2/4 The GOP's Billionaires: A Revolution of a Thousand Parts

Separating Causes and Effects, Servants and Masters

The American people are aware, only in the most general way, of a very small population of billionaires -- around 450 total -- who are currently willing to insinuate their interests into the country's politics.  However, the details of the individuals in this elite modern "demographic class," their ambitions, their tactics and the present state of play in their strategic plan deserve a far more accurate and robust understanding.

The machinations of this class are now presenting a fundamental alternative to the traditional democracy with which we are familiar.  Further, the prospects for the future success of this "new model" currently enjoy remarkably favorable odds of being fully implemented.  What was unthinkable a few decades ago now appears to be a fairly likely outcome.

If it were to have been introduced simply as a radical departure from traditional American values, this "renovation" might have easily been lost in the dust bin with other uninteresting, unappealing propositions. But in this case the public opinion handlers employed by these billionaires had patiently and meticulously crafted a strangely willing constituency so, when the time was most propitious, and the grotesque synthesis was as turgid as an over ripe plum, the voters would embrace the artificially "refreshing revolutionary idea" of what had been so subtly purported, that is, purported quite without any details.

The nature of this fabricated constituency, a mindless horde of the low information, low interest, low curiosity, low education yet zealously dependable and predictable voters is, at this time, officially no longer interesting.  Likewise, the "known" identities of the now widely hated, sacrificial politicians, also crafted from the fiber of the same Patrician cynicism, who have been compelled to present the public "faces" behind this cheaply obscured scheme, have long ago lost all their lustre, too.

Voters are discovering the challenging difficulty of yawning and vomiting simultaneously.

When we discuss the strategy of the billionaires, the faux drama in the visibly tormented grimaces of creatures such as Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, McConnell and the rest must be viewed only as "convenient, necessary mechanisms."  The whole crowd is considered painlessly expendable by their poorly chosen, ruthless masters.

There exists no actual ideology or political idealism anywhere in the script.  Any issue resembling something so noble -- or even so substantial -- must be formally dispatched as nothing more than "fog and feathers" mechanically "coughed up" -- as the media equivalent of a cat's hair ball -- by the billionaires' craven think tanks.

How Do We Waltz With

Cynical, Wealth Obsessed, Savagely Insecure Nihilists?

 Did Kafka compose ballroom dance music?

Revolutionary conflicts have, historically, been founded on contradictory values, conflicting philosophies and oppositional ideologies.  This means that just at the moment these revolutions were perched to insert themselves into world history, debates, conversations and arguments "heralded the path" forward. There were sides, and those sides were destined to "sort out" which side would prevail in the subsequent revolution.

For precisely this reason MeanMesa winces each and every time one of the corporate networks' "news" worker trots out the now painfully obsolete phrase to end one of their "modern interviews" -- "Well, there are two sides to this, but we'll have to leave it there for now."

The amusing irony of such moments is clear enough.

While the sacrificial politicians in the employ of these GOP billionaires may be charged with "presenting the other side of, well, something," the plutocrats hidden behind those respective SUPER PACs are actually formidable nihilists of the first order.  This means that there is nothing recognizable by normal people "on the negotiating table."

Is Nothing sacred? Yeah, Pretty much.

So far as priorities go, there is no tender position on some social issue which must be promoted or some inherited policy position, carefully handed down from generation to generation, and finally cast into the hands of this or that billionaire to nurture and protect.  For the super rich denizens of this world there exist precisely two priorities: more money and more power.

Because of this strange, sterile value system the GOP's billionaires could not be less interested in "negotiating" anything.  If there are "two sides" of this story to report, they are "Side one: I win, and Side two: you lose."

We can see this in in the constantly moving "goal posts" presented in the House Speaker's "emergency, patchwork budget proposals."  The Democrats conceded to a $300 Bn reduction in order to cajole the 2011 CR through the tea bags in the House, but almost instantly, that $300 Bn became the current $350 Bn+ "plan" which Speaker Boehner now wishes to "explore" in a "conversation" with the President.

Remember, the only concession which might alter the mind set of the billionaires' GOP water boys is lower and lower spending, no matter what.  At the moment of this writing, the Social Security Administration has furloughed most of its service agents, the national intelligence contractors have furloughed thousands of the nation's "eyes and ears" around the world, FEMA is juggling massive layoffs with the hurricane creeping toward Louisiana.  National Guard units are taking mandatory "time off" until their budgets are refunded.

None of these "issues" bothers the oligarchs in the least.  Although there appeared to be a grudgingly dutiful outrage -- and limp wristed Obama-bashing -- at WWII survivors locked out of the Veterans' Memorial and the widows of military casualties not getting their burial checks, the GOP billionaires' conveniently "thick skin" has no problem ignoring the rest.

That is, ignoring the big picture and big dollar parts of the catastrophe.

But Is There Really An Audience?

There are historical "enforcers" at play in such political brinkmanship, usually a majority block of voters.  This fact doesn't change much from issue to issue.  Even the most brazen politician knows that, well, there are limits.  If legislative or gubernatorial behavior strays "too far afield," the price is, theoretically, paid at the ballot box in the next election.

In this case, however, that vindictive majority is missing in action.

Of course there remains the stalwart consumers of FOX News and the other twisted media, and somewhere, there are the tattered remnants of the now abandoned Tea Party, but these are little more than confused, yet strident, zealous minorities.

This demographic fact has been established repeatedly already.

If the influence of the GOP's billionaires had any semblance to a political party actually wooing the votes needed to implement policy, these depressing electoral results would have long ago prompted at least the image of the changes required to "broaden the base."

In the case of the billionaires, though, this doesn't actually ever happen because in their view, it is never actually necessary.  The political world seen through their cynical eyes is a place where elections are perpetually decided exclusively by the expenditure level of the campaign that wins.

So, as the public outrage slowly grows more and more fierce, the plans from the Country Club smoking rooms simply expand the level of campaign contributions and SUPER PAC funding to compensate.

It may seem like an endless assault of infuriating hubris, but MeanMesa suspects that it's more like evidence of the near sighted clumsiness which predictably accompanies the isolated privacy of class.

Hopefully, if there remain enough election districts still functioning as something beside a gerrymandered monstrosity, the 2014 mid-term election will provide a "clarifying experience" to these uber-wealthy, anti-democracy types.

