How come nobody ever levels with us?

Today’s news takes us away from our tunnel vision of domestic political woes and shows us how deeply disturbed our world is and how it impacts us. We are simply not getting the facts reported to us in any cohesive way.  We are being manipulated by virtually every data compiler on the planet.

In today’s AOL News online we learn that three American soldiers and about 70 people have been killed in a bomb blast inside of Pakistan.  This is the country that we are not operating within, remember? 

The story is entitled Pakistan Confirms 3 US Soldiers Killed in Bomb Blast and only reconfirms my long-held belief that we will tell anybody anything at anytime using any manipulative technique whatsoever if it means that the military industrial complex and its narrow fascist agenda is pushed forward.  How do our government leaders in the defense agencies and their bosses in the war industries sleep at night?  Just asking.

In a New York Times article entitled Senators Warned of Terror Attack on U.S. by July we learn that Al Qaeda is planning to attack us on American soil prior to next July.  I don’t want to scare anyone, but this is not news.  Al Qaeda and its perhaps two dozen fundamentalist Islamist cousins in the world of terror organizations will be planning such things for the next one hundred years at least.

I can never shrug off the feeling when this sort of  “news”  is reported that it is a deliberate attempt by the banksters, emerging market manipulators, defense industry thugs and other Ivy League educated criminals to scare the American public into accepting their hands as permanent fixtures in our pockets.

This always strikes me as a thinly veiled attempt to suck more “terror defense” money out of a scared public.  The problem with scaring a poor man is that, scared or not, he is still without money.  Do they want every last dime we have?  Don’t answer that.  I think I know the answer already.

In another New York Times article concerning our efforts (to do exactly what?) in Afghanistan entitled With Raw Recruits, Afghan Police Buildup Falters we learn that our “plan” to build up Afghanistan’s police forces and army is running into a concrete wall of ignorance, illiteracy and poverty of will.  This was our much-touted exit plan put forth by General McChrystal, remember?

In another story from today’s New York Times entitled China’s Defiance Stirs Fears for Missing Dissident we learn that our largest creditor, China, is about as capable of understanding the rule of law over the rule of men as being  of paramount importance among civilized nations as pigs are capable of flying.

These are the people who will ultimately finance the destiny of our children and our children’s children and their children.  They are essentially the only people left on the globe who have any money after American and Western banksters stole the little bit of liquidity that the West had left in its pockets. This does not leave you with a good feeling, does it? 

The only people left on the planet who can finance global economic growth have the legal proclivities of a New York mafia family.

The only nation on Earth that is in the position to finance world economic growth takes its political dissidents and “disappears” them in the same way that the Syndicate used to take recalcitrants who refused to pay protection money “for a ride” down to the East River.  The Chinese take the word “bankster” and raise it to entirely new levels of understanding.

In a tragedy closer to home, Americans are starting to walk away from their homes and their mortgage payments in a big way. 

In a New York Times piece entitled No Help in Sight, More Homeowners Walk Away we learn that once a home mortgage is in a position where payment is more than 125% of the value of what the home is presently worth, it is not financially sound to continue paying.  It makes sense to the individual borrower to simply default on the mortgage and get a nicer, newer, smaller apartment to rent.

People are starting to do this in a big way all over the country.  It would cost roughly $745 billion dollars for the government to finance mortgagers to keep this massive mortgage default tsunami from moving forward through the economy.  That is not going to happen. 

The affect on the general economy, should this grow into a rapid cresting wave of mortgage defaults in the next few years, would be devestating.  Stand by for heavy rolls, General Quarters Condition One.  “Man your battle stations, this is not a drill.”

In a New York Times Op Ed piece by Thomas Friedman entitled When Economics Meets Politics we find out that (1) we need 2010 to be a quiet year in order to gather our strength and formulate strategies to get us moving out of this worldwide global economic disaster and (2) we need cool, unpoliticized heads to prevail in leading the way.  Amen to that.

In today’s Washington Post in an article entitled McCain appears to shift on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ we learn that a once “gay supportive” John McCain is now not so sure he supports the initiative now that the end of discrimination against gays in the military is almost upon us.  Could it be that he no longer needs gay votes since he is no longer a serious Presidential candidate and so he can show his true colors?  This is outright wrong, John.  I have always respected you for being a straight shooter.  Don’t fail me now.  Talk straight.

And finally we get a story from the Post entitled U.S. military officers could face punishment over ambush in Afghanistan in which we learn that commanders in the battle for Wanat might face courts martial. 

That is enough “news” for today.  My head hurts.  I just keep wondering every time I read a daily news spread from several news outlets; who represents us and our views on things?

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)