Another Nixon or Johnson, I think not.

So I was listening to Daniel Ellsberg on Gritt TV from Firedoglake. He was talking about how it was possible to drive first Johnson and then Nixon from power and I started to think that those who really pushed the whole thing, the Post and the NYT were and are all members of the power elite and were the pretty people the people who swung with the power and the other pretty people in D.C. The people the Daily Howler calls the Heathers. The school click except translated from ruling high school class to ruling in Washington. In just the same way.

Look at Johnson and Nixon. What were their real crimes? They were not as pretty or photogenic as the Kennedys or later the Reagans, now were they. I am wondering if our country hasn't been ruled since the middle 60s at least by a petty puerile little group of people whose favorite song would be I'm In With the In Crowd. So perhaps we have a new National Anthem?

UPDATE: I'd forgotten this.

Stuff

So it appears as though the little woman has come down with the flu. Which has the dogs very worried since she is the only one who knows how to make the dog food and the yogurt that the dogs eat. Actually they seem to be looking at me and licking their chops.



I'm sure she'll be alright.

Ok Then

So I sent Senator Brown a fairly nasty email because he voted in favor of the bail out. I got a nice response from Senator Brown, about how it wasn't the best, but it was the best blah blah blah over 200,000 Ohioans have lost jobs this will blah blah blah. The people who know best (i.e. the ones who got us into this mess) say that this is what we must do to get out of it. Well those are certainly the people I would be listening to. Wouldn't you?

I never thought that I would be so continuously amazed at how an incompetent light weight can scare the shit out of, well 75 yesterday, supposedly intelligent senators. How can he scare them so much that they vote against their own re-election interests? I mean let's face it the rhetoric here was the economic version of the 2002 "Saddam's nuclear mushroom cloud" shit. Proven not true then, no reason to believe it now, that I can see. In fact, these people continuously lie and continuously get caught and continuously suffer no consequences. No wonder my petty theft clients wonder why they can't get away with it: These guys lie and steal a country and get rewarded for it. My guys lie and steal a purse and go to prison.

Of course, we know that it is very difficult to get beaten if you're an incumbent in a congressional election. And you can be sure that the campaign money is not going to go to those who voted against that bill. Still, 2006 was not a dream. Even more when you get people emailing and calling at rates of 200 to 300 to 1 you would think that more elected officials would listen and the vote would at least be close.

There is that and the fact that there are quite a few economists who think that the bail out is crap. These are not no where guys, they are heavy hitters. So if you did vote against the bill you would have cover if you needed it later.

This vote is most irritating when you see so called progressives voting for the bill instead of trying to get something into a bankruptcy bill. Now the right says they will veto it if certain things are provided the middle class. If that is true then they most not see the actual bail out as necessary if they would scuttle it for that. Or hell, buy out the individual mortgages and sell them back to the middle class folks at a reasonable rate. No bail out the banks bill. No it was obvious that there was little if any consideration of anything to help out the middle class. Just more bucks for the wealthy.

Perhaps we are now living in a post democratic democracy. You can be sure that wherever we do live now a days, it isn't a representative government. It appears that it is neither a democracy or a republic.

Where do we go from here? Well since the 2000 election was stolen -- no question. The 2004 election was quite possibly stolen. So I'll be damned if I know.

Nihilism as a working philosophy doesn't seem to provide much of a positive basis for political action. Quite frankly, I'm at a loss to figure out what to do next. I'm a kind of a half empty sort of fella. On the other hand I do remember thinking that there wasn't all that much difference between Bush and Gore. Ok so we are all permitted one spectacular error in judgement (not counting first marriages).

Damn Scarlett.

Train Wreck

I'm reading a book: Touchstone by Laurie King. It involves a mystery taking place in the few days leading up to the General Strike in England in the 20s. The workers were crushed in that one too.

It is kind of interesting to be reading a book that details the atmosphere leading up to a financial crisis while I'm sitting here watching a financial crisis unfold in real time. The atmosphere seems more subdued in real time however.

I feel like I am watching a train wreck (as I've said before). I know what is going to happen and there is nothing I can do about it. The outcome may be a little different than I expect, but in the end the middle and working classes will take another hit and like that frog in the warm water will slowly be boiled alive as the rulers turn up the heat.