Minimum Daily Requirement: Looting

A Brief History of Pillaging and Plundering

If we were to call an academic committee to review the Viking raids in Europe during, say, the 9th Century, among those we would invite would be an economist, a sociologist and perhaps a social psychologist.  Naturally, we would probably increase our invitation list to include learned individuals with other disciplines, but for this post MeanMesa can concentrate on these areas.

The important issue here is about what happened to the previous, indigenous wealth of the "victim village" when the Vikings plundered it.

It was nothing if not straight forward. (image source)

Our team could put together a fairly reasonable estimate of what the village was worth before the raid.  The list would include structures, infrastructure, stored food, all manner of accessories such as fishing boats, grain grinders, field equipment, wagons and so on.  Naturally, items representing concentrated wealth such as gold and silver would be of "top interest" to the raiders.

The local church with its own precious accoutrement's was definitely getting looted, and comely village girls -- and occasionally boys -- might also be herded on board the departing long boats.

After the Vikings had set sail, the villagers would have taken a sorrowful look at what was left.  The "economic value" of the looted village would have been starkly diminished.  Both the years of human labor required to establish that village before the Vikings and the years required to rebuild or repair all the random damage done afterwards could be added to the "loss column."  The prospect of perhaps facing a winter without the benefit of stored food, if it could be translated into an economic loss, would add to the debit calculation.

Even quilts, coats and things like everyday kitchen utensils could well have been lost.  Vikings commonly took all forms of forged iron.

The corpses of slain villagers among the smoking ruins, the missing children, the empty granaries and the equally empty ruins of the local church would have brought its own kind of enduring despondency to the survivors. Worse, in the case of Viking raids, the pillage would probably be repeated in a few years.

However, if we were able to total up the complete value of the loot on board those departing Viking ships and compare it to the total wealth lost in the village, we would see that the looting process was anything but cost efficient.  The value of the loot would not even come close to the value of the damage.

That's the fundamental reality of looting.  Looting doesn't really fit on a balance sheet which might record the profits and losses, costs and revenues, for a modern business or factory.

While the fundamental process of looting has remained fairly unchanged through the centuries, the exquisite details of the process have painlessly modernized themselves year by year.  We can also take a cold look at some much more modern examples than the Vikings.

During WWII the German army undertook a well organized campaign to loot valuable European artwork from individuals and museums which had been identified as "enemies of the Reich."  Many of these items, particularly old paintings, had content or messages which had been deemed "antagonistic" to Reich principles.

The looted wealth of Europe. (image)

The "end game" of this business model remains, even to this day, unclear.  The destruction of these "unsympathetic" masterpieces as apostasies was postponed in favor of stashing them away in a hidden, bomb proof bunker somewhere so their "cash" value might be recovered after the war.  The paradox arises from confiscating them as "objectionable" but anticipating a post-war market for them as "non-objectionable" later.

All this during a time when even voicing the prospect of a German loss could leave one in front of a firing squad.  Nonetheless, the potential "cost to revenue" ratio must have trumped the specific nuances of loyalty or caution.

Not all modern looting has been the direct pilfering of valuables, either.  During the twenty years the war in Vietnam grumbled forward at a cost of $1 Mn per minute, all eyes were transfixed upon the "faux-military victories" being dutifully reported daily.  However, a quick look at the books revealed that every NVA soldier or Viet Cong sympathizer killed cost $70,000, whether by Howitzer, bomb or bullet.

This was "kindergarten" for the war profiteers -- themselves already well established as professional looters of the finest calibre.  The old Viking idea, while still the foundation of such ambitions, was officially moved into a new, "modern business model."  Vietnam brought the realization that when huge masses of money were being spent on anything, a pricey war for example, that opportunists could harvest even the smallest, unnoticeable percentage of the flow and still wind up rich beyond measure.

The Cold War offered similar opportunities but enlarged to exponential scope.  For decades even the most innocuous criticism about the cost of the newest ICBM was tantamount to screeching treason on a street corner.  In fact, Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, while never designed to be even remotely effective at vaporizing Kamchatkan SS-18's in boost phase, was cravenly designed to simply outspend the, by then, faltering Soviet economy.

Reagan's SDI cost around -- perhaps too sympathetically -- $5 Tn, yet never materially resulted in an improved strategic position because almost none of the component systems were ever functional.  The Treasury ponied up the dough for the untouchable military procurement contractors while the White House launched an elaborate, bone crushing, propaganda war littered with both hollow terror and hollow hope.

The "garden" which was to host that propaganda war was already endowed with  rich soil from decades of absolute Cold War "Mutual Assured Destruction" horrors.

While Saint Ronnie literally sucked a nuclear weaponization, he shined brightly as a propagandist.  Roughly a fourth of the current national debt originated as money paid for the inoperable SDI equipment procurement.  As for looters, the missile makers did swell until the Soviets tanked, but then the interest collecting bond holders moved in for a continuing take.  The immense, permanent debt as a "career opportunity" has proved not only securely durable, but outlandishly profitable.

It's the stuff from which oligarchs are made.

The Looting Under the George W. Bush Autocracy

It might be easy enough to characterize the incredible looting of the Bush years as something of a "new occurrence" which began for the first time rather quickly after the unelected autocrat had been appointed by the Supremes.  However, this would be, shall we say, denial in a scope that not even Americans could handle.

The oligarchs had already moved decisively into their ambitious plans for almost complete wealth redistribution and sweeping asset ownership for decades before Bush arrived for "Inauguration."  When, still riding the terror "coat tails" of the highly suspicious -- yet also highly convenient -- events of 2001, the democracy shuddered toward its historic nadir, the citizens could not comprehend the perfidy which had been inflicted.  For a time the mayhem continued to appear legitimate, shocking and tragic, but the scheme gradually began to stumble under its own weighty improbability.

Under cover of this now infamously ineffective "War on Terror," the modern Vikings who had so gleefully purloined the full power of the government began their relentless dismemberment of the nation's remaining wealth.  Anything which was not "bolted down" -- symbolically including even the carefully dissected steel girders of the World Trade buildings systematically exported beyond the reach of any investigators -- was "liquidated" whether in the shadowy depths of some huge hedge fund or a foundry in Jingag or Qing dao.

Now, at this point it would be refreshingly straight forward to simply point at deposit slips for exactly the amounts which had "turned up missing," but, as mentioned above, the "take" from this heist didn't have to be every last drop which had been spent.  The tiniest fraction of that kind of money was more than enough to hurl the recipients to literally atmospheric new heights of lavish wealth.

This plan worked.

"Today the wealthiest 400 individuals in America own more wealth than the bottom half of America, 150 million people."  Bernie Sanders, Sen. [I-Vt Read the article.]

