Friday 28 January 2005

The Mask Is Slipping & The Nightmare Grows

by Jim Kirwan

When the Bush Doctrine of 2002 was implemented, that signaled the world that any country could be next, in our megalomaniacal quest, to own everything and everyone on the planet. At that moment, the rest of the civilized world began to put plans in place to marginalize the USA, to remove us from their horizons. When the theft of the last election became a fact their plans jumped to light-speed in order to be implemented. The entire world has begun to rearrange their priorities to cut us out of the global picture, and that's what awaits us now!

How many of the things you use every day were made in America? What kind of vehicle do you drive, and where was it made. You know that the fuel to operate it doesn't come from here; you can see that the buses, the trains, and most of the rest of what we take for granted are not made here: but what about all the smaller items? China bought out IBM's PC division, and most component parts, no longer come from here. We have outsourced our way of life, along with most of the real jobs, and all that's left are the few occupations that must remain here, because they require some physical act that cannot be done from abroad. We used to lead the world and now we're just one step from beggary.

Reagan began the privatizing that turned this nation into a pink-collar service, back in the 1980's. Bush has now finished off the process by outsourcing even that paltry shadow of an industry. India and China and other places, now have the jobs, to avoid regulations and to allow American owners to vastly increase their profits, with zero oversight. Tax-dodging corporations get corporate welfare to aid them in their quest for dominance over what's left of American business, and there are no discussions. This government has opened the floodgates to mergers and acquisions, and in every field there are ever fewer competitors. What happens when there's nothing left to buy or acquire. What happened to real competition? What will happen when Wal-Mart succeeds in crushing all the competition, we will see their prices soar when there is no longer any choice.

Today our "money" buys about half what it did (in the world), just two years ago. Most are unaware of this, unless they travel outside this country. Under Reagan the USA went from the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation during his term. Clinton reversed that and left the nation with a huge surplus a surplus that George W. Bush promptly turned into the largest debt that this country, or the world has ever seen. This was done while citing Reagan's view that deficits were unimportant., Now we've reached the point where we can no longer pay those debts, and we've begun defaulting on some of them. With nothing much to sell, and too few jobs, and an empty treasury besides - it appears that we're living now on borrowed time.

This situation, for those who have underwritten our obscene debt load has become impossible to bear, so they will soon begin to withdraw their invested capital, as well as their continued interest in our welfare. This is due directly to the policies of this administration, and has only been exacerbated by the arrogance and greed of those who have taken over USA incorporated. America is now known for belligerence and thugery, and that's a lousy business arrangement. Every U.S. taxpayer is also a silent partner with this government, having no say, and no choice in what will be done with either our money, or our military. Why have none of these changes ever been publicly discussed, before they became policies? Bush says it's because "we are at war." But the question lingers: who is the real enemy here?

For decades now, the Neo-Cons has have believed that the United States cannot be allowed to fail, because the entire world would go down with us. They cite the crash of 1929 as proof of that. But it's 2005 now, and money can be moved around the world in the time it takes to make a computer keystroke. We are no longer a manufacturing power, no longer a consumer bulwark, because we've lost too many of the jobs that were the backbone of this nation's health and wealth, in the world at large. Without good jobs there is no money to remain in the consumer class, much less rise to what we may have dreamed of. Because of the new policies of other nations and our own rush to unemploy this nation's working people, we are finding that there is now far less demand for "things American" around the planet.

The world has changed, and we have not kept pace, in fact we're going the other way at light speed. We make some weapons, and we export our garbage, literally. Beyond that this nation is barely a shadow of its former self. Most of these changes owe their existence to either presidential decrees or to shoddy and rushed legislation, with little or no debate. Aside from a handful of legislators, who really cares what happens to us?

Full story...