Independent News and Politics

America is quickly and quietly advancing the militarized front from the Middle East to Africa.

With the exception of Iran, the entire Middle East Region has pretty much become dominated by the massive US military presence.  I can’t say exactly what good it does us, but from a strategy perspective its hard to argue that any nation has as much power and influence in the area.

Since the Middle East imperial adventure was such a “success,” we’ve decided to direct our attentions to the west and south:  Particularly into the horn of Africa.

Keep an ear out for AFRICOM – its our latest overseas focus even if we aren’t talking about it too much.

While protectionists argue about who gets to stand in the tire assembly plants of the world, China is quietly acquiring strategic resource reserves in the form of rare earth metals.

These metals are pretty cool – they are essential components of a lot of the advanced technology we take for granted.

So China can go ahead and make their levitating trains and hoverboards. We’ll stick to the tire manufacturing jobs because we iz smarts like that.

Too bad – because they’ve denied all the protest permit applications and they’ve been running around town pre-emptively harassing everyone who might potentially pose a theoretical threat.

More information on the Pittsburgh counter-revolution can be found here, but the lesson here is clear:  the less coverage dissent gets, the better it is.  Why crush protestors with brute force if you can make them quietly back down beforehand?

If someone wants to buy me a ticket to Pennsylvania, I’ll go chant and carry a sign or something.  I could use a vacation!

The stock market is soaring…! So long as you’ve got your money invested in the businesses with Congressional representation.

Senators and representatives cost more than ever, so only the biggest and richest corporations can actually afford to sponsor one’s decisions. To really get a good return on that corrupt lobbying public investment you may even need to buy several Congress-peoples.

But you know, “you have to spend money to make money” and clearly the path to a healthy economy is that you have to spend it on the politician’s consumption pleasure.

A lot of unemployed Americans want to blame people in China for the fact that no one wants to hire them for $40,000 and full medical/dental/retirement.

What they’re not willing to do is go back to college to get an education that’s updated to the day’s most in-demand jobs & skills. What they are willing to do is start a global trade war because of the mistaken belief that cutting off a huge part of our economy will somehow make them richer.

In the meantime, everyone in a business that actually makes stuff people want around the world will suffer in order to protect some of our low-skilled labor.

In the long run, a breakdown of international trade can lead to increasing military hostilities. There was a whole decade of global economic depression and trade wars before WW2 broke out.

Max Baucus has a plan for healthcare, but it is as bad or worse as doing nothing.

As if to prove what is wrong with the corporate and political environment in America, Baucus wants us to believe that using public force to enforce private profitability is a key to staying healthy and wealthy.

This plan would mandate health insurance to all Americans without providing a non-profit public option.  It also wouldn’t address the costs of becoming a doctor, the legal costs of fighting frivolous lawsuits and malpractice insurance, or the health costs of all of the crap the FDA approves as food and medicine.

What it would do, is add millions of new customers to the health insurance rolls.

Good job, Max!  Way to earn those corporate contributions.

Will Obama support this plan or fire back with a new media offensive and round of speeches?  The campaign version of Obama opposed mandates and the issue has become quite a topic for debate between limo liberals and their blue-collared minions.  Despite the theoretical macro-benefits of mandated insurance, the move alone won’t do much if anything to address the affordability of the insurance coverage for those individuals who couldn’t afford it in the first place.

So we have to wonder.  Is the problem that Americans can’t afford insurance, or is the problem just that they’re choosing to buy something else?  The facts show we spend more per capita than plenty of places with universal coverage, so I think the big problem is on the cost end.

Maybe if there was a health coverage product that Americans felt was a good value, there would be more of us signing up for it.

Meanwhile, there are still no jobs available and the value of your dollars have just begun a brand new fall off one of the steepest cliffs seen yet.

Indeed, the recession is over – and the depression is now starting to kick in!

Gold and oil show big gains today as the US dollar continues to fall.

While the devaluation will make existing debts theoretically easier to pay back, it also diminishes American’s wealth and drives up the cost of basic living expenses such as food and transportation.

The net effect for most Americans, despite the nominal gains in equity values, is a reduced standard of living.

Today’s political meme: If we don’t do something to heat up our war effort, we’ll lose in Afghanistan!

A few significant attacks go off, and suddenly the spin-masters are trying to make it sound like our honor is at stake unless we authorize some huge, expensive counter-offensive that kills a whole bunch of bad guys. Of course, its inevitable and conveniently left out that any such attack would almost certainly include killing some not so bad guys. Ok, completely innocent people.

But forget that and focus on the real issue, America! You donn’t want to lose at something, do you?