Notably, during the Bush times fundamental new models of wealth exclusion were introduced in the American economy, most of which continue to prevail as the over all "norm" even today.  The scheme was anything but subtle.  Two long massive wars, the non-negotiably expensive MediCare Part D and, perhaps most brazen of all, the Bush tax cuts for the high earners.

Trillions were extracted from the economy, most of it borrowed from foreign sales of US Treasury notes and, domestically, from huge "withdrawals" from the Social Security Trust Fund.  Sadly, while most of those trillions were spent for something approximating the stated purpose, around $1.5 Tn or so went directly into the pockets of oligarchs establishing their new American aristocracy.

$6 Bn in cash to "rebuild Iraq." (image)

In hindsight, it's pretty clear that those "stated purposes" were direly lacking themselves, but it's become even more clear that the extractions for direct wealth redistribution had slipped to a rapacious level beyond that of even the common sense restraint of a professional house burglar.

By 2007 the national economy looked like an out of control junkie transporting an 18-wheeler full of heroin across the country.  Remember: The new looting model targets a small extraction from a huge expenditure.  The pallets of US cash were "spent," but Iraq was hardly "rebuilt."

MeanMesa posted another, similar quote from Sanders before -- in May 2011.

MeanMesa has used a quote from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) frequently in many previous postings.  "Not everyone had a hard time during the last eight years. (Bush Jr. administration)  The top 400 richest Americans saw their  personal wealth increase by $630 Billion dollars."

Look at the numbers.  First, $630 Billion is roughly 5/8's of $1 Trillion.  Next, if these were the "top" 400, how many Americans are there in the "top 2%" everyone is talking about?  Thousands.  Actually, tens of thousands.

That "top 2%," along with an even larger crowd of slightly "less rich" hangers-on are the ones who are now sucking the huge, continuing Bush Jr. "tax cuts" out of what is left of the economy.  Remember, the "missing money" total amounts to around $12 Trillion.  When we discount the "vanished" money, that is, the part of the "take" which didn't actually make any of these folks richer but still mortally wounded the economy for the rest of us,  there's still plenty left over to have made these rich folks even richer.  

A lot richer.  They became John Boehner's bosses.  They ordered the House Republicans to extend their tax cuts at any price.  They ordered the House Republicans to forget about jobs so they could work full time on transferring the Social Security Trust fund to their Wall Street cronies. (Read the post here. )

Like most Americans, MeanMesa's eyes glaze over at the sight of the $14 Trillion dollar national debt, but we have to take care not to think of that huge problem as one which is not composed of thousands of little pieces.  When 400 Americans walked away with 5/8 trillion of it, the whole thing, while still immense, is no longer so unapproachable.

Very many of "those little pieces" were eagerly slipped into place in the wake of the autocrat's famous promise to return the Clinton surplus to the "job creators."

This NY Times chart offers a glimpse of where the money went.(Image source.)

While outrageous and shocking, even these "cost figures" are low when a longer term accounting is conducted on the same spending centers.  Notably, there are no "direct transfers" representing material checks handed to the crowd which had designed this.  Instead, subsidies and tax expenditures, no-bid contracts, wildly expensive military procurement contracts and the like provided the wealth re-distribution funnels the scheme needed.

For any cronies unable to profit from these opportunities, banking and insurance de-regulation favors stepped in so they, too, could "share the wealth."

Recapping the historic record of Republican debt creation, we can add roughly $6 Trillion of direct Bush debt to the $4 Trillion of the Reagan debt.  Remember, we are "shooting for" an explanation of about $14 Trillion.  The Bush deficits -- with or without the inclusion of the "off the books" war "emergency supplementals" -- were breath taking.

The annual deficits of the "debt experts" explain everything.

The autocracy encountered its "mortal problem" when the extractions finally over whelmed the economy.  George W. Bush and Richard Cheney may be gone -- along with their torture chambers, emergency "no-bid" contracts and cheap ambitions to become American aristocrats -- but their debt remains.  Ironically, even the current, more modern versions of the Republican idea of a budget remain strikingly similar

Go ahead.  Total up the national debt being generated as these annual Republican deficits pile up -- use your pocket calculator. Don't forget to add in the interest -- for easy calculations, it runs roughly 1/4 trillion per year. [The data for the chart comes from the Office of the National Debt, Department of the Treasury.  It was published while Bush W. was in the White House.]  Try to remember your figures the next time you hear a Republican on your television saying "We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem."

Again, $14 Trillion in debt may seem incomprehensible, but when we look at smaller parts, we see a very finite political reality.  The point here is simple.  Although there are no longer marauding Vikings in long boats, modern looting has equally direct manifestations:

1. Wealth is redistributed by means other than capitalistic, free market endeavors.
2. The "specific rate" of this wealth redistribution makes individual cases almost imperceptible, but it makes the ultimate consequences unavoidable.
3. While the various channels of redistribution may be different, much of the debt created inevitably becomes public debt, that is, national debt.

The Looting Under the Boehner - McConnell Dynasty

Following along after the public debt idea, it's not surprising that the oligarchs have eagerly pursued the control of Congress.  Although the remaining "take" has been reduced by their previous looting, the money class remains intent on both continuing the extraction, although perhaps at a lower rate thanks to the diminishing wealth of the country, and protecting the mechanisms of that extraction.

"Diminishing wealth of the country?"  Remember.  In the period of just a few months during 2008 the accumulated wealth of individual citizens dropped 40%.  Did the oligarchs saunter over to the teller's window to deposit every dime of this?  No.  They didn't have to walk away with every dime.  This was so much wealth that if they could walk away with 1% of their "Vikings' Loot," they would be rich beyond measure.

They would also have plenty of "extra dough" to continue their influence on the Congress to extract even more in the future.  All this hyperbolic economic theory may seem distant and academic, but we need to remember that this "missing money" is in the pockets of these same oligarchs as we speak.  Today.

The following in an interesting AlterNet article about just how incredibly rich they became.  (Read the article here. The links in the AlterNet article are left enabled.)

Five Ugly Extremes of Inequality in America -- The Contrasts Will Drop Your Chin to the Floor

Economy

March 24, 2013  |     

AlterNet / By Paul Buchheit

Any of the ten richest Americans could pay a year's rent for all of America's homeless with their 2012 income.

