The Lies of Truth; the Truth of Lies

[Daveparts]

The Lies of Truth; the Truth of Lies
By David Glenn Cox

I have lost the ability to trust; I have lost the ability to have faith in the system or in its politicians. I have no faith in the right or in the left, no faith in the new right or the new left. We have on the one hand fascists and on the other hand apologists and enablers, until we find ourselves not only in an economic bankruptcy but in a political one as well.

It is not that they tell us lies, or that the truth is obscured with lies, it is that they tell us a truth that doesn’t exist. It's like a Cracker Jack box that promises a prize but doesn’t deliver one, a lie inside of a lie that is spun from prevarications and woven into a blanket of half-truths, falsehoods and fairy dust.

We the people of the United States just sent General Motors $100 billion and for all of that money we bought thousands of job cuts and unemployment, but in China GM’s auto production is up 38%. A record number of new vehicles were produced, designed in China, sourced in China and built in China. Only the profits of shareholders will ever benefit the US economy. Germany and Japan produce automobiles all over the world as well, but still source key components from the home country, but not America and not at GM.

We are so overwhelmed with lie upon lie from a complicit, stooge, corporate media that it is hard to determine the truth from domestic sources alone. It is only when they step on their own long tongues that we can see the media for what is truly is. Contrast the story from Iran, with its twenty-four hour coverage of an election stolen without proof, to the usurping of democracy in Honduras with barely a media peep other than excuses and neocon pronouncements.

Thousands march in the Honduran capital as the President speaks before the UN, and the whole world roundly condemns the coup. The US administration wrings its hands as it admits that it knew of the coup in advance but was unable to stop it. This same story was told in 2002 when the CIA tried to topple the lawful Venezuelan government. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said, "We haven't laid out any demands that we're insisting on, because we're working with others on behalf of our ultimate objectives." If the ultimate goal is the rule of law then the ultimate demand becomes obvious.

But through such statements I have lost the audacity of hope and the hope of audacity and the pope of mendacity. I know that some of you out there still believe, that like Tinkerbell think it won’t get any better unless we all believe together. But I no longer believe; I no longer believe in Capitalism as a system. It is no more than a crooked card game that rewards the rich when times are good and punishes the poor when times are bad.

It is a system that lays off millions and offers nothing in return; too bad, so sad, eat dirt and die because we have banks to rescue. The media and the right decried the President's stimulus plan as too big; I said it was too small. Now the media and some on the right are starting to ask if the stimulus was too small. I sit here, living in a garage in an industrial park, and watch these businesses winking out one-by-one, like porch lights.

There is no help or hope for them; there are no programs, there is nothing. Nothing except a sense of betrayal and the anger you feel when you discover the game has been fixed all along. JP Morgan is raising its minimum payment on its credit cards from 2% to 5%, just ahead of the new law preventing them from doing so. It must be nice to have friends on the inside and to live by the motto “Never give a sucker an even break.” The $25 billion in bailout funds extended to JP Morgan is seen as even more reason to drown the taxpaying rats from their ship.

All across the nation the states are making obscene, draconian cuts in education and in social programs. Yet every day the media tells me again and again that the worst is over. I wonder how they can tell lies such as that, and from what I can gather the answer would be practice.

I was reminded that the stimulus money is paying for a mobile dental lab in Colorado for 1.3 million dollars, while at the same time it took a federal judge to order the water turned back on in one of Atlanta’s main homeless shelters. Behind $30,000 on a water bill and unable to get help from federal or state officials, the shelter juggles and prays as the warning of the judge rings in their ears, to get the bill paid down or he won’t be so forgiving next time. Oh, and there will be a next time, mark my words.

We need mobile dental labs because this country is the only industrialized nation on the planet without a national healthcare plan. Not because the people don’t want a plan but because the insurance and drug companies don’t want you to have one. They spend a million dollars a day to lobby Congress until I fear what sort of hodgepodge and gobbity goop they will pass. That’s all part of the game, to sell you something as new and improved when it's actually less and more expensive.

