I’m still looking at the vast Pacific ocean out my living room window in hopes of seeing all those sunken ships rise to the surface at the next high tide. 

Didn’t the sainted Reagan promise that a high tide raises all boats?  Didn’t he promise that when the rich get richer everybody benefits?  Obviously the man had never seen a ship fathoms deep, broken up and mired in mud. Rising tides only raise ships that are afloat.

Authur Blaustein,

Why don’t you just called a spade a spade? And in this case call a republican a crook or a thief or a terrorist.
I mean, with the money flow going out of the taxpayers pockets and into the CONSERVATIVE’s pockets via the military, homeland security, corporate give aways, what the hell else can it be called? Anything else than GRAND LARCENY is sanitized doublespeak that the neocons have adapted so well from George Orwell’s ‘1984’. For them money means power and by George Orwell, they are gonna take it.
And after listening to Bitch Pelosi’s speech on the vote down of the first bailout attempt and the hypocracy and lies in that little doublespeak talk where the taxpayer would NOT be picking up the tab, wll just add her name to the BLUE DOG list, again.
There are a very few democrats and republicans that should remain in congress but the vast majority should be ousted ASAP. But the american public has been dumbed down so efficiently that the chances of that happening is very slim.

As Naomi Klien’s recent speech on Democracy Now! has shown, the rapid followers of Milton Freidman’s “free market” methodology have brought poverty, human rights violations, and misery wherever they went, whether democrats or republicans.

Blaustein notes in a well-written article, key point:

  | But he [Bush 42] embraced these “trickle-down” policies in order
  | to become vice president and then president. Reagan and both Bushes’
  | royalist economic policies of the 1980s and the past seven years were
  | failures—a fool’s paradise built on the sands of borrowed time and
  | borrowed money.

Probably correct.  Why? :-

1> Borrowed money, specifically excessive leverage, is the root cause
  of the problems we are seeing. 

  The US gov’t, by borrowing more is not the solution.  Practically,
  more debt most likely, longer term, is going to crater the dollar
  further, increase deficits (both internal and external) and increase
  inflation. Somewhat obvious, really, based upon a large, growing
  body of historical evidence.

2> “trickle-down” economics, best case, by definition, you end up
  with a trickle. QED a failed policy, even when the policy
  supposedly works, at its very best.

-Mark.

##

Reagan lied. The economy died.

Crisis is composed of both danger and opportunity. The danger at present is that we will continue in our attachment to anachronistic narratives and unproductive abstractions. Such narratives and abstraction are an essential part of the discourse responsible for current circumstances.

A radical transformation of narratives and the ideas providing their currency is essential to transcending the vicious cycles and decay that is rapidly deposing our socio-economic system.

In light of this reality, I recommend Charles Eisenstein’s essay Money and the Crisis of Civilization for your consideration. Ideas with real currency! As Milton Friedman observed, ideas have consequences, and when crisis hits, we are dependent on the ideas we have “lying around.”

http://www.realitysandwich.com/money_and_crisis_civilization

as for the democrats: Clinton went & bribed the heads of Mexico & Canada to get Nafta thru & NAU which Bush Sr could NOT do; BOTH parties WORK for the CORP GREED, and FAIL TO EVER ADDRESS SOCIAL NEED. Henceforth, we have civil war in Mexico; cuz they went down to take over the land & water rights there. HELLO! and what of Iraq? SAME there; SAME enforced SlAVERY to the Corps which goes on in the USA; SAME in Austrailia, & France, & Italy; oh, INDIA has civil unrest because THEY did not “bow” to the LUST OF GREED of the Corps of the USA. What do you THINK is going on in Colombia? people SHOT & MURDERED who tried to work on SOCIAL NEED instead of CORP greed; Clinton brought back $800,000 for Hillary’s campaign who was “against” it supposedly. Now they are trying to claim the TRADE AGREEMENT there was signed by Congress in 2006. Betcha it is the SAME Corp GREED from USA using military there under “heading” of WAR on DRUGS: but ‘don’t let the people know that they went there POISONING the trees, land, water; killing millions to obtain for THEIR greed land & water rights. Let them THINK that it was “for a good cause” ending POVERTY like the LIE that was given by the 2 USA ambassadors plotting overthrow of Govs in S America who didn’t take BRIBES from the USA. We the people are “presented” it is for “the greater good”::::::::::: of THEIR pocketbooks only. CERTAINLY NOT for the people THERE or HERE. You have proved you utter & sheer incompetency to GOVERN or RULE anyone anywhere anytime in any way shape or form.

