14 years of the same ISH

Sometimes I feel as if I am in a bad dream, it is as if President Obama and President George W. Bush are one in the same, for the policies I was vehemently against while GWB was in office, I am still against and have been put in effect a lot more viscerally under Obama.  What I saw with Bush: the incessant wars, taxbreaks for the wealthy, the banks and Wall Street getting wealthier without any threat of prosecution for criminal wrong doing and war mongering, I see two times in President Obama.

Bush did not place U.S. domestic issues as being our main priority, and nor does Obama. Bush was preoccupied with Iraq, and Afghanistan and Mr. Obama, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, and now the Ukraine. Currently the latter is more like some dystopian Fourier reality, that for him is dynamic and fascinating, but for the majority of Americans, wasteful and unnecessary. It is as if the Ukraine and parcels of land 99 percent of Americans will never see or set foot upon, deserves more attention than the millions of Americans with major financial needs like the hungry, the homeless, or the millions who can’t pay their rent or mortgages or whom need jobs at living wages.

There is no valid reason to be occupied with the Ukraine when what we face at home is a true national security threat economically. Just this past week, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen informed the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that under current policies the federal government’s deficits “will rise to unsustainable levels.” Unemployment, depressed wages and unadmitted inflation is killing us. We are over our head and drowning in deficit spending so all we left with is printing “mo money, mo money and mo money,” to use a phrase from “In Living Color.”

Why is the U.S. economy more of a national security issue than the Ukraine? First, at last count, about 5 trillion or approximately 47% of U.S. debt is owned by foreign investors, the largest being China and Japan at (plus $1.1 trillion each). Unlike us, the Russian government expects to have a budget surplus according to the IMF. Add to this, Russia also has a trade surplus which increased to $18.86 billion while the U.S. trade deficit continues to fall. If anything, maybe the U.S. wants a war so it can rev up its dire economic prospectus. For it is clear that what we observed when George W. Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, the same can be noted, applied and said for the Obama Administration – the economic and financial need ­of conflict with another energy rich nation.

Why else make a big fuss about nothing? Obama in his neoliberal caricature resembles Balzac’s master criminal Vautrin more than the leader of the free world as the U.S. has been coined. Big oil and Wall Street made a killing under Bush. The U.S. invasion of Iraq crushed that country, destroyed Iraq’s state-owned oil industry, and grew the price of   crude from $20 a barrel to $147 a barrel in 2008 (needless to state Exxon Mobil’s most profitable year ever). The point being whenever sanctions are placed on an energy rich nation, U.S. plutocrats get paid. Obama is just extending the Bush playbook and we saw such in 2011 when sanctions were placed on Iran and Sudan. And when they don’t work, we have good ole NATO, who implemented an undeclared war on Libya, not to forget the CIA efforts in Syria. Thus, it doesn’t take a high school graduate to foresee the impact or likely impact the disruption of the flow of Russian energy to Europe would mean for big U.S. oil companies.

Obama and Bush are in policy, one and the same person, the only differences are gang, I mean political affiliation and ethnicity. The U.S. I suspect see the Ukraine as a means to grow and escalate military spending across Europe, making the U.S. military industrial complex more loot on behalf of U.S. oil interest. See, what corporate U.S.A and Wall Street know is that war drives capital into the United States, which keep U.S. banks the main feature of the global economy by cutting the deficit and artificially propping up the dollar. This is the only conclusion that is both reasonable and logical for as German MP Alexander Neu noted, “Not a single NATO country is in any way threatened,” by the actions in the Ukraine. Plus, what would we expect, there are more than 6000 German companiesactive in Russia with more than $27 billion invested in the nation. Meaning just like Iraq was no threat, or Libya, or Syria, Obama economic and foreign policy is no different than his predecessor with the exception it is on steroids.

 

Blackmail Economics

I have never been partial to the phrase blackmail, when historically, it seems like white oligarchs are the ones mainly undertaking such actions and folk the color black aint have no part in defining. But that is another story, and for lack of something new to assist in the accretion of incident promoting a general comity of understanding, blackmail will have to suffice.

Now *I must admit, over the past four years I was troubled by the economic landscape prior to the abyss instituted via the Bush administration, and likewise, suspect of the assertions made by the Obama administration to solve these issues. Even worse is what I see on the side of the GOP that seems to purport that verbose vehemence objecting to any action by any party is what America needs to grow jobs.

My main consternation is that the GOP offers no solutions to solving the problems of the economy or creating jobs and that Obama obviously has no real comprehension of economics. Not that I do, but my layman understanding seems to be advanced placement compared to the house GOP and the present administration. Also is the observation that in order to prove a point, even if it is to get Obama out of the Whitehouse, it seems they will do anything – even black mail. I mean no matter how you look at it saying they will not raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts is extortion.

As the debt ceiling fight continues, Republicans are playing down the effect a default could have on our national economy. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), when asked about what would happen if we pass the August 2nd deadline without raising the debt ceiling noted that it could be a “positive thing” because it would show we’re “serious.”

Yes it is serious out here Mr. Paul. This while recent housing and employment data notes we are struggling and may even is close to a double dip recession. Albeit under employed folk like me see the dips melted together for it still feels the same. Not to mention I suspect home prices have much further to fall. The President is not out of the clear either. Just this week he indicated that the US would provide US financial support to bail out Greece. This after he has tripled the US deficit and we have 9.1 percent unemployment.

After a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, The president said, “I’m confident that Germany’s leadership, along with other key actors in Europe, will help us arrive at a path for Greece to return to growth, for this debt to become more manageable,” Obama said.

“But it’s going to require some patience and some time. And we have pledged to cooperate fully in working through these issues, both on a bilateral basis but also through international and financial institutions like the IMF.”

I find it hard to believe that the Democrats or Republicans, regardless in the House or Pennsylvania Avenue do not see that they are holding the American citizenry hostage. Things are not getting any better for most of us and it will only get worse. Three years ago I wrote an essay describing these times called “Real n the Field.” It is that time.

Just this past Memorial Day weekend, across the nation looked like places in the Middle East. There were reports of serious violence in Miami, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, Myrtle Beach, Nashville and even Boston. In Washington recently a teenager shot her Dad with a hunting bow when he took her cell phone. Approximately, 45.1 percent 4 of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least six months. That is a higher percentage than at any point during the Great Depression.

Not to mention that the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was is a little under $4.00 compared to $1.88 in 2009 and the cost of food and energy have risen at an annualized rate of 17 percent over the past six months. According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months. And this doesn’t include the problems with floods, natural disasters, droughts, food shortages or our actions abroad. Yea, we are being black mailed by politicians on both side of the aisle and the only thing that makes them different from us is that they are inside the beltway with a direct flight to Wall Street.