A Black Border for America

--Thomas Nast on fake economy

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
--For What it's Worth,
Buffalo Springfield

Round and round it goes,
where it stops, nobody knows
--Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour

And somewhere men are laughing,
and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville -
mighty Casey has struck out
--Casey at the Bat, Ernest Thayer
______________________

This was written with the last pen sold by our now-defunct Borders Bookstore. The pen was made in China; it ran out of ink by day two.

Back in the halcyon days of 20th century United States, mystery writer John D. McDonald authored the Travis McGee series, an easygoing character who lived on a boat. In order to wrangle favorable book deals from his publisher, McDonald would say that he had the final installment in the bag: A Black Border for McGee; in other words, he would kill off the cash cow if they were niggardly in their negotiations.

Mr. McDonald, former OSS member (R.I.P), could not have known there would soon be a Black Border for America. The closure of the Borders bookstore chain signifies many things. Most obviously, the loss of 19,000 more jobs on September 1. They will soon be joined by the losses incurred from the closure of 1,300 post offices. Congressman Darrell Issa projects 200,000 fired laid-off over the next few years.

While our government diddles over budget caps and defaults the everyday lives of our middle and lower classes are slowly fading to black, because the things not counted in the cost of living index -- things like gas and food -- are the mainstays of their lives. How is it we can have a rosy uptick in consumer purchasing? Because the wealthiest 5-20% are back to purchasing top drawer items at full price, because they know there will always be more for them (Sales of Luxury Goods are Recovering Strongly.)

Meanwhile, dollar stores are failing to make their quotas or have an extremely thin profit margin because their denizens are cutting back to the bare essentials, cutting out "discretionary" purchases like hand lotions. A Dollar Store manager said apologetically in a NYT article, "it may sound ridiculous", but the stores will often not raise popular items by 10 cents as that would have a significant impact upon their client base.

Back to the pen: Ranger has a handsome wooden Hallmark pen for which he cannot obtain refills; we are no longer manufacturing them. The only hope for using the refillable pen is to find unused ones on eBay when stationary stores close out, or to order an adapter provided by Hallmark Canada to allow the use of other refill cartridges. Ranger finds himself like the Road Warrior, searching the parched landscape for niceties that one were.

It seems Americans would rather buy 50-pks at Costco of cheapo Chinese pens rather than taking the time to actually keep track of and dissemble a pen for refilling. More trash, less value, the appearance of value, less manufacturing in the USA.

Meanwhile, Fla-duh Governor Rick "Pink Slip" Scott calls for ever more students to become engineers, scientists and mathematicians, without specifying where these people will work. But some people will surely benefit: The community college system, which will run under-prepared applicants through the remediation mill for several terms, and all the support associated with that. Surely every government agency involved with placing, training and benefits for people mismatched to field. Failure and sickness is becoming big business in the U.S. Rick Scott would know this from his holdings in the health care field.

And maybe, when these poor schlumps find no jobs, they can rock their basic math skills by being able to subtract the receipt total from funds given at the burgeoning Dollar Stores without dumbly staring at the register and being flummoxed by the offer of an extra penny to avoid getting four back. Surely the tabs will never be too high to compute, and dollar type stores are a growth area. It's something.

The economic climate of America is not going to improve for the masses anytime soon.

Gone by the Wayside

One day we're gonna wake up
And the ghetto's all around
All over my friend
Have you ever seen a man break down?
--Feel No Pain, Sade

~~I'm afraid it's no use.
The boat won't come until Monday.
~~No boat will ever come.
We're here forever.
--And Then there Were None,
Agatha Christie
________________

Many niceties of our civil society are going by the wayside due to fiscal insolvency. In the past two weeks, National Parks and Public Broadcasting have taken the ax.

It takes passion, devotion and insight to build something great and good, and momentum to keep it going. Once gone, that good thing is unlikely to return, and certainly not in its former guise. That is why we shouldn't give the heave-ho to civilizing institutions in the name of pragmatic privitization. When things become private rather than shared matters, the money usually follows the drift line of vested interests vs. the general welfare.

In The Sunshine State (not), Governor Rick Scott has vetoed Florida’s nearly $4.8 million appropriation for public broadcasting. The last-minute budget had already trimmed a third from the PBS budget; now, there is nothing. The station I grew up on -- WMFE -- is going dark.

Public broadcasting began in 1970, forged from private educational stations. One of its primary functions has been to provide educational programming for young people, and generations learned the basics of grammar, reasoning and citizenship on that network. It was a "free" counterpart to the hustle of the commercial networks, producing thoughtful programming and financed by private contributions and matching state funds. Its day is drawing nigh.

Now, state parks across the nation are being forced to close; 70 of 278 in California alone. For those that remain, the bargain with the devil is to allow drilling, raise entrance fees, eliminate provisions and/or cut employees in favor of hoped for volunteers. Timothy Egan calls it "the death of American life by a thousand cuts," and that about sums it up.

