Depression 2.0

[BO]

Let's mark this day as the start of this century's great depression.

The bank bailout bill -- aka 'the septic bank bill -- has failed and the DOW dropped 778 points today. Undoubtably, not the big crash yet to happen. The credit markets are frozen. As Paul Krugman states...the gears on wallstreet are full of sand.

You might not have been affected yet. You will. Let's hear some personal stories on what folks are doing to prepare. Have you stocked the pantry yet? Do you have a contingency plan should you lose your job? Supposedly the run on banks has started. Have you moved your savings out of the bank? What are doing about about your investments--your 401k, pension, etc.

Maybe you'll say, 'I ain't got nothing, so I got nothing to lose'. Truth is, unless you're homeless, with everything you own in the shopping cart you're pushing, well, that ain't exactly true. Maybe the reality of the situation hasn't hit yet. It will soon.

Welcome to the next great depression. So, what's your contingency plan?

[curt]

Hit the "Print" button, went over to the printer to grab it up before anyone else could and stuffed it in my rucksack. Was reading it on the tram to the station, while sitting in the station and the final lines while sitting in the train. The distraction to the left of me was well worth being one but the stuff I was reading was even better. This is the second day in a row this distraction has distracted me like that. I say "this" because the impression is still on my mind, just like the words I read are. I'm easily side tracked and distracted. A lack of concentration some may call it. I call it multitasking. It took me a long time to learn to read right. I don't like to read just anything, ya know. A special Ed teacher way back in the 7th grade knew that and she taught me how to read - with pleasure. So, later on in school, when reading assignments came along and I wasn't impressed with the writing, I would have to bullshit myself into liking it. There was no other way for me to read and comprehend. My mind is always a zillion places at once. I remember how as a kid, I would fall into a stupor while playing with ants or watching a make believe boat rush down the rapids that were made by the rain running off down the street. I could get lost in my own little make believe world and not even hear Mom calling out for me. When I got lost in a good piece of writ, it's the same thing; I'm in a stupor. It's a dangerous thing, ya know? There I am reading something really fascinating and just anybody could walk right up and give me the knife or whack me upside the head and take my wallet. It's really gotta be worth the time and the risk. What I read today was well worth it. I thought it would make me cry at some point or another but it didn't. I tried to visualize a few things I read about and was successful on a few occasions.
The rest, I just made up as I went along. I guess that's how you read right. I wish I could write like that.

I remember the 60s well. Well, not 1961 & not 1962 but I like to think I remember one scene from 1963. I was three. By the time the 60s caught up with me, it was 1976 and my cousins were just starting to think they were too old for this shit. I guess my 16th birthday party out at the cabin (Kansas) was one of their last big wing dings. They came ridin' in on Harleys. I thought we were up shit creek without a paddle as I saw the pack comin' toward us. That's when my brother Chris, he's four years older than me, he said "here comes your birthday present...sweet 16!" I didn't know what to make of that and I was too pure to be thinkin' what I'm thinkin' right now but "my birthday present" turned out to be a keg of beer, a handful of cousins and their better halves....and a few other neato things they had with them. I passed out after I don't know how many shotguns and beers, probably three. They put me on the table kinda like you put a roasted pig on display. When I woke up, they were all gone. I found a note stuffed in my shirt and in the neatest handwriting it read...

"Happy Birthday Cuz! Remember the Alamo!"

I'll never forget that. I wish I could've stayed awake. But it got real dizzying and as the years passed on, I had the same habit of passing out on the table, under the table ....anywhere except in a bed while the party raged on all around me.
The 60s came to Europe in the 70s and so did I. I noticed that and was quite happy it was that way so I dove in head first. Haven't quite snapped out of it to this day. I've mellowed out a bit, like everyone else. The GIs are almost all gone. I'm still here and it looks like I'm here to stay. The remnants of the 60s are still visible here and there, over here. You have to look for them but they're there. And when you see people with long, silver or white hair and a sometimes sad facial expression, you can bet your life you're looking at an old hippie. If you look real close, you can see something that'll give him away like his little leather pouch he pulls out of his pocket to roll one up. The peace sign in colourful little glass beads stitched to the baggy. Damned old hippie farts. Ya gotta love'm.

[waldopaper]

The Elephant in the Room... the people who see the obvious stinking reeking pile of bullshit are being drowned out... by who/what? Here in dominionist krakkerland, there is a spate of "opinion" about how they trust Sarah Palin.

