The End Is Near

You have to be worried about the future when all of the signs are pointing to an inevitable stumble, if not an outright collapse. Almost anywhere you look, you can see the evidence.

Example: Despite war, global terrorism, and a "correction" being underway in the housing market, the Dow and the S&P 500 both hit record highs this week. According to Bloomberg News, the "unprecedented pace of takeovers and stock buybacks" drove the stock markets.

Example: The auction house Christie's has seen its sales jump 30 percent this year, largely on the strength of outlandish prices for art -- such as the $71 million paid for an Andy Warhol car-crash.




Example: Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, private equity funds are cashing out and paying prodigious sums to their already absurdly wealthy managers. Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman alone plans to take home over $7 billion. Fortunately, he has an 11,000 square foot Palm Beach mansion to take it to, so most of it should fit.

Bear in mind that this -- ahem -- conspicuous consumption is taking place while the nation is at war. Sorry, I know it's easy to forget when you are being distracted by Paris Hilton's latest outrage, but 3600 Americans have died in Iraq, most of them since Vietnam-War-dodging Dubya announced "Mission Accomplished" in 2003.

Example: In its recent analysis of progress in Iraq, the Administration's best spin-meisters could only muster the gumption to lie about 8 out of 18 "benchmarks." In other words, at Bush and Cheney's dishonest best they can only pretend that Iraq is a semi-disaster with no end in sight.

Example: No matter how bad you think things may be today, they can always get worse tomorrow. Following the Washington maxim of "when you find yourself in a hole, dig faster" the US Senate recently voted 97-0 in support of a resolution warning Iran that we would not tolerate their interference with our continued occupation of their next-door neighbor (Iraq, not Iran's eastern neighbor Afghanistan where we also have troops).

Rather like former Clinton advisor Robert Reich, one is always in danger of predicting 7 out of the last 2 recessions when trying to guess what the future holds. In other words, the vast size of the US economy has an enormous reserve capacity and the modern social safety net mitigates many of the harshest effects of capitalism. So a few bad signs are not automatic harbingers of doom.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of worrisome facts available to those who are paying attention. And if doom-and-gloom is NOT in our future, if sailing is so smooth that we can afford to spend over $100 billion per year imposing democracy on reluctant Middle Easterners, why can't America do a better job of taking care of its own citizens? What's the excuse for our failure to institute universal healthcare, for example? Apparently, as long as the top rung of the economic ladder is doing well, the rest of us can go to hell.

Musical Interlude

Every once in a while we need a reminder of why we slog through yet another day.

Who Are We?

It's Independence Day. Do you know where your morals are?

Americans have a child-like faith in their own good intentions. Even on the Fourth of July, it requires impressive mental gymnastics to avoid admitting the truth about our history. From the genocide of Native Americans to the slavery imposed on Africans to the centuries of profit-driven foreign policy to the slaughter of non-combatants in almost every war we have fought -- America has much to be ashamed of.

Just consider the recent debate over illegal immigration. There are lots of good arguments on both sides of this dispute. However, the primary motivating factor for anti-immigration conservatives is racism. Consider that they want a wall built along the Mexican border -- but not the Canadian border. In typically dishonest fashion, they assert that "terrorists" could cross our southern boundary as easily as Central Americans. Well, I suppose they could, but thus far the only border-crossing terrorists that have been discovered have come from Canada.

Of course, the average American casually ignores or actively denies anything negative about the good old US of A. Are we so immature as a culture that we have to lie to ourselves about the facts of our history -- and the truth of our current behavior?

Happy Fourth of July.

The Untouchables

Much has been said about the reprieve granted by President Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Bush to "Scooter" Libby but it remains a breathtakingly open aspect of the continuing cover-up of the lies that led to war.

Dubya's odd assertion -- that the verdict was appropriate but the sentence was too harsh -- was yet another dodge intended to disguise the stalling strategy they have played so well. Bush's plan all along has been to delay any resolution until after he is out of office. Come to think of it, that's his current strategy for Iraq, also. By keeping Libby out of his well-deserved prison cell, Dubya is assured of his continued silence. And should Libby be ordered to testify about his skullduggery, he can still "plead the Fifth" since Bush left intact his actual conviction and Libby continues to appeal. About the only way to force his cooperation would be for Congress to offer him a limited grant of immunity to testify under oath. Of course, Libby is a confirmed liar so there's no guarantee that anything short of waterboarding will get a confession out of him.

It is to the point now that, to paraphrase Mary McCarthy, every word spoken by this administration is a lie, including "and" and "the."

Our only hope for timely justice is for Congress to press forward -- far more aggressively than they have up to now -- to force testimony, under oath, and to require the delivery of documents, without delay. That includes Libby, Cheney and especially Karl "E-mail Me" Rove.