This Is the End

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"


I've come to the conclusion that Obama has neither the brains he appeared to possess during the campaigns, nor the stones necessary, to get this country out of the messes he inherited. I put the blame squarely on him, and in particular his Pollyanna facade of bipartisanship. There was never any chance of bipartisanship, given that Rove and his many dwarves continue to direct the Republican party, and any intelligent human knows that. This was a brilliant campaign strategy, but a truly foolish way to attempt to govern. Governing is about imposing your will. He has been singularly pathetic.

A few weeks before Deepwater blew up, he made his "Drill, Baby, Drill" speech announcing further drilling, and in that speech asserted that drill rigs don't cause spills. This was a bald face lie. The worst spills, world wide, are from drilling rigs, and have been for decades. There is no sign that this has abated. Either he knew these facts, and he lied; or he didn't bother to find out, merely puppeted the Bushmen's dialogue. It's a toss up which is worse; in either case, we were flummoxed. Now, would Hillary have been any better? I think so. I think she really does get it, having lived through eight years of Rovism.

From the beginning, the only way to sway the country out of its neo-fascist dream was to hammer, every day in every way, at the Right Wingnuts for what they'd done. They, mostly with lies albeit, never let a day go by without hammering anyone who isn't a card carrying fascist. Being nice to such people will only get you dead sooner.

Now that he's allowed the Right Wingnuts to set the program for "recovery", by killing the jobs bills, he's saddled the Democrats with "responsibility" for fixing the Great Recession (you do recall him saying that it was his problem now?), but given them no way to fix it. And, yes, the Right Wingnuts do want the USofA to fail, in the main. For the many to fail, the few who have accumulated wealth find that this wealth grows in value as the economy progresses through ever more pernicious deflation. So, now we enter the downward spiral, much like the Japanese since the 1990's, and the US in 1937. The double dip can't be avoided, and the second dip will be permanent.

For a few months, because (the professionals estimate) 200,000 per month will be thrown off the unemployment rolls, the unemployment rate may fall a bit. It may even do so into the Fall elections. The Right Wingnuts will take credit for having blocked the ruinous deficit busting unemployment law, and will take over both houses. They will then run the country until the 2012 presidential, when Palin will be elected, along with further Tea Baggers. The spiral into collapse accelerates. In order to prevent Democrats from ever gaining control of any branch of government, the Tea Bag Congress and Supreme Court (remember, the Tea Baggers on the Court are young-uns) write laws and "interpret" laws limiting individual action. Corporations will be allowed free reign, and the Federal government, now expunged of any left-leaning aspirations, will suddenly be empowered to do as it wishes.

What follows from this Truly Great Depression? The most necessary aspect is a police state, just like in any other banana republic, or Asian autocracy. It was reported a couple of days ago that the millionaire class has prospered since 2009, while the rest of the society has diminished. It will only get worse. The rich will continue to convince the stupid and poor that laws shackling them to poverty are really the enablement of upward mobility. The poor will continue to have six packs of kids, thus ensuring that none of them has the resources to prosper. The police state is needed to prevent popular uprising as food, clothing, shelter (the three "basics" of Econ. 101) become ever more scarce for an ever larger proportion of the population. Eventually, Rove's tactics will fail, but their intent is to have a sufficiently pervasive police in place to punish the poor.

It will be "Robo Cop", but without the happy ending.