Why? It seems that it's because she acts like a folksy-dumb person... maybe she IS a folksy-dum person... but that's not the point. The krakkers say, feh-blah "education," (ie- them pointy-headed intellectuals) and YAY "somebody-I-can-trust"...nd to be fair: a folksy dum-acting (or real) person... and to be fair:

The people who hosed them greatly and lied to them were "educ're cated managers." It didn't have anything to do with the managers' "credentials," it has to do with the same moral bankruptcy it took to get their "degrees" that it did to be "managers." We do itto sell credit-hours.

There is a whole spate of drones who administer "quizzes" text. based on a pre-prepared set of "problems" in the text.

Proctors... not educators. They administer data-. Give quiizzes based on factoids in the text. They record the data. This is what passes for teachers. They're cheaper and easier. Soon, they will replace my ass. As long as I don't disturb any shit... and the administrators can keep going to meetings and eating cookies... no problem.

By introducing factoids surrounding "9-11?" Problem. Maybe.

[curt]

Don't you just hate it when some people get it right and succeed in putting it down in writing for all to see, holding the truth up to our noses, shaking it slightly to get our attention? Well, if you think the USA has problems, you're right. But if you think the EU doesn't, think again:

Europe to face great changes due to its rulers

By Hans Vogel

It seems outrageous to assert European rulers are stupid, yet there is no other qualification that better describes their current behaviour. You want proof? I shall give you proof.

Confronted with the biggest crisis of capitalism in more than a century, hardly any single politician currently in power in any European nation has had the courage to call a spade a spade and to tell the electorate what is going on. Not a single politician has told his voters: “we are in deep trouble, things are going to be even worse and no one knows when and where this will end. We are at loss, we don't know what is happening nor what measures to take, but please, let's stick together and ride out the storm. We will do everything in our power to ensure you and your loved ones will be safe. We can give no guarantees, we will protect you from harm as much as we can, but you must support us.” As a matter of fact, that would be the ONLY sensible and decent thing to say. Because, let there be no mistake about it, most societies in Europe are in jeopardy of utter desolation, of dissolution even.

Those in power are fully aware of this, but they don't know what to do. They are afraid—no, correction, terrified—of being thrown out of office by popular rebellion. I guess this is the only thing they are sure about since, like all political animals, they have developed a keen sense of danger, especially concerning their own survival. The governments of Iceland and Latvia, two small, peripheral countries, have already been brought down by angry crowds. It is merely a matter of speculation when the next government will fall. It is certain that more will follow the fate of the Latvian and Icelandic rulers.

When the government of the first major European country is toppled, this may be unleash a full-scale European revolution comparable to the great 18th and 19th century revolutions sweeping across the continent. We may indeed be witnessing the beginning of a profound change. As a matter of fact in Europe, such changes tend to take place every four or five generations, that means every century or so. However, these changes never coincide with the calendar, occurring instead some ten to fifteen years before or after turns of centuries.

continued....

[curt]

And now, this....

one of two things:

a) my friend Vlad is full of shit or

b) he's not telling the truth, not even on Pravda

Says Vlad; “There are rumors of a new currency that is going to appear in the world already this summer. It’s going to be neither the dollar, nor the euro, but something different,” an unemployed woman told Putin when he was visiting an employment center in the Moscow region.

“Those are just rumors. The US political and financial authorities will never give the dollar up, they will fight for it to the utmost,” Putin responded.

He reminded that there was a very serious global crisis during the times of the Great Depression in 1929-1931, when the production setback in the USA reached 40 percent. The current reduction makes up only two percent, he added.

“The current situation has nothing in common with that tragedy. The American economy will recover in the nearest future, there are no doubts about it,” Putin said. “Although, we do not know what is going to happen next if they continue to run inaccurate politics. There should not be any grand tragedy in the future either way,” the head of the Russian government said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would hope he's right but methinks he's not telling the pravda.

curt

[Mark]

Where does Putin get his figures? The U.S. produces very little any more except weapons. All other production has been outsourced. And we can't produce the weapons without importing the raw materials.

There WILL be a new currency and it will not be the dollar, the Euro or the much-feared Amero. Remember what we used to call money? Bread. That will be the new currency.

There will still be old currencies, but a wheelbarrow full of them won't be worth a loaf of bread.

[BO]

This poor guy (literally) states that it was a number of 'poor choices' that culminated with his becoming homeless. Now he's agreed to become the focus of a website called "Pimp This Bum." The site is the brainchild of an internet marketing company that was looking for a way to garner new business.

