Today's news? No, not the newest wave of layoffs, nor explosions in Iraq, but the nauseating dribble of whether Prince Charles is bi-sexual. Frankly, who cares who or what he sleeps with? Charles and his sexual peccadillos is not going to improve or diminish my life in any way. The other news...some movie star named Meg Ryan paying $600.00 for a haircut which was laughed off as inconsequential seeing that a Kelly bag costs upwards of twelve grand. Well--me, not likely to pick up any Kelly bag in my thrift store shopping, can only puke at the obscene-expenditures of those who live in a Matrix world, of fulfilling every lustful desire, from bejeweled fingers, silks, cookery, costing thousands, mountain bikes, designer sneakers, etc.

Meantime, outside the Matrix world of hopeless, mannequin people, reports from the real world (despite the propaganda that there's a chicken in every pot) eleven million people are jobless. The U.S. economy lost another 93,000 jobs in August nearly half of them in factory production. Since our self anointed Crusader has come on the scene, manufacturing has declined nearly 16 percent. Can't imagine why the South would vote for any Republican with the hardest hit sectors being in the textile industry which wiped out 12,000 jobs. Here's hoping the real God warns them before the next election.

Nearly half a million jobs have gone missing in the information sector since March of 2001. Another 7,000 disappeared in telecommunications. 8,000 have lost jobs in computer systems design, while 10,000 positions in company management went missing. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who doesn't know her head from her ass, sought to emphasize that job retraining programs could turn soft wear designers into carpenters! Hmm. Just like Jesus. You wonder what lala world these jerks are living in. Well, they do call it "Foggy Bottom" little wonder. Meantime, Bush (who never held a real job in his entire powdered-pampered kept life) proposed $476 million in cuts to such programs. We're down to hammers and nails.

As I remember it, when the steel industry went belly-up in Pennsylvania (our store went out of business because of this) all the steel workers were going to be retrained as computer programmers. Yes, stupidity beyond belief, but those clowns in Washington wouldn't know a steel worker if they fell on him. Big burly, scarred, men--many, never having graduated school, but working hard in impossible situations making a living for their families. Right..retraining a man who's worked 20-30 years in the blast of a mill competing against some snot nosed kid fresh out of college.

No, the steel workers never did get those computer jobs. Imagine! Some were offered jobs as nurses aides..McWorkers etc. This is the humiliating-degrading-disgusting-repulsive-deranged thinking of those in cubicle, bureaucratic hives! Dumb asses. Those who've given up, unable to find work but desiring it aren't even counted. They're 'disappeared'.

U.S. corporations, with a lot of help from their political buddies in BOTH parties, continue transferring production to slave labor wages/and conditions overseas. Once gone these jobs are not coming back, despite the dribble out of the Ministry of Truth. We are told that the continuing job destruction is due to "structural changes" in the U.S. economy. Look, save the news speak-corporate speak, buzz words and political posturing for agency meetings and the media. "Structural changes" means one thing, greed-insatiable-lewd-dripping-drooling greed. Republican or Democrat (they both voted for NAFTA-GATT-FAST TRACK etc.) they haven't a clue as to the fear-deprivation and hopelessness this brings upon a family. Hell why should they? They made it possible so that every year sees them with an automatic Cost of Living increase. This year saw an approximately $3,400. This on top of speaking fees they receive, living allowance, choice of five health care plans (dental-eye glasses--we pay 72% of cost), an on site clinic fully staffed, spas, a health club, and perks upon perks. Their pension plans (eligible after only five years) are the best, with yearly cost of living increases.

These people, like others in removed Bubble-Worlds, (sports stars-movie stars-CEOs-bankers-defense contractors-Supreme Court Judges-top agency personnel-Attorneys-inherited wealth etc.) haven't a dust as to what its like facing eviction-a shut-off notice-food stamps-(negligible)-unable to afford gas or fuel. Expense accounts-credit cards-government or industry picking up the tab, it's spend-spend-spend. Exotic vacations? No problem. Just a mission overseas to some exotic land--attend some phoney meeting on world hunger and there you go. We pick up the tab, whether it was Mrs.Clinton taking her daughter on a multi-million dollar safari through Africa or Congressman Clinger and family, from the poorest county in Pennsylvania, taking a junket to China to supposedly check out their roads! My suggestion was that he rent a National Geographic travel movie and order up some Chinese food all for a grand total of $30.00 and we'd have learned all we needed to know.

