America, Inc.

Sigh. I'm not really sure how to begin this one...

My first thoughts this morning, even before I opened my eyes, were:
Break teacher's unions
Close public schools
Privitize all schools into charter schools which
Eliminates any need for elected school boards, ergo
Eliminate one of the only political offices an average American can afford to run for, thus
Closing off another entry into the ruling class by an average wage earner (you know, the one they have used for 30 years as a springboard to congress).

Buhbye democracy. Farewell to Democrats and the two-party system.

Say hello to the New America...America, Incorporated...under new management.

Permanent, one-party, corporate-owned, facist-ruled.

And to those who might say I'm being unecessarily paranoid, well, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Just ask how it worked out for Italy under Mussolini.

One Perspective

I find myself very disheartened today. All the talk of eviscerating all the social safety nets so that the rich can just keep getting richer makes me want to weep. Part of the reason for my angst is that I'm one of those shameful middle-class American's who, due to circumstances beyond my control, hasn't managed to save enough of my income for retirement. I guess I always figured that I would get a pension (as my father did) or if not that, social security and medicare would help to keep me alive.

Yes, I fear poverty, homelessness, uncared for illness...who doesn't? I've played by the rules. Worked since I was 16 years old, payed my bills, tried to get ahead. I own a home (well, me and the bank), but I'm one job-loss away from homelessness. How about you?

I had a little argument with a conservative friend the other day. He said if he lost his current job, why, he would just fall back on all his many other skills. What if you aren't blessed with all these so-called skills? Or the confidence, or the personality? You're just a regular person who works hard, tries to save when you can.

What if your just a regular working stiff?

To All the Banksters from a Very Concerned American,

• You create a HUGE real estate bubble by lending without documentation or care as to the long-term consequences. After all, you're INSURED.
• When the bubble bursts (as bubbles always do...by design) you manage to sell all your toxic paper to the we taxpayers because you're perceived as "too big to fail" and are completely unwilling to let the "invisible hand of the market" wipe YOU out, but the "hand" still applies to everyone else. You collect your insurance from AIG while you buddy Paulson opens the almost-free money window for you.
• You borrow from the American Taxpayers, you know, the tax-paying working stiffs, at 3% then turn around and create one of the fastest-growing scams, the "get you out of debt" business, and loan us back our OWN MONEY at 5%, and bingo bango, you have a very profitable year and can justify your obscene bonuses...again.
• And if the folks you "helped get out of debt" fail, and in the New American Economy that's the way the system is gamed, you lay bets on when they will default, and make more money on that crisis.
• And when we lose our homes, why, those very structures go back on the market at about half their original worth thus sinking ALL real estate in the neighborhood.
• Then they are sold to the next poor soul who has the audacity to think that maybe, just maybe, they have earned the right to own their own home and you laugh all the way to the bank. Oh, wait...you ARE the bank.
• America's great wealth is getting siphoned off at faster and  faster rates, not to mention all our natural resources. And what they can't take by pseudo-legally, they will just take by fiat.
• Oh, By The Way...when you've managed to sell off the infrastructure built and paid for my the American taxpayers, to Middle Eastern Fat Cats who have so much oil money they can't GIVE it away, or China, what happens when the bills come due? Do you then contract out the labor of the American People to the highest bidder? We are a very well-educated, skilled, hard-working labor force after all, and now that you have all Americans you can get in harness, you are loathe to let us go into any type of retirement.

To my fellow Working Taxpayers,

If very soon in a town or city near you, somebody offers you a recall petition because your governor is trying to steal your town for profit, please exercise your first amendment right to speak out while you still can. Let's THROW THE BUM'S OUT and take back our Republic.