Republicans, Right Wingers, Corporations, the Wealthy and "Small Government"

The Republican dream

You want unfettered, deregulated business?

For anyone who still clamors for unfettered and unregulated business--yeehaw!--take yourselves to our good friend's country of China. They give us yet one more example of how great an idea unregulated Capitalism really is right now:

China’s Bridges Are Falling Down

Early Friday morning, just before dawn, four trucks were driving on a 10-month-old ramp to a bridge in Harbin, a major city in northeast China, when the deck suddenly tilted and collapsed, sending the trucks crashing to the pavement almost 100 feet below.
Three people were killed, and five were injured. Photos of the accident indicate that the trucks were carrying heavy cargoes, including stones, and were likely overloaded. But accounts by journalists and photos from the scene also suggest serious problems with the bridge itself. Some images show that key structural components were stuffed with sticks, pebbles and bags of unidentified materials.

Nobody in China was surprised by this. Since 2007, China has experienced at least 18 bridge collapses resulting in 135 deaths and untold economic hardship, according to records aggregated by the South China Morning Post, the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong. These are not mere footbridges: They are major, expensive spans connecting key corridors. The almost 330-foot-long section that collapsed on Friday, for example, is part of the more than 9-mile-long, nearly $300 million Yangmingtan Bridge, a span that connects the two banks of Harbin, a city of 10 million people.
What is causing this epidemic of collapse? In Harbin, some authorities were quick to blame the overloaded trucks and then -- in an act of revealing bureaucratic cowardice -- to claim that they couldn’t locate the contractors responsible for the span (statements subsequently denied by higher-ups).

China’s netizens, accustomed to bureaucratic double-talk, were hardly inclined to believe the local government’s explanation, no matter what it was. Instead, they turned to what is almost uniformly the explanation for everything that goes wrong in China these days: corruption. “Every time I walk down the street and see a new project about to break ground, I know that several billionaires are about to be made,” wrote Li Chengpeng, a well-known blogger and agitator, on Monday (as translated by Tea Leaf Nation, an English-language blog). “In this country, the completion of an infrastructure project lays the groundwork for the beginning of an anti-corruption project.”

So there's your answer, all you Tea Partiests and Libertarians. China. Unfettered Capitalism, no Environmental Protection Agency--everything you'd want in a country and government.

But nothing the people want.

And if you want no government at all, take the now-old suggestion and move your sorry body to Somalia.

You'll love it there.

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-29/china-s-bridges-are-falling-down.html

"The Onion" as prophet

Days before George W. Bush took office, "The Onion" predicted a massive increase in defense spending, a Gulf war, a recession brought on by substantial tax cuts, deregulation of industry, defunding of social-service programs, and a return to deficit spending. Who would have thought great humor could be that cynical but, ultimately, correct? See the original "The Onion" post here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/

Are you paying attention?

We really could fix this.

We need to get true campaign finance reform, folks, and pay for campaigns so corporations and their lobbyists and money don't, for starters.

We need to make money to any and all government representatives illegal.

Finally, we need to shorten the campaign season to 3 to 6 months, tops, for all.

Quote of the day II -- on the need for government regulations

Mines don't fall apart by accident. Neither do economies. They crumble from choices and policies that put profits ahead of people -- and leave working people in the rubble.

But we can -- and I believe we will -- rise from America's economic disaster just like those Chilean miners. They're strong. So are we.    --Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, from The Huffington Post

Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-trumka/lets-cheer-the-chilean-mi_b_762509.html

Can anyone really, factually deny this?

GOP PLATFORM TOP TEN (from "Fred" at Alternet, see below): --Phase out Social Security --Deny Unemployment benefits --Oppose Wall Street reform --De-regulate Oil drilling --Tell rape victims to make lemonade --Play on peoples’ fears --Count on Peoples’ hatred --Alienate Minorities --Demonize homosexuals --“Liberals are coming for your guns!” Link to original post: http://blogs.alternet.org/fr41trek/2010/07/13/gop-platform-top-ten/

Quote of the day--on today's Capitalism

From and by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his opening speech given at the 40th World Economic Forum January 27, 2010 in Davos, Switzerland, in which he spanks America and Capitalism as we now practice it:

"To my mind, one of the most striking characteristics of this capitalism which we have allowed to emerge, is that the present was all that mattered and the future no longer counted for anything. Everything for the present immediately, no longer anything for the future. Indeed we saw depreciation of the future in the absolutely exorbitant demand for high yields. Those yields, boosted by speculation and leverage, were the discount rate applied to future revenues: the higher they rose, the lower the importance attached to the future fell. Everything, right away."

The gamble the Repukes are willing to take on the United States

The Republicans set up this magnificently bad current financial scenario for us by pushing for and getting deregulation of the banking industry.

Now we have to pay for it, the United States and the whole world.

We took this collapse of the financial system to them by selling all these damnable, crappy, formerly illegal home loans which were then sold as "assets" to other institutions here and around the world--'cuz, hey, the United States plays clean, right?--and now we all get to wallow in horrible bank assets as we watch the world's economy come down around us.

So now, the Democratic President is scrambling with his--our--government and those same financial institutions in order to both clean up the mess and get us all back on solid footing again so we can make a living, feed our families and go about the day-to-day job of living and what do those same Republicans do?

Why, they vote against the plan because 1)they don't think it will work and 2)they honestly--but privately (with the exception of Rush Limbaugh) don't want it to work so the American voters can get desperate again and vote the only other political party back into power.

The selfish gits.

That's exactly what's happening.

If President Obama and his administration are successful in cleaning up this financial toxic waste dump and/or turning around this economy, they can kiss their chances of being back in power away for a generation or more.

And the Republicans know it and know it well.

So if you figure they're going to do the right thing, the statesmanlike thing, for the country--as they should, God knows--fuhgedaoudit.

Ain't gonna happen.

No way.

The Republicans figure it's a huge mess and they don't want their fingerprints on the next 4 years.

They want this President to hang in the wind with this financial crisis.

In order to support their own, selfish, self-centered Republican interests, they're only too happy to risk taking down the United States.

If you don't think the stakes are that high in this crisis, check out the front page of The New York Times yesterday, Friday, February 13. See the article about how there are still many big banks that are in trouble and that they may collapse.

Then it starts looking and sounding a great deal more like 1929, folks.

But the Republicans are all too eager to take that bet on the future of the United States and your and my future.