Posts Tagged ‘lies’

Some could accuse me of posting a verbal self-portrait with that title! But I was actually thinking of the recent train of thought about my entire country. But I will begin with a confession of sorts. I AM self-absorbed at times; I get wrapped around the axle of self-examination to see if I am doing things “right”. When I say the majority of my countrymen and women are self-absorbed, I cannot, of course, know if they use that phrase the same way. I suspect not.

By insular, I mean that most Americans care little for what goes on beyond our borders; by self-absorbed I mean that most cannot be bothered to know the least thing about what goes on in the world outside their families and pets—as if ignoring it makes it incapable of reaching into their lives to monkey wrench things. And because I do believe most of my fellow Americans ARE people of good will and generous at heart, I believe in some deep recess of the mind, they KNOW this is what existentialists call “bad faith” and it depresses them.

I am sure most folks stopped reading right there, going “Oh God, another America hater.” I don’t hate America or Americans. I love my country and fellow citizens as I love my children or husband. But just as I can get pissed off when my grown children or husband do something remarkably stupid or self-damaging, I can get pissed off at my nation!

And I wonder how America got ISD’d to begin with? How does that happen?
When did reading the news about the celebrity de jour become more important than real news (like the ability to now create fake DNA at crime scenes, for one thing? How did America suddenly throw in the towel of involvement and retreat to pablum on the evening news? How did a nation like this become more involved in “comfort” that caring what is “right” in the world? When did our ideas OF what is right get skewed to mean “young, bouncy, thin, and sexy” instead of “honest, hard-working, determined, and fair”?

News pundits pounded President Carter over his “malaise” speech. But you know what? He had a very good point. We have lost something—and we are losing more constantly. I have to fight the tendency myself, I find myself in danger of retreating into some mystic and solitary condition instead of putting up my fists to take on the world. Sometimes I don’t want to read the news either; but if I don’t? I have no right, next time shit hits an American fan, to cry “Oh, why US?” Because if you are not paying attention and working to counter the downhill slide, you have no right to bitch. Yes, all us nasty mean people who grew up saying things like “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem!” had a point.

What problem are YOU solving? I know one friend fights against the bullshit stigmatization of fat Americans. I know a lady who takes on her local government when they do stupid land-grabby things. The “think globally, act locally” crowd is onto something. We live in a smaller and more crowded world than we ever imagined. Step out into it and CHANGE it; it will change YOU and suddenly the world will be your front yard, you will forget to worry if your crows feet are worse, and the depression will lift!

We have seen our country mobilize Reservists and National Guards and send them far from home, to Iraq and Afghanistan because of what we are told is a necessary “global war on terrorism.”  We are told that if this doesn’t happen—if the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Corce and even the Coast Guard is not sent into harm’s way on our behalf, our entire way of life will be endangered and/or destroyed.   In the name of this necessity, torture has been used.  No euphemistic game of semantics changes it, water boarding is torture; we called it torture when anyone outside of our own people did it TO our people.

So, now, when our economy is shaking on the edge and taking the markets of the world with it as it slips over the precipice, why is there not a “global war on greed” to find and wipe out the causes of this disaster?  When the CEOs and financial officers of huge banking, insurance, and investment houses are called before Congress, why are they allowed to lie and obfuscate?  Why do they get to refuse answering how they could take millions home even as they knew their house of cards was collapsing and wiping out the livelihoods of people downstream from this toxic greed waterfall?

Why can’t they be water-boarded to gain answers about how they constructed this financial debacle?  After all, their good buddies George Bush and Dick Cheney don’t think it is torture.  They think it is “enhanced interrogation techniques” and if this market debacle has the power (and it does) to break the world’s banks, isn’t it a serious enough threat to our way of life?  Why can’t Congress take of the gloves and find out the truth so it can legislate ensuring that never again can a greed-induced de-regulation frenzy crash everything that makes financial life sustainable for ALL instead of for the few.

After all, if the so-called religious mania of the few far away in Afghanistan cannot be allowed to turn the world on end, why should the endlessly hungry wallet-maws of the super rich be allowed to feed at will like vampires from the late show?   Or is the problem they aren’t talking about revolving around a less pleasant truth?  That greed and rapacious financial dealing has impoverished people who simply got mad enough to “not take it any more.”

If a small core of angry Islamic fundamentalists (maybe 5% of total Moslems, for all I know) can motivate the American super-power to go to war; why then when 5% of the ultra-rich engage in such slimy slick dealings as to immobilize the markets of the world, why are we paying tribute instead of declaring war?  Why aren’t we declaring that we will follow these miscreants to the “ends of the earth” to solve the problem?

The bail out failed.  Americans are in turmoil. And half the country is screaming that the Democrats did it.  The rest are screaming that the Republicans did it.  Now, you all surely know me by now.  The Republicans did it with the bland complicity OF the Democrats.  De-regulation, remember that?  The concept that “business” knows best and government needs to nose OUT, remember that?

