Democracy?!

YAY for Democracy! Wait...yay for democracy right? Why don't I hear the US, the world's bastion for democracy, backing the protests for democracy? Am I just not listening to the right news source? Where are you Obama? How about McCain, Clinton (oh she said a little one time), Palin, Boehner, Kerry, anybody?

From NYSE to FSE

After 219 years as the citadel of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange was near an agreement to be acquired by Deutsche Börse AG in a deal that would create the world's largest financial exchange. Wall Street Journal Feb. 10, 2011.

It took me a few days to digest the news. I'm still not sure I've wrapped my brain around it. There is very little to say. The headline says it all. For 219 years of the 234 we have existed as a nation, the New York Stock Exchange has too. Does anybody else have a problem with this or is it just me? Call me over-dramatic here, but we've turned a corner in the game called globalization. Is profit bad, no profit isn't bad. But sell history like the New York Stock Exchange off to the highest bidder? Can you do that?

I recall a recent sellout from just down the street there. Wall Street sold us, the American taxpayer, out almost three years ago now to the tune of $1.4 trillion or so right? Has the American taxpayer forgotten about that? Do we care? Is anybody out there in charge of all that keeping track, have they paid us back? I'd like an update...

Prophecy from ABC?

Fascinating documentary; watch "The Next Financial Crisis" on YouTube. This is the first of three parts. In a nutshell the film asks the question, "So the government bailed out the banks, but who's gonna bail out the government?"

Folks, it's not a secret that our government is about bankrupt. "If Congress does not act to increase the Treasury Department's legal borrowing limit, which could be reached as soon as the first week of April, the government would face problems refinancing its debt and raising money for its operations, and, at worst, would risk default." (New York Times 2011)

Well, it's frightening yes, because, what then? Suppose the US government does default on its debt? We already know the dollar holds its value precariously, even somewhat artificially, based on "consumer confidence"; consumers being every other nation that must trade in dollars, the world's only reserve currency.

So what does it all mean? Well as a Christian I can rest in the assurance that I know how it will end. You see, contrary to popular belief, this world had a definite birth date, and it has a definite end date. I don't know that date, but I know who does. I have thought for a long time there would be another financial crisis coming and I've thought that this one we wouldn't recover from.

It doesn't take an economist to see how things are shaping up.

Egypt and the Good ol' USA

You know...I've been thinking a whole lot about this Egypt thing. Should Mubarak go? I don't know, his country seems to think so, he doesn't. We send them $1.5 bn a year in military and other aid because they are our ally in that region against the "war on terror". So do we as a government think so, essentially we buy the status quo over there don't we?

Well, that status quo no longer serves the people of Egypt and they would like to make their voices heard...for real this time. I wonder what would happen in the USA if that many people stood up and protested against say...the two party system that rules this "democracy" with an iron grip.

And that got me to thinking in this way: We're not all that different from Egypt. Yeah sure we've got Walmart and Macy's, Best Buy and Men's Wearhouse, Chili's and Olive Garden, and they don't. We can buy fuel at the corner every other week or so for about 3 bucks a gallon. Then we swing over to Safeway and stock up on groceries. So yeah, we're a whole lot different in that respect.

But, basically the same group of people have 'ruled' this, our beloved nation, the world's bastion of democracy, for how long? Back and forth, back and forth. More government intervention, less government intervention. Recent elections gave congress back to the Republicans from the Democrats and the country almost unequivocally heralded that as change when just two years prior we voted in so much change from Republicans to Democrats, whew?!

Forgive me if I grow a little cynical, and dizzy, and have developed a crink in my neck because of the volleying back and forth. Pfff! Change?!

China and Egypt

Apparently honor, the dignity of human right, , are all for sale. I've been watching it happen in our own country with not a little concern, bordering on disgust actually, for the last...oh twenty years I guess. The United States of America: bastion of freedom, of democracy, of human rights, offering them all up for sale.

There was a time, not long ago, when we stood up to other countries in defense of the dignity and rights that human life imparts on every living being. Am I just being over-sentimental, unrealistic, idealistic, and just imagining that we once stood on the side of revolutions like the one in Tahrir Square? Maybe I was too young to remember correctly, did we stand up against the Chinese on the side of the revolution at Tiananmen Square? Or had we sold them our honor, our dignity, our stance on human rights by 1989 already?

$45 billion worth of Boeing airplanes is apparently the price this time around for looking the other way.

Quoting The Independent, "US politicians, who will host Hu [Jintao] tomorrow, are impatient for results about China's economic policies. A meager outcome at the summit could raise congressional pressure on Beijing over the trade deficit and the way it manages the yuan. A group of 84 politicians urged Obama in a letter today to tell Hu that "America's patience is near an end" over China's failure to play by trade rules." No one seemed that impatient, or no politician seemed to urge China, concerning human rights.

And now Egypt. Where stand ye America?

For a long time I've advocated, albeit in my own circle of friends, for a viable third party inside our nation's political system. The need for said third party has never been more urgent than it is now. This of course would not be in the best interest of the two major ruling parties we have now; but it would be in the best interest of the American people.

It seems more and more that there are two classes of people in this country; and here I would like to know what you think. Does it seem like to you that there are two classes of people in this country today; the American people, and those who govern us? It's as if they are so out of touch with normal American people that they hardly seem American to me. They're more like pure capitalists. As if that were a state itself, The Capital. (Get the wordplay on the capitol?)

I bring up one last question. If congress is in charge of regulating the rest of the country's industry, commerce, trade, finance, etc., who's in charge of regulating congress? Or at least holding congress accountable? We the people? So, is anybody doing it?! You say yes, every election cycle, we hold them accountable to us. I say nay, that is incorrect.

Oscillating back and forth between Republican and Democrat does not make an accountable congress with oversight by the American people. It makes for a seesaw, tug-o-war, you scratch my back I'll scratch yours, appearance of a democracy, that is in essence an oligarchy, does it not? Isn't that the definition of an oligarchy? Government by the few.