Ah yes, I love when the government decides to scam the American people and this bank bailout thing is the next step in the progression of extremely expensive grabs for our cash. The Federal government has a long history of doing this schtik -and guess what its both Democrat and Republican- to increase the power and wealth of their profligate financiers. Ah yes these scams are very old, but today I thought I’d examine my three favorite scams of recent memory (namely global warming, the Iraq War, and the Bank Bailout)
First off there is global warming, now do not get me wrong this phenomenon is occurring but if anything it is more cyclical than anything else and carbon credits are nothing but an attempt to make money and really the beauty of this scam -as evidenced by Kyoto’s loopholes that let China, India and other developing nations (where it just so happens the multinationals have outsourced most of their manufacturing facilities) out of carbon emission regulation- is that the corporatists get to force smaller firms out of business with costly regulation while they move overseas. The glorious nuance of this deal is that they look like good citizens who care about the environment, and even better they get the card of there is excessive government regulation which forces us to move abroad to stay competitive so they can dupe government and the populace to think these guys aren’t absolute pondscum when they outsource good American Jobs.
Then there’s the money to be made off the naive who will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars ensuring they use low flow toilets, squiggly bulbs, and all manner of biodegradable and/or other green products which are more expensive than other products. You also have folks like Albert J. Gore and Leo Dicaprio who can sell you their books and movies and make a fortune. Closely related to money is power and influence. Think about it the government is growing increasingly supportive about carbon emission control not because its environmentally friendly, but because it means they can enact laws which support their corporate backers and further subjegate the citizenry.
Scam Two is the War in Iraq. Lets see no WMDs, no military infrastructure, no Al Qaeda Links (prior to our invasion), no nukes, no real threat to our national interest, but a s### load of oil that we wanted to control. See the real reason we went in to Iraq -and if you thought it was to prevent American women from having to wear burkhas or to bring freedom to Iraqis you are out of your mind- was because
1) Saddam Hussein nationalized his nation’s oil production and kicked BP, Shale, Exxon, etc out
2) Even worse he was dealing in Petro Euros and not trading with us
3) We wanted to control his oil production, heck a couple years ago Reichmarschal Rumsfeld decided to stop the lying and admit that the purpose of war in Iraq was to “keep the oil safe from the terrorists.”
Now you want to tie in something even more sinister lets talk 9/11 and our government’s seeming inability to prevent it. 9/11 was not planned by Washington, but from the 8/5/01 memo and lots of stuff dating back even into the Clinton Administration there was an ample amount of evidence that the government knew it was going to go down and really all the guys who got on those planes were on pre 9/11 watch lists. So what does the government get after staying idle in the days leading up to 9/11? Easy Bush declares war on terror, very vague and loosely defined, and instead of saying we are going after Al Qaeda and their allies he says you are either with us or you are for the enemy. This gave him a license to start wars with anyone he wanted at any time of his choosing. Oh and he got to get rid of those pesky constitutional rights that some old white dudes set up in the late eighteenth century. You don’t think you’ve lost anything? Did you see what they did to Jose Padilla? With Padilla are you aware that our justice system is a common law system is based on stare decises (precedent)? No, well let me put it to you this way the legal system approves of taking away one person’s rights then civil liberties are taken away from everyone else. Oh and do you know who is the final say in who is and who is not a terrorist? That’s right the federal government. Ultimately 9/11 led to the right to increase government power and intrusion into the private life and it led to the government’s ability to have perpetual war. The money factor comes in as Bush and his buddies get to bomb stuff oblivion and after deposing the government of the nation we are fighting then the BA makes sure their buds get no bid contracts. While I support our troops in Iraq and I want Osama to be brought to justice I want the government to tell the truth regarding 9/11 and the war in Iraq.
As we have seen government scams involve making money, grabbing power, and making us -the tax payers and consumers- pay for it. This is seen in the bank bailout deal. The government in the 1990s deregulated the banking industry at the behest of their buddies -many thanks to Phil “in a mental recession” Gramm- and as a result predatory practices were set up which screwed over the working poor and the lower middle class, but made the bankers a ton of money. Eventually, however, greed and profligacy failed and the bankers ended up getting shafted by their own criminal profligacy. So they made a little call to their buddies and minions (the thought of how much money these guys spend to rent our servants in DC causes me great alarm) which reminded them who paid for their campaigns. So Barack Obama, McCain, and Bush stood united to fix the problem. However, it seems that at long last the American people have awakened to the fact that the government is running yet another scam and they’ve had enough and so -and this is proof that our democracy does indeed work- people called their servants in the House of Representatives and Democrats and Republicans came together and said no to the latest scam. However, the dark forces of corporatism are firmly entrenched in Washington (and they will stay there regardless of who you vote for in November, just look at who finances the two campaigns) and they will eventually pull of yet another costly scam.
Change is needed in DC, and sadly I don’t that McCain or Obama have any interest in really changing the status quo.
