Not Good Enough

I don't particularly agree with many things our current President™ is doing -- some of which are Lil'-Boots-Bush Lite, and others just seem like Chicago machine politics. A bit like the Clinton years -- but, national politics is local politics writ large.

Even so -- and let there be no doubt that he applied the pressure of his office to obtain it -- Obama announced today that British Petroleum will finance a $20 Billion fund for claims resulting from the continuing Gulf Oil spill, and I was happy to hear it.

At the same time, I thought The Right will immediately criticize him. It won't be enough; it'll be part of some socialist agenda; why wasn't it more; he still was too slow; it's a gross interference with free enterprise and on, and on, and on. Not a word of thanks, not an acknowledgment of the assistance twenty billion dollars represents to real people in a real world of hurt.

Later today, GOP Senator Mitch McConnell who (god help him, it's not his fault; well, maybe it is) looks like a goggle-eyed turtle with something lodged in his excretory canal, said Obama would use the Spill as part of "a liberal agenda" to "ram" climate and environmental legislation "down our throats, the same way he did it with health care".

Even as a Dog, man; I hate having as good a nose as I do, for these things. That, or these Assclowns are that predictable.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall noted that a reader at his TPM site offered the observation that "The 20 billion fund should be viewed as a huge accomplishment for Obama. He had no actual power to compel that aside from moral [per]suasion and the threat of having an unhappy president. Legally, BP could have just waited for the lawsuits and drawn the whole thing out for years. As a lawyer, I find it a unique and mind-boggling accomplishment."

---

Love Accountability For Sale

The Corporate Idea Of Partnership With A Sovereign State

As reported by Glenn Greenwald in Salon online magazine, White House adviser David Axelrod appeared on Meet the Press to discuss things, and tried very hard to explain to NBC/MSNBC's David Gregory the concept of holding someone accountable, which Gregory didn't seem to understand. At all.

That might be funny, if Gregory wasn't the chief White House correspondent for that network. Perhaps I'm mistaken in my assumption, but I thought working that kind of beat meant you understood the differences between government, and business, when it comes to a situation like the Gulf Oil Spill.


Dancin' Dave Gregory, NBC's Chief White House Correspondent
And The Host Of Meet The Press On Sundays (Photo: NBC)

So, in discussing The Spill on FTN, Gregory did what nearly all "modern broadcast journalists" do: He focused, not on the continuing despoiling of marine and wetlands ecosystems, and a fishing and tourist industry, but on his assumption that the U.S. government's response is really all about personalities.

It's so much simpler, 'sexier', to talk about whether the President likes British Petroleum CEO, Tony Hayward. As chief White House NBC Guy, you wouldn't want to raise the level of discussion about how the representative government of a sovereign state deals with a corporate entity over issues of liability.

No; leave that to the eggheads on PBS. Aber natürlich, you would want to know the real details -- like, what Michelle Obama was wearing when told Tony Hayward and his BP Crew would be coming to the White House.


MR. GREGORY: Does the president trust this guy [Hayward]?

MR. AXELROD: Well, look, it's not a matter of who -- we, we -- it's not a matter of trust. We have to verify what they're doing, we have to stay on them, and we have from the beginning. That's why we want this escrow account. I'm not here to, to make judgments about any individual's character, but we do know that they have pecuniary interests that may be in conflict with, with the interests of, of our interests, and we...

MR. GREGORY: But, but...

MR. AXELROD: ...need to make sure that the interests of people in the Gulf are protected. That is what our job is.

MR. GREGORY: But this is a straightforward question. If you are in partnership with somebody -- and make no mistake, the government is in partnership with BP to get this problem solved -- does the, does the president of the United States trust the man on the other end who is leading this operation?

MR. AXELROD: Our, our mission here is to hold them accountable in, in every appropriate way... I don't consider them a partner, I don't consider them -- they're not social friends, they're not -- I'm not looking to make judgments about their soul. I just want to make sure that they do what they're required to do.

Let me add an observation from Jay Ackroyd at The Great Curmudgeon:

Deep in what only can be called the ideology of Washington, DC is the idea that the government's role with respect to large corporations is as a partner. Regulatory agencies do not demand compliance with the law. Rather they work with their business partners in some kind of mutual interest.