Bush, with his welfare par excellence, to his rich buddies, with a 1.6 trillion tax cut, claimed that millions upon millions of jobs would be realized by the end of 2005. Instead we saw the first full month since the measure was enacted the destruction of another 93,000 jobs. Since the 'selection' we've seen some 3.2 million jobs lost....but vote Republican and believe that those tripping up the Yellow Brick Road will somehow between them find a brain-a heart-and some courage. I expect that the next thing we'll see is veterans being shot in the streets of Foggy Bottom much like they were during the Bonus March.

Bush gave a speech in Kansas City, Mo. where 44,000 jobs have been lost since 2000. I bet they had to ship Republicans in for that show. Bill Vann reports that the President declared on CNBC (corporate owned) that "Rather than quantifying the numbers, all I want to do is create the conditions necessary so all eligible people can find work." Now put that in an envelope and mail to the electric company. He doesn't want to "Quantify numbers". That's people--just like "collateral damage-cattle-herd-masses-human resources-acceptable risks-etc". Life and blood living people. not "numbers". These "numbers" aren't lining up at Camp David on weekends for a hot toddy, or being invited to the ranch for some Texas prime rib/pretzels, or some bash costing $5000 a plate. Now he wants a manufacturing Czar. What country are we living in with Czars and a small cadre that God has chosen to beat down Satan?

Seems to me that the Son of God wasn't into appointing Czars as his disciples. And He certainly didn't have the suffering poor picking up yellow cannisters thinking they were the peanut butter and pop-tarts from generous Americans, only to be shredded to pieces upon finding they were cluster bombs. No ranch, no White House, no Camp David, no exotic trips, no trophy homes in Jackson Hole Wyoming, and no fund raisers, water slides or telethons for Him. He said "there is no greater love than he who lays down his life for a friend--to love one another--to feed the hungry--care for the widow--the orphan--the sick--the stranger--to visit those in prison". I don't recall that He called down legions of angels when he was falsely accused. Jesus wouldn't have taken off like our politicians last Christmas, leaving those waiting for extensions on their unemployment checks. Not He, who fed the 5000, saw the widow's mite, the blind man the paralytic, the woman that the hypocrites would stone. I don't know what god is talking to these frozen-chosen few but its none that I know.

With the past years giving us nothing but the sensational of tabloid reporting it's little wonder that jobs have been insidiously leaving for foreign shores. Nobody outside the steel towns knows of the dismantling of our steel industry. So too auto manufacturing, textile mills, mining, family farms (now corporate mega farms), ship building, ranching, technology jobs and the fishing industry. Hell, we had to listen, ad nauseam to, "if the glove don't fit you must acquit " moronic babbling and scene after scene of a blood soaked walkway and traumatized children. Then we sat down to supper having to listen to the details of sexcapades in the Oral Office, stand by your man (even if he is a pig), car chases, stars/athletes/ on drugs or involved in some rape or murder. Little wonder America is befuddled and bewildered, as the implosion of the nation takes place day by day, with the plastic mouthpieces announcing, "All is well".

No news of the hundreds of thousands of Bosnians, Somalians, Kurds, etc., quietly relocated here over the past decade. What intellectual giant saw a small town in Maine (already suffering job losses) as the perfect place for Somalian people? How does any small town handle hundreds of people located overnight to their town, exhausting welfare rolls and town budgets? Discrimination-diversity-tolerance just hot air to shut people up. I wonder why some of these needy souls aren't located in West Palm Beach, Hilton Head, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, etc? A drive through America will show one rusted mill town after another. Economic Development! Ha, who's fooling who? What another prison, a casino, hey, put the rest of the town out of business; bring in a Wal-Marts, a chain drug store and stationary outlet. Put a fast food joint with it's greasy junk food on every corner and that'll do the local diners and restaurants in.

With 2 million in prison--prison is now a 'growth' industry--privatized much like garbage. Locate corporate businesses in the prisons and there goes any need to employ law-abiding citizens, pension plans, day's off, maternity leave, unemployment or health care. The middle-class the backbone of any society is being dismantled and leveled off to identify more with our Third World neighbors; on our new global plantation. And people still yammering over the confederate flag. Hell, you can't eat a flag, it's not going to house you or pay your rent. We're all fast becoming the new slaves of the 21st century. Take a look at your paychecks or think about it going out to that second or third job. It's not called living anymore it's called existing. Jobs? Well there's Wal-Marts the largest employer in the U.S.A. with its junk from China. A prison guard, garbage man, or black jack dealer. For the youth its prison or the service. Who wants to wave a flag made in China for goodness sakes!

