12/12/08

Why even bother watching these clowns?

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Luke 6:41

1. The auto bailout -- a proposed loan, by the way -- represents about 2% of the money given to banks with absolutely no strings attached. See American Goy for details. Are the auto companies worthy of some disdain? Yes. But is the ratio of disdain proportionate, given that the banks have destroyed the entire world economy and successfully threatened us into giving them what is now estimated at $3.92 Trillion (with a T), no strings attached? No.

2. Blagojevitch. He's stupid. He's corrupt. And don't we all know it. But how does he compare to the Bush/Cheney team, eh? Has he started any illegal wars of choice resulting in over a million deaths? No, I didn't think so. And yet, George Bush is still around, having survived eight years of a murderous presidency, during which time he has presided over mind-boggling levels of corruption. Did he ever get indicted? Is the ratio of disdain heaped on Blagojevitch proportionate to his crimes, with Lincoln rolling over in his grave and all, in light of the cesspool of corruption our government has long become? No.

All thanks to the corporate media for beholding motes and perceiving not beams.

7 comments:

malcontent said...

If we round $3.92 Trillion to an even $4 Tillion given to banks, and use the $15 Billion figure for the proposed bailout to the auto industry, I figure that the Detroit proposal is a mere three eighths of one percent compared to the current Wall Street Bailouts.

Four million millions given to Wall Street and no one can say who got any or what the taxpayers will get in return.

And yet we fret over bottom rung factory workers getting too much money.

Nero is laughing at America now...

A. Peasant said...

Grim, bitter laughter. Wafting up from the depths of hell.

Greg Bacon said...

Various interests are wanting to break the back of one of the last strong unions in the USA, the UAW.

Notice how damn near each story on the MSM about the auto industry woes has something in it about those overpaid auto assembly workers?

Gotta get those wages down so we can compete with China's child and prison assembly workers who get paid a lavish TWENTY CENTS an hour.

But hey, you'll make a killing with OT.

And why weren't the banksters grilled with endless questions about how they were going to use the money and how they planned on getting back in the black?

A. Peasant said...

Yes, and the hourly wage they cite includes all the overhead costs, so that the $30/hour you take home (leaving you $20 after taxes) becomes something like $70 after your employer tacks on insurance and other costs. So that's the number that must be cited to direct people's rage at the desired target: "overpaid" autoworkers.

The intellectual dishonesty is quite breathtaking, but what else is new.

MarcLord said...

But if you're a corporation which is doing news on another corporation, you would of course look at the fully loaded cost.

Couple things:

first, it would be very enlightening to take total executive compensation and divide it by number of line workers.

second, automakers are always bitching about "legacy costs" of worker benefits. Why not take the carmakers at their word, and nationalize the health benefits of retired autoworkers?

Then use that benefits bailout as the kernel for a national health care system. And then watch as the managers proceed to screw up faster.

MarcLord said...

On Blago, my overall reaction was that the evidence seemed weak for a Fitz case. Why not just wait, and nail him when he accepts a payment? Before then it's just hypothetical discussion of quid pro quos, a necessary process in politics. It's because he was backing off from the objective.

The answer is in a well-written article appearing, of all places, in the WSJ:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/12/14/the-real-story-behind-the-rushed-blagojevich-bust-how-the-feds-are-frustrated-by-losing-maybe-half-of-their-case/

A. Peasant said...

Mush,

Re: Blago - it's all not quite adding up for me, but I do tend to get lost during intermission at kabuki theater. Must see act 2 first.

Re: automakers - so true about the corporations, but disingenuous of the corporate media. The companies know each others' stats inside and out -- the tv audience is clueless as usual. What makes car companies' legacy costs any different from any other manufacturing business, or is that just it? They're the only one left, so they can claim all this special treatment? That has a familiar ring...

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