we never learn

nothing that ails us as a nation will ever be seriously addressed at the ballot box.

our political situation is dire, and the solutions that the public endorses promise to make our already painful condition worse.

the public is too used to being #1. life is like the super bowl, and that the USA is always the winning team.

so as the economy teeters on the verge of collapse, we see no historical precedent; only an imperative to bring in a new coach or star players who can turn things around at halftime.

the latest rage in washington, reinforced by obambi's speech, is that government is too big and doesn't serve -- it hurts -- the citizens. we will be treated to draconian cuts in social services and other government functions that protect the public, but which cost businesses profits.

this has been afoot for the past 30 years, but after the financial calamity of 2008, the financial elites have finally determined that it's time for them to make their move. deficit spending has piled on enormous debt, which has been communicated to a gullible and greedy public as a result of government largess to the undeserving poor.

instead, the deficits have been the result of profligate spending by the self-same conservatives who now call for the most savage cuts. they spent with abandon when it was for foreign contingency operations (imperial wars of aggression), and gave generously when it came to their corporate patrons (trillion-dollar bailouts for the financial speculators).

so long as the message machine run by wealthy issues is successful  as painting the beneficiaries of "spending programs" as negroes and foreigners, there is no limit to the hypocritical, self serving con game they run on these unsuspecting, all-american yahoos.

now in it's 30th year, as this game, the super bowl of all scams, runs its course, the clueless clods of middle america look left and right for scapegoats, and find only each other. as their standard of living continues to wither away, they rant and rail at the inferior others who they suppose are the authors of their misery, only to find at the final call of judgement that they were screwing themselves.

by then the money's gone, suckers! you LOST!