Unless it might cost offshore corporations some taxes, that is.
Well industry self regulation has been a great thing for America, hasn't it. We've all become prosperous and freedom is ringing everywhere here in Utopia now that industries we depend on can write laws and make national policy in secret. Now that they can write their own permission slips to embark on dangerous and ill advised policies and of course give unlimited financial support to politicians who handle the paperwork for them. Of course it's not government intrusion - it's not even government, at least not a government elected by or responsible to the American people. Private security companies can fight our wars for us without having to tell us what they do or how they do it - they're private, after all. Responsibility and accountiblity are, of course, COMMUNISM, as some Republicans have told us. Paying for the damage you've done is a shameful thing to ask of a Corporate Lord - the very kind of government intrusion that might take a burden off the taxpayer and place it on the corporate elite. That damned Obama!
It's all worked out so very well that there's hardly anything left to privatize, except perhaps justice itself. Now that the BP leak seems to have been plugged, it's time to figure out what went wrong and why it went wrong and who allowed it to go wrong. Who better to examine the evidence but BP, Transocean and Halliburton? We can't have our enemy, the government we elected, mucking about and trying to place blame on the guilty instead of Barack Obama, the "enviros" and the customary straw men. Offshore based companies in the business of exploiting American resources for their own profit must always be protected from the consequences of their actions and from the wrath of fish hugging liberals.
So important is that, that our own Whorehouse of Representatives is willing to sacrifice the 9/11 responders suffering from serious illnesses resulting from their efforts on behalf of our country, and why? Because of a rider that attempted to disadvantage Corporations like our beloved master Halliburton that has moved to Dubai so as not to pay takes on the windfall profits we've given them and perhaps to be out of reach when we notice how many billions they have let disappear without explanation.
It's OK, we don't want or ask for an explanation because nothing matters but taxes and if we're really nice, Baron BP and Lord Halliburton will cut taxes and we'll all be rich!
I like your tone.
ReplyDeleteIt mirrors my own.
Kudos!
S
A good coincidence to have this post by our esteemed Captain and this petition from MoveOn.Org show up in my eel-mail box at the same time. MoveOn.Org is organizing a petition drive to put pressure on congressional representatives to take this pledge:
ReplyDelete“The pledge is a three point plan to curb the influence that giant companies have over our democracy:
1 - Overturn Citizens United: Amend the Constitution to protect America from unlimited corporate spending on our elections.
2 - Fair elections now: Pass the Fair Elections Now Act, providing public financing to candidates.
3 - Lobbyist Reform Act: Pass legislation to end the overwhelming influence of corporate lobbyists.”
If you are interested in getting involved, here is a link to MoveOn.Org.
Captain, as I read your post I kept thinking, this is it! Succinctly summed up, this is a clear, rational analysis of where we are as a country. So why in the hell is it so difficult for so many people to understand and believe? I get the corporate folks and politicians. They have a vested interest in promoting their alternate reality as truth. But why is that John and Jane Doe are so willing to believe in the lies being sold by people who are advocating policies contrary to their best interests?
ReplyDeleteYou all write really well and I am not in your league. But theirs always a but.....The idiot Nation is so gullible because all they hear is right wing nonsense. The Fairness Doctrine was killed and with that we created a monster. Talk radio is virtually owned by the wingers. For most people that's their main source for entertainment and news. Then theirs Fox. Anyway, I think that's why so many follow that route. They are afraid and the Righties whole premise is fear.
ReplyDeleteWhy do Americans seem to support policies contrary to their best interests?
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
It remains a mystery to me but Tom Franks has considered the problem at length and his conclusions are illuminating. Another question worth asking the anti-governmenteers is why they prefer support government policies which insure the likelihood of poverty for the many versus the slim chance of great riches for the few.
Go figger.
Suggested reading:
Thomas Franks:
'What's the Matter with Kansas?'
'The Wrecking Crew'
http://www.tcfrank.com/index.php
Tim,a valid point regarding the misinformation and lies disseminated via talk radio.
ReplyDeleteArthur, thanks for the link. I plan to check it out.
Sheria - But why is that John and Jane Doe are so willing to believe in the lies being sold by people who are advocating policies contrary to their best interests?”
