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Here’s the problem as I see it. The country, me included, is experiencing a sssssssllllllllllooooooowwwwwwwww motion replay of the 7 minutes of silence on 9/11 only this time it’s over the economy and then some. There’s no leadership—there’s no one to trust.
It’s kind of freaking me out. Krugman called it a "banana republic with nukes" I think there’s more to it than that. I read Ian and it scares the bejeebus out of me. Same with Krugman. People whose judgement I used to respect, like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are working on the side of the devil as far as I can tell. Obama I haven’t trusted for a long time and he’s not given me any more reasons to trust him lately, what with FISA and all. And don’t get me started about last night’s dog and Palin show!
So where’s the "daddy" that the thugs like to talk about? There isn’t even a mommy to soothe the psyche of the nation and therefore the world. It feels like we’re teetering on the abyss and no one is coming forward to say, "wait a minute, we can survive this, here’s how." There’s no FDR, there’s no JFK, no one. Nada.
I’m trying to write a sermon and this just keeps getting in my way. Am I alone here?
10 Comments
No.
Nope. I don’t know if this helps any, but with Hard Times ahead, the silver lining view is that that’s when people start to care about leadership and pay closer attention generally. We’re seeing that already and it’s only been just under eight years since ”Okay, sure, but how bad could Bush screw things up in 4 years really?” was a perfectly reasonable point of view. WWW generation is voting already. More and more of 9/11 generation are getting to vote, and they may not be as well educated as we’d like but they are sure as hell paying attention. Wait till the global warming kids hit their stride.
Meanwhile we just have to make friends with our neighbors, and try to keep a bit left over for charity at home.
Well, we can’t serve two masters, can we?
It makes it especially difficult, when the One Master (Rome) refuses to hear our pleas.
And even more difficult when the other Master is the divine center of who each one of us is.
Getting in the way of your sermon? It Is the sermon.
Well, maybe.
Blessings on you, Deb.
Still not sure how this diary construction works—put the video in the summary neither of which showed up in the diary. Now redone.
As for it being the sermon—sort of, not quite. I have to get me out of it. I’ve become way too obsessed by all of this.
We have to count on one another for the trust. It’s horizontal, not vertical. See George Lakoff.
Try this. For supposedly redneck country rock, I always find the lyrics for their Van Zant and Lynyrd Skynyrd songs to be remarkably warm and progressive in outlook.
Aren’t we the leaders we’ve been waiting for?
RevDeb, nope you are not alone. personally gazed out in to the abyss wednesday evening – felt vertigo
my inner pollyanna has definitely seen a sliver of good to come out of all of this – our fellow americans rose up (finally) and not just the ones pissed off on a visceral level. despite the media’s usual anemic performance, many of our fellow citizens seem to understand what was at play – more important, I have encountered dozens who have acknowledged that maybe they should have been paying more attention – and “hey, hippy gal, can you tell me how to keep better tabs on these a**holes ?”
nope – WE are the ones we are looking for
Know where the Dow and S&P 500 were EIGHT years ago? 11,388 and 1255, respectively.
http://www.minyanville.com/art…..ex/a/19326
Today after the bailout? Dow=10,324, S&P 500=1099
What’s Responsible for the TED Spread’s Recent Behavior?
http://seekingalpha.com/articl…..t-behavior
Libor Mystifies Americans as Mayor Reads `Doomsday’ (Update2) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…..refer=home
I guess most Americans don’t bother to read the terms and conditions of their credit cards if they don’t know what the LIBOR is; What is REALLY scary is the quotation of Congress critters regarding what LIBOR is, ESPECIALLY Dodd’s staff.
RevDeb: I think the people to trust are those with the most money who are making moves right now – like Warren Buffet. He obviously has a financial interest in what happens, so moves he makes actually are ones that are designed to make him (and the company he makes investments in) money.
We should tell our legislators and pres candidates we (the taxpayers) want the same deal Buffet got from Goldman Sachs.
I read an excellent article on a much better way for this thing to be solved from George Soros as printed in the Financial Times (a British financial paper). He has an interesting perspective in that he is heavily invested in the US – but views things from a European perspective. It can add a lot to the discussion. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d68e10…..i_referer=
You do have to sign up to read the article but it just requires a ‘name’ and password.
There is another article right below his that I also found very interesting.
I don’t know how you feel about Michael Moore – but he had a ‘Plan B’ that could be implemented right alongside the current messy thing – and that makes sense as well. Moore talks about how using just a little bit of money (comparatively speaking) to refinance mortgages would result in a much greater liquidity in the credit market than pouring gobs of money in at the top will ever do.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/wo…..237#update
There is a new website http://www.paulsonmustgo.org that started a petition with Mike’s plan and delivered over 100,000 signatures in 24 hours to the House. (I know, it didn’t do any good). But his plan could still be implemented anyway.
There are at least some other pretty good ideas out there – now we just need to put pressure on legislators and whoever wins in Nov to implement some stuff that was NOT thought up by the very people who got us into this mess in the first place!
No, you are not alone. fwiw, I respect (probably even trust) Feingold. That’s about as far as I go.