Public-Private Partnerships. Sounds neat. Only thing is these partnerships are a bit askew. They (corporate partner) play and we 'public' pay. You'll see this happening (if they reported it) going on all over the nation. Small town governments being dismantled piece by piece. A public-private partnership is a business arrangement. The terms in the partnership will vary according to the partners. Public entities refer to government-local, county, state, federal or global agencies. Private refers to non-governmental groups such as foundations, nonprofit groups, corporations and individual. Foundations could include Ford, the Rockefeller or some state or local foundation. Non-profits are entities such as The Nature Conservancy, The Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation, Planned Parenthood, etc. Corporations could be any corporation from the electric PSNH, waste; Wheelabrator, Waste Management Inc., Casella, Exxon, Giant Foods etc. Individuals could be any person.

These partnerships have as their goals a business-making venture that requires some form of 'governance'. The question is, since the 'players' will vary in experience and wealth, who has the most POWER? Whoever has the gold rules...simple deduction my dear Watson. The 'players' with the most money control the partnership (that's not us). As a result of this shift in power our Constitution is being eroded.

Jonathan Salant, Associated Press reports that "Companies that reduced their U.S. tax bill by incorporating overseas did $1 billion worth of business with the federal government last year. During the federal fiscal year that ended September 2001, companies with OFFSHORE headquarters (a post office box mostly) received $846 million in federal contracts, according to the House Ways and Means Committee. Corporations that have moved overseas spent $5million to LOBBY Congress and the federal agencies and donated $1.2 million to campaigns in 2001 and 2002. Lawmakers estimate corporations that have moved to low-tax countries cost the U.S.Treasury $4 billion a year." And you wondered (unless your working under the table) why your taxes are going up-up-up. Somebody's gotta pay and its not going to be the high rollers.

New York..Reuters reports; "that 500,000 U.S. technology jobs could move overseas in 2003 and 2004." Does anyone remember the big brouhaha back in the 70s and 80s of us all entering into a new age? The mantra was to get your kid educated in computer technology to have that secure job for life. Well special 'guest visas' (thank-you Washington) has seen to it that workers mostly from India are displacing American workers and now the jobs are being shipped directly to India. Problem with your phone bill? Airline reservations? Ask what country you're talking to. WashTech News reports, Oct 20-03 "India's economy is growing at a phenomenal rate. India's 6 percent growth rate over the past three years (since the selection) is two to three times that of the U.S. economy. It may hit 8 percent in the next few years since many of the who's who in the world's multinational corporations rush to move jobs from their North American and European bases to India.

Michael Moore once did a documentary called "Roger and Me" (please rent if you haven't seen it). This true happening in Flint,Michigan, is a microcosm of what is happening across the nation. Roger Smith, CEO, of General Motors living high on the hog (along with the few other rich in Flint) as plants closed. These smug rich bitches out golfing couldn't understand why people just didn't go find another job. Of course, when a major industry closes up and goes to Mexico-Korea-China-India etc., so too, like dominos all the smaller businesses, depending on those who once worked in the plant go under too. No, you didn't see this tragedy, much like you didn't see the steel mill closings with evictions taking place at Christmas, while CEO Roger Smith, had the stupefying-audacious-psychotic-unmitigated gall to read Dickens at a stockholders meeting. Nothing shows it better than this; of the total depraved-indifference that the super-rich, ultra-rich, elitists have for the working people who built this nation

Michael's father worked at the auto plant just as my dad worked first in the coal mines and then the mills of Pennsylvania. Mothers were home with their children, living was simple with no frills. There was never a going out to dinner, a trip to Disney World, or exotic trips abroad. No designer sneakers, clothes, or VCRs. No computer games, spring breaks, or mountain bikes. Outings were a picnic, a church supper, or summertime when the carnival came to town. Nobody locked their doors, I don't think there were any keys.

My grandma and I made three dimensional stars out of heavy waxed paper and glued sprinkles on them. They went for $1.00 a bag. Once I had a birthday party and got a 99cent ball with blue stripes and red stars. I was seven. I had one pink dress for church and shoes only for school or church. We never wore shoes in the summer. We each got a dollar for the carnival. There was extra, if my Uncle Raymond from Ohio came to town in his big car. He'd always give us fifty cent pieces. We built wooden race cars, forts, stilts, village towns in the dirt pile and mini-blast furnaces. Everybody had a garden and lots of flowers planted near their front stoops.