...much of our difficulties to date stem directly from the idea that the way to fix problems is to partner up with industry -- the NSA with the telcos, HHS with the insurance and drug companies, MMS with the oil companies, Treasury and the banksters -- to deliver "private sector" solutions.

Of course, they say "free market [solutions]," but this kind of thing is pretty much the opposite of a free market, and is... a distance away from [what] anyone would generally mean by "liberal" or "progressive."

Large profit-making entities do not have the public interest at heart; they (at best) care about their shareholders' dividends. The notion that the relationship between them and the government should be accommodating, rather than adversarial is quite a radical shift away from the views of FDR or LBJ.

But this notion runs deep. It is so strong in Dancin' Dave that it is like a fish's awareness of water. He seems to be literally unable to understand what Axelrod means by accountability.

NBC, the broadcast network who employs Dancin' Dave, is just another asset of the Westinghouse Corporation. Once upon a time, the National Broadcasting Corporation understood the difference between its News and Entertainment divisions, and journalists more or less believed in a factually-based world.

That hasn't been the case for some time now. Truth, and accountability, are malleable. Corporations have the same rights as individuals (don't believe me? Go ask 'Tight Tony' Scalia, Oreo Tommy, Joey 'Fingers' Alito and Chief Justice Roberts if it isn't so).

Rather than hold corporations accountable; instead of using even Reagan's laughable "trust, but verify"; we should simply allow businesses to conduct business, and accept their solemn promises that -- like Itchy the Mouse's promise to Scratchy the Cat on The Simpsons -- They Will Never, Ever Hurt Us.

How'd that work out with BP in the Gulf, by the way? The same way it did with Blackwater in Iraq? The same way it did with the BSD's on Wall Street? Yeah...

---

One Person's Joke Is Another Entrepreneur's Acquisition and Profit Vehicle

The original I Can Haz Cheeseburger was created by Eric Nakagawa, a blogger from Hawaii and his girlfriend, Kari Unebasami. The theme was "Hey! Lets do a site about cats doing crazy stuff and post pictures of them!!", together with humorous phrases in Geek-Textingspeak that Nakagawa and Unebasami added -- including LOL, which Nakagawa and Unebasami didn't invent, but used everywhere they could in connection with those crazy cat photos.

It was a hit -- in the millions, to be exact; because at one level the Intertubes are still just a shiny toy, and sites like Cheezburger provide us with Teh Funny. It's that simple: Funny = Big Traffic, and big traffic can mean ad sales, and ad sales = money. It's all about the money, you see.

Not all that long after, Ben Huh, more entrepreneur and businessman than free-thinking artist, took one look at the level of traffic to Cheezeburger and thought he saw Opportunity.

Huh pulled together a group of investors, kicked in $10K of his own money, and in 2007 bought the domain name from Nakagawa and Unebasami for $2 Million. It became the first site for Pet Holdings Corporation Inc., and the beginning of a dandy little Internet empire.


Not Everyone At FAIL Blog Is A Loser. Well, Okay; Everyone.

Using the same concept, also in 2007 PHC launched the FAIL Blog -- just in time for the implosion of the economy.

As a Dog, I have a different viewpoint on most things. For one, I think original ideas which make us laugh shouldn't be turned into vehicles for profit. There's something about that which, as an artist, just makes me want to sit down and howl: Does everything on this godforsaken dirt ball have to end up being about acquisition, ownership, and arbitrary value??

Okay; I know, I know. It just seems that practical, Left-Brain rationalizing frequently grabs our culture's whimsical, Right-Brain creativity and throttles it, or dumbs it down, in service to the profit motive.

Not that the dumbing down of a concept like Cheezeburger was such a huge step, or anything. But you get my drift.

---

Running Dogs

Go, Big Pooch.

A recent shakeup at my Place Of Witless Labor™ has put me in a reporting position that is, as the saying goes, "not a good fit". Consequently, there will be some changes; posting will be minimal while this Dog looks for a new place to put my Rug and Food Bowl. How long that will take is anyone's guess.

Reflecting on the post below, about Little Bernie Madoff -- it is interesting what people tell themselves to justify their behavior.

The Germans have a wonderful word that catches some of the flavor of it: Schlau. Cassell's German-English, English-German dictionary lists the definition as

Schlau [zh-lau], adj., sly, cunning, crafty, wily, artful; (coll.) smart, slick; (coll.) slick operator.

