Sunday, March 29, 2009
Meet the Press Scripted: Political Discourse is Dead
A few weeks ago, on my blog which focuses mainly on economic issues, Money Daily, I coined the term, Post-Government Era, to describe the public backlash at increasingly overwhelming government control, dictates and policy. Already, a number of instances of the backlash have surfaced on the public landscape - various "tea party" protests, the indictment of six upstate New York lawyers who failed to file state income taxes, and a slow trickle of civil disobedience actions from Bangor to Phoenix running across the political and demographic plains of America have confirmed that regular Americans are fed up with the burdens of massive federal, state and local government, their regulations, taxes and attitudes.
On Sunday's "Meet the Press" the government's response was clear in a well-scripted and rehearsed "interview" between host David Gregory and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The discourse began with a basic economics lesson, complete with charts and graphics, explaining how "securitization" works and how it is essential to the smooth functioning of the American banking system. Following that little treatise, Geithner and Gregory continued - at a pace which allowed for no follow-up or intellectual inquiry - on to another instructional session on why Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) to get the toxic (securitized) assets off the books of the nation's largest banks (BofA, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, et.al.) is the "best" solution for investors, bankers and the general public.
This trite, insipid attempt at justifying spending trillions in taxpayer money to keep the structurally-flawed mega-banking system afloat also included a terse reply by Geithner to NY Times economics opinion writer Paul Krugman (also a Nobel Prize winner) criticism that the Geithner plan was just a rehash of former Secretary Paulson's bad bank ideas with new frills, gee-gaws, bells and whistles.
Geithner's response was so forgettable and lame - and quick - that I actually forgot what he said. Nonetheless, it was pure gibberish and Krugman, who carries water for nobody, is still correct and in good company. As with the previous administration, this one, the one which promised to work from the "bottom up", is surely continuing the policies that got us to this point, with a "top down" approach that favors banks over individuals, institutions over individuals and protecting the status quo over real, fundamental change.
By this dumbed-down, completely-scripted interchange, it's become more than obvious that the press is on board with the administration and the overall dictates of the massive federal system. To take the nation's most widely-watched Sunday talk show and turn it into an infomercial for federal financial reconstruction is more than pure fascism at its unholy worst, it is nearly a return to feudalism, replete with all the trappings of monarchy, class structure and mostly, dictates from the pulpit of officialism, with the formerly-free press serving as a megaphone for the federal government.
To make matters worse, Meet the Press continued the charade with, instead of the usual roundtable discussion, the discussion continued with the inarticulate and largely-emasculated John McCain (drill, baby, drill), to prepare the nation for the "blood and treasure" losses about to be sustained in Afghanistan and at the Mexican border.
Americans have had their minds warped by years of inappropriate Bush doctrines and their savings eroded by globalization and the banking and stock market meltdown. Whether the public is ready for the reinstitution of "perpetual war," further erosion in their individual rights and economic freedom and total control by the distasteful characters in congress and on Wall Street is not in doubt. We have been primed and readied for the final assault on the middle class: extreme taxation, political unaccountability and a widening of the police state structure.
We are ready. Most - those who haven't already - will submit to the feudal federal will. Those with a smattering of grey matter still between the ears will either flee or fight. The runners will be stopped at the border or banished to outliers not of their choosing. Those who stand and fight will likely be slaughtered by the hand and the gun paid for by their very own labor and taxes. And, with the rapid destruction of the nation's newspapers, the press is being downsized along with the expectations of Americans.
We are a lost nation now. Democracy is merely a facade by which the government can continue to con the public into a false belief that America is good, and free, and just - somethings it hasn't been in many years. There are only two ways America can proceed: we will either submit and suffer, or reject and repel the forces of government. With the mainstream media firmly on the government's side, the odds are set against us.
This is not a partisan issue pitting Democrats against Republicans. Rather, it is the purest of class struggles, with the tiny-by-number but great-in-power ruling elite of Washington, Wall Street and the media against 300 million regular folks, armed to the teeth not with pitchforks and torches, guns and ammo, but with cunning, wit, deception and non-compliance.
In the words of the worst American president in history: Bring it on.
On Sunday's "Meet the Press" the government's response was clear in a well-scripted and rehearsed "interview" between host David Gregory and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The discourse began with a basic economics lesson, complete with charts and graphics, explaining how "securitization" works and how it is essential to the smooth functioning of the American banking system. Following that little treatise, Geithner and Gregory continued - at a pace which allowed for no follow-up or intellectual inquiry - on to another instructional session on why Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) to get the toxic (securitized) assets off the books of the nation's largest banks (BofA, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, et.al.) is the "best" solution for investors, bankers and the general public.
This trite, insipid attempt at justifying spending trillions in taxpayer money to keep the structurally-flawed mega-banking system afloat also included a terse reply by Geithner to NY Times economics opinion writer Paul Krugman (also a Nobel Prize winner) criticism that the Geithner plan was just a rehash of former Secretary Paulson's bad bank ideas with new frills, gee-gaws, bells and whistles.
Geithner's response was so forgettable and lame - and quick - that I actually forgot what he said. Nonetheless, it was pure gibberish and Krugman, who carries water for nobody, is still correct and in good company. As with the previous administration, this one, the one which promised to work from the "bottom up", is surely continuing the policies that got us to this point, with a "top down" approach that favors banks over individuals, institutions over individuals and protecting the status quo over real, fundamental change.
By this dumbed-down, completely-scripted interchange, it's become more than obvious that the press is on board with the administration and the overall dictates of the massive federal system. To take the nation's most widely-watched Sunday talk show and turn it into an infomercial for federal financial reconstruction is more than pure fascism at its unholy worst, it is nearly a return to feudalism, replete with all the trappings of monarchy, class structure and mostly, dictates from the pulpit of officialism, with the formerly-free press serving as a megaphone for the federal government.
To make matters worse, Meet the Press continued the charade with, instead of the usual roundtable discussion, the discussion continued with the inarticulate and largely-emasculated John McCain (drill, baby, drill), to prepare the nation for the "blood and treasure" losses about to be sustained in Afghanistan and at the Mexican border.
Americans have had their minds warped by years of inappropriate Bush doctrines and their savings eroded by globalization and the banking and stock market meltdown. Whether the public is ready for the reinstitution of "perpetual war," further erosion in their individual rights and economic freedom and total control by the distasteful characters in congress and on Wall Street is not in doubt. We have been primed and readied for the final assault on the middle class: extreme taxation, political unaccountability and a widening of the police state structure.
We are ready. Most - those who haven't already - will submit to the feudal federal will. Those with a smattering of grey matter still between the ears will either flee or fight. The runners will be stopped at the border or banished to outliers not of their choosing. Those who stand and fight will likely be slaughtered by the hand and the gun paid for by their very own labor and taxes. And, with the rapid destruction of the nation's newspapers, the press is being downsized along with the expectations of Americans.
We are a lost nation now. Democracy is merely a facade by which the government can continue to con the public into a false belief that America is good, and free, and just - somethings it hasn't been in many years. There are only two ways America can proceed: we will either submit and suffer, or reject and repel the forces of government. With the mainstream media firmly on the government's side, the odds are set against us.
This is not a partisan issue pitting Democrats against Republicans. Rather, it is the purest of class struggles, with the tiny-by-number but great-in-power ruling elite of Washington, Wall Street and the media against 300 million regular folks, armed to the teeth not with pitchforks and torches, guns and ammo, but with cunning, wit, deception and non-compliance.
In the words of the worst American president in history: Bring it on.
Labels: Meet the Press, Post-Government Era, Timothy Geithner
