Let’s review a few of the Crazies in the Land.
Russ Limbaugh, the speaker of the Republican party, believes that Obama was not born in Hawaii. So do 46% of Republicans. They are crazy. Daily, Limbaugh makes shit up and sells it as wisdom and fact. He has a large radio following but he is nuts. He is also a racist. Consider, just a few examples. “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.” “The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.” “We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
Sarah Palin is an idiot. Here are just a few of hundreds of examples. ”As Putin rears his head and comes into the air spaceof the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.” After bitterly opposing national health care and making up “death panels”, Panels declares, ”We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic?” When asked what newspaper she reads, she declares, “All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” Recently, her twitters are nonsense with made up words and she compared herself to Shakespeare. Palin is an idiot and could be the next President. McCain nominated this bozo knowing nothing about her.
John Boehner is the House Majority Leader and regularly disputes thousands of climate scientists, declaring climate change is a hoax. In 2009, Boehner declared, “Hard for Me to Imagine” that the CIA would mislead Congress. Boehner declared that Congress would repeal health care reform in 2010 knowing that Obama would most certainly veto it. There are regular reports of Boehner drinking to the point of being drunk and being one of the laziest members of Congress. Day after day, Boehner makes one stupid statement after another. He cares little about the truth — he is nuts.
These people should make everybody sick. They are just a few examples of the hundreds that could be cited, like Glenn Beck, Hannity, and most everybody on Fox News. After millions of years of evolution, and hundreds as a nation, this is the what America has ended up with in its final days. No wonder this country is screwed up and doomed.
America is Doomed.
The former economist at Merrill Lynch, David Rosenberg, has joined the America Doomed crowd and declared that America is in a DEPRESSION. AD has predicted that eventually people would wake up to the fact that this is no ordinary recession, double dip, whatever — there is only one word for it — D E P R E S S I O N. Rosenberg points out that there were up blips in the 1930s Depression, just as there are now. He also notes that it is essential to accept the fact that this is a depression in order to address the problems.
Likewise, Derek Shearer, former US ambassador and Professor at Occidental College, seconds Rosenberg declaring that there are serious problems in the short term but the next two or three decades are not going to be happy times.
There are a couple of things that neither Shearer or Rosenberg note in their analysis — extremely important things. First, what will be the ending or solution to the depression look like. In the 1930s, it wasn’t until World War II that America went back to work in mass and the depression ended. Wars in the 1940s were largely man power intensive — millions lost their lives. However, that is not likely today. Technology will continue to displace workers and make the depression worse and last longer. When will people start realizing that there is no recovery in this depression — at least not in traditional terms — that is, jobs for people based working for for-profit companies. Meanwhile, technology and overseas outsourcing will continue to eliminate jobs at a dramatic rate.
The second item that Shearer and Rosenberg failed to note is that capitalism has failed — miserably failed. Any solution to the depression has to include fundamental changes in the economic system. This change in the economic system has to allow for people to do the work that is needed in America even though it is not profitable. The entire country needs to be viewed as a vast work force to work on critical problems for the benefit of everybody.
Much of this work is not profitable in the traditional sense and will never be interesting to capitalism. But, it has long been neglected and more and more critical to the survival of America. It is providing health care for the people who don’t have it — not profitable at all. It is providing child care so people can work or paying people to stay home and care for their own children. It is paying people for producing free software that benefits everybody. The problem in America is not that there is not enough work, the problem is that the work that needs to be done cannot be monetized — made profitable.
Until America recognizes these two critical elements, there is no way that the depression will end. In fact, it will just get worse. Also, people with jobs that are doing fine will reject the notion of a depression. Even in the 1930s nearly 2/3rds of the people had jobs. An uncle of mine told me stories about the depression and how he was one of the lucky ones with a job — to him, the depression was not a big deal. This is the case with many in America today and the reason that the depression will get much worse as more and more people loss the ability to support themselves, including many of recent college grads with excellent education who are unable to find work.
One public policy that should be immediately implemented is unlimited unemployment. Every person who is unable to find a suitable job, should receive unemployment compensation. The current system cuts people off resulting in abject poverty. All people need some income. As the government taxes those with money to pay for those unable to find jobs, they will recognize that the unemployed represent a valuable labor pool that can be deployed with jobs across America — jobs that do not have to be profitable.
There are alarms of epic portion to America sounding today but, sadly, the politicians are not paying attention — they will eventually.
America is Doomed.
A reader emailed me and asked me why government is the solution when it has done such a bad job? This is an excellent question and the answer is there are no alternatives to government. It took mankind milleniums to figure out that people needed to be organized. There are many reasons for this — security, diversity of talents, sustainability. All of these can be netted out with a single word – survivability.
Man is a social animal and is intended to be in collectives. Our evolution and DNA require diversity. We gain strength in biology by mating through diversity which results in a stronger offspring, more dominant traits wins over weaker ones. In organizations, people can specialized with different skills for the benefit of all, e.g. doctors, farmers, etc. One occupation is not more important than another if it provide a function for the greater good. The ones that do not promote the greater good are bad and need to be eliminated.
People who try to exist in isolation don’t do well. They not only get lonely and depressed, but they lose their desire for life. Happiness comes from the interactions with other people, e.g. celebrations. However, the socialization fails when governments impose onerous rules and regulations that prevent the people from pursing happiness or let one group control the happiness of others. This is why the “pursuit of happiness” is in the first sentence of the US Constitution. This is also why America can’t sustain itself with the rich getting richer and everybody else getting poorer.
