The United States economy shed another 308,000 jobs in the month of February, bringing the official jobless toll up to eight and half million. (The official jobless rate always underestimates the true unemployment numbers, since it does not count those out of work for a very long time, and those who have simply given up on looking for work). This took place after the millions of jobs shed in the last several years during a ‘recession' which began officially, in the spring of 2001. The measure of consumer confidence dropped to about 79 per cent, and the retailing sector has been heavily hit in the recent rounds of job cuts, and this after a dismal Christmas retailing season, where sales were generated through deflationary price cuts, generating lower profits for the retailing sector.

During the Ronald Reagan years an experiment was tried on the economy which was nicknamed ‘trickle down economics'. According to the theory the more wealth that was transferred to the extremely rich top percentile, the better everything would get for everyone down at the bottom, the workers and consumers who provide the base for the economy. Reagan instituted the ‘don't tax and then spend' policy of the Republican party, which was supposed to lead to a huge surge in the economy, by cutting taxes for the very rich, who would then ‘trickle down' this money to the base of the economy. (You will notice that it is not called ‘flood down theory' but rather ‘trickle down theory', this being in line with the saying ‘Greed is good' which one then began to hear around the same time, since it is said that human greed is the great engine that drives the American economy, and though people might want to just keep getting richer, they would have a strong motivation to rather trickle down money so as to get even richer over the long haul). Trickle down economics has been thoroughly discredited, in that all that statistics prove that all that happened during the Reagan years was that a massive transfer of wealth took place, and truly the rich just kept getting richer while the base of the economy kept getting poorer.

Reagan also forced through the ‘Free Slave Trade' concept, where jobs would be exported to low wage nations and then cheaply produced goods would be imported and sold for higher profits. It was this slave trade that was responsible for the temporary surge in profits combined with a resulting stock market bubble, that was then referred to as ‘the Reagan miracle'. The end result of the transfer of jobs and the resulting downward pressure on wages and benefits has been described as ‘the great race to the bottom'. Wage cuts, wage freezes, union busting and other accompanying tactics only further eroded the bottom of the market, creating what I call the ‘trickle up economic pain effect' which eventually led even large multinational corporations to do such things as cook the books and try all sorts of trickery to hide the fact that they were no longer showing profits as the hangover from the Reagan years began to severely impact the economy toward the end of the nineties.

According to the mathematical analysis performed by Albert Einstein of all the Great Depressions which hit the economy over the past couple of centuries, gross income inequality combined with the resulting erosion at the base of the market in a market based economy leads to increasingly severe Great Depressions, with the severity of the depression being in direct correlation to the how extreme the income inequality has become in a society. It is impossible for a market based economy to remain stable when jobs and wages are eroded and slashed at the base, with the money supply becoming top heavy and concentrated in the hands of tiny percentage of the population. Much like a ship with huge weights attached to the top of a tall mast, the economy becomes top heavy, destabilizes and then spirals into destruction with further job cuts further eroding the base of the market, leading to lower sales leading to further downward pressures on prices (‘deflation') leading to reduced profits, and further job cuts, and so on.

Currently Japan is fighting with deflation, the Germany economy has stalled, and the price slashing over the Christmas season in America is the first clear sign of deflationary pressures building in the American economy, with the recent job slashes in the retail sector a second strong indication. The recent huge job cuts is another signal that due to the Free Slave Trade and the trickle down economic theory, America is now on the verge of something far worse than an ordinary ‘recession' (a sort of pot hole in the road) but heading into a deep gulley. Time will tell.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/07/news/economy/unemployment/index.htm

It was this spiral that an economist was worried about in the story as it was reported on the CNN site, when he said of the third of a million job cuts in February, and the hard hits being taken by the retail sector in the recent times, " "What worries me the most is a slip backward becoming a spiral downward. Jobs are the linchpin of both consumer confidence and consumer spending. We can't sustain many more losses like this without that downward spiral getting started," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services."

Now this dangerous situation with the economy does also impact on any analysis of warfare and the current political climate in the United States of America as it slips and slides towards of a form of extreme right wing fascism and the establishment of a ‘fuhrer state'. During the last Great Depression in the thirties a tiny elite had gained massive wealth and had capsized the economy in the process, leading to the surge of the left onto the political scene. Right wing extremism surged around the world, leading to dictatorships and fascism and then to aggressive wars to exploit the resources in other countries as these right wing dictatorships looked for relief from their economic woes, without of course, doing goodness but rather by doing evil, so as to protect that status quo. The same imperialist impulses are rapidly developing in America as once again the economy is under dangerous threat due to the extreme social inequality that has developed in the country since the Reagan Revolution (as it was called) and also due to the great race to the bottom, the erosion of jobs and wages, which leads directly to the massive hangover after the temporary binge of Free Slave Trading. Greed is not good, and neither is any other kind of sinful wickedness, and sooner or later, when the grapes of wrath have ripened on the vines, any country of nation that practices sinful ways finds themselves working those wine vats of wrath, and bottling copious amounts of that deleterious and unwanted wine. Yes, the great wheel of history is a cruel and ruthless bitch in that way, to be sure, and so now, given how hard it is to fix the damage, and the great forces of reaction that will resist any real, meaningful change, it now appears that the United States is about to embark on a Nazi like era of aggressive wars, wars for cheap oil and other exploitable resources in just one more sinful attempt to make some greedy gain and put off the day of reckoning...