And now, everyone wants it fixed right away.  Not.  Going. To. Happen.  It is like the global climate change, folks—Presidential fiat can’t change that either.  The wheels of drastic and lasting change have been put in motion and there are no brakes.  We might gear down a little from either the planetary “You fucked me up, now it’s my turn” or the Wall Street rollercoaster of doom ride, but make no mistake—-we are taking the ride.

Many progressives are pissed at Congress for crashing the markets.  I have read some sources that say stocks were in a nose dive BEFORE the no votes were all counted.  Many are screaming that the deal failed because of sulking Republicans being pissy with Pelosi; others are screaming that it is all Pelosi’s fault.  Stop whining, all of you.  Pelosi hasn’t grown a spine before and yet suddenly we are to believe that a few words of hers had this effect?  Come off it, the GOP legislators wanted an excuse.  At long last, they are afraid of their pissed on and pissed off constituents, they didn’t want to have thier names on this piece of shit.

Yes, something MUST be done.  But is this the “it”?  Really?  There is anger because individuals and small businesses making the mistakes that these huge banks made do fail DAILY and learn from the experience.  The fact that so much stands to fall into ruin if these hubristic, spoilt rich pricks are not rescued speaks volumes to me about REAL market correction and re-set.  I am not an economics major.  I never had money to handle, I have nothing in the market and barely know what a 401K is, much less own one.

But a few thoughts occur to me as I got up in pre-dawn darkness.  If it all needs this much propping up, doesn’t that suggest it will fall down sooner or later anyhow and all those bail out funds will have been good money after bad?  And good money into pockets of bad men, perhaps?  This is where the working class mentality lives, you see?  People like me don’t understand being asked to trust and pay when it is all we have done all our lives—and we are beginning to see how screwed we have been.

And no, I do not understand why, as a fav blogger (Badtux) puts it, why it would be looney to rescue mortgaged householders instead of the banks.  Is it worse to risk money on little people instead of big people on bank boards for some serious reason?  Saving the rich, we are told, will save the poor—at least per Sarah Palin.  And you know what?  In my experience, very few rich folks ever have given a shit about poor folks, so pardon my skeptical nature here.

If those banks failing and market companies shuddering at window ledges were all run by Paul Newman, I might think the buy out a great idea.  But they are not, they are run by guys who make hundreds of millions in compensation….even when failing and firing thousands of little guys whose house payments then default.

And is it terribly stupid of me to think that if banks had not decided on bubble interest rates a lot of mortgages wouldn’t have failed?   And yet, some commentators blame the householders.  “They should have known they couldn’t take that 5% bump in interest after ten years.”  Right.  So should the banker.  But the bankers said “Well, you know….that is a long time, you will get raises, finish college, be making more money….and hey, who knows, you might have sold the house before then.”  Why are individual homeowners SO culpable for thinking they might somehow pull it out of their hats; but bankers are not usurous bastards for coming up with this scheme to make obscene profits for themselves?

The whole blame the homeowners thing reminds me of the way rape victims used to be talked about: “She should never have been out that late…and omg, dressed in that short skirt.”  Right.  How dare minorities reach for the dream of home ownership.  How dare a woman walk the streets with bare legs. How dare someone with minimum hopes and minimum pay and minimum education believe a banker who tells them “You CAN do this!”  Yeah, sure, they all should have known better.

We peons shouldn’t hope that we really CAN win the American dream.  And now we should happily bail out our betters, because even if they did set this whole mess in motion with their unholy fucking greed, it is OUR fault for trying to get a piece of that pie for ourselves?   I am not buying that, sorry.  Sure, plan a rescue, but make the people who set this in motion pay it all back WITH interest.  Gods know, they never made a loan that wasn’t paid that way….why the hell should they GET such a loan?

It is too dark for me to think my way out of this, but I am so NOT ready to “make nice” as the Dixie Chicks put it.

And John McCain, who thinks this is not the time to assign blame?  Well he can kiss my ass, too.  It is time to determine responsibility and then move to a solution that doesn’t reward greedy asshattery, because otherwise?  Yes, it is just more of the SAME.  I am no Savronola, but it might just be time for America to throw some popular ideas of blame, responsibility, and what being American truly means onto the bonfire.  Will your vanity keep you warm this winter?

Friendly fire they told the parents.  Shot in the chest during a firefight, friendly fire, that is what parents of Kamisha Block were told.  But she was shot FIVE times, including once in the head and her mother got suspicious at the funeral.  A fellow soldier named Norris killed her and then shot himself.  Her commanders knew at once that she had been murdered by Norris.  He had been harassing her and the 1200 page Army report that her family finally succeeded in wresting from the Army confirmed he had “abused” her.

What does that mean?  Is it a euphemism for “raped” the way Victorian age Americans used to say “outraged”?  Does it mean he beat her up and the Army did nothing about it, and left him in place to become her murderer?  What, in Iraq, the troops don’t have enough enemies firing rockets, RPGs and rifles at them?  IEDs and car bombs aren’t dangerous enough?  Now female soldiers have to worry about being abused and murdered by their own comrades at arms, too?