When the men came home from the mill, down in the valley, they were all black from the soot. After supper, which everyone ate at their kitchen tables, the neighbors would gather on their porches; the dads would light a bonfire and Jimmy's dad would play the guitar. Sometimes my dad would tell stories or recite a poem he'd written. We'd run off in the dark and play hide and seek or catch fireflies. We never knew we were poor. How could we, no rich people lived around us. I'd spend every summer day down in woods overlooking the monster mills. There was a waterfall and a clay mine there. My brother and I would take my mom's iron skillet and some eggs and bacon and camp out. One day his shirt got dirty and I washed it like the Indians...beating it with a rock. When I rinsed it in the creek it fell apart shredded. Me never the happy homemaker or into playing house. That was probably prophetic.

Then one day the church sold all the property, which I never knew they owned. The fields got covered in black asphalt for the big parking lot that was needed for a mall they were building. Then the trucks came one day and started to dump ash and hot slag from the mills. They came and they came and they came. They covered over all the trees, the clay mine and the waterfall. My whole past got covered in ash. And then the mills started to close one by one because the owners who lived far away never modernized them.

They never cared about all the men out of work nor the gardens and fields of flowers covered in black ugly slag. They only cared about money. I've heard it said, that "Simple people think Simple things." It wasn't given as a compliment. I thought about that a long time. Maybe so, but I know lots of simple people. They build doll houses for neighborhood children, they drive trucks, write, paint, create poetry, darn socks, are musicians, social workers, real estate salesmen, meter readers, teachers, sculptors, carpenters, iron workers, firemen, policemen and convenience store clerks.

It's not they, who are poisoning the air with incineration, chemical plants, and noxious gas. It's not they, who are building and creating mad weapons to shred and blow people apart or melt them. It's not they, who are robbing pension funds and defrauding citizens through privatization of city services. It's not they, who want to conquer the world and turn it into a global plantation. And now they, see their children hungry, search for jobs, get sent off to rich men's crusades, and stand in unemployment lines. They, only wanted the simple things. A job, a home, a family, a simple plot of land to raise a garden and a simple song of Peace. And now that madmen--clowns with hatchets, have taken over the summer carnival the world is imploding---just like the towers. And if the madness continues with annihilating-nuclear weapons, soon we will all be running up concrete canyons our pasts covered in ash. "Unless you become as a little child you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." I think that means that God loves simple-trusting-loving-peaceful people. He must, He made more of them.

Comment
From Filmmythos
11-11-3

Aren't you naive. The economic collapse we're going thru resulted from the same cause as all economic collapses, money supply. Money supply is determined by the Federal Reserve, a privately owned corporation whose shareholders consist of bank owners (few of whom even live in the United States). The Great Depression was the direct result of the Federal Reserve refusing to put enough money into circulation to the point of some communities relying on personal IOU's for the trade of goods or services in order to acquire either. These days Fed policy is heavily influenced by the President. During the Clinton administration, the Fed printed money at a record rate putting too much credit into the economy which created a huge over-capacity in inventories, builders overbuilt, companies over bought, stocks that should have traded at 26 times earnings were trading at 1,000 times earnings, in short a huge bubble was blown by the Fed and finally burst just as Bush was taking office. You're incredible rant only confuses this issue and keeps Americans ignorant about the real problems in this country. I guess my point here is that you're either an idiot or a political operative playing politics with this issue. My guess is the former so please say hi to the Fed for me at the next ice cream mixer for collossal idiots.

Comment
From Jim
11-11-3

Dear Jeff,

I was taken aback by Filmmythos' comment.which has absolutely no sympathy for the author's described plight, and the realities of this cruel world to "the average Joe." I can understand what's it's like to lose a job and desperately seek another -and none to be had in any field whatsoever.

What we need in government is people who've worked for a living so they know what it's like too. Damn these silver-spooned prima donnas who claim to represent us.

Comment
From Daniel Leary
11-12-3

It seems, to this observer, that Filmmythos's brief snotty rebuttal to "The Implosion Of America" only serves to strengthen Moriarty's point. By introducing the Federal Reserve System and its "foreign ownership" into the discussion, Filmmythos provides an excellent real life example of the dangers of non-local ownership/control of shared resources and systems.

Thus, if remote mine owners will exploit, destroy and discard entire regions and industries for a quick buck, what chance do we (Americans) have with remote central bank owners??? As the history introduced by Filmmythos seems to indicate, not much of a chance.

Surely Filmmythos and his ilk can detail the many abuses of the Fed, I encourage them to continue bringing that message to the people. Next time however, consider using less vinegar.

Comment

From Dean Doepke

11-12-3

 

My aren't you BOTH naive!