Compassionate conservatism under George W. Bush hacked away at the AmeriCorps program, Bill Clinton's initiative to unify a stateside version of the Peace Corps, another worthy initiative which could have helped fill in the gaps. Though John McCain made a gesture to support national service, that program was eviscerated years ago.

There's always money for the dirty, pretty things, the things that elicit a rise, or more lately, a shrug from people falling into lassitude. But the generous and decent things that speak of a nation's drive to uplift itself, those things are being frozen in amber.

As with Ozymandias, there will remain a plaque somewhere to note the spot.

Astigmatism

now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
that there's not much left of me
--One, Metallica

Whenever I take up a newspaper,
I seem to see Ghosts gliding between the lines.
There must be Ghosts all the country over,
as thick as the sand of the sea....
We are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light
--Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen

We say the world has moved on;
maybe we really mean that it has begun to dry up
--The Dark Tower, Stephen King

We’re Americans. To be critical in time of war?
Even the democrats are smart enough
to keep their mouth shut on this
--Boston Legal, Witches of Mass Destruction
__________________

Where does hope begin and pessimism disappear? It's a fine line, but for Ranger, pessimism is the order of the day.

Where are we as a nation, and is it even appropriate to call our polyglot population a society? What is our national identity?

Historically, multi-cultural national entities dissolved, breaking into smaller, ethnically-identified groups. The Roman, Holy Roman Empire, French, Napoleonic, Ottoman, Hapsburg, Austro-Hungarian, Czarist Russian, Soviet Union are examples. The nations of Europe are currently struggling with the concepts of human rights and dignity, while eschewing immigrant populations.

How will Europe and the U.S. absorb immigrants while maintaining a national identity? Germany's Chancellor Merkel spoke for many recently:

"Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel said the idea of people from different cultural backgrounds living happily 'side by side' did not work.

"She said the onus was on immigrants to do more to integrate into German society."

"This [multicultural] approach has failed, utterly failed" (Germany's multiculturalism has "Utterly failed").

Immigrants are and should be welcome, but there is also an expectation that that they integrate and elevate themselves to the values of Western society. It is reasonable that host societies dictate the terms by which these people are accepted as citizens.

The expectation has always been that the language and customs of the host nation be assimilated by the new citizens. In addition to rising to the best levels of the new society, the immigrant can and should add their own positive value to their adopted homes.

The strife host nations like the U.S. feel arises from the fact that so many of our jobs are being exported and lost. Globalization is killing our industry and negatively impacting our trade balance. While it is not they who outsourced our jobs, that combined with a high unemployment rate for our citizens make hard for many to see the good in integrating 20 million + illegals.

Democracy cannot thrive when we have so many unemployed and so many more losing their tenuous grip on a middle class existence as the dire economic situation grinds on. Assets and resources trump philosophy at such times. As in the Gunslinger series, the world has moved on, yet we remain the same, losing ground daily to those powers fast on our tail.

So we distract ourselves with something we can do well -- firing weapons that go "boom", and preening our machismo. But how can the U.S. successfully fight wars to impose a de-centered concept of democracy? Coming from a crisis mode, the U.S. foolishly (cavalierly?) tries to deliver the democracy slipping through our fingers into the clenched fists of reluctant and unwilling societies.

Here's the pessimism: How can we believe that globalization is an absolute good for us when the facts indicate otherwise? Our high and recalcitrant unemployment rate is the result of removing trade barriers -- the U.S cannot compete with Chinese or Third World peasant-captive workers.

Housing, banking and the economy more than shaky, Our infrastructure is crumbling, yet the wars are the one thing pressing on, unwaveringly. Our national identity is out of focus, yet the ship of state founders on, seemingly rudderless.

Are we becoming a ghost ship?

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

[Capitalists] put me in mind of some men I have seen who,
when they had the chance to buy a
widow's cow for ten cents on the dollar of her real value in cash,
would then make the purchase,
and then thank the Lord that he had so blessed them.
Such men belong to the class of Christians
referred to on one occasion by Charles Gunn; and, if you will excuse me,
I will tell you what he
said about them. He said that 'hell is full of such Christians'
--Working Toward Zion, Brigham Young

My name i' Borat, I come a-from Kazakhstan.
Can I say a-first, we support your War of Terror.
May we show our support for our boys in Iraq.
May U.S. and A kill every single terrorist.
May George Bush a-drink the blood of every single
man, woman, and child of Iraq [crowd cheers]
--Borat (2006)

Greed is good
--Gordon Gekko
_________________

There are things that we reflexively subscribe to in America. Among these maxims are, Babies are Cute, Free Markets and Capitalism are Essential Elements of our Democracy, and Government Must Stimulate the Economy During Times of Economic downturn.

First: Babies are not cute. They are ugly wrinkles of flesh, mottled and occasionally spotted with hair, gifted with shrieking lung capacities far exceeding their size. With their large, misshapen heads and vacant stares, a few en masse could easily make for midget nemeses in a zombie movie.

