Nov 23, 2024
Nov 23, 2024
Within the first few minutes it became obvious that the two moderators had already anointed the two contenders Romney and Perry. For no earthly reason, the questioning began with them and the issues raised by the questions to them were more serious and major ones. They could have gone alphabetically or by a draw as they do for thoroughbreds in a race. Since the gathering and contest was of Republican mules, a draw would have been the method by sheer precedence. Ron Paul, Gingrich, McCain, Bachman, Huntsman and Santorum were mostly ignored and while their answers often revealed that they were playing bravely but without a full deck, the debate or debacle was about as fair and balanced as Fox News.
The problem is once you fool me, shame on you, but repeatedly you fool me, then the shame is on me. American people get fooled again and again. |
Huntsman did try to inject a note of reason by refusing to be hog tied by Grover Norquist’s bullying pledge of never raising taxes and acknowledging that science was more important than theology. Ron Paul painted himself into the remotest corner of the libertarian outfield by wanting to abolish not only the Federal Reserve and Federal Aviation Authority, but also the FDA, all licensing, Automobile Safety regulations and the EPA. Bachman and Gingrich managed to squeeze in their blind support of Israel and Santorum was for merging the US with the Vatican on the basis of his totally zero contributions during his terms in the house and senate. McCain had some concrete ideas about selling pizzas or taxes for 999 but time constraints prevented him from specifying the toppings on the pizza.
Perry’s words in the debacle and prior to it, decimated all science from evolution to climate change and he proclaimed his passionate devotion of and obsession with the law, by hinting that he would eliminate the Ponzi scheme called Social Security. He like all other wealthy Republicans took a pledge to repeal the Obama Healthcare Law, which though tainted by Obama’s selling out for campaign money, at least put a limit to the insurance companies’ extortion. Romney, who made his money by LBOs at Bain & Co., by firing employees and reselling the leaner and meaner companies at exorbitant profit, claimed that he created jobs without a protesting squeak from the remaining lying contenders or the sycophantic moderators.
Texas, which has the worst state record for education and the distinct honor of having foisted a prior republican president whose lunatic idiocy has brought the US power and finances to bankruptcy, is ready to further the process that it began. The usual homage was paid to President Reagan, the only one with Alzheimer’s while in office. He was praised for recoveries that he engineered without even mentioning his massive tax cuts and equally massive increases in military spending and the resultant excessive Keynesianism, which the current Republicans now abhor and condemn, having acquired fiscal religion after their usual tax cutting debauchery.
The American people do not realize that the Republicans have a clear agenda which they openly announce. They want to dismantle the programs of FDR and Lyndon Johnson. They also want to sign free trade agreements without constraining regulations pertaining to the environment, worker safety and health, and minimum standards of worker wages or working conditions. They have the tacit support of the judiciary in that as proven by the US Supreme Court’s giving the rights of persons to corporations and permitting unlimited and untraceable political contributions by the Citizens United decision. And to make it worse the Democrats are clandestine partners in the same conspiracy, as are the media.
Let me give you an analogy from natural history. Tigers, which are solitary animals in nature, will fight other tigers for their hunting range and for mating. Thus they are intermittently and temporarily tolerant of sharing their range with a tigress. They will vehemently defend their hunting range from another male tiger, but in the mating season, when they are obsessed with mating with a tigress, they will not take time off and give temporary attention to the scent of another male tiger, when they are in heat. Their attention is laser focused like Arjuna’s on the eye of the fish which is his target. To American skunk politicians of both major parties, the tiger’s mating season equates to campaign finance. The only difference is that politicians unlike tigers are in campaign finance heat all the time. Thus their primary loyalty and allegiance are to their rich contributors. To obtain money from them, they will betray the electorate and average citizen and particularly more so, when they are preparing for re-election.
In the background and only second in importance, is to maximize the profits and the wealth of the rich contributors. As the campaign draws near, they suddenly start loudly mouthing their concern for the average citizen, the orphan, the widow, the unemployed. Thus they are not worried about all these, but only what such adverse circumstances will do to reduce their chance of being re-elected. The Democrats and even the Republican Cantors and the Cantankerous Ryans suddenly start lactating the milk of human kindness. The American public with its multiple handicaps of being intellectually challenged, with crass ignorance and severe attention deficit disorder, fails to see this as in Obama’s recent blather to the Congress of baboons, who repeatedly kept jumping up in their seats
Obama snuck into his job talking baloney of change, audacity, hope and yes we can, but has done nothing to help the poor, unemployed or underwater mortgage holders, but bailed out the bankers, forgave them their malfeasance, failed to appoint Elizabeth Warren to a Consumer Protection Agency, caved in on healthcare, continued the Bush tax cuts for the rich and put social security on the cutting table even though it is not the cause of budget deficits yet, and looted its surpluses for the wars. Now the persistent unemployment and sinking economy are likely to decimate his chances for re-election.
Obama is desperately seeking another 450 billion dollar stimulus to salvage his personal selfish hopes and ambitions and has once again capitulated on slashing social security before the panel of twelve crooks can decide on what budget cuts to make. He has revealed his weak hand and is setting up the foolish American public for substantially eviscerating the social security safety net, while sparing the bloated military budget. This is Obama’s Faustian bargain to persuade the Republicans to grant another stimulus package to facilitate a second term for him. It just shows what kind of a selfish unprincipled hypocrite he is, once you penetrate his masquerade and camouflage. His acceptance of an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize and costly family vacations in Spain and Martha’s Vineyard reveal his true nature.
The problem is once you fool me, shame on you, but repeatedly you fool me, then the shame is on me. American people get fooled again and again.
Clinton, masquerading as a liberal Democrat signed NAFTA (huge job losses), eliminated welfare. Reagan cut taxes, ran up deficits and destroyed the unions. He raised social security taxes but used up the extra money for the military. Bush, the brainless, gave huge tax cuts to eliminate budget surpluses and started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the hope of capturing Iraqi oil. He enacted a drug benefit to enrich drug companies and win re-election by bribing the seniors at an unbearable cost to the US treasury. Obama is doing the same thing in Libya, extending wars to Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and maybe Iran will be next.
Now Medicare will be devastated in the Committee of Twelve Caesars. It would be against the interests of the Republicans to grant Obama’s demands, but they might do it after a long delay in early 2012, with the hope that the belated stimulus will not decrease unemployment sufficiently or stimulate the economy, to improve Obama’s chances. On the other hand the Republican Senators, Congressmen and strategists may realize that the current bozos contending for the Republican presidential nomination are born losers like McCain and Palin and grant Obama four more years to dig himself, the Democratic Party and the nation into such a deep hole that the Democrats will go the route of Canadian LDP.
Finally, India is sure to face a difficult moral choice because of its UN Security Council membership. In two weeks, the Palestinians will seek statehood and the US has threatened to use its veto. The Palestinians are likely to use plan B by using rule 377 or something like that, which allows nine votes in the Security Council to take the resolution to the General Assembly, which approves measures by a plain majority and no one has a veto. If a statehood is granted Israel will be compelled to stop its bombardments of Gaza and the West Bank. On moral grounds, India would have to support the Palestinian request, but realpolitik requires not upsetting Israel, which is a major supplier of sophisticated military equipment to India. Of course, my guess is that India will follow the ethics of Krishna, who advised Arjuna to kill the unarmed Karna, Yudhisthira to lie to Drona, Bhima to hit Duryodhana below the belt and claim it is following the path of Dharmayuddha, or as it is now called American Exceptionalism, the right of an indispensable nation.
10-Sep-2011
More by : Gaurang Bhatt, MD