The first step is to learn the facts, and then to get angry and to ask ourselves, as progressives and caring human beings, what we can do about the relentless transfer of wealth to a small group of well-positioned Americans.
1. $2.13 per hour vs. $3,000,000.00 per hour

Each of the Koch brothers saw his investments grow by  $6 billion in one year, which is three million dollars per hour based on a 40-hour 'work' week. They used some of the money to try to  kill renewable energy standards around the country. 

Their income portrays them, in a society measured by economic status, as a million times more valuable than the  restaurant server who cheers up our lunch hours while hoping to make enough in tips to pay the bills. 

A comparison of top and bottom salaries within large corporations is much less severe, but a lot more common. For CEOs and minimum-wage workers, the  difference is $5,000.00 per hour vs. $7.25 per hour. 

2. A single top income could buy housing for every homeless person in the U.S.

On a winter day in 2012  over 633,000 people were homeless in the United States. Based on an annual single room occupancy  (SRO) cost of $558 per month, any ONE of the  ten richest Americans would have enough with his 2012 income to pay for a room for every homeless person in the U.S.  for the entire year. These ten rich men together made more than our entire  housing budget.

For anyone still believing "they earned it," it should be noted that  most of the Forbes 400 earnings came from  minimally-taxed, non-job-creating capital gains.
3. The poorest 47% of Americans have no wealth

In 1983 the poorest  47% of America had $15,000 per family,  2.5 percent of the nation's wealth. 

In 2009 the poorest  47% of America owned  ZERO PERCENT of the nation's wealth (their debt exceeded their assets). 

At the other extreme, the  400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million families --  62% of America. The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has approximately doubled. Inflation-adjusted wages  have gone down. But the stock market has increased by  over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans  owns 93% of it. 

4. The U.S. is nearly the most wealth-unequal country in the entire world

Out of 141 countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of  wealth inequality in the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon. 

Yet the financial industry keeps creating new wealth for its millionaires. According to the authors of the Global Wealth Report, the world's wealth has doubled in ten years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330 trillion by 2017. 

5. A can of soup for a black or Hispanic woman, a mansion and yacht for the businessman

That's literally true. For every one dollar of assets owned by a  single black or Hispanic woman, a member of the Forbes 400 has over  forty million dollars.

Minority families once had substantial equity in their homes, but after Wall Street caused the housing crash,  median wealth fell 66% for Hispanic households and 53% for black households. Now the average single black or Hispanic woman has about  $100 in net worth.

What to do?

End the  capital gains giveaway, which benefits the wealthy almost exclusively. 

Institute a  Financial Speculation Tax, both to raise needed funds from a currently untaxed subsidy on stock purchases, and to reduce the risk of the irresponsible trading that nearly brought down the economy. 

Perhaps above all, we progressives have to choose one strategy and pursue it in a cohesive, unrelenting attack on greed. Only this will heal the ugly gash of inequality that has split our country in two.

Paul Buchheit teaches economic inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of the Web sites UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org.

A Last Thought

The oligarchs with the ambition to own everything and, hence, rule the rest of us in the country are aware of something that many of us "lesser souls" have not yet fully embraced.  The looting and the public "situation" left in its wake, well described in the article above, actually lead somewhere quite unpleasant.

Even though the corporate class has invested mightily in media efforts to control public opinion and equally mightily in arming themselves for the ultimate defense of their purloined wealth, what we read in this MeanMesa post will inexorably lead to violence. Count on it as much as you count on the rising of the sun.

The man who has just thoughtlessly finished another meal cannot understand the man who is hungry -- and who was hungry yesterday.

The man who has wealth beyond measure cannot understand the relentless sorrow of the man who worries constantly about money.

The rich man without even the memory of ever sweeping the sweat from his brow will not lose sleep over crushing the dream of the man in the dirty shirt and boots.

These are, today, poetic aphorisms.  However, they both have and will quite expectedly and quite predictably metamorphose into bullets, bricks and fire bombs.  Quite aside from all issue of ideology or religion, hungry, hopeless people will fight.

There may be all sorts of fairly valid reasons for wanting to alter the relentless wealth redistribution, but at the top of that list we should probably add:

"Avoiding civil war."

MeanMesa's Sequester Investment Tips

How Long Do I have To Keep Remembering 2008?

For the long, seemingly unending decades of MeanMesa's youth a few unceasingly repetitious bulwarks of investment advice were as dependable as every spring's dandelions in the watermelon patch. They never faltered.  Most the the participants in the American dream in those days probably assumed that they were -- somewhere -- in the Good Book, itself.  In fact, these "American axioms for a future of individual prosperity" were so reliable, anticipated and trusted that the prospect of seeking out any additional possibilities actually amounted to little more than a sort of arcane "hobby."

Investment-wise, the promise was simple.  Just stick to the old tried and true, "simple stuff," and your future would inevitably be "roses, simply roses."  Any one who followed this "readily available everywhere" advice would just about certainly get rich in the end.

Buy real estate.  The value of real estate always increases.  If you somehow buy real estate, and it doesn't evaluate over time, it's your fault.

Invest in the stock market. Sure it's risky, but actually, it hasn't been really risky for years. After all, riding the subway is risky.  There is no possible way for someone like you to ever become a millionaire unless you make a big pile of that money on Wall Street.

Work hard, and save your surplus earnings.  Everything good in the investment world requires personal savings to get started.  If you work somewhere with a pension plan, pay into it.

Get a college education.  After you graduate, you'll be able to get a good job with good pay.  A college education opens up the opportunity for career advances in your future.

There were the "investments" which had most often produced the famous middle class prosperity Americans enjoyed until around the 1980's.  By the time that Ronald Reagan accomplished the now notorious, first penetration of the $ Trillion dollar debt barrier, the economy was already quietly beginning to falter.  Further, although there were booms and busts, that precise kind of "faltering" had more to do with steady state systemics than with the predictable "ups and downs" with which the country had been familiar previously.

This development really occurred along two rather disparate routes simultaneously.

First, a relentless, self-feeding, national wealth redistribution had begun in earnest.  The top money classes of American society had mastered the political techniques they would successfully employ for the following decades.  More than ever before, a new, carefully purchased access to the Congress, the White House and the media would begin to almost imperceptibly funnel economic advantages to the influential.

Second, a rapacious expectation of almost automatic economic success had been firmly planted in the minds and imaginations of those Americans who found themselves either at the lower edge of the wealthy class or even within a "stone's throw" away from it.  The dreamily ambitious middle class rushed to make the traditional wealth building investments mentioned above strongly anticipating that success was just around the corner.