If we were honest, we would say they were large, maggot-like sacs of ego until they bust out and reach an age of compassion; not all will make it, though society will use them, nonetheless. (But of course, we're not honest, and proprietary interests coupled with a lack of interesting other issues make the zombie babies the go-to topic for every family.)

Were it not for the assiduous application of Johnson's products and take-away nappies, they would smell and flake, with a flourish for directing mashed food into their body folds. If their putrid daily routines were witnessed in an elderly care facility, the viewer would assuredly NOT be cooing.

Second: Free market capitalism is a social as well as an economic relationship. We have unbridled faith in capitalism, except when we don't. These reactions are always based on jump-through-the-ass panic fomented by our Leaders. It is difficult to unravel the social and economic interplay, but we want to focus on stimulus spending.

Third: The very future of our nation and the welfare of America devolves to stimulus spending. However, if we actually believed in capitalism, this stimulus concept would be anathema.

Capitalism is based upon a long-forgotten and basic concept: There will always be winners and losers, and this fact is essential to progress. The losers either change, or are left behind. The idea of a stimulus that will bring everyone along is a chimera pandering to the masses, but actually only benefiting those who know how to prosper anyway.

The concept of stimulus only passes muster IF the government has the money to spend to stimulate growth and prosperity. It makes no sense to borrow money that we do not have to maybe improve the situation.

There is no indication that any of the expenditures have trickled down to the unemployed worker level. The New York Times reported on the New Poor, who can expect to stay that way, many without a safety net, for years to come. But there is plenty of indication that the the economic sectors in which the Big Fish swim have benefited mightily.

The current economic dogma says essentially when free market capitalism screws up in a Big Way, government should pull our collective bacon out of the fire by doing something that exactly opposes our philosophical underpinnings. Meanwhile, Keynes is still dead. We expect government to become the economy.

That's not good, and it's bad.

Pall Malls

Paresh Nath (UAE))

A sum of money is a leading character
in this tale about people,
just as a sum of honey might properly
be a leading character in a tale about bees
--God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,
Kurt Vonnegut
________________

Ranger frequents pawn shops, and following a Friday visit thoughts of the economy streaked through his mind.

Businesses are dying faster than Haitians in an earthquake, and the losses toll weekly. Even in Tallahassee -- a relative oasis since it houses the State government and two universities -- the malls are as lively as death camps. This weekend's paper reports on the closing of local Boys and Girls clubs, the very services that help keep a society thriving.

What businesses are prospering? Check cashing scam joints, Payday Loans which legally charge patrons the usurious fees of 38% interest rate on their loans, title loans, foreclosure storefronts and pawnshops. These are the big winners in the Russian roulette eof modern life in the fast lane.

All are legally entitles to screw the little man with no realistic prospects right into the ground. Legally, just like credit card companies, but that's another story.

During my last several trips to the pawnbrokers, there was a heightened sense of desperation among those pawning their belongings. On Friday the lines were long, and the wait for service slow. People don't have money to get through the weekend, let alone the week or month. Poverty is chewing on their asses like one of Michael Vick's pit bulls.

These people are desperate, and Ranger wonders: Have any of our leaders have ever visited a pawnshop or talked to the people humbly and sadly awaiting their turn in line to sell or pawn their meager possessions? It occurred to me that there should be two lines, "Hope" and "Change"; you pay your money, you take your chances.

A technique sometimes used by MACVSOG Reconnaissance teams was called "Running for your life". The teams were not designed as fighting units, but rather intelligence gathering. If they fought they often died, and many teams disappeared from the face of the earth.

It was also called "Breaking contact", in which immediate action drill was initiated and all members dropped everything except their getaway gear. The individuals stripped down to run, and their ability to do so meant the difference between living or dying. When the teams ran they discarded everything except survival-oriented items.

The people in pawnshops are similar as they, too, are fighting for their lives by dropping all non-essential items to facilitate their survival for one more day. This is not Lost Vanuatu -- this is Lost in America.

Since the people have no hope of positive change, we can blow smoke up their asses and call it sunshine.

God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater.

Maybelline

We're not doing the world any good when we bankrupt
ourselves fighting wars all over the place.
We will extinguish the great beacon that we are
--Henry Clay

As many as 20,000 Americans are in a vegetative state,
meaning they are
alive and awake but without any apparent sense of awareness,
and 100,000 to 300,000 are in a related condition known as
a minimally conscious state,
in which they exhibit impaired or intermittent awareness
--In 'vegetative state' patients,
brain scanners show some alert minds
_______________

Perhaps we should re-name ourselves, The Minimally Conscious States of America (somehow, the numbers seem far too low.)

It was not the Summer of '69, but rather '64 when we graduated high school and were college-bound. Everywhere we went we heard Chuck Berry's "Maybelline", due to the fact that we hung out in hillbilly bars slap filled with Kentucky hicks. The knowledge gained from this drunken journey was nothing worth repeating.