What this means, is that you can obey the draft, should that become required at some future time, as the situation escalates and American hubris and arrogance and extreme violence do not prove to be quite the grand and majestic things some delusional types like to desperately force themselves to believe that they are...Yes, you can send your kids off to die to protect the status quo, being sinful to save oneself from past sinful conduct, so adding sin onto sin, and while you are at it you can be overwhelmed by the most powerful delusions, convincing yourself that evil can triumph and sin can bring in a harvest of the grapes of blessings, if you are just evil and violent and sinful enough. Just one more sin should do it...

For those not interested in wickedness, mass murder of children, oppression, the crushing of civil rights, the rise of fascism and extremism, and every other sort of wicked reactionary sinfulness, there are good alternatives. Foremost, the cure must address the illness, and should the country slide into depression, the solution is not fascist imperialism, robbery, and warfare, nor is it appropriate for you to ‘die for you country' in some far off land, but rather redistribution of wealth is the solution. Furthermore an appropriate ‘economic stimulus plan' would once again not consist of sinful destruction and blowing things up and bombing (thus destroying even more of the base of the economy in the process) but rather in a novel concept, not being sinful or greedy but rather taking all your wickedness money, almost a trillion dollars a year spent on killing tools every year, and spending it all on a great Marshall Plan for the planet, doing something decent for the billion who go without even one square meal everyday. You cannot have social inequality without having social inequality, after all, and when you look at a country like Columbia, for example, a very tiny elite of feudal landlords are the ‘rightful owners' of three quarters of the land and wealth in the country and many millions live in utter squalor, while the country is convulsed by violence and rebellion, and soon enough, given that Washington pays for oppression in nations around the world, soon enough Americans don't feel very safe, even at home. If you want to be safe, you must stop sinning, and those who practice wickedness must drink the wine that is produced at harvest time.

Woe to the nation that turns justice into poison, and which thrusts righteousness and peace to the ground, who hate the one who brings charges against the sinful wrongdoers, and despise those who speak nothing but the truth. Woe to the nation that oppresses the poor, grinding them down, extorting from them and leaving them even more wretched and miserable than before. Therefore, although people have built mighty mansions built out of marble and hewn stone, they shall not live in them. Though they own massive vineyards, they shall not drink the wine from them, for monstrous and many are their sins, those bullies who attack and slaughter the innocent, hold entire nations hostage, who corrupt justice in the courts and push the poor and destitute out of the way. Hate evil and love good, and establish justice on the planet. Then it may be that good times and favor may yet be shown to this planet.

And yet people thrust aside all thought of the evil day, and thus they hasten the reign of violence and wickedness on earth, and they do not grieve over the ruin of the planet. And so, time and time again they are abandoned to their terrible fate, as violence reduces to the great houses to rubble and the small houses are shattered. ‘Have we not won power through our own great strength,' they boast. Listen then, to this, you who grind the faces of the poor, buying the weak for a piece of silver and the selling the poor for the price of a pair of cheap sandals. Will not the earth quake on account of this? Will not everyone who lives upon it be brought to grief and mourning? The whole earth will surge and seethe like the River Nile, and subside like the River of Egypt. The earth will be plunged into strife and darkness, and feasts will become times of mourning, and everyone will be dressed in mourners clothes, for it will be a very bitter day. The pillars are struck and the whole porch is shaken, and the roof comes crashing down on the heads of the people. Woe to the nation that practices godless sinfulness, the nation that can never practice simple decency, common justice, or righteousness, peace and truth. Woe to that wicked place when the time to harvest comes around, and the grapes of wrath hang heavily on the vines.

.A related page :

The Great Depression. George Bush vs Einstein on economic policy

According to the mathematician, Albert Einstein, the policies of George Bush are likely to result in another Great Depression. To quote a recurring quip, 'I know George Bush, and let me tell you, George Bush is no Albert Einstein.'

http://www.awitness.org/journal/great_depression.html

The death toll of the secret war being waged silently against the poor of the world will reach close to 40 million while the world is kept distracted by the Iraq war and the poorest nations on earth maintain their interest payments on their paltry loans in the midst of one of the most devastating famines of modern times. The country of Eritrea is about to disappear from the map of the world as 70 per cent of the population is at risk, and food is about to run out, and none is on the way. This famine has been developing for over a year now, so there was plenty of warning and these human beings could have been saved for even two per cent of the estimated 50 billion dollars in bribe money the Americans are paying to buy votes in the United Nations for their little war...