 

For the author of the main article I offer you some minor hope!

 

You are not (totally) wrong in what you say.

 

As America (re)becomes the Third World style nation that you spoke of (before the Industrial Revolution finally came to your sleepy little town and upset your former way of life), YOUR children will likely be forced to return to the almost-pleasant-sounding squalor of your own youth.

 

(However, I wonder if your children will be just as happy with the 99 cent rubber balls for Christmas that you whimsically remember receiving as a child.)

 

For the "commenter" who posted here, I offer you some minor hope as well!

 

You are not (totally) wrong in what you say either.

 

I laid down my case, but it became so long, I had to cut it out entirely.

 

I will just say that you will get your next Depression just as the main author will get the "return" to poverty she seems to want.

 

It is just too hard to explain the full complexities here, but the bottom line is that our "democracy" was hijacked by Capitalism (in the Republic to which we stand) during the Industrial Revolution.

 

America cannot have a third World War to transfer physical wealth into America as it had in the past (for obvious nuclear reasons).

 

In case neither of you noticed this obvious fact, we in America have been "limited" to fighting MANY small scale and proxy wars to force the transfer of SMALL amounts of wealth since WWII (to slow our financial bleeding).

 

We CANNOT bring back the good old days of 1950 when a dollar was actually worth a dollar (and not 14 cents like it is today).

 

By forcing many of the 20 or so countries we have attacked since WWII to become "a dollar economy", "privatizing" them (allowing OUR foreign ownership) and recently resorting to tearing them down and making them pay us to "rebuild" them, we have NO HOPE of EVER recovering the VAST wealth (and I mean true physical wealth) that we have lost since 1950 to other countries when we first began to import more than we sold.

 

Evil or not my dear, even the FED cannot stop that hardcore fact no matter what "financial controls" they may try.

(The MANY financial evils the FED and it's predecessors have engineered in the past, present, and our future PALE in comparison to the damage that is being done in a Capitalist system without a MAJOR world war to "bring back" what was "lost" to the lowest bidders like China, India, et all since 1950.)

 

 

I fancy myself "The Watcher" like the Marvel comic book character of my youth, (but do not let that odd statement fool you).

 

While both of you work and slave (for less and less "value") and while the world takes more and more of our 56% share of the world's wealth, I will continue to spend my remaining days in continual study (as I have NOTHING else to do).

 

I have spent so much time buried in books, it would make any "expert talking head" cringe in terror at the mere thought of that much study in one lifetime.

 

I have lasted FAR longer than I ever expected, and in those decades of endless study, I have read non-stop as my only task each and every day for 30+ years while you "sprouts" have other things to do with your time like kids, jobs, friends, making dinner, and all the rest of it that keep you only partly informed (through no fault of your own).

 

I do not blame you two for not grasping the overall concept of all this (yet), but perhaps I can help others to get where I am through a "short cut" with this letter.

 

I assure you that WITHOUT an all-out World War, Americans WILL once again see Horses, carts, mules and many more beasts of burden on our roads again.

 

Half the time I think these "shrinking pains" are a very bad thing because it IS affecting millions of us, but then I wonder like the main author implies if that might not be such a bad thing (for I too long for the days of "self reliance" that Jefferson and Washington and Thoreau came from).

 

The main author wants to go back to the days of those close-knit communities (and such) of her youth, and I just wonder if we can EVER go back there now that the bountiful land of America has been "pillaged" of it's former natural resources and poisoned to the extent it has been. (Don't you?)

 

History has a way of repeating itself, and for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.

The Newtonian "reaction" and perpetual contraction that we are witnessing today is directly due to Capitalism WITHOUT large-scale war to finance it.

 

Empire after empire from Rome to Britain had to plunder somewhere else to continue to grow.

We live in an age that financial plunder of the magnitude needed for us to grow cannot occur or we will see large parts (if not all) of America turned to glowing glass in retaliation.

 

The world is wising up to the WTO, World Bank, and many other (recent) scams.

They are starting to group together like Europe, the G20, and using our own Capitalism to take what we took from others in the world.

It is an interesting dilemma that offers no real solution, so I would advise all people reading this to stash some of their favorite forms of metals, for they will soon be in short supply.

 

(I cannot say for sure if the dollar will still be accepted by the people of America when the FED can no longer lower interest rates ((and such)) and our debts to foreign countries are finally "called" in, but we will definitely need more than IOU's or our governments ((almost)) worthless paper money someday soon so please make sure you are BOTH ready for it.)