Our three-month summer factory job was just a blip on the screen of a limitless horizon. We were passing through, but the hillbillies were there to stay, and this fact has not been forgotten. Our lives were expansive, but they were stuck in that shithole factory, and they felt happy because they drove hot-rod Lincolns and had access to cheap booze.

Now we hear these guys in Kentucky and North Carolina are losing their once-secure jobs in manufacturing and textiles and having to retrain in their 50's and 60's for jobs that are not being outsourced. Even those who make it through the IT programs face tough competition from the younger applicants and indeed, their own fellows (Job Retraining and Long-Term Unemployment.) Some estimates say one in 50 graduates will placed. Hot cars and booze still can't make that an appealing prospect.

That fall we entered Bowling Green State U, and Edd "with two D's" flunked out and went into the Army. Upon his ETS he attended my commissioning and that was the last time I saw him.

He's been dead 23 years, but I'll bet he is still hot-rodding somewhere in hell. Here's to you, Edd.

She's Come Undone

--2010, Angel Boligan (Mexico)

She's come undone
She found a mountain that was far too high
And when she found out she couldn't fly
Mama, it was too late
--Undone, The Guess Who

How many times must we tell the tale?
How many times must we fall?
--Pretending, Eric Clapton

Ranger Observation of the Day:
COIN is where Shock & Awe intersects
with Rules of Engagement
______________

Why do we Americans pretend that we care about the Koreans, the Vietnamese. the Grenadians, Haitians, Hmong, Iraqis, Afghans, Ethiopians . . . ?

Why do we pretend that we are offended by the Taliban's oppressive treatment of women? Why is any of this our problem? Moreover, how can the U.S., as a fully imperfect society on this account, even pretend to shepherd others?

The bottom line is that we do not care, but we must pretend that we do. When our shock-and-awe fails to kill them and pound them into ground meat, then we must start pretending that we really actually care. It is a disingenuous Plan B. This is when Shock and Awe devolves into Counterinsurgency (COIN), and that is a losing proposition.

Ranger does not give a rat's ass about any country other than the United States, and it is time for the rest of America to 'fess up to the necessity of this fact, even if it means abandoning our fancy words and crummy COIN manuals. Bragging about our fine ability to project power abroad does little to staunch the bleeding at home. In fact, it is a major contributor to the economic morass which will hound the U.S. for some time to come. It may even spearhead our slow undoing.

The Europeans have learned their lesson, but we have not: Money for the military industrial complex is money thrown into a money pit.

Booty Call

Sin, Sin, Sin! You're all Sinners!
You're all goin' to a painful, everlasting, fiery Hell.
It's all there is. It's all there is
--Sinners, Inc, Rob Zombie

It really makes you think
there must be something wrong
--Rep. Henry Waxaman, (D-CA),
on Peanut Corp of America getting "superior" ratings
despite vermin and salmonella findings
[Nestlé's Inspectors Saw Rat Droppings]
________________

You got that right, Henry.

The New York Times editorial says, "After four bailouts totaling some $170 billion, the American International Group has finally answered some of the questions about where the money went" (The Gift That Keeps on Giving).

"Altogether, the disclosures account for $107.8 billion in A.I.G. bailout money. Which leaves us wondering about the rest of the money. Another $30 billion was added to the A.I.G. bailout pot this month and must be accounted for as soon as it is spent. That leaves some $32 billion unaccounted for. Where did it go?"

Sounding a lot like Deputy Dawg, where indeed. "Untangling all the entanglements is not only essential to understanding how the system became so badly broken, but also to restoring faith that government is up to the task of fixing it." But why would Congress close the barn door after the horse is out? Shouldn't the investigation have begun before the $170 Billion went trotting down the road

Everything in this bailout business is backwards. The banks are given hard-earned tax dollars to wheel and deal in the manner of their choosing. They are back at selling Lennox Ave. properties couched as the hoped-for Park Place. Nobody really the value of the paper which they are hoping will be purchased like mystery bags at a church raffle.

Congress is incredibly stupid and irresponsible to throw money into the wind which is never going to do anything beneficial for the U.S. economy. While this money is bailing out the money men, who's gonna bail out the taxpayers?

The $165+ Million bonuses is not outrageous (Political Heat Sears A.I.G); that is how the game has always been played. Ranger is chafed at the $58.8 Billion ending up in overseas banks. The only difference between the U.S. government and the Boy Scouts is that the Scouts have adult leadership.

Ranger gives a loud and clear vote of No Confidence to the bailouts and stimulus package. Both the Bush and Obama White houses are marked by reactivity and being controlled by events. Somebody needs to get ahead of the problem (see The Big Takeover, courtesy Juan Moment).

The U.S. has put the cart before the horse and like a martyr, complains about its burden. The fact is, people who earn $165 Million in bonuses can hornswaggle poorly paid government officials any day of the week.

That is how they earn their bonuses. They are clever boys.

Ramblin' Man

"What are you fighting for anyhow?"
his captors asked, looking at him.

They were genuinely puzzled,
for he obviously owned no slaves
and could have little interest in
States Rights or even Independence.

