being functionally illiterate.  This guy is psychotic.  He is seeing and hearing things in his head that don’t exist.  As dozens of sponsors leave his show, he turns up the crazy.   Glenn Beck has a dopamine overload and it comes across loud and clear on this video snippet.

On the video, Beck lists a bunch of seemingly random words and then asserts they spell the word OLIGARH with the Y missing: OLIGARHY.  This is not a word in any language.  He declares the Y is missing because you have to ask WHY — Y vs WHY?  But, of course, any literate person knows there is also a C missing — O L I G A R C H Y — this is the word he is looking for — C stands for CRAZY and Beck certainly is.

Beck is suggesting in his psychotic rant that Obama somehow represents an oligarchy where the power of the government rests in the hands of a few.   If this was the case then Obama would not be having the problem he is having passing his agenda.  Instead, the party which was decisively voted out continues to assert power beyond its election results because of money and special interests.  For most of my life it has been Republicans ruling the country for the benefit of the few.  This is why there is massive unemployment and wealth is continued to be concentrated is just a few tenths of one percent of the country’s citizens.

Why would anybody turn on the television and watch this crazy Beck?  Seriously, what is the point of writing a bunch of crap on this board and then circling the first letter of words or phrases to declare it spells a meaningless word?   How could this appeal to anybody on the planet?

I don’t think that all conservatives or Republicans are stupid.  However, Beck seems to be helping to show that he is.  Many conservatives and Republicans are very smart — how the Republicans screwed up Medicare to maximum profits is brilliant if the goal is greed. Republicans  are either greedy and lack empathy, or just plain stupid.  It is the greed of the Republicans that makes them say all of the hateful stuff and advocate policies which promote greed.  Republican policies favor the privileged over the masses — that’s a fact.

America is doomed.

Whole Foods’ CEO Mackey demonstrated how out of touch he is with his consumers when he voiced his opinion that health care is not a right to all Americans.  It’s a free country and Mackey can believe any crazy, stupid, greedy thing he wants — but I don’t have to shop at his stores.  A national boycott has been called by all people who object to Mackey’s heartless, greedy, and uninformed opinions.

I sent email to Whole Foods regarding Mackey and received an apology; however, I had requested that Mackey be fired.  Thus, as a long time shopper at Whole Foods, I will no longer shop there as long as CEO Mackey remains employed with Whole Foods.

This is the second time I have been greatly disappointed with Mackey and Whole Foods — the first time was over the merger of Wild Oaks when Whole Foods bought out a competitor.  Whole Foods acts more like the greedy people at Wal-Mart than as a sustainable food distribution company.

Now that Mackey has made his views known, it is easier to understand why Whole Foods has left their traditional sustainable food model for the greed mantra of American capitalism.  Whole Foods is, indeed, part of the problem with food in America.

America is doomed

It has taken long enough, but finally advertisers have had enough with at least one Fox show — crazy, deranged Glen Beck.  Beck says the most outrageous nonsense — burns people with gasoline, calls Obama a racist, etc.  There is NOTHING this guy won’t do or say to get ratings.  Finally, 30 or more advertisers have dumped his show.  Still, the financial entertainer Jim Cramer calls Beck “a nice guy” — Cramer is the person Jon Stewart called out for his outrageous recommendations leading up to the financial crisis.

More Advertisers Bolt Glenn Beck.

Yet, Fox News has the highest ratings.  Granted, the numbers represent a very small portion of America population.   And conservatives apparently watch more TV than liberals and progressives.  This is because there is so little worth watching on political television.  When was the last time that political television had somebody like Naomi Klein talking about shock capitalism?

News, thanks largely to Fox News, has been transformed into entertainment.  Even the nightly news broadcasts have very little news and certainly nothing like the news of previous generations — people like Walter Crokrite to name just one.

Yet, Fox News, contrary to the ratings, does not reflect the views of America.  But the nonsense of Fox News does have influence on people.  Study after study shows that people who watch Fox News believe all sorts of factual nonsense, e.g. Saddam Hussein was behind 911.  See the documentary Outfoxed for lots of other outrageous stuff people who watch Fox News believe.

America has the very government that the people elect.  This is perhaps the saddest statement to be made about the state of America today.  The disenfranchised do not vote and vast numbers of people cast ignorant ballots and/or they don’t hold their elected representatives to account when they are bought off by lobbyists and special interests.  If they did, America would not have the elected leaders we have today who could care less about America.  These elected people mostly — there are exceptions — care about their own interests and have sold out.  They are morally despicable.

America is doomed.

I like to feature great American rip offs from time to time, and particularly like to highlight the tricks that are played in the name of greed.  Today, it will be my recent experience with U-Haul, the one way movers.  I have used U-Haul a number of times, mostly to help my children move to or from college.  Each time I learn a little bit more about how to deal with the greed of yet another American corporation.

In the past, I have been told my people working at U-Haul stores to avoid the online site to make reservations.  They point out that my dolly I had pre-ordered never gets communicated to the local person.  Further, I want to work with particular U-Haul pickup and drop off points because they are convenient for me.  Instead, using the online site U-Haul assigns a pickup or drop off point that is convenient to them.  As a result, I now only call the local dealer where I want to reserve the truck directly.

So, on a recent U-Haul reservation, I called my local store to make a reservation.  As I was giving them information, the person said that I would be contacted with a location to pick up my truck.  I said, I called the local number of the store where I wanted to pick up the truck.  “No sir,” she replied.  You called the corporate office.    But, I didn’t.  I called the number of the local store that I have called in the past, and was transferred to the corporate people without my knowledge.   Meanwhile, I had given my credit card and confirmed my transaction.  In any case, this bitch at the corporate office assured me that she put in my order for the store that I requested and there would be no problem.  “Have a nice move,” see says.

Surprise.  Surprise.  I got fucked by U-Haul.  I ended up having to literally drive 40 miles out of my way to pick up their fucking truck.  No, the one I could walk to and that I called was not a good choice for them.  In addition, even though I specifically requested a 10 foot truck, the corporate asshole decided I needed a 14 foot truck, didn’t advise me of that fact, and decided I wouldn’t mind paying the extra $30+.  Of course, I couldn’t just cancel the entire transaction at the store because there would be a $50 fee for that.  I hate the greed games of corporate America and U-Haul specifically.

So, once again corporate America screwed a consumer and this consumer will NEVER be using this fucking company again.  I know my lack of business will hardly hurt U-Haul.  In fact, companies like these routinely screw their customers because there business model is to screw every customer just once. They rely on the birth model to bail them out.  So, dear U-Haul, fuck you and fuck you.  I hope my experiences forewarn other people who might consider using your services and that they will not use the greed based services of your fucking company either.

America is doomed.