By BLACKIE D.
I heard somebody on TV say that the reason Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan feels free to keep dropping the discount rate (seven times so far this year and more on the way) is because there is virtually no inflation in the United States. Says who? The government? Who believes them?
Are you paying less rent? Got a ticket and it cost pennies? You had to buy medicine and they were almost giving it away? Electricity? Cheap, cheap! Natural gas, didn’t that go down in price? You bought a bar of chocolate for 25 cents? You say it really is cheaper because you’ve had to give up eating?
I have a car, an old clunker-used to fill her up for 12 or 15 dollars. Then the price started creeping up. The last time it was $35 and change.
How come? There’s no shortage; the world is practically floating in oil. It sure doesn’t come from selling less, with all those off-the-road true buckeroos in their new SUVs: “I get me seven miles to the gallon!”
The oil companies are selling plenty, and they have plenty, so where are the high prices coming from? Mark this down: they are raising the price because they can! The oil companies are a cabal (good word; it means a yacht full of gangsters).
A handful of good ol’ boys own and control the whole low, medium, and high octane. What one does, they all do, like the Rockettes (or the Rockefellers).
The real lowdown is this: capitalism is theft! And capitalists are pirates!
******
The front page of The Los Angeles Times is now a fantastic litany of aggression, corruption, and the shortcomings of various aspects of the (un-named) capitalist system.
For instance, the Aug. 18 issue has the following instructive headline: “Foreign Pilots Hired to Boost U.S. Drug War.” This is the latest ploy to avoid body bags for U.S. soldiers. (Good luck.)
Here’s another one from the front page: “Immigration Emphasis on Guest Visas.” Guests? Seems there is a shortage of workers for the hardest jobs at the lowest wages-minimum wage or less-at which they can’t buy enough food to live or rent a room to sleep. Not to mention sending money home to the family!
Inside, there is an article noting that the federal General Accounting Office is threatening to sue the White House over Dick Cheney’s refusal to turn over energy information. This is only the sixth time in 20 years that the GAO has so threatened-and never as high as the presidency!
A two-star general is one of the officers accused of falsifying reports about the Osprey aircraft. Follow the program, guys! Yes, sir, general sir, at once, sir! And now they are lying and falsifying reports about the new F-22. “The more things change, etc….”