I'm no stranger to realizations that I've been unclear about my own motivation, or about creating excuses for my own actions; pas de tout. But the truth is, bound tightly in self-reinforcing belief as they are, people like that have no real ability to see themselves clearly. They believe, strongly, that they do. And perhaps someday, they will. Perhaps not.

That's not my place to say. But, quoting Morgan Freeman, "to tell you the truth -- I really don't give a shit."

---

Unbowed, Unrepentant Little Men

Nature, Red In Tooth And Claw


(© Skip Williamson; ZAP Comix, 1968)

New York Magazine online presented a major piece on Little Bernie Madoff, who (along with The Wall Street Boyz, thousands of Real Estate loan brokers, and Little Jack Abramoff) are the Poster Children of our times -- the Gonif Generation, where not even prison humbles our Masters Of The Universe. They still feel such pride for their, uh, 'achievements'.

But that evening an inmate badgered Madoff about the victims of his $65 billion scheme, and kept at it. According to K. C. White, a bank robber and prison artist ... Madoff stopped smiling and got angry. “F--- my victims,” he said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. “I carried them for twenty years, and now I’m doing 150...”

For Bernie Madoff, living a lie had once been a full-time job, which carried with it a constant, nagging anxiety. “It was a nightmare for me,” he told investigators, using the word over and over, as if he were the real victim. “I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago,” he said in a little-noticed interview with them.

Notice that Little Bernie, a textbook sociopath, doesn't show a shred of remorse for what he's done, any real grasp of the twenty years in which he did it, or any empathy with those he harmed. He doesn't actually conceive that he's done anything wrong. It's all about his feelings, his nightmare... "as if he were the real victim."

And in our politics, our business and finance, there are so many like him -- their attitudes unrepentant, their behavior calculating and unjustifiable. And, they're still firmly in control.

---

An Welcher Seite Sind Sie?

I See A Red Door And I Want It Painted Black

Ladies and Gentlemen... It's days like today when, if I were running the planet, that I would take a State -- say, Arizona -- and scrape all the Wingnut Teabag Fundamentalist proto-nazi White Supremacist Racist Masters Of The Universe up from the rest of These United States, drop them there, then fence the entire area off and patrol its borders as if the rest of our lives depended on it.

Artists who painted a mural at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, AZ, depicting four students -- the most prominent being a Hispanic boy -- were asked to lighten the faces of the four images. Well, not asked, really. Told.


R.E. Wall And Pamela J. Smith Of The Prescott Downtown Mural
Project, Directed To Make Hispanic Boy Into Little White Boy
(Photo: Hinshaw / Associated Press / NY Daily News, 6-4-10)

R.E. Wall, the artist who heads the Prescott Downtown Mural Project, said that during the months of work on the painting, passersby regularly shouted racially-charged comments and insults at his group while they were creating the mural.

The New York Daily News quoted Wall, describing people driving past and frequently yelled comments such as " 'You're desecrating our school,' 'Get the ni---- off the wall,' 'Get the sp-- off the wall,' ". Wall said, "The pressure stayed up consistently. We had two months of [people in] cars shouting at us."

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Republican State Senator Jake Knotts is a supporter of Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer to be the GOP candidate for Governor. There's a state primary coming up, and Bauer's GOP challenger is Nikki Haley, whose parents are South Asian Sikhs -- she is a conservative, Republican American who identifies herself as a christian.

In a radio broadcast, Knotts referred to Haley, and President Obama, as "fucking raghead[s]".

"We got a raghead in Washington; we don't need one in South Carolina," Knotts said more than once. "She's a raghead that's ashamed of her religion trying to hide it behind being Methodist for political reasons" ... "We need a good Christian to be our governor," he said. "She's hiding her religion. She ought to be proud of it. I'm proud of my god."

Knotts says he believes Haley's father has been sending letters to India saying that Haley is the first Sikh running for high office in America. He says her father walks around Lexington wearing a turban. "We're at war over there," Knotts said. Asked to clarify, he said he did not mean the United States was at war with India, but was at war with "foreign countries."

