Shorting the US of A Part Two - Was S&P Correct?

(This is part two of an extended rant on the economic crisis sparked by those fuck-heads at S&P. For part one, click HERE)

As to the question of S&P...fuck no. Nothing about them is correct. But they do have some assertions that are hard to argue in the main stream media, at least the way it is framed. Their main assertion is that the United States has dysfunctional governance at its core, and therefore cannot be totally counted upon to pay its debts. I think this is bullshit, but it is hard to argue the incompetence in government, or the sheer lunacy.

The real problem is that our government is bought, lock, stock and barrel by the same corporate oligarchs that pay S&P to give their crap AAA ratings. Our government is made up of a conservative party that does whatever the corporations want, and an even worse party called the Republicans. Our government IS dysfunctional in that it no longer serves the needs of the mainstream.

Many will argue that that has been the case for time immemorial. And I won't argue with them. But I think that we are at a tipping point time where something has to give. National anger will well up soon, and already has in the form of the Tea Party. The problem is, the Tea Party is doing EXACTLY what will benefit the oligarchs. They are lunatics that are driven by racism, xenophobia and in some cases religious extremism. I see the Tea Party as the expression of white, working/middle class conservatives who feel the slipping standard of living juxtaposed with the pressure of changing demographics. The broader national culture has been changing, as has the economy. They don't like it, and they blame liberals - because Rush and Beck tell them to.

They demand a kind of nationalist purity, one based on a mythical time when you paid for everything in America with gold coin, and nobody needed help from the government. Their intransigence during this debt ceiling debate was seemingly crazy. But I thought different, I thought it was awesome.

Not awesome as in good, awesome as awe inspiring.

These crazy fuckers are a minority. The Tea Party is a minority in the Republican party, and a much smaller minority in the Congress. But they are running roughshod over the lot of them, and leaving everyone else looking weak and foolish. John Boehner can't control them, and McConnell and DeMint will do anything to curry their favor. And even worse, the Democrats are terrified of them.

Why? Why are the DEMOCRATIC members of the House, Senate and White House afraid of these lunatics. They SHOULD be a dream come true. Their radical utterances should be in every Democrat's campaign commercials. But they can't do that now...

...because their President has adopted TOO MANY OF THEIR FUCKING TALKING POINTS!

The President's constant lurching to the right has created a conventional wisdom in the media. It goes as follows: The Tea Party is on the right, Obama is on the left, and John "Boner" and John McCain are the moderates. Oh, and the Progressive Caucus, they are the radical fringe.

The problem with this is that about 80% of Americans, if polled issue by issue on the economy want what the Progressive Caucus wants. The mainstream media narrative is way outside the mainstream American reality. Americans need jobs, health care, and a little security in their old age. But the most immediate need is jobs. No legislation since the bailout packages in 2008/09 have addressed this problem.

So...S&P, fuck-heads that they are, were correct when they said we had dysfunctional government. Not for the reason they said, but it is dysfunctional to the core. The same corporate oligarchs who built and nurtured the Frankenstein monster Tea Party, now struggle to control their monster's rampage through a broken body politic.

S&P also said that revenue was needed. This is why treasuries are still so stable, even after the downgrade, because our taxes are so low! There is plenty of room, historically, to raise them. The tax cuts that Bush put through added over a TRILLION dollars to the debt. But the Republicans are stuck with a pledge to never raise taxes, and the Democrats are too afraid to push an issue that 80 fucking percent of the American public agrees with - raise taxes on the rich.

So...S&P was right about dysfunction, and may have even been correct in downgrading the US debt. I really don't know. We are not the country we used to be, and the evidence becomes clearer every day how that is true. Having said that, S&P was not the main reason for the stock market explosion last week. Why did it blow up? See part three!