Beautiful Lyrics from Sarah McLachlan's Solace CD

Back Door Man

You open your eyes, look around

You feel the earth it wanders out

Out, from under your feet - the ground

is not firm but soft and weak - like skin

under the touch, cannot stop to falter

Now, the damage is done, the certainties gone

the spirits altered

and now the angry morning

gives the early signs of warning

You must face alone the plans you made

decisions they will try to break

Our hands are tied on the table

Maybe you can try at the back door man

While the helpless line up on the doorsteps

And its all they can do to try to get through





Shelter

They're crowded into the smallest spaces

While outside all of nature cries

It's known to be cruel and unfair

But there is no place to hide

Oh, I've seen a part of people that I never

really wanted to share

Oh I've seen a part of people that I never

knew was there

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

I can't sleep, I'm haunted by their faces

The sadness in their eyes

It hurts so much to see them helpless

It makes me want to cry

But still there is so much left unanswered

For so many innocent lives

They've closed the doors and are letting nobody in

And only the strong will survive

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

I've seen the anger and I've seen all the dreams

I've watched as their existence is torn apart at the seams

And though I may seem helpless

I will do all that I can do

Oh, I've seen a part of people that I never

really wanted to share

Oh I've seen a part of people that I never

knew was there

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm

Shelter - give them shelter from the coming storm





Sarah McLachlan's Eden Song

Mother teach me to walk again

Milk and Honey so intoxicating

Into the fire

I'm reunited

into the fire

I am the spark

Into the fire

I yearn for comfort

Open the doors that lead on into Eden

No more cheap disguise

Follow the signs marked back to the beginning

No more compromise

I will stare into the sun until its light doesn't blind me

I will walk into the fire until its heat doesn't burn me

And I will feed the fire



The Campaign to Impeach George W. Bush

http://www.awitness.org/journal/impeach_george_bush.html

more beautiful lyrics from Sarah's Solace CD (just another Saturday morning listening to Sarah...)

Black

As the walls are closing in

And the colors fade to black

and my eyes are falling fast and deep into me

and I follow tracks that lead me down

and I never follow what's right

and they wonder sometimes when they see all the

sadness and pain the truth brings to light

Cause I can't see no reason

what is blind cannot see

cause I want what is pleasing

All I take should be free

What I rob from the innocent ones

What I'd steal from the womb

If I cried me a river of all my confessions

would I drown in my shallow regret

As the walls are closing in

and the colors fade to black

and the night is falling ast and deep into the sea

and in the darkness all that I can see

the frightened and the weak

are forced to cling to mistakes they no nothing of

at mercy are the meek

If I cried me a river of all my confessions

would I drown in my shallow regret

Drawn to the Rhythm

When we wore a heart of stone, we wondered to the sea

Hoping to find some comfort there, yearning to feel free

and we were mezmerized by the lull of the night and the smells

that filled the air

and we layed us down on sandy ground, it was cold but

we didn't care

we were drawn to the rhythm, drawn into the rhythm of the sea

we were drawn to the rhythm, drawn into the rhythm of the sea

we fell asleep and began to dream

when something broke the night

memories stirred inside of us

the struggle and the fight

and we could feel the heat of a thousand voices

telling us which way to go

and we cried out is their no escape, from the words that plague us so

in the still and the silent dawn

another day is born

washed up by the tireless waves

body bent and torn

when you wake in the face of the blinding sun

and you search only to find

that heaven is a stranger place than the one you left behind

we were drawn to the rhythm, drawn into the rhythm of the sea

we were drawn to the rhythm, drawn into the rhythm of the sea

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,

to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

What will you do on the day of punishment, in the storm which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this YAHWEH's anger is not turned away and YAHWEH's hand is stretched out still.

Therefore strong peoples will glorify thee; cities of ruthless nations will fear thee.

For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the blast of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

like heat in a dry place. Thou dost subdue the noise of the aliens; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

And now, go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness for ever.

For they are a rebellious people, lying children who will not hear the instruction of YAHWEH;

who say to the seers, "See not"; and to the prophets, "Prophesy not to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more of the Holy One of Israel."

Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them;

therefore this sin shall be to you like a break in a high wall, cracked and bulging, and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;

and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel which is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

The fool will no more be called noble, nor the knave said to be honorable.

For the fool speaks folly, and his mind plots iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning YAHWEH, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

The knaveries of the knave are evil; he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.

But the one who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things they stand.

Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.

In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come.

Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

Beat upon your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers; yea, for all the joyous houses in the joyful city.

For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;

until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.