To finish my thoughts.

"Spending" money: what the government says it is doing.

"Transferring prestige in ever more visible packages of fraudulence" is what it looks like they are doing.

The more it is stressed, pulled, leaned on, the weaker the infrastructure.  Ooops. We screwed up. We have to spend 

SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS (!!!)

on this, that, and . . . accountability?  Transparency?  How can you look through a blizzard of cash, a Niagra Falls of liquidity?  Where to look?  You'll be deluged, bowled over!  It will take years to sort out.  Now, after zero oversight for years, the men in charge want to transfer the nation's capital to "backing" these companies which are no longer able to compete in the world market, and in invisible ways.  Why is that?  What is going on here?  Where is the Kos crowd on this, seriously, folks, we are talking about some serious shit here!  A stimulus package of sixty million dollars so exercised Bob Dole in the first year of the Clinton administration that he torpedoed it and sent notice that Bill Clinton would not have an easy time with Congress.  It was humiliating. 

Now, sixty million times TEN THOUSAND is being spent as A PAYMENT TO BANKS alone, forget about other "payments" to come . . .

Because one can't deal with it, directly . . .

I don't have a firm position.  We are sledding downhill, it is hard to have a firm position.

I hope people don't panic and stop spending money, but I also hope our highways become transformed into Indian boulevards choking with bikes and small cars with tiny engines whirring and humming about.

I want my car to sprout wings, and fly through time and space.  But not really, because that's

Death.

But anyway . . .

Combine euphoria and disenchantment: we will be austere, we will put our shoulder to the wheel: some of us remember bad times and normal times, base-level existence.  Small NYC apartments, a TV set, a microwave oven.  Not much has changed, really.

The little things.  What makes life worth living.  Like having tenure.

Today I "found out" (i.e. I did a Scroogle search in my name) that I've been anthologized by Berg Press under Elizabeth Edwards' co-editorship, with no advance warning.  A textbook, maybe a big seller, called "Visual Culture."  Okay, nice to be brought under someone else's armpit.

My dad says they don't want to give out thirty some copies to the authors who are anthologized.

Money.

Gawd I know it's been a long time

The events of the past weeks will not be digested, can't be.  People can't take it.  They'll retreat into college football and beer.  Like right now.

Brave New World

Nationalism will increasingly elide with business "stimulus" packages until taxpayers own larger proportions of major businesses and industries that would otherwise, in a global open economy, go under.

The Chinese are heralded in the New York Times for spending $ 586 Billion on their "stimulus package."  But they are a Communist country.

We are now like a Communist country, but one in which the people actually have a say.  Even that scarcely guarantees we won't badly fuck up.

Ell Bee 65

G.M. Bailout--Why is this not Common Sense? (from DKos)

Say NO to G.M.!
by pslandau [Subscribe] [Edit Diary]

Sat Nov 08, 2008 at 07:58:41 AM PST

Introducing the new General Motors SUV, the Tongass National Forest.

The Tongass get a wopping nine miles per gallon on the highway in its optional six-cylinder mode. Built from Japanese and Korean components, assembled, and polished, right here in the US of A, the Tongas signifies the way forward for G.M. for the next decades. The Tongass sports a revamped on-board computer satellite system that permits the driver to fall fully asleep for up to four hours in light traffic, and features mid-ride refueling by a portable drone sent by field commanders in Nevada. Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean will team up to decorate the Tongass, with an optional all-ancient redwood interior, complete with a deep frier, portable toilet, gun rack, and beaver-pelt Landau roof.

And we've saved the best for last! With every new Tongass National Forest, G.M. will donate ten cents to the Sierra Club.

What? D'you mean . . . Oh. Well, sure, we'll look into hybrids and gas power, and so forth. We'll get right on it. May we please have several billion taxpayer dollars in the meantime? ADDENDUM: BASEMENT

Poll below.

pslandau's diary :: ::

Gratified at the responses whatever the line taken, but hey, let's think for a moment.

Do we want a nationalized auto industry? Where will it end? Why do we think we can afford to buy chunks of failing industries in this country without a serious transformative plan? What the fuck is going on?

What about Ford? Or Toys R Us? I'd like Treasury to own some of that, too. What about Boeing? Do we really believe manufacturers of ANYTHING are safe in the coming year? What then is the plan?

[From the comments, I made one intervention further.]

I mourn GM with you. Financially and generally. But the questions I asked in the basement (above) still apply, however.

Consider: 1. a five-thousand dollar government rebate to Americans who buy a hybrid or EV car next year. 2. a short-term capital loan so GM's cash doesn't dry up. 3. The (next) president shortly gets personally involved and puts a stop to Bernanke's and Paulson's seat-of-the-pants expenditure of billions.

What do you think?

Why the Stock Market Lost 486 Points Today

.

It is because Obama won.

It's simple. We don't have a president in Obama who distrusts us instinctively, and lies all the time, with every breath.

The Republicans in an election year thrive on bullshit, it is what makes their world go round, and it is what the market loves, too. It's how people keep prices over their ordinary book value as a factor of earnings.

So the mirrors and fog machine have been yanked aside.

Minus another percentage point later this week: my prediction. You saw it here.

NB ADDED 1/1/09: Ten percentage points more fell off that week.

Amen to all that

Okay I wrote about David Palmer, who ("who") had an effect in places where Strickland marched campaigners in Ohio and where Kerry won 10% and Obama polled 20. That may indeed have supplied Indiana and Nevada.

But there are real world precedents too.

Nelson Mandela made Obama in particular possible. Even keel. Steady hand. No reprisals after taking office. People can read what they want in Obama, but he knew the playbook: speak softly and clearly. Keep your hand on the rock.

Jesse Jackson made Obama more likely. Despite the: "I'd like to ERRRRRR! his balls off" remark. Jackson won Michigan and frightened the establishment — what's happening! REALLY? Jesse Jackson? — and sent a signal to America. It is possible.

Hilary Clinton made Obama much more likely. Thank about those attacks on Rev. Wright, foreignness, Bill Ayers, etc. All of it was filtered through an intra-Democratic organization, and so, muted, dimmed, dulled. Hilary so completely shaped the anti-Obama message that it could not easily morph into something more damaging (i.e. Republican). When Palin and belatedly McLame tried to gin up enthusiasm for such in the last months, the shit ricocheted back into their faces as "negativity," costing them Independents' votes. It is true: she did "vet" Obama. The proof is in last nite's results.

Chris Matthews. Someone give that man a job.

As a curmudgeonly aside, I am frankly incredulous that anyone would celebrate the chair-fillers who voted for Bush twice and now are persuaded that "this time it is different." I can deal with genuine Republicans just fine. But you . . . Really. Come on. You were an idiot for years, when it counted; you have now admitted it. Does that mean you are smarter now, and if so, why? Or that bedrock GOP "principles" are better nurtured by Obama than McCain? The goodness of Obama broke through the wall? Really? Go away.

Thank You, Joel Surnow, for Indiana and North Carolina

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/4/104512/573