State Senator Jake Knotts (R-Fat, Racist)

A little later, Knott released a statement that amounted to a nudge-nudge, wink-wink, claiming the radio program was a "freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub... If it had been recorded, the public would be able to hear firsthand that my 'raghead' comments about Obama and Haley were intended in jest... It's like a local political version of Saturday Night Live, which is actually where the joke came from. I still believe Ms. Haley is pretending to be someone she is not, much as Obama did, but I do apologize to both for an unintended slur."

Unintended. Yeah... People like Ol' Jake didn't intend to support segregation, the Klan, or lynchings, either. Not at all -- hey, they had no idear how stuff like that coulda happened...

Discussing this in the context of Arizona's new, arguably racist state immigration law, a blog commentator noted [paragraphing added]:

Remember where you were when you could still laugh about teabaggers and racists and Arizonans, because funny time is almost over.

If the unemployment keeps up — one in five adult white males has no job and will never have a job again — and people keep walking away from their stucco heaps they can’t afford and the states and cities and counties and towns keep passing their aggressive racist laws to rile up the trash even more, shit’s going to very soon become very bad...

..and whether it’s the National Guard having wars in the Sunbelt Exurbs against armies of crazy old white people who are finally using their hundreds of millions of guns, or whole Latino neighborhoods burned to the ground the way the Klan used to burn down black neighborhoods a century ago, we are in for a long dark night and no light-colored paint is going to fix that.

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels we're already deep in the Weimarzeit.

...and, there are approximately 11 other states where racial purity immigration laws like Arizona's are being pushed through their legislatures, along with a number of county and municipal governments in socially-enlightened areas like Texas.


New Local Mandatory Citizen Purity Identification For Honest
Americans With Nothing To Hide (Coming - The Electronic Version!)

What bothers me is that the number of people sufficiently aware of historical precedent to make the comparison appear to be very few -- and so, not many people will recall what form of government came after The Weimar Republic.

---

Ruh-Roh

... As a talking, thinking Dog, I occasionally am right in my assumptions about how badly humans are screwing up the planet.

In this case, I'd suggested (in a post below) that at the moment, the level of concern over the Gulf Oil spill in the mind of pundits, public, and some professionals is on a par with how we feel about commercials, or jock itch: We'd prefer to ignore it.

It will take the Conveyor currents running up the east coast moving oil into the Atlantic Ocean, I said, to get people to say Hey! We gotta problem here!

Ooops. Damn; I hate being right, even for a Dog.

---

Greek Fire Sale

If You're Rich, It's A World Of Bargains

This is what happens when a country's National Debt becomes larger than it's Gross Domestic Product. And, as a Quid Pro Quo to obtain financing from central bankers to forestall wholesale economic collapse, that country's government has to agree to reduce its public spending.

One aspect of that reduction appears when government-owned buildings, infrastructure and service organizations (i.e., things once owned by "The People") are sold to corporations or groups of "wealthy investors". Generally, these people are foreigners -- though not always (Look at Russia). This is "Privatization".

Buildings which were once government offices, or of historical interest, now become resorts -- which ordinary citizens can't afford. Also, those same ordinary citizens may have to pay for the services they once had for free, or pay more for them. Where once you had water at a nominal rate, now you pay more -- and the quality of that water may go down. The same with Electricity, Sewage, Garbage Collection...

It's like a fun game of Monopoly. All you have to do to play is be fantastically rich.

At the same time, large property sales will take place as the wealthy in the affected country try to find ways to liquidate their interests, and move their money elsewhere.

London's Financial Times website ft Alphaville, had an observation shared by a reader of something I expect will become, sadly, all too common...


Island Of Skorpios, Aegean Sea: 100 Million Euros ($126M US)

glentzakis | June 2 1:55pm | Permalink
| Options
further on island sales, Joseph.

[[ Breathtaking Skorpios island, located in the Ionian Sea, has been put on the market by Athina Onassis, granddaughter of shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

It seems the Mediterranean paradise has lost its sentimental value for the 24-year-old heiress, who is no longer willing to pay the annual upkeep of 1.5 million euros.

The main contender to buy the island – which reportedly has a 100 million euro price tag - is Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Madonna and billionaire Roman Abramovich are also said to have shown an interest.