Because such a significant amount of middle class money was flowing into these "investments in the future," because ambitions had become so exaggerated and because the attachment between expectations and risk had rapidly become obscured and inchoate, there were two additional economic phenomena.

Based on the, by then, axiomatic anticipation that economic conditions would simply perpetually improve more and more almost automatically, consumption began to increase faster than additional wealth was being accrued.  This domestic anticipation became an unexamined habit in no time.  At first, previously established domestic wealth was used to purchase ever greater "luxuries and other indulgences" which were consistent with the imaginary improvements in the standard of living.

However, when the previously accrued wealth had been consumed, it was replaced with debt.  At this point, consumer debt began to support the costs of these continuing, ambitious expectations -- and unsustainable levels of consumer purchases.  The money class stood by anxiously eager to provide this credit.  We now see the inevitable results.

Of course there was unsustainable domestic consumption, but what about the "big ticket" items listed above?  A new toaster, washer, automobile or extravagant vacation could certainly undercut a middle class family's finances, but not with the same gravity as the five and six digit borrowing required to participate in our list of "solid investments."

An uninsured medical emergency, on the other hand, would represent a "fifth" addition to the wealth wrecking list mentioned above.

The Two -- or Maybe Three - Horned Beasts

 Goring the Soft Underbelly of Economic Recovery

Nestled in what we hope is the "mid-term" period of this endless Republican Recession, it's easy to adopt a few mistaken conclusions.  If any of these "ring true" with your own thinking on these matters, don't be too hard on yourself.  The oligarchs have invested literally millions and millions of their "hard earned" dollars to misdirect, obfuscate, confuse and obscure the facts behind the economic disaster.

Let's take a look at some of the more commonly held misconceptions.  These are some of those mistakes.

Mistake 1:  The current catastrophe began in 2008.

Yes, 2008 was the year that the blood actually began to flow, but what we're in right now started decades before that.  For convenience, we can say that the present disaster is the inevitable, contemporary "mature" state of the catastrophe, but we must also rush to add that the fundamentals lurking below this intractable mess can quite comfortably be anchored with the Reagan years.

Remember the Reagan years?

Just think of them as the date of birth for the now infamous "trickle down" economic voodoo plan.

Right now, we would have a hard time remembering the disaster of 2008 had it been a traditional "adjustment."  It wasn't.  Further, had that disaster been even somewhat "traditional," our economy would be raging out of this mess in a "traditional" economic recovery cycle.  It isn't.

Mistake 2:  The economy is wrecked because of government spending.

Wait a minute.  All we hear on the commercial media is that the economy has been wrecked by government spending.  Every Republican who has staggered up to a microphone for the last five years had parroted exactly the same "talking point."

"We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem."

Think for a moment.  Exactly why has this idea, so to speak, "grown so many legs?"

To answer this question, we need look no further back than to the beginning of this talking point.  The day before this talking point was hatched in a neo-con think tank, the talking point was "jobs."

Of course, the "jobs" talking point served well as a sort of populist distraction and as a road weary topic for "fly by" water cooler conversations. The viral utility of this well crafted deception lasted long enough to throw the 2010 Congressional election into the quivering hands of the overly ambitious, but tragically synthetic, tea baggers.

One week after that election, it became painfully clear to the House leadership that it was, unquestionably, foolish to count on these unruly tea bags for any sort of rational legislative work whatsoever.  That legislative work would, of course, have included any effort, no matter how modest or arcane, which might ease the "jobs" problem.

Even a comatose 19th Century loyalist like John Boehner could see that the voters had already grown dangerously tired of the lack of progress on the "jobs" talking point literally hours after their first glimpse of the endless stream of tea bag House bills obliterating ObamaCare, recriminalizing abortion, prohibiting Sharia Law in Oklahoma and so on.

This development cast a sudden shock-wave through the meticulously groomed public opinion ontology in which the oligarchs in charge of the Republican Party had invested so much.  What followed was a wonderfully entertaining, yet morosely awkward, attempt to somehow surgically attach "jobs" to "spending."

After bumbling around with this nearly impossible mission for a month or two, the "jobs" thing was trashed in favor of a full court effort at just the "spending" thing. This interregnum in public opinion manipulation failed because the message, if there actually was one, turned out to be utterly incomprehensible to the public.  One thing we know about oligarchs is that they are always ready to "cut their losses."

Mistake 3:  Things will return to how they were before.

In the wide spread absence of understanding for the scope of the collapse, the decades of constant corruption which led to the current emergency and the grave degree of wealth redistribution which had accompanied it, the default metric employed by voters to gauge the economic recovery became the "restoration of conditions previous to the collapse."

Voters wanted to know when they would get their old jobs back, when their pay checks would look like they did before the massacre, when their houses would once again be worth what they had paid for them and so on.   Even Republican voters.  Even tea bags.

There were a few unguarded words to the point that the "jobs lost in the catastrophe would not be returning," but, when no one really liked the sound of that, the rhetoric was instantly replaced by the far safer and easier fabricated memes of simply bashing the President or lamenting that the sides -- now actively touted as being equally to blame -- "couldn't just get along."


When unemployment drops to roughly its traditional level and the annual deficit subsides to some figure roughly similar to its traditional level, this will end.  However, the country which emerges from this will not be particularly similar to the one inhabiting the imaginations of Americans.

The violent wealth redistribution will remain a "settled fact" in the aftermath, as will be paralysing divisiveness so carefully installed the cripple the political process which might have, in better times, threatened the over riding scheme of the oligarch class we now see unfolding.

The American economy will see further retraction in organized labor, voter enfranchisement, wealth equality, individual opportunity and so on.  There is, as of now, no factor in the visible field which can alter this outcome much.  The Dow may be at an all time high, but the economic fundamentals for the majority of the country hold little promise for the future.

We may well be able to re-establish a more or less stable state, but we will not regain the competitive prowess of even a decade ago or make much progress toward solving the relentless drift toward more and more upward wealth redistribution.

Mistake 4:  Buy real estate or invest in the market.

The advertisements making this suggestion, especially to younger Americans, are, frankly, horrifying.  If learning the lessons of the last thirty years are too exhausting, learning the lessons of the last ten may not be such a "heavy lift." 

The collapse which materialized after the 2008 debacle instantly reduced the wealth of most Americans by around 40%.  The message of that collapse was that there is nothing which can be done politically to prevent the same forces who now "own" all that money from doing it again whenever they like.