"I'm fighting because you're down here," he said
--fr. The Civil War, Shelby Foote
________________

Just some subjective impressions of current events:

Since 2000, the U.S. has lacked a clearly-articulated national economic policy. The bailouts and stimulus packages eating our tax dollars are the indicator.

While Bush may be history, Obama's White House follows closely his example. U.S. fiscal policy is purely reactive. During the days of the campaign we were asked to have great hope, but with the installation of institutional thinkers throughout the Cabinet, that request seems disingenuous now.

In addition, we are not told of Plan B's. In the event of failed bailouts, the taxpayers have no idea what to expect as the next move. This is our money, after all, so we have a right to know its application.

Ranger wonders why we still cling to the myth that there are two actionably distinct political parties in America. It is hard to see any major policy changes, beyond the rhetoric.

Both parties love to spend money we do not have and cut taxes while concurrently increasing Federal spending. That is madness, and tax cuts are not fiscal policy.

Obama, like Bush before him, strikes Ranger as more of a cheerleader than a national leader. They were both cheerleaders in business suits. Does this guy ever tire of preaching to the television cameras? The cadence works well for a one-hour church service, but it is becoming tiresome as a matter of public policy.

It seems that both are empty suits, the only difference being that George Bush knew he was dumb.

Obama revs up the war in Afghanistan though the war in Iraq is not wound down. How will the U.S. deal with the Taliban when we have no definition of how we are to deal with the Afghan government? Seven years into a nasty little punitive, regime change war, and we have no Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the quisling Afghan government.

A SOFA should be in place if Afghanistan was in fact a sovereign nation. We cannot win a war in Afghanistan when we cannot enumerate legal responsibility with the host nation.

What's on your mind?

Dumb and Dumber

People only see
what they are prepared to see
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man willing to work, and unable to find work,
is perhaps the saddest sight
that fortune's inequality exhibits under this sun
--Thomas Carlyle

Let me tell you
You are no exception to the rule
--Boogie Oogie Oogie, A Taste of Honey
_____________

People hear what they want to hear and see what they wish to see. Ranger is no exception.

When he read,

U.S. officials recently have warned that the nation's recession and global financial crisis were top security concerns. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair has said the economic weakness could lead to political instability in many developing nations.

Ranger thought Blair was saying that the economy was so bad it is obvious that the U.S.'s elective wars must be reined in, with the resultant savings redirected to the domestic economy. But as the article progressed, it was clear that what he actually meant was the dead opposite.

Though President Obama has proposed a 4% increase in defense spending over the next fiscal year, "many defense analysts believe that Pentagon budgets, one of the largest shares of government spending, are likely targets for cuts," which could "create the perception of American weakness," said Dov Zakheim, a Defense Department comptroller.

You may say the 4% increase is small, but put into perspective, remember how hard it is to raise the minimum wage, or to have a Veterans Administration health care budget ready before the start of the fiscal year (it has only happened 3 times in the last 22 years, according to DAV Magazine.) Federal money is always hard won, but it is always there for the lean, green killing machine.

It is foolishness to further militarize an economy which cannot sustain a civilian sector, let alone a military one. As for weakness, that is not a perception, but a fact. Strength is not determined by the fact that the U.S. can dust the world over with our nukes.

We cannot win a conventional war against any major power. We can't even secure the street corners of Kabul and Baghdad. Throwing more money at the Department of Defense will not change this fact.

Analysts said, "Russia appears to be continuing efforts to modernize its military, especially its nuclear forces, which could pose a problem for a U.S. government that may slash defense spending." Does anyone see the contradiction: When the U.S. beefs up its military, that is good and necessary; when Russia does it, it is a bad thing.

The best course of action would seem disarmament, rather than perpetuation of the futile arms race. Arms races never have winners.

However, on a brighter note, economist Richard Cooper testified that not all is gloom and doom. "Cooper said that a tighter job market could drive more recruits to the military. . ."

This seems like a return to economically induced indentured servitude. Slavery may be illegal, yet this is a back-door enslavement. So, broken banks and a failing economy turn out to have a patriotic lining, after all.

It is time for America to become a real world player by abandoning the war policies that dictate every aspect of our national life. The U.S. is not the sole remaining superpower, but it is the last nation stupid enough to embrace war as a way of life. in his Army Echoes essay, General George Casey wrote we are in an era of "perpetual conflict."

He is correct, but he fails to mention the conflict is of our own making.

On the Sunny Side

Just because the cat has her kittens in the oven
doesn't make them biscuits
--Old Polish proverb, Banacek

It's good news week,
Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere,
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky
--It's Good News Week,
Hedgehoppers Anonymous

The best is yet to come,
and won't that be fine
You think you've seen the sun,
but you ain't seen it shine
--The Best is Yet to Come, Frank Sinatra
_____________

Demand for food stamps is up in most states, and in Florida, the recent demand has been record-breaking.

