Return of the Kraken

I wish I could say that I was hard at work on campaigns of some sort or another, or conducting ground-breaking academic research for a book. But I just experienced the worst form of writer's block lately. I'd start posts and get utterly depressed, giving up on it. There felt like there was nothing interesting I could say that had not already been said many times by others.

Now it really is time to crawl out of the hole and get back to work. Thomas Frank put it best by quoting some scum of the earth lobbyist in The Wrecking Crew "You think all this [influence-peddling, racketeering, corruption, rent-seeking, and legalized bribery] is gonna go away if Obama gets in?" Meant in the most shameless, arrogant way possible. In other words, a change in administrations is not going to shake away the vice-grip of organized money currently locked on the throat of our democracy.

As if that was the only problem.

We came very close to going right back down the rabbit hole and put the thieves right back in power to do their dirty business. Again.

There is a sizable portion of mouth-breathing white people who would be thrilled at this prospect.

Here's a serious question. Why are there droves of people with utterly no understanding of economics, macro or micro, who feel entitled to shout their gut ideas about the state of the American economy? At the water cooler, in a restaurant, on social media (especially facebook and twitter, as though having a print forum gives their superficial blathering some hightened significance) self-important lightweights force their two cents in your face. If you are lucky it is some dumb-ass anectdote about how "nobody helped them when they were down on their luck," but mostly it is the same ideological drivel spooned out nightly by hacks in the right-wing nutosphere and regurgitated on cue for the nearest victim.

They memorize the lines so well and deliver them with such precision that even lighter-weight toadies eat it up. The subtle subtext is always that if that black guy would just let "all his friends" (you know, the welfare queens and illegal aliens that scammed their way into mcmansions during the housing bubble) fail and go back to the ghetto or third world hole they came from then the responsible white guys "like me" could fix his mess. "Spending our way out." I saw a guy seriously claim today that President Obama has spent more money than the last three presidents combined. And of course, the stock market (the same one that boomed after Obama took office after crashing twice during bush hell) tanked today because the "job creators" are shaking in their boots over the prospect of paying a teeny-tiny bit more in taxes.

So yes, looking out at a swirling cesspool of stupidity day after day forced me into hibernation. But now it's time to get back to work. If I can't teach them, I have to shame them into keeping quiet and stop spreading the stupid.