Resource Nationalism - The Axis of Oil
Some may recall in 2006 when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional group linking China, Russia, and Central Asia. He most intentionally got a bunch of Americans excited by suggesting a debate about whether the holocaust occurred. Ahmadinejad attends these summits regularly to contribute to the growing backlash against the Bush – Cheney exacerbated global bullying rhetoric. Bush’s foreign policy "axis of evil" blunder threw fuel on simmering tempers. If one listened, one could hear the world retch when Bush (and later McCain) remarked that the 21st Century does not tolerate one sovereign nation invading another. Oh, God.Through incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, myopia, greed, or a combination of all, the United States in the past eight years has made far more enemies than friends, lost more respect than it earned, and squandered the global hegemony at its feet when W. Eggplant in Chief entered the White House. Only the GlennBeckian kooks buy the "Islamo-fascism" talk until recently forwarded by the administration and already dead. The more relevant expression that will remain pertinent and grow in significance is Resource Nationalism, and it’s not pretty for the US, Western Europe, or democracy. Who wants to live in a democracy if it elects self-important morons that cater to the ultra-rich and screw the general population? Who wants to live in a democracy if it means no health care, no social services, rampant corruption, economic oppression, the highest incarceration rate in the world, and insurmountable national debt?
Among other developments, the Summer Olympics and the recent Pew study that found China’s population more satisfied with its government than Americans have led to growing conversation regarding the popular autocracy or autocratic capitalism. Three thousand years ago the Greek philosophers criticized democracy as lowering government to the lowest common denominator of blithering, uneducated idiots. In the year 2000, the United States made good on the concern, and we now witness The Great American Yard Sale most recently highlighted by the sale of Anheuser-Busch. Why is so much of America for sale? Rather than ask let alone answer, the Bush loving bubbas have vowed to boycott Budweiser.
posted by x4mr at 6:39 PM
5 Comments:
A lot of leverage in this post. One could write books about any one of the items you mention.
Why is so much for sale? Because we are so indebted to foreign organizations. I forget where I read it, but some have written of the ominous nature of having so much owned by other national interests.
I think you overstate China's strength, maybe, as China has pursued economic expansion at the expense of certain infrastructure (the pollution is a good symbol) that will catch up to it. They also borrow at the expense of the future.
In fact, the tragic and depressing truth appears to be that all national leaders, given the chance, mortgage the future for short term gain. It is in our nature grab the now and leave the mess for later.
You are right about resource nationalism. Almost every nation is seizing its resource assets if it hasn't already, especially energy. South America and Asia are already telling Western oil corporations to get lost, and China is cleaning our clock in Africa.
I'm not a T. Boone Pickens fan, but he is right about energy independence. The failure of the Senate to extend the alternative energy tax credit borders on treason, and yes, it failed entirely due to REPUBLICANS.
So much of America is for sale because union thugs have driven costs so high here that companies have been forced to find cheaper labor or face extinction. Further, teachers unions have left Americans poorly prepared to face the changing economy. If unions thugs would actually focus on their workers, and America in general, instead of enriching themselves by fleecing companies, we might be able to retain more jobs here. China, if it had unions like ours, would collapse overnight. Blame whatever/whomever you want, employing the theory that a lie told a million times becomes the truth, but any thinking person knows that Democrat policies have been destroying our nation for decades. Which party called the recess in the middle of an oil crisis?
Yeah, RW. Foreign investors bought the General Motors Building and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council bought the Chrysler Building because of labor unions.
Switzerland's Roche is buying US Genentech (that employs US workers) because of which labor union? Please explain how organized labor is a factor in Asian and Middle Eastern governments sinking billions into U.S. banks and Europeans taking over U.S. pharmaceutical and infrastructure companies.
The GOP guts education programs and you're blaming teachers that are already underpaid? Is it your assertion that our children would be better prepared if we cut teacher salaries?
Are you saying the recent GOP Congresses clocked more hours? By the way, Bush has spent almost a year and a half of his presidency on vacation, the most of any president in history.
Right Wing has no idea what he is talking about, like most of his kind. Concepts like currency exchange rates, national debt, and global finance are unknown to him.
With the low dollar and depressed US markets thanks to many factors (the mortgage meltdown a good example), US assets are a good deal. The Asians are also lapping up beach property by the billions.
My question is this:
When China, India, and the Middle East completely own and run this country, will we have gay marriage?
I agree, anon. The complexity of the current downward spiral is lost on people like "Right Wing." Maybe he can understand this:
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN
Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards.
With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought or laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.
Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.
He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.
If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune. It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.
Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.
Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys
throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
(Author unknown)
Post a Comment
<< Home