Holte's corner

Stupid is as Stupid does

I was switching from source to source. It's like listening to two planets. One is planet earth. The other is planet Faux BS. The trouble is the sources with the realism are all scattered over the net, and the unreality is mainstream TV, Radio, and yes Faux news.

Stupid is as stupid does. And when an entire society acts like goose-stepping lemmings we are all in real trouble.

The Corporatists are going on about Cap and Trade as if it were a 'job killer." They still are maintaining that we aren't in the middle of climate change. They insist that California is an example of Democracy gone wrong, and that Californians pay too much taxes and have too much democracy. The debate devolves between a "Democrats are responsible!" No "Republicans are Responsible."

Well stupid is as stupid does, and right now both the Democrats and the Republicans are still acting as marionettes to the same hidden manipulators -- the large corporations. We have a few large organizations, large corporations really, which have something to gain from manipulating perceptions.

The trouble is, stupid, we did Cap and trade to reduce sulfur emissions. It's not such a bad idea. The big corporations endorse it, so it gets passed. It's also a good way to put off reducing C02 emissions for another 20 years -- they like that too.

Some of them win if they can get "cap and trade" changes. Some win if they can prevent "cap and trade." The stupid arguments in California are a sideshow for them. They don't care about whether property taxes are capped and new people moving into new homes are zapped -- just so long as the share of property taxes paid by large corporations falls from 65% to 35% and they can make out like bandits. Similarly, they are all for healthcare "reform" as long as they can continue ripping off patients, workers, and the taxpayer -- all at the same time. And they so cherry pick the notion of "socialism" that bailouts for wallstreet are okay (or the Democrats fault) while doing things to keep jobs in this country are "infringement on freedom", or "against free market principles" or will cost US workers jobs. Finally, they were all for Cap and Trade, or "FDA regulation of Cigarettes" -- as long as they control the regulations and can make money from them.

So its okay for China or Italy to impose "Buy in my country" restrictions on their bailouts, but we have to buy our goods from Mexico. Well, behind all that are some hopelessly duped small business people in chambers of commerce all over the country. Between the propaganda from the right wing "think tanks" and from so-called libertarians (fibbertarians) you'd think that corporations were championing freedom and free trade -- even as the giant banks use bailout money to buy small banks that had no role in creating the current mess and were actually doing well.

If these lies and more lies were only a problem of politics and water-cooler fights, I'd just shrug my shoulders, but we are in big trouble and fascism is where all this is headed. And of course it could all be stopped. The insurance corporations will gladly rush to provide stop-gap insurance if we had a genuine "public option" -- and their non-insurance brethren would breathe a sigh of relief. If we "bought american" all the people who currently believe the garbage about "violating free trade principles" would be happy to have new contracts building wind-turbines. The Sturm and drang is stupid. Corporations do fine in Social Democracies. Fascism, in the long run, doesn't really do much for corporations. It does something for creating aristocracies based on kleptocracies, but it destroys business. For their own good we need to resist them and educate people.

However, my Democrats are acting spineless at the worst possible time. Ms Feinstein complains about "not letting herself be pressured from the left" -- she forgets that the "left" is where the center used to be and to the right of her are people who'd like to do her in for being "pro choice."

And of course the Republicans are salivating at coming in on the betrayals. The Yoo's and other Torturers are salivating at coming back to power (some in the Justice Department never left) and then finding some excuse to depose Obama, and prosecuting a war on Liberals, "baby-killers", mothers, loud-mouths, and freedom -- all in the name of freedom, democracy, mom and apple pie, profits and "free enterprise." We could have a Government as good as Honduras, where a few people decided to change it. I don't put it past them. They did it in 2000.

Stupid is as stupid does, and this is incredibly stupid. Some of the smartest people I know are showing themselves as idiots too. And some "nice people" are being spineless fools when they need to fight.

Chris