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August 31, 2007 at 08:35:50

Attack of the Wal-Mart-istas

by Stephen Pizzo     Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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Forty seven million can't afford health insurance.

Tens of millions have maxxed out their credit cards and are finding it hard to even make their minimum monthly payments.



Credit-Card Defaults Rise
Wall Street Journal -- August 29, 2007: With more Americans filing for bankruptcy... credit card defaults are on the rise... According to Moody's Invester Services, credit card compaines wrote off 4.58% of payments between January and may 2007, up nearly 30% from the same period in 2006."

Each day more and more formerly comfortable working families come to realize that their kids, stuck in substandard schools and faced with diminishing career choices, are not likely to get the same fair shot at the American dream they had – if only briefly.

They are also figuring out that the infrastructure in their cities and highways is crumbling and not likely to get fixed any time soon. Why? Because the rich demanded and got tax cuts so enormous that there's no money to spend on America's infrastructure.

They are also just starting to understand that's the real reason our passenger air service has become something akin to flying Greyhound Buses – only worse --  is because America's movers and shakers have shunned commercial air for the comfort of private jets – the aeronautical equivalent of gated communities.

Working stiffs, the ones that abandoned Democrats and have voted Republican ever since Ronald Reagan blew his “Morning in America” bullshit up their asses, are slowly figuring out that they've had – big time.  

Finally, whatya think is going to happen when all those hyper-patriotic, hyper-religious, hyper-armed working folk figure out that America's corporate super-rich share none of their values. Not one. They don't even see themselves as Americans any more, but as corporate citizens of the world.

Maintaining America's infrastructure – the very backbone upon which most of the super-rich built their fortunes – is someone else's responsibility. Don't tax the rich to fix all those roads and bridges upon which they continue to ship their goods and commerce. If you do tax them for it, they threaten, they'll relocate their corporate headquarters to some other tax-friendlier country.

It hasn't happened yet -- my dard vision. Maybe it never will happen. Maybe they'll figure out how to keep fooling workers into accepting and expecting less while working harder and harder. After all, "worker productivity" has become the holy grail of success. Companies are no longer judged by good  citizenship qualities but  by how much product they can squeeze out workers at the lowest cost. Pensions, health insurance, protecting the environment... such factors are no longer considered good corporate policy, but rather drags on productivity. So, they had to go.

I don't know, maybe I worry too much. Maybe I'm just getting old and undergoing the inevitable process that makes old farts bitch and complain about everything and anything. I admit that I do, from time to time,  pine away for the America of my youth. At time between the end of World War II and the pre-Reagan era when a man like my father, who never finished high school because of the depression, was able to start his own business, work hard and attain a solid upper middle class lifestyle. He was not the exception back then, but the rule.

It was time when that carrot at the end of the stick -- the American dream -- was actually attainable by almost anyone willing to work hard. The carrot is still being hung out there, but the stick is now so long fewer and fewer can ever hope to attain the prize. Which is why fewer and fewer even bother trying.

Last month WallMart announced lower earnings expectations going forward. The company's chief financial officer noted the reason being that, “Clearly our customers are running out of money before the end of each month.”

Well, yeah. Duh.

And the US stock market convulses daily now. Some days it struggles off the floor, gives everyone a big thumbs up, only find itself face down on the floor in convulsions the next day. It's all about that blood supply being horded by that 1%.

Meanwhile in Europe savvy traders are betting on trouble.. big trouble.

Mystery trader bets market will crash by a third
16 Aug 2007--An anonymous investor has placed a bet on an index of Europe's top 50 stocks falling by a third by the end of September, as world equity markets plunged for a third day and volatility hit a three-year high. (Full)

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Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a Pulitzer.

 

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Bio not available at this time
BernardBio not available at this time

Rest Easy

Unless you have a basement full of ammo for the kids to play with, those guns are as useful as clubs.  Gun owners right to bear arms doesn't include the ammo.  99.9% of the guns sold are expensive paperweights.  In a time of "need" don't expect to run down the corner store and buy a box of shells because they won't be there.

by Bernard (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 52 comments) on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 3:10:06 PM
 


I am David 'Shadow' VelasquezI'm an american expat living in Belgium.I have three kids and a dog. I sculpt in copper, bronze, paper maché. I have a serious fire fetish as I enjoy spinning fire poi and staff. I play guitar, bass, keyboards(although not so great on the ivories) -and singI've been writing songs and poetry for as long as I can remember.I've played in a number of bands since 1977. As the former lead singer of 80's band Necropolis Of Love I've rec...

to see more of bio, click on member name

chariotdrvr14I am David 'Shadow' VelasquezI'm an american expat living in Belgium.I have three kids and a dog. I sculpt in copper, bronze, paper maché. I have a serious fire fetish as I enjoy spinning fire poi and staff. I play guitar, bass, keyboards(although not so great on the ivories) -and singI've been writing songs and poetry for as long as I can remember.I've played in a number of bands since 1977. As the former lead singer of 80's band Necropolis Of Love I've rec...

to see more of bio, click on member name

Some images and thoughts came to mind while reading this

    Some day,... the gated communities may not be using regular uniformed security guards but some fully armed mercenaries like BlackwaterUSA.