Providing an upside to the nation's economic woes, 288 new full-time workers will be hired to "help handle" the increased case load:

Already, the Legislature has approved giving DCF $2.5 million more for employees to work overtime processing food-stamp applications.

In the last year Florida has added more than 408,835 new food-stamp recipients, a 29-percent increase (Food Stamps in Large Demand.)

So you see, there is always a silver lining. Servicing the newly impoverished is a growth industry.

Also, anticipating a criminal wave due to said impoverishment, Florida gun owners are flooding the state with requests for concealed carry permits. In response, "[a] legislative panel Wednesday gave Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson the OK to spend $3.9 million more so he can hire 61 temporary workers" to addressed the jacked up demand for the permits (Florida can't Keep Up With Concealed weapons Permit Requests.)

Poverty and crime -- a winning combo.

Land of Goshen

Then the Lord your God will prosper you
abundantly in all the work of your hand
--Deuteronomy 30:9

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
or what's a heaven for?
--Men and Women, Robert Browning

That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff
while you go out and get more stuff!
--Stuff, George Carlin
______________

There are a few things that are self evident in these United States, and one of them is that most people are drowning in their stuff. They have rooms and closets cordoned off for its storage, and even buy sheds and rent square footage in other people's storage facilities in which to store their stuff.

"Buying Clubs" have encouraged the construct of laying up goods, inculcating a paranoid squirrel mentality in their members. I know of a family who own a very lovely home, but for whom several rooms are simply storage depots for 48-count paper towel packages from Costco. They live in a small room with Barcoloungers and t.v., secure beside their private PX.

Such people have become professional quartermasters or pursers, leading to one of the U.S.'s largest exports -- "used clothing." We have been told to go out there and shop -- it's good for our recessed economy. Yet we do not in good faith need what we already have, and buying it on credit is in part what has landed us here.

Ranger lives as simply as anyone, yet even he lives in excess. Our wants exceed our needs. The Seven Deadly Sins have been transvalued -- greed and gluttony have become positives. Frugality in America is the First Deadly sin. We are the shopping nation, forever and ever, amen.

We read with curiosity books on simplicity, about people like the Dalai Lama who wears that same saffron robe every time, and hope magazines like Real Simple will help us get it down. Yet this urge to purge is countered by our leader's directives to get out there and buy.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government will continue to print money and send it downwind, and Ranger will continue to re-sole his shoes.

Bleak House

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.
Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole
what it concedes to the butterflies
--Bleak House, Charles Dickens

Ain't got no place to lay your head
Somebody came and took your bed
Don't worry, be happy
Don't Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin

The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
--The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll
_____________

America is becoming a strange place and our leaders even stranger. At least, Ranger feels like a stranger in a strange land.

While jobs disappear and every economic indicator is bleak to bleaker, our leaders -- both Dems and Repubs -- try to sell us on confidence and hope. Whether it is the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) or the economy, we are told to swallow a huge confidence pill and all will be well.

Add to that attempts to stoke up the old Yankee can-do while preying on the new culture of fear to just-do-something about the economy, and you have what feels like a Keystone Cops scenario. Obama Warns of "Lost Decade," and the Representatives all say "We must do something." What? Well, what we've always done -- throw money at it and cut taxes.

Confidence and hope are feelings disguised as policy. Confidence will not pay the rent, health care premiums or tuition to a private school. Ranger only mentions these because all of our elected leaders have these things, so they must be part of the democratic ideal.

Confidence and hope will not take an enemy position unless the plan is sound and understood by the troops. In addition, support and reserve forces are necessary. Confidence stems from realistic operational planning. Confidence and desperation are not compatible.

Lacking realistic planning, desperation easily infects the troops. Hopeful and confident words are just that -- words. As Steven Colbert said tonight, we need a "Word Czar."

President Obama is right -- we need action, but not action for action's sake alone. As the WaPo opined on the rush to economic judgment, Stimulus Spending Could Lead to Billions in Waste, Abuse. Action on the battlefield is meaningless unless a verifiable objective is possible form the expenditure of resources.

The U.S. public deserves considered action. We do need change, which implies scrapping the beliefs and plans of former generations. All that we believe may no longer be relevant to the facts of our new national life.

Unbridled free market capitalism has brought the country to the abyss. Keynesian economics worked once, may not apply this time. The financial wizards who concocted this mess cannot effectively regulate the banking and financial sectors which produced them.

The Treasury Secretaries are foxes guarding the hen house. They are following the deficient old routines that led to current problems and are expecting a different outcome this time; this is one definition of insanity.

What is really happening in the heads of our elected, appointed and militarily anointed demigods? Our house is in total disarray, and we are flinging our legions to the outposts of Afghanistan. What gives?

We cannot afford the bailouts, and we gain nothing from our far-flung wars, yet nobody is suggesting we pull in our perimeter, assume the strategic defensive and husband our resources. What is our concern with Afghanistan or Iraq when we are rapidly approaching an implosion?