Just like the end of the Iraq war has become the expansion of the Afghan-Pakistan war. Just like the closing of Quantanamo prison has become the expansion of Bagram prison. Just like the end of torture and waterboarding didn’t include the hundred or so prisoners who died while in our captivity. Just like the new transparency doesn’t include the list of those visiting the White House or the pictures of the tortured.

Nor does it include an explanation for defending Bush/ Cheney policies in court. Or why the President has gone back on every campaign promise in the first hundred days.

I have lost faith in government. I no longer see them as an instrument for good, but as Bernie Madoffs with a title; out to get whatever they can at the behest of the highest bidder. A Wiemar Republic that knows but doesn’t believe that the end is near. A government that, if it does actually do any good for its people, does so quite by accident. After all, a broken clock is still right twice a day.

[Lost Jaguar]

1. If we must have another Weimar...

...let's have the great night clubs as well.

Thanks again for another incisive piece. Although they impart bad news, your words are always anticipated.

[truedelphi]

2. All Hail to the Empty Suits in Washington

Starting with the President, OBAMA the Great Appeaser, and all the way down.

It was so sad to see ee a very decent man, Pete DeFazio of Oregon, trying to make headway with the Agency Heads.

He wants to know how his state, Oregon, can benefit from the new Stim Package. But the thing is, under its provisions, states will receive only eighteen months of payments.

How about that?!? Maybe we are in for a whole lot of highways to no where, and those will exist only in the states that are less cautious than Oregon.

DeFazio pointed out that to do most construction projects of any real benefit, you are looking at a two to five year construction time. Oregon has it built into its state Constitution that NO MONIES can be accepted from the Federal government UNLESS the entire project that the monies are enabling will last for the life of the project.

The people, including Rogoff, that DeFazio was addressing, seemed very unapologetic about it. Suck it up, Representative of Oregon, they seemed to be saying.

Watching this exchange on C Span you got the feeling that DeFazio was visiting his local bank and being told that due to jobs being in Asia but no longer existing here, his chances of getting a loan were nil.

We The People are not of the same class as Obama the Great's Administrators. So what if it is after all, OUR MONEY!

I am so ashamed of this nation I could puke. But what good would that do?

[glowing]

3. Its so sad that this Capitalistic land goes against the very nature of people.

It is a natural instinct for humans to take shelter, have food, clean air, and clean water. It is unusual not to have these things. It is unatural for the tribal instinct not to work together for the good of its survival. Everyone has their part in maintaining the survival. Its the basic human nature. Capitalism breaks that natural instinct away and makes it survival of the richest. There's only so long a society can run on "flight or fight" mode. The implosion is in the making. I'm wondering when the spark will come in the US? Its going to happen... Just when is the question.

[DemReadingDU]

4. I feel betrayed too

All my life, 60 years, I thought our Constitution setup the government to be of the people, by the people, for the people. As it turns out, the government helps the elites, politicians, and lobbyists.

What happened? Did the people become complacent, apathetic? Did the people stop thinking, and turn to RW radio for others to think for them? Did the people think only of themselves in the present, and not the future?

I am so saddened by the downturn of our once great country for my children and grandbabies. How could we leave them a financial mess that they will not be able to dig out of? How could we leave them infrastructure (roads, bridges, electricity, water) on the verge of collapse. How could we have been so shortsighted?

There is no more faith in the government, I must keep faith in my family and friends, that's all I have.

[Hydra]

5. This isn't the first time this happened

The Gilded Age led to the Great Depression once before. FDR managed to save capitalism, but at this point, I'd rather he had not and we'd gotten a system that works.

Instead, the Robber Barons undermined the progress to the point where they could turn it all around again. This is how they like it- with the little people dying out and the rich getting fat.

I wait and watch though...someday, most people will see the scam. What will they do about it?

[DemReadingDU]

6. By the time most people see the scam

They will be jobless, homeless, pennyless and hungry. They will have lost everything, maybe even their loved ones. Then it will be a revolution, people marching to Washington to go after the crooks with pitchforks and ropes. Probably won't happen in my lifetime though.

[Daveparts]

8. When I voted for Obama

I was hoping for FDR but what I got was FTD flowers by phone

[santamargarita]

7. I have so much distrust after eight years of Bush Hell...

and now broken promises from President Obama.