Athina's grandfather married John F Kennedy's widow Jackie Onassis on Skorpios in 1968. The island is virtually empty of inhabitants and visitors are forbidden, with guards watching its shores to prevent trespassers. ]]

Or visit: http://www.private...ine.com/greece.htm

Private islands, with guards (armed, presumably) to prevent trespassing. Roman Abramovich. Bill Gates. Madonna. Onassis' 24-year-old-heiress.

These are the kinds of people who matter. Wonder whether the United States will have to go this route? Perhaps some of our Hedge Fund Master Of The Universe Will buy Yosemite as their private vacation paradise -- you know, for backpacking trips with their kids.

Not your kids. Not our kids. Theirs.

---

Something Happen While I Was Gone?

The past ten days or so have been, as Tom Lehrer used to say, "That Was The Week That Was".

Let's do a quick review, shall we? And, yes; this may be on the Final.

• North Korea Pulls Another Nutter
  Some months ago, a South Korean navy vessel blew up and sank in the waters off the western coastline of the Korean peninsula (aka The Disputed Zone). The South believes, and apparently has evidence to support the charge, that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the ship. Tensions escalate, and everyone seems to be waiting for the Pyongyang crowd's next move. Rightists dance with glee: Democrats are soft on defense! Another thing to use against that awful negro socialist leader!
  
  Remember -- these are the same Guys who want to ship nuclear bomb-making technology wherever they can. The same Guys who built a reactor for the Syrians in the middle of nowhere, which the Israelis bombed to pieces, and which the Syrians cleaned up faster than you can say "Keyhole satellite" before denying everything.


• Gulf Oil Spill
  Bad to worse. The Obama administration inherited an U.S. Interior Department that was that has always been the paid whore of oil companies; but the administration also listened to British Petroleum's estimates of the rate of the oil leak -- and because, aber natürlich, those estimates were self-serving and far too low, made Obama appear slow to mobilize a government response. Rightists dance with glee: It's his 'Katrina!' Another thing to use against the scary black man illegitimate leader!
  
  And, the response of the general public for the first weeks (Hey! Folks! Oil has been gushing for 39 days!) seemed like, "Yeah; bad news, hah? So Whadya Whadya?". The Great Curmudgeon noted oil would have to hit the Gulf coast beaches before anyone in Washington and the media would believe there was a crisis. Essentially, he was right.
  
  So: "Top Kill" fails. "Junk Shot" fails. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil per day continue to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Hey -- maybe people will really wake up when oil starts moving via the Atlantic Conveyor currents, and begins affecting ocean life more globally? Huh? Ya think?


• Scientists Create New Living Organism In Lab
  (Sigh) I don't even want to think very deeply about this. Science in the service of profit, particularly when it involves cutting-edge genetics or nanotic technology, has some real horrible bad crazy awful (a combination of 'Zombieland' and the last four years of the Go-Go, "Lil' Boots" Bush years) potential consequences.
  
  The boys and girls who did this will probably get a Big Award for it anyway. Alfred Nobel did soup up the manufacturing process of dynamite, after all. And, Rightists dance with glee: Science bad! Science against god! Evil evil evil evil Punish them in the fire!! It's all because of the evil awful negro leader in the pocket of oil companies!


• Continuing, Escalating Islamic Violence
  Every time I turn around, there's another report of another suicide bombing by the Taliban in a Mosque, or an attack on an American base in Afghanistan.
  
  And, I can't help but think that "Lil' Boots" Bush and President Cheney were the most criminally incompetent leaders the United States has ever had. Invading Iraq, for no reason beyond the fact that Saddam Hussein was a cheap, easy target, while ignoring the real danger in Afghanistan, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, was a mistake on the order of sending the 6th Army in to take Stalingrad.
  
  However, Rightists dance with glee: Islamists evil! Osama-Obama scary black man illegitimate leader is a secret Muslim! A Toyota truck full of Taliban and Linsday Lohan will come to your house and leer at your daughters!!


• Large Art Heist
  In Paris, a museum was robbed -- apparently by a lone burglar, though a job of this caliber being pulled off by Le Chat (Cary Grant's character in 'To Catch A Thief') is small; it takes a Crew. Taken were works by Matisse (sad), and Picasso (paint them over with gesso and reuse the canvasses, please), and Cezanne (Quelle Horreur!) However, Rightists dance with glee: Art bad! All art but Thomas Kincaid and Lawrence Welk bad! Burn it all in the fire!!