And the homeless guy? If retaining his sense of dignity had once been important, it appears he's made another poor choice.

[Mark]

Yeah, some poor choices he made about 6,000 years ago, to allow private ownership of land, animals, and people.

And some very poor choices he made in the last thousand years by deciding that destroying something was "developing" it.

Domesticated animals don't have many choices. Food still grows on trees, but it costs money to get anywhere near those trees and the plantation workers aren't allowed to eat the fruit.

You want a home? Work for the fascist system and get the money to rent or buy one. Or you can dig or put up a shelter on land that isn't yours and hope nobody spots and arrests you too quickly.

In the Constitutions of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, things like food, shelter, jobs, health care, etc., are human rights. Our Constitution says we have the right to life, but not the right to the necessities of life.

This is like the bum fights. In a competitive model, hierarchical society, it is necessary that many be pushed to the bottom so that a few can remain on the top where they were born. Not for nothing did the producers call themselves In Decline Films, as a civilization in decline is much more violent than any pre-civilized culture. The law of the jungle was much more humane than civilized laws.

People losing their homes to foreclosures didn't make poor choices either--they were lied to. If there were any poor choices made, it was the choices made by government and private industry to sacrifice our economy for short term personal profit.

I don't look at that kind of stuff. I was homeless for much of my life and it wasn't due to any poor choices on my part. The people whose jobs have been outsourced didn't choose to have Congress use their tax money to reward corporations for outsourcing their jobs.

Do you vote, BO? Do you know what the choice was on the Presidential ballot in 2008 here? It was between a guy who was committed to increasing the defense budget and a guy who was committed to increasing the defense budget. It was between two guys with virtually identical voting records. It was the usual choice between two evils, shit and turds, and voters had the free choice of deciding which was the lesser evil (but no guarantee that their votes would be taken into consideration or even counted at all, no less counted accurately). What people think is choice under fascism amounts to deciding whether to kill your friends and family or dig your own grave. Digging your own grave enables you to help your friends and family for a while because it extends your life until you've finished digging it. Either way, once you've done your job, somebody else is given the job of getting rid of you.

[pan]

This was the first presidential election I have ever not voted in. And, not to speak for Bo but, based upon his comments running up to the election I have no doubt that he didn't vote for either of the two Republicrats.

[Mark]

Congratulations, Pan! My first also as I became an election boycott advocate after 2004.

Although I don't usually read the positive psychology tripe, a friend sent me an article by Frances Moore Lappe, The City that Ended Hunger and the last sentence really sums it up:

"They hold perhaps Belo’s greatest lesson: that it is easy to end hunger if we are willing to break free of limiting frames and to see with new eyes—if we trust our hard-wired fellow feeling and act, no longer as mere voters or protesters, for or against government, but as problem-solving partners with government accountable to us."

[BO]

I voted. For Ralph Nader--The Unreasonable Man. I think I have for the last few elections.

Don't know if I agree with the statement, "People losing their homes to foreclosures didn't make poor choices either--they were lied to." I'm sure a good portion of those folks were duped, but there's a sizable amount of folk who simply got caught up in the speculative aspect of home ownership/flipping due to classic greed.

America is one big casino. We're failing because personal integrity hardly exists anymore. It's been replaced by pathological narcissism amongst poor and rich alike. As I continually say, it's the culture not the leadership. We get the leaders we deserve. Total victimization doesn't work for me.

[Mark]

Culture isn't innate, BO. It's taught. That's why there are so many different ones. There are cultures where people are taught to put family or tribe before self and they do. There are cultures where people are taught to put themselves first, and they do. The victimization begins when you are taught who you are, what you are, what you are a part of, and what people like "us" do. It begins when the empathy for others that really is innate, and is the birthright of living creatures, is shamed or beaten out of you.

Back when "Unsafe At Any Speed" came out, I went to hear Ralph Nader speak, went home and wrote him a letter asking him to run for President. At that time I didn't know any more about how the system works than he does. Try this: The Fable of Lanova Messiah

What we call government is just a bureaucracy designed to shield our rulers from our wrath. Sort of the combination receptionist/complaint department of a big corporation. That's the bottom level that deals with the public so that ordinary people don't bother the Board of Directors and CEOs.

[curt]

I think it's a great idea. Exploitive on the one hand but good exposure for the homeless on the other hand. Let's hope the right guys profit from the idea.