World GDP: $60 Trillion
World Credit Default Swaps Market: $60 Trillion
World Derivatives Market: $600 Trillion
Time to stock up the cabin, folks.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
What Audacity?
Haven't posted for quite a while. Many of the events of the last year have left me speechless. many of my assumptions about the world of Politics have not only been challenged but have come crashing to the ground. Others, to my disgust have been reinforced.
So much has been written about Obama's faltering Presidency. I won't bother to ruminate, as so many others have, on where it's all gone wrong, other than to say that Obama should abandon bipartisanship. The Republicans obviously don't want any part of it. obama has already demonstrated that goals set out in the campaign can quickly give way to the realities of governing. I wish he would stop clinging to this one. Instead I will point out 4 simple things he and the Democrats have the power to do that will deliver the transformative Presidency he and the American public so badly wanted.
First, use the huge Democratic majority in the house and reconciliation in the Senate to mandate public financing, and ONLY public financing for all federal elections. ban all other forms of political advertising. Speech is a birthright not one that can be allowed to be bought and sold as a commodity. Concentration of Media ownership will also need to be strongly regulated.
Second, use the same methods to open up Medicare to a Buy-in for all (not just the laughable proposition of those over 55), or enact the Public Option.
Third, use the same methods to enact meaningful financial reform.
Would voters punish the Democrats for this? If so, then I guess they've already got the country they want and deserve. I don't see how they would without corporate money, and the lies and distortion it brings, bombarding people's television screens all the time. Even just the first step would without a doubt, mean the inevitability other two. I'm sure even the "broken institution" of the Senate would do wonder once freed from dependence and fear of their corporate masters. This is the issue from which almost every bad policy in American politics stems. It MUST be addressed forcefully.
I'm sure you are shaking your head and chuckling as you mutter something about how this will never happen, and I am dreaming. I know it won't even though it could and should. Call it the audacity of hope.
So much has been written about Obama's faltering Presidency. I won't bother to ruminate, as so many others have, on where it's all gone wrong, other than to say that Obama should abandon bipartisanship. The Republicans obviously don't want any part of it. obama has already demonstrated that goals set out in the campaign can quickly give way to the realities of governing. I wish he would stop clinging to this one. Instead I will point out 4 simple things he and the Democrats have the power to do that will deliver the transformative Presidency he and the American public so badly wanted.
First, use the huge Democratic majority in the house and reconciliation in the Senate to mandate public financing, and ONLY public financing for all federal elections. ban all other forms of political advertising. Speech is a birthright not one that can be allowed to be bought and sold as a commodity. Concentration of Media ownership will also need to be strongly regulated.
Second, use the same methods to open up Medicare to a Buy-in for all (not just the laughable proposition of those over 55), or enact the Public Option.
Third, use the same methods to enact meaningful financial reform.
Would voters punish the Democrats for this? If so, then I guess they've already got the country they want and deserve. I don't see how they would without corporate money, and the lies and distortion it brings, bombarding people's television screens all the time. Even just the first step would without a doubt, mean the inevitability other two. I'm sure even the "broken institution" of the Senate would do wonder once freed from dependence and fear of their corporate masters. This is the issue from which almost every bad policy in American politics stems. It MUST be addressed forcefully.
I'm sure you are shaking your head and chuckling as you mutter something about how this will never happen, and I am dreaming. I know it won't even though it could and should. Call it the audacity of hope.
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