Really. I'd like to know what life is like under Josef Stalin. You have currency that's worth nothing. You have a deficit that can't be controlled. You have a debt that will never be paid. You have a negative balance of trade with everywhere else on the planet. You have a fiscal policy designed to keep the country bankrupt in order to support an empire by force. You have a monetary policy designed to keep the population from demanding something, anything. You have gulags. You have warrantless wiretapping. You have citizens spying on each other. You have a militarized law enforcement system. You have show trials. You have a national security state that makes the KGB look compassionate. You have internal passports. You have refuseniks. You are sealing your borders. You have ethnic and religious tensions that will break the United States into two or three parts. Yet, you are looking for a bigger empire. What's next? Invade Iran. Invade Venezuela. Invade Canada. Invade Norway. Christ, you're already in Afghanistan. And you can't even win against any of them without dropping a nuclear bomb.
I just loved Bush "talking" tough with Ecuador. What would happen if tiny, little, Ecuador were to void itself of dollars and only accept hard currency for the oil leases? The capitalist Domino Theory is what. So, to all the needle-dicks in America who love war and hate other countries so much, you like apples? How 'bout them apples? Ecuador is stronger than the United States. All of those fucking dick-heads out on the cubicles in the exurban office parks were chanting "USA-USA-USA" when the USA invaded Iraq because for two seconds they could forget how shitty their own lives were. Was it worth it, boys? You now live in a Communist country which can be toppled by Ecuador. The joke's on you. Go ask "God" to help.
Not a Communist country? How soon before Chase, Citibank and the Federal Reserve become one entity?
You do, however, have natural resources to spare. And as Stalin is getting ready to retire, what do you have? Two "Democrats" running to be Nikolai and one "Republican" running to be Leonid.
And you sure got a lot of tall, pretty women. You got some athletes. You got movies. You got a state-controlled software industry. That's about it.
There's one path to take. It is off-the-table, anyway so let's just fantasize. Fiscal sanity and monetary neutrality. End these wars immediately. Turn the "defense" budget into a DEFENSE budget, not an IMPERIAL budget. Dismantle the National Security State. And raise those interest rates to the roof to hold off hyper-inflation and to get some customers for dollars back into the market. Hold meaningful, free-and-fair elections with candidates who overtly represent the interests of those who support them or publicly-finance them.
Open the borders because you need foreign currencies and physical customers for dollars.
Anecdotally, that grocery stores take Euros and Loonies mean that grocers know more about the United States macroeconomy than Clinton, McCain or Obama do. Get rid of these clowns now and give the people some candidates who can do something. The Senators from Pfizer (Clinton), Goldman-Sachs (Obama) and Lockheed-Martin (McCain) are not going to fix this.
Barack Obama is going to fix the worst economy the nation's history with "a rap on race"? (Apologies to James Baldwin and Margaret Mead). This is the most PRICELESS thing yet. Christ, sell that whole idea for humor value.
And whom do I spy with my little eye? Why it's little Chuckie Schumer! What's his prescription? Regulation of capital markets? How exactly is "the regulation of capital markets" going to solve a problem Little Chuckie made worse by plumping for war and shoving Mukasey down the nation's throat as Felix Beria? It's PRICELESS.
Please. Some candidates. Please. There are mostly party apparatchiks floating around but Gore doesn't seem so bad. Neither does Bloomberg. Nor Kucinich. Nor Ron Paul. Nor Admiral William Fallon. Nor Ralph Nader. Nor Jeff Flake. Nor Russ Feingold. Nor Bob Wexler. Some combination of all of them is best.
Paint 'em black and cut off their nuts and put a military uniform on all of them if that's what takes.
Have fun. Comrades.
Kelso's Nuts love you
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14 comments:
WOW! Bravo! Excellent post Mi Amigo! This is one of rthe ages. I love the juxtaposition of USA/USSR. This would make Americans crazy and folks calling you anti...whatever. I think people are afraid to use the word imperialism in regards to the American Gov't at the moment. That conjures up some bad memories, hard feelings. But really if you peel away American Idol, Celebrity gossip, and politicians fucking folks that ain't their spouses then you see things a bit clearer. It's like when Dorothy figures out the Wizard isn't all knowing and powerful, but just some old guy behind a curtain. Muy bien!
Yeah! What lovebabz said!
My kingdom for a real candidate. I fantasize about Bloomberg running someday. I heard his "State of the City" speech in January (I think) and thought to myself, If only...
Holy moly, Kelso. "NOYCE" !!!
LOVEBABZ: TYVM. But you three are American and you can handle it. What's the problem? Look, if George W. Bush had set out to betray the United States to the "Red Chinese" and turn the USA into the perverse Marxist-Leninism of Stalin, he could not have done a better job. The word that gets tossed around a lot is "fascism" and there's some validity to the comparison of the USA today with Mussollini's Ttaly, but I think the USSR is a much snugger fit.
I remember vividly the first time I heard this metaphor. It was a while ago, during my first sentient day in Panama. My friends Juan-Carlos and Maurice were giving me a tour of the city and we got to talking business and one of them asked me in all seriousness "when did the United States become the world's 2nd biggest Communist dictatorship?" [He said it in Spanish, of course.]