The oligarch class may wait until the "investment barrel" is once again filled before they empty it, but the die is cast.  Elizabeth Warren notwithstanding, the banksters have flourished mightily from this last, most outrageous so far, "barrel emptying" move, and they will not be inclined to forsake the opportunity to repeat it in the future.

This dark forecast encompasses both investments in real estate and in the stock market.  Both reservoirs of wealth were effortlessly emptied, and both reservoirs remain just as susceptible to being emptied again in the future.  The risk of even a very rational investment in either has careened beyond what might be encountered at a gaming table in a crooked, Mafia operated casino.

This advice might have led to an awkward question in past years: "If not real estate or the market, then what?  Where should I put all this money?"

The very discouraging fact is that few of the Americans who would have traditionally been or would have become investors have any money to invest.  While productivity has steadily increased -- along with the profits for the oligarch class who benefit from it -- the flow of wages to more middle class Americans have been stagnant.

The chart below explains the reciprocal nature of the wealth redistribution.  Productivity increases the flow of potential investment capital to the inactive, non-participating coffers of the oligarch/corporate class.  Increased profit is directed at further increases in that upward flow.  Importantly, the more that wealth is concentrated in those purposefully sequestered coffers, the more the economy suffers.

 As the wealth consolidation of this upper class becomes more and more segregated from the mainstream economy [current estimates are that more than $2 Tn worth of ready cash is pocketed away by corporations, mostly off shore], what had previously been a massive potential investment reservoir is now basically empty.  Worse, members in the middle class now have essentially no confidence that such an investment risk is a reasonable one.

What looks like Productivity and Wages is actually fundamental wealth redistribution       (image source)

The "40% number" used to define the scheme's dramatic impact on middle class wealth can easily drift to hyperbole, but the blood soaked reality of it is becoming  unavoidable.  Meanwhile, the middle class is being patiently persuaded to continue to pretend that this either never happened at all, or, at least, that it didn't happen to them.

All this leaves two very troubling "visitors" attending the economic recovery.  First, the potential for profiting from a real estate investment is no longer based on the idea that the entire economy is prospering.  Instead, it is based exploiting  the loss incurred by someone else who lost everything with a mortgage for an artificially high priced house.

Second, the maelstrom on Wall Street is now essentially one which excludes all players who didn't rake in the grotesque gains during the bubble.  No one else has the money -- or the trust -- to play poker there.  The "rotational velocity" of the money already in the market may continue to increase -- hence the record high DJA of today -- but the prospects for a middle class, long term investor are in shambles.

The generational durability of the disaster is also often underestimated.

There are literally millions of young people across the country who would have -- in better times -- been building wealth for all sorts of possible uses.  They aren't.  Worse, they haven't been for decades.  They aren't buying houses or cars because they have neither the savings nor the credit nor the confidence.  They don't have usable health insurance, and they have nothing similar to the employer pension and retirement plans of past years.

Mistake 5: It's worth any price to get a college education.

While union busting is a foundational part of the oligarch scheme, an even more sinister side of the destructive ambition is found just below the obvious.  There are political advantages from the destruction of organized labor's potential in campaigns, but the underlying ambition is far more general.

Union or not, the oligarchs will not rest until they have orchestrated the unilateral deprofessionalization of every credentialed worker possible.  This has naturally extended into the realm of higher education.  The monied class will approve of an education for middle class folks but will not countenance the creation of specialists of any type which can resist the relentless lowering of all incomes other than those of Wall Street.

The President has made some small headway in reigning in the rapacious interest scams for student loans, but even this relief is superficial.  The $ Tn dollar student loan debt may be a real "profit center" for the money handlers, but controlling the future economic success of graduates is the clear shining prize.

The inevitable result of this can be seen everywhere.  The college graduate enters the work force already hobbled with only a small chance for a job in his field as he competes with much cheaper foreign labor, a mountain of college loan debt and, even if he can find work in his field, a pay check paying a salary of $10 or $12 dollars per hour.  They don't save to buy a house or a new car.  They live with their parents.

This all may sound like the forlorn fiddle solo in a tragic movie, but consider the numbers.  There are millions of both college graduates and other young people earning significantly less than it takes to live.  They have been struggling along like this since the 1980's.

What had previously been a constantly swelling reservoir of wealth to invest in the future has been hollowed out and redistributed.  The point here is that these lost years will not be reclaimed. 

How could they?

Even if we tried?  Even if we dedicated an immense amount of resources and political effort to it?

This is the great multi-generational "hollowing out" which inevitably accompanies such a devastating wealth redistribution and consolidation.  The economy which is left after suffering this kind of "across the board" looting will resemble the economy which entered it very little.

It may seem as if we took our eye off the ball in 2010, but actually we pretty much quit paying attention in the 1980's.

We have to remember all of this when we look at the feeble, faltering economic recovery.  Comparing it to the glory days of our past is just as irrational as comparing our future to the same glory days would be.

Oh don't forget about the oligarchs (Courtesy of Daily KOS)

The game is real.  If we lose completely, the oligarchs will own everything that's left standing.  If we hold our own, we'll have a place to live -- just a place with far fewer, much more modest dreams that before.

MeanMesa's "sequester investment tip?"

Just go to the casino.  The odds are better.

$4 Gallon Gasoline - A 2012 Petrogarch Primer

Some Historical Relativity

Lubricated with a Little Crude Oil

Let's introduce this posting with a couple of paragraphs of our traditional  MeanMesa conspiracy rambling. Since the Citizens United decision about a year ago, American oligarchs are effortlessly reaching into their bulging purses to indulge themselves in all sorts of, happily, unpopular personal political vendettas, weird, unfulfilled childhood baggage and a veritable "spring bouquet" of various tragic wet dreams of a "Paladin-esque" ascent to historical relevance and foreign policy glory.

The GOPCon owners have opined about re-invading Iraq to correct mistakes in the distribution of her stolen oil, bombing Iran in the interests of Israel's participation in a modern reinvention of the Revelations myth and delivering the final "stake through the heart" to the dirty, ungrateful remnants of Martin Luther's Papist heresy.  One of the more recent examples is found in the tantrum of Texas refinery billionaires with the President's decision not to hand over the Keystone XL petro-"cash cow" for conversion into "well deserved" profits.

That "billionaires' tantrum" has now materialized.  We see the dust from the petrogarchs' approaching troops on the horizon, and, as usual, they are headed for the gas pump price meters.

