Anger at What They've Done

One’s view is largely a matter of perspective mixed with experience, so I’m not shocked that so many did not share my view that the closing months of the Bush Administration, a time which saw massive, unprecedented and gigantic sums of public money used to bail out private businesses and investment banks in the span of 48 hours, was one of the most important events in the history of the Republic. I believe that that act marked a fundamental break with the rule of law and brought to a quick end what had then been to date a slow degenerative process by which the Republic was becoming a garden-variety Latin American banana republic, in which the government was nothing more than a clique of elites looting the public in their narrow and massively short-sided self-interest. That this happened with Congress’ consent and in full view of the press, and caused no serious reaction or outcry, convinced that self-same elite that despite their worry and fears there would be no consequences for crossing that line.

What should have happened was that the President and Vice President should have been immediately impeached, with most of the cabinet, and certainly the shameful and obviously criminal Secretary of the Treasury, sent to prison for life, alongside the entire board and officials of AIG, General Motors, Chrysler and Goldman Sachs (to name but a few).

In reality, excuses were made, fantasies about how not covering high-stakes gamblers’ losses with public money would be nothing less than The End of the World, and the USG looked the other way as the major “banks” began vastly over-stating the market value of the bad mortgages they hold in the billions.

Republicans like to say that Obama caused all this, but history will record that the fatal (yes, fatal) mistake of the late, great United States, the first act that began the economic crisis that led to major war and massive upheaval, began under a Texas simpleton whose response to being attacked by radical Muslims was to use American lives and money to establish two new Islamic Republics in the Middle East. I hate the college-Chomsky-left as much as the next guy, but even a broken clock is right twice a day: Bush was the worst President ever.

(btw, the thought that the American people will re-elect Bush as “Rick” Perry is laughable).

Since that line was crossed, the theft and criminality has become ever more brazen. From a “stimulus package” that was nothing less than hundreds of billions of Chinese-borrowed dollars for EBT and WIC cards for vast swaths of the underclass, to loan guarantees in the same amounts to the politically connected engaged in make-believe industry, to the big, bad SEC—the agency that couldn’t bust Madoff even though a complete stranger made the case for it and provided the evidence to the SEC not once, twice but three times—rapping the knuckles of the “banks” as they continue to lie, distort and loot the Treasury for every penny they have before they have to admit they are bust.

Americans in record numbers now feel the USG has no legitimacy, that our political system is broken and that we are headed for a major crash. And they are right to do so.

Meanwhile, in pop culture, the American Culture of Criminality rules in every sector. From NFL Quarterbacks who watched dogs get torn apart for pleasure to MLB owners who authorize Dodger gear to be sold in all-black so as to capture the gangster market. From universities who recruit criminals and cover up when they commit crimes. To the Walt Disney Company marketing pre-teen ass and putting bumb-and-grind displays on between ads for “collector’s editions” of Dumbo and Snow White. To major American leaders, serious people, talking about what a great show “the Wire” is, a show about the utter depravity and criminality rife in what was once a great and major American city. To ads around town for “Hung,” the latest oh-so-transgressive HBO show about a guy with a gigantic penis, one that, like it or not, is in your face everywhere you turn. To a Dept of Education in bed with the “banks” and the “universities” selling unforgiveable student loans at record rates of tuition to young suckers who don’t know any better.

And, then, abroad, this same nation—unable to govern itself, overflowing with greed and rank criminality—throws its weight around as if it, laughably, is the end-all and be-all of human history, as if a sad human being like Hillary Rodham Clinton is placed to pass judgment on anything.

We are about to find out, as Britons have already, what happens to a people who forget their honor, heritage and humanity. And, like in the UK, it won’t be with a bang, but with a whimper, an increasing coarsening of American life, a consistent and marked decay that everyone agrees is unstoppable.

Until a man decides it is too ugly to be allowed to continue and ends it.