Sh*t

Some days it’s hard to keep a stiff upper lip and plod on as if the world is bathed in pretty flowers and happy songs. It isn’t. And I’m having a series of those days lately. Yesterday sent my spirits plummeting even further. Yesterday our illustrious Senate gave their green light to opening up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Three of our Senate Democrats who could have swung the vote the other way, abandoned their party and voted down an amendment that would have prevented drilling in the refuge. They would have made the difference in a positive way. Instead they made the difference in a negative way.

Yesterday we learned that Bush nominated Paul Wolfowitz to be the new head of the World Bank...a guy with no background whatsoever in economics and who has racked up an astonishing number of public quotes claiming that poverty in the world is unrelated to terrorism. He who thinks war is the answer to everything. Perhaps with some economic background he might be aware of the old saw...well fed people who lead settled lives free of disease, and filled with hope, do not turn into revolutionaries (or terrorists).

Yesterday we learned that OPEC has agreed to pump an extra half a million barrels of oil a day with the caveat: Don’t expect our increased pumping to lower oil prices because world demand has now pretty much outstripped our ability to meet demand.

Yesterday I listened to a couple of economists talking about the economic forces sitting on our doorstep. The dollar is still tanking, other countries are beginning to diversify their monetary holdings (more Euros), the bond market is about to take a hit, interest rates are rising and will continue to rise almost as quickly as the dollar is falling. The real estate market is poised for a bubble bursting collapse. Soon.

China will very soon outrank us in industrial output, helped along, in good part, by the American companies who are moving there. Companies like CISCO, whose CEO bluntly said that his strategy for his company is to move it to China and turn it into a Chinese company rather than an American company—because within 10-15 years China will be the IT capital of the world. He’s been working very hard to achieve that goal. He’s just one among many.

Meanwhile, our deficit continues to soar with absolutely no requirement on the part of the American people to pony up a few extra bucks to subsidize our wars of choice. China has bought huge portions of our debt; their investment is helping to keep us afloat, but they are making noises that it’s not such a great business deal these days. On the other hand, they own enough of us to be able to influence foreign policy. If they start dumping dollars, our economy tanks. That’s a huge club over our heads. China isn’t going to conquer us using guns and tanks. They’ll feed our greed and subsidize it until they own us.

In the face of all this, Bush wants to privatize Social Security so that we assume all the risks with absolutely no guarantees of actually having anything when the time comes.

And the good news just keeps rolling on in. If I was 10-15 years younger, I would be seriously investigating emigration options. Quite frankly, I would not choose to live out the remainder of my life in a wasteland, helped along in no small part by the idiots currently running this country into the ground.

That about sums up where my spirits reside today.