Either we believe in America or we don't. The PWOT © stretched this belief to the fracture point. Now that our economy is the focus, both Right and Left are fronting Socialistic and Communistic fixes as a curative. However, they are at very best, palliatives.

We are either a free market democracy based on capitalism, or we are not. The time has come to define words in ways that go beyond emotional religious zealotry and to restore faith and hope to their proper domain. The halls of Congress should be dominated by emotionless facts.

The Bush administration sold the PWOT © by fear and plying an emotional overreaction. Obama, while served an unenviable platter upon hitting office, seems to be piggybacking on the robust fear instilled by 43, trading hope chips for fear, but trading on it nonetheless.

Somewhere between these two extremes there must be something that resembles reality.

The Fourth Estate

Went across the river and I lay down to sleep
When I woke up, put the shackles on my feet
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long
--Worried Man Blues, A. P. Carter
______________

Yesterday I discovered my brother-in-law had been laid off from his erstwhile recession-proof job. My sis says they are paying over $1,000 to keep their COBRA health benefits for the time being.

They are Good Americans. He works a hard 40-hour-week; she volunteers at various charities, sitting on the board and trying to make a positive change in their community. Since she now has to work for pay, the volunteering is on the back burner.

Journalist Bill Moyers featured bloggers Glenn Greenwald and Jay Rosen on his Journal program last night, both of whom agreed that the Washington Press corps is complicit in maintaining the political staus quo. There is little separating Left from Right, and The Fourth Estate is on the inside every bit as much as the politicos they cover. They have a script which carries from one administration to the next.

Why is the economy not front and center every day of the week? Why are we inundated with Tom Daschle and the Octuplet mother? My sister doesn't care that elections were held in Afghanistan, she wants to know if her surgery will be covered.

As President Obama settles into a middle path after promising radical change, so too, the press follows its established role. Neither the press nor the politicians want to shake things up, lest they find themselves on the outside. Both guests agreed that the power of protest -- whether written or street-style -- is what is necessary to shake the powers that be out of their comfort zone.

But the press will not cover protest, so the public imagines everyone else is inert and impotent. Protesters, if given any ink at all, are portrayed as marginal elements. Moyers' impassioned closing remarks are noteworthy, especially coming as they do from a gentle man and a minister:

As Washington obsessed all week over the fate of one nominee to the cabinet, and as we watched hearings about the failure of watchdog agencies going to sleep on the job, we heard almost nothing of the people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives. Some of us born in the Depression still remember the song made famous by the Carter Family singers, called the "Worried Man Blues".

"I went across that river and I lay down to sleep. When I woke up there were shackles on my feet."

The day my father was fired from his job at Manly's Appliance Store, he came walking home as if he had shackles on his feet. I still remember the look on his face. He wasn't yet 50, but had suddenly turned old, the way a lot of people look today who are losing their jobs. Their stomachs are knotted with fear as the life they had come to expect is fading fast. Not because of their own failures but because our political and financial elites rigged the economy for their own advantage.

John F. Kennedy famously said, "Life is unfair," and so it is. But it wouldn't feel as unfair if the shackles wound up instead on the well-heeled feet of Wall Street and Washington's elect. That's the change we need, the change we can really believe in.

Bailout Blues

By sowing frugality we reap liberty,
a golden harvest
--Agesilaus

If you lose your money, great God,
don't lose your mind
--"Blind Willie" Reynolds

That ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free
--Money for Nothing, Dire Straits
___________

Bailout used to be something done by pilots after fighting a good fight. Now it is a given to any screw up.

This is flying by the seat of our pants. These bailout pilots are held aloft by the taxpayer's golden parachute, and so accustomed are we to being screwed, we apathetically accept our fate. What happened to "a penny saved is a penny earned," and good old Yankee Thrift?

What about the lessons of piggy banks and chores and small passbook savings accounts -- where did we go wrong? Ranger doesn't know fuck-all about economics and as such is on par with other good Americans like John McCain, but he'll wallow around like the best of them.

It is wrong-headed to throw money at bankrupt, improperly managed organizations. If Ranger were on the brink of bankruptcy, would a financial planner advocate large infusions of cash to solve my problem? Spending more money that you do not have is not the remedy to spending too much money, money that was not even yours from the get-go.

The U.S. threw money at Afghanistan and Iraq in the same pell-mell fashion. No master plan, no responsibility or accountability was forced upon the recipients at any level. Throwing money willy-nilly is like pissing up a rope.

Now the Fed will print money as the panacea, but this will not eviscerate the rot, only paper over it. As Seeking Alpha nicely explains, "This new issuance of paper, not only backed by nothing, but twice nothing, will elbow its way into the already fetid air being pumped into the global economic patient with a bad case of the bends." The problem gets passed down the line to the next taxpayers.

Spending prolifically does not solve the problem of prolific spending (where is Ted Sorensen?) Contraction and pulling in the perimeter is called for. If a combat unit is overextended, the only logical move is contraction.