• Lindsay Lohan Appears In Court
  This is completely gratuitous filler; I don't give a damn what that spoiled [deleted] does with her life. However, Rightists dance with glee: Bad girl bad! Lesbians bad! Against god! Evil evil evil evil Punish her in the fire!!


• Celebrity Deaths
  Art Linkleiter. Gary Coleman. Dennis Hopper. Louise Bourgeois.
  
  When I was a boy, I liked watching Linkleiter in the 1960's as the host of a long-running afternoon teevee program, Kids Say The Darndest Things. The premise was simple -- take young children, put them in chairs and ask them gently revealing questions about life and their experiences.
  
  Linkleiter's son died after jumping off a roof while allegedly high on LSD -- which, I will attest, can make you do nutty things. I was always the Guy who, when everyone suggested driving to Marin County to eat, would look at you, note that your head was on fire, and say No, man; you're obviously too screwed up to drive -- I mean, your head's on fire, dude -- so give me the keys. C'mon! Fork 'em over.
  
  I never watched Different Strokes, and had assumed for years that Coleman was actually Mickey Rooney in makeup.
  
  Dennis Hopper. I enjoyed him as an actor, but knew he was not the Guy To Be Trapped With In A Bus Shelter During A Torrential Rainstorm, because he and I had been to similar places (See the bit about LSD and driving above). But, I'd had a tourist visa; Hopper had opted to live there.
  
  Louise Bourgeois: Didn't begin producing her most seminal work until she was in her sixties. I didn't always understand the language she spoke in, but admired her energy and persistence. Thought her 'Spider period' was pretty creepy, though.
  
  (The Rightists are kind of standing around here, with nothing much to say; several try to get some chant going about Bourgeois being an evil feminist artist (Art bad! Against god!), but this peters out pretty quickly.)

Oh, right: Remember, kids: Art is both an individual and collective human response, in symbolic terms, to the fact of our own deaths in a Universe whose purpose cannot be known.

And that will definitely be on the final.

Normal

Louisiana Delta, May 27, 2010 (Photo: UPI / Joshua Drake - BP)

"I have anxiety attacks," said Sarah Rigaud, owner of Sarah's Restaurant in Grand Isle, La., where the public beach was closed ... "Every day I pray that something happens, that it will be stopped and everybody can get back to normal."

Since the late summer of 2008, the world's economy has been wounded, drifting, waiting for the next set of shocks to push it over an edge. Approximately 22 million people in the United States are unemployed; millions of jobs have been lost and may never reappear. The Barons of Wall Street are even richer than before. Regulation? Feh.

Our politics consist of Humanists, and fundamentalist True Believers. Centrist and Progressive Democrats who supported Obama (who then turned out not to be a Progressive himself) on the one hand, and on the other, people who talk like crazy schizophrenic mumblers you avoid on the street and mix faith in some idea of god with politics like their whiskey and water.



Things are more, not less, polarized. And, like the Taliban elsewhere, the crazies have guns and are showing more and more that they aren't afraid of using them. They also have large media operations spewing craziness -- lies, jumbled conspiracy theories and half-truth misinformation -- to the Faithful, 24 X 7.

A large oil company created the largest man-made oil spill in the history of our species, and tried to downplay the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf.

It also appears that the Department of the Interior during the Go-Go, "Lil Boots" Bush years was just another cheap whore for the Oil Lobby to play with. And, our current President doesn't appear to know how to cope with Big Oil, or deal with the consequences. Regulation? Feh again.

An in all these things, the peasantry -- that would be everyone down here in the Trench -- keep saying along with Sarah Rigaud that We just want things to go back to normal. We just don't want to feel frightened all the time.

That's a natural response to rapid change -- but the 'normal' we used to know is gone. The world at least half of us grew up in; the world before 9-11 and Lil' Boots' Unnecessary War, and all the rest, is gone.

The more change, the more fear; the more lies and mumbled craziness flooding over the airwaves, the greater the chance that (like some Middle Europeans in the late 1920's), the peasantry will begin to yearn for someone, anyone, who can claim to make the merry-go-round stop.

My fear is that our future will be determined by ideologically-driven purists carrying a bible, promising that everything will go back to being as it was. Europe and Asia have experienced religiously-driven repression, but not in America's history. And I'm afraid that's what's going to happen.

---