But that’s kid stuff compared to this grand gambit, a deliberately manufactured crisis that starts the kill for keeps. The scheme to starve the government beast to feed the fascist monster stands naked now in all its power-grabbing, future-stealing glory. Say goodbye to Social Security. Say goodbye to Medicare. Say goodbye to infrastructure repair. Say goodbye to public education, whatever shreds of it remain. With their incessant mantra about the wonders of privatization, the moneychangers have done their unlevel best for years now to condition the populace for the biggest wealth-transferring heist of all-time, and every ilk to follow.
I will say that except for a few broccoli-brained Americans (my apologies for twice now disparaging a fine vegetable), it does seem most of our fellow citizens are hip to, and mightily pissed about, the reaming just administered. But -- no matter. Too bad. Tough luck. Oh well. The parasites in charge couldn’t care less about our pathetic moral victory. With secret scorn, they lecture us with the best damn fake concern you’ll ever see that if we don’t assume the no-time-for-lubrication position right this instant and take what’s good for us, the “system will fail.”
Well, guess what? It’s failing now. Since March alone, we’ve been strong-armed for over a trillion bucks of funny money (the $700 billion theft, $85 billion to AIG, $200 billion to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and $29 billion worth of “help” to J. P. Morgan & Co. to buy Bear Stearns) and its only effect and that of other certain larceny to come (other than further enriching produce-nothing vipers) will be to delay the inevitable, thus ensuring our pain cuts even deeper. More banks will fail, more savings will be stolen, more companies will go bust, more pensions will disappear, and unemployment, inflation and homelessness will skyrocket.
The only questions are: How profusely will we bleed, and how long will the hemorrhaging last?
Does Argentina’s experience offer guidance? Since its 2002 default, its annual growth rate has averaged over eight percent, and a visitor to the center of bustling Buenos Aires would see few hints of the nation’s recent horrors. Nonetheless, most Argentines would tell you their country is not the same, having taken a gigantic hit from which it may never fully recover. On the positive side, as a whole, South America’s collective social services-suffocating IMF debt, per YES! magazine, has nosedived from $42.9 billion in 2004 to $108 million in 2007.
Can any of this help us better survive our own country’s current palm-greased slide into hell, or assist in predicting what may rise from the ashes? Who knows? What is known, however, is that the reversal of fortunes hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Meeting with Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner the other day here in Buenos Aires, Chile President Michelle Bachelet, per the Buenos Aires Herald, noted:
“I find it ironic that countries that used to tell us what to do (on the economic front) should now be facing a crisis (of such proportions). Anyway, our countries (Latin America) are strong enough to (stand up for themselves) and fight the crisis off.”
Bully for you, señoras presidentes, and a hard-earned touch of touché, too. With our current meltdown fomented by the same species of wealth-sucking vampires who happily bled most of your continent to within an inch of its life, the U.S.A.’s payback b*tch has, indeed, arrived. (I knew I could squeeze in another dog reference.)
Just one question, por favor: Might either of you have a hankie handy?
Copyright © 2008 Mark Drolette. All rights reserved.
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