Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The entire world rejoiced, except for a few small countries with other political viewpoints, when Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency.  Why?  Because the other candidate represented more of the same disastrous George Bush failed policies as McCain voted with the Bush Republican brigade over 90% of the time, which tells the story.

In Bush's farewell speech, wouldn't it be most appropriate for him to apologize for every inaccurate statement that his administration made that got us into the Iraq War?

If it is accurate, that as Alan Greenspan states, what all the world knows is the inconvenient facts that the Iraq War is largely abut oil -- now it is essential to withdraw the lopsided oil contract U.S. negotiators want Iraq to agree to -- to granting foreign lease rights to 63 of Iraq's 80 oil wells, with the U.S. at the front of the parade to get control of Iraq's precious oil.

Wouldn't it be fair to allow democracy to really rule Iraq?  When polls tell the U.S. that Iraq would like to see U.S. occupying forces leave, prove you really believe in democracy.  As soon as U.S. generals decide Iraq is stable, leave.

Of course, it wouldn't be wise to leave when the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are clashing and tragically killing one another.

The reason the elder President Bush didn't barge into Baghdad was precisely because he was informed by political advisers that chaos and killing would follow.  If George Bush had gone to his father for counsel instead of his other father (meaning God) when asked if the elder Bush was consulted on the Iraq invasion, the entire debacle might have been avoided.

Of course, nobody likes to pay the price of all of life's necessities, however.  Many are caught in a terrible situation in the way the U.S.A. operates a combination of a socialist-capitalist society.  This pulls immigrants to the U.S.A.

One group is the illegal aliens from Mexico.  This helps big business make enormous profits.  For example, a meat processing plant in Iowa hired approximately 389 illegal aliens.  When, after years of profiting on cheap labor, federal authorities investigated, located the illegal aliens and heavily fined the company, the company conveniently went into bankruptcy.

The housing industry made much money with cheaper wages paid to illegal aliens in the construction industry.  Not hampered by union labor's demands, overtime costs, safety specifications and health insurance, builders had arrived in economic heaven.

With bank loans officers granting housing loans to high risk, poor credit loan risks had a bonanza.  The interest only loans that banks allowed these buyers enabled mortgage brokers to quickly bundle these mortgages and sell them to Wall Street and foreign bankers.

Once the principal had to be paid and the interest rate rose sharply, reality finally set in and the foreclosures began.  Bankers around the world, severely conned into buying these worthless mortgages, were losing $3 to $4 billion dollars and Wall Street began its roller coaster ride -- sky high one day, dropping precipitously the next.

The gap between the rich and the poor widened.  In a 30-country study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S.A. was at last jolted back to reality, economically speaking.  Only Mexico and Turkey had worse percentages of their populations earning less than 50% of their populations' median incomes.

Back when Bill Clinton was president he had some success ending the welfare style of American life.  Los Angeles and New York City had a million people on welfare for over 30 years respectively.

Returning to work was a painful process for life-long welfare recipients,  but quite a bit of success was achieved.  However, the world trade bill that ex-President Clinton signed hurt enormously the U.S. work force.  

Kelloggs, the world's number one cereal manufacturer, was located for a hundred years in Battle Creek, Michigan.  It moved its entire cereal plant to Mexico.  

The car giants faced similar moves and now GM, Chrysler and Ford, all of which continued making SUV's when Japan was making smaller cars.  Now the U.S. auto giants are in Washington, D.C. with their hands out, begging for a $25 billion bailout.

With a nearly $10 trillion national debt, the biggest ever, the U.S.A. socialist-capitalist nation must depend on borrowing from China, Japan and Saudi Arabia to pay its debts.

The New York Times November 13 on page A26 showed a photo of the poor with placards, pleading in New York City Hall to avoid budget cuts that hurt the poor.  Education, health care, hospitals giving free help to Medicaid patients -- all are being hit hard as state and city income has shrunk drastically.

Beneath this picture of the poor pleading for the meager necessities of their existence is a story about Christy's auction of modern art.  There is a photo of an untitled work, simply referred to as "Boxer", which has to be the most hideous so-called work of art I have seen in my lifetime.  It sold for $13.5 million.

That one page in the November 13 New York Times tells it all better than words can ever relay -- many poor people in the U.S.A.

40% of the U.S. population pays no income tax because their incomes do not merit payment.  The poor are hurting terribly now, while the rich throw away multiple millions on frivolous whims.