January 31, 2008
by Volt and Electra Penn
You know, I know, we all know m-o-n-e-y makes this planet spin. However, due to the current sub-prime blowout, credit fallout and Wall Street's downspout, our economic axis has gone totally off kilter. No one, including the high priest of the Federal Reserve or the straw-boss in Crawford Texas, has a gyroscope big enough to steady the wobbly gyration of this trillion ton 'vast ecumenical holding company'.
But wait - not to worry. Leave it to a drug store cowboy like the Bush-man to polish his spurs, round up a herd of greenbacks and spread 'em around with cow manure. Classically trained economists more or less agree that this asinine bunkhouse ploy will open the barn door, but only to let the stink out - the shit stays.
Who are these same-brain nitpickers kidding? I'm talking about the ones predicting that to corral Mr. Credit, stick blue-chip stocks back in the top-hands' pockets and shove the Corporate Overlords higher up in their saddles, Bush-man should hand out $600 worth of paper coupons to USA Consumer Units. Read the fine print, I'm guessing it says - Redeemable ONLY at any 'Big Lots!'
Wait! There's more. Not only is the Bush-man playing his favorite numbers game again, his current stimulus package smelling things up will only stimulate those already stimulated. Anybody that's broke down or broke back, bed-less or busted need not apply. For the rest of us poor fools it's wish in one hand and wash the other.
As the chorus in Congress sings praises of Bush-man's misdealing, and the heavy metal men on Wall Street dig their heels in to keep the props under the Dow Jones, 'we the people' are left wandering around Main Street, looking for our car, which was repossessed while we shopped for organic radishes at Whole Paycheck.
There's some past history I think we all know. Over seventy years ago, while Main Street tried to sell their 'made in America' investments, John D. Rockefeller tried to buy Wall Street out of the Great Depression. It didn't work then because even Rockefeller's millions weren't enough to pay America's overdue tab of excess.
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It's hard to believe that in 2008, in the middle of a bigger 'shit-storm' than Katrina, its business as usual. Bail out the corporations no matter the cost, and make sure 'we the people' keep feeding Mammon. It's become our patriotic duty to make sure those Chinamen keep cranking out firecrackers, India's Indians stay hooked to tech-support phones and Saudis' Arabs shill oil for $100 a barrel.
But that's all good - isn't it? We still have our TV, Wi-Fi and iPod. Who gives a damn if every single electronic, digitalized, computerized consumer product is made someplace else? It was corporate America that ripped labels off 'Union Made'---'Made in America' products, then sent the prototype overseas to be reproduced by Chinese copycats. They tore the very shirts off our backs, bumped off 'mom and pop' and buried the little guy under the big box stores.
But that's all right - isn't it? In this country almost everybody has a job if they want one - as long as nobody minds being a nit-picker in a strip center. It sure beats chopping cotton, baling hay or digging ditches - doesn't it? Even with all our higher education and colleges, we've become nothing but a nation of servers, servicing other servers who wind up serving themselves.
Peel back the fatback to inspect every government program for the fine print to find out whose raping John and Joan Q. Taxpayer: pharmaceutical drug-thugs, insurance mob squads, temple money changers and the slick oil barons. No wonder our world has gone off its bubble. We've been 'mind-shafted' by flimflammers from Madison Avenue and those natural born grafters called politicians at every dogleg in the road.
We face a bleak future when the only two money-makers left to support the ever expanding American empire are: Death & Destruction. Only bullets, bombs, bombers, tanks and the Military Industrial's Complex proudly fly the 'Made in America' tag. Quality must be JOB 1, because the body count keeps going up and the body bags keep coming home.
As my friend the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair once said, "Blessed be the bitchers, they're the only ones who have balls to stand up and be heard".
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Have Penn they'll listen. Volt Penn writes speeches for Progressive Populists and reasoned arguments for those on the left of center. He has also written speeches for anybody who has read his work. You can reach Volt Penn through his artist friend, b.b.kemp, at bbkemp@bbkemp.com
Volt/Electra Penn copyright 2008
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