You know it's funny. There are people who believe firmly that the neo cons are out to round up ordinary citizenry and lock them up in Halliburton built FEMA run concentration camps. But, if an unarmed pliable populace is what the powers that be wanted.... then why would Bush refuse to extend the ban on the sales of assault rifles?

Aside from the obvious importance of an NRA endorsement... maybe its just a symbolic bone tossed. After all they don't need alot to pacify us or control us as they declaw the unions and de regulate industry. Working class and the middle class still vote for the people that shift all the monetary advantages to the super rich... they continue to vote against their own self interest based on facile pundit hype.

you don't need facts if you've got a punchline. 

And they don't need tanks when they've got TV.

by chariotdrvr14 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 126 comments) on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 4:46:10 PM
 


Author of "The Politics of Extraterrestrials...Connecting the Dots" ISBN 0-9765223-0-6
PatrickAuthor of "The Politics of Extraterrestrials...Connecting the Dots" ISBN 0-9765223-0-6

That is why "They" built the Nukes

"They" know exactly what is coming at "Them."

That's why "They" decided to turn us all into nuclear waste over 60  years ago.

We are the "Living Dead."

A Venusian by the name of Valiant Thor met with several employees of the Pentagon early on in the nuclear era. Mr Thor informed our newly created Nuclear war fighting elite that humanity had now reached the level of technical prowess, that to survive, would require a transition in behavior.

Mr Thor explained that to avoid an all out nuclear holocaust that the Elite would need to "Subordinate private profit," to the needs of "Social Justice."

The newly minted nuclear war fighting elite decided that "They" would rather "Fight than switch."

What we have been  witnessing for over 60 years now, is how a high level cultural and technical power, can 'Vanquish' a low grueling brutal primitive gang of murderous imbeciles and simpletons, without hardly laying a hand on "Them. "

Our nuclear war fighting imbeciles have 'Smoked' us folks. We exist due only to the timely intervention into our world by a group that we have very little information about.

Our nuclear war fighting murdering rich are very frightened of you Wal-Martistas,' but there is little that "They" can do about it. "They" built the 'Trigger,' and 'They' pulled that same 'Trigger' on us.

"They" who have taken it upon themselves to immolate us all in an all out nuclear conflagration, appear to have a bit of 'Luck' on their side. The High level powers who have repeatedly blocked our extermination, appear to not want "Them" put to the ultimate punishment.

It seems that the High level powers want 'Their' fingers off of the nuclear 'Trigger' and the nuclear 'Trigger' itself, dismantled.

It is but a small group located within the City of London, the Bankers, who decided it was 'Their' right to exterminate humanity. 'Their' time has ended.
 

The Militarist Fraud; is ended.

by Patrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 383 comments) on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 5:11:46 PM
 


 Author & Journalisthttp://www.stephen.pizzo.comhttp://www.newsforreal.com (blog)  
Stephen Pizzo Author & Journalisthttp://www.stephen.pizzo.comhttp://www.newsforreal.com (blog)  

Oh my

Some needs a new tin foil hat.

 

Steve 

by Stephen Pizzo (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 5:16:57 PM
 


teeem, a writer/researcher and activist recently transplanted to the Los Angeles area, is originally from Virginia and spent from 1989 to 2006 living in Upstate South Carolina (where she was able to observe the Religious Right mindset).  She loves music, film, writing, art, books, ideas, and animals.
teeemteeem, a writer/researcher and activist recently transplanted to the Los Angeles area, is originally from Virginia and spent from 1989 to 2006 living in Upstate South Carolina (where she was able to observe the Religious Right mindset).  She loves music, film, writing, art, books, ideas, and animals.

Blackwater and Katrina

I read that in the aftermath of Katrina, Blackwater guys were going around taking guns away from people who had them legally.  So those fools who think the NRA is going to protect their "Second Amendment rights" are deluded.  Obviously if the Fourth Reich wants your guns, they'll get them, NRA or no.  Though I'm sure the rich will be able to keep theirs.

by teeem (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 41 comments) on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 5:43:55 AM
 

 

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