Petrogarchs' 2012 Battle Plan

   Destroy the Recovery,  Destroy the Economy  and Destroy Obama

It may be hard to imagine anyone beyond the bullet hungry Generals who is actually looking at the prospect of war with Iran fondly, but keep looking.  There was a minor "tit for tat" between just such folks and the President which revealed other, perhaps even more dangerous, anti-democracy players.

Since it's a "new word," MeanMesa will make the predictable pitch for contextural validity.

Petrogarch (noun, common usage)

(adj.) petrogarchic

(adv.) petrogarchically

• A particularly vicious, special type of oligarch who has extracted most of his wealth from either non-competitive, price fixed petroleum production and sales, petroleum futures speculation or federal petroleum subsidies.  There are very few reported female petrogarchs.

The "candy on the table" was Presidential approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline Project designed to bring Canadian tar sands oil across the country to refineries in Texas.  This may not sound so terribly arcane, but there are a few facts which must be added for the discussion.

1. This year the largest export commodity from the United States will be refined petroleum products -- specifically gasoline and diesel fuel. (read more)

2. Oil derived from tar sands is perhaps the most caustic and toxic form of crude oil.  (The best form of crude oil is called "sweet, light crude,"  i.e. Saudi Arabian or Iraqi crude oil.) (read more)

3. The Keystone Project would not be a significant jobs producer either during its construction -- 3,000 to 5,000 temporary jobs for 2 years -- or during its operational life -- 2,000 jobs. (read more)

4. The gasoline product refined from the tar sands oil in Texas would not mitigate US dependence on imported oil.  Refinery output is scheduled for direct trans-shipment to Central and South American buyers. (read more)

5.  The main, administrative obstacle cited in the President's refusal to authorize the project is derived from its very questionable, incomplete environmental impact investigation.  Keystone proponents demanded immediate EPA approval.  The proposed route of the pipeline crosses the major Ogallala Aquifer in the US agricultural state of Nebraska. (read more)

6. An average American family pays $600 per year to futures speculators in the oil "market," a tender career opportunity held close and dear by its obscenely rich owners. (read more)

7. The US oil market is not driven by supply and demand, hence its victims never enjoy the now totally mythical prospect of a price reflecting any sort of supply and demand "market correction." Because of this, gasoline prices are largely based on arbitrary decisions made by petrogarchs and speculators for any reason they wish. (read more) 

8. High gasoline prices can become a political "dog whistle" to uninformed consumers,  "re-grooved" by the petrogarchs' "wholly owned media" to become the responsibility of an incumbent President if that is what is desired. (read more)

So, Let's take a Look at Our Petrogarch Primer

Item One 

from OilChange International

(See the article here )

 

Big Oil Threatens President Obama

Steve Kretzmann

American Petroleum Institute President, Jack Gerard

By Brendan Demelle, DeSmogBlog

American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard today announced the oil and gas industry’s latest election-year scare campaign to threaten the demise of the U.S. economy unless Big Oil gets its every wish in Washington.

This year the wish list includes approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, expanded offshore drilling on both coasts, opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and more federal lands in the West to drilling, and smaller buffer zones between drilling operations and drinking water supplies.

What if Washington doesn’t comply by delivering Keystone XL and the rest of the wish list? Gerard, the oil industry’s chief bully, threatens “huge political consequences” for Barack Obama.

You can almost set your watch to this industry’s tired plays on this front. If it’s January of a presidential election year, it must be time for the oil industry to threaten Washington politicians to ensure they continue to do the industry’s bidding. The threats are delivered in the form of outlandishly expensive advertising campaigns and punditry tours, aided by a captive media that serves its role as stenographer for the industry’s inflated jobs figures and misleading claims.

The API campaign is nothing more than a fresh skin on a very old and stale argument – that President ______ (insert current name) needs to continue opening up more of the nation’s lands, particularly public lands, for oil and gas drilling, OR ELSE ______(insert latest political talking point), in this case “jobs jobs jobs” will be lost (a bogus argument).

CNN notes the close correlation between API’s target states and some of the hottest states in the 2012 U.S. elections – hint: they’re the same.

Gerard said it is not intended to be an advertisement or promote one party or candidate over the another, but rather a “conversation” to “help Americans understand what’s at stake.”  While the campaign will run nationwide, it will focus heavily on states where Gerard said energy is an important issue — including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Those states also happen to be important battle ground states in the upcoming election.

In his inanely named “State of American Energy” address, Gerard threatened:

“Clearly, the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest. A determination to decide anything less than that I believe will have huge political consequences.”

Like what Mr. Gerard? Your industry isn’t going to lend as much financial support to Democrats this year as it will to Republicans? Surprise, surprise…surprise.

 

The oil-soaked GOP is doing cartwheels over their supposed ‘victory’ in forcing Obama to decide on Keystone XL within 60 days, although many environmentalists predict the bullying to backfire. But House Republicans won’t let reality stand in the way of a good circus stunt.

The Hill reports:

House Republicans are putting more pressure on President Obama to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, unveiling a [countdown] clock that counts the number of days since the president signed legislation requiring a speedy verdict on the project.

How about putting that clock next to a ticker showing the oil industry money flowing into Congressional campaign coffers? That would be a sight!

Also during his statement today, Jack Gerard asked rhetorically, “Why would we import a product we can produce at home?”

But Jack, why not answer the real question: If Big Oil is sincerely interested in domestic energy security and low-cost gasoline for Americans, why would your industry be clamoring feverishly to maximize U.S. oil and gas export infrastructure that would send our ‘homegrown’ oil and gas overseas to Asian and European markets – raising American gas prices yet higher?

Greenpeace launched its own Vote 4 Energy site mocking the API’s claims that its ads feature “ordinary Americans” and releasing a hilarious spoof video.

“When’s the last time someone got hired to clean up a solar spill?” asks an actor playing an ordinary American in the Greenpeace spoof. “Oh no, I’ve got sunlight all over me.”

Touché!

Greenpeace said in a statement:

“The Vote 4 Energy campaign is the latest effort by the oil industry to fake citizen support for its agenda. The American Petroleum Institute has repeatedly spent millions to block clean energy solutions and fake grassroots support for Big Oil.”

While API [American Petroleum Institute] says its new ads are designed to feature only “ordinary Americans” expressing their thoughts on energy, in reality the industry’s ad agency carefully handpicks people to read from a script. In other words, it is pure astroturfing.

Recall that API ad producers kicked out several people who wouldn’t agree to read the script provided by API, and instead insisted on expressing their own beliefs, as they had been led to believe they could buy the API ad team’s outreach ad, which stated:

… “the ONLY qualifications” listed on the e-mail: “You are willing to go on camera and state your beliefs.”

