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?