The choice we face

clipped from keyecommentary.blogspot.com We have come to the moment when the Officer (the biophysical reality) is demanding that we choose between our present values and beliefs and others with which we are less familiar or comfortable, but which offer the possibility of sustaining the present designs of our living planet.  Much of what we know and love (in my view, pathologically) will have to go.  Much that is new and difficult will have to be confronted.  Making a choice that does not doom us will be the trick.

Credit expansion can't replace good working class incomes

clipped from www.consumertrap.com The Reagan Revolution /Great Restoration/New Democrats strategy of relying on credit expansion to fill the demand hole caused by heightened fucking of the working class is now at its final — and completely logical — end.  Either we start to reverse the basic class-fuck from above, or this depression continues to deepen.

Mother of fourteen perfect mirror of national delusions

clipped from today.msnbc.msn.com “People feel, you know, this woman is being completely irresponsible and selfish to bring these children in the world without a clear source of income and enough help to raise them,” Curry told Nadya Suleman in a segment that aired Friday on TODAY. “The world outside is saying, ‘What are you doing?’ ” “I know I'll be able to afford them when I'm done with my schooling,” the 33-year-old single mom replied. Calm, poised and articulate in the glare of the media spotlight, Suleman added: “If I was just sitting down watching TV and not being as determined as I am to succeed and provide a better future for my children, I believe that would be considered, to a certain degree, selfish.”

Have you actually watched the interview with this woman? She is USAmerican delusion condensed into a single human form --- thinking that if she just "believes" enough and "applies" herself enough that she can manage to support FOURTEEN children on ONE income --- at exactly the same time that the US economy has decided to sublimate.

Synchronicity is amazing, isn't it? At exactly the same time that our unsustainable national delusions (e.g., shop your way to savings) have begun to collapse around (and on top) of us, we see in the mirror of our national consciousness a single person who embodies the profligacy and thoughtlessness of the herd.

What particularly irks me is that, instead of using inadvertent public figures like her as a mirror for the national unconscious, we pillory them and pat ourselves on the back for how much better we are.

Folks, if you supported Bush's policies of the last eight years or persist in the belief that permanent growth is beneficial, or even possible, then you are little different from Ms. Suleman in fundamental matters. Reality is reality, regardless of what we believe or wish to be true. One cannot spend one's way to savings, cut taxes while increasing spending, or regard having fourteen children as a "risk" one has to take to follow one's dreams.

Her mental illness is our culture.

Higher education increasingly unaffordable

Increased access to higher education was responsible for lifting many post-WWII working class folks into the newly minted "middle" class. Of course it is only a coincidence that the same policies that rewarded the ultra-rich over the last 30+ years and eroded the real income of everyone else would now lead to the increasing lack of affordability in higher education and thus to the erosion of opportunities for the middle class.

Yep. Just a coincidence.

clipped from www.counterpunch.org "The nation's colleges and universities have become less affordable for students and their families since the early 1990s," said the report. "This year continues the trend in deteriorating college affordability in the majority of states."

Decrease in real income, culture of militarism underly USAmerican economic woes

clipped from www.counterpunch.org US policymakers have ignored the fact that consumer demand in the 21st century has been driven, not by increases in real income, but by increased consumer indebtedness.  This fact makes it pointless to try to stimulate the economy by bailing out banks so that they can lend more to consumers.  The American consumers have no more capacity to borrow. Unless US corporations can be required to use American labor to produce the goods and services that they sell in American markets, there is no hope for the US economy.  No one in the Obama administration has the wits to address this problem.  Thus, the economy will continue to implode. The unreality in which he US government operates is beyond belief.  A  bankrupt government  that cannot pay its bills without printing money is rushing headlong into wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

Electronic run on the banks

"The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic and there. And that's what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed."

"It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it."

clipped from www.youtube.com

Comparison of job losses --- WTF

Holy shit is how I'd describe this graphic. Of course, the fundamentals of our economy are strong, etc. etc. etc.

clipped from www.boingboing.net