gerald d: and THIS is exactly why our politicians are bribing the heads of other countries to “do it their way” cuz hey hey hey NONE of them have EVER had to pay for their deeds; and the stupid people of this country cannot even SEE the graft & corruption & “nothing gets done” for the PEOPLE or the PLANET, and they are busy shouting rah rah rah lets FORCE this MONSROSITY they call “democracy” onto EVERYONE while the people & planet suffer. *****hello does anyone have an iq on the PLUS side in the USA? IF these stupid prostitutes who ONLY move or do anything if they are PAID: WHY do we want ANY OTHER COUNTRY & PEOPLE to SUFFER? and millions are DEAD in nations all over this WORLD you are not even TOLD of half of what is done by GREED followed up by the mighty army of the DECEIVED! WHAT do you THINK is freedom? My neighbor’s idea is that she is FREE to go to a store. Holy mackinoly folks! do you THINK they cannot do this in CHINA?

I’ll take the word of my 98-year-old mother who called me last night screaming, “Goddamn those Republicans, they’re at it again!”

There is something to be said about experiencing events first-hand - especially 98 years of experiencing them.

A lie repeated over and over again, a favorite Republican tactic, becomes reality to those of weak minds and little interest in self preservation. They want every move they make to be dictated to them as to what to do, what to believe in and never think for themselves or question authority. That is the only way they feel safe. And what threatens this safety? The falsehood of the idea Democrats will raise your taxes.

If these sheeple would open their eyes and wake up and really take a good look around for themselves, maybe then they would actually realize that the Republicans are the ones who have wrecked the economy with their reckless handling in running the country. You cannot keep cutting the taxes for the rich, allowing over 2/3 of the big corporations to pay NO taxes and spend like money is going out of style and the Republicans, but mainly as this current administration has done and not rack up some major debts similar to former Rep. Presidents like Ronald Reagan and Bush I, but far exceeding the debt limit that Reagan had.

McCains latest pile of tripe, heard last night on the news was that this entire Wall Street collapse is due to the Democratics being in rule of the last two years. Funny, but there were signs of this well before 2 years ago. It is always easier to point the finger at others for the mess one creates, this draws attention off of them and onto others. A very old practice of the guilty.

If by another fluke, AKA as cheating, McCains party does manage to steal a third election in a row, he will continue the tax cuts for the super rich and spend more and expand on the war front. He has already told the public countless times he knows nothing about economics. Do we really need another incompetent person leading America into the last throes of its existence?

Ask yourself: Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago? How about 8 years ago? If you can honestly say you are better off, then go ahead and vote Republican,and if they do cheat their way into the White House again, when the rest of America goes under, you can only blame yourselves, as you have allowed this to continue.

This SHOULD be a large part of tonight’s script. Forcefully and continually presented.

None of the presidents, from Truman until now, have had to face what the next president will have to deal with. Jimmy Carter had it bad, but it will seem like a walk in the park compared to the next four years.
The next president will have an economy in major decline, out of control spending, foreign wars, domestic crisis in healthcare and housing, an energy shortage, overpopulation, inflation, and an america divided along socioeconomic and religeous lines.
If it can fixed, it will take extraordinary government leadership and sacrifice by all citizens.
Do you think we have it in us?