Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Wimpy and the trickle down theory

"I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today."  The words of Wimpy, the hamburger loving character from the Popeye cartoons, deployed twice in recent decades as economic theory by American Republican presidents.  The theory, so trumpeted today by the party it surely must have considered replacing the elephant with Wimpy as the party's mascot.  It would most certainly be an improvement from a public relations standpoint than a depiction of a smiling robber baron with one foot on the neck of a middle class American while simultaneously looting the pockets.

There are three things many Americans despise, national debt, unemployment, and for American Idol to be preempted.  Unfortunately, the amount of time spent thinking about each appears disproportionate.  Who wouldn't want to veg out in front of the tv after a long hard day's work instead of trying to determine which party's economic plan will figuratively skull fuck their kids out of their future?  The national debt rose 180% from 1981 through 1988.  The national debt rose 100% from 2001 through 2008.  What do these two periods have in common?  Wimpy economics, or as the half bright elitist George W. Bush's wiser father would call it, "Voodoo economics".  The beginning of the following two Democratic led administrations, in 1993 and 2009, also have something in common, each time after creating massive new debt, the Republican party leaders bellowed at them from the bottom of their robber beings, panicking America that if we stayed on course, blood thirsty foreign hounds would start showing up at American doorsteps demanding immediate debt repayment and to swallow each child's soul and turn them into socialist day laborers.

If Bernie Madoff were president, he most certainly would agree with party leadership, the easiest way for the wealthy to become more wealthy isn't hard work, innovation, or entrepreneurship, it's the easy buck scam.  The truly beautiful part is the framing of the game to the sucker, any competent scam artist knows the game has to be decided before it begins.  "If you go in debt trillions in tax cuts for the wealthy now, which you won't even notice, you will be provided a job Tuesday paying you enough to buy a luxury house and car with enough left over to gold plate your new super wealthy ego."  It's sellable, enough of the electorate salivated so uncontrollably, imagining the taste of victory after years of hard working struggle, they signed the nation up for the slick scheme again in 2001 thinking, "I know where the queen is this time, I'd bet our future on it."

And so it goes, another Democratic president handed a massive annual budget deficit, this time a cool trillion,  being asked what the fuck he did to make that happen.  They went so far this time as to threaten filibuster in the senate so as not to undo the scam.  "Fuck the debt, fuck the American people, have you seen my new yacht, it's much more spacious and as a bonus the guy who washes it will now work for half his prior wage, he's desperate."  There could be a fly in the ointment, it seems many Americans are waking up to the idea Wimpy economics might just be a scam, that President Obama was the victim of a scam the same way they were, that they will never pick the queen, that they may well end up struggling to stay or become employed at any job if we do this again, that Wimpy's Tuesday will never come.  Mitt Romney however, has the card table set up again, selling Wimpy economics, looking for another shellacking of the American people to provide one last big score for his bank account prior to riding off to heaven on his dancing horse.





Thursday, September 20, 2012

Did I say that out loud?

It's 2012, if you want privacy I suggest taking the Howard Hughes route.  Draw the curtains, order in food, and by all means toss out those shoes and put on some Kleenex boxes.  Or make up your own weirdness, stop showering and stuff wads of fabric softener sheets under your clothes each morning.  Become known to neighbors as the lumpy, yet pleasant smelling recluse as you make your way to the mailbox each day.  Otherwise, live knowing you are part of a very public society and if you beat your kid in public, sport a mullet haircut, or drunkenly dry hump the fiber glass alligator at the mini golf course at two in the afternoon you could very well find yourself with two million viewers on Youtube or Facebook.

Mitt Romney clearly doesn't understand the new rules, THERE IS NO PRIVATE conversation.  The fact Mitt doesn't understand this basic rule should probably disqualify him from consideration by anyone excluding drunken alligator humpers.  Mitt's brain appears to be one of those rare judgement free zones.  A sychophant in the purest sense, a lust for approval in the moment so intense phrases such as, "I was a severely conservative governor" escape to this very public world.  Repeal healthcare legislation based in large part on his own legislation, YES.  Declare war on Iran, YES.  Privatize social security and place the funds in the "low volatility" land known as Wall Street, YES.  Does the conservative base want it?  Well, if so then YES is the answer, unhealthy, broke, and dead middle class and poor citizens be damned.

