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Hoover wasn't such a bad president. He just wasn't up to the crisis that he had to face. He tried some things. They weren't enough. He was constricted by the same "free market" propaganda that we hear today. But he was not unfeeling or unthinking or a criminal, who deliberately trashed the USA, like Bush & Co. He just didn't have the boldness and vision to see beyond the given wisdom of the day, the courage to fight such a battle with all the reigning money powers, nor the ability to inspire people. What we need is a leader who can say:
"Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt
A bold visionary fighter. Or we need to find those qualities in ourselves, and re-create our country. Or both.
Obama has some ability to inspire but that is waning fast with this debacle of a health bill, and the problems detailed by David DeGraw in this article, which are nothing short of a catastrophe in the making. I feel for Obama, because I think the true rulers of this country did it to him deliberately--looted and crashed this economy on purpose, and handed him the broken pieces of Humpty Dumpty to take the blame. It's part of the false narrative they mean to use, to do even worse.
I think they wanted to break the potentially most progressive force on earth--the American people--the only people, really, with the sovereign power to break the corporate rulers, who are oppressing (when they are not killing) everyone else. That is the program. This economic meltdown did not have to happen. It was induced.
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"'This is unthinkable. It’s like we are living in a Third World country,' said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America."
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One big difference between 1932 and now is that they still had a transparent vote counting system, and a working democracy, back then. We have lost that. The rightwing billionaires who are running things can put anyone they want to into the White House. Sarah Pallin. Dick Cheney. They have the easy--EASY!--capability to do this.* So it's not just Obama's lack of vision or courage that we are dealing with. We could not elect an FDR, if we had one to elect (which we might). It will not be permitted. We are much more likely to see a second Hitler seize the office.
The stats that DeGraw lays out on joblessness, homelessness, indebtedness and hunger are just staggering. We are, indeed, in very big trouble, while Washington licks its chops over which multi-millionaires get the biggest bonuses. It is obscene. But I don't agree with DeGraw on one thing. He lays out a pretty scary scenario of starving, hopeless Americans with lots of guns. (He throws in the increased gun purchase stats.) I don't know if he's trying to shake Washington up, or what. Washington has made it perfectly clear that they are not worried about us in the least--guns or not. They have all the serious weaponry. But more than this: While some people might get crazy, I guess--and some individuals already have-- this spooky movie he lays out about armed militias rebelling shows rather a lack of faith in the American people. I don't think our people are stupid or especially violent. As in the Great Depression, I think they'll pull together--despite all that has been done to pull them apart, and to make them think that other Americans are stupid and violent. I think Americans inherently want to help and cooperate, and have good organizing skills.
Look what happened in Katrina, when the Bush Junta had trashed emergency services: lots of people immediately headed there in boats, in cars, with whatever they could bring to help. It was quite a wonderful response, though the Bushwhacks did everything they could to hamper it.
So I don't agree with his fear--that America will fall into violent chaos. I think we will rally as never before, and help each other out. And I think we're going to rebuild a better country out of the ashes of the Bush Junta.
It does, however, frost my ass--as I'm sure it does many others--to read the following, from the OP:
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"Never before has the United States had so many citizens with so little means, little to no income and heavy debt. Debt and costs of living have now shackled U.S. citizens just as they have shackled people throughout the world. The economic hit men have now hit the United States
"1) The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The U.S. already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top 1 percent, the gap between the top 1 percent and the remaining 99 percent of the U.S. population has grown to a record high.
"2) As the stock market went over the 10,000 mark and just surged to a 13-month high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and benefited the most from the government bailout have just set a new global economic record by issuing $30 billion in annual bonuses this year, “up 60 percent from last year.” Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s history, and it is also benefiting by only paying 1 percent in taxes.
"3) The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth."
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We need to tax these fuckers, and that's a fact. But first we need to get over feelings of disempowerment and helplessness, which are induced by the corpo-fascist narcotic of TV especially its political content, and by the things that have been done to us, like stolen elections and wars we did not want. Got to override the programming and get past the feeling that we can't do anything about it.
Remember the old Depression phrase, "Buddy, can you spare a dime?" Don't ignore people who are hurting. Go somewhere and do something for somebody--your neighbor, your community, your family, co-workers, strangers in the unemployment line. Spread fellow and sister feeling and help build up community and political consciousness. Don't let people suffer alone. Don't suffer alone yourself. Pull together. We've done it before, in this country, many times. We can and will do it again.
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*(With "TRADE SECRET" code voting machines, owned and controlled by a handful of far rightwing corporations, we do not have the ability to verify any election in this country, and we no longer have the right to do so. We need to start with getting rid of these machines and counting our own ballots again.)
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