There Was Nice Talk About 'Change' and 'Hope' But the Money Party Won Again

[Orwellian_Ghost]

There Was Nice Talk About 'Change' and 'Hope' But the Money Party Won Again

By Joe Bageant, AlterNet. Posted September 28, 2009.

Obama needs to lay off the foot-work and throw a punch!


Almost a year after the Great Giddy Swarming of the Obamians last November, some of the revelers are waking up with one booger of a hangover. And they are asking themselves, "What were we thinking when we had that tenth drink of Democratic Party Kool-Aid?" It was a clear cut case of seduction and date rape. The spike in the drink was, of course, hope. Poor pathetic American liberals. Forever doomed to be naive freshmen at the senior beer bash.

We try to take comfort in that we won't have to listen to or look at John McCain or Sarah Palin for four years, except in the American Legion Magazine and in Palin's case, as a centerfold in the next issue of Middle Aged Skin. OK, we really are grateful. But could the pathetic McCain-Palin clown act possibly have created much more havoc than what we are seeing?

Case in point: I got up this morning to the headline: "Social Security Checks to Shrink." Surely this makes a slew of Generation Xers cackle with glee. But some of us are trying to stay drunk on that check until our date with a heart attack or one of those death panels the Republicans are yammering about. Since January I've been telling my wife we could expect Social Security to start shrinking. Ever the concerned citizen, she replies "Can't you find another jag to get on? Eight months for god sake!"

To be honest though, I wasn't sure just how the Social Security scam would be run on us. All I knew was that the steady stream of payments into Social Security represents the last big hog still running the woods. Sooner or later corporate interests would gut it. Corporate interests? Yup. It's like this. Congress and the president hands the public treasury to elite financial corporations, via bailouts, special tax breaks and cash stuffed aircraft carriers bound for their fortified French villas. Then Congress and the administration go looking for some new scheme to the pay for the Congressional Country Club out there in Bethesda, Maryland, the White House heating bill and money to keep Air Force One in toilet paper and armengnac marinated quail breasts.

...

http://www.alternet.org/politics/142840/there_was_nice_talk_about_%27change%27_and_%27hope%27_but_the_money_party_won_again

[bobbolink]

1. Indeed. I didn't swallow the koolaid...."Show me".

I'm waiting.

Really.

SHOW ME.

:nuke:

edited to say....that's SHOW ME the "change" and "hope", in case that didn't immediately connect to the OP subject. :shrug:

[Thickasabrick]

2. Are SS checks shrinking? I thought they were running out of money but

are they reducing them?

[DJ13]

3. The Feds claim they know there will be no inflation for the next 2 years

So with that feat of prognostication that would make even the Amazing Kreskin blush, there will be no cost of living adjustments for 2010 or 2011.

However, Medicare deductions are going higher due to the same inflation they claim isnt occurring.......in effect reducing the monthly SS benefit.

[Thickasabrick]

4. Thanks....I need to start reading up on this more. nt

[TheWraith]

5. And Orwellian_Ghost continues the non-stop streak of attacks on Obama...

I can't remember the last time the OP posted anything other than a screed about how terrible Obama is--including grossly offensive columns like this invoking rape.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

7. Is Joe Bageant wrong?

You probably did not even read the article as it might create a little cognitive dissonance that would upset your tummy.

Prove me wrong. Talk substance.

[Hekate]

14. Another Naderistic assessment, to wit: "But could the pathetic McCain-Palin clown act possibly have

"But could the pathetic McCain-Palin clown act possibly have created much more havoc than what we are seeing?"

Isn't that pretty much what Ralph Nader had to say about Al Gore? That there was no discernible difference between him and George W. Bush, given the state of the political parties?

I utterly rejected that kind of thinking then, and I reject it now.

President Obama does not walk on water, but in my observation he swims pretty fast through the swamp of Washington politics and if he can get out of there without being eaten by alligators we'll all be the better for it.

Hekate

[Orwellian_Ghost]

16. Where's the evidence?

Noone's talking about no difference but the difference isn't in such a way as to alter things much at all contrary to the hype.

The idolatry is what is concerning and it seems many folks got fooled and have buyers remorse. Many are also still unwilling to even peek at reality despite the mountain in front of them. And many knew right from the start what a corporate centrist Obama was. His entire political career has been one of pandering to power. You knew that right?

[Hekate]

19. Being a centrist at heart doesn't make him a corporatist. And I disagree with "pandering to power."

Btw, he still doesn't walk on water or confer Kool-Ade on his disciples. :eyes: If he ever claimed he did, he might deserve the crucifixion some here are so ready to enact, but he didn't and he doesn't.

Hekate

[Orwellian_Ghost]

23. Have you ever

looked at how it was Obama came to rise so quickly in the Illinois political scene?

It speaks volumes.

[DireStrike]

24. Being a "centrist" in this environment is pretty much a corporatist. -nt-

[alarimer]

8. It's a nice antidote to the Obama-worshipping that is contrary to what he has actually done.

Of course I never drank the KoolAid at all. I KNEW he was another lying politician and that anyone who placed too much faith in all the "hope" and "change" was going to be quickly disillusioned.

The cognitive dissonance of people trying to justify their belief in this guy despite the fact that he does not deserve it is kind of sad.

[ipaint]

12. Bageant certainly speaks for me.

He's about the only writer who speaks about and for the wage slave classes in this country. Obama most certainly doesn't and I find that grossly offensive.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

6. Too bad the other guy wasn't elected.

:eyes:

We'd all surely be boozed up until we either died from alcohol poisoning, stress or,...ahhhh, yes,...the revolution ALL THOSE CAST INTO POVERTY/HARDSHIP and DENIED CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS by "W" NEVER INITIATED!!!

*BLECH* Give me a break. Being pissed off all the damn time WAS the right-wing profiteering racket,...was,...

Excuse me if I choose not to live in the field of negativity, 24/7.

Besides, this isn't merely a freakin' ship that we and this President-elect are trying to turn around!!!

I am disgusted at those who are SO impatient, who expect so damn much while sitting on the sidelines breathing fire! Go to hell, all of ya'!!!

[CocoaBeachCoco]

11. Oh, sorry. love, Obama is NOT the "President-elect"...not a good defense here!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

13. Love you back!!!!

nt

[Mari333]

9. knr

[emilyg]

10. k/r

[leftstreet]

15. K&R

[Odin2005]

17. Hater FAIL.

[blindpig]

20. That's all you got?

I think it is.

Why don't you refute any particular statement?

The truth hurts.

k&r

[inna]

21. your comment is absurd and offensive. KR+21.

[roody]

18. I am waiting for the change in policy towards Latin America.

Hope? I have a tiny bit left.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Nice slogans, though. Maybe "Mom and Apple Pie" and "A Chicken in every Pot" should be added.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

25. Bump

[mdmc]

26. ..

[budkin]

27. Could not agree with this more... so goddamn disheartening...