Let's face it, there is an upside to this public world, especially when it comes to public policy and those who have chosen to ask us if they can drive it.  Oh, you believe not everyone is equal under the law?  Fuck you and your chicken sandwich.  You believe sin brought forth a hurricane where mostly good, but unfortunately poor people died?  Fuck you and your bastardization of common morality.  We are better aware of who the crazies are in 2012 AND we are better aware of HOW crazy.  One doesn't expect one of those crazies to be in the final two in this bizarre tournament known as presidential politics, but alas here we stand.  The 47%, retired Americans, students, the working poor, the economically struggling looking forward to opportunity and a better day, or as Mitt Romney would generalize by regarding as moochers.

Mitt is saying things out loud, lots of things.  Things unfortunately many Americans have a direct emotional response to without letting logic cause them to veer off course.  This isn't the first time I've heard a fellow citizen make equally ignorant, generalizing, and hateful remarks about the lazy 50%, often within earshot of a former welfare recipient turned taxpayer.  The majority of Americans?  Only time will answer that question.  Even Willy Bub, the slavery flag owning closet racist knows to call it "state's rights" in public and keep certain words in private, like minded company.  Does Mitt need a training course on hiding contempt, in his case for all but the upper class, maybe 15 minutes and a coffee with Willy Bub?  Unfortunately he has contempt for Willy Bub, so that probably won't happen.  Mitt, I think you may have fucked the alligator.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

How to look desperate in one minute

Desperation sometimes shows itself in the human with sweaty hands, sweaty brows, and occasionally with verbal pleading.  Mitt Romney however is a different animal, he knows how the game is played on a superior level.  It seems he has years of training, one can figure it comes from never paying real consequences of being morally guilty of anything.  One can only imagine.  "Yeah we shaved the kid's head, fuck him he's a faggot, what's he going to do tell on me?"  "That asshole is mad about me firing him and running his company into bancrupty, fuck him and fight his unemployment claim."  Ah yes, and yesterday we saw Mitt "What position do you want me to take today?" Romney provide another example of what seems to have become a massive desperation of the likes only Richard Nixon could truly understand.

I get a vision of Mitt sitting on the campaign bus with mussed hair and clinging to a Book of Mormon so tight the blood has drained from his finger tips, rocking back and forth watching Fox News for anything he might be able to use for his next attack on the President of the United States.  And so it came, bingo, the big score, as if he himself suddenly had the power of Joseph Smith and now everything would be different.  Four Americans killed during an embassy attack in Libya.  Where's the talking point?.....Where's the opponent's weakness?....  Four dead, fuck 'em I was meant to be president.  There's a press release from the embassy, what's it say?  What did the president's socialist mouthpieces say?  They said to tone down the religious war, well that's unAmerican, America is Christian and the God hater in Chief said to tone down the religious war?  How soon can we get the cameras and microphone live?

And so it went, Mitt, at the microphone and barely able to hide his delight as he attacked the President of the United States for apologizing to infidel Islam.  Four dead, fuck 'em I was meant to be president.  Well, the American people were listening, including panic stricken GOP brass who even though have become used to Mitt's mouth running out of control dampening any chance of victory, simply couldn't believe how bad this was.  What?.....No focus on the dead, no message of solidarity as Americans when our embassy has just been attacked?  God Damn it, when will we have another Reagan, this Mormon prick is going to take us all down with him?  The gamblers on Intrade, the Irish gambling site were listening too.  Within hours the president's likelihood of re-election increased by more than a percentage point.

Before Mitt could even leave the stage, the fact checkers had began doing what they do, determine what really happened......and it was bad........very bad.  As it turns out, the embassy press release was prior to the attack, meant as a fig leaf for peace between blood thirsty Christian zealots and blood thirsty Islamic zealots.  Mitt will no doubt double down on his words and claim his message was meant as a plea for a national day of silence in honor of the fallen Americans......and tomorrow, he will do it all over again regardless of facts or consequences, because for him, there are no real consequences..........Four dead, fuck 'em I was meant to be president.