ReplyDeletePerhaps this calls for a hypothesis in 5 parts:
1 – The Joe the Plumber Hypothesis - Perhaps some of these deadheads really do believe their time will come to be Queen for a Day, the next Bill Gates, or the next Power Ball Lottery Winner (the most likely of unlikely outcomes considering the odds against them).
2 – The panem et circenses Hypothothesis - Consider how the tea baggers got started … as town hall hooligans organized by FreedomWorks (to oppose healthcare reform); as Astroturf events organized by Americans for Prosperity (to oppose energy reform, taxes, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act); as Memorial Day and July 4th picnics organized by Massey Energy to maneuver country bumpkins into believing their jobs are worth a few battlefield casualties vis a vis explosive methane and coal dust. A sad fact: liberal policy wonks don’t Astroturf the rabble the way right wingers do.
3 – The Ritual Sacrifice and Scapegoat Hypothesis – it seems all human beings, but not cephalopods, have an innate need to blame others … Blacks, Jews, Gypsies, Immigrants, Liberals, and their Godless Government … for all their fears and troubles (as everyone knows, the blood of vanquished dragons and dead sphinxes always cleanses and renews the land).
4 – The Authoritarian Hierarchy Hypothesis – Tea bagheads subscribe to a rigid and authoritarian view of the world: God over government, adults over children, men over women, rich over poor … or what Thomas Frank calls “plutocracy as the default social condition. Tolerance for any other worldview is incomprehensible to bagheads.
5 – The Fox News Effect – The constant repetition of messages #1 through #4 coupled with scripted delusions, exaggerations, and outright lies no matter how outrageous … all smugly protected under the first amendment.
Need I say more.
thank you, Octo. It's as I feared, humans are the most dangerous species on the plane.t
ReplyDeleteSheria, at least with a working hypothesis, there is sometime to talk about ... such as these next thoughts ...
ReplyDeleteArthurstone, I tired to access the Thomas Frank article but found an abstract following by a ‘subscribe’ button. To access the full article, I would have to subscribe to the WSJ, and I refuse to spend a penny on any publication owned by Rupert Murdock.
Nevertheless, I found other articles by Thomas Frank at the NYT, where I do have an account. I read a few of these to get a sense of his viewpoint. What struck me: These days, there is no more talk of class-consciousness or the presence of an active progressive movement.
Frank is right. For the first time in American history, there is no social movement in the streets stirring public awareness: No more rousing sympathies for the underdog that characterized the Gilded Age, none of the class consciousness that invigorated the labor movement, no more topical musicians such as Woody Guthrie and Peter Seger, no 1960s era protest songs … nothing!
The tea baggers now own the streets; the progressive movement has abdicated to them; liberalism is in deep torpor. Shame on us. Maybe the aging hippies need to come out of retirement and show the next generation how to change this country ... before we lose what we worked so hard to accomplish, and the country returns to a state of social Darwinism.
Excellent post; all the failings of self regulation and Reaganomics so obvious and neatly laid out -- and still there are those who would continue to argue that the system works fine. No troubles here...
ReplyDeleteKind of makes you want to poke their eyes out.
"poke their eyes out"
ReplyDeleteWhy bother -- they don't use them anyway. This is the stupidest population any nation ever has had and getting stupider and angrier all the time. There are too many and they're too stupid and too angry and too delusional.
As I've said over and again, I'm the product of a hundred generations of people who survived because they knew when to get out.
It's time to get out.
Pete Seeger has actually penned a song in protest of BP. Here is the link for you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM8QK4oM3Jk&feature=player_embedded#
Come on Captain. Buck up.
ReplyDeleteThere is no 'out'.
My parents grew up in the Great Depression. My Mother essentially penniless. My Father a little further along. He fought, was wounded and decorated in WWII.
The shadow of the Canwell Committee (our local McCarthyite anti-communist) loomed over Seattle well into the 1950's. The Open Housing ordinance battle, Vietnam etc. occupied the 1960's and 1970's. Reagan happened in the 1980's. Clinton in the 90's. We know well about the aughts.
S**t happened. It always does.
We have better minds and better ideas than the Tea Party crowd and it's time to take off the gloves and get going.