Bush's Scary Speach

Max Angst called me last night; he felt he had to talk to somebody and I was chosen.
“Art, I think I’ve pulled it all together. Bush’s Inauguration Speech has my mind flying and things just started to fall in place. We both know this country is in dire economic trouble, although Bush didn’t say a word about that. The national debt is the largest ever, our trade balance is also at a record negative level, personal debt is the highest in history, and our industries are collapsing at a tremendous rate because they can’t compete with foreign industries that pay slave labor wages. This is why Bush has to go to war,” Max said
“Whoa Max, “ I responded. “ I don’t get you at all.”
“The American Economic Elite, who Bush represents, are watching their political base, the US Economy, crumble. Yes, they are invested world wide, but they don’t have the clout outside this country that they have here. Certainly not in places like China, Japan, India and even Europe. They don’t have an economic response, but they do have control of the most powerful military establishment in human history, so they came up with a plan. First, the one commodity the world needs is oil, and the supply of oil will soon reach its height and begin to decline. So, Bush moves militarily into Iraq and later the entire Mid-East in order to gain control of the world’s oil supply and thereby retain a dominant political position in the world for the American Economic Elite. Plans for invading Iran and Syria are drawn up. Keeping the Saudi’s in Power, by supporting them militarily against any insurgency will control Arabia. Second, they will move to obtain political and economic control across the planet. All this they will call spreading freedom throughout the world. I call it imperialism and it has its problems.” Max said.
“What are they?” I asked.
“The major players in the world won’t stand for it. China and Russia see the threat and are moving closer. Much of Europe stands in opposition. Even South America has a strong Anti-United States front.
But, the biggest problem is the economics. How are they going to pay for this Empire? That is another reason for moving into the Middle East. They’ll pay for their Empire with oil revenues stolen from the nations of that area. Also, controlling the oil will allow them to bring pressure on their opposition,” Max said.
“This thing seems problematic; they’re not having any easy time in Iraq. It doesn’t seem they have the military strength to conquer other countries. They seem to be short of troops as it is,” I said.
"These guys don’t care for anyone but themselves. Look what they’ve done to the weekend warriors. I would not be surprised if a draft is instituted before the end of 2005. They’ll probably create some phony crisis; like they did in 9/11 and then start dragging young people into the military. On the other side, they also don’t care about the inhabitants of Iraq or the other Mid-east countries. They’ll do one Faluja after another. If worse come to worse they’ll use the A-bomb. They’re even capable of loosing IBM’s on Russia and China,”
“Max, are there no good people out there that will stop this.”
“Well, Art, there’s you and me.” Max responded and hung up.

Equity

Last Sunday I stopped by Burnie’s Bar and found Max Angst reading the New York Times and shaking his head.
“Art, if you really want to understand this country you need to compare two articles in today’s times, Max said.
“What are they about, Max?” I asked.
“People loosing their jobs,” he answered.
“Yeah, that can be rough,” I said.
“Not always,” Max responded.
“What do you mean? I asked.
“The first article is about a guy named Charles K. Gifford who is being eased out of his job as Chairman of The Bank of America, they call it retirement He receives an amazing golden parachute. First he gets a $16.36 million cash payment, then up to $8.67 million in incentive payments, and $3.1 million a year for life. Also, he’s guaranteed $50,000 a year In consulting fees, 120 hours of free flight time on the company jet and a secretary.
“Compare this to a lady in the second article, Fabiola Quitiaquez, who lost her job last May. Six months have gone by and she cannot find work. Her unemployment has been used up. She has no income, no health insurance, nothing. There are 1.8 million Americans in this situation.
This is what this country is all about. There’s a small group of people who milk the system dry and the majority who struggle to get through it all.” Max said.
“Don’t some people make larger contributions to society than others?” I asked.
“Yes, and most get paid damn well for it while they’re making the contribution. The sick thing is that they’re so greedy they rig the system to bury themselves in riches when they leave their jobs. At the same time others become destitute when their jobs are lost. There is no equity in our country. The system is set up to enrich a small group at the expense of the rest of us.”
“And it always has been so,” I said.
“That doesn’t make it right. This is supposedly a country of the people, by the people and for the people. That is our highest political ideal. Well its about time the people started demanding the realization of that ideal.”
“You know as well as I do that most people feel that’s a hopeless cause. People have been crying out for equity since the beginning of civilization and it never happened, “ I said.
“Well I’m not willing to give up that ideal. People like you and me Art have to continue the struggle and maybe some day we’ll win.”

Max Returns

Max Angst has been away; on the fourth of November he went to Canada. But, for a lot of reasons, that didn’t work out and he arrived home on December 28th. I caught his act at Burnie’s Bar on New Years Day and here’s what he had to say.

“Eighty-seven thousand people at the damn football bowl game on the TV, hollering and screaming about a bunch of crap that doesn’t effect anything. And, there are a number of these going on around the country. At the same time the powers that be are robbing these sports fans blind and destroying the future of their children. But, the average American, idiot that he is, won’t spend ten minutes trying to understand what’s going on around him so that he can take action to correct it. He doesn’t realize that he lives in a Fascist Country – A country whose government is of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations, as Mussolini defined fascism. A lot of people are being hurt by our fascist government, but the sports fans don’t have time to work on that problem. They have to go to the game. The US is done. In 20 years China will be the dominant country in the world.

I don’t know about all that Max says, but it does make one think,