However, not all governments are created equal and governments can change and erode over time. America is at a horrible state at the moment and is not sustainable for many reasons. One of the mostly frequently cited reasons is the national debt but that is not the most severe problem — mostly a symptom of the disaster in America. The most severe problems is that citizens are unable to support themselves and the government has been taken over by the rich and powerful who have little compassion or concern about everybody else. One of the political parties, Republicans, only believe in policies for the rich and use faux social issues to convince others to support them, e.g. abortion, immigration. Sadly, many elected Democrats support these Republican policies as well.
So, the big questions is what kind of government is correct and how much government is needed for sustainability of everybody? The US has a representative government where the people elect others to represent them. Generally, democracy — simple majority rule — decides elections and is used to control what laws are passed by representatives. When democracy breaks down because of special interests, the vast majority suffers. It is these areas that are documented in the news, day after day, that is the reason America is failing and doomed. There is now a major disconnect from the will of the majority — ordinary people — and the goals of the American government. If there wasn’t then the rich would not be getting richer while everybody else suffers.
In my view the best form of government is a democratic socialism. Democratic because the will of the majority is the most important, assuming the majority believes in fairness for all. Socialism because the wealth of the nation needs to be distributed to all the people for survivability, not just a specific subset. Once the minimum needs of the people are met in housing, food, health care, etc, there can be other incentives for people to invent and work hard — call this capitalism. Capitalism is something that occurs after minimums for everybody are met.
Capitalism, left unrestricted, will destroy a country. This is happening to America. The reason capitalism motives people is because greed is a powerful, but frequently negative, human trait. It has to be controlled. Currently, it is out of control. Greed is like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded pistol — it will destroy everybody who plays. It is destroying America. However, it has a place in a society but only after the minimum needs of everybody is met.
Capitalism has taken over America. It controls everything these days. It decides who will be elected, what laws will be passed, and who will remain in office. Capitalism decides who will lose jobs, homes, and health care. Large corporations and the rich control capitalism. It has developed into such a cancer on the country that the fairness of America has been lost. The mantra today is screw ordinary people — money is all that matters.
America is Doomed.
Did you hear the recent series of China shocks? America Doomed has detailed these were coming and last week they got considerably closer. Most probably heard that China became the second largest economy in the world, passing Japan. But how many heard that McDonalds raised money in the Chinese bond market — in Yuan. The amount was small but it was huge in terms of the future of the US Dollar and its ability to stay a reserve currency. When the US Dollar loses reserve status, America will collapse financially and its currency will become worthless. This is inevitable. Nobody needs to worry any longer about the US national debt because America will default on it.
No wonder China is doing well. They are the America of old. They build things. They are growing their middle class. They have little national debt. They have universal health care. They are inventing things, stealing technology, and exploring space. They don’t respect copyrights or patents to the point of letting the few control the wealth. They are developing high speed trains. They still have problems they are working on but they don’t believe in pure greed-based capitalism; instead, they put capitalism in a subservient role. They believe in more controlled economy with a hefty dose of socialism. They realize that capitalism left unregulated will destroy everything and America is the perfect example. If Americans think that unregulated capitalism will flourish in China, they are dead wrong. China will not make the same mistakes.
There is no saving America. America is the mean, crazy uncle in the basement. They argue over the Islamic Cultural center two blocks from the 911 site but fail to see why most of the world hates them. Even Americans hate America and the numbers are increasing every day. America declares that 3000 people died on 911 but refuse to do much of anything about the 5000 who die every month because of no health care. More Americans want to throw all the politicians out because of the corruption and the allegiance to corporations, at the expense of ordinary citizens.
Time to learn Mardarin.
America is Doomed.
Mark G Yudof is the University of California
President from Hell and should be fired. Exactly, what has to happen to a person, 65 years old, for him to expect and even demand to live in a 10,000 square foot, 16 room, 8 bath home while raising tuition on students who cannot afford to stay in college? Right now, California is going through a horrible financial crisis and so is the University of California. The state will likely issue IOUs again because it has run out of money. State workers are being forced to take many days off each month without pay. Quiz — Guess where this idiot Yudof is from? — times up — Texas. The ultimate home of the privileged assholes of America. Two former Bushes live in Texas — the cesspool of the nation — the Bush boys who did everything they could to screw up America.
Seriously, when did executives decide they were so damn important to demand to live the lives of Kings? Could there be any better example of hubris, arrogance, and greed than Yudof? Exactly why anybody would hire and keep such a bastard is beyond comprehension. Send him back to live with all the other assholes in Texas.
In the last two years, America has seen a never-ending display of greed and selfishness across the nation. From politicians to bankers to healthcare to executives in every industry, there has been one example after another of a collective Screw You to working people. Dismantle unions, destroy the middle class, lay off teachers, but let the rich rape everybody else. Recently, it was discovered that two small, poor cities in California were paying their counsel people nearly a million dollars in salaries per year. The people who knew looked the other way. And nobody goes to jail except some poor Latino who gets caught with a marijuana joint. Meanwhile, there is one instance after another in America of people feeling so entitled to a privilege lifestyle and getting off without any consequences.
America has turned into a cesspool of corruption and greed that the world has never seen. The
unemployment ranks increase, foreclosures mount, and greed flourishes — all in the name of wants and desire that go beyond anything fathomable by ordinary working people. Secretaries pay higher taxes rates than their hedge fund bosses who claim that the 10% they pay is too much. Multi-national corpoirations who make $BILLIONS pay nothing in taxes as they use tax havens — all approved by Congress. Republicans and many Democrats are steadfastly opposed to rolling back any taxes cuts for the rich, while they have no problem in withholding unemployment benefits and scaling back Medicare for ordinary Americas. Meanwhile, Obama goes on vacation and does not give a god damn about ordinary people — and still he is better than Republicans who want to crush the disenfranchised.
America makes me vomit. I hate this screwed up country. I hate all the people who abuse the system and profit while so many suffer. May an asteriod hit this god damn place.
America is Doomed.
