Horrors!

A friend this morning loaned me a book entitled America the Broke by Gerald J. Swanson. While I have not completely finished it there is no doubt where it is leading. America is about to go broke. Kaput. Finished. Bankrupt. Insolvent. Unable to pay its bills. Impoverished. Reduced to scavenging in garbage piles. Hungry. Sick. Ruined. Swanson says it may be not too late to save us. I wonder.

Actually, this book doesn't tell me much of which I didn't already know or suspect. However, it does it in a language so simple and direct, and in such detail as to make me want to run off into the dark night shrieking and screaming. I mean, you don't have to be very bright to know that you can't keep spending billions of dollars you don't have before you are going to be in big trouble. Borrowing billions of dollars from China and Japan to give huge tax breaks to people in the U.S. who are already so obscenely wealthy they couldn't possibly need it, and allowing giant Corporations to pay virtually no taxes at all, would not seem to be fiscally very responsible. Laying off workers, reducing benefits, outsourcing jobs, and so on, while at the same time paying CEO's several millions of dollars PER YEAR no matter how well or badly they perform would likewise not seem to be very sensible. But that is what we have been doing, especially under the Bush/Cheney administration, and there is no doubt that eventually it will bring about the downfall of the American dream (which has already become more like the American nightmare).

Meanwhile Bush/Cheney continue to insist the world is flat, the sun revolves around the earth, and there is no truth to the fact that they lied repeatedly, unconscionably, deliberately, and maliciously to drag us into a "war" that was/is completely illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, and unnecessary. The record is there. Their words were recorded for posterity. We know exactly what they said. And we also know that much of what they said was totally untrue: there was a connection between Osama bin Laden and Sadam, Sadam had WPM's, there were mobile biological labs, planes that could attack the U.S., stockpiles of terrible chemicals, and on and on. Many of these claims were based upon testimony by Iraqi defectors they knew were completely unreliable - but they used them anyway. Dick the Slimy is, of course, the great grandfather of all liars while he piously complains the democrats are making false accusations. Cheney is a liar. A serial, pathological, disgusting, unprincipled, dishonest, and, yes, reprehensible (to use his term) liar. If you don't want to believe me go look up his record for yourself. It's all there for the world to see.

Much of this disastrous situation is our own fault. How and why could we just stand by and allow these guys to continue to give tax breaks to the filthy rich while at the same time doling out billions of dollars for a completely bloated defense industry, starting a ridiculous and apparently endless "war" for no good reason (or at least for no good reason that has ever been explained)? How could we have just stood by and allowed them to worry us about gay rights and abortion instead of medical care and education, deteriorating superstructure, poverty, the environment, employment, and other pressing needs here at home? What on earth is wrong with us? And why do we not do something about it right now before it will be too late? Time IS running out. We cannot stand another three years of Bush/Cheney. They should resign or be impeached NOW before they can do completely irreparable damage to what was once our great nation. Read America the Broke and tell me how you look forward to the future.