I wonder how this family would do in the decade to come. Like a dealer to an addict, banks continued to feed money to the American consumer in the form of loans, and packaged those loans into more and more extravagant securities to sell to other banks and unsuspecting investors, all thinking that this dream would last forever.
We’re slightly smarter now.
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The Federal Reserve has recently announced they are throwing $600 billion into something called “quantitative easing”, on top of $2 trillion thrown in last year. The reason? In short, to shore up our debt and to try to ignite the economy. Will it work? Maybe, but probably not that well.
Here’s a much, much better take on the why, though:
The “Ground Zero Mosque” debate (which, by the way, has all but died as we approach election day) continues to have its effects seen in televised topical conversation, melted into a gigantic pot that contains general hatred of all Muslims and the heaviest ingredient – the world since 9/11.
The most recent blowup in this never ending discussion came from The View, where two of the hosts walked off the show in disgust after Bill O’Reilly of Fox News said “Muslims attacked us on 9/11″. Vague and generalizing, such a sentiment doesn’t do much of anything to advance discussion and peer into the why behind the why behind the why – a process typically called “understanding”. Such foreign concepts are usually a good idea to research if one would actually like to understand why a conflict is going on and, better yet, how to end it.
The discussion is nowhere near that. The discussion is a lot closer to the link above. There are well thought out rebuttals that make huge strides toward actually understanding the roots of conflict, but they’re typically left to obscurity – since reason and thought aren’t good for ratings. Still, thankfully it happens (skip ahead to about 2:45 for something of relevance):
Intelligence like this, sadly, winds up tossed to the wind of the discourse, as all the mature people stand on the sidelines – trying to live their lives – hoping the day will come when the windbags of fear and broad-based discrimination finally blow their selves out.
Stephen Strasburg's MLB debut: 7.0IP, 4H, 2ER, 14K's, and a topic of Senate conversation?
June 9th, 2010. Major events impacting America that day were led by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill – in its 49th day by that point. Dark clouds were looming over policy for the 2nd half of the year as more economic indicators have begun to turn negative, hinting at the chance that America could slip back into recession. Bankstas are still roaming the highest perches of American business society, and are still making more in an hour than many make in a year. With a full and chaotic plate served up, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stepped up and got right on down to the business of the country.
Mr. President, as a little sidenote, because we have 5 months to campaign all over the country, including Nevada, I want to take a pause and think about some of the things going on in the country.
What was Mr. Reid about to unload upon the Senate? What matter of importance was he about to lead off with? Issues are happening left, right, and center – not to mention it’s a good time to look good with an election campaign looming for this year. Now is the time to be serious, be concise, and do some good.
One of the things going on in the Nation’s Capital is tremendously interesting to me…
Things going on in the nation’s capital? Well there’s been protests here and there – people protesting against BP, tea partiers protesting against the existence of government, the few anti-war people that still hang around in front of the White House, and so on. Maybe he’s referring to one of those…
One of the things going on in the Nation’s Capital is tremendously interesting to me, and that is baseball.
Be warned, rolling of eyes is about to occur.
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Israeli Defense Force troops board a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on May 31.
Since the election of a government containing the political wing of the terrorist group Hamas in 2007, Israel has put the entire territory and its population of 1.5 million on a “diet“. This diet has led to a humanitarian crisis at a slow boil in the impoverished territory. A group called the Free Gaza Movement was formed in 2008 to try and bring international attention to the non-stop blockade that Israel has put on the Gaza Strip for the crime of electing a government that Israel did not appreciate. Two ships were chartered that year and in August of 2008 sailed for Gaza with supplies – hearing aids for a special needs school. The ships made it to Gaza on the 23rd of that month without incident.
The group attempted two more sailings during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 without success. Another attempt was made in July of 2009 and again they were diverted. Still, in all of these attempts it was mere diversion. A new sailing that was meant to reach Gaza this month has ended differently, with the shooting of unarmed civilians – as many as 19 killed as of this report, with dozens more injured. See for yourself:
Israel’s response was to spin before the video came out, saying that the civilians were ambushing their troops, and that their troops had no choice but to fire. The video is not going to help with that conclusion. Whether it be this, or walling off the entire region of the West Bank despite massive amounts of protests the world over against it, Israel has not and will continue to not care what anyone thinks.
This made in part possible by the continuous ample billions of dollars sent to Israel by the United States, Israel being one of the top recipients of aid from the U.S. since the 1970′s.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was scheduled to make a state visit to Washington on Tuesday but that has been canceled in light of the international condemnation over this attack.
For more on this story…
Gaza Flotilla Clash (wikipedia)
Israel massacres peace activists (Heathlander, a blog with more insight and many more link sources on this)
BBC story on the incident
CNN story on the incident
Last night on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman, the rage over the idiocy that some are taking this health care debate to was once again summed up much more eloquently than I ever could do it. Names are named, too.
This will quickly devlove into a couple of camps:
- Yes, he’s right!
- How can he talk about America like that?!
Bill Maher, a comedian with some guts, channels the side of him that made the movie Religious and got him kicked off his late-night ABC show and goes on CNN – suggesting that if Sarah Palin could actually run a candidacy for President in 2012 then this country is quite stupid.
Spoiler: he’s absolutely correct.
Who else out there can hear the legions of reactionary youtube commentators already warming up? Think about it, this is the same country who’s idea of a multiparty system is to have all or nothing of one side of the isle. The same country that is just now figuring out that gays are people, too – and not at all that quick. The same country where school boards are figuring out whether they should kick evolution out of the courses offered, and then wonder why universities basically laugh at their students when they apply with their science grades. This is the same country where a sizable portion of the population can be made to believe that their own President is an agent of a foreign country, brought here and elected in a grand conspiracy. This is the same country where one of the contestants for President in 2008 saw a boost in the polls when he nominated an attractive middle-aged woman to the ticket, had an amount of inexperience, but then tried to sell the country on the idea that this woman would be ready to lead the country through crisis should anything bad ever happen to him.
Bill Maher is absolutely 100% correct, and he will be crucified in some circles for it. Par for the course, after all…
Allow me for a moment to take a trip to a foreign policy of yesteryear…
If only the Neocons could have gotten what they wanted… Continue reading »
The following post contains nothing but 20 videos from over the last few days. A fair warning, some of them are graphic: Continue reading »
A badly injured man lays in a truck after being shot at a protest for Mousavi
There is a logical end to what happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns. It’s only a matter of time until the people with guns attempt to take control of a situation at the expense of people without. That threshold was crossed yesterday in Tehran, as police and militia aligned to the state-approved victor of the Iranian Presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attacked an absolutely massive crowd of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. An unknown number of the crowd were injured with deaths also reported – a tragic end for a few of the perhaps million people who turned out in clear defiance of the established order that rules Iran (perhaps if only for the time being).
Despite sustained efforts by the Iranian government to block media access to the country – to the point where journalists have been arrested, detained, or outright kicked out of the country, the story and the pictures are indeed getting out: