In today’s edition of Planet Waves FM, I look at the issues surrounding the debt ceiling battle that really amounts to an economic and political power grab: a kind of false flag collapse of the economy. It’s happened before — the banking crash of 2008 was both avoidable and intentional, and many people profited to a degree that the public has no concept of.
There are several theories about what’s happening at the moment, one of the most cohesive coming from one of our commenters who is fairly close to the action — you can read his assessment here. By any analysis, the conduct of legislators in Washington ranges from irresponsible and deceitful to blatantly insane; and while Obama is doing his best to maintain his public image, he is offering up Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to the flesh-eating monster of the conservative movement.
I briefly discuss the Oslo attacks but I don’t discuss the chart — that you can see on a post from this weekend. I have a few comments about Amy Winehouse and what an extraordinary chart she had — unfortunately time did not permit.
I cover this in a streamlined, one-hour program featuring musical guests the Grateful Dead. Monday would be the 69th birthday of Jerry Garcia, so we have two hot folk-blues numbers for you, lovingly selected from a pretty good collection.
To listen to today’s edition of Planet Waves FM in the old player, or to view the archives going back more than a year, check this link. If you listen to Planet Waves FM in iTunes, please check this letter to iTunes listeners.
Thank you!
Astrodem:
I hope you posted your comment on the 14th Amendment far and wide. That bit of reality needs to be spread so that people know what’s at stake, who’s responsible and our civic duty. A Democracy is never handed to us, we’ve got to continue fighting to keep it.
I’ve been waiting for this b.s. to fall apart for decades..
I’m impoverished, so I don’t give a shit about investors..
I’ve been living on the fly for years now..
..I’m just hangin’ out with the kids who are gonna do it themselves.
..a chunk of soil with a garden and a roof, that’s it.
Get used to it..
Jere
I just want to briefly touch on the 14th Amendment because there are quite a few members of the media and Democratic House Members pushing this. This is a case where kabuki, as we discussed in a previous blog entry, is actually going on. The 14th Amendment option, as it’s being called, isn’t really an option at all. Here’s why. Let’s say on August 2nd, that the US Treasury decides to ignore the borrowing limit imposed by Congress and issue new debt instruments, citing authority derived from the 14th Amendment. Who exactly would buy these debt instruments, backed only by the full faith and credit of Tim Geithner? Investors are often dumb as bricks, but they’re not so stupid that they’ll buy these fake, legally dubious Treasuries. Investors just finished getting screwed by another legally and financially dubious debt instrument, namely sub-prime derivatives. If coming out of that experience they’re dumb enough to buy these 14th Amendment based, Geithner-backed treasury notes, then we probably all need to start stocking up on canned goods right now and head for the hills. So to recap, the administration could certainly try ignoring the borrowing limit and selling new debt — it’s that doing so doesn’t actually get the government more money.
This begs the question, why are so many good progressives in the media and on the Hill pushing the 14th Amendment option? I think many of them just don’t understand the practical dimensions of how Treasury works. I certainly didn’t, until I read up on it. But I think there’s another more cynical reason at work as well. The subtext behind the claims about the 14th Amendment is this: “If only Obama did X, the problem would be solved.” And the subtext behind the subtext is: “Ordinary Americans can’t doing anything solve this default crisis and we need our dear leader to fix it for us.” In other words, buying into the 14th Amendment option as a solution to the default crisis means giving up your personal political agency, and surrendering your responsibility as a political actor and it into the vessel of Barack Obama. While this isn’t true of all of them, I think some of the people who are pushing the 14th Amendment option really do want you to give up your political agency right now, because it gives them more freedom to make decisions and deals that they know you aren’t going to like. It means they get to avoid some of the blame for screwing you over, because you’ve decided you’re going to blame Obama instead.
Can you see now why vesting all your hopes in Obama using the 14th Amendment is a terrible mistake? Right now we can’t be waiting around for Obama to save us, because he’s not going to. If we want history to take a different course, it’s up to us to MAKE it happen through collective action. And right now, the focus needs to be on Congress, not the President — who at this point in the story is a relatively peripheral actor. There’s actually very little that Obama can do at this point to influence the outcome, but that isn’t true of the public. That’s why Obama asked the public to call their representatives in Washington — because he is literally out of options. Obama only plays the “outside game” (as it’s referred to inside the Beltway) when he has no other choice. Whether or not you agree with how he’s handled things so far, focusing on what Obama can do to set things right at this point in the story is a colossal waste of time. If/when markets start to panic and if/when we actually default on our obligations, that may change. But for now, it’s up to Congress and to we the people. That’s where you should focus your attention, energy, and activism — not on this 14th Amendment kabuki.
I don’t think anyone got away here… if anything I am a little surprised at how we are actually seemingly getting the story of what is going on within
what in past years would have been a totally closed door scene..right?
call me crazy, but things like this would have been found out waaaay later and reported say, in a week or weeks or something in the past.
I don’t want to make light of anyone’s stress by any means, but does anyone else actually feel an exciting, progressive energy fluctuating? I do.
sometimes the way out is through…I have faith that something will be worked out, something even better than prev. thought, simply because the pot is swirling. I see/feel it swirling with Possibility…change can be messy at the cracking out of the raw energy–
I just feel that we all know, big CHANGE is upon us, there is no preparation, it’s Here, we are Living It, this astrology that we’ve been studying, reading about. for years..and we can’t forget now Hey, It’s Showtime! step into it and be the people that we want/choose to be when we thought about how we would handle it when we were preparing….
even though it might be scary or distressing…..
dress rehearsal is over….
just my thoughts….just me expressing…
Love to Everyone!! It’s going to be GREAT and OK!!!
LOVE
LOVE
think I’ll listen to the podcast now after some making some food
In Peace.
It feels like murder. Or worse, rape because though murder is horrible, the victim only suffers and then goes on to a different place. With rape, the victim suffers and keeps on having to live with it ( the fear, the anguish, the violation) the rest of their lives.
This is cheating like when at the scene of a mass murder, the killer fixes himself a meal and then heads off into the night. And leaves the dishes on the table.
Crazy is bone-deep in this country. I am in stress-overload right now and feeling myself going “tilt.” because I feel totally helpless. I know that’s how “they” want us to feel and damn it, it is working.
Over the past 20 odd years I have been remarking on the growing stupidity and craziness of everyone and everything around me. I feel like the kid in “The Emperor’s New Clothes” screaming “Can’t you see it? The Emperor IS NAKED!!!!” And like Cassandra of Troy, I am unheard and not believed.
I have no idea how bad this will get or what I could even do if it got bad. My father depends on his SS and Military and VA checks for the home I had to place him…what will he do if those stop? What will I do if my student aid and my three daughters’ Pell grants don’t come in? What will we do if we fall off medicaid and food stamps now?
My emotional and mental plate is so full I cannot comprehend such massive problems right now.
I wonder if the ripple effect people will be in so much shock that they will just wait until those things start up again? Will the home just wait and assume the checks for my Dad will resume soon? Will the university and college just allow us all to attend and wait for the student aid to pay eventually? Sort of like how Russian landlords just allowed people to remain in their properties, unpaid, because NO ONE had any money?
Who knows. All I know is we have six people here who need to eat every day and who need a roof over their heads. If we cannot afford those things, do we move in with my 97 year-old Grandma because she is the ONLY person with paid-for property who might let us come and live there?
Not Dave’s parents who have enough money and a paid-for home but who will never offer to help in ANY WAY. As Silent Generation parents, they would DIE before helping their kids or grandkids. If their SS stops they still have their generous retirements and his $40K in savings to carry them. ::::sigh::::
::::::tilt fast approaching:::::
wow- they were even chanting! nice!
U sq P leaves no one untouched
peace.
Gee Whiz!
POLITICO Breaking News
————————————————-
House Republicans on Wednesday morning were calling for the firing of a top staffer at the conservative Republican Study Committee after he was caught sending emails to conservative groups urging them to pressure GOP lawmakers to kill the deficit plan proposed by Speaker John Boehner. The opposition from the right is the latest sign of deep divisions within the Republican party over how to handle the ongoing debt crisis.