A Mixture of Sorts

[Michael]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to pass on some updates and thoughts to you. I guess I’ll post this on my blog as well. I’m so bad at keeping that thing current.

First, I got into a calm, believe or not, discussion with a Bush fan at one of my local watering holes. For me, it is a watering hole as I can’t drink anymore.

We began discussing social security and he was telling me how it’s so much better to privatize it than to have the government handle it.

I just thought to myself that it’s not very patriotic to put the government down like that, is it? If he has a problem with the American government, maybe he should just move to another country (I don’t really believe that, but people like him like to say that to “liberals” if they have a problem with something the government is doing). How dare he insult our government!

I guess if you’ve never made mistakes as I have, three to be exact, and have lots of money to invest, you may come out on top. If you’re pretty well off to begin with, you’ll become better off.

I reminded him that there are Americans who actually do suffer when very wealthy CEOs just can’t get enough of the green stuff and, consequently, send American jobs to third world sweat shops. I told him that our free enterprise system turned feed the greed is really creating more of a need for a socialist government, not less of a need. Yep, I told him that we definitely are heading toward a two tier society.

He reminded me that CEOs work hard to get where they are. Why, he said, he could get right up from that bar stool, get himself an MBA and become a CEO. I, trying to avoid getting beat up, merely wondered to myself why the hell he isn’t doing that instead of drinking his fourth Coors Light.

I did remind him that, work hard or not to get there, not everyone in a greedy American multinational corporation can become the CEO.

I also told him that, although some people may still actually work their way up to CEO after years of hard work and loyalty to the company, there are other reasons people become CEOs.

First, there can be nepotism. If it isn’t familial nepotism, it probably is what I’ll call “corporate nepotism” (the bosses “favorites”).

Then there’s, dare I say, sexual favors, even if they’re limited to ass kissing.

So, yes, these greed heads work very hard to get where they are.

And once they’re there?

My fellow conversationalist told me that, if he had the chance, he’d negotiate a multimillion dollar contract with a large greedy American multinational corporation that protected him with a multimillion dollar severance, even if he was fired for doing a poor job, as was recently the case at The Dow Chemical Company.

“Wouldn’t you?”, he asked.

I asked him if he would do this by laying off thousands of Americans. I told him that, if that’s the only way I could do it, then my answer was, “No, I wouldn’t.”

He told me that’s what CEOs are paid to do. Oh.

There’s your patriotism, folks. There are those American, family values that got Bush some real American votes which, when coupled with the votes given to him by companies such as Diebold, put him back into the White House.

Speaking of Diebold, there is some semi good news today.

When asked if I thought giving the Iraqis the vote was worth the 1,400, now 1,600, lives of American military personnel, not to mention the thousands that are injured and scarred for life, and the, some say, up to 100,000 Iraqis that have died, I said absolutely not. It wasn’t the reason given for our illegal, preemptive strike and it definitely wasn’t worth it. I still feel that way.

However, the good news is, and I don’t know how Bush and Allawi allowed this to happen, but the Iraqi people voted to be represented by a coalition that favors an Islamic Theocracy. I don’t think that this is what Allawi, with his television commercials in a land with no electricity made from behind the American fortified “green zone”, and Bush/Rove (or is it Rove/Bush), really had in mind.

I’d say not to worry. There are a couple more elections for Bush to fix now the he knows what the Iraqi people really want. He can hurry and get Diebold over to Iraq and let them join Halliburton in gorging on our tax dollars. That way he can make yet another “bud” rich and they can make the elections come out the way they want them to, you know, like they do in the US.

I wrote “I’d say not to worry” because those ayatollahs are a tough bunch and their dislike of Americans is not a real big secret. It seems like they want to control their own lands just like Hussein did.

Just imagine it.

The next war.

Americans against a coalition of Syria, Iran and the people “they freed”, the Iraqis. Now that’s what I call a coalition of the willing.

There’d be some kind of satisfaction in all of this if the satisfaction wasn’t overcome with the extraordinary sadness for all of the people yet to die at the hands of Bush, the world’s most fearsome terrorist, the world’s real terrorist.

Ah, but then I think of my friend at the pub. Some people will never learn. They were born sheeple, they’re sheeple now and they’ll always be sheeple and sheeple are those creatures who allow people like Bush, Hitler and Mussolini to gain power.

To friendship,
Michael
MINUSTHEMUSIC
MICHAELS POETRY SITE and some other assorted foolish verses

“We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.” – George W. Bush

[stilltrucking]

Every time I pick up the paper and read an optimistic headline about the US economy. I think of the word Panic. Panic as they used to call depressions back before 1929. If it wasn't for the music I think I would be panicing now. Eric Hoffer the true believer, i don't think you do much more with them then what you did, they say jesus had an ironic sense of humor.

Even our dear learders dearest friends must be getting so scared they can't spit.

[Michael]

Hence the “sheeple” syndrome.

Thanks.

[jimboloco]

well michael looks more like jesus than the pictutres hanging on bush's church altar wall, that's fer sure, and so do we all, some of us more shaven, and we may all be bastard sons of abrahamm, why not? we all think this is ironisickly hilarious.

yes, i can see it, but syria is a secular baathist regime as well, altho less diabolical than was saddumb, and may indeed withdraw from lebanon. And if anything, iraq and iran would foster more intimate relations, with syria also continuing an interest for the sunni minority. But a war with strong alliances as opposition may never materialise, yet we, as an imperial power, may find it increasinngly difficult to carry on with imperialist aims, still, one must realise that the corporate powers are multi-duh, national and don't really care what happens as long as it does not impeed their business.

but hey, your barroom dialogue with the mainstream sheeple was real keen, man.

[Michael]

Yeah. The guy's name is Bob. He was just showing off because he can spell his name forwards and backwards.

[jimboloco]

Oh, yeah, Bobo is why I dropped out of an MBA program twice, man.....

The second time I really pissed them off with my antiwar letter to the student paper, read after lunch, where the papers were stacked at the univoicity, and they were reading my letter sitting around the seminar table at marketing class.

I wrote, "scorched cratered landscape of Vietnam is an arrogant abouse of power....." damn you shoulda seen the look on their faces.....

Plus we had a couple of Martha Stewart types. One wore her hair up in a huge bouffant, and her room in the grad dorm was all rose pink.....and she was friends with the green beret in the class, along with a weapons geek on ac-130 gunships, a grunt (so they said) a dockworker army in nam, and an assortment of grad students non-vets who were like business moguls from japan, india, africa....

Now they are in synch with Bobo in the bar.

This is my foist visit to your columnn, man.
Save a shot of good alcohol for me.

[Michael]

Saving it for you is about all I can do with it. I drink water now. Not by choice. Something happened and I can’t stomach alcohol and that pisses me off.

I used to drink so much that I walked into my favorite watering hole one day and asked for a glass of water.

The barkeep had a puzzled look on his face.

I asked, “What’s the matter?”

He said, “I didn’t think you drank water, man.”

[jimboloco]

No wonder you are sop clear headed man It showz.