By Steve Rhodes
And then that happened.
See also: The Iowa Caucus Report From The Beachwood Political Affairs Desk.
Who won? The dumb-ass media. Who lost? You.
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See also: Rick Santorum Has Illinois Roots.
From Where They Sit
Elites – including Barack Obama – are fond of reassuring the citizenry that we Americans have faced down challenges before and always “made it through.”
What they fail to say – or even understand, at least in their gut – is that elites always “make it through.” A shitload of other folks . . . well, don’t. They die because of health complications exacerbated by poverty or because they don’t have health insurance. Or have crappy health insurance.
They lose their homes. They lose their marriages. They lose their jobs. They fall into despair. Dreams are destroyed. The middle class continues to disappear. The poor simply disintegrate.
I wish Obama (“And as tough as things may be right now, I know we will overcome. I know it because we always have”) and others would detail who exactly “makes it through” our national crises. Our dead soldiers? No. Our economic front lines? No.
Today it’s the Tribune editorial page’s turn to voice its nonsensical and narrow optimism.
“Investors greeted 2012 with a cheer during the new year’s first trading session Tuesday. Financial markets rose despite ample reasons for pessimism. The gains make sense, however, considering the one overriding reason for optimism. The financial meltdown four years ago gave way to hard times, but the system of markets, credit and banking that propel the world’s largest economies didn’t grind to a halt.
“Business kept functioning. People muddled through. The scariest economic crisis since the 1930s isn’t over by a long shot, but concern about the ability to recover has subsided.”
Really? Have these people muddled through? Concern over recovery has subsided?
“[I]t’s not as if any other system is rising up to take the place of the one we’ve got,” the Trib opines. “On the contrary, capitalism is busting out all over.”
Don’t fret, we’re not socialist yet!
“For individuals, states or nations, the process of managing excessive debt is pretty much the same.
“Make sure the money going out in spending is less than the amount coming in through paychecks – or tax revenues. Negotiate with creditors for the best possible repayment terms. Systematically pay down what is owed over time. As credit becomes available again, don’t borrow too much.
“The reward? Financial stability.”
It’s that easy!
Unless you want to get there by putting millions more out of work.
Cheap cheerleading won’t get us there either.
Occupy Livestream Shut Down
“Occupy Wall Street [was] in the middle of one of its day-long marches in New York Tuesday, protesting the National Defense Authorization Act, but for those following along on the Global Revolution livestream, the real action [was] happening in the broadcast studio itself. That’s because police have apparently just raided the Brooklyn studio of Globalrevolution.tv and taken some of the project’s key volunteers into custody,” the Atlantic reports.
“The raid Tuesday follows a notice to vacate that police delivered to the Bushwick studio on Monday night. Victoria Sobel, a Global Revolution volunteer, said Vlad Teichberg and a guy named Spike, both of whom maintain the live feed aggregator, had been taken into custody by police, along with four or five others.”
Don’t tell Rahm.
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Doesn’t Rahm’s “clarification” make it even worse? Now the new rules won’t just be while the G8 is in town but . . . forever.
Best Jerry Angelo Line
“A guard is playing center, a center is playing guard, a guard is playing right tackle, a right tackle is playing left tackle, and the last guy is a backup for a left guard who’s paid like a left tackle and can’t last a full season anywhere because he’s always getting hurt because he came here hurt.”
– Steve Rosenbloom
Kanye West Plays The Palace
Caresses the Casbah.
Option Monster TV
Straight outta da pits.
Fantasy Fix: Fish or Cut Bait?
Rip Hamilton among those already on thin ice.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: On ice.
Posted on January 4, 2012