The solution to personal overspending is realistic budgeting and restructuring of expenses. Yet the subliminal message in the federal bailouts is that if you are a monumentally big screw up, you will get something for nothing. Poor financial performance is rewarded. It's a mulligan.

The taxpayers accept this because they hope for free government money, too, to save the mortgage that was not economically tenable at the signing. Surely they can print enough money for them, too?

A checkout girl cheerfully shared recently that "they are planning a second stimulus check this year." When asked where this extra money will come from, she responded just as chipper, "Why, they'll print it!" And the average citizen does not understand how this currency devaluation may detrimentally affect them. All they know is, their government is giving them money to buy something.

What does all this mean to hale and hearty Americans that are fiscally prudent, living within their means? They are adrift among messages to spend, messages which brand them fools for saving. Since the average citizen lives a deficit lifestyle, current government policy does not even give them cause to blink. There are those who leverage a "bankruptcy lifestyle," maxing out the cards and lots of goodies, in exchange for seven years bad credit. Then back on the treadmill.

Ranger fears it is too late to pull in the perimeter. We will be overrun, even though it may be spun as a victory.

The gaps in our ranks will indicate otherwise.

Good Time Charlie

Did they visit Madame Tussaud's?

My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion,
and many things that seem wonderful to most men
are the every-day commonplaces of my business
--Harry Houdini

To see what is in front of one's one's nose
requires a constant struggle
--George Orwell
_____________

Last night was a cold, hard rain on the steel roof, and Ranger awoke to thoughts like grenade fragments hot and jagged and ripping randomly.

It is hard to figure out what pulls my pin. It is everything and nothing. The memory of cold rain dripping down one's back and legs, boots squishing wet and rough as sandpaper. This is in itself is nothing; all who have carried a rifle have the same memories. But what do they signify?

In the military, service means sacrifice, suffering and discomfort. A Ranger's glance at our elected leaders sees them as our forward defenses. They should be a covering force whose job is to delay, deny and destroy all threats to the main body (= the nation.) They are delinquent at their stations, and the delinquencies are legion.

In Florida, recently-wed Governor Charlie Crist suffered a cost overrun when his $255,000 12-day European Summer trade mission, paid for by Florida businesses and taxpayers, ballooned to $430,000 (Crist defends Pricey Trade Mission Tab.) Costs included $1,300 in room-service charges and $320 for portable electric fans to keep Crist cool.

That is roughly $35,000 per day, with $1,370 per bodyguard. Meanwhile, Florida is sucking like a chest wound. Not for lack of ego, Crist says his jaunt will bring industry to the state.
Charlie does not understand this soldier's memories.

Leadership is sacrifice, yet our elected leaders are as guilty as any executive at AIG, City, GM, Goldman, et. al. of skimming off the cream. Congressmen, like the suck-ass executives with their begging bowls out, never cut their perks. Budget cuts are always borne on the taxpayer side of the equation. Democracy means tough break, baby, if yours wasn't a silver spoon.

Ranger wonders who will bail out Congress when their time comes. It will be budget cuts all 'round in veterans' programs and those for the needy and poor. Of the latter group, most don't have cars anyway and so won't ever face the other side of a ballot. What entree have they to the ears of their congressmen?

We the People are wilting on the vine, while our leaders in $600 neckties consider how many billions they shall toss to others, also wearing $600 ties. Like Illinois Governor Rod Blogojevich pointedly said in his grand scam, "I've got this thing and it's fucking golden." It is power and influence, and we hand it to these scumbags.

We don't even get cake.

Happy Day

The Sowers (1934), Thomas Hart Benton

Every time it rains it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don't you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven
--Pennies from Heaven, Johnston/Burke

Isn't this a lovely day
To be caught in the rain?
--Isn't this a Lovely Day?, Irving Berlin

Gone like a Nixon file gone gone away
Gone like my landlord smile gone gone away
--Gone, John Hiatt
______________

(written at a truck stop)-- It is what passes for a happy day in America when you can fill up your gas tank and the price of petrol hasn't risen 5¢ per gallon since your last fill up. Ranger remembers when gas prices remained stable for years on end.

Ranger also marvels on a simple drive of 20 miles at the number of newly-closed businesses sporting For Sale signs. Also, the number of homes for sale, most with Reduced Price signs. Perhaps the most telling is the reduced number of 18-wheelers at the interstate truck stops.

In a discussion at the truck stop one of the long-haul truck drivers shared that he lost money on a recently signed contract before he even hauled the first load because of rising fuel costs. "You can't sign it (a contract) two weeks out now." He said he has five trucks and they are not on the road because they can't negotiate long-term contracts due to unstable fuel costs.

Another sign of the times can be had at your local pawn shop. Go in on a Friday night sometime and just feel. Yes, feel. And listen. The desperation is palpable. This is the New America. Overspent, overdrawn, underpaid and underemployed.

Talk to anybody who's not reading the Robb Report and is working for a living, and ask them their beliefs on where their life is heading; it is not optimistic.

Funny how the reports of Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page and the people can be so far apart.