Another is: “You are comfortable portraying YOURSELF! They want REAL PEOPLE not Actors!”

API won’t reveal how much money it is spending on the astroturf ad campaigns that will continue throughout this election year.  But it will likely rival or surpass what API spent on its 2010 election year ads – roughly $40 million.

That’s a lot of job-creating money! Too bad it’s going into bullying ads instead of supporting “ordinary Americans” who need work.

Item Two 

from Huffington Post

(see the article here)

American Petroleum Institute

To Begin Direct Political Donations

The Huffington Post   Joanna Zelman First Posted: 02/24/11 05:42 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:35 PM ET

One of the biggest oil lobbying organizations now plans to directly back political candidates. 

The American Petroleum Institute (API) -- the main U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry -- recently announced that beginning in the second quarter of this year, it will take a turn towards direct political donations. API, who has companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron among its 400 members, spent about $7 million last year on lobbying efforts alone.

One of the greatest concerns, as Think Progress reports, is that API runs committees that set oil industry standards. The commission investigating the BP oil spill reported that API was in too compromising a position to set the standards -- the institute resists improving safety rules due to concerns over the costs. API's Martin Durbin admits to Bloomberg News, "At the end of the day, our mission is trying to influence the policy debate."

Now, the institute will take direct aim at political candidates. Most of these candidates are expected to be Republican, as oil-supported action committees tend to support the Republican party. Last year, the Independent Petroleum Association of America gave 77 percent of their contributions to the Republican party. Bloomberg reports that during the 2010 election, oil and gas companies were the 15th largest source of political contributions. Koch Industries Inc. was the largest contributor in the industry, and gave over 90 percent of their money to Republicans. 

Past Huffington Post pieces show that API has previously campaigned against climate legislation, and Greenpeace revealed a memo from API president Jack Gerard suggesting the institute fight climate legislation by defining it as "tax increases on our industry."

API claims greenhouse gas regulations are "burdensome." Meanwhile, 2010 was one of the hottest years on record, an estimated 50 million people will be environmental refugees in under 10 years, and reports pile on of the health hazards surrounding Big Oil practices.

The Obama Administration has questioned the entire lobbying industry. In the 2012 budget, the administration proposed removing the billions of dollars that taxpayers pay in subsidies to oil companies each year. The administration estimates that in a decade, this repeal would yield $46 billion. Until action is taken though, Big Oil will continue to tighten the strings that influence the policies affecting its corporate interests. 

Item Three

from Reuters

(See the article  here)

Obama faces political heat

 if Keystone rejected: API

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON | Wed Jan 4, 2012 4:26pm EST

(Reuters) - The head of the top oil and gas lobbying group said on Wednesday that the Obama administration will face serious political consequences if it rejects a Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline that has been opposed by environmental groups.

Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline would definitely play a role in this year's national elections.

"This issue is very simple and straightforward, it's about jobs and national security," Gerard told reporters after giving a speech on the state of U.S. energy.

"Anything less than approval or acquiescence in allowing the pipeline to go forward would be inconsistent with the vast majority of Americans," Gerard said.

The oil and gas industry says the country needs the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport 700,000 barrels per day or more of Canadian oil sands crude to U.S. Gulf coast refineries.

But the decision on the pipeline is a difficult one for President Barack Obama. Approval would upset environmentalists, an important part of his voter base, while axing the project would upset some labor unions, another part of his base.

With environmental groups concerned about carbon emissions from oil sands production, the administration had delayed a decision on a presidential permit for the project until 2013.

The administration says it needs more time to consider alternative routes for the pipeline, which originally was planned to traverse sensitive habitats and a crucial water source in Nebraska.

Lawmakers that support the project were able to attach a measure to a tax-cut law passed at the end of last year that requires the president to decide whether the project is in the national interest by late February.

API is launching an advertising campaign aimed at getting Americans to consider candidates' stances on energy issues, including the Keystone project, before they cast their ballots in November.

While Gerard stressed that the advertising campaign is non-partisan, API has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration's energy policies.

In addition to the Keystone delays, the group has blasted the administration for not opening up more areas to offshore drilling and for its push to eliminate certain tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.

Republicans in Congress have also forcefully objected to the administration's delay of the Keystone pipeline, accusing the White House of placing politics over job creation.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce committee have placed a clock on their website counting the days until the administration must weigh in on the project.

"After waiting more than three years for this pipeline while the country faces prolonged unemployment, the American people are fed up with the president's inaction on a project that can quickly create jobs," Fred Upton, chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee, said in a statement.

Playmates and Playpens

Both In the Sand Box AND the Girl Chained Up in the Basement 

We may understand the "source" of Governor Perry's plan to re-invade Iraq, Senator Santorum's plan to outlaw birth control and Mitt Romney's plan to make corporate hamburger from every company that can't fight back. We have to assume that these ridiculous gambits are the all part of the risky price which must be paid to woo the crazy Republican base if one wishes to survive the grisly GOPCon Primary jousts.


The confusing difficulties arise from the "half bred" nature of the audience.  One parent is the traditionally crooked Republican elites who have no motives other than more looting.  The other parent is the carefully confounded tea bags who are still dancing to the hypnotic tune of Freedom Werken months after the owners ordered that outfit to pack up their hot wings, cowboy boots, banjos and fiddles and go home.

The problem faced by the party proper is that all these "mixed heritage" children have their own pistols, and they don't like each other.


However, in the case of the petrogarchs, the story is both more clear and more chilling.  They cannot countenance the possibility that they won't be obediently handed their latest scam on a platter, and they plan to obliterate the "uppity" President who steadfastly remained loyal to his constituent supporters -- us.  These boys are the ones who REALLY consider themselves to be the masters of the universe.





Their scheme is weak.  The big bet made by the petrogarchs was that an uninformed electorate would instantly repeat the dive into their hackneyed old song of "Drill Baby, Drill," but the crowd for the "big plunge into eel lake" this time has proved to be far less than the "lemming-like unanimity" they have enjoyed previously.



This doesn't mean that they will give up, either.  This just means that they will try harder.  Plus, they have now "joined forces" with Karl Rove, the fascist servant of the autocrat Bush.  They can pump oil drenched petrogarch cash into the recipe where ever and whenever they please -- lots and lots of it.


MeanMesa will undoubtedly be returning to this topic soon enough.