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Friday, January 08, 2010

Battered Wife Nation

Calhoun's Cannons for January 8, 2010

People had ambitions to live in security and democracy, but those who came to power proved they were not worthy of the responsibilities.
Ghaith Saadi, Baghdad store owner

It’s getting really hard to even begin to find the words needed to describe the absolute contempt and disgust I feel watching so many of our hypocritical Corporate Pimps in Congress while they pretend to “work” on solving the health care “reform” issue. But just before my disgust shades off into absolute loathing, I have to remind myself that America elected these people and, more importantly, re-elected them. After all, if the voters had wanted real change, change that actually was change, they had a clear chance to do that in the last election by voting in a veto-proof, lobby-proof progressive majority . . . . and they refused.

So we ended up with our same old elected Corporate Pimps bitch slapping us around, selling us out and instead of rising up in righteous wrath and rage and smacking them upside the head with a chair leg, all we hear are the whimpers of The Abused Woman.

After over twenty years of falling for clever Grover Norquistian lies and manipulation and magical thinking, we have finally become a nation that believes that we deserve only the second-rate. Like all abusers, our Corporate Politico Pimps have isolated each from each, set one against the other via the ginned-up phony culture/class wars, stripped away any safety nets that might help us create financial independence for ourselves, off-shored good paying jobs, broke the unions, funneled the nation’s wealth up to the favored few until here we are: Battered Woman Nation, cowering in our isolated corners, convinced that we simply don’t deserve anything better for ourselves.

And while we’re out on the mean streets, our Congressional pimps are busy living the high life, receiving the best and finest of everything: great paying jobs that cycle from the halls of Congress right into highly lucrative work as lobbyists for their former corporate masters who then return to those hallowed halls to write legislation benefiting their new employers. It’s a perfect, well paid circle jerk. And while they’re busy selling the American people into the hands of the for-profit health care industry, for example, where profits not “health” rule, they get top of the line health care for themselves, while forcing the American people to buy a limited selection of overpriced, profit-driven crappy health policies, because that’s all they think we deserve.

Not only that, while the battered taxpayers are strapped for cash, losing their jobs, losing their homes, our Congressional pimps have taken our tax money and are back gambling on Wall Street, making sure that the guard dogs are all leashed so there’ll be no threat to the ongoing reckless partying that nearly brought down the world economy in the first place. It’s Pimp Time redux, at Goldman Sachs! ParTAY! ParTAY! all paid for by their tax-paying stable of “Ladies”-- us: Battered Woman America.

So there we sit, boo-hooing into our beers, nursing another black eye, and whining, “Other civilized nations have figured out how to get themselves decent, lower cost universal health care, why can’t we? Other civilized countries have safety nets for their citizens and watchdogs to keep their corporate and financial thieves in check. Why can’t we have that, too? Where’s MY pudding?”

Oh, well, sorry, Sweetie, no pudding for America. We have decided we don’t deserve it. For us, second rate is good enough since it’s our job to just shut up and make sure the money’s there to support the System we have created and continue to support, a system that guarantees continued trickle-up wealth for our corporate masters and their congressional pimps, and guarantees trickle-down poverty for the rest of us.

It’s a hard job, but I know we’re up for it. So, wipe your noses, Ladies. And put some make-up on that black eye. You look like hell. It’s time to hit the streets again. Uncle Daddy and his cronies need a new pair of shoes.

10 comments:

Sandra Gore said...

I could take a lot of your comments, translate them into Latin and make convincing parallels to Cicero. Smart people have been complaining about the same issues for as long as small groups of men have controlled the destinies of everybody else.

Anne R. Allen said...

Sandra--Yeah, but the Roman Republic wasn't calling itself a democracy. There is a difference--or there should be.

Besides, Cicero was right in his fears. He was watching the republic turn into an imperial dictatorship. And like the clueless Romans he lectured, we are being lulled into complacency by bread and circuses.

Like Ann's symbolic battered wife, we're just supposed to turn on the teevee and watch Dancing With the Biggest Loser while the Imperial Corporations steal government by the people and for the people from our cringing, undeserving hands.

Chris Martin said...

Very good and passionate article. I agree with 99% of it. Heres what I don't agree on.

