DRANT # 321: LUFTMENSCHEN

"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down," President Bush declared Thursday as he watched the $700 billion bailout package fall apart before his eyes, according to one person in the room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's a story my much-missed Julie Vogel used to tell. I don't tell it nearly as well, but it sums it all up: (Background:The Nazis imposed numerous draconian laws forbidding Jews from engaging in business with others.) ########### No matter how bad things got, Yossl and Moishe met every day for coffee. One morning Yossl tells Moishe- "Ya know, I have no need for this beautiful watch I'm wearing. Who needs to know the time ? Its a priceless heirloom, but I just don't need it anymore. How about I sell it to you ?" Moishe says: "Wellll, it's scratched, but I don't own a watch. OK, I'll give you 3 zlotys." "3 Zlotys ! Ridiculous, its worth 100 !" "Take it or leave it," says Yossl. "I'll take it," says Moishe. Next morning over coffee, Moishe says- "Ya know, I love this watch, but I just really never look at the time. Maybe you should buy it. 4 Zlotys." "4 !" yelps Yossl, "it's not worth 2 !" "Take it or leave it." "OK," says Yossl, "4 Zlotys." Next morning, Yossl offers to sell the watch back to Moishe for 5 Zlotys. "This is ridiculous," says Moishe. "I sell it to you, you sell it to me. For what ?" "Stop complaining," says Yossl. "Like this-- we're making a living !" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Luftmenschen means "AIR-MEN." Men who live on air. We live in LuftLand - the AIR COUNTRY. What lessons we can learn from Moishe and Yossl: 1- A thing is worth only what someone will pay for it. 2- To sell, it takes two, baby. 3- You both have to agree on the terms. 4- A deal is a deal. 5- Everything is fine as long as its fine. AKA the Wiley Coyote Rule: if you run off the cliff, you don't fall 'til you look down. 6- The most important thing is to keep the game going. For the past few days, the Pigs gathered publicly and unabashed at the trough yet again, recalling nothing less than the Warren Commission or the 9-11 Commission, or worse- Powell and Tenant at The UN. I mean, take a LOOK at these guys. The pre-determined DECISION has been made. The rest is a mendacious manipulative show: the usual carefully choreographed Bullshit Ballet, sumptuously staged to convince us that: 1- Democracy is alive and well in the USA 2- The demands, needs and views of We (the group formerly known as) The People are being vigorously represented, and 3- What we are watching is tough but honest disagreement between sincere but differing points of view. Where are Yossl and Moishe when we need them ? These Pigs all have the same religion, feed from the same dish of slop, and work for the same masters. They are ALL ON THE SAME SIDE. As I have bleated for years-- looking to the Conspirators to end The Conspiracy is self-defeating lunacy. Did we learn nothing from the WMD disaster ? Are we going to believe again in the Mushroom Cloud Fairy ? That this is an EMERGENCY ? That total chaos awaits if we delay even a few days ? What's the rush ??? How about making damn sure the $700 Billion check (and muchmuchmuch more) gets written before a new President and Congress take office ? If O-same-a still had one testicle left, he never would have shown up. But of course, if he had balls in the first place, he would have stood up two days ago, and announced that he would not support or accept any deal where every man woman and child in the USA would be asked to pay for crap that everyone knows is worthless, while the perps walk, and the rest of us lose the very things that sustain life. Proof again that Oshama is a professional invertebrate goalongtogetalong, who has built his life on pleasing everyone and being no one. Massuh, thy name is Goldman Sachs. (see DRANT # 312) The bottom line: at the same exact time Dungress was publicly daisychaining over "saving the economy," they overwhelmingly passed yet another 400 billion dollar funding bill guaranteeing yet more years of war, genocide, occupation, torture, and destruction of the planet. We're already in the opening scenes of one possible Act II - the usual-- where both sides feign disagreement and difference of principle, where Pimp Media pushes phony controversy to sell us the big lie, and where America buys it all, and votes for one of two evils. (breaking news: The government just brokered (!) a deal where JP Morgan/Chase got to buy Washington Mutual's ASSETS, but stuck You and Me and Aunt Minnie with the worthless paper, and about 100 Billion dollars in debt.) No Congress, no debate, no discussion, no vote. Poof. But- I see another scenario. We The People have snoozed through devastation of our habitat, repression and obliteration of our rights, the persecution and incarceration, and the slaughter, torture, poisoning and cultural defenestration of millions of "others." WTP did nothing that made any difference. But now, at last, we Americans are rising up, on fire with righteous anger, enraged by our leaders' betrayal, marching, writing, yelling, calling, faxing and ferociously emailing, letting our voices be heard far and wide. We have finally been grievously wounded in our one vulnerable spot, America's Achilles Heel- our profound self-interest -- All along, I and many others have been demanding to know- what will it take ? What will it take to wake people up and get them to DO something ? What is the threshhold -- the tipping point -- the final incendiary spark ? Well, now we know. Being told to pay 700 billion dollars for a pile of crap that nobody wants. That may finally have done it. They planned another 9-11-- a financial 9-11, to scare us into even further compliance and submission -- through fear. Fear of losing everything we've worked for our whole lives-- our pensions, our health, the chance for our grandchildren to live better lives than we, and of course, our very homes. And frightened we are. Willing to sell off pieces of our freedom to gain slivers of solace and security. BUT-- 700 billion dollars for crap ? Uh uh. That's it. You think this all wasn't part of the plan ? I think it was. We are being pushed to the point of irrationality and reactive destructive behavior. See: Bush's fear-mongering apocalyptic address to the nation - meant to scare the Mohamed out of us. What McGoon did today- "suspending" the campaign -- walking away from the first Debate -- was a deeply signifying act. It put the entire election in doubt. As I write, there is no way to know for sure if he will show up in Mississippi or not. That's not the point. The point is- nobody is sure. Then, the debacle in Bush's office this afternoon, where the Republicans created chaos, basically reneged, dropped a totally new deal on the table, and left. Do you think this was spontaneous ? How about if I tell you that ACTIVE DUTY troops from the 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team have been removed from Iraq, and redeployed in the USA - for Homeland Security efforts, under the Northern Command (NORCOMM) - freshly trained for urban operations, and newly trained and armed with TASERS ? The first time in history. Do you think there's a small chance that this election will be - umm- "suspended?" That Bush will invoke one of the largish pile of justifying laws and executive orders he and Cheney have accumulated over the last few years-- proclaim a national emergency, and do away with Posse Comitatus, and what remains of the Bill of Rights ? Watch THIS. annnd.... NY TIMES: "...Local police departments in 13 states and security agents from Amtrak and the federal Transportation Security Administration carried out a show of force at 150 railroad stations from Virginia to Vermont on Tuesday morning. The drill included random searches of passengers and their belongings, as well as other, unspecified security measures, the authorities said." Officers from the Amtrak Police Department, Transportation Security Administration, Homeland Security and New York Police Department during the morning rush hour in the Amtrak area of New York Penn Station on Tuesday. FEMA exists not to help people in times of need, but to insure Continuity of Government when there is a national emergency. Would you like to spend your summer vacation in a nice FEMA Camp ? Do you think its possible for the walls of the financial levees to break, as a torrent of worthless dollars and I.O.U.s pour over us - and Blackwater rides into town to restore order, and keep us from grabbing some food at the Safeway and HDTVs at Best Buy ? I do. And I think that none of this is accident.