I had a good laugh about and said something like "yeah, they sure do such a business, finance and economics." [In Spanish, of course]. But it stuck with me and as I read more and more about BearStearns and Bernanke and the futures markets and the budget and the military's request for a $1 trillion fighter jet, I put 2+2 together and came up with 4. If Americans can't deal with it, tough tit.
Z: My blog archive will show that I was very much a Bloomberg skeptic in 2001 because of some "let them eat cake" remarks about Harlem and asthma and again in 2005 because of the way he had mishandled the anti-war protests and how he had seemed to have fallen in lock-step as a Repubican despite being rather left-wing in his social policy and center-left responsible economically.
Otherwise, I really can't find too much fault with the guy. Everything I'd heard about him from people who knew him at old Salomon Brothers said he was great. That he was a great manager and had a common touch and zen manner. He has been an outstanding mayor I believe and I think of the big names mentioned for President, I would have even preferred him to Gore. He has struck me as capable, compassionate, bright, honest, tough, and yet not bellicose in the slightest, and a democratic capitalist in the best sense of the phrase.
Had he run against C,O and Mc, I believe he would have been the candidate with not only the most personal wealth but also the candidate from the most humble beginnings of the lot.
ANITA: Thanks. Yeah, the shoe really fit on this one. I'm only surprised it's taken me this long to figure it out after having had such a long time to mull over the metaphor as first suggested to me.
Although, I will have to say that I think the Obama speech was pretty magnificent.
Haven't seen it yet. I'm knee-deep in work. I wanted him to get it right. I will, however, have to listen for myself to see if he actually did.
Just my opinion, but I think he absolutely did. No mincing of words, no false promises, no running away from the facts on the ground. He showed (me, at least) that he, as a bi-racial man, may in fact be the right man at the right time.
AXN:
Just heard it. Very, very, very good speech. He did it. Where was THIS guy all this time?
EXCELLENT.
Fuck it, everybody. It's enough that all of you take my meaning. You know I don't take that stuff lightly. My great-great uncle fought with the Bolsheviks in the big one. Left for the USA. Went back. Came back. My father was a Red. A real, not parlor, Red. He was an ass-kicker. This is the kind of stuff that got me tossed off Blue Gal because I took exception to someone using the word "revolution" lightly.
I got no love at all for the USSR. I've heard the stories. You take a look at Das Kapital and tell me that Dialectical Materialism isn't a kissing cousin of Adam Smith's theories in the Wealth Of Nations. Marx had more in common with Smith than with Stalin to be sure!
Thanks, J-towners. I reiterate my offer by the way. You tell the bossman, I'll help out any way I can even if it only means riding the pine for a while.
Have to say I agree with most of what you are saying. I'm not a financial expert by any means but I'd say gradually raise the interest rates to whatever rate they need to be at to fix the economy and to combat inflation. If they go sky high too fast we'd just have more trouble. Anyway, it's only rich fucks who benefit from high interest rates during recessions, just like in the 1980s.
I haven't heard Obama's speech but I'll read it with an open mind toward him. I always said I'd vote for whoever wins the nomination so I'm not one of those bloggers who declares that if the other person wins I will be bitter and not vote. The long term goal is more important than that and that goal is to get those fucking republicans out of the capital and try to repair the damage they have done so that my kids and grandkids might have some sort of future.
LIBS:
I didn't mean go 500 points up at once! That would mean mayhem. I mean a different direction but a strong commitment to that direction.
I'm not completely down with this "rich fucks" thing, however. Would the employees of BearStearns who had their life savings in company equity who maybe had a notional value of $10mm or so two weeks ago and now have $200K count as "rich fucks"? It's a philosophical question. How about if you and I were living in side-by-side cardboard boxes under a freeway and I had found a big bag of pennies in a trash can? Would that make me a "rich fuck"?
As someone who has spent a lifetime moving money, all I can tell you is that if you do that there's going to be money around. Just like if you were a carpenter, there would be a lot of wood around, viddy?
I have a basic class consciousness but I'm not a revolutionary. I was raised with Marxism all around me and I get it where its important and toss it where it's not. Rich and poor obtain in a democratic republic. As in the USA, as in Sweden. Better to BE a "rich fuck" than not to be one.
As for Obama's speech, watch it on youtube and make up your own mind. I've never liked the guy myself, but I was pretty blown away by his level of sincerity and sophistication. Again, where the fuck was THIS Obama hiding for the last 3+ years?
I look at it from a native perspective I suppose. I don't like capitalism or the system we have now. It is not self sustaining and damages the environment. I am ultra left I suppose but to each their own. I look at Bush and Co as rich fucks as well as those who own the media, multinational corporations, and the war machine. Just how I am.
Libs:
We're not that far off here. I, too, was a Kucinich supporter. But unless you advocate violent revolution, BushCo, the MSM and Multis and war profiteers are a rather different species from other people whom you would identify as "rich".
I can give you a fiscal policy that everybody would LOVE, except BushCo, etc.
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