1.) they had a clear chance to do that in the last election by voting in a veto-proof, lobby-proof progressive majority . . . . and they refused.

I would like to know how this lobby proof majority would happen? You mean progressives are immune to this?

2.)“Other civilized nations have figured out how to get themselves decent, lower cost universal health care, why can’t we?

You mean other industrialized nations. I don't think most if not all of the other "civilized" nations have the basic problems we have. We have no control of our borders which makes it hard to put money aside for these social programs given the huge influx of immigrants (illegal). We don't have a fair tax system in America, and we have to many cheaters that only take from the system and never give.

Who can tell me what other countries face these problems, and do nothing about it, and still have their social programs up and running.

Churadogs said...

Chris sez:"We have no control of our borders which makes it hard to put money aside for these social programs given the huge influx of immigrants (illegal). We don't have a fair tax system in America, and we have to many cheaters that only take from the system and never give."

We do have control over employers who employ illegal immigrants. We can elect officials who will reform our campaign laws so as to help remove the influence of corportions. We can elect officials who will actually close tax loopholes. We can un-elect candidates who ignore public issues and are in bed with their corporate masters. We can elect officials who actually believe in the Value of the Commons. Our tragedy is this: Our system is set up (by us) and can be changed (by us); we have the tools. What we lack is the will, hence, sadly, we get what we deserve but seem to lack the sense of how to connect the dots so we whine about how badly "they" are abusing us when it's "us" who are doing it to ourselves.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

From my previous work experience: Employers get away with the illegals because each year they are given new SS numbers and there is such a backlog for checking these numbers statewide that the system never catches up. We'd have to spend more money to hire more checkers. Doubt that can even happen.

Churadogs said...

Re employers, that's another thing we don't want to talk about: we demonize illegal workers while hiring them to work and never stop to think about that funny movie, "A Day Without Mexicans," i.e. what would happen if every illegal alient were suddenly transported outta here; would our economy come to a screeching halt? Or be seriously compromised? If so, then we gotta get real about what we're doing here.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Guess I'll Netflix that movie, I missed it.

There needs to be a solution, but it is so hard to figure out what that might be. The illegals that I knew personally were studying English or already knew it, were working really hard and were exceptional at their jobs and were lovely people to interact with. Some had schooling in Mexico, some not, but the progress that all of them made in their lives was amazing and admirable.

Another place I worked was surrounded by day laborers waiting for jobs. The people of Mexican heritage that I worked with really disliked these guys and thought that they should be picked up. (Well, they were picked up from time to time, but the same numbers appeared again at the same posts the next day. Don't quite know what that was all about.)

Churadogs said...

Toonces sez:"(Well, they were picked up from time to time, but the same numbers appeared again at the same posts the next day. Don't quite know what that was all about.)"

Homeowners looking to put in a fence, lay a raeaining wall, lay down a sod lawn, contractors (shady?) needing a work crew, etc. Cheap labor, no workman's comp, no taxes. Part of the (untaxed, cash only) underground economy that we pretend to ignore or use to demagogue about all those evil illegals.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Sorry, I wasn't clear - I worked at a home and garden center, so yes, they were picked up by people looking for cheap labor.

What I poorly wrote but meant to say was, some sort of police would come and round them up, maybe to be processed in some fashion- combed for criminals? I have no idea. Maybe the same people were back, or maybe a new group took their places, the numbers remained roughly the same. They were a mostly silent mass muttering a few words, hanging out. It was a little intimidating navigating the sidewalk, which was jammed. The only problem is that there were no bathroom facilities, so the "pile" in the gap between the building I worked in and the neighboring one got pretty putrid, especially in the summer. The owner would stand on the roof and dump bag fulls of something white on top of the mess. I think Santa Monica got a clue and had set up workstations with port-a-potties.

Churadogs said...

Toonces sez:"I think Santa Monica got a clue and had set up workstations with port-a-potties."

I think many cities are doing the same: getting realistic and trying to organize and sanitize what's going on anyway. But here's the irony. I'm betting she same people who drive by to pick up cheap (off the tax rolls) day labor for work on their home or business, then go home and watch Lou Dobbs on TV ranting about "illegals" and then yell at the screen, "Yay, Lou! You Tell 'em. Lou for President!" and etc. Feh.