I can’t help but feel outraged myself, in this neo-Victorian age of euphemisms.  That would be lies and bullshit, for those of us less inclined to gild the lily.   I cannot imagine the heartbreak and anger her family must feel, and my sincere sympathies go out to them.  I hope they make someone in that chain of lies pay dearly.

Just a final word (I do so hope) on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. I can’t really refrain because the rumble and complaint goes on and on and on. Even the very good analysis of where things went wrong for her point out that some of the problem came from the perception of her tactics being racist and the idea that her own personality was flawed.

And what was this personality flaw of Clinton’s? Well, she was a bitch, folks. Yeah, there it is; she was ambitious and didn’t strike anyone as the sort to offer you cookies with your tea. Even my step-mother was vehement on this point about Clinton. Before I go any further, let me say quite openly that the “ambitious bitch” factor is NOT what made me decide I wasn’t really happy with Clinton.

The “ambitious bitch” part was what I liked BEST about her. It gave me hope that if she achieved the White House she would have what it took to kick some ass, take some names and get the fucking job done. Cause let me tell you, whoever you put in the White House? You better hope they can be a bitch, because the world is not sweetness and freaking white light right now; not that the “reality” tv show watching minions and sheeple have grasped that fact. The American economy is going into the toilet now matter how much they try to mask the fact. We are in a war with no good exit strategy. The ecological nightmare mankind has created is a storm getting ready to break over our heads. We sure as hell don’t want Suzy Homemaker in the freaking White House. We want someone with experience of adversity and a spine. In a woman, anyone with these qualifications is almost certain to be labeled a “bitch.”

My personal bone with Clinton was ethical and political. She lied. She talked up her connection to the common worker after a history of busting unions. She hefted the “landing under fire” bullshit and called “mis-speaking.” And from a purely feminist standpoint, it pissed me off that she felt the need to present herself as “more” than she was to look tough. She put on pastel pants suits and tried to look non-bitchy.  Screw that, be who you are!   When that wave began, I lost hope that she could do it, because she was defensive about who and what she was; she sold herself out for her ambition instead of standing firm.  She SHOULD have just said “Yes, I AM an ambitious bitch, but I will be YOUR ambitious bitch working for your best AMBITIONS.”

And yes, I know, that kind of “take the bull by the horns” methodology isnt’ much favored. Come on, consider my SN, what OTHER methodology would someone with THAT name use? (Goes off to have breakfast with the Minotaur)

That is all!

I have been keeping at least slightly abreast of the news in Israel and Gaza of late.  It is fairly depressing and angering.  The long and short of it is, though Hamas has legally elected representatives, Israel refuses to work or talk to them.  Part of the reason was Hamas did not recognize the state of Israel as a legal entity.

So, Jimmy Carter, (and tho’ I am neither Christian or Catholic anymore, the man should be a saint) went to Israel to try being a peacemaker again.  Israel snubbed him badly, refusing a former US President so much as a security team.  In spite of this, he went to Gaza, over the Israeli protestations, and got Hamas to agree to recognize the state of Israel.  Not, apparently what Israel really wanted—they still won’t negotiate with Hamas.

And further, they continue to cut food shipments; Gaza is already getting far less than will sustain the population—only 2/3 of food needs are being met.  So, they are starving the residents of Gaza, as once the Germans starved the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto?  Israel, to the Palestinians they dispossessed to create the state of Israel, is behaving as badly as Germany did—-only the short step to out and out genocide remains.  And they “warned” the Gazans, even using the word “shoah”….warned them OF a “holocaust”—why didn’t the word freeze in the throat of the man saying it?
Which brings me to us, us as in U.S.  We use a similarly dangerous rhetoric to describe our enemies in this continuing  “war on terror”….dehumanizing those we battle and pursue.  They ARE people, people with grievances that we do not wish to acknowledge or address.  Much like the inhabitants of Gaza, whose issues Israel is not willing to acknowledge or address?

And yes, both the residents of Gaza and some of those we are engaging use methods that don’t appear in rule books.  But then, some of OUR methods, and Israel’s methods don’t appear in those vaunted books either.  Here is the simple thing: If you reduce people to desperation and do not treat them as humans, they will act desperately inhuman.  We create our enemies and shape them by our own choices and actions.

Seventy years or so ago, Nazi Germany began the eradication of the Jews with the shock that was “Crystal Night”…..and ever since, the cry of the Israelis and their sympathizers (including me!) has been “Never Again!”  But I was wrong in that cry, because it IS in progress again.

Those starving, dying, fighting, exploding are simply not Jews this time.  The Israelis are being shaped into duplicates of their own murdering oppressors.  As America continues to prosecute a war based on lies, what are WE being shaped into, don’t you ever wonder?